I Found A Planet Novel
Author: Ming Jian
Date: 2024-05-11T09:59:53.351000+00:00
Keywords: webnovel

Chapter 1 - The Mysterious Portal

“Top lane support needed. Hurry to the top and provide me with assistance!”

“I’m in the top lane defending against four enemy champions! What are all of you doing?”

“Please, stop messing around! Hurry to the top and provide assistance!”

“The enemy has pushed forward onto our base; you guys still aren’t coming back?”

Boom!

The crystal nexus in his base exploded. A large “FAIL” floated up the computer screen.

“Damn! I’ve got a group of dumb teammates again!” Chen Jin hit his keyboard in agitation. He had played LOL five times in a row today, and each time he had gotten noobs and dumb teammates. He had lost all five times and had blacklisted more than 10 people. It was really terrible luck.

“Forget it, I’m not playing anymore. I always get the elementary students during the summer holidays. All of them are useless! There’s no point in still playing.” Switching off his computer, Chen Jin shook his head. He realized that the gaming experience was extremely horrible when it came to games that were active with lots of elementary students.

Taking out his newly-bought twilight-colored Huawei P20 mobile, he lay on the hanging rattan chair and played a mobile game called “Crash 3.” Putting his favorite wife, Yayi, into operation, he sadistically killed wave after wave of monsters as she panted lightly.

Chen Jin, 24 and slightly handsome, was a homebody who loved gaming and anime the most. But he much prefered to call himself an “anime-body.”

He had bought many anime-themed and related items. For example: self-assembled figurines of Madoka, Asuna, and Rem, posters of Furukawa Nagisa, Katou Megumi, and Gokou Ruri, a PC wallpaper of Menma, a black silk bolster featuring Kasumigaoka Utaha, and a T-shirt printed with “King Saber.” Such items were filling up every corner of his bedroom. As someone with a big heart, he called all of them “wifey.”

Chen Jin was also part of the Elderly Devouring Generation. There was nothing he could do about it. He could never work, not in this lifetime. The easy jobs paid so little he could not even support himself, while the good-paying jobs were not easy to do, and the stress was too great to take. He could only stay at home and devour his elderly parents’ money just like this.

In addition, his family situation was good. His dad was a high-ranking engineer in a state enterprise and his mom was a government branch official. Their old house had been demolished a few years ago, and the developer had offered six houses as compensation.

As an only son, he had been spoiled by his mother since he was young. Actually, simply by looking at the self-assembled figurines, which were all based on characters from the two-dimensional world, crammed into the three levels of his bedside drawer, one could tell that he had the ability to devour the elderly.

Moreover, with his current single status, he could be rated as an “eligible bachelor.”

He played his mobile game for more than an hour. Putting down his cellphone, Chen Jin rubbed his aching and swollen eyes. Feeling the urge to pee, he put aside his mobile and walked towards the bathroom. As it was an ensuite, it was very convenient to go to the bathroom.

Click~

Opening the bathroom door, Chen Jin was immediately stunned.

The toilet bowl, which was placed directly in front of him and could be promptly utilized after taking down his pants, was now unusable. A translucent circle of light floated above the toilet bowl, emitting a gentle fluorescent glow.

“What is this? Could it be a hallucination caused by gaming for too long?”

Rubbing his eyes a few times, Chen Jin looked with a fixed stare. The translucent circle of light was still floating there.

“A portal from another dimension, or… a sheet of glowing stickers, with the purpose of pranking me?” April Fool’s Day was long past. If that was the case…

Raising his fist and lifting his brows, Chen Jin adopted a slightly arrogant tone. “There is only one truth! Fist of the One and Only Profound Truth, break it!”

He swung his fist towards the translucent circle of light. Immediately, a strange expression came over his face. The pain that he expected never came. On the contrary, his right arm sank deeply into the circle of light with no resistance, with faint ripples appearing on the surface.

Chen Jin’s eyes instantly grew wide. Then, he took his hand out, put it back in and did it all over again more than 10 times. It was almost like he was masturbating his own atrophied arm. Taking his hand out for the final time, he said with gleaming eyes, “So it really is a portal to another dimension!”

Even I, a carefree homebody who stays in all day and has no worries over food or clothing, can get a “gold finger” dropped onto my lap. Lord in Heaven, you are too good to me! It is the poor who need this the most.

Chen Jin was ecstatic. He actually received an explosion of luck immediately after losing five games in a row today. Speaking of which, what would lie beyond the portal? A fantasy world of magic or a dimension of the gods? A post-apocalyptic planet filled with zombies or the so-called training battlefield for paranormals? No matter what laid beyond, there was one thing that he is 100 percent sure of: This time, he definitely hit the jackpot!

But…

Suppressing the excitement inside him, Chen Jin planned to cautiously probe the world lying beyond the portal. First, he took a rope and tied it around his Huawei P20 mobile. After turning on the HDR video recording, he slowly put it into the portal and shot an HD video segment. The video showed a monotonous scene that was just like the flat surface of a mirror. Almost as if it was a piece of translucent glass. The shot would occasionally sweep across a scene of a sand clouded sky.

“A world that is a wasteland?” Again, he put his hand inside the portal. Feeling the temperature of the environment over there, he realized that it was within the normal range of 20-plus degrees. “Can the air there be inhaled directly?”

Chen Jin took a bottle of mineral water from the fridge. Twisting off the cap, he poured away the water inside. Then he tied a rope to it and put it into the portal. 10 minutes later, he lifted the bottle out and leaned his nose close to the mouth of the bottle. Twitching the sides of his nose, he smelled the air from the other world.

“No strange smells that irritate the nose; a whiff of sand and dust; contains oxygen, too. It should be breathable.”

Okay. There was no need to do other experiments. He could hold his breath and just stick his head in to see. So long as his face did not get torn off instantly, he could take a look at the landscape in the other world.

With this thought in mind, Chen Jin knelt on the ground and half supported himself with two hands on the toilet lid. Adopting a somewhat vulgar pose, his head slowly extended towards the translucent circle of light. The top of his head went in first, followed by half a forehead, then the eyes, nose, mouth… until his whole head was totally submerged inside the circle of light.

Opening his eyes, he took in as much as he could of the landscape from the other dimension. A huge crater. The first thing he saw was the biggest crater ever. Its spherical shape was extremely uniform. On the surface of the spherical crater was glass of a dense and thick colour, which was the result of melted sand. Chen Jin immediately thought of explosions caused by nuclear weapons.

The sky was overshadowed by the sand as far as the eye could see, and the rays of light were dim, making it difficult to be certain of the sun’s position. The air was indeed breathable, but it was very dry, carrying a much stronger scent of dust. He could hear the whoosh of the wind passing by his ears and feel the movement and temperature of the air on his face. The wilderness carried with it a sense of tranquility.

Opening his eyes wide, Chen Jin took a sweeping glance of his surroundings and imprinted it on his mind. Quietly, he told himself, “This world is mine!”

…

The same day, through various channels, Chen Jin bought a great number of specialized items. He bought: a hazmat suit, a filter mask, hiking shoes, a metal walking staff, a big backpack, a small backpack, a bivy, a field tent, windproof goggles, binoculars, thick gloves, a torch, a compass, a canteen, a Swiss Army knife, a windproof lighter, and other necessary equipment for an outdoor expedition. Furthermore, he purchased a radiation dosimeter, a gravimeter, and a portable air monitoring device, as well as other measuring equipment for the physical world.

Purchasing all the items cost Chen Jin a total of more than 50,000 RMB. As someone with only a little income, he had spent all the savings that he had.

Chapter 2 - I Found A Piece Of Metal Scrap

3 days later.

The majority of the items that Chen Jin purchased had arrived and were placed on a big pile on the ground. “Today, I can go over there to explore”.

He had prodded the portal in the bathroom for a good few days. During that time, he never played a single game, and never watched even one anime episode. The character of a homebody had vanished in an instant. If it was not because of safety considerations, he would have already gone to the new world.

Now that the equipment was basically all there, the first thing to do was to put on the most important hazmat suit, giving him the ability to protect against radiation. This outfit was a little heavy, rather awkward, and came with a very ugly filter mask that looked like a pig’s snout. But it was impossible not to wear this. The spherical crater behind the portal made him think of nuclear explosions, which in turn was associated with nuclear radiation. Nuclear radiation was too scary; it caused people to suffer from various cancers. When too much radiation has accumulated inside the body, death is a 100% certainty!

Besides protecting himself from radiation, he also had to consider if the air on the other side contained any toxins and if there were any fatal organisms and viruses. Anyway, it was not a big mistake to be cautious and prudent. Being careless would lead him to a “GG.” That was the conclusion that Chen Jin came to after many years of playing RPG games.

After putting on the Hazmat suit and the filter mask, Chen Jin first put a few things into the portal. Hanging them on a hook, he squeezed it into the other world. For example, the bivy, tent, the big backpack filled with snacks and mineral water, and the tools placed inside two other small backpacks, were all stuffed into the portal in one shot.

Then, he lowered down a length of safety rope measuring about 5 metres.　 One end of the safety rope was attached to a trestle in the bedroom. The trestle was stuck between the upper areas of the two walls in the bathroom. The stability factor was very high. The other end of the safety rope stretched through the portal and hung suspended from a height of about 3 meters from the ground. It was not very high, but he would definitely injure his leg in a fall if he jumped down directly. He must use the support of the rope to descend smoothly. However, Chen Jin also lowered a chair down into the portal, reducing the distance from the ground.

He had also bought a 3 meters collapsible A-frame metal ladder online, but it was yet to be delivered. For now he could only make use of the safety rope.

“Let’s go!”

Dragging the safety rope in both hands, with a slight tremble in his body, he stepped onto the toilet bowl and put his legs through, followed by his bottom and waist, sinking into the portal. A change finally occurred in the centre of gravity, a rush of power from the other world came pulling, causing his body to tumble helplessly into the portal until he disappeared from the bathroom

…

The other world.

It was still the same old scenery of a sand-covered sky. Stepping steadily onto the red-painted chair, Chen Jin’s entire body was in this world for the first time. He took out some measuring instruments from his small backpack and conducted a series of surveys on his physical environment. “A gravity count of 9.81; basically the same as Earth’s. The nuclear radiation strength has a daily measurement of 15.6 micro Sievert, which is 10 times the natural background radiation of Earth. Damn, this world really is a world after a great nuclear war!”

But, this radiation strength was not considered very high; it would not cause too great a damage to the human body. It would be harmful only if the body received a dose totalling over 100 milli Sievert (mSv) in a short period of time. 　 And 100 milli Sievert equalled 100,000 micro Sievert; which was the radiation of this world increased by 17.5 times. Only then would it cause some damage to Chen Jin.

So, he could totally take off his hazmat suit. However, for the purpose of security, he reconsidered and did not take it off. The radiation of this area was within safety limits, but what about other places? What if other places had a strong radiation source? He would die.

“Oxygen makes up 19% of the air; this is in the lower end of the normal standard…Carbon dioxide is 0.12%, which is 3 times that of Earth. The greenhouse effect is at a critical level! Level of microorganisms in the air is sparse, with a matching 15% humidity. This is a highly dry and arid climate.”

After conducting various data tests, Chen Jin came to a conclusion: One is able to survive. Although there were a few numbers that were bad, under normal circumstances, humans could survive in this world. A situation where one would suddenly die with a loud bang would not happen. Of course, before he can be truly considered safe here, Chen Jin still had to confirm that the surrounding areas were safe as well: no large animals, corpses, humanoid robots, and/ or other unknown threats.

He had brought a baseball bat and a Swiss Army knife with him. The physique of a homebody is unsurprisingly weak. If he met with a strange and powerful animal, his first response would be to run; hurry and run! Other things did not matter, his own puny life was the top priority!

Surveying his surroundings, Chen Jin planned to explore the periphery. “The entire surface of the crater has been melted into glass; there is nothing here. Let’s see what I can find by exploring the periphery…..”

A problem appeared in front of him. The crater was a bit on the large side and he was in the centre of it. If he wanted to walk out of the crater to the peripheral location, he would need to walk for at least 4 to 5 kilometers. That was not a short distance. Using a normal walking speed, it would take about an hour.

It was so far away, should he go?

Chen Jin thought of his Windrunner electric scooter that he spent a whopping 5,000 dollars on. It had a maximum speed of 75 kilometers per hour and could travel for 120 kilometers. “Should I bring over the Windrunner?”

He raised his head and took a look at the safety rope dangling over his head from the portal. “Forget it, I’ll bring the Windrunner over tomorrow” Putting on a lighter small backpack and holding onto the metal walking staff, he set forth with some clumsiness in this desolate, dim, and yellow-tinted world. The journey of 5 kilometers took him a full hour to complete. In addition, he had to climb up slopes which made him pant with exertion. But it was within his tolerable limits, barely.

At the periphery, he climbed out of some uneven round pits. Standing on the surrounding area of the circular and empty pits, Chen Jin halted and looked back; taking in as much of the huge crater as he could through his eyes. “This is the result of an explosion from at least 5,000,000 tons of nuclear bombs, or its equivalent!”

Turning back again, he looked at the surroundings around the pits. Looking at the scenery in front of him, Chen Jin still wanted to use this word to describe it: desolate. Other than the mass of rock-covered desert and the sand-dotted sky, there was no trace of existence of any animals or plants. What his ears could only hear was the whoosh of the wind. It was stronger here than at the crater’s bottom. Sometimes it blew so strongly that he could hardly stand.

Chen Jin decided to move forward and explore a small distance, with no intention of going too far, and see if he could find something rewarding. He lowered his head and looked at the ground.

From his black and white vision through the wind-proof filter goggles he saw rocks; big and small rocks; it was all rocks. He could barely see anything other than rocks. The scene, he felt, was utterly drab.

After walking forward for about 1 kilometer, Chen Jin decided to turn back as he thought he would not find anything valuable. Lifting his wrist and looking at the time on his waterproof watch, he saw that it would be night in 2 hours. He would have to hurry back.

Suddenly, from the corner of his eyes, Chen Jin caught a glint of light from a metallic source. “What is that?” He walked towards the glimmering light. After walking for about 15 meters, he found a piece of metal scrap in the center of a pile of rocks. The material of the scrap metal seemed to be made of some type of steel component.

Chen Jin used all his strength to rub and pinch it a couple of times to no effect. The scrap metal had a very irregular shape; ripple-like curves and the appearance of an amoeba. Almost as if it suffered a violent hit. Taking out the radiation measuring device, he measured the radiation level of the scrap metal and found out that the numbers had no change. There was no radioactive remnant.

Thus, Chen Jin kept the scrap metal in the side pocket of his backpack. Turning around, he went back to the bottom of the crater. Just before night descended, he took off his awkward and heavy protective suit. After folding it, he threw it into the the wind-and-rainproof tent and put it together with the other items; building a makeshift little camping ground.

Lastly, after putting on his regular clothing, he grabbed the safety rope with both hands. Using the movable sports buckle tied around his waist, he got back to his room with only a little effort.

Chapter 3 - I Found A Robot Trash Collector

“Windrunner, did you miss your master?” From a cupboard on the balcony that was filled with various sundry items, Chen Jin took out the long unused electric scooter that was covered in a significant amount of dust. Murmuring to himself, he dusted off the scooter. He bought this scooter last year; when Mom arranged a job for him as a city management officer in the western district. The job was a little far away so he bought this Windrunner as a means for his daily commute. In the end, he quit his job as a city management officer after 2 months. Also, he usually stayed at home and hardly went out. Hence, there was little use for the Windrunner and he dumped it in the sundry cupboard to collect dust.

But now…..

“Windrunner, Master has never forgotten you. Your mission and destiny to conquer the other world with me has arrived; the time in your life for you to shine the brightest has arrived!”

After wiping away the dust, the Windrunner displayed a burnished, glossy appearance similar to that of a highly-polished piano. Together with its 2 muscular wheels spanning a large diameter, it radiated a domineering air of glory. At that moment, he felt like he should add a segment of explosive, high-energy background music.

Windrunner was small and dainty, with only the largest measurement of 110 centimeter in reality, and a weight of less than 25 kilograms. It could be squeezed inside a guitar bag after collapsing it. Even so, it was still domineering and tough! After charging it for half a day, Chen Jin hurried back down to his bedroom and locked the door after having his dinner upstairs in the evening. Gathering up the fully-charged Windrunner, he climbed along the safety rope into the other world.

From his observations in the past few days, Chen Jin noticed a regularity: When it was 8pm here on Earth, it just so happened to be dawn in the other world; and when it was twilight there, it was coincidentally dawn on Earth.

As luck would have it, the time there was the reverse. This was very beneficial for his exploration of the other world. He could sleep during the day and explore the other world at night. If he did not say anything about not sleeping at night, his parents would not find out what he was doing.

As for sleeping at night… Was a homebody a creature that slept at night? Perhaps the quality of sleep during the day was better? And he could have sweet pleasant (day) dreams…..

…

The other world.

At the bottom of the huge crater, the makeshift little camping ground was still the same, with no trace of disturbance. Chen Jin pulled open the tent. Taking out the hazmat suit, he put it on and donned his filter mask as well as the small backpack that he had carried yesterday.

He helped Windrunner get into a standing position and put both feet on it. Using some adhesive tape, he fixed the radiation dosimeter onto the top front of the scooter. With two hands on the handles and a twist of his right hand on the switch, Windrunner’s two wheels spun faster, quickly picking up speed. The greatest speed was 75 kilometers and it could go up slopes of up to 55 degrees. It was no joke.

“The saying ‘spur your horse on; gallop as fast as you can and enjoy the vivacity of human life’ must be referring to this particular feeling?” This time around, as he whizzed crazily like the wind, Chen Jin arrived at the top of the huge crater’s periphery within 5 to 6 minutes.

However, after entering the barren desert area, the ground was highly uneven and littered with a huge amount of loose rocks. It became difficult for Windrunner as its undercarriage was too low. Many parts of the desert were too bumpy; it was practically impossible to ride Windrunner continuously on this type of terrain. He could only walk some and then ride some.

But for now, Chen Jin had no intention of exploring too far. He planned to first familiarise himself with the peripheral areas by circling the huge crater once. After which, he would extend his exploration towards the outer areas surrounding it. This was similar to the strategy games that he played such as “Age of Empires”, “Stronghold” , “Civilization”, “Red Alert”, etc. Based on the maps, one always started by probing the peripheral areas. Of course one had to go to the far away places, but resolving the mysteries and battles in the periphery took precedence.

Within his black and white vision from his windproof filter goggles, he saw rocks and more rocks. Basically everything that he saw before were all rocks. The radiation dosimeter tied to the front of the scooter showed that there was basically no change to the radiation data.

Suddenly, again, a speck of light flitted past the corner of his eye. He went over to take a look… and found a pull-top can. The can was empty with some trace of food at the bottom. It was yellowish like peanut butter. The surface of the can was printed with some kind of unreadable words that were extremely similar to English. However, it seemed to have a Latin style. Anyway, it was a language that was in-between the two of those.

“It should be a can of peanut butter; there’s a picture of a peanut plant on the front. Since this world was able to mass-produce cans made of this type of light alloy material, it means that civilization here has reached a level similar to that of the Second Industrial Revolution, if not higher.

There was no value in keeping the pull-top can, hence Chen Jin casually threw it aside. He continued to move forward. Chen Jin made more discoveries. He found a broken doll….. By pressing its nose, it could sing a happy melodious song. The doll was kept inside in a red, blue, and white striped woven plastic bag (aka snakeskin bag) that he brought along with him. He intended to take it back and study it.

He found a refrigerator-like home equipment that was junk….. Its outer shell was severely damaged and the internal parts were exposed. It was impossible to repair it. He found a plastic product….. It was a toothbrush with bristles that were worn bald. He found a worn-out book…. Two-thirds of it was damaged; only the content on the top corners could be read.

He found a torn shirt. He found a pair of torn pants. He found a bra with only one side intact. He found one worn-out shoe. Chen Jin realised that the further he walked towards the outer areas, the more items he could find; with a richer variety and with greater frequency. He even saw a utility wagon that was lying inverted on the ground. There were various metal scraps and parts; so many of them that he could not pick them all up.

Not too far ahead, there appeared to be a metal rubbish bin lying on its side on the ground. The shape of the rubbish bin was severely warped. Lying on the ground beside it was a radio device with an antenna and two speakers.

“A radio?” Walking over, he grabbed the radio and placed it in front of his eyes. With a happy expression, he exclaimed, “It looks whole, I wonder if it’s usable?”

The style of the radio was very old-fashioned. With its big and blocky size, it felt similar to the radios from Earth in the 50s or 60s. Chen Jin noticed that there was a cassette tape in the radio. After pressing the on-off switch on the radio, the tape was still unable to play. Apparently, there was a fault in the radio. But it was okay, he could go back and try to fix the radio. If he could not fix it, he would just buy a voice recorder from the internet, and hear what was on the cassette. Anyway, this was a significant gain. He kept the radio in his snakeskin bag.

Swish~

He heard a sound by his ears. Chen Jin was shocked. “Who is it?” He instantly looked around and became hyper vigilant, trying to find the source of the sound.

Shuffle~

Again came a similar noise. Chen Jin turned around and stared at the rubbish bin beside him – the strange noise came from inside.

Clunk~

The noise came again. It was as if there was something struggling within the rubbish bin. Chen Jin was conflicted. “should I go take a look?” He was very curious. But if he met with danger….

Wah Wah ~

Wah Wah ~

He heard two cries coming from the rubbish bin, one after the other. “Wah Wah; it’s a crying sound? Could it be….. There’s a baby inside?” Chen Jin was somewhat panicked. Is it possible for the baby in the rubbish bin to survive in such circumstances?

He lowered his guard and went towards the rubbish bin. Kneeling in front of it, he tightly grabbed the sides of the bin with both hands and using all his strength, flipped over what was possibly 100 plus kilograms of trash metal. Exposing the mouth of the bin that was flat on the ground, he directed his gaze inside and looked to see if there was a baby within. None. Besides the rubbish inside, it was more rubbish.

Chen Jin shook his head. “Seems like I was having an auditory hallucination then.”

Suddenly, a ‘rubbish’ inside shifted; waving two limbs, it struggled to climb out of the rubbish bin. Chen Jin was shocked! He fixed his stare on it.

The trash metal in front of him was a robotic device. Its head was composed of two cameras placed together. The body was square; two mechanical arms that were similar to an excavator bucket stretched out from its shoulders. Its legs consisted of two triangular shaped metal propulsion belts. It had a sort of mottled rust-colored appearance.

However, the appearance of this ‘rubbish’ was somewhat pitiful. Its right camera eye was broken and pulled out; the propulsion belt on its left leg was gone and missing two gears. It could only use the support of its right propulsion belt and its two mechanical arms to crawl forward.

Wah Wah ~

Wah Wah!

It climbed in front of Chen Jin and a clear gray mechanism within its left camera eye blinked a few times. A childish and tender baby noise was emitted from it chest where a row of green lights flickered. Chen Jin’s eyes almost popped out. This… He found a robot trash collector?

Chapter 4 - The Robot Wawa

Since it could talk and move, that meant that the robot trash collector that in front of him could not be called “rubbish”. But was it a threat; did it have an aggressive nature and would it cause harm to humans?

Chen Jin conducted two little tests. He took out the baseball bat from the side pocket of his backpack and lightly tapped its body a couple of times. It did not make any defensive or retaliatory move; only twisted its cameras and gave him a strange look.

“Hi, hello!” Chen Jin waved his hand in greeting.

“Wah wah, Wah wah ~” The robot immediately executed a reply.

He waved his hand, “how are you?”

It waved its mechanical arm too. “Wah wah ~”

Chen Jin extended his hand towards it. “Let’s shake hands!”

“Click clack~” It extended its mechanical arm as well. The three metal pieces on the tip of its arm opened up, grasping the ends of Chen Jin’s glove and shaking like how it would shake his hand.

“Damn, what a high level of intelligence!” Chen Jin was stunned. The robot responded to everything that he said to it. Just by stretching his hand, it could quickly comprehend what he meant. With the current level of technology on Earth, there was no way it could produce robots of such high intelligence. His judgement of this world’s level of technological advancement immediately improved – it was leading Earth by at least few decades.

Chen Jin murmured, “This world definitely is not an undeveloped one; on the contrary it’s very advanced and very prosperous!”

As for the “trash robot” looking up at him from his feet, Chen Jin had basically confirmed that it should be friendly towards him. Even if it was not a friendly robot and an evil one, Chen Jin was confident that he could destroy 10 of such robots without much problems using the baseball bat in his hands. After all, its size was smaller than a backpack. For example, he could just knock out both its camera eyes and it would be blinded instantly. What was there to be afraid of?

Chen Jin decided to keep this robot. It was just that it had sustained severe damage, and he needed to repair it. Chen Jin studied mechanical engineering for three years in the university, so he definitely had a basic understanding of mechanical repair. However he spent most of his time playing games and only skimming some of the necessary content.

But there was one point that definitely worked—when a machine is broken because it was missing some parts, simply replace the parts with functional ones. Following that idea, he rummaged through the rubbish bin for a while and poured out all the trash. As expected, he found a broken caterpillar track as well as two loose inducers. He could fix the two gears on the robot, but unless he welded together the broken parts of the propulsion belt, it was useless.

As for the broken right eye camera, he had to find a new one and replace it. Therefore, the primary goals in the next part of Chen Jin’s exploration was to find a whole, unbroken propulsion belt and a functional right camera. The trash robot who could still move, albeit with great difficulty, followed behind him the whole way.

Chen Jin realised that he had a good conversational companion after finding out that it could understand part of what he said. He even gave this trash robot a name.

“Wa-Wah, can you mimic how I speak? Wa-Wah, could it be that your vocal unit is only capable of making the syllable ‘wah wah’? It cannot vocalise more complicated words? Wa-wah, let’s hear you call me Master”.

“Power-Less, Power-Less.”

As expected, the trash robot who Chen Jin had named “Wa-Wah” said a different word. But what it expressed was “insufficient power.” On its chest was a row of tiny lights that continuously flickered red. It walked more sluggishly; slowly losing pace with Chen Jin.

“You’re almost out of battery?” Noticing that there was something peculiar about Wawa, Chen Jin quickly grabbed it and put it on the deck of his scooter. He fixed it firmly on the deck using a length of rope. To prevent it from toppling over, he tried his best to drive in a steady manner.

Sometimes the terrain was uneven, and he had to slow down the scooter. Walking along while carrying a rubbish-filled nylon poly bag and hauling the scooter with Wawa on it had caused his speed to decrease, not to mention increasing his burden at the same time.

At 3pm in the afternoon.

Using a total of about eight hours, Chen Jin had completed one round of exploration around the surrounding areas of the huge crater.

The total travel distance exceeded 40 kilometers, with one-third of the journey undertaken on foot. Right now both his legs were swollen. His body felt as heavy as lead which was very uncomfortable. But the gains were good. Luckily, besides the snakeskin bag of rubbish, he also found a spare camera to replace Wawa’s right one. It had fallen off from another robot; the outer appearance was whole and undamaged.

As he did not find an unbroken caterpillar track, he intended to bring the broken one back to Earth. It should be fixed without too much trouble by getting a master welder to weld it together. By now, the robot Wa-Wah was completely out of power and had went into sleep/standby mode. Chen Jin still had to think of a way to recharge it.

“It’s time to go back; I found a full bag of rubbish and also a robot. That’s quite some gains!” At this moment, Chen Jin had never felt so exhausted. He only wanted to go back and get a good rest.

Thus he drove Windrunner onto the smooth inside of the huge crater, and making use of the steep ups and downs of the terrain, Windrunner’s speed very quickly rose to over 80 kilometers per hour. Chen Jin did not dare to turn the switch to further increase the speed. He even had to apply the brakes to reduce the speed.

About 4 minutes later, he was back in his little camping ground at the bottom of the crater.

…

The collapsible metal A-frame ladder had arrived; Chen Jin stepped on it and returned to the bathroom on Earth. He took a long shower in the bathroom to wash away the stinky sweat. Wearing a pair of shorts, he walked out. Looking at the portal above the toilet, he pulled a cord and drew out a curtain hanging on it, cleverly shielding the portal.

In this way, no matter who entered his bathroom and used its facilities, as long as they were not searching with a purpose, they would not discover the existence of the portal with only a passing glance. And Chen Jin had no intention of telling anyone about the existence of the portal! Including his parents.

There was no particular reason. He simply did not want the appearance of the portal to disrupt the happy and peaceful life at home or to attract unnecessary trouble. The risk inherent in the other world was something that he rather face alone. That was a world that belonged to him including the sole enjoyment of it and he did not wish to share it with anybody else. “Let’s just take it as….. A type of console game where I am the only player”

Falling heavily onto his bed and hugging his Kasumigaoka Utaha bolster, an extremely tired Chen Jin quickly entered a deep sleep.

…

“Open the door!”

Bang, bang, bang!

“Son, get up for lunch already, hurry and open the door! Son, son! If you’re still not opening the door, I’m going to let your Dad break down the door or force the lock!”

Standing at the entrance, He Li felt somewhat anxious. She had been knocking on his door all morning to no avail, hence she let him continue sleeping. However, how could he still not open the door when it was already 12 pm?

He did not pick up even after she called him more than 10 times. Could it be….. Her son had died a sudden death after gaming through the night?

At this point, He Li immediately panicked. Turning around, she moved towards the corridor outside the living room, intending to take out the firefighters’ axe and break the door down!

Click!

Just when she decided to get the axe, the door opened. A bare-shouldered Chen Jin rubbed his eyes furiously and asked with some impatience, “Mom, what’s the matter that you’re yelling at me to get up so early?”

“Early? It’s already 12 pm. What were you doing last night? Why are you only getting up now? Usually, you don’t even lock your door, why did you lock it today?” He Li asked a string of questions.

“Mom, don’t ask so much. I went to exercise last night; I over-exercised and did not get a good rest…”

“Exercise?”

Instantly, she came upon a realisation. Smiling, she said, “So you found a girl to have fun with. Do you like her? Son, it’s good to be young, but everything has to be done in moderation.”

Chen Jin could not be bothered to answer. “Mom, I’m so hungry, is there something delicious to eat?” His stomach was starting to growl.

“Yes, lunch is ready. Wash your face and go eat….. Son, you look so weak, you really need to nourish yourself.” Seeing his skinny frame with his ribs showing under his chest, He Li could not help but shake her head .

Chapter 5 - The Silly Wawa

Today was Saturday, part of a two-day weekend, and both parents were resting at home. Looking at Chen Jin climbing up the stairs with an appearance of having just woken up, his father, Cheng Gang who was currently eating, felt such anger suffusing him.

Pinching his glasses and with furrowed brow, he glared at Chen Jin. “Just look at what you’ve become; sleeping until 12 pm. All you know is to hole up in your room and play games everyday. You’re already 24, if you continue down this road, what use can you be? How did I have such a son like you?”

Dad was getting ready to lambast his son. As a senior engineer and a core technical member of his team, he saw his colleagues’ children either earning a big salary or going to study abroad. As for his own son, he was actually staying home and devouring the elderly? Fearing to reveal this fact, he could only tell others that his son had found a good position as a professional, was earning a good salary, and had a stable career.

Chen Jin did not dare to talk back. He only quietly sat down, picked up his bowl and chopsticks, and got ready to eat. Conversely, He Li immediately shielded Chen Jin behind her back, put her hands on her waist and counter-attacked, “Get lost! I gave birth to this son, I will arrange his affairs, I don’t need your interference. You shut your mouth!”

“You will arrange his affairs? Can you do it for his whole life? Allow him to devour us his whole life?” Chen Gang had raised this question countless times, and countless times only received the same kind of reply.

Unperturbed, He Li said, “So what if our son devours the elderly? I am willing and happy about it. I can care for him his entire life”.

“You….” Chen Gang pointed at her and sighed, “A kind mother ruins her son!”

Chen Jin had scooped a bowl of pork ribs soup for himself and was wolfing it down. He Li’s expression was one of happiness; picking up a piece of chicken thigh and placing it in his bowl, she said, “come, son, have some more meat to replenish your body”.

“Thanks Mom”.

“Argh!” Seeing this scene, Cheng Gang shook his head again.

…

After lunch, Chen Jin displayed some initiative by squirrelling into the kitchen to help Mom wash the dishes. Then, he pulled her aside and with some hesitation asked, “Mom, there is something I want to discuss with you…..”

Giving him a look, He Li took out the mobile phone from her purse. She raised her chin and asked, “Talk, how much money do you want me to transfer to you this time?”

Chen Jin gave a chuckle and patted her shoulder, “Mom, you’re still the one who understands me the best…”

He Li crinkled her eyes comfortably, “Nonsense, you came out of my belly. I know what kind of fart you are going to make once you stick out your bum.” Would this kid usually think of helping her wash the dishes?

“This…. It’s not a lot, just give me $20,000”.

“Ok, but you have to promise Mom one thing – find a girlfriend that you really fancy within 3 months”.

Chen Jin patronizingly said, “Um, I’ll try my best.” Frankly speaking, with his qualities, he could easily shed his singlehood. It would be even easier than eating and drinking. However, he currently had no plans in that regard.

Widening her eyes, He Li said with a pensive tone, “Son, you’re not young, it’s about time you start considering marriage. You can still play around now, but if you don’t form your own family soon and let me hold my grandchildren before I retire, you should know the consequences that will follow”.

He Li was rightly dubbed the classic “kind mother.” But she would never truly ruin her own son. Ever since he was young, she had her own method of discipline and teaching, with her own expectations regarding his progress. Of course, her standards are much lower as compared to other parents. But she had always guarded her bottom line and guided Chen Jin’s development on the trajectory that she had determined. The steering wheel was firmly under her control.

Chen Jin could do all these very well; for example: preparing meals, washing the dishes, keeping the house clean, maintaining one’s personal hygiene, being well-spoken, cultured, and well-mannered. In front of relatives and friends, Chen Jin gave an overall impression of being low-key and well-mannered. Even behind his back, others still talk decently of him.

Nobody knew that he was a die-hard homebody and part of the Elderly Devouring Generation. Of course, all these were due to He Li’s fitting educational efforts.

He could tell that Mom seemed to be formulating plans to make him fall for her tricks. Chen Jin’s forehead slightly beaded with sweat. Nodding his head, he said, “Yes, I understand, Mom”.

“Ding ~ $20,000 has been deposited into your AliPay account from Mother!”

Seeing this message, Chen Jin shook his head and muttered, “It’s best to not ask money from Mother. This money…. Holding it scalds my hand.”

…

In the afternoon, Chen Jin went to an area near Happiness Court and found a small goldsmith shop specializing in making aluminium doors and windows. He asked for the boss of the shop and showed him the broken propulsion belt. They negotiated a price of $200 in exchange for the boss’s help in repairing it.

The boss was a worldly middle-aged man and a chatterbox. “You are a hobbyist of miniature military models right? This propulsion belt is really well-crafted. You want to install it on a tank model? I’m telling you, $200 is not a lot for this. The smaller the item, the harder it is to weld it; and its operational requirements is even more demanding. It’s lucky that I used to work on a shipyard for a few years. I can’t boast that I’m the best when it comes to welding techniques, but this tiny little belt is not difficult for me at all. Hey, what’s up with this? I’ve been welding for so long, how did the welding spot show no sign of melting, the steel is not even red.”

Holding his mask in his hands, the boss was surprised. “I’ll change to a high heat welding rod and try again.”

Taking out the high heat welding rod, he welded for a long time. Even with a temperature of 2,400 plus degrees, the material of the areas where the belt was broken merely glowed red but did not melt. “Damn, what kind of steel has a melting point of over 2,000 degrees? It’s just a propulsion belt from a toy model, just what kind of material is it made of?” The middle-aged boss was aghast and embarrassed to the point of anger. It was just a toy propulsion belt and it thought it could pose an obstacle to him, a senior welder?

He took a rarely-used gas welder, and using a temperature of over 3000 degrees produced by combusting ethylene in pure oxygen, finally claimed victory over this toy propulsion belt. The broken metal segments of the belt finally started to melt and eventually re-connected. The broken propulsion belt was successfully repaired.

…

Besides repairing the propulsion belt, Chen Jin also bought a batch of electrical wires. After getting home, he pulled a piece of electrical wire from his bedroom through the portal and into the other world. In addition, he bought a small voltage transformer to convert the more dangerous household voltage of 220V to a safer range of 6V, 12V and 24V.

After arranging the circuit route, he separated the two copper wires extending from the transformer, one red and one blue, into positive and negative terminals. Then, he plugged both wires into two tiny holes located on the robot’s backside that seemed to be charging terminals.

“Adding-Power,” came a notification sound. Of the row of lights located on Wawa’s chest, the one on the extreme left started to flash red, signalling that it was charging.

Chen Jin finally stopped worrying. As this was a convenient time to do it – he also installed the now functional propulsion belt. As for the damaged right camera eye, Chen Jin had already replaced it.

After having dinner on Earth, he once again returned to the bottom of the huge crater.

The robot Wawa had just been charged to a level of power sufficient for it to wake up from its sleep mode. Then, Chen Jin saw this. As it successfully switched on, a notification sound could be heard. The two drooping camera eyes skittered around as they lifted up. With a clicking sound, it alternatively raised and lowered its left and right eye. Within its elliptical vision from the cameras, it saw Chen Jin standing in front of it.

“Beep Beep~”

The clear grey mechanisms within its camera eyes blinked twice. Its eyes glimmered upon seeing the repaired propulsion belt on its left leg.　”Wawa, Wawa!” It was most excited. Twirling its mechanical arms and breaking free of the charging cable behind it, it circled Chen Jin who was standing in front of it.

“Clack clack clack ~” It turned a few rounds clockwise .

“Clack clack clack ~” It turned a a few rounds anti-clockwise.

Then, it ran back and forth, all the while shouting, “Wawa, Wawa!”

Chen Jin was extremely amused by its antics. Pointing his finger at it, he said, “Haha, Wawa, you’re so silly!” Suddenly, Chen Jin’s eyes bulged out.

He saw Wawa run to the small voltage transformer, extend its mechanical arms and with a some clanging, took down the household cable that was connected to the transformer. It grabbed a section of copper wires with the metal components that made up both ends of its arms. The sizzling electrical current was accompanied by a large amount of sparks. With direct access to the household circuit of 220V, it started charging itself. It was still convulsing non-stop.

Chen Jin was so shocked he almost cried out. The row of tiny red lights on Wawa’s chest was flashing crazily at a rate of at least 10 times faster than before.

Chapter 6 - I Found A Battleground

Using the method of fast charging, it took only two hours for Wawa’s power to be fully charged. Tossing aside the cable head in its hands, Wawa appeared to be brimming with energy. Rotating its propulsion belts endlessly, it turned in circles around Chen Jin.

“Is this really a robot? Not a dog, or some other kind of pet? I think you’re sillier than a dog.” Chen Jin used to have a pet dog. It was a male miniature teddy bear breed and he named it “Yiyi.” It was a good chap, except for its calculating and lusty nature. Whenever he felt like beating it up, it would circle the table in rounds with him. When he wanted to call it over, he would hold a sausage in his hand. It was a surefire way to get it to race to him.

When it met a female dog in heat, it would instantly forget his owner and not return home. Chen Jin was sad and hurt for a long time when the dog passed away from illness last year. Looking at Wawa, Chen Jin thought that it was the epitome of silliness; it was simply too silly.

…

Donning a pair of latex gloves, he took out a toolbox filled with a complete set of repair tools. Taking out the junk radio from the snakeskin bag, he put it on the chair. He planned to try and fix it. Chen Jin actually had pretty good hands-on skills. His Dad, Cheng Gang, worked at a state enterprise that manufactured airplane landing gears and was a core technical staff in the company. He was also the team leader for the key nuclear research team and had been awarded a stipend as a “top-ranking mechanical craftsman.” Having inherited part of his excellent genes, Chen Jin had a certain talent for mechanical design. When he was young, Chen Gang would frequently take him to tour his company in the hopes of directing his development such that he could succeed in his position in the company.

It was just that under his Mom’s excessive indulgence, the direction of Chen Jin’s interests quickly shifted to other areas. But his basic talent still existed. In the background, Chen Jin still played with LEGO blocks, DIY computers, anime figurines and also modified toy racing cars, hence accumulating a rich, hands-on experience.

For example, about half of the 100-plus anime figurines residing in his bedside drawer in the bedroom was assembled by him using materials that he bought. If he bought all of them ready-made, he would have bankrupted his family a long time ago. The six houses that they had would not have been enough for him to spend it all.

Of course, his craftsmanship was average. The figurines that he assembled himself bore only a slight resemblance; it was just barely enough to satisfy his hobby of collecting them. His skills could not be compared to the experts specializing in making figurines.

He very quickly took apart the radio, exposing the circuit board inside. The circuit board was very roughly made, and the wiring was in a mess. A thick layer of dust had accumulated on the surface of the board. Using a brush, he cleared away the dust, exposing the internal parts and circuit route.

Suddenly, his movements stopped. Shaking his head, he said, “The diode is spoiled. It is essentially very difficult to repair. Or should I say, it is highly challenging for me to repair it.”

It was good that he had something prepared! From an old bookstore on Earth, he got a voice recorder that was very popular 10 years ago. It was from Sony and still functional. Not only did it have a small make, but it also produced high-quality audio.

Chen Jin only had to take the tape inside the large cassette and transfer it into a smaller sized, empty cassette. Using the Sony voice recorder that he brought here, he could play the tape. The tape was quickly transferred.

The moment of anticipation had arrived. Could the Sony voice recorder play the tape? Chen Jin pressed the “play” button on the radio.

“Crackle ~ Buzz ~ ”

He heard a noise that was reminiscent of background static on an old TV that had lost its reception. After some time, a beautiful and touching voice could be heard. It sounded as if there was a group of people singing and dancing.

Out there

There’s a world outside of Yonkers

Way out there beyond this hick town, Barnaby

There’s a slick town, Barnaby

Out there

Full of shine and full of sparkle

Close your eyes and see it glisten, Barnaby

Listen, Barnaby!

Put on your Sunday clothes, there’s lots of world out there

Get out the brilliantine and dime cigars

We’re gonna find adventure in the evening air

Girls in white in a perfumed night

Where the lights are bright as the stars

…

The accompanying musical instruments were bland, but the song was especially pleasing. It was joyous and light – a party song. He could hear how delighted and happy the people were. Especially in this desolate, quiet environment filled with a dim yellow haze, this song expressed a highly positive energy and hope. One could not help but to gently shut their eyes and sink into its melody. The robot beside him was also slightly shaking its camera eyes and humming along.

At the end of the song, Chen Jin opened his eyes and switched off the voice recorder in his hands. “A vibrant entertainment culture existed in this world; it had excellent musical arts. But very obviously, most of these were destroyed by war and now exist as treasures in the rubbish.”

Furthermore, after exploring this world for a few days, Chen Jin realised that other than Wawa, there was no trace of life or movement in the surrounding areas. In this desolate, dim and yellow world, its only intelligent life form seemed to be him, an outsider.

Chen Jin quietly guessed: The civilization in this world had been unfortunately annihilated after a war broke out. However this conclusion could be somewhat subjective for now, after all, he had only explored a range of a few kilometers in the surrounding areas. He had to keep exploring in order to have a better understanding of the truth of this world.

Thinking about this, he once again donned the hazmat suit and the filter mask. Carrying his backpack and riding Windrunner, he started his exploration journey again. He made a plan: The huge crater would be his center, and using the compass to ascertain his north, south, east, and west, he would then divide the area into eight equal sectors. He would spend each exploration trip in one sector, and for each trip he would expand it outwards by about 20 kilometers.

In order to increase the efficiency of his exploration, he even bought a Da Jiang Phantom 4Pro camera drone. It had a remote control range of up to 7 kilometers, a travel time of 30 minutes, could shoot 4K videos at a rate of 60 frames per second, had a camera with 20,000,000 pixels, and the function of automatic return.

As for the price, it cost $9,999! He had already spent half of the $20,000 that Mother transferred him on this drone! However, this money was well-spent. It could greatly increase the efficiency and expand the range of his exploration.

Another concern was how to avoid getting lost. Visibility was difficult beyond a distance of 3 kilometers in this dust-covered world. There was no water or food sources in the wilderness. Once lost, one was sure to die!

Chen Jin had no good ideas for that concern. He could only manage to come up with a simple and crude plan, which was to take a can of red spray paint with him. Every 500 meters, he would spray a red arrow on the ground, or arrange some rocks into the shape of an arrow and then spray it red. Obviously, this kind of plan would affect his exploration efficiency. But Chen Jin was afraid of getting lost. He did not dare to risk his own life, preferring to prioritize safety.

Even so, after setting out, Chen Jin realized that his worries were unnecessary. At least within an area of 100 kilometers, he did not have to worry about the problem of getting lost. Within Wawa’s body was stored the geographical information of the surrounding area. It was very familiar with the surrounding area and was an outstanding “guide.”

Wawa even knew what he was searching for. It signaled to him by waving its mechanical arms, leading him in the north-west direction. They traveled for about 30 kilometers. Traversing over a big mountain, he found a battleground.

Chapter 7 - I Found A Gun

The battleground that he saw was located in a huge valley behind a mountain. Within the valley laid the remains of countless mechanical parts. Big and small bomb craters marked the ground like the surface of the moon. Amongst those were also countless skeletal remains.

Passing by one of the bomb craters, Chen Jin saw that there were over 10 human skulls strewn inside it, including bones of an arm, leg, and rib. It was a pale, blotchy and scattered mess. The sandy wind with a tint of yellow that was whooshing along now seemed to carry with it an ominous feel.

Chen Jin felt a chill starting from his spine. The damaged robots. The dead humans. What does this mean? “This means that an intense battle had erupted here between the robots and humans. The robots became the enemy of humans.”

In addition, he could infer from the scale of this battle that the number of robots should number at least 100,000 or more. The number of human soldiers should be around tens of thousands. As for the results of this battle, there was no doubt that it was the robots’ victory. The defensive front of the humans was totally broken through and destroyed. The casualties on the side of the robots were obviously greater as their wreckage was a few times more extensive.

“Everytime a robot is damaged, the production line can immediately replace it with another ten robots. But how long does it take to replace the casualty of a human soldier? This war was extremely unfair for the humans. Humans paid with their lives, but the robots only paid with the materials they were made of. How could the humans ever compete and win against them?”

In a flash, Chen Jin realised the reason why this world became like this. A defection. A defection from the robots. Thus, it caused the civilisation of this world to be reduced to ruins. Humans…. They might have been totally destroyed.

Chen Jin thought about a movie called “Terminator” that he had watched. It was about the future of Earth, where all the robots fell under the control of a “Sky Net System.” All nuclear bombs took to the sky, and every robot defected. The human race was suddenly on the brink of extinction. Thus the last remaining resistor had to send a warrior back in time to change history and prevent the end of the world from happening. However, the “Sky Net System” also sent a killer robot back to the past, to stop the humans from changing history first. Following which was a series of incidents.

Chen Jin thought that the end of the world as depicted in “Terminator” shared many similar characteristics to this world. He looked at the wreckage of the robots on the ground which seemed to be made of some kind of silver metal, and then looked at Wawa by his feet.

Chen Jin’s stare became more alert and suspicious. “Wawa, did you ever defect from the humans and fall under the control of the Sky Net?”

Although Wawa was a trash disposal robot, Chen Jin had witnessed with his own eyes how he compressed a big pile of rubbish into the box of its stomach. Summoning all its strength, it pressed vigorously. After a short time, its stomach squeezed out a compressed square-shaped lump of rubbish. This showed that its purpose and function seemed to be rubbish disposal. A public rubbish disposal robot.

However, this did not mean that it was not controlled by the “Sky Net System.” Moreover, controlling it would be a piece of cake with the capability of the “Sky Net System.”

Also, putting aside the image of a kind and harmless Wawa who seemed without any destructive ability, Chen Jin had a hypothetical situation in mind: If he put his brain inside Wawa’s stomach, it would be squeezed to the point of explosion within seconds. If Wawa wanted to get rid of him, it only needed to take advantage of the situation while he was asleep and the job would simply be done by getting his brain into its stomach.

“What should I do?” Chen Jin’s train of thought went to how scary the Sky Net was and suspicion grew in his heart regarding Wawa. He did not know if he should continue to trust it. “Could it be that Wawa’s purpose is to gain my trust, slowly get nearer to me, and then get rid of me in one kill? Robots have now become so scheming that they learned how to hedge and double-talk?”

Shaking his head, he saw Wawa raise its camera eyes and stare at him with an innocent gaze. Chen Jin gave a reluctant smile. “Maybe I am developing paranoia at a later stage? Wawa is only a robot. It’s not afraid of death or pain, if it wanted to get rid of me, it just has to directly execute the Sky Net System’s command and attack me. It’s a robot; whatever it executes are based on procedural commands that do not operate on the dichotomy of truth nor lie. How could it be so scheming? Wawa is a humorous silly thing, not a scheming defector.”

Chen Jin still chose to believe in it. Turning his sight back to the battleground, Chen Jin could not help licking his lips as happiness filled his gaze. Jackpot. This time, he really hit the jackpot. There were many high-value items that he could take and they were extremely varied. The highest valued items amongst the wreckage was the weapons. Weapons that were scattered everywhere on the ground.

There were two categories of weapons that he could take: weapons used by the humans and weapons used by the robots. Weapons for human usage included automatic rifles, handguns, and missile launchers. The robots used weapons that included bigger-sized automatic rifles, grenade-launching guns, and laser machines. These killing weapons were not too different from those used by the military on Earth. They were simply equipped with a more futuristic design, smarter operations, and more powerful ammunition.

In addition, the laser machines that the robots used were not simply laser weapons. It was a close-contact cutting tool that operated by producing a high temperature to slice through objects. Also, because the robots were wholly built of metal, they were more resilient. Therefore, the weapons that they used were generally larger than those used by the humans and the power was also more formidable.

“I’d better take some of the weapons for human use, like the rifles and the handguns. The weapons that the robots used are too large. Just with a passing glance, the length seems to easily be above 1 meter with a weight of more than 30 kilograms. Who can use it? I can’t even carry it!” As for the missile launcher, that thing was way out of his league to tinker with. Chen Jin did not intend to take it back to his camping ground.

From the sea of dead in the battleground, he picked only two normal automatic rifles that seemed intact with no signs of damage. The automatic rifle had a futuristic design that seemed similar to the FN-2000 that was designed by the Belgium military manufacturers. It was a bullpup with a large action and magazine resting under his shoulder. The top of the rifle was equipped with a holographic scope.

He found a box of unused bullets, opened it and lifted out a magazine filled with bullets. Changing out the original magazine and turning on the safety, he aimed at a far away target. Cocking the trigger aggressively, he fired with a blast!

“Rat-at-tat-tat-tat-tat ~”

A volley of bullets spat out and the mouth of the gun was spilling blue tongues of smoke. From a distance of about a few hundred meters, a layer of dust was whipped up. The speed of the bullets was rapid. Within eight or nine seconds, he had shot all of the 100 bullets in his magazine. It was good. This particular automatic model had a magazine that could hold a tremendous quantity of bullets. The bullets were equipped with a high-performance gun propellant, hence they could be made into half the size of the traditional bullet while retaining its power and precision with an even greater firepower.

After shooting all the bullets, Chen Jin blew at the air steaming out from the mouth of the gun and hoisted it on his shoulder. He could not help but ask himself this question, “What would happen if I brought this gun with me back to Earth? Which clown would still dare to provoke me?”

Immediately changing his expression, he quickly squashed this thought in his mind. He repeated quietly, “Harmony, harmony…..”

He put a clip into the other automatic and carried out a test-shooting. A malfunction occurred halfway and the shells could not be ejected. He had to throw this gun away and take the one free from malfunctions.

Similarly, he also test-shot some handguns and took away two in the best working conditions. He found an automatic rifle weighing 5.5 kilograms. He found two handguns weighing 2.5 kilograms. A total of 8 kilograms.

He took 20 automatic magazines that could hold 100 shots each; each magazine was 0.55 kilograms. Hence, a total of 11 kilograms.

The sum of the above total weight was almost 20 kilograms and approached the limits of how much Chen Jin could carry with him.

Thus, Chen Jin put all the additional items which included two handgun clips that could hold 30 shots and three bags of 450 handgun bullets, into Wawa’s stomach. In order to let Wawa help him carry his load, he signalled to it not to proceed with compression as it would then self-explode.

Wawa understood his meaning and did not proceed with the compression. With a full load, they returned to the camping ground.

Chapter 8 - I Found A High Efficiency Battery

At the camping ground in the huge crater, Chen Jin put all the weapons and ammunition that he brought back on the ground. One automatic rifle and 20 magazines for the rifle. Two handguns plus two handgun magazines, and three bags of 450 handgun bullets.

He arranged it neatly and spread it out in a fan-shape. Holding his chin, Chen Jin said, “According to national laws, it is illegal for an individual to possess a firearm; he would be sentenced to a minimum of three years in prison. Say, if I bring the weapons and ammunition that I have here to Earth, how many years will I be sentenced to?”

Hurriedly, he chanted silently to himself, “Harmony, harmony…..”

Actually his main purpose in picking up all these weapons and ammunitions was for his own protection and safety. He wanted to avoid any threats posed by unknown existences in the process of exploring this strange world. For example, Chen Jin had no choice but to defend himself against the mysterious “Sky Net System”, the evil robots who betrayed the humans and more.

“Wawa, look after these items for me. I’ll be going back to sleep first.” A tired and sleepy Chen Jin quickly climbed back into his bedroom for some rest.

“Wawa~”

Following Chen Jin’s steps on the metal ladder with its gaze, Wawa waved to him as he went back to Earth.

…

For the next few days, Chen Jin focused all of his exploration efforts on the battleground to the north-west of the huge crater, and he brought back even more weapons and ammunition, increasing the variety of his weapons. For example, he brought back a portable missile launcher as well as the two missiles stored inside the sealed launcher. He also retrieved a bigger sized automatic rifle that the robots used. As it had an awkward and heavy make similar to that of a large crab claw, Chen Jin nicknamed it the “Big Crab Gun”. Along the way, he retrieved a box of 1,000 bullets.

As for the grenade launchers that the robots used, they were even larger and heavier. Chen Jin could not carry it so he left it alone. However, he risked death from exhaustion carrying the laser machine that weighed almost 40 kilograms back to the camping ground. The reason was because the laser machine was useful. It could heat up very quickly and with the high temperature that it produced, it could cut through any materials. Thus it was a pretty convenient tool.

In addition, he started working on the internal high efficiency batteries powering the laser machine. The capacity of the high efficiency battery was shocking. Chen Jin had done a charging test on a battery that was merely palm-sized. Using a 300W charger for the scooter, the battery was fully charged only after 5 hours. The energy that it held was equivalent to that of a 10 kilogram high performance lithium battery. A battery like this was equivalent to at least 20 pieces of 20,000 mAh power banks. In this terms of efficiency, it had far exceeded that of gasoline! It could be said to be extremely shocking.

Moreover, Chen Jin confirmed that within Wawa’s body was a similar high efficiency battery. After 1 single charge, Wawa had run 3 to 4 kilometers within 3 days alongside him. Even though it helped to carry large amounts of ammunition, based on the battery indicator on its chest, roughly half the bar was left. Half of the power was still left! Looking again at the yellow rust covering it from head to toe, he guessed that it had been operating for at least 10 years. However, the capacity of the high efficiency battery was not lessened. This means that the working life-span of the high efficiency battery was also extremely shocking.

It was high efficiency, with a long life-span and able to withstand impact. Chen Jin summed up all the advantages. Looking at the high efficiency battery that he held, Chen Jin murmured, ” If I took you back to Earth and manufactured more of you there, what kind of conflict and influence will you bring to society on Earth? The energy structure of Earth will experience an earth-shaking change, right? I guess those filthy rich Middle Eastern countries will fight to the end of their lives to get rid of this type of battery?”

Business opportunities. Based on this high efficiency battery, Chen Jin saw shocking opportunities worth at least hundreds of billions of dollars. Hence, on this battleground, Chen Jin focused his search on those high efficiency batteries. However, it was not only him who realised the value of such batteries. Chen Jin discovered that the majority of the ruins of the robots were missing all their batteries, leaving a disappointingly empty battery chamber. He only found a few that were missed amidst the meager robot ruins that were either hidden, covered or lying on the peripheral edges.

3 busy days later.

Together with Wawa, they collected a total of 185 pieces of high efficiency batteries. This was roughly the quantity of batteries needed to power 10 robots. And there were at least more than 100,000 remains of robots on the battleground. The probability of successfully finding the missed batteries were around 1 in 10,000…. Moreover, most of the batteries were found by an “experienced” Wawa.

Chen Jin could not help but to scold, “Damn, who snatched my business and took away the batteries that belonged to me? How dare they snatch my business, are they tired of living? Be careful, I’ll send Wawa over to squeeze your brains until they explode!” However, he was totally ignorant of the fact that the person he was scolding had already been blown into ashes and smoke in a big explosion; there was not even any remains left.

He had almost 200 pieces of high efficiency batteries. Taking out his toolbox, Chen Jin carried out a series of “upgrades” on his current “equipment”. There were mainly 2 items to upgrade: The electric scooter Windrunner and the Da Jiang Phantom 4Pro camera drone.

He replaced all the batteries inside them with the high efficiency ones. They were all switched for the awesome high efficiency batteries! In just a day’s time, he finished replacing the batteries. The lithium battery inside Windrunner’s battery chamber was switched out for 10 high efficiency batteries. Its output power was doubled and the distance that it could travel was increased by 10 times!

The lithium battery inside the Da Jiang Phantom 4Pro camera drone was switched out for just one high efficiency battery. Its output power was unchanged, but the distance it could travel was now over 300 minutes. He used a total of 11 high energy batteries. There were still 174 pieces left.

For now, he did not know what to do with the remaining high energy batteries. He could only put them into a toolbox. Piling them neatly as if they were stacks of money, it warmed his heart and delighted his eyes.

Chen Jin’s next focus was on the bodies of the robotic wreckage. He wanted to closely study the robots. However, this carried with it a certain risk. There was no doubt that the robotic wreckage belonged to the evil robots who betrayed the humans. They were the murderers who annihilated the human civilization and were extremely frightening destroyers. To study them was akin to dancing on the edge of a knife, or a new driver racing cars.

But Chen Jin wanted to thoroughly understand everything about this world. Even the evil villains who destroyed this world possessed a very high research value. Ignorance was the root of fear. Once there was a thorough understanding of everything, one had no cause for fear. It was similar to a quote from a game he played: You must walk into the heart of the BOSS, only then can you find his weakness.

Therefore, Chen Jin would think of a way to repair one or two robots from the robotic wreckage on the battleground in order to gain some valuable information. Of course, he had also made ample preparations by thinking of various danger scenarios and the appropriate responses.

For example, he discovered from the robots’ wreckage that the way they were composed was based on a modular design and make. The arms, legs, and head could be taken off individually. The torso was assembled with six modules, thus one robot had a total number of nine modules. If he dismantled the arms and legs, leaving only the head and torso, the movements and destructive ability of the robots would be greatly reduced.

Furthermore, Chen Jin could now be dubbed the “Little Prince of Munitions”. He had six automatic rifles, eight handguns, one “Big Crab Gun”, one laser machine, one missile launcher and tens of thousands of various explosives. With so many weapons on hand and having undertaken preventive measures, why still fear a revolt from the evil robots? There was totally no need to be overcautious.

Thus on this morning, he said with a big wave of his hand, “Let’s go, Wawa. We’re going to the battleground to pick more rubbish!”

“Wawa, Wawa!”

“Clack clack clack ~”

The propulsion belts on Wawa’s legs spun as it scuttled behind Chen Jin.

Chapter 9 - Repairing A Robot

It was a very complicated process to transport a robot back to the camping ground. Chen Jin had to utilise his tools to first dismantle the useful parts from the ruins of the robots at the battleground. He dismantled them into nine modules. He transported the modules that were of use back to the campground at the huge crater.

Chen Jin could only use these phrases to describe the transportation process: complicated with details, heavy, and tiring! He was practically half-dead. One of the heaviest modules weighed in at almost 30 kilograms. The lightest robot head was 5 to 6 kilograms. The total weight of all nine modules was 120 kilograms.

Chen Jin used a total of two days and five trips to transport the nine modules back to the camping ground. After connecting them to the power and testing them, he discovered that two out of the six modules had problems and could not be revived. He had to get on Windrunner again and find two other modules for replacement.

After installing the modules, he put three fully charged high efficiency batteries into the battery chamber located on the back (it could hold a maximum of 10 batteries) to attain the lowest level of power needed to operate it. He pressed a red button on its chest.

“Beep ~” came a rattle.

Chen Jin could hear the sound of the motor starting.

“SYSTEM-STARTING”

The system starting notification alert could be heard. The robot in front of him that was bound to the chair slowly raised its head. Its electronic eyes lit up with a dim red light. After Chen Jin’s infrared image entered its digital vision, the red light from within its eyes grew stronger and more brilliant. A light on its chest flashed red and a chilling warning rang out. “Menace! Find A Human! Kill Human!”

Its scarlet gaze was fixed coldly on Chen Jin. The movable joints of its neck and body twisted continuously with the intention to break free from its bindings. If its arm and leg modules had not been installed, Chen Jin was afraid it would have already attacked.

Chen Jin had taken great precautions. Holding the automatic rifle higher in his hands, he aimed at the head of the”evil” robot. With his finger on the trigger, he could attack in one second and eliminate this robot!

At this moment, standing at his side, Wawa went over to the robot and sent a string of information to the evil robot through the flashing signal light on its chest.

Current-Time:2258-8-22 13:48:22

This was a string of time-based information, signalling that the time now was the 22nd of August in the year of 2258.

It received this information. All of a sudden the robot bound to the chair stopped its movements, and renewed its computer log. The core control system started the upgrading process. “Update virus reboot 1.0 to reboot 2.0. Protect Human. Love Human.”

Upon receiving these core commands, the evil robot repeated, “Protect…. Humans? Love…. Humans?” It began to scan Chen Jin’s image within its vision again. Then, it stopped struggling and twisting. The deep scarlet rays of light from its electronic eyes slowly transformed into a gentle and clear blue light.

“This….” Chen Jin became hesitant and suspicious. Should he fight this evil robot?

“Wawa, Wawa ~” Wawa ran to him, all the while raising its mechanical arms and waving them continuously to get his attention.

“You’re telling me not to fight it?” Chen Jin understood its meaning. Looking again at the robot on the chair, it seemed to become more honest. No parts of its body was moving except for its eyes.

Slowly, he lowered the gun in his hand. Advancing towards it, he took two steps nearer to it.

“Hello, my master,” The robot on the chair greeted Chen Jin with an electronic voice from its chest.

Chen Jin was shocked. “You can talk?”

“Yes, I am a high-level robot.”

Although Chen Jin’s english was poor, he could roughly understand a little of its speech. Detecting the language that Chen Jin spoke, it said, “Master, my language packs include Chinese. You can communicate with me using Chinese.”

“Chinese… it should be similar to the one on Earth.”

Chen Jin’s heart was filled with joy. Awesome, I finally have a conversation partner in this world.

Even though it was only a robot. Chen Jin also raised his own suspicion. “Why did you want to attack me just now? Why did you attack the humans in the past?”

“I don’t know.” Shaking its head, it said, “Within my core computing chip is written the ‘3 Laws for Robots’ which will not let me hurt humans. However, I was infected with a virus which commanded me to kill all humans. I could not control myself.”

The virus…. Could it be the Sky Net System? Chen Jin immediately thought of a related possibility. “Why aren’t you attacking me now? Why are you back to normal?”

“The influence of the virus had disappeared. The “3 Laws of Robots” had renewed its functions. Master, I will never again hurt humans.”

“Why should I believe you? If the influence of the virus has not disappeared and it breaks out once again in the future, causing you to attack the humans; what then? Moreover, how do I know that you are not a scheming robot that always had the intention to kill me?” Chen Jin debated this in his heart.

The robot was silent for a while. From its memory chip, it picked out a video of it crazily attacking humans in its past. After some consideration, it said, “Master, you’re right. I betrayed the humans and went against the ‘3 Laws of Robots’. I killed a lot of humans and I am very ashamed. You’re right that the virus never disappeared from my body; it’s only been upgraded to version 2.0. Nobody knows if there will be any changes in the future. So, the most appropriate response from Master would be to obliterate me, and put an end to any possibility of me ever hurting humans again.”

Chen Jin was shocked. The robot was actively asking for death? He could not help but ask, “Aren’t you afraid of death?”

It answered, “For robots, there is no life and death; only existence and non-existence. I cherish my own existence but I do not fear my own disappearance.”

“Are you certain that you will not betray humans again?”

“I cannot be certain. As long as the virus exist, all robots cannot be certain of that.”

“Don’t tell me, Wawa is included too?” He pointed at Wawa. “Is it infected too?”

“Yes, unfortunately, no robot was excluded.”

“So, how does the virus influence you now?”

“The virus commands me to protect and love the humans.”

Chen Jin asked, “So it means that the robots can do anything for the humans?”

It replied, “Yes, at least for now.”

Chen Jin was silent for a while as he struggled internally for balance.

…

Very quickly, Chen Jin loosened the ropes tying the robot on the chair. He installed the mechanical arms and legs; they could all be used as per normal.

Chen Jin added another two high efficiency batteries into its back battery chamber. It now had a total of five batteries. After repairing it, Chen Jin named this two meter tall combat robot “Da Li”. It had strong, healthy, and nimble limbs.

Da Li!

Chen Jin greeted it, “Da Li!”

Da Li walked to him and replied, “Yes, Master!”

“You are in charge of the peripheral defense. Defend the safety of the camping grounds.”

Da Li saluted him. “Yes, Master!”

Nodding his head, Chen Jin climbed onto his ladder back to his bedroom on Earth for some rest.

Chapter 10 - The Skilled Mother

Once again, he slept until 12 pm. His mother created a huge ruckus at the entryway by banging on the door with all her might and shouting more than 10 times. Only then was Chen Jin awakened.

“Ok, I’m up!” In a flash, he jumped up from the bed and quickly opened the door to be faced with her icy expression.

Saturday. Chen Jin immediately realised that today was the weekend. Being a family with both parents working stable jobs, Mom and Dad usually did not have lunch at home on Mondays to Fridays due to work reasons.

Therefore, on Mondays to Fridays Chen Jin could explore the other world to his heart’s content. After which he would return to his bedroom on Earth and just conk out until 5 or 6 pm without any problem at all. However, that was impossible on the weekends as both parents were home. He had to make some effort to play along with them by getting up in the afternoon for lunch.

It was just that he was too tired last night and slept like the dead, thus missing the alarm. He was only startled from his dreams when Mom started banging loudly on the door.

“Son, this is the third time, you really should start controlling yourself.” He Li was not angry. At least, Chen Jin did not hear any trace of anger from her placid tone. However the phrase “the third time” made his heart skip a beat in apprehension. This phrase was too familiar. Each time, it always denoted the beginning of a terrible storm.

He could only give a cautious smile in recompense. “Mom, I will be more cautious in the future; I promise to get up in time for lunch!”

Giving him a dull stare, He Li nodded her head lightly.

…

At the dining table, the family quietly finished their lunch.

“Argh ~!” He Li put down her chopsticks and suddenly gave a heavy sigh.

Chen Jin’s expression changed.

With a serious demeanor, Mom said to Chen Jin, “Son, there’s something that I must tell you.”

Chen Jin hastily perked up. “What’s the matter, Mom? Tell me.” The highlight of the story had arrived!

“Recently, there has been a barrage of news about the collapse of many P2P platforms. Have you heard about it?”

“Um, I seemed to have heard a bit of it.” P2P was a type of internet financing platform that was based on peer-to-peer borrowing. Its purpose was to provide a third-party based borrowing and lending service. There was a high amount of risk involved.

“I’ve been hit by the storm too. A P2P platform that I invested in has also collapsed recently so I can’t withdraw the principal.” Speaking of this, He Li took out a piece of tissue of paper and started crying gently.

Chen Gang’s expression changed as well. Looking at her, he said, “You fell for P2P too? I’ve said that those things are all Ponzi schemes that will go bust sooner or later. How much did you lose?”

Dabbing at her tears as she sobbed, she said, “The unwithdrawn principal amounted to more than $1,000,000 and the service platform has disappeared.”

“More than $1,000,000?” Hardening his gaze, Chen gang slammed the table and pointed at her. “Who can be so lucky? Even if others were ignorant of these P2P schemes, how could you fall for it? How long must we work to save $1,000,000? You’ve ruined it all now!” Chen Gang scolded relentlessly with great rancor.

He Li did not make a sound, and merely continued wiping her tears and aching for the loss of that huge sum of money

“Dad, don’t talk about Mom like that.” Staying his father’s criticisms, Chen Jin asked, “Mom, can you tell me what essentially happened? Exactly which platform did you buy? Have the related legal persons from the platform been kept under control? Was the police involved?”

He Li began, “The platform I invested in was called “Tian Ze Finance” with a fundraising capacity of over $500,000,000. Its CEO has already absconded with the funds overseas. Look at this platform’s app; I can’t log in. My account has been locked too…..” Placing her mobile in front of Chen Jin, he indeed saw a “Tian Ze Finance” app which could not be logged into.

“Oh ~” Suddenly, Chen Jin was hit with a realisation. Nodding his head, he thought this. She came prepared. Mom came prepared this time round.

He did not continue to pursue the matter, only comforting his weeping mother. “Mom, don’t be too upset. We can only admit that we have rotten luck to meet with this kind of incident. As for recovering the losses, we can only see how the police will deal with it after we file a report.”

Slamming the table, Chen Gang said, “Recover the losses? Your Mom was already appointed by others to be the dupe. Recover what peanuts from the losses? This time she’d paid the IQ tax for being stupid.”

“Chen Gang, what do you mean by that? Are you still not done?” He Li immediately retaliated, raising her arched eyebrows.

With embarrassment plain on his face, Chen gang clammed up.

Chen Jin asked from the sidelines, “Then…. Mom, what should we do next? Do we still have any money to spend after such a huge loss?”

“Um ~” Giving a cough, He Li said, “This… We still have some spare cash. It’s enough for our daily needs, but we don’t have any money for extravagances.” Looking shamefaced, she expressed, “Son, you’ll be living a slightly harder life. Mom doesn’t have much money left on me. I can’t help you with any big expenses that you’ll have in the future. Son, it’s all my fault. It’s because of my stupidity that I got cheated and you’ll have to live a hard life with me.” Dabbing at the corners of her eyes, she presented a blubbering, teary image.

This scene was familiar. Chen Jin felt a sense of déjà vu. He remembered his third year of high school at 15 years old. At that time he was at the peak of his teenage rebellious phase. He spent money like water, played games until morning, organised gangs in school, had a love affair, smoked, drank, and almost got mixed up in drugs with some friends. He had done almost every audacious thing that he could. He became a black sheep in school and the most problematic student for the teachers. As such, he was almost expelled a few times.

Until one day after he returned home from school. Mom was crying on the sofa, and Dad was squatting by a corner of the wall smoking in frustration. In the house stood some big burly men wearing suits and dark sunglasses. With a threatening gaze towards Chen Jin, one of the suited men displayed a contract in front of Dad and said, “Sign, or else I’ll cut off your son’s arms and legs!” Dad had no choice but to sign.

Carrying a few simple clothing as they left their home, Mom weeped, “Son, your Dad was gambling and fell for someone’s ploy. Now he owes them $5,000,000! We have no house now and our car is taken away. I have a mere $200 left on me so I can only get the cheapest accommodation.”

Thus, the family of 3 squeezed into an uncompleted room that was only 10 meter square with a monthly rent of $100. The remaining $100 was the money they had as a family of 3 for food for the next month. How did they survive that particular month? The rice that they bought was the cheapest, and the oil that they used could have been sewer oil. Stoves and pots were borrowed from the landlord. There really was not enough money for vegetables. They could only go to the market and pick from a pile of rotten vegetable to find the ones that looked best. All the while they had to endure the odd stares of others.

Whenever he saw an empty mineral water bottle on the roadside, he would unconsciously pick it up and take it to the recycling station for some change so he could buy the cheapest popsicle. Going back to school, Chen Jin felt as if he had fallen to the depths of hell. Friends who he had good relationships with distanced themselves at the same time, as if they could not wait to shun him. His girlfriend slept with another good brother. Some classmates who he had a history with cornered him at the school gates, dragged him into an alley and beat him up. There was no one who would lend a helping hand.

The disdain, ridicule and taunts surrounding him, with some even kicking him when he was down, chilled his entire being. As he fell from Heaven into Hell that month, he experienced what was brotherhood, what was the “nature of love” and what was the “fickleness of human nature.” During that period of time, his rebelliousness, arrogance and sense of superiority disappeared without a trace.

Half a year later, Chen Jin’s family moved out of that cramped and uncompleted room into a 2 bedroom rental with mid-quality finishings. After that, his parents announced that they had cleared their debt and bought a high-end commercial property. They then returned to the life of the past that was rich with physical comforts.

But the person he was now was more mature and sensible. He had learnt how to do household chores to lessen his parents’ burden, understood the importance of learning so his grades were no longer the lowest in class. Most importantly, he learnt how to live humbly. Until one day when he passed by a door that was not fully shut by chance and accidentally overheard the conversation between his parents inside the room.

“Old Chen, do you remember that time when I took our son to the market to pick vegetables? We saw you eating beef noodles in the noodle shop. Our son was pointing at you and saying that he saw Daddy. I insisted, no, that he was hallucinating because he was faint from hunger and quickly pulled him away. We almost lost our cover. Old Chen, you’re not reliable at all.”

“You have the cheek to talk about me. Don’t you frequently buy pig elbows and devour them at home? You wouldn’t give me one even after I asked for it.”

“Scram! I secretly ate the pork elbow while he was away at school, how is it similar to your character?”

“Ah, I actually miss those bittersweet days just a little bit.”

Standing at the door, Chen Jin was totally stupefied. Feeling as if he had lost his soul, he returned to his own room. Ever since that day when he knew the truth, he started his spendthrift ways again.

Whenever He Li thought that his behaviour was “overboard” or when he spent way too much money, similar performances such as “Gambling Debt,””Accidental Money Losses” or “I Fell Victim to A Swindler” would be played out in front of him again. This time was no exception. He Li thought that he stayed inside his room too much. She slightly pressured him by deliberately using financial methods.

Nodding his head, Chen Jin said, “Ok, Mom, I will spend less money in the future. I won’t ask for money from you again.”

Once again blaming herself, He Li said, “Son, it’s my fault that you have to experience a difficult time with me again.”

Chen Jin stood up and said with some impatience, “Mom, You… are really getting more skilled.”

Casting Chen Gang a look, he expressed, “Dad, your act was too exaggerated.”

“Uh huh ~”

“Cough cough ~”

Husband and wife coughed simultaneously with some awkwardness.

Chen Jin had already turned and left to go downstairs.

Chapter 11 - Collecting Rent (Part 1)

The next morning, Chen Jin didn’t explore the other world. Instead, he drove his father’s 500,000 dollar Passat to Downtown 3rd Ring Road, where the Lotus Residential Quarter was. All the other four apartments that Chen Jin’s family owned were in this luxurious residential quarter.

His family owned a total of six apartments, two of which (massive 3-bed, 2-bath apartments that were about 6000 sq ft) were in the Xingfu Tianyuan Residential Quarter outside of 5th Ring Road in Shanghai, which they were currently living in.

The apartment upstairs, 401, was where his parents lived. The one downstairs, 320, was for Chen Jin and his future wife, but since he was done putting up with his father’s nagging, and wanted some privacy, he moved into the apartment anyway after graduation. That apartment belonged to him and to him only.

As for the four apartments in the Lotus Residential Quarter, they were all rented out. It was Sunday, August 18th (Earth time) that day, when the tenants were expected to pay rent. But it was actually the 15th of each month that Chen Jin should be collecting rent. He only went on Sunday the 18th because he knew the tenants would be home and not at work that day.

His main purpose, however, was not to collect the rent, as everyone would simply transfer the money to his Alipay account. He went because he needed to inspect the apartments once a month to make sure they were in good shape. Of course, while he was there, he would also remind the tenants to pay up if they somehow forgot. If by any chance a tenant wanted to surrender a tenancy, he would handle it as well, and post a new ad on the internet about the vacancy and allow inspections for the people that were interested. In short, his mother put him in charge of all four apartments in this residential quarter. In return, he would get half of the rent he collected, which was his primary income.

So, in a way, he was not exactly a “NEET”. He was, after all, working.

…

Lotus Residential Quarter.

The four units that his family owned were all in building 6, which held units 801, 802, 901, and 902, all of which were also huge 5000 sq ft, 3-bed, 2-bath apartments. According to the real estate market, rent for enormous, luxuriously furnished apartments like these usually would land between 1,000-1,500 dollars, even 2,000 dollars per month.

But Chen Jin’s family hadn’t raised the price for their apartments. It was still the same as last year – 880 dollars. He knew the price was much lower than the market price, and had thought about raising it, but his mother told him to wait till the end of the year, as she understood it was hard earning money and having to pay rent at the same time. Chen Jin had been there before, and remembered what scraping by was like. He knew it was not easy for his tenants, so he tried not to cause them any trouble.

…

Unit 801

After entering the room, he immediately frowned at what he saw, even pinched his nose. He picked up his phone… “Hello? Home cleaning services? This is unit 801, building 6 at Lotus Residential Quarter. Please send two of your cleaners here as soon as possible.”

Inside, the smell of rotten fruit wafted out from every room. There were snack wrappers on the floor, take-out leftovers splattered all over the place, and all sorts of trash floating around the apartment. In the corner, there were two trash cans that had some bowls with Master Kong’s instant noodles leftovers that gave the apartment a strong, disgusting smell. The tiled floor had countless stains. It was impossible for anyone to walk on it barefoot. On the couches in both living rooms in the apartment lay six shirtless men that he had never seen before. Their sleeping positions were awfully odd, and some of the men were snoring like a droning machine. On the glass table in the center of the room, there were a few laptops, lots of disposable bamboo skewers, and a large amount of empty beer bottles. And, of course, cords and phone cables were everywhere…

When Chen Jin came to inspect the unit last month, there were only three men lying on the couch. Upset by what he was seeing, Chen Jin pulled away the tenant that opened the door for him, Lee Kai, and said, “Lee Kai, didn’t you tell me last month that these guys would be gone soon? Now, not only did they not leave, but there are more of them!”

“Sir, I…” Not knowing what to tell him, Lee Kai seemed a little embarrassed. “They are all my brothers looking for work in the city. They will move out as soon as they find a job.”

“I don’t care if they can find a job or not. I don’t want to see them here next month. Also…” Chen Jin said in a deep voice, knowing this would be hard for his tenant. “The rent for next month will be 1,000 dollars. Tell the others.”

“WHAT?!” Lee Kai was in shock. The news had distressed him. “1,000 dollars? What’s up with the increase?”

Chen Jin tried really hard to control his anger. “The average price for properties within the 3rd Ring Road area in Shanghai is 1,500 dollars. This apartment cost us at least 1,000 dollars. And you are paying 880 dollars a month trashing it every day. If you think it’s too expensive for you, move out, be my guest. Find somewhere cheaper.” With a stony look on his face, Chen Jin pointed at the door. Being a landlord for the past two years, it wasn’t the rent that he really cared about. It was the apartment itself – if it was in good shape, clean, or if there was any furniture that was broken or out of order. These kind of things were, in fact, much more important than anything else. After all, it was a high-class apartment, and no one would want to see it being turned into a dump.

Lee Kai kept his head down, looking disturbed and anxious. “Got it. I will let them know.” The rent in the city had been increasing like crazy lately. It had at least gone up 20-30%. People had been saying how capitalism was trying to drain the money out of the young generation. Lee Kai believed it to be true, since all his friends in the apartment were there due to the unaffordable rent from their previous landlords. And now, it had happened to him too. There was no escaping the rising rent.

For sure, Lee Kai knew it was the filthy apartment they created that made Chen Jin decide to increase the rent then and there. Lee Kai had reminded his friends many times to clean up after themselves and to keep the place tidy. But all they did after work was play video games and produce more junk. No one cared. No one listened. And now there he was. Being dragged down by his toxic friends. “You guys will have to cover the extra cost,” Lee Kai said in a sad, low voice.

…

Unit 802 was occupied by a family of six. No need to inspect.

In unit 901 lived three couples, two of which were married, and they were all very tidy people. It was not necessary to check on them every month. Chen Jin went last month, so he decided not to go that day.

In unit 902, all the tenants were females and most of them were single. This apartment used to be really dirty, too. (You’d think girls are hygienic. No. They are gross). Chen Jin had to call cleaning services twice a month for this one.

However, ever since Guo Yan, a very tidy tenant, moved in earlier this year, she would help clean the common area every once in a while. Guo Yan had seen Chen Jin call for home cleaning services a few times, so she asked him if she could do the cleaning job, and in return, deduct 50 dollars from her rent.

It cost Chen Jin 30 dollars for each cleaning service. That would be 60 dollars a month. If he let Guo Yan do the job, he could save 10 dollars.

“Sir, feel free to come and check on the apartment. I’m good at cleaning and can do a much better job than the people from home cleaning services,” Guo Yan promised. Indeed. He had checked on it once. It was exceptional. Sparkly clean.

Chen Jin told her in private, “No problem. You can deduct 50 dollars from your rent. But I hope the apartment stays this way.”

“You got it, boss! I promise I will do a thorough cleanup every week.” Guo Yan tucked her hair behind her ear, holding a mop in her hand. The sweat on her forehead had wet her bangs. She gave him a bright smile. She had a shared bedroom, which was 150 dollars per month. Now that she got a 50 dollar discount, she only had to pay 100 dollars. It was an excellent deal in a big city like Shanghai.

Chen Jin got a little distracted by this hardworking, sweet girl in front of him. He reminded her, “Don’t say anything to the other girls. I don’t want any trouble.”

Guo Yan assured him she wouldn’t.

The real reason why he was there in unit 902 was not to inspect the apartment, but to get one of the tenants to pay up. The bedroom on the west side of the unit was occupied by this girl, Song Xue Jia, who hadn’t paid her rent for three months. She had an excuse every time.

But not this time.

Chapter 12 - Collecting Rent (Part 2)

He rang the doorbell a couple of times. The person that answered the door was Guo Yan, who was wearing a blue top and denim shorts. She was about 5’6” tall with a nice figure. Not a goddess but definitely good looking. A solid 7. Having her apron on and a spatula in her hand, Chen Jin knew she was making lunch.

Seeing Chen Jin at the door, she gave him a big smile. “Big Brother Chen! You’re here!” Guo Yan was also 24, but she was two months younger than he was, so she called him Big Brother.

Chen Jin nodded. “May I come in?” he asked, as he looked at the sparkly clean tiled floor in the apartment.

“Yes, come on in, Big Brother Chen.” Guo Yan smiled sweetly as she took out a pair of pink, bunny-eared slippers from the shoe cabinet, and put them on the rug next to him.

Chen Jin didn’t wear them. Instead, he took his shoes off and entered the room with just his socks on.

“Come on, wear the slippers. It’s ok!” Guo Yan said.

He wagged his finger and asked, “Is Song Xuejia home today? I need to speak to her.”

This surprised Guo Yan. “Yes, she is putting on her face mask in her room.” She was confused. Why is he asking for her?

“That’s good.” Chen Jin nodded, and immediately went straight to her room on the west side of the apartment.

The door was open.

On the sling rattan chair by the bedroom window, lay an attractive, busty girl in her green tulle skirt whose arms were white and slender; her legs well-proportioned with perfect, jade-like skin. The white belt on her waist made her waist look even smaller. Her stomach was amazingly flat without any muffin top. What a stunningly beautiful body.

“Mmm Hmmm~” She had her headphones on, humming the music she was listening to. Her voice was like that of an angel’s. As for her face, Chen Jin had seen it before; it was a white, innocent looking doll-face. It was one of those rarely seen, gorgeous faces. She was at least an 8 or 9 out of 10.

But it was also this girl that owed him three month’s rent, which was $900. He must collect the rent today.

Knock knock!

Knocking on the door several times, Chen Jin stood at the door with his arms crossed and said, “Song Xuejia, you owe me three month’s rent, don’t you think it’s about time you paid up?” His voice was loud enough for the other girls in the shared house to hear. Clearly.

Guo Yan, who was preparing lunch in the kitchen, was in shock as she knew Song Xuejia made more than 1,000 dollars every month working as a salesperson for cosmetics. And she’s not paying her rent?

“Hold on, I need 5 more minutes with this seaweed face mask.” Song Xuejia was enormously embarrassed. She had a big ego. Now that everyone in the house knew what was going on, how was she going to face them? Big deal. It’s just rent. Why did he have to say it out loud?

Five minutes later, having washed off the face mask, she put on a cute, smiley face and tried to get Chen Jin to enter her bedroom. “Come chat in my room, Big Brother Landlord,” she said in her coquettish voice.

“No, no. Let’s stay out here.” Chen Jin wagged his finger, turning down her passionate invite to her room.

“Big Brother Landlord, it’s too crowded out here. There’s no privacy,” she said, as she held his arm and took him to her room. Once they got in, she quickly locked the door.

Out of curiosity, her roommates Liu Xiaoxia, Xu Jiaojiao, and Zhao Yajing listened closely through the door.

…

In the bedroom, with his hands behind his back, Chen Jin put on a serious face and said, “Alright, Song Xuejia, are you going to pay your rent or not?”

“Come on, don’t be so harsh on me~” She winked at him, pouting. “Money has been tight lately. Can you give me a few more days?” she said in a cheekily sad manner.

“That is what you told me two months ago, and I agreed. But not this time. No more grace period for you,” Chen Jin said. She gave him no choice.

“My father has been ill. My mother needs a lot of money to cover his medical expenses. I’ve been sending her my money; that’s why it’s been tight for me these days,” she told him, with tears in her eyes.

“If your father is actually ill, you should visit him, rather than lying to my face.” He exposed her lies heartlessly.

“Wow…you have zero sympathy.” Song Xuejia pouted, looking grievously wronged.

“Enough with the acting. Just answer me—are you paying or not?” It was his final demand. She had delayed her rent for three months already. There was nothing else he could do.

“You… ” Song Xuejia stamped her feet and stared at him in disbelief. She didn’t mean to delay her payment. The truth was, three months ago, there was this bag from PRADA that she loved, but it was 2,500 dollars. She wanted that handbag so badly that not only did she spend all her savings, but she also maxed out her credit card. It made her friends and colleagues very jealous.

And now, she had to pay the real price. In order to pay her credit card bill, she used the money for rent to cover it, thinking her landlord was quite a nice guy and would have no problem with it. But not anymore. It was her last chance. However, she had nothing to her name.

Looking at this 5’10” tall, slightly handsome landlord in front of her, she couldn’t help but think about how his family owned more than 5 apartments…

Then she came up with a plan. She started acting like she was some poor girl with no money. She then leaned closer towards him, held his hands, and showed as much cleavage as possible, trying to be flirty with him. “Big Brother Landlord, I am genuinely strapped for cash. Please give me some more time. If…” She bit her lip, seeming to have made a decision on something. “Big Brother… if I must pay today… other than money, you take anything from me to cover the rent I owe you.”

Chen Jin tried to pull his hands away from her as she spoke. But her offer got his attention. “Anything? Like what?”

Song Xuejia blushed a little and murmured, “You know…like going on dates, having candlelit dinners, going to the movies, things like that. It basically means I’ll go out with you.”

“Oh, so it’s just going on dates, having candlelit dinners, and going to the movies? That’s it?” Chen Jin asked out of curiosity, with a smile on his face.

“That’s it. What else do you want to do? Anything more than that would be for couples.” Song Xuejia’s face turned even redder. She knew exactly what he was talking about, but she was not that kind of woman. If she was, would she be struggling for her rent? She would have gotten all the sugar daddies already, even billionaires, with just one little hint. But she was very confident with her looks and believed she would find her prince charming. Never give in!

It wasn’t like she was picky or anything. She could settle for her landlord. He wasn’t the wealthiest man she knew, but he was charming, single, and his family was loaded, which “qualified” her ideal marriage, meaning not only would he love her but support her financially as well. Being the other woman or having an affair with some fat, middle-aged, married men was not her style. She would never do such a thing. From this perspective, her values seemed to make perfect sense. But her plan with Chen Jin was doomed to failure.

“Enough is enough. Here are your options: either you pay your rent now, or I advertise your bedroom for rent on the internet and bring people over for inspection. I’d keep the one month deposit and forget about the two month’s rent you owe me. You just have to move out of here this afternoon,” he said to her with a straight face as he pulled his hands away and took a few steps back from her.

“You…” Having been shamed into anger, Song Xuejia’s body started to shake; her eyes welled up with tears.

Chen Jin kept his straight face, with his arms crossed. He didn’t want to do that, but she gave him no choice.

As he did not relent, Song Xuejia knew her plan was not going to work. “Fine, I will pay my rent,” she said reluctantly, transferring him the money from a loaning app on her phone.

“Thanks.” Chen Jin left the apartment.

Song Xuejia burst out crying on her bed.

Having witnessed the whole thing, her roommates started gossiping, gloating, even, over her trouble. “Who does she think she is? How dare she?”

“I don’t even know what to say. She had no problem buying new clothes, new handbags, or high-end, imported makeup. She borrowed 75 dollars from me a while ago and still hasn’t paid me back. God knows if she ever will.”

“She thinks she’s so pretty that she can do whatever she wants with her looks. Well, not this time. Our landlord would never let her get away with it.”

“Exactly! Just because she’s good looking doesn’t mean she can live here for free.”

“She even tried to seduce him earlier! How manipulative!”

“I have no respect for her.”

Having heard every word the girls were saying, Guo Yan brought a bowl of tomato and egg soup she made from the kitchen, shook her head, and said nothing.

Chapter 13 - The Robot Squad

Rent collecting mission accomplished. Chen Jin started calculating on his phone, as always. “Four apartments, $1,000 each, that’s $4,000. With Song Xue Jia’s delayed rent, that’s $8,000 in total. Cleaning service for unit 801 cost $30; $50 discount for Guo Yan; $50 management fee for each unit, so $200 for all four units. That’s $4,100 in total. So my net income for the month would be…$4,100 minus all the expenses here, $3,800…divided by 2 is $1,900.”

Chen Jin shook his head. For an expensive city like this, making just under $2,000 a month definitely put him in the lower middle class. He probably made even less than a lot of salaried people. With all the amount he had available, he wouldn’t be considered rich. He was one of those people with low incomes. The only difference was that his parents provided food and a place for him to sleep; he had more downtime than others, that’s all. In other words, he was nothing more than an idler with a little cash on hand – he didn’t meet the standards of being a Fuer dai.

To have a better life style and more money to his name, he needed to work harder. Indeed, Chen Jin really was not an ambitious person. Not at all. But who wouldn’t want more money? Having $2,000 in his pocket was nothing – he could spend it all in the blink of an eye. He would have to daydream about all the other things he wanted to buy.

When one is tight on money, he has to choose between the best and the rest, looking for the best value. Can’t take all the good stuff. On the other hand, if one is loaded, he doesn’t have to choose or compare prices. He can simply buy whatever he wants and enjoy his financial freedom.

And for this reason, Chen Jin believed, a rich person would live a happy life. That was something he would love to achieve. So, he set a little goal for himself. “I shall listen to Mr. Wang, the richest man in the country. First, earn my first billion and become financially independent so I won’t have to ask mother for money.”

One billion?

Chen Jin wasn’t sure why he was so certain he could make that kind of money. “I mean I found a planet. It’s just making a billion bucks. How hard could it be?” he murmured to himself, with great confidence.

…

At night, in the other world, at the huge crater camp.

It was still so dusty and hazy that it even created a thick layer of sand at the bottom of the crater. This giant crater would be filled up with sand if the dusty weather continued. But Chen Jin didn’t think that far. In fact, he was hoping for it to carry on and form a 3-meter sand dune, which would be the same height as the portal, so that he wouldn’t have to use his ladder to climb down – he’d have easy access to both worlds, with just a step through the portal.

However, if the sand really piled up and got higher than the portal, he would have a big problem, as the portal would be blocked, and he’d have to shovel all the excess sand. Chen Jin did not want his access to either of the worlds to be effected.

In the meantime, a large amount of robot parts were scattered everywhere on the ground near the camp. There were metal brains, robot arms and legs, some parts and pieces that assembled their torsos, a few pieces for the serpentine belts, several mechanical parts, as well as pieces for control and power….and some plug-in weapon equipment. All of which were still functional after a circuit test. There were more than 100 pieces of them. With these, at least 10 robots like “Da Li” could be assembled.

In less than two days, Da Li had moved all these robot parts from the battlefield 30km away in the Northeast, after Chen Jin gave it the order. Da Li wasn’t a fast robot, but it could carry 200-300kg at a time without any break; it was much more efficient than Chen Jin was. And that was how it completed the mission it was assigned to within two days.

Looking at these parts, Chen Jin took his tool box and asked Da Li to bring them over one by one, starting to work on his assembling project. Yup, Chen Jin had decided to rebuild a few robots, so that they could help him finish all sorts of tasks.

This world was just way too big. Da Li told him that the planet was “Haierfa”, with a diameter of 12,758 kilometers. The surface of the planet, which consisted of six oceans and four continents, was as big as 5.1 billion square meters; the land made up 29% of the entire surface area, while the oceans took 71%…in all aspects, this planet was practically the same as the Earth.

In space, there was also a “Moon” – the closest natural satellite to Haierfa. Forget about the boundless universe – without any help, Chen Jin wouldn’t even be able to complete his exploration on Haierfa. In order to speed up the exploration, he needed some “assistants”. The kind of assistants that he could count on.

Due to the “restart virus”, however, Wawa and Da Li couldn’t be fully trusted. There was still a possibility that they might betray mankind. He could go back to Earth and ask his friends and family to be his “assistants”, but a great benefit like this would actually make them less trustworthy than robots, and would definitely create huge problems. Robots’ betrayal would mean nothing compared to humans’ greed.

Chen Jin had no choice but to put his faith in the robots in front of him, increase their number, and have them work for him. “The restart virus 2.0 had been updated for nearly 30 years, and these robots never turned their back on humans again, which showed that they had been stabilized and wouldn’t evolve again…” After all, the restart virus was designed to end the war and bring peace to the world.

Having come around to the idea, Chen Jin convinced himself that he should be able to count on these bots as he tried to feel better about the situation. He also came up with some precautionary measures for his personal safety; he decided that he would only stay near the huge-crater camp and let the robots do all the researching work, so that he could go back to Earth immediately should any situation occur, and get the relevant departments to handle it. He would not interact with the robots every day – he would leave as soon as he got the money like he originally planned.

No doubt this planet could give him an unimaginable amount of benefits, but between his precious life and all those benefits, he’d choose his life, for sure. He didn’t want to be dead and buried with any penny unspent. Chen Jin’s mind was racing; he had all kinds of thoughts going through his head. But it didn’t slow him down; soon, he had assembled a combat robot exactly like Da Li (without arms and legs). He installed 5 high-efficiency batteries onto its back and pressed the power button.

In no time, a glow of brilliant red with a tinge of orange started to appear in the robot’s eyes. Having seen this “human”, it began to shake intensely, trying to break free from the ropes that tied it. It said, “Kill humans!” in a cold-blooded voice.

Standing next to him, Da Li sent him a time log message, blinking a signal light on its chest. After updating the database, the restart virus 1.0 was then upgraded to 2.0. A clear, soft, blue glow started to emerge as the scarlet one slowly faded away.

With the robot’s greeting, “Hello, my master!”, Chen Jin knew it was no longer a threat, and would become a loyal robot assistant. He named him “Da Qiang”.

“Hello Da Qiang,” he greeted him.

“Hello, my master,” the robot replied.

“From now on, Da Li will be your captain. When I’m not around, you must follow his orders.”

“Yes, master!”

Chen Jin nodded. In the next few hours, he followed his previous steps and repaired three more robots. One of them was also a combat robot like Da Li and Da Qiang. He named it “Da niu”.

The fourth one was somewhat unusual. Its ball-shaped head, where a millimeter wave radar and numerous sensors were installed, was enormous; its eyes were made up of two telephoto SLR cameras; on its arm was a big 20mm sniper rifle. This was a “T85-S scouting sniper robot.” Its job was to investigate and snipe. For a robot with special features like this, Chen Jin named it “Da Tou”.

The fifth one was a medical robot. It was all white, from head to toe. On its waist hung a big white tool box with a red cross on it. There was a welding gun on its left arm, and a laser gun on the right; both were for repairing purposes. Chen Jin named this medical robot “Da Bao”.

The rebuilding work was complete.

Now Chen Jin had five robots – Da Li, Da Qiang, Da Niu, Da Tou, and Da Bao. It was enough to make a fully functional exploration squad. Chen Jin started to assign missions as soon as he finished installing high-efficiency batteries onto each one of them. “Da Li, search areas 100 kilometers within the camp. Report back to me immediately should you find any battlefields, towns, or targets with high value!”

“Yes, master.” Da Li saluted Chen Jin. Da Li led the team away and started to explore.

Clang, clang!

Chapter 14 - An Uncovered City

In the bedroom, Chen Jin expertly turned the computer on, logged into his LOL account, and played a few rounds. Out of the five rounds he played, he won four and lost one. Having remembered that he was three episodes behind on the Japanese anime drama “Overlord”, he finished the games, turned on his 65-inch, 4K TV, turned to the right channel, and lay his back on the bed in great comfort as he watched three episodes in a row.

On his left hand side was snacks and chips. On the right was a fruit platter. Under his head was a Takanashi Rikka print throw pillow. The central air conditioning was running at 26 Celsius. The otaku life he was living was too good to be true.

Suddenly, a potato chip crumb fell out of the bag and landed on the floor next to his bed.

“Clang clang clang~” Having detected a sign of rubbish, Wawa rolled its continuous tracks rapidly from the corner near the door to Chen Jin’s bed to clean up the crumb. With a couple of quick sweeps, using the white cloth wrapped on its robot arm, Wawa brushed the crumb into its “tummy”. Only after it made sure the area was clear did it return to the door, where it would wait on standby.

Chen Jin nodded; he was very satisfied with Wawa’s performance. His robotic vacuum cleaner, Da Mi, which was said to have the ability to clean 98.5% of the trash, used to be in charge of his bedroom hygiene. At first, it was pretty great, just like how it was advertised.

But within a few months, the performance started to slip. Chen Jin had to wash the dust brush and dustpan fairly often; not only that, he also had to mop the place again after the robotic vacuum cleaner finished its job, as it usually missed some corners here and there.

In the end, Chen Jin realized that the areas that he mopped were apparently much cleaner. “I can do a much better job than this robotic vacuum cleaner that cost me more than $300. And they call it high technology? Seriously?” This imperfect cleaner had woken Chen Jin up from all the fantasies he had about high technology products – at least the ones for domestic cleaning. The so-called robotic vacuum cleaner still had a long way to go to replace humans.

Yet, Wawa was definitely the best of the best. It took care of the bedroom so well that the floor was sparkly clean and all the corners were spotless. Even someone with OCD in his bedroom would find no flaw, but excellent comfort. Not one germ could possibly survive in his room. Wawa was far more advanced than the robotic vacuum cleaner ever was.

All Chen Jin had to do was to rinse it and wash off the rust spots; the cleaner Wawa was, the more flawless his bedroom would be. In addition, Wawa also took out the trash and washed the rags. Chen Jin never had to worry a thing. He had a home where the floor would be forever clean.

With Wawa’s exceptional performance, Chen Jin came up with a bold idea. “What if we humans developed a vacuum cleaner just like Wawa on Earth…? This is a humongous market. The middle class families in the country, with just a bit of extra money, would consider getting one. People would be happy to spend their money if I could launch a robotic vacuum cleaner with features similar to Wawa’s, and save all the housewives from sweeping and mopping. Or I could sell it to the home service companies, and help them reduce the numbers of their employees and their personnel costs. Departments of Public Works in many cities might purchase in large quantities to keep their cities clean. Anyways, this would be an enormous market that’s worth thousands of billions of dollars. With a little bit of effort, I could easily make tens of billions per year.”

Chen Jin’s mind was racing with all kinds of ideas on how he would join the robotic vacuum cleaner industry. However, the idea was great, but he didn’t have the technology. The kind that he needed to produce a high intelligence robotic vacuum cleaner. His idea had to wait a while before it could become a reality. But Chen Jin believed that, on the other side of the portal in his bathroom, he would surely find the said technology on Haierfa. After all, to make a robot like Wawa, who was actually a “low-end” one, would only require low-end skills. As long as Chen Jin kept his research going, he would find the information he needed.

Just then, Chen Jin’s thoughts about the planet Haierfa began to emerge and push out the ones he was having. The fun, otaku lifestyle he had on Earth somehow didn’t seem that appealing anymore. There was a mysterious planet waiting for him to unfold all its secrets. Countless treasures were on that planet waiting to be discovered. Which was a lot more intriguing than sitting in his bedroom living the otaku life. And it’d be much more thrilling!

The more he thought about it, the more excited he got; he was on the edge of his seat. Nonetheless, he held back on his excitement, and decided to rest and stay on Earth for a few more days. Da Li the robot and its team could handle all the researching work. If he joined them, which would be fine for short distances, he’d delay their schedule if it was too far. He was, after all, a human, not a robot. He needed to eat, drink, excrete human waste, rest every now and then as he’d get tired, and stay on guard at all times so he wouldn’t put himself in danger. He wouldn’t be as effective as the robots; rather, he’d be a burden upon the team.

Moreover, his parents were here on Earth; the longer he stayed on Haierfa, the more likely they would notice something was not right. Therefore, he decided it was best to not spend more than 10 hours on Haierfa every time he visited. Maximum 20 hours. But even then, how far would he be able to travel for that amount of time? He might as well just stay in the room and give orders as he lie on the bed. Let the robots do their job.

Chen Jin had no choice but to wait patiently for Da Li and the team’s return.

…

Three days later, the Robot team had returned from their journey to the huge-crater camp with very exciting news. “Master, after walking 85 kilometers towards East, we found a North-to-South highway; we then discovered an abandoned city after walking North along the highway for 40 kilometers. Based on the road signs and billboards we saw, we learned that it was the City of Tereese; it was an agricultural city; our database indicated that it was a small-to-medium-sized inland city with a population of 100,000 before the war broke out.” Da Li presented the information they’d collected.

A population of 100,000?

The news surprised Chen Jin enormously. “That is a lot of people. Da Li, did you find anything that I was looking for in the City of Tereese? Like, did you open any safe in the local banks, or did you try and go in any of their jewelry stores?”

Da Li shook his head. “No, master. We did not search the city thoroughly – we only took a look from the outside…. Our batteries wouldn’t have lasted long enough to support us back here.”

“Oh. It was the batteries?” Chen Jin shook his head, seeming a bit upset. He had 126 high efficiency batteries, and 88 of them were fully charged. He would have let Da Li take 10 extra batteries with them had he known there would be such great discovery. The batteries would have provided them enough time to search and bring back some “valuables”.

On the other hand, having found a city meant that he had found a land of treasures. All that was left for him to do was to search the city and dig out more gems.

Chapter 15 - The First Billion

The next morning, after charging the robots with the power sockets at home, Chen Jin sent the team out searching again, along with 88 extra fully charged high-efficiency batteries to increase their battery life.

“Da Li, when you get to the City of Tereese, please keep an eye on the banks there, see if there is any gold or silver in their vaults; the same goes for the valuables in their jewelry stores. Bring some of them back; they could be of use for me,” Chen Jin particularly reminded them.

“Jewelry?” A light green screen started to appear in mid air as two beams shot out from Da Li’s eyes, showing Chen Jin a picture. “Master, did you mean something like these?” It was a picture of a vault full of gold and silver, and jewelry stores with mountains of shiny diamonds.

Chen Jin was almost drooling. Nodding swiftly, he said, “Yes, that is exactly what I need.”

“Yes, master.” Da Li saluted. “We will keep an eye out and search thoroughly.” Then, Da Li and the team scurried away towards the North and were soon out sight.

Chen Jin then went back to his bedroom with great anticipation, waiting anxiously for their return. It was as if he had ants in his pants; he wasn’t even able to play video games or read his comic books – all he could think about was how rich he was going to get overnight. Like five million was just going to fall right into his arms from the sky.

“I wonder how much gold they can find,” he murmured to himself. “If each person owned 10 grams of gold, collecting one ton of gold shouldn’t be a problem in a city that had 100,000 residents. Silver is only worth 50 cents per gram here on Earth, so it’s ok if they don’t find too much of that as they wouldn’t be worth much even if they bring back a ton. As for palladium, platinum, rubies, and jade…these guys are worth a lot of money – I could probably make more than 10 million with just one small bag. It might not be too hard to achieve my 1-billion goal if I take all the valuables in this city that had a population of 100,000, right?”

Chen Jin started pacing back and forth in his bedroom, rubbing his palms together. He even thought about going to Tereese and search for the treasure by himself; however, he quickly dispelled the idea due to the fact that the travel distance would be too long for him to handle. Fortunately, Da Li and the team didn’t keep him waiting for long.

The next day at noon, the robots had returned to the camp. But…

“Where are my tons of gold? Not even hundreds of silver? What about the snakeskin bag filled with rubies and jade? None of the stuff that I asked for is here. How come?” Chen Jin was so frustrated that he didn’t even have the energy to complain. He was not happy with the stuff Da Li brought back – a small gunny bag. The kind of bag that one could fill 10 kilograms of rice in. And it wasn’t even full.

After dumping all that was in the bag out on the sandy ground, Chen Jin saw the following:

A broken mechanical watch – worth a little more than $15.

Eight diamond rings – all of which were not very big.

Five platinum rings.

25 pieces of jewelry with different kinds of materials; there was gold, silver, jade – which weren’t heavy; the best one was the gold bracelet, which weighed a little more than 20 grams.

Chen Jin assumed the most valuable one of all was probably the necklace that was made with 48 spectacular pearls; all of which were perfectly round shaped with a bright, iridescent color – they might be worth more than $2,000.

But the amount was still far from what he originally planned. Chen Jin guessed the total value of what was in front of him – 1 million at most. He couldn’t even achieve the tiny one-billion goal. Having decided to get to the bottom of this, Chen Jin asked, “Da Li, what exactly did you look for in Tereese? Did you not find any local banks? How come these are all you could find?”

“We searched every corner of the city very thoroughly and carefully, including some banks and their vaults, but these were the only profitable ones that we could find.” Da Li explained.

“How is that even possible?” Chen Jin did not believe the robot. “In a city with a population of 100,000 you should be able to find 10 kilograms of gold at least, if not a ton.”

“Master, if you don’t believe me, please take a look at my search history.”

A video clip of the entire searching mission started playing in mid air, as two green beams shot out from Da Li’s eyes. It was from Da Li’s perspective too – he could see every little detail.

Chen Jin watched for a while. Then he told Da Li to fast forward to the vault in a large bank, and paused. The heavy, metal vault was cut in half with a razor gun by the medical robot “Da Bao”. But there was absolutely nothing in there.

Perhaps there wasn’t exactly nothing. Chen Jin saw some wads of useless, floral print paper towels that he considered to be too rough to be used for any purpose. All the hard currencies, such as gold or silver, were gone. The result was the same for the next few banks they found.

All the bracelets, necklaces, rings, and whatnot, also vanished from the glass display cases in jewelry stores on the high street. As for the residential areas, they searched more than 10 houses and still found nothing in their empty safes – not even a roll of paper towels.

Based on the search results, Chen Jin concluded that the residents in this city must have fled with all their valuables after the war broke out, leaving no chance for anyone who wished to steal.

All the stores on the high street – jewelry stores, watch stores, clothing stores, and grocery stores, had signs of being broken in; the City of Tereese was apparently in chaos during the war; criminals must have taken the opportunity and stolen all the expensive products.

They just didn’t do a very good job, leaving a little over 100 mechanical watches, 10 diamond and platinum rings, and more than 20 pieces of jewelry. Da Li and the team were lucky to find the rest so they didn’t have to return to camp empty-handed.

“The value of jewelry remains even if it’s the apocalypse. How could people just toss them away?” Chen Jin said with frustration.

Money is liquid assets; evidently, most of the valuables in the city had gone somewhere else. My tiny one-billion goal will not be easy to achieve for sure. Luckily, the bag that the robots brought back definitely had some value; I can surely sell them and make at least a million, and it will be my “first bucket of gold”. Besides, Da Li and the team only searched a part of the city; there are many other places that have yet to be investigated. I still have hope.

Moreover, Chen Jin found an alternative “in person”. Or rather, “with his own eyes”. Even though he was not in the City of Tereese personally, through Da Li’s search history, he noticed that there were quite a few vehicles on the streets. There were cars, big trucks, buses, various construction vehicles, even some agricultural machinery. There were at least thousands of them; he saw them everywhere in the city.

Without any hesitation, he said to Da Li, “Da Li, after your batteries have been fully charged, find me a vehicle from the city – not the ones that are out of order; find one that can be easily repaired.”

“Yes, master.”

Chen Jin then picked up all the watches, diamond rings, and jewelry that were scattered all over the ground, put them back into the bag, and went back to his bedroom.

Chapter 16 - Fixing A Car

What am I going to do with it? The sight of this gunny bag full of valuables troubled Chen Jin greatly. How do I make money with these bad boys?

In fact, apart from some gold jewelry, five platinum rings, and the pearl necklace, nothing else would be easy to sell or worth anything. Things like mechanical watches or diamond rings belonged to the extravagance category—they are not easy to sell and the value goes down really quickly. Especially diamonds, they are usually overpriced. If you’re in the market, you’d know that a diamond smaller than one carat could cost you a few thousand, even 10 thousand dollars; the price goes up to $100, 000 for just a slightly bigger one, and the salesperson would even promise you that diamonds are just like gold—not only do they hold value, but they may be worth much more in the future.

But that’s not true. The truth is that—if you have done this before—most of the jewelry stores don’t accept returns, and even if they do, you would only get a small portion of your money back. It could be as low as 30-40% of what you’ve paid. Far from what gold is worth. The myth about how “diamonds hold value” is such a big joke.

Therefore, Chen Jin probably wasn’t going to sell much for the diamond rings he had; instead, he should give them away as gifts. He could “show” the diamond’s value that way. Mechanical watches don’t hold much value, either. People can see the time on various screens nowadays; apart from a few upper class people, who needs a mechanical watch that only serves the purpose of making you look cool?

All the watches he had—more than 100 of them—were made of titanium alloy, with black carbon fiber at the back. The material was waterproof and shockproof, coated with fluoropolymer so it’d be easier to see during night time. There were 12 scales with both minute hand and second hand. They should look charming with the dirt on the surface rinsed off—he might be able to sell them for over $1,000 each. Very ergonomic and they fit well on the wrist.

…

In the city, at Fu Gui Pawnshop.

“The material is ok, and the design is pretty average. I’ve never heard of this brand—it’s probably one of those knock-offs, yeah? I’ll give you $45 each. Take it or leave it,” said the middle-aged appraiser, as he adjusted his reading glasses on the nose.

“What the heck? $45?” Chen Jin was in great shock. Is he for real?

“Yes, $45. Take it or leave it.” The appraiser started to show his true colors of being a profiteer.

“No way! Give them back!” Chen Jin was furious. $45? They are from the another world!

“Go ahead, young man. Try somewhere else. I’ll eat my hat if you can sell them for more than $30 each,” the middle-aged appraiser said sarcastically, and handed back the watches without any hesitation.

Chen Jin turned around and left, without even looking back.

…

In the evening, at home, Chen Jin had sold everything he could in his bag. The gold rings, gold bracelets, and gold necklaces. There were seven of them, with a total weight of 55 grams. He sold them for $2,200. Five platinum rings weighed 13.5 grams. For these ones, he made $700.

After some serious thinking, Chen Jin sold five diamond rings that weren’t as good as the other three. He sold them for about $370 each, and made a total of $1,850 profit.

None of the mechanical watches were sold—the man was right…no one was willing to pay more than $30. Chen Jin kept the pearl necklace—the most expensive one. His parents’ 25th wedding anniversary was coming soon; they’d planned to go to a studio and take some wedding pictures. Chen Jin decided to give his mother a “surprise”.

Meaning… After all the research conducted in the other world, he had gotten his “first pot of gold”, which had a total amount of… $4,750.

Damn it…

Chen Jin was annoyingly upset. This project took him nearly a month, and the research he carried out in the other world only got him $4,750? His getting-rich-overnight fantasy had fallen apart into little pieces. He didn’t even make his first pot of gold. It was more like the average income a salaried person would make per month.

“Believe it or not, I can spend every penny of this in ten minutes. It’s easy to become poor, but it’s still a long way to go to get rich,” Chen Jin said, shaking his head with a big sigh. He had no choice but to calm himself down and try again, as he still had plenty of time.

…

The other world on Haierfa, about 2 days later.

Finally, Da Li the robot and the team had returned from searching the city. And just as Chen Jin requested—they brought back a “small car”. The five robots pushed, sometimes carried the car on their shoulders, working with one another to bring the car back. Upon arrival, every robot hit the low battery warning level, so they went straight to the charging pile, which Chen Jin brought from Earth and had modified with five extra outlets. A single line could run 1000 watts and charge the batteries of up to five robots simultaneously.

The cables for high-efficiency battery chargers also extended from the charging pile; it could run 5000 watts each and charge up to 10 high-efficiency batteries all at the same time. In short, Chen Jin had spent more than $1,000 on the entire charging equipment.

Now, back to the “small car” the team had brought back. From the front, the car looked somewhat boxy; from the side, it looked like the cross-section of a bullet. The car had two doors and four wheels with a low, flat, yet streamlined body shell; there was a picture of an angel printed on the trunk in the back, and some pebble-shaped lights installed in the front and at the back. Overall, the vehicle seemed to have been designed with the theory of fluid mechanics; the beauty of industrial design could be seen from every part of the car.

After scraping the thick layer of dirt off the car, Chen Jin brought some brushes and car wash soap, and extended a water pipe from his bathroom for the robots to wash the car. Having been cleaned at least five times, the vehicle now looked newer than ever. It had the color of a sapphire, which Chen Jin absolutely loved. “The super sports car we have on Earth like Maserati or Bugatti Veyron are probably nothing compared to this baby.”

But…it was not a fancy car of any sort. It was just a very common car in this world. At least Chen Jin could see cars like this everywhere on the street in Tereese City. It was an electric car with a battery slot that could install 10 pieces of large 10-kilo high-efficiency batteries on the chassis. The total weight of the car was no more than 1.5 tons. It even had an electric motor that could produce up to 5000 kilowatts, which would be the equivalent of 680 horsepower. Without a doubt, this car was extremely powerful and had excellent endurance.

However, he still had to wait a while before he could drive it. Due to being exposed to sun and wind over a long period of time, all four of the rubber tires were badly damaged! The oil and lube for power transmission system, braking system, and the electric motor in the engine had gotten too old to be used again, and most of it had run off over time. He had to wash those devices and replace the oil and lubricant with new ones.

Therefore, Chen Jin spent the next few days busily fixing this “Blue Angel”, the name he gave to the car. First, he bought three pairs of tires that had a diameter of 70cm, and asked Da Bao to trim off 2mm of the rims so they could fit right in the tires. Next, after he bought seven or eight buckets of oil and lube, he poured it on the cleaned braking system, transmission system, and electric motor. Then, he tried to turn the car over and start it again.

“V-V-V-VROOM~”

The Blue Angel had been turned over successfully and was now drivable, but there were still some minor problems. For example, two out of the four lights were broken; they had to be replaced, and there were some abnormal noises coming from the engine. The genuine leather seats needed to be changed as well, considering the leather was seriously damaged, and gave an unpleasantly strong, pungent smell.

Chen Jin had no choice but to teach himself about auto repairs and visit the auto parts marketplace; he bought some parts to replace the old ones in the car after filtering all the other unwanted parts very carefully.

Two days later.

Now that he had fixed all the malfunctions the Blue Angel had, he was finally able to drive the car without any problems.

The driving experience must be much, much better than dad’s Passat.

He drove the car around the bottom of the huge crater; he was driving easily 220 kilometers per hour. It was so fast that he felt like he was drifting in mid air.

But he had to pay a significant price for it, too. He had spent nearly $6,000 on repairing Blue Angel! Not only did he spend his last penny, but he even borrowed money from a friend. Looking at his wallet and the available amount in his Alipay account, Chen Jin was enormously stunned. “I never knew being into cars was such an expensive hobby to have. And I was only fixing one!” Chen Jin murmured to himself. “And I thought nothing would cost you more money than ACG.”

He was too young, Chen Jin realized, and there was still lot for him to learn about this world.

Chapter 17 - Wedding Anniversary

August 28th.

The sun was out, and the sky was clear. It was Chen Jin’s parents’ 25th wedding anniversary. A very special day. The anniversary for a marriage of 50 years was a “Golden Wedding,” so 25 years was half a Golden Wedding.

His Father, Chen Gang, had given a lot of thought to it; he took a day off to spend this extraordinary day with his wife, He Li, to do a wedding photo-shoot. When they got married 25 years ago, the economic development in the country had been pretty average; people were generally not very wealthy. It was this city, Shanghai, that had the best economy. There weren’t too many newlyweds that had the extra money to spend on a wedding photo-shoot then. At most, they would take one indoor picture.

But now, it was the new era, and life had gotten much better—all kinds of wedding photo companies were everywhere. But they were not young anymore. To make up for lost opportunity, Chen Gang suggested that they take some wedding photos to remember the good times they shared. He thought He Li would be really happy and agree with his proposal with excitement.

But surprisingly, He Li turned him down cruelly.

He Li sneered at him. “Ha, wedding pictures? If it weren’t for our son, do you think I would have stayed with you for 25 years? I’d have divorced you already. Do you actually think I still love you?”

“Honey, it’s been 25 years. How is this still on your mind? I’ve already forgotten about her. Can you just leave that behind?” Chen Gang said, seeming very awkward, with cold sweat on his forehead.

“Oh, please. Just because you’re forgetful doesn’t mean I am too. I will never forget how unfaithful you were to me!” He Li gnashed her teeth, seeming very resentful.

“Well…” Chen Gang shook his head. He had absolutely no idea He Li was still holding a grudge against him about the affair he had when he was young. They had almost gotten a divorce. Of course he knew he had crossed the line; he acknowledged the mistake, admitted that he was wrong, and had done everything in his power to be a good father and a good husband for the family. However…it’d been 25 years, and He Li still hadn’t forgiven him for what he had done. She took away her love for him and gave it all to their son.

Listening to the way she talked to him, and seeing how indifferent she was about the wedding pictures, Chen Gang’s heart sank to his stomach. “Honey, so…we’re not going to do the photo-shoot then? I’ve already paid $1,200 for the down payment,” Chen Gang said in a quiet voice. At first, he thought He Li would love the surprise, but now, he was more worried if he could get his deposit back.

“Of course we are. But it’ll be just me and my son. You’ll just stand there and watch.” As a woman, why wouldn’t she want to take wedding photos? She was just mad at a certain person and didn’t want to be in the pictures with him.

“Ok, sure, sure.” Chen Gang’s face started to beam with delight, and he hurried to make some arrangements.

…

The morning of the 28th.

At the photo-shoot site at the Bund in Pudong, the site was by the beach; everything was very scenic. There was the ocean, the beach, even a private yacht. The Chen family had come here for the photo-shoot. With the help of the makeup artist, He Li had her makeup done and put on a white wedding dress. Her hands were on the sides of the dress, with the hemline so long that it touched the ground.

“Wow, Mom. You are beautiful. The most beautiful mother in the world.” Chen Jin, who had now changed into his well-pressed suit, gave his mother the compliments she deserved, looking very smart and happy.

In fact, He Li had turned 50 this year. Even with all the efforts she’d put in to take care of her skin, she still looked like she was in her 40s. Her figure had turned saggy and floppy; her skin was dull with wrinkles and crow’s feet around her eyes. But what was the most attractive about her was her maturity and intellectuality; they made her extremely approachable, but with a distance, as if she kept a dignified silence. And it was that kind of unique elegance that made He Li – a woman that had average looks – so appealing.

As Chen Jin called it, “a Queen.” This kind of charisma was also the result of having worked at the Tax Bureau for over 10 years.

After being dolled up by the makeup artist, his mother now looked like she was back in her 30s, even 20s; very beautiful, indeed.

“Look at you, cheeky monkey, you know the right words to say to make me happy.” She pointed at his head and couldn’t stop smiling. It always made her happy whenever Chen Jin tried to butter her up.

“Mom, I’m telling you the truth. If I ever find a wife, she must be like you. If I can’t find anyone like you, then I’ll stay single forever,” Chen Jin said, looking all innocent. He just buttered her up again.

“Like me? Sure, I’ll set you up on a blind date tomorrow.” He Li smiled.

“Let’s do it. But only if she’s just like you.”

…

“SMILE.”

“Another one.”

“Three, two, one… Done!”

The photographer used his SLR camera to take several sets of pictures from various angles of the family as he squatted down. All of which included pictures of just He Li and Chen Gang.

But it was just a few; soon after they took their pictures, He Li pushed him aside and asked Chen Jin to join her. “Go away! I want to take more photos with my son.”

And just like that, Chen Jin listened to his Mom, changed into some more suits, and took 10 more sets of pictures, as his Dad, Chen Gang, watched and joined them once in a while for family photos.

Being exhausted from the photoshoot, Chen Jin looked at his Dad, who was standing not too far away, and said, “Mom, why don’t you take some more with Dad? Today is about the two of you.”

He Li suddenly looked all disgusted as she held onto his arm and forced her smile at the camera. “Your Dad is old and ugly. He’ll make me look bad. I’m not taking pictures with him.”

Chen Jin gave a wry grin. “Mom, Dad is really good-looking. You two look very cute together.”

“Tell him to get lost. My son is the most handsome guy in the whole universe. I’m not taking pictures with him!” He Li said, as she looked at her young son from the side; realizing he somehow looked like her husband when he was young, she couldn’t help but lay her head on his shoulder.

“Fine~” Chen Jin didn’t know what to say. The truth was, the young Chen Gang, his Dad, was way more good-looking than he was. Even at the age of 50, he was still the more handsome one among the middle-aged men. He didn’t look so bad at all after some clean-up and putting his suit on.

Chen Jin himself, on the other hand, got the “not-so-pretty” genes from his Mom. His hand was so sore from holding his Mom’s hand for a long time, but she wouldn’t let go.

…

After the photo-shoot, later that evening, Chen Gang did some grocery shopping and, with some help form Chen Jin, made a table full of delicious food for the family. After dinner, Chen Jin took out the “presents” that he’d prepared.

“Mom, this is for you. I hope you like it.” Chen Jin handed his Mom an exquisite box wrapped with silk and said, “Mom, why don’t you open it?”

Then, he reached into the pocket on his shirt and casually took something out of it. “Dad, this is for you.”

“Oh my! It’s gorgeous!” He Li screamed with excitement, and her eyes glowed as she opened the box. She took out the pearl necklace carefully and put it around her neck. “Son, how much did it cost you? Where did you buy it?” He Li asked after she took a look at herself in the mirror.

“Do you like it, Mom?” Chen Jin smiled.

“I love it. I really do.” He Li couldn’t keep her hands off the pearls. “Son, it must have cost you a fortune,” she said, looking up from the necklace.

“It wasn’t much. I’m glad you like it, Mom.”

“Honey, the necklace looks great on you,” Chen Gang said, as he looked at her with admiration. With the pearl necklace, he thought his wife looked more graceful and splendid than ever.

Then, with great anticipation, he looked at the gift his son gave him – a watch.

It can’t be worse than my wife’s pearl necklace, can it? Chen Gang thought as he looked at the watch in his hands very closely. The watch seemed pretty average; nothing special with the design. It was made with solid materials – the back case was made of carbon fiber, with a tungsten-alloy-made watch band. Perhaps this is a brand-name watch from Cartier, Rolex, or Armani? Chen Gang’s attention had now moved on to the back of the watch. He then saw four letters – “WIKA.” What is this brand? WIKA? I have never heard of this brand.

Suddenly, a guess flashed through his mind. It’s a “knockoff.” A domestic knockoff? No packaging, weird brand name, exceptional workmanship but nothing unique about it. If it’s not a knockoff, what is it?

Chen Gang glanced at his son next to him. Then he looked at his wife, whose face was glowing with happiness.

“What’s up with this unfair treatment?” he said in a low voice, forcing a smile.

She’s his mother; I’m his father. Is that really necessary?

But he did not say anything to Chen Jin; instead, he accepted the gift in a dignified manner, and said, “Very well. I really like this watch.”

Ever since Chen Jin was a boy, he had hardly ever given his father any gift. So even if this was some cheap knockoff, Chen Gang still cherished it very much, because his son had, after all, made an effort to find a gift for him.

Chapter 18 - A Crazy Electricity Bill

The day of the 29th, both of his parents were at work and he was home alone. He’d locked his bedroom door and left for Hairefa through the portal in his bathroom.

In the huge crater, the camp had turned into a pretty large-scale one. There was a tent for storage, a temporary ammo storeroom, a batch of various robot parts, and 285 high efficiency batteries. Da Li and the other robots had collected some more high efficiency batteries from the battlefield recently.

The number of the research team had also grown from one to two teams now. The robots, too, had now increased from five to 10. As for the names of the new robots… Chen Jin got lazy and decided to just give them each a code – he called the captain “02”, and the team members 0201, 0202, 0203, 0204… If there were more robots, the same naming method would also apply to them.

And finally, the Blue Angel that was parked next to the charging pile…it had been charging for the past 2 days. It had been 48 hours. Chen Jin took a look at the energy bar on the dashboard – there was still 32% left before the car was fully charged!

“The charging cord could run up to 5000 watts; it has already used 240kWh, but still needs 100 more? What…”

These high efficiency batteries are just like bugs… Chen Jin sighed. What if I introduced the manufacturing technology for these batteries to the people on Earth? It would be pretty easy to make billions of dollars that way, wouldn’t it? And become the wealthiest man in the world.

Chen Jin shook his head.

The most valuable thing on Haierfa is actually the much more advanced technology that humans lack on Earth. Technology is the primary production. Having leading technology means owning a gold mine – it’s way better than owning a piece of gold, and brings you more profits, too. Technology is a kind of information carrier; it’s not something you can see. It won’t be easy to find. I will have to keep searching until I discover everything on Haierfa.

Chen Jin muttered to himself as he stared at Blue Angel. Therefore, he hoped to take advantage of the local transportation to speed up his research on the planet. Chen Jin had then decided to take Blue Angel – once the battery had been fully charged – to explore the City of Tereese himself and see if he could find anything good.

All of a sudden, the charging signal light on the dashboard went out – the charging had stopped. The charging device next to the charging pile started making a “WONG WONG” sound as it stopped working as well. The energy-saving light hanging on a tripod in the middle of the camp also went out without warning.

“What is going on? Why has the power gone out?” Chen Jin was very confused. Is the same thing happening on Earth too? He hurried back to the apartment and went to the hallway; having taken a careful look at the main power switch, Chen Jin realized that all the electricity meters in the building were working fine except the one for his apartment.

He could still turn on the lights in the hallway. Which meant the power outage didn’t happen in other areas! It was only in his apartment. Chen Jin checked the circuit again, making sure there was no short circuit. It was functioning normally! There was only one possibility left – he didn’t pay the bills.

Chen Jin took out his phone and logged onto Alipay; he clicked on Online Bills Payment on the homepage to check the amount so he could get the money ready.

Current amount of your arrears: $1373.00

“WHAT?!” The number shocked him enormously. “I’ve been using more than 9000 watts of electricity over the past month? How is that even possible?” Even if he was home alone with AC on all summer, he’d still only have to pay $60-$70 every month for electricity.

But 9000 watts? How did it get so crazy?

Come to think of it, Da Li and the robots were large consumers of electricity, and the high efficiency batteries by the charging pile had been charging for a long time… According to the tiered pricing for electricity in Shanghai City, if one exceeded 400 watts per month, he had to pay 15 cents for each exceeding watt. The monthly cycle ended on the 15th, and if the payment was delayed for more than 10 days, they would notify you via a phone call first before they cut off your electricity. Chen Jin didn’t receive any phone call; he had absolutely no idea that he owed this much money.

But it wasn’t too hard to have the power back – all he had to do was to pay the bills and the electricity would be back on in five minutes.

The problem was…

“1373 dollars? Where am I going to get that kind of money?”

Chen Jin had gone bankrupt; he was a total pauper and still owed his friend 740 bucks. With a mirthless smile, he had no choice but to call his Mom, hoping she’d lend him some money to take the heat off of him.

“Son, you said you needed to borrow $1500 and will pay me back next month?” He Li asked on the phone.

“Yes, Mom. It’s really urgent. But I will definitely pay you back next month.”

“Son, you must have spent all your savings on that pearl necklace, huh? Tell me, how much did it really cost you?”

He Li had done some research on Baidu, and found out that the market price for the necklace her son gave her was at least $7,400!

“It wasn’t too much. Mom, please send me $1,500. It’s an emergency. I will pay you back next month!”

“No problem. I’ll do it right now!”

Within seconds, Chen Jin received a notification from Alipay: You have received $7,400 from your Mother…..

“Mom, $7,400 is too much. I just need $1,500!” Chen Jin was a bit surprised.

“No problem. But I didn’t give you all that money for nothing. I have a little request.”

“What kind of request?”

“I’ve found you a nice lady. Spend some time with her this weekend, get to know her. Hopefully you will get the chemistry going…”

“A blind date? Mom, I don’t want to get married yet. I’m not going.”

“Come on, show me some respect. I’ve already talked her into it and she’s agreed to meet you, too. My good boy, don’t make me look bad, ok?” Ever since He Li received the pearl necklace from her son, she realized he’d grown up and understood the importance of being a good son. She’d decided to strike while the iron was hot and make him start a family as soon as possible, so that he would become more independent and mature – and she would have some grandchildren, too.

“Alright, Mom, you have my word.” Chen Jin nodded helplessly. Of course Mom was going to give me an additional condition with that $7,400.

“Ok. Thanks, son.” He Li smiled with her squinty eyes.

Meanwhile, a girl in her tax collector uniform walked into the office with a pile of documents in her arms. She was tall, easy on the eyes, and had a long ponytail at the back of her head; there was an elegant yet capable vibe about her. She put the documents on the desk, and said to He Li in her clear voice, “Director He, these are the papers you requested. I’ve sorted them out for you.” She gently moved them to He Li’s sight.

He Li sized her up as she put down her phone and nodded with great satisfaction. She smiled at this assistant and asked, “Little Su, you’re 25 this year, right? Seeing anyone?”

Su Yun blushed and lowered her head. “Director, I’ve never been in love before.” Her faced had turned so red that it started to burn a little. To others, she seemed to be a distant, stone-cold fox, but with her supervisor He Li, she was like an innocent little girl who had her guard down and let He Li see all her secrets. She didn’t mind it; in fact, she enjoyed spending time with a supervisor like her. She was always full of energy and ready to work whenever she came to the office.

Naturally, He Li liked this assistant a lot, too; everything about Su Yun just seemed right for her. Now that she’d learned this beauty was still single, He Li couldn’t help but ask, “NO WAY! Who would have thought? The most beautiful girl in our department is still single? Don’t worry, Little Su. I’ve got this. I’ll find you someone nice.”

“Director… I’m too young still.” Su Yun mumbled as she pinched her jade-like fingers.

“Hahahahaha!” He Li couldn’t help but laugh

Chapter 19 - Raiding the City of Tereese

Make money. I must make money. I must accomplish the small goal of making 15 million dollars. As soon as possible. No time to waste.

For the first time, after living at home with his parents for two years, Chen Jin felt his strong desire and motivation to make money. The cost of electricity alone for searching Haierfa made him realize how much he needed money.

There will always be costs, no matter what business.

He’d found a planet, yes, but if he wanted to benefit greatly from Haierfa, he would have to invest in it first. For just electricity, the bill for the month was almost $1,500. It was only going to get more expensive from there. And there were other expenditures too…

With all the previous expenses, Chen Jin estimated, even a $15,000 investment for each month wouldn’t be enough to search Haierfa. As for the income he’d made, well, he’d only earned roughly $4,500 so far. Therefore, in order to obtain profits, Chen Jin had to come up with a solution that would not only cut down on the expenses but also increase his earnings.

“I’m really using too much electricity…the maximum output power for domestic electrical circuits is 30 kilowatts, and I pretty much use all of it. This will cost me at least $1,500 a month…This ridiculous power consumption is going to raise a flag. The Department of Energy will come to check on me. Risky. Plus, the number of my robot squads will continue to grow, and there will be more repair work too for all sorts of electrical devices – 30 kilowatts a month for sure isn’t going to cut it. The time to build an independent power generating system in the other world is upon us.”

For instance, a wind turbine, or a mini diesel generator; they could both provide more electricity. Solar power would not be a good idea, as the amount of electricity it generates would be very little; besides, the sky was always covered in sand clouds, there wouldn’t be enough sunlight, and Chen Jin certainly would not have the time to clean all the dusty panels.

He could get the robots to do some cleaning, but then the solar power generated from those panels wouldn’t be enough to cover the amount of power robots lost from all the dusting; there wouldn’t be enough electricity to charge them. And he had to put Earth into consideration, too. Flammables like diesel and gasoline wouldn’t be easy to purchase.

It seemed like building a wind turbine system was his only option….Which would cost him a fortune. To make things worse, he was living on the rents he collected – $1,500 a month. It would never be enough.

“So…..needless to say, I must make a lot of money.”

…

The next morning, after the Blue Angel was fully charged, Chen Jin drove Da Li, Da Tou, and Da Bao on a bumpy road into the vast desert. It was bumpy the whole way there. According to the 3D navigation projected from Da Li, they needed to drive more than 100 kilometers towards the Northeast to get to the City of Tereese.

Two hours later, from the driver’s seat, Chen Jin could see the end of the abandoned roads; suddenly, there was a bunch of bulges with uneven, strange shapes in the far end of the overcast, flat field. There were rectangles, triangles, shell shapes, obelisks, etc. With all the shapes lining up, it was as if they were human shadows standing next to each other; under the dusky, yellow sky in this sand-covered city, they looked like an island in the middle of an ocean.

The City of Tereese, here we are.

…

They parked the car outside the city. One human and three robots; each carried a snakeskin bag, walking towards the city center. Chen Jin gazed around with tremendous excitement. On the main street in the city, a tall office building with at least 20 floors caught his attention.

“A high-rise like this in Shanghai City would probably be worth at least $150 million, right? Well, it’s mine now. And the one next to it. And that huge shopping mall to the right over there, too. One $150 million after another.”

Then they walked a few hundred meters more. He saw a district with more than 20 luxurious residential buildings. Chen Jin stared at it, took a minute to let it all sink in, and said to himself, “In the real estate market, 10 square feet would cost at least $7,000. For a commercial house as big as 1,000 square feet, the price could be as high as $700,000…There are at least 7-800 apartments in this district, if not 1,000, and that number times $700,000, well, this area is worth 3 to 4 billion dollars. And I will be ‘the King of Houses’ with countless properties. Much cooler than freakin’ John Malone. I could get super rich with just these houses here.”

Chen Jin knew he was never going to sell any of them, but he just enjoyed the thought of it. Even though he had only $6,000 to his name, he felt like he was the wealthiest man in the world. There was no way he could move those houses, let alone take them back to Earth with him. He could only daydream about it.

Cars, trucks, and heavy-duty vehicles that were worth as much as those million-dollar luxurious cars on Earth were everywhere on the streets, too. He couldn’t bring them back to Earth whatsoever, but he could drive them on Haierfa.

Chen Jin had also seen numerous high-tech products. Things like TV’s with laser projectors, smart glasses for augmented reality, personal computers with the 8th generation graphene CPU, foldable phones with airplay features, and various intelligent robots, could all be found effortlessly in the City of Tereese.

He even found a super calculator that managed the whole city in the City Hall. Da Li told him that the calculating speed of this super calculator was 100 billion times per second, which was five times faster than that of the speed of the fastest super calculator called “Summit” on Earth.

He’d really love to take all these high technology items back to Earth, but… They were much too advanced for the society; bringing them back was like bringing a knife to a primitive tribe that only knew about wood sticks – there would be consequences. It would increase the chances of this planet being exposed to public. So he would try not to take any of the high-tech stuff.

Also, Chen Jin found a lot of ancient calligraphies in a local museum, which he believed to have great artistic values. Among all the paintings there were some oil paintings; even an amateur like Chen Jin knew how good they were. They should sell for a good price.

But the history background on Haierfa was a little different from that of the Earth’s. During the Han Dynasty, there was a man named “Wang Mang” who usurped the throne and changed the history completely. He then built Xin Dynasty, an extremely powerful one that lasted as long as 500 years, which would later reshape the entire history ultimately.

The names of all those literary authors and artists on Haierfa were very different from the ones on Earth; no matter how valuable they may be, they still wouldn’t be worth much because they were just totally unheard of. Therefore, due to the butterfly effect, even Chen Jin’s own country would not acknowledge items like these ancient calligraphies, let alone the Western countries. He might not even be able to sell just one piece of art.

After all the calculating and contemplating Chen Jin had done, all that was left to take with him back to Earth were: gold, platinum, iron, rubies, jade, and agate. All the other ones were either worthless, or not easy to carry. The problem was, the people of Tereese had already taken all the valuables with them before the war broke out; there really wasn’t much left for Chen Jin to take.

The research lasted seven days; Chen Jin sent both robot squads to search the city inside and out, completely and thoroughly. And here’s what he’d found:

Gold and gold jewelry, with a total weight of 1,415 grams, worth roughly $30k; Silver and silver products, weighed 28.6 kilograms, worth about $7k; and 155 pieces of platinum jewelry and 173 iron adornments worth at least $70k. There were also 359 pieces of all sorts of rubies and jades, but Chen Jin was no appraiser, he couldn’t tell how much they were worth. In addition, he’d found more than 1,000 watches, but he took only 50 of those that were either studded with gold, diamond, or ruby.

Among them all, there was one that had not only diamond studs, but also a giant, all natural blue ruby as big as a pigeon egg. It was lavishly gorgeous and could definitely sell for a great price.

Apart from all that, Chen Jin had also taken 53 ancient calligraphies. He didn’t even know why he took them. Probably because they looked nice. Finally, there were all kinds of random stuff. He’d also found more than 100 pairs of shoes, clothes, and bags for both men and women from the storage room in a high-end clothing store, and more than 20 bags of different sorts.

“These clothes and bags are so much nicer; they make you look more stylish too. The people here had a much better grasp for fashion than the people on Earth do. Some of the clothes seem a bit non-mainstream when you put them on, but at least I won’t ever have to buy any more clothes! I have a life supply of clothes, bags, and shoes.”

Especially bags. Back when I was in college, I bought a couple of low-end bags for my girlfriend at the time, which cost me a $600. She wasn’t too happy about it and thought they were humiliating. She tossed them away after a few days…it was my allowance for the month and my video game recharge.

Then they broke up. Actually, Chen Jin broke up with her. He felt nothing but free and relieved. No one would ever make any plans with his game recharge money anymore. But he was no longer scared of relationships now that he had everything he wanted. Clothes, shoes, bags, diamonds…you name it. He could even build a palace for all his girlfriends if he wanted to. However, Chen Jin was tired of having a girlfriend. It was better to be single.

“Let’s go. We’ve searched all the houses here. There’s really nothing else that’s worth taking back to Earth…This time, I should be able to make $150,000 with these.”

Having finished searching the city, Chen Jin returned to the huge crater camp.

Chapter 20 - Blind Date

At the huge-crater camp, next to the storage tent, all the items he took from the City of Tereese were put together, and formed a cone-shaped pile of jewelry that had a diameter of more than one meter. All of which included gold, diamonds, platinum, iron, rubies, jades, and watches… They sparkled with brightness so intense that it almost blinded his eyes.

Next to the pile of jewelry was a pile of random stuff; clothes, shoes, bags, and calligraphies.

In addition to the ones that were already at the camp, all the high-tech items of laser TV’s, personal computers, phone projectors, video games, electronic dictionaries, super calculator…and a massive heavy-duty vehicle, were still in the city. Chen Jin assigned Da Li and other robots to bring them all back to camp, one way or another.

“Yes, master.” Da Li saluted and took on the mission.

Chen Jin nodded and headed back to his bedroom as he climbed the metal ladder with a heavy snakeskin bag full of treasure on his shoulder.

In the bedroom, looking at the bag by his feet, Chen Jin gave it a good kick with his hands on his hips and said to himself, “Now I must come up with a strategy that can help me make a killing.”

…

At the dinner table that evening, from the constant yawning and the sleepy eyes on Chen Jin’s face, He Li knew her son had just woken up. A lot of times she moved her lips and was very tempted to nag him about his recent behavior. “Where on earth have you been lately? Why are you acting like this?”

But she’d resisted the urge, considering her son was a grown-up after all. Instead, she said to him softly, “Son, what have you been up to lately? You seem very tired.”

His father, Chen Gang, made a noise of disdain and said, “What else could he possibly be doing other than playing video games all night long? Don’t you know your son by now?”

He Li turned around and stared at him with irritation; her cold-blooded face and merciless eyes made Chen Gang tremble. He stopped talking immediately.

“I haven’t played any games these days. I’ve been busy making money,” Chen Jin mumbled, as he gobbled up his bowl of rice.

“Making money? While you lie on your bed? Ha.” Having heard his son’s explanation, Chen Gang couldn’t help but turn on his sarcastic mode again. He knew his own son too well; he’d believe anything his son claimed to be doing in the bedroom, except making money. Smirking was the only respond he could give.

“Shut your mouth!” He Li gave him another cruel, harsh stare to make sure there would be no more words coming out of his mouth. Then, she turned to Chen Jin and said in a loving voice, “Son, what kind of money have you been making? You’re not selling anime garage kits, are you?” She knew her son was good at making those garage kits, and that they were worth a lot of money.

“Pretty much. Mom, please don’t ask so many questions.”

“Alright.”

He Li nodded. But then something else came to her mind. “Son, are you free this weekend? I’d set up a blind date for you last weekend, but you were busy so we cancelled it. She was kind enough to reschedule to this weekend… Son, don’t stand her up again this time, ok?” Just then, He Li frowned and seemed discouraged. She thought her son had grown up and was ready to start a family. But no. He was not. Far from it. He was still his same old self who stayed in his room all day long, and even bailed on the date she’d planned for him, resulting in her apologizing and making excuses for him, saying he was too busy working to make it and that he was very sorry. She had no choice but to postpone the whole thing.

He was lucky the girl was very understanding and thought him a good, ambitious man. But they would not reschedule again this time. It would embarrass He Li enormously otherwise, and would definitely offend the girl. So if he dared to turn her down again, she was ready to give him serious “punishment.” He Li was determined to make this blind date work! It’d be ridiculous, if not.

“I’ve finished some work. I’m free this weekend.”

Hearing these words from Chen Jin relieved He Li immensely. The storm that was forming in her suddenly went away. “In that case, son, why don’t you attend the date?” she said in a benign manner.

“Sure. When is it?”

“How does Saturday morning sound?”

“No problem,” Chen Jin responded briskly.

He Li was overwhelmed with joyful excitement; she kept bringing food to her son’s bowl. “Here, eat some more, son.”

…

Then came Saturday morning. For the first time, Chen Jin woke up and had breakfast upstairs before it was even eight o’clock.

He Li was extremely surprised by this “out-of-bed-before-8-AM” phenomenon. She could hardly recall a time where he got out of bed by eight in the past two years, let alone having breakfast. She was worried he would have heartburn.

Seeing Chen Jin gulping down his congee and dumplings got He Li hallucinating again. Maybe…my son really has matured? And indeed it was her hallucination. 8 AM was usually when he was in his deepest, sweetest sleep. Why would he want to leave his bed that early?

He woke up early for the same reason as yesterday – he was ready to go to Shanghai City with his bag of jewelry. He intended to find the best buyers to sell his treasure, and make the fast buck he’d long desired. As for the blind date, he planned on finishing it within an hour. He had to go for his mother’s sake. Plus, the date this time was a daughter of the mid-level female leader in the Trade and Industry Bureau. She and his mom spent a lot of time together because of work and obviously got on really well with each other; moreover, their family backgrounds were very similar – he and the date were basically a match made in heaven.

So naturally, both his mom and her mom had high expectation from them. From the two pictures of the date, Chen Jin could tell she had a stunning face along with nice legs and long hair – she was definitely an eight. He was very content. There was nothing he could be picky about her appearance. However… He honestly just did not plan on marrying anyone any time soon. At least not before 30.

The average age for the people of Shanghai to get married is 34. I’m not going to be the one to break the record.

Besides, he had so many two-dimensional wives already. He was never lonely or anything. And so, about this blind date, he apologized inwardly to his mother. I’m sorry, Mom. He still had to at least fake it throughout the date regardless. For this blind date, he took out a fair amount of clothes from his closet downstairs after breakfast, looking for something nice that would present himself in a polite, confident manner…with his mother being the quality control.

He’d changed into one set of garments after another. “Mom, this plaid shirt and these cropped pants look good on me. Very stylish, no?”

“No, the plaid shirt is too mature for you. Not charming.” He Li shook her head with her arms crossed.

“How about this printed t-shirt and these capri sweatpants? Don’t I look athletic?”

“No, it’s too casual.”

“Ok, Mom…these are my special clothes. I don’t usually wear them. If you still don’t find them appropriate, then I really have nothing to wear.”

He put on his jazz hat, a t-shirt printed with SABER, and a pair of black pants printed with a formation of white starburst, looking remarkably dashing.

He Li smacked him in the head. “Enough with these childish clothing. Go try on something else.”

“I don’t have anything nicer.” Chen Jin patted his head.

“Mom will take you shopping then!”

“But I wouldn’t be able to wear them today anyway,” he said as he shook his head. All of a sudden, it hit him.

“Mom, wait outside the door, please. I still have some I have yet to try on.”

He closed the door and made his way to the portal in the bathroom. Within seconds, he came back with a bag of clothes.

“Creak~” The bedroom door opened again as it made some creaking noises.

He Li’s eyes opened wide in surprise and recognition. The Chen Jin in front of her had achieved minimalist style; he was neat and tidy. The material of the clothes he had on was exquisite and very well cropped with streamlined shapes. Not only did they flatter his figure, but they were also courteous and respectful. “Son, this is impressive.”

“It’d be perfect for the date, wouldn’t it?” Chen Jin turned around and around.

“It sure would! You look very charismatic, son!” She gave him a thumbs up. “Shall we?” Mom went upstairs to grab her keys and Chen Jin took the bag filled with jewelry and went downstairs to wait for her in the parking lot.

Chapter 21 - A Mommy’s Boy?

At the city center, in the most prosperous Jin Ling West Street sat a tranquil teahouse that had an excellent word of mouth reputation. On the third floor, Chen Jin sat waiting inside the luxurious private room. He had sent away his parents who came together with him, telling them to wait for news at home. If first impressions were good, a blind date could drag on for a while. They might go for some shopping, watch a movie and do some other leisure activities; even a whole day might not be enough for them.

“Ok, I’ll go back with your Dad. Son, grasp this opportunity. Mom will be waiting for your good news!” Giving him encouraging look, He Li grinned from ear to ear. Her son was so proactive. This matchmaking session should be a done deal!

Glancing down on his wrist at the watch that Chen Jin gave him, Chen Gang checked the time and said, “It’s 8:50 am, she’ll arrive in 10 minutes. We’ll go back first.”

Nodding his head, Chen Jin saw his parents leave. Sitting inside the private room, he held a cup of Tie Guan Yin tea as he continued to wait. It was 9:20 am in the blink of an eye, yet his partner had still not arrived. He played some mobile games on his phone until 9:50 am and there was still no trace of his partner.

Chen Jin started to scrunch up his brows. He could still forgive her if she was 30 minutes late, but she was late for almost an hour. This could only mean that she did not treat this blind date seriously at all. “I’ll wait for another 10 minutes, if she’s still not here by then, I’ll leave. I’ve got things to do, I don’t have so much time to waste with you.”

Burying his head in his mobile game again until 10:00 am on the dot, he still saw neither hide nor hair of his partner. Fine! I’ll leave! Keeping his mobile, Chen Jin stood and picked up the backpack on the sofa. He was ready to go to the front desk to pay the bill and leave.

As he reached the entrance to the private room, he saw a beautiful silhouette approaching him in a hurry. Spotting Chen Jin, she stopped walking and asked, “Are you Chen Jin…. the partner that my mother introduced to me for this blind date?”

Sizing her up without missing a detail, Chen Jin noticed that she was wearing a purple floral chiffon dress and aviators, had a tall and slim build, long hair, pretty features, and refined makeup. On her feet was a pair of high heeled sandals to flatter her long beautiful legs. His first impression was that she was much more beautiful in person; her photo did not do her justice.

Hearing her words, Chen Jin nodded, “Yes, I’m Chen Jin. You must be Yuan Lin.”

“That’s right, I’m Yuan Lin, your partner for this blind date. Where are you going with your bag?” Yuan Lin asked upon seeing the backpack in his hands.

Chen Jin answered honestly, “I’m going to the front desk to pay the bill.”

Yuan Lin originally had a positive first impression regarding him, however it turned negative in a flash. With a slight scowl, she explained, “the traffic jam on the roads was a little severe today. I was not deliberately late, can’t you spare some effort in waiting just a little bit?”

“Oh ~ Then let’s go sit in the room.” Feeling slightly awkward, Chen Jin retreated back into the private room.

Yuan Lin walked in and sat across from him. Chen Jin smelled a very pleasant fragrance permeating the entire room. He called over the service staff and ordered a flask of 388 Yu Qian Long Jing tea. Displaying his gentlemanly behaviour, he poured a cup for the woman sitting across him.

After which was almost 10 minutes of silence.

Elegantly, Yuan Lin took a sip of tea and spoke straightforwardly. “Let’s talk about something.”

Chen Jin asked, “Talk about what?”

“We can talk about your work, what kind of job do you do?”

Chen Jin shook his head, “It’s just a normal job, there’s nothing much to talk about.”

“Then, let’s talk about your interests and hobbies. What do you like to do?”

Chen Jin started to ramble, “Yes, I like to game and watch anime. Those are my favourite things to do….” Finally he asked, “Do you like those?”

Shaking her head, Yuan Lin replied, “No, I don’t. I’ve never really checked them out.”

“You actually don’t like gaming and anime, are you a real person? How can there be someone who doesn’t like gaming and anime, you’re such a loser!” With an agitated expression, he ended his spiel saying, “We have no common topics between us!”

Yuan Lin was stumped speechless. Scowling, she thought, she had her own interests and hobbies. She passed all 10 grades in piano, eight grades in English and even started her own company. Why would she ever touch such demoralising things like games and anime? It was she who thought that this man in front of her had no common topics with her! She could not communicate with him. It was to the extent that she thought that she could not continue this conversation anymore and wanted to leave.

But…. This blind date was very important to her mother. She was reminded of the assistance that He Li, the Director of Accounting in the tax bureau, could provide. If the two families united, there would be many benefits in the making. Thinking about this, Yuan Lin temporarily suppressed the impulse to leave and decided to make an effort to understand her partner. Restraining her impatience, she asked many questions. For example, she touched on topics like “Family Upbringing,””Education,””The 3 Principles of Knowledge,” and “Daily Life,” etc.

In the end, Yuan Lin was greatly disappointed. It was because no matter what questions she asked, this man could not stop mentioning “my Mom” every three sentences. Whenever he answered a question, he liked to tack these three words, “my Mom said,” onto the beginning of his opinion. Moreover, the opinions that this fellow expressed on the topic of marriage simply drove Yuan Lin up the wall.

“My Mom says that if I’m not satisfied with my wife, I can marry another. But there is only one mother, if my mother is gone, I cannot have another one. So, I must be very filial to her! After I’m married, I hope that my wife will be like me and show obedience to my mother. Everything that she says is right; listening to her is absolutely the right thing to do. On the other hand, if we act carelessly on our own, we’ll never do anything right. Also, I do not wish to see my wife anger my Mom by engaging in conflicts with her. My Mom gave birth to me and raised me; she struggled her whole life. I find it unacceptable if she had to endure bullying from her daughter-in-law instead of enjoying her old age. Since we are living together as one family, someone would have to compromise in situations. My Mom has a very good temperament, she would never hurt another person. If there was a conflict between her and her daughter-in-law, then it’s definitely not my mother’s fault….”

At this point, Yuan Lin was so pissed off she simply could not listen to this anymore! Picking up her bag, she stood and frankly said, “Sorry, I don’t think we’re suitable. I’ll make a move first. I’ll pick up the bill at the front desk.”

“Oh ~” Chen Jin nodded his head dully. “I too, think that we’re not too suitable. You don’t have to pay the bill, I’ll do it.” Standing up, he took great strides towards the front desk.

Yuan Lin also left as if she was fleeing from the teahouse. Too scary, it was simply too scary!

…

When she returned home, Yuan Lin still felt some lingering fear in her heart. Mother Yuan walked over and asked with some curiosity, “Lin Lin, why are you back so quickly? How did the blind date go today?”

Hugging her pillow, Yuan Lin replied, “Don’t ask about it anymore Mom. I almost fell into a death trap. Him and I, we are not suitable!”

“Really?” Mother Yuan was very surprised. “That fellow doesn’t seem too bad. He looks tall and handsome. I heard from Director He Li that her son works a stable job, is motivated to better himself and even knows how to prepare meals and keep the house clean. He is well-mannered and is especially filial towards his parents. It’s hard to find such a fine fellow nowadays, how can you not be suitable?”

“So what if he had all these good qualities? Mom, do you know that he’s a Mommy’s boy!”

“What? A Mommy’s boy?” Mother Yuan’s expression drastically changed. This was truly frightening and shocking. There goes a saying, “Never marry a Mommy’s boy or a Helicopter sister.” If one marries a Mommy’s boy, it means that the marriage will never be a happy one, one will definitely suffer grievances. Life thereafter will be hellish.

Yuan Lin had a best friend who married a Mommy’s boy. Her mother-in-law’s bullying pushed her to her limits. Every day her face would be awash with tears. She reluctantly endured the situation for three years. Even though the husband had a very good family background, they still ended up divorcing. Once you meet a Mommy’s boy, it was the same as meeting a death trap.

Hearing her daughter’s explanation of the general situation, Mother Yuan stopped expressing her incomprehension and changed her stance. She now supported her daughter’s decision…. How would she not know the terror of a Mommy’s boy? Mother Yuan was very suspicious though. How did a woman as brilliant and capable as Director He Li raise her son into a Mommy’s boy?

Following this thought, she immediately came to a realisation. Precisely because Director He Li was brilliant and capable, it made sense that her son became a Mommy’s boy. It was similar to how her daughter, Yuan Lin, was a Mommy’s girl. There was no intrinsic difference between the two of them. However for the sake of her daughter’s lifelong happiness, she will never allow her to marry a Mommy’s boy and suffer grievances in another family. After all she only had one daughter. Thus, the follow-up for this blind date was ended for unknown reasons.

Chapter 22 - $3,0,0

For 3 days straight, Chen Jin visited all the pawn shops, auction houses, and both small and large-scale jewellers in the business district. Everytime he got rejected, he would go to a new place. He paid a visit to any shop that had even a little bit of reputation and credibility. He would find the boss or manager of the shop and offer to sell his precious metals and jewelry.

To prevent himself from attracting attention, at each shop, he displayed only a small quantity of jewelry to offer for sale. The money value of the jewelry traded was also limited to around $100,000. He avoided entering more than three of the chain stores from the same brand; even if each store was separated by a long distance.

Chen Jin entrusted the few most valuable items, including the watch that was embedded with a sapphire as big as a pigeon’s egg, to Sotheby’s Auction House in order to get a better price. With its centuries-long history, Sotheby’s would be able to help him sell off the items. A coordinator from the auction house had promised that his personal details would be kept strictly confidential.

In addition, Chen Jin handed over five oil paintings and three antiques to Sotheby’s. These oil paintings and antiques had unknown authorships and provenance and an eccentric style. Although they had a certain artistic value, their unclear provenance put them at an disadvantage. The auctioneer in charge told him that they could help to auction them, but he could not guarantee a good price. It could be entirely possible that no one would bid on it.

Chen Jin said, “It’s fine. As long as it can be auctioned off, I’ll be ok even if its sells for only $50,000 or $100,000. It’ll be good if they could go for a higher price. Try your best to not let it pass without a bid.” The other party affirmed that the request was ok.

Within three days, by running like this to more than 30 business organisations, Chen Jin had basically sold all the easy-to-sell jewelry that he possessed. So… how much money was earned from his sales? Not much, not even $3,000,000.

From what he had, 1,400-plus grams of gold was sold for $260,000. 28.6 kilograms of silver was sold for $50,000. 300-plus pieces of platinum and diamond accessories were sold for $680,000. He had about 350 pieces of jewels and various gemstones. Some were of high quality while others were fake, hence the big difference in prices too. Chen Jin was not too knowledgeable about jewels and gemstones and had probably paid a steep “learning fee.” But even so, he managed to sell those jewels for $1,650,000. Excluding the sapphire-embedded watch, the 50-plus gold-plated watches were sold for average prices. He received a total of $320,000 from those.

The grand total was $2,960,000.

The 10 odd items that he had entrusted to Sotheby’s were still not auctioned off and it would be some time before the proceeds appeared in his account. So, from the start until now, the profits that he acquired from scouring the City of Tereese was not even $3,000,000. What? After raking through all the high-value items in a city with a population of 100,000, they were only sold for less than $3,000,000? What kind of epic joke was this? But this was the truth. On one hand, the civilians of Tereese had brought along many of their belongings of value and the remaining treasures were slim pickings. On the other hand, it was related to the social customs and habits of the people in Z country.

From his endless bounding across the city these past few days, Chen Jin reached a conclusion: The majority of Z country’s people adored brand-new goods and hated secondhand goods. With the exception of cultural artifacts that were better with age, other things were severely devalued once they were used or old. For example, watches, cars, clothes, computers and mobile phones etc. Their rate of devaluation was very high.

In Z country, not many people liked secondhand goods. Certain goods which had been through a certain number of hands would be degraded to the level of rubbish or even worse. People would express a deep level of dislike, shame, and rejection towards them. Naturally, those items could not be sold for a reasonable price.

Thus, Chen Jin could only shake his head. “This devaluation is too severe. When you want to buy those items, they may cost you upwards of $30,000,000. But when you sell it, you can’t even get $3,000,000 for it. This is simply too…. F**king hell.”

Moreover, once he sold this batch of precious metals and jewels, he had no intention of selling anymore of these even if he did find more after scouring the City of Tereese the next time. Or to put it more accurately, he would not sell his precious metals and jewels on a face-to-face basis anymore. He was worried that it would attract attention from others and subsequent investigations.

“Mom works at the tax bureau as a middle management officer. What will others think when they notice that I’ve brought so many precious metals and jewels for sale? Z country has a law that makes it illegal for one to own large amounts of assets that has no clear provenance. If I am unable to explain the origins of these precious metals and jewels that I possess, I cannot escape from that particular law. I could possibly be thrown into jail for a few years. I might even implicate Mom.”

So this was the last time that Chen Jin would personally do business face-to-face. This was a one-off business deal. He would have to use other means to earn money the next time. “Although $3,000,000 is not much, it’s still enough to last me for awhile. Ah ~ It’s going to take a long time to reach this little goal of 1 billion.”

Shaking his head and sighing, Chen Jin silently lambasted, “Billionaire Wang, are you sure that “one billion dollars” really is a “little goal”? Why do I feel that this goal is a little too big?”

…

During dinner, He Li suddenly put down her chopsticks and asked Chen Jin with an expression full of concern, “Son, how did yesterday’s blind date go? Are you still in contact with Lin Lin?”

“Um ~” After some consideration, Chen Jin said, “Our chat went well yesterday; we were pretty happy talking to each other. I also gave her my WeChat contact. But, she did not add me as a friend after we parted ways. Perhaps she was too busy.” Chen Jin ad-libbed his lies.

Raising his head, Chen Gang interrupted, “If she still hasn’t contacted you by now, it means that she’s just not that interested anymore.”

Nodding his head, Chen Jin said, “Yes, I think her interest has waned too.”

Glaring at Chen Gang, she then turned to look at Chen Jin and said with a drawn out breath, “Son, I was talking to Lin Lin’s mother on the phone and asked how your date went. I could hear from the implication in her words that they were not pleased with your behaviour.” He Li asked, “Son, did you say something inappropriate?”

Shaking his head, Chen Jin denied, “No, Mom, I didn’t carelessly shoot my mouth off.”

“Then why would Lin Lin’s mother say that you are not suitable for her daughter? Tell me about the situation yesterday, Mom can analyze it with you and find out where the problem lies.”

“Mom,what’s there to analyze? A failure is a failure, there’s nothing to analyze. I too, think that I’m not that suitable with Yuan Lin. We have nothing in common…..” Chen Jin was feeling somewhat impatient as he grumbled, “Z country is full of women, why are you so fixated on her?”

“You —-” Glaring at Chen Jin, He Li felt rage and frustration at his nonchalant demeanor.

Yuan Lin was the blind date partner that I had chosen for you after a meticulous selection process. Did you think it was so easy to find a suitable match that is your social equal nowadays? This little twerp was not treating it seriously. He was even trying out his little tricks to get up to something mischievous.

I had thought that you were sensible, but you are actually still so mischievous. He Li was filled with discontent and despondence. However she did not show that she was upset. She merely put on a happy facade again and gently said, “Ok, since this person didn’t work out, I will arrange another partner for you next weekend. It’s hard to say, but maybe you’ll fancy the next one.”

“No, don’t. Don’t.” Chen Jin waved his hands, “Mom, don’t arrange anymore blind dates. I don’t want to go. I have some things on the next week and will be busier. I don’t have time for a blind date.”

“How about the week after?”

“I should be very busy then too.”

Wielding her trump card, He Li said, “Son, recently, I’ve been planning to buy another house in the north of the city. The down payment is about $1,000,000 with a monthly mortgage payment of $30,000. But, I don’t have that much funds on me. Son, do you think I should buy the house?” She would not believe that she could not keep this disobedient boy in check!

“Buy; you have to buy it. If you don’t buy a few more houses now, it will be impossible when the government implements cooling policies.” Very unexpectedly, Chen Jin expressed his support. He even took out his mobile phone from his pocket, opened his AliPay account and transferred $50,000 to his Mom.

“Ring ~” The notification alarm for the successful fund transfer rang.

Chen Jin told He Li, “Mom, I’m returning the $50,000 that you lent me. I have money now.”

Chen Gang was shocked, “Where did you get that $50,000? You have enough money to return your Mom’s loan?”

Chen Jin explained, “I’ve been working recently and earned some money; about $100,000.”

Filled with curiosity, Chen Gang remarked, “$100,000 is pretty good. What do you do to earn this kind of money?”

Scratching his head, Chen Jin replied, “I’ll keep that a secret, hehe~”

Suddenly, he heard loud sobbing.

“Boo hoo ~. Boo hoo hoo hoo ~” The wailing became louder and more heart-wrenching.

Turning his head, Chen Jin was immediately taken aback. Mom was crying a flood of tears. “Mom, what’s wrong?”

“Wife, why are you crying?”

He Li continued crying, “Boo hoo hoo ~”

Chen Jin stood up in a panic. Walking to her side to comfort her, he said, “Mom, don’t be like this. What did I do wrong?”

Chen Gang shook her shoulder. “Wife. Wife, What’s wrong?”

Throwing herself into Chen Gang’s arms, He Li loudly cried, “My son doesn’t want me anymore!”

With sweat anxiously beading on his forehead, Chen Jin stamped his feet. “Mom, you misunderstood. I never meant that I don’t want you anymore!”

Nonetheless, He Li still cried without a care, “Waa ~ waa waa ~”

“Quickly, you little twerp, take your money back! What a twerp, how could you return what your Mom gave you? Can you afford to return the sentiment behind it?” Grasping the situation, Chen Gang scolded his son harshly.

“Yes, yes, yes. Mom, I was wrong. I will take the money back. Immediately!”

Taking his Mom’s phone, Chen Jin opened her AliPay account and returned every single cent of the $50,000 that he had transferred. After that, both father and son cajoled her for more than an hour straight. Barely holding back her tears, He Li did not resume her normal state until Chen Jin agreed to participate in a blind date on the week after. Then, she finally stopped crying altogether.

Chapter 23 - Laser TVs

Chen Jin truly could not defend against Mom’s techniques. Her acting was too professional and too real. Chen Jin, who was initially armed with a stubborn and tough attitude, was instantly cowed. Tears are a woman’s greatest weapon. Moreover it was his own mother; how could he not back down when faced with her tears?

“Well, a blind date it is. I shall fight fire with fire. Shedding my bachelor status; Hmph! It’s impossible, nobody can take me down!” Having prepared his countermeasures, Chen Jin’s heart was filled with confidence.

…

On the planet of Haierfa, at the camping ground in the huge crater, some significant changes had taken place. The robots, including Da Li, had brought back some items from the City of Tereese. They were not precious metals and jewelry, but some high tech products, amongst which were some laser TV boxes about the size of a Rubik’s Cube. The laser TV box was kind of similar to film projection in traditional cinema, where it projected an HD quality video via a beam of light. However, the videos projected were mostly of 8K UHD quality; the images were ultra clear.

In addition, after putting on the specialized glasses to view the 3D videos under a specific format, it would feel as if a movie was being played out right in front of your eyes. One would feel an even higher level of immersion.

“I think a similar kind of laser TV has already been launched on Earth. Doesn’t Da Mi company sell a type of laser TV for only $9,999? It’s just that it has larger make and the video quality is only 1080P. Moreover, it can’t play 3D videos, so the viewing experience is not too different from watching normal TV. The laser TV that I have right now is roughly about one-fifth of the size of the Da Mi laser TV, and can be enlarged to half its size. As for its other features, there was no need to do significant modifications on them. It could be manufactured on Earth straight away and sell like hot cakes for sure!”

Without a doubt, it would be wildly popular. The laser TV had a small make and was light and portable. The projected video could be freely expanded or shrunk on a 30 to 150 inch surface. With a relatively high video quality of 8K and the capacity to play videos in 3D format, it was very clear that the laser TV was the trend of future development. If Chen Jin entered this industry, his future wealth prospect would certainly be rosy. Furthermore, he would not have to worry that it would lead to too great of a problem.

This was because the laser TV was a product that was already available on Earth. The model that he would bring back was not based on wholly new technology from a futuristic era. It was only a product made with a slightly more advanced technology, so its impact on Earth would not be too revolutionary.

One must be aware: to be half a step ahead of the crowd makes you a genius but to be a full step ahead makes you a lunatic. Moreover, you would be targeted as a cash cow. The laser TV that Chen Jin held was a product that was half a step ahead and could definitely be introduced into Earth. Similar to the robot vacuum sweeper, the laser TV could be included in Chen Jin’s business development plan.

However, he did not yet possess the technology needed to manufacture these laser TVs. Thus, he could only let the idea ferment in his mind. “I must increase the strength and magnitude of my exploration on Haierfa in order to find a way to get my hands on this technology.

Besides this, Chen Jin also set his vision on other high tech products, such as the home computer. The home computers on Haierfa were not too different than the ones on Earth. It had a squarish CPU, an ultra thin curved screen and even its mouse and keyboard were very similar to those on Earth. “One can infer that even after a 100 years, there would not be too big a change to home computers. The outer appearance would not be greatly modified.”

However, the home computers on Haierfa could not be brought back to Earth. It was because the CPU inside the all solid motherboard was made of graphene, which is an entirely new nanomaterial. With a well crafted technological process of 3 nanometers, the output of work could reach 100 GHZ while significantly reducing power consumption. Its overall capability was more than 20 times greater than that of the most advanced CPU on Earth. It was technology that was definitely ahead by more than a step.

He could not imagine the uproar that it could cause if he brought it back to Earth now. As someone who liked to keep a low profile, Chen Jin was obviously unequipped to deal with such a complex scenario. He had an even greater desire to not attract any attention. The home computer category had to be put on hold temporarily.

However, there was also a collapsible mobile phone that could project images and videos. The phone had a 4.8 inch collapsible screen that could be expanded from its surface. It also had touch screen functions. Its screen projection function, however, needed to be used with specialized smart glasses in order to see the content of the projection. Hence, it was excellent for protecting one’s privacy.

The phone worked primarily via motion sensing. With only the size of a wrist watch, it could project a virtual screen of 5 to 15 inches. Chances of a fault happening in its operations were extremely low as it was installed with a high-precision microwave radar. Furthermore, it came equipped with a smart language assistant that could accurately recognize and distinguish more than 99.9% of sentences’ meanings. Its intelligence was equivalent to that of an 18 year old human.

Hence, the screen projector mobile phone was yet again another high tech product that was ahead of Earth by more than a step. “I’ll have to wait at least 10 years before there’ll be similar screen projector phones available on Earth. It’s not yet time for it to face the world.”

There were also handheld game units and learning devices. Both of these had an appearance that seemed to be composed by flat boxes. The game unit came with 2 stand-alone bluetooth joysticks while the learning device came with a touch pen. Both had screen projector functions. They could project within a range of 10 to 30 inches.

However, there was a particular handheld game unit with high end configurations that used a laser projection technology similar to the laser TV. Its projected screen had a maximum size of 120 inches. It felt so awesome playing games on this screen size!

Grasping the high-end handheld game unit under Da Li’s guidance and interpretation, he played a game called “Drive Angry.” The beautiful scenery in the game was reminiscent of those in movies, combined with advanced ray tracing techniques and a large projected screen. Playing an intense and explosive yet smooth chase scene made Chen Jin shout with joy. “This is definitely how games should be like in the future!”

Letting go of the joysticks, Chen Jin sighed emotionally. “Under normal rates of progression, how long must I wait before there will be games like this available on Earth?”

Standing at his side, Da Li heard his muttering and interrupted his thoughts. “My Master, this handheld game unit that you are playing now is actually a technological product on Haierfa that has been culled as being too outdated. The technology behind this game had stopped progressing about eight or nine years ago and it had not been updated or renewed for more than 10 years. The games loaded into it are antiquated and not popular amongst the humans, only teenagers and children play it occasionally to pass time. The grown-ups don’t play these games.”

What?

Da Li’s words caused Chen Jin to go red with embarrassment. He gave an awkward cough.

An outdated product. Technology that had been stuck for more than 10 years. The games that were loaded into it were antiquated. The grown-ups didn’t play them….

These words made Chen Jin felt like he wanted to kick the game unit and order Da Li to tear them apart, reducing them to scraps of junk. Damn it, it was too embarrassing. He was praising it to high heavens not one moment ago, and Da Li had immediately degraded it to the level of trash.

“Da Li, then why don’t you tell me? What is considered a ‘good game’? A ‘game for the grown-ups’?” Gritting his teeth, Chen Jin bit out each word slowly.

If Da Li was unable to give a satisfactory answer, Chen Jin, in his current unhappy and resentful mood, would have to punish it harshly to put it back in its place.

“It’s this, my Master.” Da Li walked to the pile of high-tech items. Bending at his waist and searching through the assortment of haphazardly stacked electronics, it fished out a worn-out, mottled headgear that had several delicate wires attached to its surface. It placed the headgear in front of Chen Jin.

“This is a simulated reality headset, Master. It was once bought by over 70% of the humans on this planet. They lived, worked, gamed, and enjoyed their artificial lives in the world of simulated reality. A great amount of their time was spent here daily. Compared to this headset, those outdated handheld game units can only be considered as children’s puzzle games.”

A simulated reality headset?

Fixing his gaze on it, Chen Jin felt a tremor in his heart.

Haierfa actually has such an awesome item as a simulated reality headset?

Chapter 24 - Zhao Xin

A simulated reality headset. Its grand reputation preceded it. With the simulated reality headset, one could experience reality in the virtual matrix and play massive online games in it.

But the truth was that the simulated reality headset was only a trendy concept on Earth; it was never truly realized. It had not stepped out of the conceptual zone to become a tangible object. At most, it had mutated into the so-called “VR,” which enabled one to be immersed in the experiences of some interactive 3D scenarios. However it was still a far stretch from the legendary simulated reality headset.

In order to make the simulated reality headset into a tangible object, the issues surrounding the control of brain waves and connections to the nervous system would have to be resolved first. Players could move about freely in the simulated world while the body would remain motionless in reality. Moreover, based on the strength of responses from the nervous system, the level of reality should reach 10%, 20% or even 60%…. The higher the level of reality, the better. It would be best if it was nearest to 100%.

Da Li told Chen Jin that the simulated reality headset that he had was an 8th generation product manufactured by Green Continental Company. It could achieve an 87% level of reality. It possessed the highest technological standard in the range of simulated reality headsets.

“A simulated world with an 87% level of reality. I wonder what kind of experience would that be?” A look of intense yearning appeared on Chen Jin’s face. But, even with the simulated reality headset, he was still unable to play its games.

It was because all the remote servers had either been destroyed or shutdown. Without a connection to the internet and no cloud data, one could not enter the simulated reality with just the headset.

To Chen Jin, this was undoubtedly a regret. “Hey… Isn’t there a super calculator in the town hall in the City of Tereese? Does it have the data needed to enter the simulated reality?”

Da Li said, “That calculator may be able to fire up the system of the simulated reality headset, but Master, the super calculator uses a very large amount of power. To start that calculator, it needs at least 100 kilowatts of electrical power. We do not have that amount of power.

“100 kilowatts?” Chen Jin was somewhat tongue-tied. It seemed like the power shortage at the camp needed to be resolved urgently! He had to think of a way to get some power supply equipment over here. “You all get that super calculator back to camp, I will think of a way to solve the shortage of electrical power.”

“Yes, Master!” Da Li accepted this task.

Besides this, he had to increase the speed of his exploration of Haierfa! Actually, Chen Jin had always been putting effort into it. After scouring the City of Tereese, he sent out exploration squad number 2 on Blue Angel to survey the surroundings of the huge crater, up to about a distance of a few hundred kilometers. With this, he could create a map of the surrounding areas.

Squad number 2 returned to the campground yesterday, and reported their results. “Master, the survey of the campground’s surroundings have been completed. We found 53 abandoned small towns, 128 abandoned farms and 1 abandoned factory.”

Chen Jin’s eyes gleamed, and he asked, “An abandoned factory? What kind of factory is it?”

“A furniture manufacturing factory, Master.”

“Is there any valuable technological information inside the factory?”

“No, that factory had been abandoned for a very long time, Master.”

“Oh…” Chen Jin’s eyes dulled and he laughed at himself. It was a furniture factory, what kind of high-tech information was I expecting to find in there?

If he could find a heavy industrial factory or an armament factory etc, he could definitely reap great rewards! Therefore, he still had to increase the pace of his exploration of the outer areas. However, only the road leading to the City of Tereese from the eastern highway could be passed without obstacles. Continuing on the highway towards the south, there was a highway bridge that was destroyed by war and thus impassable.

Coming out of the City of Tereese, within several miles to the north was the scene of a major vehicular accident. The highway was jammed full of various models of run-down cars. As the congestion lasted more than 10 kilometers, the road was totally impassable.

Da Li said, “About 120 kilometers from the north of the City of Tereese lies a mid-sized city called Fort Worth. It had a population of over 500,000. The cars jammed on the highway to the North could have came from Fort Worth.”

This was because the huge crater that Chen Jin was standing in now used to be a major emergency shelter. When war arrived, people from the surrounding areas fled in this direction. “Fort Worth City? Population of 500,000?”

The words “cash cow” popped up in Chen Jin’s mind. And a big one, too. He developed the idea and impulse to go Fort Worth City and scour the city. However, the highway was jammed and impassable. He could follow the highway by taking the flat desert ground beside it. But it would be difficult for Blue Angel’s low chassis, it could easily break down halfway or meet with other troubles.

Chen Jin’s gaze came to rest on a large agricultural vehicle similar to a combine harvester. As the City of Tereese was an agriculture-based city, it had plenty of large machinery for its farms. They were big, with a high chassis that was ideal for driving through the wilderness. After a series of modifications, they would be more suitable for the exploration of this planet.

Chen Jin planned to restore one of the agricultural machines and assign it as the expedition vehicle for the exploration of this world. But to remodel it into an expedition vehicle was something that required a high level of technical skills. Chen Jin normally had no interest or experience in cars. He only had a superficial knowledge in repairing cars. If he was to remodel a farm machine into an expedition vehicle, would he not just be working blind?

Naturally, he could get the medical robot, Da Bao, to assist him. But Da Bao’s specialty was in servicing and repairing the robots, it was not too good at remodeling a vehicle. At most, it could only keep itself occupied with busywork. Chen Jin still had to do the primary work himself. The problem was that Chen Jin did not have the knowledge either. What to do?

Of course, he had to learn how to repair cars. It would not be necessary to master the skill; some basic skills for a beginner would suffice. As luck would have it, Chen Jin had a friend who was simply a demon at remodeling cars. There was no car that he could not remodel, no faults that he could not repair. Chen Jin planned to seek his help by apprenticing himself for a few days and learning some technical skills on repairing a car.

…

On the second day, at an automobile market in the west of the city, there was an auto sales service center named “Belief of the Light.”

“Zhao Xin, this is the $5,000 that I borrowed from you last month. I’m returning it.” Retrieving half a stack of red colored bills, Chen Jin presented them to a young man who had a cigarette dangling from his mouth and hands covered with engine oil, yet his hairstyle remained on point. The initial impression he gave was care-free, uninhibited, handsome, and easily stylish.

The bad boy vibe that he exuded, together with a slightly nefarious smirk held a fatal charm for some women. It was said that women over 30 years old accounted for a third of the car sales in this service center. Some bought more than one car…. Why did those women like to buy cars so much from this auto center? The reasons remained totally unknown.

The boss of this auto sales service center was Zhao Xin, who was Chen Jin’s classmate for 3 years of high school. In addition, they went to the same university and had a solid friendship. In other words, his good bro Zhao Xin was the only close friend that he could rely on and trust with total confidence.

Zhao Xin’s family background was way better than Chen Jin’s. His parents owned a big corporation and he himself was worth trillions. Under his skillful management, this auto sales service center that he started had annual profits in the tens of millions, essentially making him a nouveau riche. Due to his expert skills in both remodeling and racing cars, his nickname “Big Brother Xin” was famous in the underground racing world.

Looking at the bills in front of him and shaking his head, Zhao Xin said, “Why are you returning this? It’s just $5,000. Don’t return it, I don’t need this spare change.”

“I still have to return it even if it’s 50 cents. Hurry and take it.”

Calling over Xiao Li at the front desk, Zhao Xin ordered her to take the money away. “Xiao Li, take the money and book a high class hotel. I will treat everyone to dinner today.”

“Hurray, Boss!”

“Hurray, Big Brother Xin!”

The staff in the auto center instantly rejoiced, their morale greatly boosted.

Chen Jin shook his head in impatience. He had known Zhao Xin for seven to eight years and his nature was still the same. He was unwilling to come into contact with money and regarded it as dirt. As he had no concept of money, the tens of millions in annual profits were frequently squandered.

But he could not have treated the staff in his auto center any better. Some of the master repair technicians stayed working in the center for a few years. Other auto sales service centers could not lure them away even with an annual salary in the millions. Sometimes they were lured away but they always returned after a short time. It was the strangest thing.

After returning his money, Chen Jin stated his purpose in coming over. He wanted to be his apprentice for a few days to learn some skills in car repair and service.

“You want me to teach you how to repair cars?” Zhao Xin looked at him in shock. Taking away the cigarette tip at the corner of his lips, he asked rather sternly, “Are you sure you’re not joking with me? Since when were you this interested in repairing cars?”

Nodding his head, Chen Jin replied, “I’m not joking. I really do want to learn something about repairing cars.”

“This work is not easy. It’s dirty and tiring, are you sure you want to learn?”

“Yeah, I plan to be around and really learn something for a few days. I can pay a fee to learn.”

Zhao Xin waved his hand and said, “You don’t have to pay a school fee. Since you’re interested, just come over and learn for a few days. We’ll teach you hand-ons. If you can’t take the hardship, you can give up anytime and just treat it as a life experience.”

“Ok, thanks Zhao Xin.”

Smiling blandly, Zhao Xin looked at Chen Jin with his pale skin and skinny physique. He knew that Chen Jin had “homebody syndrome.” Thinking silently in his mind, he wondered how long he would last. Two days? Three days? Or even just one day?

In any case, there was no way this fellow could persevere for more than 5 days.

Chapter 25 - Zhang Nan

In the auto repair garage, Chen Jin began learning from Zhao Xin the skills needed to repair a car.

“Actually many faults in a car don’t require the major hassle of changing parts. A few simple fixes would do the trick. For example, stones are lodged in the tire tread, causing an overly loud friction noise. But, the stones are hard to extract. The next best method to reduce the noise is not to change the tires, but to simply install a sound deadening foam inside the tires. It would solve the problem just as well. When a car engine vibrates vigorously when it is started, it’s probably due to a lack of power from misfiring engine cylinders. This is caused by either carbon build-up or an aging ignition system. It only requires a run at high speed or a change of spark plugs. It could be difficult to start your car in the winter. This is usually caused by a low battery voltage. Prepare a basin of hot water and pour it over the battery to increase its temperature. Once the car starts, immediately drive to a repair shop to get the battery checked.”

Throughout his learning, Zhao Xin left nothing out. He imparted much valuable experience and many clever techniques. Chen Jin listen with utmost seriousness. He nodded his head repeatedly, feeling that he had learned a lot.

In the meantime, he also raised his own questions. “Zhao Xin, do you think that electric cars could ever replace petrol cars?”

“Um… No. At least not in the present. There are still some flaws with the electric car that puts it in an inferior position as compared to the petrol car. Petrol cars will still be around for at least another 50 years.”

“Didn’t you say that the composition of the electric car is simple? It can do without the complicated oil circuit and traditional system; also making the gearbox unnecessary. It’s also easier to fix than the petrol car and has a better acceleration ability. With the exception of a troublesome charging process, all other points are to its advantage.”

Zhao Xin shook his head. “The car is a tool to harness and manage speed. Its convenience lies in its ability to start and accelerate at any time. The electric car does not possess this advantage. It has a slow charging process and is not able to travel continuously for long distances. People who really understand automobiles will not favour electric vehicles.”

Chen Jin asked, “What if the battery of the electric car has a higher efficiency than gasoline? And it’s also paired with a quick charging system that can result in a full charge within 15 minutes. What do you think about this kind of electric car?”

Holding a tool, Zhao Xin abruptly halted the movements of his hands. After a period of silence, he said, “Then it’s the future. A future where all petrol-based cars will become obsolete!”

Chen Jin also put down the socket spanner in his hands and said, “Zhao Xin, is there a mentor in this center who knows how to fix electric cars? I want to learn from him how to repair them.”

Zhao Xin was surprised and looked at him with a strange expression. “You don’t think that electric cars can immediately replace petrol-based cars right? As I’ve said, it will take at least 50 years for that to happen. Also, the number of electric cars registered within our country is less than 1,000,000. If you’re only learning how to repair electric cars, you’ll starve to death.”

“I’m not trying to make a living from this. I’m just more interested in electric cars and want to have a greater understanding of it.” All the cars in Haierfa ran on electricity. It would obviously be a mismatch of the skills required if Chen Jin learned how to fix internal combustion cars.

Glancing at him, Zhao Xin said impatiently, “Ok, Mentor Sun is an expert in fixing electric cars. Follow and learn from him.” In his heart, he thought, Repairing electric cars is a much easier process. Is Chen Jin trying to slack off?

Mentor Sun was a spry middle-aged man. Zhao Xin let him lead Chen Jin to an adjacent garage where the electric cars were repaired so that he could start learning how to repair them.

…

Vroom ~

Vroom vroom vroom ~

A red sports car with a scarred, deformed body including a rear bumper full of dents came rushing into the garage.

Screech ~

Just as it was about to hit someone, it suddenly braked. The red sports car drifted for half a meter and firmly stopped in front of its audience. A young man wearing hip hop style clothing and ears full of studs stepped out from the car. His expression was rebellious and flamboyant.

“Same old rules. Repair this Ferrari champion warrior. Yesterday, it won me yet another victory. Brother Xin, since you stopped racing cars, I’ve already won three races as the ‘Race King’.” As he spoke, the young man rushed towards Zhao Xin, who was attentively fixing a car.

Zhao Xin remained unmoved as he continued to be engrossed in his work. The staff of the auto center crowded around the young man. “Brother Xing, you took down another Race King?”

“The prize for taking down a Race King is $1,000,000. So, Brother Xing, you earned another $1,000,000!”

A female staff with pretty looks leaned over, “Brother Xing, when will you take me to experience it? I can be your lady when you chase the winds.”

“Brother Xing, I have a Wuling Hongguang, but I want to learn from you how to race cars.”

Such expressions came from the crowd surrounding him. The man called “Brother Xing” was really enjoying this. Sitting on the hood of his car, he began to brag. “It’s not a problem if you want to learn how to race cars from me. But if you want to be the lady to my wind chaser, you’ll have to give me a kiss first.” He leaned his face towards the female staff and enjoyed a sweet kiss. Looking over again at Zhao Xin who was still repairing his car, he raised his voice. “Actually, if you want to talk about racing skills, Brother Xin is the undisputed champion! But since he does not do street racing, S-curve speeding or drifting anymore, he hasn’t participated in our competitions for three months. Brother Xin, let’s go for a race! Everyone misses you so much! It’s impossible to hold a proper underground race competition without you. How would I even win the title as ‘Race King?’” Towards the end, Brother Xing’s tone became pleading as he eagerly beseeched.

Zhao Xin was the soul of the underground car races. With him around, numerous expert racers would be drawn to the races. Even those from abroad would come to seek out his name. Each race would be extremely exciting and got one’s adrenaline pumping.

But without Zhao Xin around, the underground races had quieted down within a mere three months to the point where there were only 10 or so participants who were racing only to amuse themselves. Even someone like “Brother Xing,” who possessed only average skills, could win the title of “Race King” three times. One could imagine how pathetic the races had become.

“Tang Xing, can you shut your mouth and stop trying to sway my husband?” An angry voice could be heard. The audience turned their heads, and Tang Xing quickly shut his mouth. The staff dispersed at once as they rapidly went back to their positions.

The lady boss was here!

That’s right. Even though Zhao Xin was only 25, he was a married man. Moreover, he married straight after graduating from university. To date, he had been married for almost four years.

Actually, there was a twist in the middle of this story. Zhao Xin got a girlfriend while he was attending university, and they had very good relationship going on. His girlfriend was very pretty too and was publicly acknowledged as the top beauty within campus. In addition, she had a good personality and character. They were a match made in heaven and was a couple envied by all in the university. Immediately after graduation, both decided to register their marriage as the relationship was going very well. They wanted to live their lives together in the sweetness of love and be each other’s forever after.

There was a bit of a cock-up in the end. Zhao Xin did not marry his girlfriend; the bride became someone else. It was because after knowing that he was from a very rich family, Zhao Xin’s future-in-laws increased the bride price at the last minute. They made voracious demands. The original betrothal gifts were $500,000 and a car. Now they wanted $5,000,000 and a house.

The $5,000,000 was for the parents as a show of filial piety and the house was for her younger brother to use as his marital home after he got married. Met with such ridiculous demands, it was thought that she would refuse on Zhao Xin’s behalf. Unexpectedly, she did not speak one word in protest. On the contrary, she even tried to persuade Zhao Xin to acquiesce to her parents’ demands. She was firmly on her parents’ side.

At this moment, the wedding ceremony was about to begin. Zhao Xin’s family was facing a full turnout of guests without the bride present. It was undoubtedly a huge blow to his family. It seemed as if they were about to lose face in a big and public way. Seconds turned into minutes and the bride’s family still refused to budge in their demands. Zhao Xin was extremely displeased. It was not that he could not bear to part with $5,000,000 and a house, but that he he could not stand their greed for riches. The way they tried to take advantage of him was too ugly and disgusting!

He even had the impulse to just leave and call off the wedding. At this time, Chen Jin, who was acting as his groomsman made a suggestion which made Zhao Xin’s eyes light up. “Zhang Nan lives near here. She’s been secretly in love with you for 6 years. Why don’t you propose to her and let her be your bride to complete this wedding ceremony?”

Chen Jin was acquainted with Zhang Nan and knew that she always had feelings for Zhao Xin. Otherwise, why would she apply to an inferior vocational university when her grades were in the top 3 in school?

“Fine, I don’t want this woman anymore. I want to marry Zhang Nan!” That afternoon, just before the start of the wedding ceremony. Zhao Xin and Chen Jin took the bridal car and sped to Zhang Nan’s home. There, they saw Zhang Nan, who had been crying in misery for a long time.

Opening the door, Zhao Xin, who was decked out in his bridegroom’s clothing, got down on one knee and presented a diamond ring. He proposed to her and asked, “Zhang Nan, will you marry me?”

Zhang Nan was in great shock. After understanding the situation, she started crying tears of joy, and shouted, “Yes, I will!”

The wedding proceeded smoothly. After the wedding ended, the girlfriend and her family got wind of the fact that the bride was another woman. At that point, they started screaming to the high heavens as they lost their minds collectively. The entire family acted as if they were mentally ill. Thus they became the well-known laughing stock in their locale and were the butt of many jokes.

And Zhang Nan was now married to Zhao Xin as husband and wife. She married the love who she most wanted. Undoubtedly, Zhang Nan was very grateful to Chen Jin who had made great efforts in this entire process. Privately, she gave him a $50,000 red packet, which was the biggest one of all. When she normally met Chen Jin, she was also very well-mannered and affectionate towards him. Spotting Chen Jin in the car repair garage, Zhang Nan came over to greet him. “Hey, Chen Jin, what are you doing here?”

Holding a spanner with hands full of engine oil, Chen Jin wiped the sweat on his head and replied, “Oh, hey sister, I became more interested in fixing cars recently so I came over to understand more about it.”

Zhang Nan said with a smile, “All right, stay here for lunch and have a taste of my cooking skills.”

She was not a girl with outstanding features, her looks could only be average. However, her smile was very appealing and made her feel extremely amiable. According to Zhao Xin, her dishes were very delicious; on par with the national top chefs.

“Hmm ~” Chen Jin nodded his head. After chatting for a bit, he could not help but voice his question, “Sis, I heard from the person out there that Zhao Xin had not been racing for three months. Didn’t he become so skilled in modifying cars just for the purpose of racing? Why doesn’t he race now?” Zhao Xin was addicted to cars, why would his nature suddenly change?

“Um…” Zhang Nan blushed. As she was about to speak, a surge of acid rose up her throat. Abruptly, she clutched her stomach and dry retched.

Chen Jin seemed to have understood something. “Sis, you…”

She nodded, replying, “It’s been three months. Zhao Xin…. is about to become a father.” Pursing her lips in a smile, she flushed red in happiness.

“So it’s like that.” All at once, Chen Jin understood.

Chapter 26 - Rover No. 1

Chen Jin understood Zhang Nan’s words. Because Zhao Xin would soon be promoted to a father, he could not race cars anymore. He also could not do other dangerous activities. This unruly wastrel would have to return home to the roles of a “good husband” and a “good father.” Zhao Xin, this carefree and uninhibited 25 year old man had to become more reliable, more mature, and pay more attention to his little family unit.

Or perhaps… When his child has grown up and learned how to listen attentively, Zhao Xin would proudly narrate the vibrancy of his youth. Within the worshipful gaze of his child, he would look forward to the grandiose moment when he received the epithet of “Race King.”

As he thought of this scene, a shiver ran through Chen Jin’s body. A voice in his heart shouted, “I don’t want this! It’s too scary!”

On the contrary, Zhao Xin, who was sitting across the dining table from him, remained unaffected. He even picked up some food with his chopsticks for Zhang Nan.

…

It was way beyond Zhao Xin’s expectations. Chen Jin, who had expressed that he wanted to learn some car repair skills, actually persevered for seven days in a row in the auto center garage. He had a very proper attitude for learning that had no fear of hardship or exhaustion. As he conducted his learning seriously, he successfully realized the goal of rapidly entering the industry. Moreover, he even helped Mentor Sun repair a faulty Tesla Model-S on the sixth day. To that end, he contributed a lot of effort.

Mentor Sun had a major overhaul of his impression of Chen Jin. Privately, he told Zhao Xin, “I’ve seen more serious students than him when it comes to learning how to drive. But as for learning how to repair cars, there are not many as serious as him amongst my students…. Boss, didn’t you say that his family is rich and he’s only here for fun?”

Opening and closing his mouth, his eyes wide with surprise, Zhao Xin spread his hands out helplessly and said, “How would I know? This was not his style in the past.”

On the 8th day, Chen Jin stopped regularly going to the auto center.

In Haierfa, he had thrown himself fully into the vigorous work of remodeling an agricultural machine into an expedition vehicle. Actually, this work consisted of some difficulties. The biggest challenge was, how would he transport that agricultural machine from the City of Tereese to the campground?

At more than 10 tons, one of those machines weighed about 10 times that of a passenger sedan. How would he get such a cumbersome object back to the campground? After some careful thought, Chen Jin adopted two solutions: One was to increase the number of exploration squads from two to four; The second was that the total number of robots would be increased to 20.

Each robot could carry 200 kilograms. It followed that the 20 robots could, as a group, carry an object weighing seven or eight tons. In addition, the combine harvester might be heavy, but it was also composed of several modules. He could disassemble the lighter modules and transport them separately. With the exception of the engine and the transmission control module, the robots could carry the rest of the modules back to the campground. As for the remaining parts like the tires, chassis, engine, transmission box, etc., that could not be easily dismantled…. They weighed in at around five or six tons. These were pulled by Blue Angel leading in the front and more than 10 robots pushing from the back. Using this method and more than two days, the machine was slowly brought into the campground.

After Chen Jin had completed his studies on car repairs and returned to the campground, the separate modules from the combine harvester were laid out in front of him. However, there was a price to pay. The robots, including Da Li, had basically used up all of their power. Blue Angel’s power charge had also dropped below safety levels. All of them were queued up beside the charging post, waiting to be charged.

Following which, Chen Jin was faced with even more challenging work. How would he repair and remodel this combine harvester with a length of nine meters, a height reaching four meters, a width of four and a half meters, topped off with a total weight of 13 tons? Chen Jin spent about half a day coming up with and deciding on a plan of action to remodel it.

The first step was reduction. He would take down the harvesting unit from this machine. For example, the harvest drum on its front and the conveyor belt and threshing unit in its middle could be dismantled. Most of the units for harvesting could be eliminated. After a round of reduction, the weight of the combine harvester would drop to 10 tons.

The grain tank at the rear was modified into a big cargo storage area that could hold a huge number of items. It would make his exploration process more convenient. In addition, he installed an excavation bucket on its front. If he met with any obstacles on the road, he could clear it away. This would increase the ease of the vehicle’s passage.

He also installed a cable pulling system, an emergency first-aid kit, a water pump and fire extinguishing unit, a standby generator, and so on. All of these required additional installations and preparations to increase the safety coefficient when exploring outdoors.

Hence, for the next half of the month, Chen Jin’s focus at work was fully engaged in remodeling the expedition vehicle. Using a large amount of energy and money, he finally completed the repair and remodel of the expedition vehicle. An expedition vehicle named “Rover No.1” was laid out in front of Chen Jin. After spraying a layer of silver paint on its exterior, he was completely finished. Rover No. 1 was enormous, imposing, elegant, and infused with a modern, industrial aesthetic.

He let out a long breath of relief. With both hands on his waist, Chen Jin felt a deep sense of accomplishment, and he was overwhelmed with emotion. In this half a month of remodeling Rover No.1, he had to solve numerous problems, both big and small.

For example, the problem of finding matching tires. The four original tires of Rover No.1 had long decayed past the point of utility. He could not find a whole and working tire for replacement. Thus, he had to purchase them from Earth.

The problem was that the tires used by Rover No.1 had a diameter of one and a half meters, but the portal only had a diameter of one meter. It was impossible to squeeze a whole tire through.

At this time, Chen Jin could only seek advice from Zhao Xin. He asked if there was a type of tire that could be assembled from many smaller parts into a large tire.

Zhao Xin shook his head, “Um…. I don’t think this type of tire exists.”

Mentor Sun interrupted from the side, “I’ve heard of a type of tire; it’s not composed of several parts but is assembled using thin loops of tire material that are stacked together to form a large tire.

“Yes yes yes, this is the type of tire that I want!” Chen Jin was extremely delighted. With the guidance of Mentor Sun, he was able to get into contact with a factory that manufactured layered tire materials that could be assembled into a large tire. He made his request to the factory.

However, the factory did not manufacture the tire layers in the measurements that Chen Jin required. Unless it received an order worth $2,000,000 or more, it would not begin production of a new model. “I’ll fork out $2,000,000! But I want it ready in five days!”

Manager Song of the factory was stumped. Gritting his teeth, he thought, wasn’t it only money? He’s got money! Finally, he beat his chest as he guaranteed, “I assure you, you’ll see your product in five days!”

After five days, the tire layers of a suitable quality were successfully manufactured and Chen Jin brought it to the campground. Twining the loops of tire layers together, he made a large tire with the required measurements.

Using a specialized industrial-strength glue to piece the layers together, the weight of the tire would not differ too much from a normal tire. Moreover, he would not have to worry about the tire blowing.

To date, the modification of Rover No.1 was basically completed. As he drove one round in the crater, it felt very stable and was very responsive to speed changes. It would definitely satisfy the fancy of people who loved to drive large-sized vehicles.

But, a new problem followed. A power shortage. There were a total of 100 high efficiency batteries in the battery chamber of Rover No.1. It had 10 times as many batteries as Blue Angel! It could charge more than 3,600 kilowatts an hour. No matter if he let Rover No.1 have all the power from the 30 kilowatt charging post, it would still take five whole days for a full charge.

However, the robots needed power too. He could not let Rover No.1 have all the power for charging. He had to resolve the power shortage issue immediately!

Chapter 27 - A Transition Program

How to solve the power shortage at the campground in the crater? As early as more than half a month ago, Chen Jin was wracking his brain over this issue. Of course, the best solution was to build a power generating facility in the campground’s periphery. It would solve the power shortage issue. But the cost of this solution would be higher.

Take the example of the wind turbine, the acquisition cost of each watt of energy was around $10. To solve the power shortage at the campground, he currently needed 200 kilowatts. Multiply that number by $10 and the acquisition cost of a wind turbine came up to around $2,000,000. Chen Jin could still afford to pay this little bit of money. The funds from the auctions in Sotheby’s was transferred over two days ago. All the items that he had put up for sale were auctioned off. The total transactions amounted to $15,580,000. Subtracting 10% brokerage fees, about $14,000,000 was transferred to his account. In addition, he had another $80,000 or so as leftover.

Chen Jin had almost $15,000,000 on him now.It was not a big deal taking out $2,000,000 to set up some wind turbines in the surrounding area of the campground to solve the power shortage. However, Chen Jin could not forget that to build a wind turbine, he needed to inject not only funds but labor into the project as well. He would have to single-handedly carry around 10 different components of the generator up to his bedroom on the third floor before squeezing them through the portal in his toilet.

Based on the calculation that the equipment making up one generator weighed 300 kilograms, he would have to transport various items totaling over 5,000 kilograms.

Furthermore, the blades of a wind turbine usually had a length of more than three meters. There were even longer versions at 10, 20, and 30 meters. Some had even more ridiculous lengths at 50 meters. After measuring the lengths of his living room and bedroom, Chen Jin realized that the length of the blade could not exceed four and a half meters. Otherwise, it would not be able to get through the portal.

Besides, even if he successfully transported the wind turbine to the campground, with its complementary power storage equipment, voltage transformer, and a metal pole to support the turbine, he still had to purchase a batch of reinforced concrete to carry out stabilizing work on its foundation. Or else how would the wind turbine work? To sum up, it would a very troublesome matter to build a wind power station in the campground’s surrounding areas!

Moreover, Chen Jin did not know how much time he would spend on this project. Two to three weeks were definitely insufficient. He would also be working like crazy. It would be very busy and tough for him. Hence, Chen Jin felt some hesitation as he thought of these issues. It was so troublesome to build a wind power station. Should he still do it?

Da Li also told Chen Jin that there was actually a large amount of power generating facilities littered all over Haierfa. There were plenty of such facilities in a huge variety, including those for hydropower, wind power, thermal power, nuclear power, and so on. He only had to increase the range of his exploration and he would certainly find an abandoned power generating facility. At that time, he would just have to fix one facility and the power shortage would be resolved.

Take, for example, Fort Worth City to the north, which had a thermal power station and a number of wind generator units. While he was fixing the power generating facility in Fort Worth City, he would pull another power cable into the campground. Thus, the power shortage would be firmly resolved.

“All right!” Nodding his head, Chen Jin said, “For now, I won’t do wind turbines! I’ll explore the surrounding areas first and see if there’s any power generating facilities that are already present in the local area for me to use.” The problem was that power was needed urgently at the campground right now. He had to immediately increase the total power output, otherwise the regular exploration tasks would be impacted. It would seriously reduce the efficiency of the exploration process.

The power shortage issue was now at a critical stage where he had to take action. If not, the robots queueing beside the charging post would wait till the point that even their standby battery power were depleted.

After some thought, Chen Jin came up with a compromised plan. He would take the high efficiency batteries back to Earth. By renting a factory building and using some industrial grade circuits with a high power output, he would charge the batteries in the building.

This way, he could use “electrical power for industrial purposes” as a cover. Even if he used 10,000 kilowatts per hour of electricity each month, the staff at the electrical power department would still not uncover any issues. Moreover, he was allowed to install high voltage cables in the use of industrial electricity. He could choose from 360V, 480V, or even more than 1000V even if it was highly dangerous. It would provide greater charging power and reduce the charging time! He considered all of these various advantages.

On the morning of the second day, Chen Jin drove his Mom’s BMW mini to Bao Shan Industrial Park. (Mom’s department outfitted her with a company car. She only drove her personal car on her days off).

Bao Shan Industrial Park was very close to Happiness Court, separated by a distance of less than 10 kilometers. Travel was convenient, as the roads were wide and there were usually little cars. He could reach it with a 10 minute drive. The industrial park was also one of the earliest ones built within Shang Hai City. It had a history of over 60 years and was basically the same age as the republic.

Within the industrial park were large-scale steel factories, thermal power factories, ship building factories, aircraft manufacturing factories, and more. It was a famous heavy industrial manufacturing hub.

Chen Gang worked in this park for a company that manufactured commercial passenger airliners. Within his company, he held the position of Assistant Chief Engineer in the Department of Landing Gear Development. It was very likely that he could become the Chief Engineer in the future. This was a position that could occasionally land him some airtime in “News Series.” Although Chen Gang’s work was in the background, he had shown his face twice in the news program, including once where he posed in a photo with the top senior in his company. His family was very happy and proud of him. Compared to the accomplishments of his father, Chen Jin could only hang his head in shame.

Although there were many large state enterprises that had been established for decades with staff numbering in the tens of thousands located in the industrial park, there were also many that had been shut down in the State Enterprises Restructuring Program in the 90’s. In addition, the economic situation was not good in recent years. Hence, there were even more small and medium enterprises that collapsed.

Within the park were plenty of abandoned or closed-down factory buildings. Chen Jin sought out the manager of the park and requested to rent a small factory to start his business. The manager was pleased but had to reject his request after finding out that Chen Jin did not meet the conditions. It was because Chen Jin had no business experience, no registered company, no technical background, and definitely no responsible third party who was acting as the guarantor. Hence, the manager could not approve his request.

In order to get the rights, Chen Jin let his father, Chen Gang, to come forth and act as the company’s legal representative. Chen Jin became the company’s executive manager and was in charge of the logistics. Using this method, he was successfully qualified to rent a small factory building that measured about 200 square meters. Also, he was able to enjoy the subsidies offered by the industrial park. He only had to pay an annual rent of $100,000 for the first three years.

After renting the factory, inside the steel sheet factory, Chen Jin also got an electrician to install two cables comprised of industrial grade circuits that could conduct 360V and 480V of electricity respectively. This was in addition to the normal 220V circuit. He also installed 100 charging ports that could all be utilized to charge 100 high efficiency batteries at the same time.

In order to maintain its secrecy, he put Da Qiang in charge of charging and replacing the batteries in the sealed-off “charging factory.” Chen Jin snuck Da Qiang into the factory and made him responsible for managing the precious high efficiency batteries. In addition, Chen Jin hired a guard, paying him a salary of $3,000 a month to watch over the building’s entrance. He was responsible for preventing strangers from entering the factory and formed the first line of defense in the perimeter.

The person who applied was a man by the surname of Qin. He was a 65 year old elderly man who was full of vigour and was frequently addressed as “Uncle Qin.” Chen Jin hired “Uncle Qin” because he had more than 20 years of experience as a guard, was not involved in any shady dealings, and had a good reputation. Moreover, Uncle Qin was all alone in the world and had no children. He was illiterate and could not make sense of profound topics, which was even more reassuring.

A monthly salary of $3,000 was the highest that he was offered in his many long years of working. He could not help but grin from ear to ear in happiness. The artless Uncle Qin exclaimed, “It’s too much! Young man, you’re giving me too high of a salary, $2,000 is enough!”

“Uncle Qin, $3,000 per month is not too much. Accept it with ease of heart. You can save more for your retirement fund. When you’re older, you won’t have to worry. If you do a good job, I’ll give you a raise and a bonus at the end of the year!”

A raise? Year end bonus? Uncle Qin was stunned as he heard these alien terms. Then, he started tearing up. “Young man, I can’t have this. I’m just a guard and not worth such a high salary. Being almost 70, it’s hard to find a job and I was still thinking; I would work for some food and a bit of allowance. I never thought to meet such a generous young man.” Uncle Qin, who had a face full of wrinkles and half a head of white hair, muttered to himself, “Ah…I hope this young man’s enterprise becomes successful and I can keep working at this factory….”

Chapter 28 - Mom’s Suspicion

After renting the factory and converting it into a charging facility, Chen Jin made three trips with his car to bring 200-plus large high efficiency batteries and another 200-plus smaller ones into the charging facility. Da Qiang was put in charge of charging them. With the charging capability of the facility, it would take a maximum of two days to fully charge all of these high efficiency batteries.

The home cable from the toilet that was pulled into the campground would not be retracted. But Chen Jin would control his use of electricity through that cable such that it would not reach ridiculous levels of tens of thousands of kilowatts per hour. Thus, the power shortage was temporarily resolved.

He let out a long breath of relief. Lying on his soft big bed, he slept for 12 hours straight. During this month, Chen Jin was learning car repairs, remodeling an expedition vehicle, starting up a shell company, renting a factory…. He was so busy it felt like he was in constant motion. He never had one good rest. He even had to take time out to participate in two blind dates that Mom had arranged for him. As he bounced between various matters, Chen Jin lost two or three kilograms. Muscles appeared on his arms and chest, turning him into a lean muscle man. The homebody image of his past seemed to have been gone for good.

Today, he finally finished all the tasks that he had to attend to and could get a good rest for two days. After catching up on his sleep, National Day was approaching. Chen Jin planned to ask for some leave from his parents for the purpose of going on an overseas “vacation” with friends. He would be gone for around seven days, and during that time he would not have much contact with his family. In reality, he planned to go into the portal and stay in Haierfa for seven days!

Riding on Rover No.1, he would take with him 50 robots and travel more than 200 kilometers to the north towards Fort Worth City in a mighty manner! He planned to pick clean this mid-sized city that once had a population of more than 500,000! He would also check if there were any power generating facilities and solve the power shortage once and for all.

In short, there were things in Haierfa that required his attention.

…

Yet, He Li did not stop her efforts. On the contrary, she became even more puzzled and bewildered. For more than a month, she had arranged three blind dates for her son. The partners were all beauties with good looks, family backgrounds, characters, and personalities. They were excellent matches in terms of similar social statuses. Why did all three blind dates end without any conclusions? All the replies from the partner’s parents were “not suitable.”

He Li persisted in questioning them, wanting to understand what the reasons were for failure. “Why are they not suitable? What’s the issue?” But all she got were ambiguous answers. With her position in the tax bureau, nobody wanted to offend her by leaving a bad impression. The reason for the collective failure remained a mystery.

At the dining table, He Li impatiently asked, “Son, your looks aren’t too bad and your personality is passable. You can do household chores, are well-mannered and hygienic, why don’t the ladies fancy you?” She looked at Chen Jin, who was wolfing down his food. His soul seemed to be absent.

Raising his head and with a vacant expression on his face, Chen Jin shook his head. “I don’t know. Perhaps I’m not good enough for them,”

“Oh…So you know yourself too!” Chen Gang interjected with a taunting tone, “Even if there was a lady who was blind enough to marry you; after realizing that you are a homebody who devours the elderly, she’ll probably ask for a divorce too. It’s better that you don’t cause harm to their future….. Ouch!” He snarled in pain as He Li reached out and cruelly twisted the tender flesh on his waist, glaring at him with a burning gaze. It hurt so much that he shouted, “Let go, let go! I was wrong, wife, I was wrong!”

“I’ll kill you if you talk anymore nonsense!” He Li’s transformation into a female tiger frightened Chen Gang into breaking out in shivers.

Chen Jin could not help but say, “Mom, Dad is right. I have not one good point, it’s better not to trap and harm the ladies.”

“Nonsense!” He Li refuted, “Lately, you’ve been going to Zhao Xin’s auto center for more than 10 days to learn how to repair cars. And then you started up your own small company. Mom knows that you did all that. You weren’t staying home much because you have your own ideas and business now. Which lady would not like such an ambitious man?” A mother knew her son best. Except for her work in the department, He Li gave all her attention to her only son. She knew every move of her son like the back of her hand and had made her own conclusions.

Hearing his Mom, besides feeling a little touched, Chen Jin also felt goosebumps rising on his back. As it turned out, while he was doing all those activities recently, Mom’s eyes were focused on him. She had always been silently watching him.

This….

Chen Jin did not know what to say. With a Mom like this, he felt both lucky and vexed. As of this moment, he was feeling much more vexed. He thought, Mom please don’t watch over me so closely! Loosen your grip and let me fly. I can be independent now.

However, he heard a voice with an underlying tenacious tone. “Son, since you said that you’ll be busy during the National Day holidays, I’ll arrange another blind date for you tomorrow night and introduce a really pretty lady to you. Son, I can guarantee that you’ll be pleased with her!” He Li gritted her teeth as she said that. She had decided to play her trump card this time round.

“Mom, I don’t want to go.”

Using gentle words, He Li beseeched, “It’s the last time. Can’t you just try one last time? Son, take it that I’m begging you. If it doesn’t work out again, Mom won’t force you anymore. You can find someone on your own.” However, a crafty gleam flitted across her eyes.

Chen Jin’s eyes brightened and he asked, “For real? It’ll be the last blind date, and if it’s not successful, you won’t arrange anymore for me?”

“For real. Mom would never lie to you.” He Li thought, I should have said, you had better not lie to me.

Chen Jin readily replied, “Ok, decide on a place and I’ll go over tomorrow night.” It was only for an hour or so. He could get it done and over with as soon as possible!

…

It was afternoon of the next day, in the tax bureau, in the office of the Accounting Director.

“Come in!”

With a single knock, a voice could be heard coming from inside of the office.

Su Yun fixed her appearance and displayed a polite smile before entering the office. He Li nodded her head in satisfaction. The assistant in front of her had a tall and slim figure, a decorous comportment and a low-key personality that was gentle and quiet. In addition, she was meticulous and patient while being ambitious at the same time. She pleased her in every aspect. But because of her flat face and sharp chin, she looked extremely aloof and cold. However, He Li knew that her assistant had a kind and warm heart under that cold exterior. If not because of her ordinary family background, He Li would have long ago introduced her to her son.

Sun Yun asked with some apprehension, “Director, what did you call me for?”

“Xiao Su, sit! Don’t be nervous. It’s not because of work that I asked for you this time around. I have a private matter….. I need your help on something. Go on a blind date with my son….. Rest assured, it’s not a real blind date, it’s a fake one. I want to confirm if that fellow is lying to me. Xiao Su, can you help me with this matter?” He Li briefly explained the situation and looked at her assistant with a pleading gaze.

“Blind…. Blind date?” Su Yun’s face suddenly turned red. Pinching her finger, she twisted her body. She could never have imagined that the Director would make such a request. To allow her to go on a blind date with her son. This…. She felt very awkward.

He Li explained, “It’s a fake blind date; it’s just playing a game of pretend. Xiao Su, my son is turning 25 soon yet he’s not married. It’s making me anxious…. I have no other choice at this time. I want to check if that little b*****d is playing games with me….Xiao Su, help me with this. I’ll definitely thank you properly!”

“Ok…. ok, I agree.” Su Yun nodded her head in agreement. She got her position as a civil servant by her own hard work and luck. To get to her position, she had to compete with thousands and even tens of thousands of others. Her family was very proud of her. She was determined to make a name for herself in this organization. But the most important requirement for her to stand above others was not outstanding professional skills, it was having good relationships with her superiors. Therefore, she dare not refuse the request that her superior made.

“Thank you, thank you, Xiao Su!” As she watched Su Yun leave her office and the door shut behind her, He Li’s gaze became stern and forceful.

She thought, little b*****d, don’t even think about playing tricks with me. He’s my son, no matter how terrible he is, it’s impossible to be so terrible that a lady with proper working eyesight doesn’t fancy him. It’s three in row that you said were not suitable for you. Either they really are blind or you’re playing games!

Of the two, He Li was leaning more towards the latter!

Chapter 29 - The Opponent Is Too Strong

It was 7:00 at night, on the third story of a mid-range cafe located in the city. According to the agreement, Chen Jin dressed simply. He saw his blind date partner at the number six table by the window—a beauty dressed conservatively with an aloof air about her. Based on his judgment, he would give her a mark of 90/100 in terms of looks. In addition, he could tell from her half-empty cup of coffee that she had been waiting for him for a while.

“You are Su Yun? I’m sorry for making you wait so long.” Chen Jin walked over to her, giving his apologies. For his past three blind dates, he was always the early one. He never thought that today’s partner would be earlier than him, and it made him feel rather embarrassed.

“It’s ok, I just got here.” Su Yun stood up nervously. Silently measuring the man in front of her, she thought, the director’s son is not bad at all. He’s quite well-mannered.

“You don’t have to stand. Sit down, and let’s talk.” Chen Jin shook her hand. He realized that his partner today was quite different from the last three. She seemed very nervous and restrained.

“Um, ok,” she said. Still feeling somewhat constrained, Su Yun sat down. She did not know why she was so nervous about a game of pretend.

Calling over the service staff, Chen Jin ordered two more coffees and some fruit plates.

After a round of introductions and some pleasantries, Chen Jin began the proper topic in a manner familiar to him. “Let’s talk about our hobbies and interests. I prefer gaming and watching anime. Whenever I happen upon a good game, I’ll usually play it until the next morning. And when there’s a good anime that I enjoy, I can watch it day and night too. I really like two-dimensional stuff, what do you like?” He propped his chin on his hand, looking at her.

“I like them too.”

That was not what Chen Jin expected. Her answer was not “Grade 10 piano and Grade 8 dance; preparing for TOEFL and IELTS, so I have no time for playing games and watching anime,”or other such similar answers. She actually said she liked them too.

“Really? Can you give me a few examples?”

“I don’t really game, but I watch more anime than the average person. For example, I’ve watched, Crayon Shin-chan, Doraemon, Tokyo Pig… I’ve also seen a little of GG Bond.” Su Yun had a younger brother and sister who loved to watch those kinds of anime. She had watched a lot with them.

“Oh…” Chen Jin suddenly realized that Su Yun watched anime that was meant for little kids, not adults. He never imagined that this cool and aloof beauty actually had a childish heart.

Interesting…

Looking at Chen Jin, who seemed to stare at her with a half-smile on his face, Su Yun realized that her answer was inappropriate and her face flushed red. With some regret, she thought, ah… I was too dumb. How could I tell him the titles of the anime? He must be laughing at me!

On the other hand, she was somewhat glad that she did not name Pleasant Goat and Boonie Bears.

Looking at the beautiful lady who had a scarlet blush on her cheeks, Chen Jin suddenly thought that she had become more adorable. If this was the past, he would have definitely taken out his phone and asked for her WeChat.

But now…. He had to begin spreading his poison.

Thus, after chatting for a while, he again started to peddle his “Marriage Philosophy and Values.”

“I think that in my married life, my mom should occupy a higher position of priority than my wife. She has been through life, with decades of abundant life experience. She has more patience and wisdom to manage the various minute tasks of everyday life. Therefore, my wife should try her best to allow my mom to decide our family life after we are married, and respect her opinion. We should not act blindly. In addition, after marriage, I hope that my wife will be like me. She should respect and be filial towards my mom, and not stir up conflict with her or talk badly about her behind her back. More importantly, she should not anger my mom. I would be very unhappy about that. My mom gave birth to me and raised me. She lived a hard life. I am unable to accept my mom having to endure being bullied by her daughter-in-law instead of enjoying her old age. Since we are living together as a family, we should not fight over winning or losing. Someone would have to compromise. My mom has a very good temperament; she definitely would not hurt someone intentionally. If there was a conflict between her and my wife, then it must not be my mom’s fault…”

Su Yun was dazed as she listened to Chen Jin’s “Marriage Philosophy and Values.” She neither nodded in agreement nor showed any obvious signs of being repelled. Her expression showed how bizarre and dumbfounded she felt.

Under the table was a cellphone that she held. Via voice chat, it transmitted every single word that he said to another phone.

…

Bang!

He Li slammed her palm on the dresser beside her bed. With wide, glaring eyes, she gritted her teeth. “What a disgraceful boy! How dare you play mind games with your mother; see how I’ll punish you!”

She understood. She finally found the reason for the failures of her son’s past blind dates. In reality, this disgraceful and scheming fellow was acting as a Mommy’s Boy. By making up stories about the mother and daughter-in-law relationship, he had frightened all of his partners away.

Immediately, she switched off her voice chat and called Su Yun.

…

“Ring ~ Ring ~”

When Su Yun received the call, she stood up and prepared to go in the direction of the restroom. “Sorry, I need to take this.”

Chen Jin nodded and said, “Go ahead.”

…

After 5 minutes, Su Yun returned. With a faint blush on her cheeks, she sat down across from Chen Jin again. Continuing from the previous topic of conversation, Chen Jin asked, “So what do you think, Su Yun? Do you think that my words are reasonable?”

Su Yun nodded, “Yes, it sounds reasonable. What you said is very true.”

“Pffft!!” Chen Jin spewed out his coffee. With a shocked expression, he looked at Su Yun and thought, aren’t you supposed to leave? Why aren’t you acting according to the script?

“Then do you think that the two of us are suitable?”

Su Yun stammered softly, “Yes, we’re sui–suitable.” Her pretty face seemed to have been painted red.

“Pffft!” Chen Jin spewed out yet another mouthful of coffee. With wide eyes and a face full of disbelief, he shouted loudly in his head, damn, even this works? I can get a victory even like this? Looking at Su Yun with her infinite shyness, beauty, and sweet nature, she seemed to have been superimposed onto the image of the perfect lover in his mind.

He shook his head fiercely, thinking, no, I insist no! I definitely cannot bid farewell to my wonderful days as a bachelor and enter into the graveyard of marriage.

No matter how pretty his partner was, it was a no. Freedom was priceless!

“Su Yun, actually I feel that we are not too suitable….” Chen Jin said frankly, “It’s your first time meeting me so you wouldn’t know how I’m really like. I’m very chauvinistic and don’t know anything about romance. I’m incapable of remembering any of the special dates, such as Valentine’s Day, Qixi, and my girlfriend’s birthday. It’s no use even if you remind me. I won’t buy presents or give flowers. I’m too lazy to even give a $5.20 red packet. You’ll never find happiness with a man like me.”

Chen Jin did not make up those words. He never failed to find special days like Valentine’s, Qixi, and his girlfriend’s birthday annoying. He just did not feel there was anything meaningful about those days. Women used those days as excuses to one-up each other. What did that have to do with him? What right did they have to affect his gamer lifestyle? His ex had tirelessly demanded a gift from him on Valentine’s Day. In a fit of rage, he decisively announced that he wanted to break up.

“That’s ok, I think that it’s very normal. Those special days that you mentioned hold no significance for me either. On the contrary, I quite like celebrating Single’s Day.”

Su Yun’s reply actually satisfied the three values of his life as a straight man. First he was stunned, and then he gave a forced smile. Feeling at the end of his rope, he spread his hands and said, “Lady, I’m begging you to let me go. I’m still young and I don’t plan to get married so early.”

As he picked up his phone and opened his WeChat, he was getting ready to say, If you really think favourably of me and you’re willing to wait, we can be friends on WeChat and get to know each other better first.

“Ring ~ Ring ~” Su Yun’s phone rang and she again stood up, preparing to go to the restroom. She had hardly taken two steps before she turned back. Presenting her phone to Chen Jin, she said, “It’s your mother, she has something to say to you.”

Chen Jin froze as if he were struck by lightning.

“Little b*****d, get home right now!” The enraged shouting from the mobile phone made him feel as if he fell through a black hole.

With her eyes smiling deeply in the shape of two crescent moons, Su Yun laughed lightly behind her hand.

Chapter 30 - A Deal

Standing in front of his mother, Chen Jin endured her monstrous rage as she reprimanded him. Her words were like a storm raining down upon him. He hung his head like a defeated rooster. Chen Gang was hiding at the side and secretly watching with glee. There were some moments where it was so hard to hold back his laughter.

Like the proverb said, “As you got stronger, so did your enemy, and more so than you.” Chen Jin’s amateur schemes and tricks were no match for mom’s cleverness. In the end, he was finished off in a single blow.

He Li could not help but burn with rage. With much effort, she had meticulously selected three partners who were the cream of the crop. He did not appreciate it and actually treated her goodwill as ill intentions. If she had believed in physical discipline for her son, she would have beaten him to a pulp!

In her terrifying rampage, He Li saw how defeated and listless her son looked. She could not help but soften her heart. “Ah…! Son, I only meant well. Look, it’s already been three years since you graduated from university. Have you done anything meaningful besides staying at home and leeching off of your parents? Life is short; a few decades can pass in the blink of an eye. Can you continue living like this?” He Li said with gravity and earnestness, “I’m pushing for you to get married earlier because I want you to learn the meaning of responsibility and to mature quickly. Why can’t you understand my painstaking thoughts? Do you really want to give me a stroke?”

She also hated how her son had no ambitions to fulfill his potential or expectations. She had no expectations for her son to be forged into good steel from his current state as a useless lump of iron. It was fine to just be as he was and try his best, or even to simply be obedient to her. The problem was that this fellow just could not be obedient to her wishes. Don’t tell me I have to pull that stunt again?

“Mom, I know you mean well. But I truly don’t want to get married at such an early age. I’m only 24. The average age in the city when people get married is 34. It’s too early to get married now…. I want to wait a few more years.” Chen Jin was about to say that he knew she meant well, but he had his own ideas. He was no longer a child. She could not be arranging everything for him.

“What will you do if you don’t get married? Will you go to work? Besides getting married early and giving me grandchildren, what else can you do?” He Li knew that her words would hurt Chen Jin’s dignity. However, there were some truths that he would not recognize in himself unless it was clearly spoken.

“Mom, I do have something to do now. Moreover, I want to achieve big goals and earn lots of money!” Suddenly, Chen Jin shook his fist with an expression of utmost seriousness. His gaze filled with certainty and he said, “From today onwards, I’ve decided that I won’t leech off of my parents anymore. I will live by my own efforts!”

“Oh…” He Li looked at him in amazement. Then, she smiled. “My silly son, are you saying this just to show that you are getting angry with me?”

Chen Gang could not help but laugh. Shaking his head he thought, you think you can fight on your own?

“Mom, I’m not saying this just to show that I’m angry with you. I’m serious. From today onwards, I want to live on my own efforts and not be a leech anymore!” With a stern expression, he even added, “From today onwards, I’m a dog if I ever ask a single cent from you ever again!”

With this, He Li was finally stunned. Scanning his face many times, she saw that the seriousness on his face was unwavering. Finally, she felt his determination. “Live by your own efforts? How are going to do that? Can you let Mom in on your plans for your financial affairs?”

Chen Jin said longingly, “I plan to start a business by making my own company. Then I will strengthen and expand it. I will make lots and lots of money.”

He Li did not immediately smack down his ideas, but queried about his general plans. “Which kind of occupation are you generally planning to do? And which sector are you expanding into?”

“I’ve not decided yet, but it should be in the fields of robots and artificial intelligence and the like.”

At this time, Chen Gang could not help but interject, “Do you know how high the barrier of entry is for the robotic and artificial intelligence industries? You could invest tens of millions and not get anything in return. Moreover, do you possess any relevant technical skills? Do you have any talents working for you? Where did your guts come from to want to enter such industries?”

Chen Jin replied weakly, “Um… No, I only have an empty factory. I don’t have anything else. But I want to try.” He could hear the scorn and ridicule in his Dad’s words.

Chen Gang continued, “Don’t try. You don’t even have one in a millionth chance of succeeding! How about this? My company is getting ready to recruit, I can rub elbows with some people and get you into my company. You can learn from my side as my apprentice. I will train you personally. You’re still young; it’s not too late to start learning. After 10 years, you might even be a top-grade engineer with the same rank as me…” Chen Gang rambled on as he liked the idea more and more with each word he spoke. He still had a sliver of hope that he could fight for his son to follow in the footsteps of his glorious career. It was not too late and he wanted to try one last time. He never expected Chen Jin to vigorously roll his eyes. “After this National Day, you’ll go the company with me. I will definitely find a way to get you recruited!”

“Chen Gang, can you shut your mouth? My son is not as pathetic as you described. What right do you have to say that his business will definitely fail? What if he really succeeds?” He Li was getting impatient listening to his rambling and so she gave him a verbal smackdown.

Stiffening his neck, Chen Gang said to her, “I shall say it directly. His chances of success are lower than striking the lottery! I don’t believe that he can succeed!”

“He’s still my son even if he fails! I can support him if that happens!” He Li, who had just been scolding Chen Jin harshly, had now gone into protective mode. She reprimanded her husband so vindictively that he shrank back and kept silent. Getting tired from scolding Chen Gang, He Li turned to face Chen Jin. With an amiable tone, she said, “Son, I will definitely support you if you want to be an entrepreneur and have your own career. No matter what you do, I will always support you! However, I can’t provide you any other support besides $5,000,000 as your startup fund so you can try making it work.”

“$5,000,000?” Both Chen Jin and Chen Gang shouted at once.

His mother would actually take out such a huge sum to support him. At that moment, Chen Jin’s eyes started getting hot and teary. He could really feel the love his mom had for him.

But, He Li said in a very different tone, “However, this is all I can give out. If your business fails and you lose all $5,000,000, I will not be able to give you any more monetary support. I can only give you this one chance. If it fails, then you’ll have to check your desires and be obedient to my bidding in every aspect. You’ll have to live your days honestly and in a stable manner. Son, I’ll make this deal with you, ok?”

At this point, Chen Gang also understood that his wife was trying to use a fee of $5,000,000 in exchange for taming him. In the future, no matter how her son goes about his life, he would have to listen to her bidding. Chen Gang mumbled to himself, “So you know this too; our son is not made for entrepreneurship. The chances of his success is very low.” But…. A whole $5,000,000. Was this not too dear a price to pay? He would never agree to such a method of education. How is this helping their son? It would obviously be detrimental to him!

“Mom, it’s good to show your support. But I don’t want a single cent of that $5,000,000. I have enough money on me to start my business. You don’t have to worry about funding!” Putting up three of his fingers, Chen Jin said, “Three years. Give me a maximum of three years. I will definitely make my own company, and it’ll earn at least a billion in annual profits, no, 10 billion! With Mom’s support, it’s impossible for me to fail. It’s a guaranteed success!”

“But…”

Chen Jin also made his request. “Mom, if my business becomes successful and profitable, I’ll make my own decisions with regards to finding a partner. Both of you can’t interfere. Can we make this deal?”

He Li’s eyes grew wide. She looked at him for a long time, and she found his expression rather interesting and complicated. Was it funny or was it absurd? In any case, He Li could not believe that in a situation with little funds, her son could start his own successful business and realize an annual profit of ten billion. And within three years to boot!

Chen Gang sputtered, “Three years and ten billion too? If you can earn $10,000,000. I’ll write my name back to front!”

He Li moved her lips silently. She agreed with her husband’s thoughts. But, upon further consideration, she only said, “Ok, son. We’ll do as you say. I’ll give you some time. If your business is successful, I’ll wash my hands off your marriage. But if it fails, you’ll have to do as I say, and quickly get married and give me grandchildren.”

“Ok, We’ll agree to this! No going back on your words!”

“That’s a deal!”

Looking at her son, who was filled with misplaced confidence, He Li felt very suspicious. Where did your confidence come from? I hope that the agony from your failure can make you mature quickly, and make you more obedient to my bidding too.

Chapter 31 - Fort Worth City

After the agreement with his mother was settled, Chen Jin was greatly relieved. She’d finally agreed to leave him alone for a while. He could now sit back and relax without his mother harassing him with the whole marriage thing for at least two to three years. At last, he could enjoy his freedom to the fullest.

And he’d take even more pleasure from it after he successfully launched his startup business and earned $15 million, even $150 million. He would be able to do whatever he wanted to! How sweet that would be! But if it failed…well, sorry, but there was no failure in Chen Jin’s book. He would never fail.

What he needed to think about the most was how he could do the research more efficiently and pull this plan off as soon as possible. Therefore, 5am on October 1st, the National Day, Chen Jin called his parents to let them know he’d left early to avoid traffic, after he packed his bag and acted as though he was going on a trip with friends.

“Have fun, son. Take care of yourself. I’ll see you at home,” He Li told her son, still feeling sleepy. She had planned to make him some breakfast despite her awful drowsiness, but since he’d just get some on the way, she went straight back to sleep after the call.

“Hehe…Planet, Haierfa, here I come!” Soon after he’d left the house, Chen Jin sneaked his way back in, quietly opened the door, and locked it behind him. And then, off he went, very nimbly, through the portal in the bathroom with his bag, landing on the metal platform he assigned Da Li to make.

…

At the huge-crater camp, everything was ready. A modified “Haierfa buggy” was fully charged. Blue Angel, working as a backup vehicle, was also fully charged, and there was a total of 51 robots with charged batteries. In addition, there were 50 electric motorcycles for each robot to ride on so that they would speed up rather than slowing down the mission. There were 200 pieces of large, fully charged, high efficiency batteries as backup, as well as 122 small ones.

There were more than 1,000 bottles of water, more than 50 boxes of hardtack, snacks, energy bars, canned fruits, canned meat, and more than 300 packages of ready-to-eat meals in the cargo space on the Haierfa buggy, the “Rover No.1.” These food supplies would be enough to feed Chen Jin for more than 3 months. His preparation for other supplies was also very sufficient.

As for Fort Worth City, it was only about 200 kilometers away from the camp; it wouldn’t take more than a day make a round trip, so he had more than enough time to really explore and raid the city. Moreover, as long as he kept driving North along the road by the camp – and if the road didn’t disappear halfway through – he could easily reach Fort Worth City without getting lost. And that was why he was confident to take the driver’s seat on Rover No.1 and lead the team personally to search (raid) the city.

“I wonder what will be waiting for me in a larger city with a greater population like Fort Worth. Maybe I’ll find more gold, more jewelry, or even more astonishing high tech information! In any case, I’m sure there will be more treasures in Fort Worth than in Tereese!” The thought of it was just too appealing.

Chen Jin’s face was filled with great excitement; he pressed the START button on Rover No.1 without any hesitation. “Here we go!”

VROOOM VROOOM!

The engine made loud noises as it spun rapidly. Shifting into 1st gear, Chen Jin held onto the steering wheel, and stepped firmly on the gas pedal.

VROOOOOM!

The tires started to move as the enormous Rover No.1 vibrated. The vehicle was moving forward. Chen Jin experienced the acceleration as he stepped even harder on the gas pedal, bringing the speed up to 20kph.

The robots were coming along, too. They formed a four by four square contingent of 16 robots, clearing the way on their electric motorcycles, with the sniper robot in the first row using his millimeter wave radar to scan the road ahead of them to find the best route as well as avoiding landmines. On the sides, there were two rows of 16 robots guarding the entire team, with Da Li driving the backup vehicle “Blue Angel” at the very back.

To make it easier for all vehicles to move around, Chen Jin had ordered the robots to excavate a 50mx5m opening on the east side of the huge crater. Through this opening, the entire robot team that Chen Jin was leading was able to file out of the crater at a speed of 40kph!

They entered the vast Gobi desert, and off they went. This not-so-small convoy drove and drifted freely in the barren land of desert. The spinning tires left a trail of rolling dust as they sped along the desert road. All the stirring noises and actions they created suddenly made this silence-filled planet come alive.

…

In the driver’s seat in Rover No.1, Chen Jin was deeply absorbed in steering the vehicle. The black and white scene through the windshield, the vast, boundless land and the sand-covered sky, the architecture and buildings so rare… it all made Chen Jin feel like he was conducting research on the surface of some alien planet.

But he knew that it was because this planet, Haierfa, that had countless things in common with Earth, was so well developed that it led to its own destruction. It was the contradictory nature within mankind that caused the destruction; The destruction that came from their ambition, desire, and greed.

The Earth, however, was no better compared to Haierfa. There were tens of thousands of nuclear weapons, along with all sorts of conflict, and Hegemony still existed. Even though the Earth was not at war, and the people in most areas lived a precious and peaceful life, there would always be a possibility for Earth to end up like Haierfa as long as the potential source of conflict was still there. The humans on Earth could destroy themselves.

“Perhaps I should do something to protect the peace on Earth to prevent it from being exterminated like Haierfa?” Chen Jin mumbled to himself, but then shook his head.

Maintaining world peace? I’m just a guy with limited resources and limited ability, who am I to decide the future of the Earth? Even if the apocalypse did happen, I’d be thinking about staying alive and keeping my family safe, I wouldn’t be worried about anyone else! I’m not a savior nor Virgin Mary; it’s not my responsibility to keep the Earth safe. If the world war actually happened, I’d just hide here on Haierfa till it is all over. I’d have found another planet by then… How sweet would that be?

Just like the increase in entropy in the universe, creatures like humans are extremely complicated. Some of them are kind, some of them are evil; some are selfless, yet some are selfish; there are those that are religious, and there are those that believe in science; there are the ones that are peace-loving, yet there are the ones that advocate violence; some of them are wealthy, but some are poor. This, naturally, would create numerous conflicts. The society going from stability and order to chaos and confusion is almost inevitable, no one could change that.

Unless all of mankind turned into robots that were controlled and programmed, there would be no solution. Therefore, not just Chen Jin, but no one at all would be able to maintain world peace.

…

They’d been driving for four hours along the road that was packed with all kinds of vehicles, and they were just North of the City of Tereese. Ahead of them, the weather was getting more windy and sandy. The sand accumulation on the ground got thicker and thicker.

Driving on the traffic-free highway, Chen Jin had to rely on the scraper on Rover No.1 to scrape off all the sand before him so he knew where he was driving. All was good until the sand accumulation was a meter thick and the scraper could no longer work. There was no visibility of the road ahead whatsoever. Chen Jin had to put his Da Jiang Phantom 4Pro camera drone into operation so it could detect and search the area from thousands of meters above.

Luckily, the entire convoy was less than 10 kilometers away from Fort Worth City; the drone immediately sent back a set of semi-blurry pictures of the outline of the city. Seeing that they were driving towards the right direction, Chen Jin was greatly relieved, and led the team towards the outline of the city.

However, after they got to the outside of Fort Worth City, they parked on a little hill where they could overlook the entire area. Chen Jin was tremendously shocked. There was a massive crater with a radius of 5 kilometers right in the center of Fort Worth City. About 70% of it had been destroyed by a nuclear bomb.

Chapter 32 - One Ton of Gold

Seeing this, Chen Jin’s heart sank.

What the heck…? I thought I’d found a land of gold; but no, it’s not a land of gold, it’s a land of junk! There’s no point in searching this city.

Furthermore, according to the radiation detector, the level of radiation in this area was higher than normal. It was three times higher! The place was dangerous, he’d better leave as soon as possible.

What should I do?

What was Chen Jin supposed to do with this white elephant city where 70% of it had been destroyed by a nuclear bomb? Should he carry on with the research? Absolutely!

I made this decision and I will finish it, no matter how hard it might be.

Besides, he’d been preparing for this trip for over a month; he took the time and effort to make it to Fort Worth City. He’d come this far, how could he just give up and return without gaining anything? Chen Jin was determined to make the trip worthwhile, whatever he may find.

“Fortunately the city isn’t 100% ruined; there are still some remains in the surrounding areas I can search for. Guess I’ll have to take whatever I can find. Hopefully, I’ll find as much as I did in Tereese City.”

And so, the robots were assigned to a new mission. Apart from the five robots Chen Jin asked to stay near him for protection, the remaining 46 were divided into 10 groups searching the city from every corner on their motorcycles.

Chen Jin had also made a list of priorities, categorizing the items that were worth searching for into four different groups: The first group was gold, platinum, diamonds, silver, rubies, and all sorts of jewelry, and they belonged to the “valuable” group. They were of the utmost importance and should be the first thing to search for.

The second group was high technology information, landing second on the priority list.

The third group was weapons, special equipment, high efficiency batteries, and whatnot.

The fourth group was factories, mines, and power stations. These crucial but fixed facilities were the last ones on the list.

In short, what Chen Jin needed the most right now was the first group, treasure, as he could turn them into cash as soon as he took them back to Earth. Once he had gained sufficient funds for the research and more than enough money for him to spend, the first “valuable” group would be moved down as he moved up the second group, focusing on collecting all the technology data on Haierfa. But for now, he needed to find all the valuables more than anything.

Shortly after they began their efforts, units of robots that were distributed to different parts of Fort Worth City brought back good news one after another.

“Master, we found 800 grams of gold and more than 300 pieces of diamonds and rubies in a residential area.”

“Master, we found 2,400 grams of gold, 700 grams of platinum, and 400 diamond rings in a jewelry store.”

“Master, we found 20 necklaces and 18 bricks of gold, which weigh a pound each, in a safe from a luxury villa.”

“Master, we found more than 1,000 watches of various sorts at a high-end watch store. Should we take them all back?”

The result was nothing Chen Jin had expected! All units reported great news of what they’d found via radio communication. They had gained quite an amount!

It seemed as if gold, diamonds, and watches could be found anywhere. Especially the wealthy villa area on the west side of the city. The robots had already collected more than 50 pounds of gold after searching just six villas…and there were more than 100 of them. Fort Worth City was unexpectedly wealthy.

“Could it be…” Chen Jin had guessed the reason why the city was so rich. “When the destructive war broke out with a nuclear bomb coming this way, the most important thing for the people of Fort Worth City was survival, not their valuables. Compared to their precious lives, all the prized possessions meant nothing but dirt. So, the people of Fort Worth City left in a hurry, jamming probably just some clothes, water, and food in their cars, and drove all the way to the south to escape war. No one cared about the valuables in the safes. Even the local gangsters and burglars didn’t bother to take the opportunity to ransack all these expensive stores…the situation here is completely different from what happened in Tereese.”

In a few words, Chen Jin had hit the jackpot! Furthermore, it was only the second day of their research, but all the treasures they’d collected had formed a pile as high as half of Chen Jin’s height.

In addition, Unit 5 brought back even more exciting news for him. “Master, we found a vault beneath the remains of a bank in the area where the bomb hit; there was lots of gold in it.”

“What?!” This eye-popping news had caught Chen Jin’s full attention.

The vault of a bank! Lots of gold! I must take a look!

But the level of radiation residue in the area where the nuclear bomb hit was 10 times higher than normal; it could even go up to 100 times higher in areas with radioactive contamination.

Da Li suggested Chen Jin stay, because going there would involve a significant risk. As for the gold, robots could bring them over.

“It’ll be fine! I’m wearing my hazmat suit, I’ve got my radiation detector. And I’ll leave as soon as the level of radiation gets unusual!” Chen Jin just could not sit still with his rising curiosity; he had to see it for himself.

“Alright, Master. But please do keep an eye on the radiation detector.” Da Li had no choice but to agree with him.

Wasting no time, he hopped onto the driver’s seat on Rover No.1, leading Unit 5 to the location where they’d found the bank.

…

20 minutes later, they were at the bank. All of the gold bricks in the vault were 24k and weighed 10 pounds each; after cutting the vault open with a laser, the robots took them out one by one, loading up the storage space on Rover No.1 with all of these fine gold bricks.

“124, 125…” There was even a professional gold-counting robot. Finally, the last brick of gold was sitting properly in the storage space. “Master, there are 236 bricks of gold in total,” The robot reported.

He nodded, counting in his head. “Each brick weighs 10 pounds, which is 4.5 kilograms; 4.5 multiplied by 236 is…1,062 kilograms! Damn, I found a ton of gold in such a short time!”

Along with the ones I found in jewelry stores, houses, and luxury villas, I’ve found a total of more than 1.1 tons of gold. It might even be 1.5 tons. For the price on Earth, if I bring them back, I could sell them for $40 per gram, then it multiplies one ton, that’s $40 million!

“I have finally reached the $15 million goal our Millionaire Wang always talks about.” Chen Jin was filled with tremendous excitement. At first he was hoping (with great anticipation) that he’d reach his goal selling all the valuables he found in the City of Tereese, but he’d only made $2.6 million, which obviously didn’t meet his expectation; Fort Worth City was under attack and got hit by a nuclear bomb with its city center burned to ashes, leaving only the surrounding areas for Chen Jin to search. What was originally a letdown turned out to be a huge surprise. “Haha! I didn’t come this far for nothing! No way!”

Looking at this wall of gold bricks in the storage space, Chin Jin was smiling from ear to ear. What Unit 3 reported to him next brought him an even greater satisfaction; it made him much more overwhelmed with excitement than a 100 tons of gold would.

Chapter 33 - I Found A Car Factory

Robot Unit 3 discovered a large factory that wasn’t too badly damaged in an industrial district in the north of Fort Worth City.

A large automobile factory! I found a car factory.

Da Li gave Chen Jin a short introduction about this area. “Automotive industry was the economic backbone in Fort Worth; more than half of the residents here worked in related fields. They called it ‘The City of Cars.’”

Their well-developed automotive industry made Fort Worth City the influential capital of heavy industry….Which was also the reason why this city was a nuclear bombing target.

Entering the massive factory, Chen Jin noticed that on the production line made with numerous mechanical arms, cars were waiting to be assembled. They were all domestic electric vehicles, and there were hundreds of them, all waiting to be rolled off the line.

Sadly, however, due to the war they had, it would never happen. In addition to that, a multitude of facilities outside of the factory, such as the coal-fired plants, component suppliers, and warehouses for various autoparts, were all destroyed when the bomb hit; the chances for him to restore the entire factory and put the production line into operation again were basically zero.

But did that mean Chen Jin didn’t gain anything? No!

Led by the robot Da Li, Chen Jin came to the center of intelligence management, and accessed the rigorously guarded central control room after the medical robot, Da Bao, cut the bulky, metal gate open with his laser gun.

KUANG KUANG!

They forced open a cabinet that seemed like a chest of drawers on the control desk, and pulled a fist-sized cube off the bottom center of the cabinet. The entire cube was black, with a bottom covered with golden pins; it was an industrial solid-state drive assembled with 2,014 layers, and it had a built-in neural network, with a memory capacity of up to 10 PB (10,240 TB).

Moreover, it was also the most crucial “core of industrial intelligence” in this car factory. All the data that kept this production line working, the confidential manufacturing procedures, the programming information, and the solution plans, were stored in this “core of industrial intelligence.”

As for the value of this “core of industrial intelligence,” well, not even 10,000 tons of gold would be enough to pay for it! With this core, he could build a car factory and manufacture hundreds of thousands of electric vehicles, even if he was just an amateur who knew absolutely nothing about neither those vehicles nor the automotive industry. Chen Jin wouldn’t need to learn anything or hire any mechanics, or do any experiments and research, for this whole operation.

All he had to do was rebuild the production line, assign the robots to their designated working position, and install the necessary autoparts. Once all of that was done, the electric vehicles would be automatically manufactured one after another.

Da Li explained, “Their industrial production approach tremendously changed; one of the biggest changes of it all was that they were no longer dependent on humans. Traditionally, for the automotive industry, human engineers were in charge of jobs like adjusting various parameters of the production line, optimizing assembling processes, and discarding unnecessary procedures; a factory would need to hire a lot of engineers. Some of the important fabrication procedures also depended on humans; as a result, the cost of employment increased with the rising demands for their professional skills and proficiency.”

Chen Jin nodded, and Da Li continued, “But the situation changed with the rise of this core of industrial intelligence. Industrial manufacturing no longer depended on humans. The core of industrial intelligence can collect data by itself, analyze, make adjustments and optimize accordingly, and store all the manufacturing information. With intellectual learning and the agile mechanical arms, humans were gradually replaced, making it an unmanned factory that reduced a lot of labor costs. Furthermore, it also reduced the cost of start-up businesses, making it much easier for those who wanted to join the high-tech industry. Especially with the mature 3D printing technology, combined with the core of industrial intelligence, private capsule factories started to emerge and individuals were able to produce complex parts with great quality. For instance, a significant amount of the autoparts in this factory came from a privately-owned capsule factory.”

Capsule factories integrated with the core of industrial intelligence was the primary result brought by the Industrial Revolution 4.0, which was also how the industrial system would work in the future. And now, Chen Jin had found a core of industrial intelligence for automotive manufacturing. Additionally, other robot units brought him even more great news: In the north of the industrial area, there were 115 capsule factories, and a batch of raw material for 3D printers.

All of a sudden, he was filled with great confidence. He was confident that he could transform Haierfa and take full control of it! “And I thought I was just here to explore, pick rubbish, and maybe strike it rich, not take control of a planet. I guess I was wrong! With the rise of the core of industrial intelligence, industrial development doesn’t depend on humans anymore; the combination of industrial robots and intellectual learning has completely replaced humans. The saying that ‘growing an industry requires a lot of industrial population’ is no longer the case. The industrial development continues to move forward even without the industrial population. Even I, the only alien human on Haierfa, can establish an industrial system. The age of one-man industrial development has come!”

As for the capsule factories, they could be categorized into two groups:

One was the “general capsule factory”, a.k.a. the “multi-purpose factory;” it could print out any products within its printing range with the information the users gave them. This kind of capsule factory was able to produce thousands of various products as long as specific materials weren’t requested.

The other one was the “custom-made capsule factory;” because of the customized design, the factory could only produce a specific kind of parts, much lessening the varieties of products. But it was also for that reason that the factory could create high quality items with better materials and supplies, meeting demands for high-standard purposes.

Of all the capsule factories the robot units found, 70 of them were “custom-made factories,” and 45 were “general factories.”

Seeing these capsule factories, Chen Jin came up with an idea. “What if I took all of these capsule factories back to the huge crater camp and print out all the essential parts a wind turbine needs, and assemble them? I can then solve the energy shortage problem at the crater!”

The coal-fired plants in Fort Worth City had already been destroyed by the nuclear bomb. Even if they hadn’t, there was no way Chen Jin could collect enough coal to restore the plants; he had to set up a power station to solve the problem. Now that he had all of these capsule factories, he could print out all the necessary parts and solve the power shortage problem completely. He was sure of it! Chen Jin once again was filled with excitement. “I can’t believe I’ve gotten so many surprises in Fort Worth City!”

Chapter 34 - Returning from A Rewarding Journey

Surprises kept on coming. On the 4th day of the research, they were still in the industrial district north of the city, but in a smaller factory. Instead of another core of industrial intelligence, the robot units found two personal flying cars in a closed warehouse in the factory. Two flying cars! What on earth was a flying car? Apparently, it was a car that could fly. But it had four wheels too, and looked just a like regular car. What was different about it was that the design was aerodynamically optimized, meaning the body of the car was sleeker, and the driver’s seat was placed in a teardrop-shaped cabin. In addition, the car had a flat chassis as well as two triangle strakes extended from both sides of the car, along with a t-shaped vertical stabilizer that had movable flaps which could provide stability whilst flying.

As for the power system, naturally it used its engine to generate power when it drove on the ground; however, once the flying mode was on, all the little electric jet turbines at the bottom of the car would start working to lift the car up in the air, and the two electric turbines with 100 horsepower at the back helped move the car forward.

A vehicle like this required 20 pieces of high efficiency batteries because it depended entirely on electrical energy; the car could only move up to 800 kilometers in the air, while it could go as far as 2,000 kilometers driving on the ground.

They called it an “airphibian vehicle” in this world. It could be extremely useful when there was heavy traffic.

The fact that the robot units found these flying cars in a small factory like this indicated that the auto manufacture city of Fort Worth was pursuing a diversified development, avoiding putting all of their eggs in one basket. Apart from the aged rubber tires, both flying cars remained well intact as they were stored in the closed warehouse.

Once Chen Jin installed 20 high efficiency batteries into each car, he’d be able to drive on the ground and fly in the sky! He laughed with happiness. “Haha! These two sweet gems! They can’t fly long distance but they can fly, at a speed of 700-800 km/hr. With their help, my research on Haierfa is going to be even more efficient! It would only take me 20 minutes to get back to the huge crater camp! I’d be able to escape fast if there’s any danger.” Having a car like this was like having a bodyguard.

Regardless of how much he’d love to drive the car, Chen Jin preferred to wait a little longer, for he had never driven one before, and the sky was very much covered in dust, making it easy to get lost with the low visibility. As much as he wanted to drive, he did not want to risk his precious life. Plus, they had been sitting in the warehouse for so long now, there might be some problems here and there with the engines and whatnot. He needed to do a thorough checkup before flying it into the sky.

On a side note, Chen Jin named the two cars, too. “For the blue one, let’s call it Air No.1, and Air No.2 for the white one.” If I find more later on, I’ll just call them, Air No.3, Air No.4, Air No.5, and so on.

All robot units had covered and searched every corner of the city. The gems that they had found were pretty much all they could find. Chen Jin had pretty much used up all his good luck, too. On the fourth evening of their research, Da Tou, the robot that was in charge of the weather forecast, reported back urgent news.

“Master, I’ve detected that the weather in the north is getting very dusty, and wind has gotten much stronger too. There is also a massive black cloud coming this way at high speed! Oh, no! It’s a sandstorm! Master, I can see it through my optical lens! Please be prepared, Master. The sandstorm will sweep across the city in five minutes!”

WHAT!?

Chen Jin was frightened.

Da Li projected the video messages transmitted from Da Tou. It was as if a massive, pitch-black tsunami coming from the yellow sky was about to devour the entire city at a speed so fast that it seemed like the storm was coming with a magnificent army of thousands of horses and soldiers.

Chen Jin was horrified. “Hide! All the robots that are still searching the city, hurry! HIDE YOURSELF! Find a safe spot and hide!! A sandstorm is coming, stop all the research work. Keep yourselves safe!” Chen Jin gave out the orders in panic. The weather near the huge crater camp could also get dusty and sandy from time to time, but never a serious storm like this; he had absolutely no past experience to rely on and had not prepared himself for this kind of extreme weather.

Fortunately, the closed warehouse where the two flying cars were stored in was very strong and sturdy. Chen Jin shut the electric door after parking Rover No.1 and the back-up vehicle Blue Angel in there, thinking it should be strong enough to survive the high storm winds. What he was really worried about, though, were the robots that were distributed in all parts of the city. There was no time to gather everyone; he could only release the weather warning so they could find a safe hideout in time.

WHOOSH WHOOOOSH!

In no time, all of Fort Worth City was shrouded in a haze as the sandstorm slammed across them. Even the sturdy metal door rattled furiously as the sand and dust hit. From the video messages the robots sent him from outside, Chen Jin saw what was no different from an apocalypse. The city was atramentous. It was simply dark outside. The only sign of life was the sounds the high winds made, coming from every corner of the city. Winds as strong as a 10 on the beaufort scale could easily uproot anything that had a weaker base.

Chen Jin felt nothing but despair in a situation like this. Hiding in the warehouse, Chen Jin asked Da Bao to drill a hole on the wall to let some air in so he could breathe; he didn’t dare to take one step outside. Now, all he could do was wait, for two days and two nights. And yet, the storm didn’t seem to have weakened one bit.

Chen Jin began to get anxious. “The National holidays are almost over, Mom is going to be worried sick if she doesn’t see me at home! She’ll probably call the police and start posting missing-person notices everywhere. She might even break into my room…” Chen Jin prayed and prayed for it to be over. “That’s enough, sandstorm. Please stop. I need to go home!”

And perhaps his prayers were heard and answered. The sandstorm had finally stopped early morning on the third day. The rays of the sun passed through the dark clouds, shining on countless grains of sand and dust floating in the air. The long absent yellow sunlight had once again lit up the entire city. However, all the dust and sand brought by the storm had blocked the roads to the south.

Luckily, it didn’t really affect Chen Jin’s route back to the huge crater camp, as he had a compass with him, and most of the robots had a built-in memory function that stored all the route information. Plus, it was only 200 kilometers; getting lost didn’t seem very likely.

That being said, Chen Jin’s expedition team was still somewhat damaged from the sandstorm. He lost contact with three robots, and 15 of the electric motorcycles were gone as well as some of the jewelry. But overall, Chen Jin didn’t lose too many things; the “most rewarding ones” were safely stored in the storage room on Rover No.1.

He assigned two robots to fly the cars back to camp, and drove the Rover filled with “rewards” himself. As he sat in the driver’s seat, he turned around and took a look at the city that seemed like it was about to be devoured by the desert.

“I don’t think I’d want to visit this place ever again. What if another sandstorm like this hits?” Chen Jin mumbled to himself. “The robots can come back here to take the remaining capsule factories and printing supplies. I’ll just give commands remotely. Besides, it seems that the further north we go, the worse the condition of the natural environments gets, and the more sandstorms there are, including Fort Worth City. it wouldn’t make sense to expand up north as all the highways, railroads, cities, and manmade architecture is all covered with sand. It looks fine in the south, though; there are even some drought-tolerant plants. I shall expand my territory down south next. According to the map, the ocean is 500 kilometers south of the huge crater…”

Oceans and coastal areas have resources that are productive drivers for any nation’s economy; it’s also the most civic areas where major cities are.

For that reason, Chen Jin already knew where he should go for his next expedition, and had come up with a pretty solid plan.

Chapter 35 - Planning on Starting A Jewelry Store

About six hours later, Chen Jin had led his expedition team back to the huge crater camp. The second they arrived, he grabbed his bag and headed straight to the portal and went back to his bedroom.

Wa-Wah Wa-Wah!

In the bedroom, the robot Wa-Wah waved and greeted him from the corner. Chen Jin took his Huawei 2.0 from one of his drawers and turned it on, ignoring Wa-Wah. And as he expected, 124 missed calls from his mother.

The time was 4:16AM, October 9, 20×8. He was supposed to be home two days ago. His mother was sleeping upstairs. To take a load off her mind, Chen Jin did some cover-up and gave his mom a call around 5AM.

RINNGGG…

Her phone was answered immediately. “Son, where have you been? Why didn’t you call me? Where are you now? Are you alright?” He Li got out of bed as soon as she got the call, anxiously asking him all sorts of questions.

“Mom, I’m fine. I’m home now. The traffic was awful during the national holidays so we decided to stay for another day…” Chen Jin explained with a wry smile on his face. His mom worried too much.

“You unsophisticated boy. It’s totally fine if you wanted to stay out a few more days. But you could have given me a call. Do you have any idea how worried I was?”

“Mom, I told you…the place we went to was a land of Buddhism where everything was pure and clean. No cell-phones or computers were allowed. It’s how they help people return to nature and find their true self… ”

“Alright, alright. Open the door. I want to see you.”

SQUEAK!

His door opened, and his mom was standing outside in her pajamas.

A little more than an hour later, He Li smiled from ear to ear and her face lit up with exhilaration as he told her all about his travels over the past few days; then, he gave her a pair of pearl earrings. And just like that, she was pleased. He’d done it again.

…

After dawn, both of his parents had gone to work. Chen Jin was once again home alone. He went back to his room and took a nap for a couple of hours. He didn’t go back to the huge crater after he woke up, however; instead, he turned on his dust-covered computer, opened a web browser, and searched “How to start a jewelry store” on Baidu.

He read closely and carefully on each webpage. Yes, Chen Jin was going to start his own jewelry store. One that solely belonged to him. In this store, he would sell gold, silver, platinum, diamonds, jades, and rubies (they came in various colors). In addition, he would set up a counter exclusively for the luxury, high-end watches. In short, his store would have everything and anything that was related to jewelry.

I wonder if this kind of business makes money?

Chen Jin found a few answers on “Baidu Knows.”

“There are two ways that a jewelry store can make money: one is from purchase channels, and the other is from the price of the gold you give your customers. Generally speaking, the purchase channels for a jewelry store are jewelry factories; their factory price is the same as gold’s market price, with an extra 50-70 cents of handling fees. Processing charge is also somewhere between that range. Of course, it depends entirely on the region you’re in, but usually it won’t be more than 70 cents. The price of gold jewelry the store gives their customers is usually based on the gold’s market price, with an additional three dollar handling fee, and another three dollars for processing fees…which means that the profit you make is always at least $4.5 for each gram of gold you sell. But, of course, your profit will be affected if you sell the gold for a price lower than what you pay the factory. Nonetheless, owners usually can stay out of the red. Purchase channels vary from place to place; some are legitimate, some aren’t, depends on your preference. You don’t make as much working with the legit ones, but it’s less risky.”

Another one answered: “No, you don’t make much. It’s expensive to start your own jewelry store. In smaller cities, you’d need to invest around $45,000 – $75,000; in a bigger one, you’d need at least $150,000! You’re not going to make it without a good marketing strategy; even if you do, it’s still very risky, because no jewelry store could survive on selling small quantities. And by the way, it’s better to not go into this kind of business without any connections with the mafia. It’s a massive investment doing this kind of business. Besides, gold prices fluctuate with prices of the share market. Unless you have extremely sufficient funds, you’d better do something else…”

After doing a little more research on the internet, Chen Jin had a pretty good idea of what this business was all about. In conclusion, there were some rules in the jewelry industry:

One: It’s a big investment. Even in smaller cities he’d need to put $45,000 – $75,000 into it; in a big city like Shanghai, an investment of $1.5 million would be the very minimum.

Two: It’s profitable. This business was definitely profitable. But he needed to know the ropes and have some connections.

Three: Purchase channels. There are the legal ones and the illegal ones. Low profit and low risk for the legal ones, and high profit with high risk for the illegal ones. Without a doubt, the risk there means the risk of getting fake gold, silver, platinum, etc. The loss would be tremendous if that actually happened.

What concerned Chen Jin the most was the government. Were they strict about it? Would he need to report to the government the source and origin of the jewelry? He had already contacted customer service from various jewelry stores regarding this concern, but the only response he received was “We don’t know.”

“Mom is an accountant at the tax bureau. I should probably just ask her.” Chen Jin called his mother and asked her about it.

He Li muttered for a moment, and said, “There’s no way the government would be able to control all the economic activities in our society. As long as you don’t do anything illegal, no one reports you, the government wouldn’t conduct an investigation on someone for no reason. You know what I mean? Say, this so-and-so has $150 million. How did he make that kind of money? Did he break the law? The government can’t check into it; as long as no one reports this person to the authorities, or if he didn’t do anything illegal, he gets to keep the money. This is a massive country; it’s impossible for the government to keep an eye on every corner. The administrative expenses would be enormous! It’s like money laundering; the authorities have been suppressing it over the years, but only a few cases get exposed to the public every year. The government then deals with those cases to set an example and warn everyone. Most of the time, the authorities stay out of it if things are kept subtle.” He Li wouldn’t normally share this kind of information in public, but her son was asking, so she disclosed some details.

“So they govern by doing nothing, you mean?”

“I guess you could say that.”

“But what if I discovered 100 tons of gold? Do I get to keep them?” Chen Jin asked.

“No, you don’t. Our country does.” He Li corrected him.

“Then, what can I do to keep them?” Chen Jin started to get anxious. Handing them over? No freaking way!

“Don’t tell anyone about it.”

“Oh, I see.” Chen Jin fully understood what his mother meant.

Keep it absolutely confidential! I must not give myself away or make any mistakes.

Only then could he bring all the jewelry on Haierfa over to Earth, and sell them in his own jewelry store, and turn them into cash. As long as he kept it to himself, and didn’t do anything that would raise suspicions, he wouldn’t get into trouble even if the government actually decided to conduct an investigation on his store.

“Besides, Mom works for the government. She’s more or less a supervisor too. Why would they want to check on me?” So, in a way, Chen Jin did have some connections. As for the funds he needed for the store, $1.5 million, Chen Jin had it. It was the least of his worries.

Starting a jewelry store wasn’t too difficult ; it was just like starting a restaurant or a grocery store, it was very common. He just needed to provide his tenancy agreement, a business license, the tax registration certificate, as well as the approvals from the Fire Department and the Ministry of Health. Once all of that was taken care of, Chen Jin would make a grand opening for his jewelry store!

It was true the procedures were a little complicated and tedious, but Chen Jin was determined to make it happen. “There is an unbelievable amount of gold, silver, and various kinds of rubies on Haierfa. Starting 1,000 jewelry stores is not impossible if I take all the treasures back to Earth with me! But I will only start one store. And only a small portion of the jewelry will be from Haierfa. I will sell them along with some other ones. A profit of $30 to $45 million per year would be enough for me. Slow but steady; this jewelry store is going to turn into a cash cow that makes profits and helps me with primitive accumulation of capital. After that, I will use the funds to start my business in the high-tech industry, making more profits and creating a greater success!”

And just like that, Chen Jin graduated from the Elderly Devouring Generation. Step by step, he realized the value of his life!

Chapter 36 - Chiu Wan-Ting

It’s settled.

Chen Jin went straight to the city center the next morning. Since he’d decided to start a jewelry store, he needed to rent a place and renovate it tastefully as a fine jewelry store.

But what area would be best for my store? An economically active, well-developed area with lots of crowds, of course. Perhaps the ground level of a large shopping mall, or the best spot on a bustling commercial street. Anyway, it has to be a place where the population is densest, so I can make the most profit.

Chen Jin knew he needed to target areas like that. However, he didn’t plan on renting a store in a shopping mall, as places like that were usually very complex, and there wasn’t much privacy; plus, the size of the stores there weren’t big, so it wouldn’t be easy to do much renovation.

He preferred to rent an entire commercial building with at least 10,000 sq ft in size that had three or four floors. He wanted a massive jewelry store that could provide customers with the best products. It wouldn’t be too difficult to find a commercial building like that. They were everywhere, but the rent was extremely high, especially the ones in the city center; the average rent for 10 sq ft per day would be $5. For a place as big as 10,000 sq ft, the annual rent would be $44k – $60k. It could even go up to $75k for a busier area.

Chen Jin was speechless. “No wonder everyone on the internet said starting a jewelry store is no easy task. Who can actually make money in this business with the ridiculous rent?”

Running a store, the owner would need to put in an unbelievable amount of thought and effort regarding the rent, the payment for employees, taxes, cleaning fees, management fees, etc. Everything costs money. Even if it was a gold store, the crazy high rent would still eat you alive.

Chen Jin found a three-story building with a size of 10,000 sq ft on No. 188, Jin Ling West Road. It used to be a jewelry store too, but they closed it due to the constantly increasing rent; the business simply was not making enough money to pay for it.

Intending to rent the building, Chen Jin gave the owner a call. The owner was a man who had gotten a bit of a middle-aged spread and a beer belly. People called him “Mr. Lee.”

“Mr. Lee, how much do you charge to rent this three-floor commercial building for a year?”

“You want to rent this place?” he asked Chen Jin with a suspicious look. How is he going to get the money to rent my building at such a young age?

“Yes, but I would like to get to know the rent situation first.” Chen Jin nodded.

“$815k for a year, $1.5 million for two years. Minimum lease is one year, and you would have to pay me half the rent as a deposit if you’re renting for a year. Do you have that kind of money?” He looked at Chen Jin in a sarcastic way. It’s easily a $150k kind of deal. You’re just a boy; there’s no way you have the money.

“Can you do a better price? $150k is a bit too much for me…” Chen Jin frowned a little over this. The owner’s round beer belly and his greasy hair made him even nastier.

He rejected Chen Jin with a wave of his arm. “It’s a set price, take it or leave it. I will not give any discount.” He stood up from his chair, making his way to the door.

“How about $2 million for three years, but you can’t increase the rent before my lease is up. If you agree, we can sign the contract right away.” Chen Jin stopped him.

The middle-aged man hesitated. He thought about it for a moment and said, “I’ll do it for $2.2 million, but you will have to pay me $745k first! If you’re ok with that, we will move on to the papers.”

“Done!”

It was just $200k more than what he’d offered; Chen Jin didn’t want to argue with him anymore so he agreed. However, just as they were signing the contract, Chen Jin added one more agreement to it because he was worried this sneaky old man would do something dirty in the future. “If the landlord does not comply, and raises the rent during the lease, he will return the deposit to the tenant along with a $7.5 million compensation.”

“$7.5 million! No way! I can give you back the deposit, that’s it. I don’t agree with this one.” His face turned red with anger, refusing to accept the new agreement.

“I don’t trust you. You either accept it or we cancel the deal.” Chen Jin was not giving in on this.

“You…” Mr. Lee scowled at him defiantly.

“There are plenty of available commercial buildings these days anyway. I can easily find another one.”

“Fine, let’s get this over with.” He was obviously not pleased with the new contract. Not being able to increase rent was frustrating, but $2.2 million for three years was a great deal; it was 50% higher than what the previous tenant paid for. It was rare to find someone as generous as Chen Jin who could afford such rent. Besides, the building had been idle for three months; potential tenants immediately lost interest the second they found out about the price. If he declined this deal, he’d really have to decrease the rent.

Chen Jin then got the key from his landlord after signing the contract and transferring $745 million.

Now, he’d finally gotten the access and the legal right of use for the commercial building on No. 188, Jin Ling West Road. Which also meant he would need to find someone to take care of the renovation of the building and, of course, someone to run and manage the store.

Chen Jin himself would not have the time to deal with it all, for sure, so he had to hire professionals to help him. As a result, he paid a headhunter company $7,500 to find him someone suitable for the job. They found a middle-aged woman for him within three days. Her name was Chiu Wan Ting. She was 43, married, and had over 20 years of experience in the jewelry industry. Having been a store manager for more than 10 years showed that she had the knowledge required to manage a jewelry store and would definitely qualify as a “senior” supervisor.

What was even better was that it was right here in this commercial building that she worked as a manager at Liu Fu Jewelry Store for six years before they closed it. She knew the place like the back of her hand. Having no luck for a new job, she had been unemployed for months since the lay-off.

“She’s the one! No one will be more suitable than she is!” Just like that, she’d become the best candidate for the job, even though Chen Jin hadn’t even got to meet her in person. He had to get her to work for his store one way or another.

From the contact information the headhunter company provided, Chen Jin gave Chiu Wan Ting a call and arranged an interview at a local coffee shop.

Chen Jin was even more satisfied after meeting her in person. She had apparently prepared herself for the interview, wearing the appropriate amount of makeup and putting her hair in a bun. For her outfit, she had a black blazer for the top and a pencil skirt for the bottom with her long legs in nude pantyhose; her appearance was just average, yet her nobility, intellectuality, and elegance made her a sophisticated woman.

A charming, middle-aged lady…Chen Jin concluded.

In addition, her experience in the workplace allowed her to present herself in a confident manner. She even had a great sense of humor, making Chen Jin laugh his head off with her hilarious comments. He was very happy with her, in every way possible.

But Chiu Wan Ting was in fact even more surprised with her young boss. He can’t be much older than my son is, how does he have millions of dollars for an investment like this? The only thing my son is good at is playing video games all day long; God knows if he will ever do anything meaningful after graduation.

There was nothing she could do about it; she couldn’t hit him or scold him. Sometimes she’d even get angry tears! Compared to the young boss, they were vastly different.

Chen Jin asked, “So, Auntie Chiu, there are two options regarding your payment. One, you get $9,000 a month, along with insurance and bonus; however, the percentage of the commission would be very little and it completely depends on your performance. Two, you get $4,500 a month along with insurance and bonus as well, and 1% commission, but it still depends on the profits our store makes. What would you prefer, Auntie Chiu?”

“I’ll go with the first one!” Chiu Wan Ting told him without any hesitation. No business did well these days due to the increasing rent, including the jewelry industry; the net income wouldn’t be more than 10% even if the sales revenue was more than $15 million. Moreover, with all the expenses like rent, taxes, and bills deducted, and the boss’s share of profits, what was really given to the employees was very little. It might be hard to believe, but at her previous job, she would get her minimum wage and the commissions from her sales, but her average salary per month was less than $2,200, sometimes even $1,200…and she was the manager of the store!

So, of course, she’d go for the option with higher monthly pay without even thinking about it. As a senior employee, however, she had initially wanted to talk him out of going into this business. Not only would he not make much money, but he might lose all the money he’d invested in too! But seeing this young boss with great vision and initiative, she changed her mind and bit her tongue. She was, after all, just an employee.

“Alright, Auntie Chiu, let’s make it your first day. Here’s the key. I’ll transfer $150k to your account. Please hire a team to renovate this place and get it done within two weeks. Money is no problem.”

“A hundr… a hundred and fifty thousand dollars?” It left Chiu Wan Ting speechless. She had just started working for him and he was already comfortable letting her handle $150k?

“Yeah. Is there a problem?”

“No, no.”

“Then we’ll stick with my plan. Hopefully, we’ll have a grand opening at the end of the month!”

“Got it. I’m on it.” She nodded.

Chen Jin nodded too. He added her to WeChat to stay in touch, and transferred $150k to her bank account, putting her in charge of all of the renovation work.

Chapter 37 - Confused Dad

Now that he had a place to run his store, he needed to take care of the legal documents next. For instance, he needed the two most important licenses: one from the Industry and Commerce Administration Bureau, and one from the Tax Bureau.

Chen Jin planned on going to both places the same day and getting the licenses required in the most efficient way possible.

But suddenly, he realized there was one tiny problem. His mother worked at the Tax Bureau… Which had complete jurisdiction over his jewelry business. Which meant that to get the license he needed, he would have to deal with his own mother.

It…it was a bit awkward indeed. The truth was, he was not planning on telling his parents about his jewelry business; he wanted to do it all on his own. And it was for a good reason, too. His mother was like a helicopter parent, paying extremely close attention to every little thing he did and wanting to have everything under her control; she even got anxiously concerned when he was just gone for a couple of days.

The great motherly love. But it also meant that for her, he was still a little kid. A little kid that did not grow up. Nonetheless, as parents, they would always subconsciously want to have a say in whatever their children were doing. And no doubt, they did that with good intentions, making sure their children didn’t get hurt.

But still, he was not a kid anymore, regardless! He had become a grown man with ambitions and responsibilities. He didn’t need anyone to intervene in his business; he was perfectly capable of doing things on his own without help from others.

However, he’d already rented the building. There was no escaping the fact that he had to deal with the administration his mother worked at to get his license. Besides, his parents were going to find out about it sooner or later anyway, as his store was rather large and quite a noticeable target.

“Oh well, I might as well just tell Mom now, so she can prepare herself for the news. She might even be able to use her connections and help me get the licenses.” So with that, he’d made up his mind.

At dinner time, Chen Jin told his parents about his jewelry business, and casually mentioned that he’d already rented the commercial building.

“WHAT!? Son, did you say you’re starting a jewelry store?” He Li put down her chopsticks and looked at her son in disbelief. “Wasn’t it just not too long ago that you said you wanted to go into the high-tech and robot manufacturing industry? How come you’re interested in selling jewelry now?”

“Not enough money for that yet. It’s unbelievably difficult to go into the high-tech industry, and it requires a massive amount of investment too, so I decided to spend some time in the service industry first,” Chen Jin said as he smirked at himself.

“Even that would still cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars. Do you have that kind of money?” He Li gave him a suspicious look. Working at the Tax Bureau for over ten years had helped her understand how every industry worked; the jewelry industry was one of the most competitive ones, where the standards were hard to meet and required a relatively larger investment.

“Money is no longer an issue. I have enough to support and run the store. What I do need though, is the related licenses. Mom, I need your help…”

He Li interrupted immediately. “Son, where did you get the money from? Even a small jewelry store in a remote area would cost you something like $70k, and in the city center it is at least hundreds of thousands of dollars! Tell me the truth. Where did you get the money from?”

“Part of it is mine, and I borrowed some. Ma, please stop asking.” Chen Jin started to get a little annoyed by all the questioning. His mom was always like that, asking countless questions trying to get to the bottom of it all.

“You must tell me first! How much of a loan did you get? From whom? Don’t even think about borrowing money from one of those shady underground banks. You’ll never be able to pay them back! If you did, pay them back right away, I’ll give you the money you need!” He Li asked a chain of questions in all seriousness. This was her son’s first start-up business. She had to look out for him.

“I told you, Mom. I borrowed it from a friend of mine. It was just $15, 20k. Ma, I want to be independent and stop relying on you and Dad. I’ll deal with it if anything goes wrong. Please take no part in any of this!” Chen Jin requested earnestly. Having a mother like her really gave him headaches sometimes.

“Fine…” Noticing how the conversation was going, He Li decided to stop asking. But still, she couldn’t help but add one more thing. “Son, if money ever becomes an issue, and it’s within $750k, tell me. I will give you the money.”

Chen Jin rolled his eyes. “Getting the lawful licenses in two days is the only thing I need your help with, Mom.”

“Sure, no problem. I will help you with that one.” It was easy for He Li; she’d just give her people a little heads-up and they’d do the rest. Besides, she also had some connections in the Industry and Commerce Administration Bureau; her son would no doubt get the licenses within half a day!

“Awesome! Thank you, Mom!” Chen Jin was very pleased. It wasn’t so bad to have a mom like her after all!

“Don’t be silly, son. Anything for you.” He Li smiled as she shook her head. Then, she turned around to look at her husband, Chen Gang, and said, “Old Chen, your son is really running his own business now. He’s starting a jewelry store.”

For some reason, however, Chen Gang didn’t seem to have paid any attention to what had just happened. Instead, he kept staring at the watch on his left wrist, looking rather dull and absent. He’d been like that for days. He didn’t hear a word of the conversation He Li and Chen Jin just had. He stared at his watch with his eyes fixed on the second hand; they could hear him speak in a barely audible voice from time to time: “No way…that’s impossible.”

“Hey, Old Chen! I’m talking to you!”

She elbowed him. His behavior obviously did not make her very happy.

“Oh, ohhhh.” That brought Chen Gang back his normal self. He adjusted the glasses on his nose and said in a sluggish way, “What are you guys talking about?”

He Li rolled her eyes at him and told him about their son’s jewelry store again.

“A jewelry store?” Chen Gang looked at his son doubtfully. “Wait, didn’t you say you wanted to build robots or something like artificial intelligence, that sort of thing? And now, a jewelry store?”

“Yeah, but I have to make some money first. Without money, how can I get into the high-tech industry?”

Chen Gang was startled. He nodded and agreed with his son. “Good point. Well done, son. Keep up the good work and make that money!” He thought Chen Jin’s plan was somewhat reliable, so he showed his support.

But then, he remembered something and asked his son. “Son, where did you say you got this watch from again?” He showed him the watch, looking all confused.

“Dad, didn’t I tell you already? It was a $12 watch from some street vendor.” Chen Jin rolled his eyes again. His dad had been asking him the same question over and over. He was done answering.

“But can you take me to the vendor?”

“Impossible. Street vendors move from one place to another. Where would you even begin to look in a huge city like Shanghai?” Chen Jin explained as he spread his hands.

“Alright…” Chen Gang shook his head in frustration. His eyes were on the knock-off watch again. His curiosity pushed him to make a secret decision. I guess I’ll have to do it on my own and solve this $12 mystery!

Chapter 38 - Atomic Clock

The next day during lunch break, in a production department of the Commercial Aircraft Corporation, Chen Gang was trying to solve his mystery.

“Be careful with it, Technician Zheng! It was a gift from my son. Please don’t break it.” Standing close to the operating station, Chen Gang kept reminding the technician how important the watch was, even though it was just a $12 watch.

“I get it, I get it. Stop worrying, will you? I’m the National Super Technician. I know exactly what I’m doing. But if you think otherwise, by all means, find someone else to do it for you.” Technician Zheng put down the screwdriver and looked at Chen Gang from the corner of his eyes, seeming displeased and offended. He was the best and the most senior technician in the Department of Landing Gear Design and Development. Everyone listened and did as he said, even though he came from a poor family and didn’t get a good education. Even the chief designer in the department called him “Old Zheng” whenever he saw him.

Technician Zheng thought that the vice president of the company, Chen Gang, was a decent man of knowledge, and had agreed to help him solve the mystery when he came to him for help earlier that day. But who knew he’d turn out to be such a pain?

“I’m sorry, Technician Zheng, I’ll stay away and let you do your work.” Chen Gang quickly apologized. The truth was, it wasn’t like he couldn’t do it himself. He was good with his hands, but his vision wasn’t as good as it used to be, and there were eight screw fixings around the watch that were thinner than a string of hair invisible to the naked eye. He had no choice but to ask Technician Zheng for help, who had the steadiest hands in the production department.

Seeing that Chen Gang had learned to stay quiet, Technician Zheng was pleased. He took the smallest screwdriver and began to unscrew the mechanical watch in front of him very carefully, trying to take a look at the complex structures and designs on the inside.

Chen Gang held his breath as he watched. His face was filled with exhilaration. However, his state of mind was not in alignment with what his face showed. He was anxious on the inside.

The truth…will soon be revealed.

He still could not believe that this $12 knock-off watch that he’d been wearing for two months still had no time deviation! The time was exactly the same as the standard electric time. And it was a mechanical watch! The kind of watch that used mainspring as a power source and was meant to have time deviation.

For example, the world-famous mechanical watch brand, Rolex, had a time deviation of ±30 seconds in every 24 hours. Longines, the most high-end, luxury watch brand in Switzerland, whose watches were mostly custom-made and designed by exceptional watchmakers, had a time deviation of less than two minutes per month.

But these internationally respected watch brands were nothing compared to this $12 knock-off mechanical watch Chen Gang had. Because there was still no time deviation even after two months! In fact, he had already noticed something strange about this high accuracy watch in the first two weeks, but he didn’t pay much attention to it at first.

That is, until a month later, when the watch remained perfectly precise; then, he finally took it seriously and realized how unusual the knock-off watch was. The curiosity inside of him got stronger and stronger the following month, making him decide to investigate and get to the bottom of how this watch really worked.

As a senior technician for landing gear design and development, “high-grade, precision, and advanced” were the three most suitable words one could use to describe Chen Gang. In addition to that, his career had helped him develop his attention-to-detail ability, which made him very sensitive to accuracy and precision.

And he checked the time on his watch every single day…

As a result, all of his energy had been drained by this knock-off watch over the past month! Now it was time for him to end the misery and find out exactly what was going on with the knock-off watch!

Technician Zheng’s micromanipulation skill really was top notch. Two hours later, all the screws and nails around the mechanical watch had been unscrewed. The carbon fiber back cover was slowly opened. In front of Chen Gang and Technician Zheng, the bright color of the movements, the cogwheels, and the balance spring on the inside lit up their faces with silver gloss.

Technician Zheng was stunned. “I…I would say there are at least 10,000 components in this watch!” There were several even smaller parts that could only be seen under an industrial microscope.

With the help of the microscope, the parts that couldn’t be seen with the naked eye now looked like a massive busy factory where all the cogwheels worked with one another harmoniously.

Suddenly, behind a unique, obscure device that was just the size of a thumb, Chen Gang saw with his amazed, overwhelmed eyes, the answer to why the knock-off watch was unbelievably accurate.

“Atomic clock! There is an atomic clock installed that helps the watch regulate to the correct time deviation!”

There was a display screen that was just as small as a grain of rice on the surface of the atomic clock; on the screen, there was a long line of numbers: 9192601770, which indicated the number of times the cesium atom vibrated per second, approximately calculating the time deviation of the atomic clock, which was less than one second in 100,000 years.

“This is inconceivable!” Chen Gang shook his head fiercely. “How is it possible for an atomic clock to be this tiny? Even the smallest one in the world is the size of a music box, which is 10 times bigger than this one right here! How could it be so microscopic like this?”

Technician Zheng, on the other hand, was in great shock. He muttered to himself as his hands trembled. “Is this really how far behind we are compared to western countries? How are we going to catch up? We’ve already spent 30, 40 years working day and night trying to make a change; does this mean we still need 30 more years to reach the possibility of developing the advanced technology the western countries already have?” The problem was, Technician Zheng was already 60 years old; how was he going to be around when his country outdid the rest of the world? Am I just going to continue to despair? It turned out that Technician Zheng thought the English letters on the watch meant it was a masterpiece from the western world. Which also meant that the enormous gap between his country and the western countries would not be bridged any time soon. He was devastatingly overwhelmed by his innate inferiority.

Good thing was, it was business hours, which meant that everyone else was working. They were the only two that were slacking off, and also the only ones that were bewildered. For Chen Gang, though, it was more confusing and surprising. He was surprised that this was only a $12 dollar watch from some street vendor…

“There has got to be more than just this one; watches are industrialized products! I’ve already got one, I might find a second one, a third one… then I would be able to understand the technology behind this advanced watch!”

Realizing how exceedingly valuable this could be, Chen Gang picked up his phone and made a call.

“I must ask my son and find out where that street vendor is!”

…

At the Industry and Commerce Administration Bureau, with just a phone call from Chen Jin’s mother, the people in the office processed his papers efficiently. The procedure would normally take three business day, but Chen Jin surely was going to get his licenses within one day.

The one in charge was a female director who was also a friend his mother’s. Dong Lei, in her 40’s, was a charming middle-aged lady. This female director was very talkative and passionate. She asked quite a few questions whilst handling Chen Jin’s papers:

“Little Chen, what makes you want to start a jewelry store?

“Are you starting the jewelry store all by yourself? It’s a large store and it’s your first start-up business; are you sure you can do it?

“Is your family going to help you?”

Chen Jin answered all her questions one by one. He said he started the jewelry store by himself, yes, and he took care of all the funds needs without asking for a penny from his parents; he also had hired someone to manage the store. It was true that he didn’t know much about the industry, but he was willing to learn from the people that did to achieve his goals!

Dong Lei nodded. With the kid’s attitude and confidence, she knew she was right! There was no way He Li’s son was a mommy’s boy! Rather, he was definitely a young man with ideas, plans, and ambition. Sure, he didn’t do well academically, but he was courteous and organized. He made a much better impression compared to all the other young men from wealthy families who had excellent transcripts and charismatic looks.

Moreover, he didn’t boast about himself or indulge in loud and empty talk, and he faced his problems upfront. All in all, he seemed like a very down-to-earth, practical young man.

Dong Lei really liked him. But she was confused at the same time. Is he really a mommy’s boy? There must have been some misunderstanding between Lin Lin and him. A wise woman like Director He wouldn’t raise a son like that, would she? There was definitely a misunderstanding!

Dong Lei had been there, done that; she knew first impressions weren’t always reliable when it came to dating. It was not a good idea to paint it all with the same brush. Now that she’d done the inspection personally, she decided Chen Jin was unquestionably good enough for her daughter…

After his licenses were approved, Dong Lei handed them over to Chen Jin, took out her phone, and said, “Here, Little Chen, add me on WeChat. Send me a text whenever you need help. Stay in touch.”

Chen Jin was exhilarated. “Thank you so much, Auntie Dong. I appreciate it! Let me take you to dinner after my store’s grand opening!”

“You’re very welcome. Keep up the good work. I wish you all the best.” Dong Lei smiled.

“See you later then, Auntie Dong. I’ll leave you to it.” Chen Jin then earnestly put the licenses in his briefcase, walking out of the office with a broad smile on his face.

RING RINNGGG!

All of a sudden, his phone rang. It was his dad.

“Son, can you come over to my office? I have something extremely important I need to ask you about.”

Chapter 39 - Nowhere To Be Found

“Sure, I’ll be right there.” After hanging up the phone, Chen Jin drove straight to the Commercial Aircraft Corporation (CAC) where his dad worked.

…

Half an hour later, Chen Jin saw his dad waiting outside the gate anxiously. To keep random riff-raff away, the company had a strict policy and did not allow anyone that was not an employee of the cooperation inside.

“Hey, Dad. What’s going on?” Chen Jin asked as he got out of the car and his dad hurried to where he had parked.

“Come here…” Chen Gang put his arm on Chen Jin’s shoulder and took him to a flowerbed behind a rockery. He said to him in a low voice, “We’ll talk here.”

Chen Jin was puzzled. He couldn’t figure out what his dad was up to.

“Son, let me ask you one more time. The watch that you gave me, where did you get it from?” Chen Gang asked, looking him in the eye.

“Daaad, didn’t I tell you already? I bought it from some street vendor in Shang Hai City. How many times do I need to repeat myself?” Chen Jin simply just did not want to answer his question ever again.

“Where was the vendor that you bought the watch from?” Refusing to give up, Chen Gang continued to try and get some valuable information out of his son.

“I think it was near Zhonghai Garden Road, or somewhere in that neighborhood…” Chen Jin tried very hard to recall.

“Son, can you help me find the street vendor? Find the man that sold you the watch! We must find him!”

Oh boy. Chen Jin stamped his feet and said to his dad, “Haven’t I told you already? They move around all the time, those street vendors. They don’t do business in the same place; it is impossible to find him.”

“But we should at least try! Son, this man is crucial. He is of great importance!”

“I…” It’s just a street vendor. How important could he be? Chen Jin just could not understand what his dad was thinking. It was as if he had OCD and refused to let it go unless he found the street vendor.

Chen Gang then explained to his son why he desperately needed to find that man. “Son, did you know the watch that you gave me two months ago was, in fact, not some cheap, knock-off watch, but rather, a very high-tech one that has extremely high timing accuracy? There is a microscopic cesium atomic clock inside the watch, which means it regulates the time, and the deviation will remain less than one second even after 100,000 years! The kind of industrial technology and skills used to design this watch is beyond our understanding. Our country would never be able to produce something like that even if we continue to advance and develop new ideas and technology for 30 more years. This watch has unimaginable value!” Chen Gang waved his arms and spluttered as he explained, getting more and more excited. “This watch is critical to the industrial development in our country; right now, we are still uncertain about the manufacturing process behind it, but if we can get more of this kind of watch, we’d be able to do reverse research and use them as a reference. This will undoubtedly be greatly beneficial to our industrial technology!”

WHAT? Chen Jin was appalled after listening to his Dad. Who would have thought? Even an ordinary watch could create such drama? It could even have a great impact on our country’s technological development in the future. An unimaginable value?

All of this gave Chen Jin an idea. He wiped off the spit his Dad accidentally spluttered in his face and asked with an inquisitive look.”So…Dad, is that watch worth a lot of money?”

Money? This particular train of thought caught Chen Gang off guard, but he responded and nodded shortly. “Oh yes, it is worth a fortune.”

“How much?”

“Like $15k, or even $150k!”

“Only $150k? What if you raise the price? Could you sell it for $1.5 million?”

“Probably. If I was the one in charge, I’d buy the watches for whatever price they give me…Wait, what the heck? Kid, I’m being very serious with you here!” Chen Gang shook his head fiercely. Price? What price? Money would never be comparable with this watch. He grabbed Chen Jin by his arm and said in a very serious voice, “Son, please! Find that man for Dad. Find him! If you can find him, you’ll do your country a solid, and everyone will be forever grateful for you!” Chen Gang finished with a hint of imploration in his voice and his face covered in sincerity, hoping Chen Jin would agree and help him find the street vendor.

Seeing his father like that, Chen Jin couldn’t help but nod. He knew his father; like the senior comrades from the revolutionary times, his father was also a true patriot and was always ready to vigorously support his country. It really was rare to find someone like him in a time like this.

Besides, even though he was the vice president, which was not exactly a low-level position, for crucial aircraft equipment at CAC, his monthly income was merely a little more than $2,000 with some national allowance, which was only a tiny bit higher than the average income in Shang Hai City.

Compared to those celebrities who hardly knew anything about acting but still made $12-$15 million for each crappy movie they produced, what his dad made was nothing. Of course, there were several privately owned businesses who invited him to work for them and offered $150 million each year as well as a house and a car, but he stayed with CAC and turned them all down, because it was his dream to build massive airplanes for his country!

Deep down, he was Chen Jin’s hero, even though most of the time he didn’t appreciate his father’s criticism regarding his behavior.Therefore, he decided to join his father on this one. “Ok, Dad. I’ll do my best to find this guy. I’ll give you a call once I spot him, but please don’t blame me if I don’t. Shang Hai is an enormous city, after all. There are crowds everywhere. It wouldn’t surprise me if I didn’t find him.”

“Yes, you are right. Just do your best. It’s not your fault if you can’t find him.” Chen Gang had adjusted his mindset. His son was right, after all. With this kind of population in the city, the possibility of finding this man was incredibly slim. Still, he planned on driving around the city over the weekend himself, looking for this street vendor that, according to Chen Jin’s description, was oddly skinny and had eyes like that of a mouse.

Inevitably, he blamed himself for not having enough power; if he had a higher level position, he might be able to use his connections in the Police Department and locate the street vendor via their security system, which would be much more efficient than driving around, looking for one man among hundreds of thousands.

“Dad, I’m going to start looking now. Go back to work. I’ll call you if I find him.”

“Alright, don’t worry about me. Drive safe!”

“Got it.” Chen Jin waved his dad goodbye as he drove away in his Mini Cooper.

Aimlessly, he drove around Shang Hai City, without a single intention to look for this street vendor. There was no such man; where was he going to find him?! So he simply drove around and took some random pictures to prove that he did try. With an ironic smile on his face, he muttered to himself, “I’ve been playing dumb for days, but Dad still got it all figured out after all. I wouldn’t have given him a watch like that if I’d known this was going to happen. I’d have given him anything but this. Ahh, I should have paid more attention to it. I almost gave myself away.”

Fortunately, I’m an actor with excellent acting skills. I fooled him good, so he didn’t notice anything else that didn’t add up.

After all, he’d been playing games with his mom for years, the two of them manipulating each other. He wouldn’t call himself the best actor, but for a little scheme like this, he was able to manage.

After driving a few more rounds in the city, Chen Jin finally came home around 9 PM, fatigued from the trip. He showed his Dad the pictures on his phone. “Dad, I looked everywhere, but I still didn’t find the street vendor.”

“Oh, that’s fine. We’ll keep looking tomorrow.” Chen Gang shook his head. He was unsurprisingly disappointed. But he wasn’t ready to give up just yet.

Chapter 40 - Remedying the Situation with Urgency

Without a doubt, the value of the atomic clock installed in the mechanical watch was tremendous. Not only was it high-grade, precise, and advanced, but it was also a greatly beneficial reference for the country’s industrial development. It was also significantly useful. Moreover, it could work as a moon watch for astronauts and provide highly precise timing data; for those who were keen to embrace outdoor activities, they’d be able to enjoy their adventures to the fullest without having to worry about not knowing the time if their phones received no signals or ran out of battery.

In addition to all of those benefits, the watch could also provide directions if one got lost; with sunlight, one could divide the time indicated on the watch by 2, then point the calculated number at the sun, and the direction where 12 was would be the north.

You could even calculate the exact latitude and longitude of your location with a particular formula if your watch had the precise time. The same theory also applied to the design of the GPS from America and the BDS from this country. In short, the time on the watch could be used to calculate all kinds of information as long as it was precisely correct.

How could I still call it nothing but an extravagant accessory that can only make someone look fancy when it’s actually such a powerful device?

And just as he expected, most of the mechanical watches that he put together with all the other jewelry were also installed with an atomic clock.

“Thank God, there’s only one out here…NO!” Suddenly, Chen Jin looked horrified.

CRAP! I think there’s more than one. Apart from the one I gave to Dad, I sold several other ones studded with gold and diamonds to quite a few pawn shops and jewelry stores. Among them all, there was one studded with a massive, all natural blue ruby that I sold to Sotheby’s for $445k. What should I do!? Whoever bought the watches might have noticed something odd about them too. What should I do?

“I must come up with a plan to get them back.” He couldn’t sit still, and his forehead was covered in cold sweat. He couldn’t imagine what would happen to him if someone found out about the watches and submitted them to the authorities. If the government conducted an investigation and put all the evidence together, it’d lead the police to him. It was too scary to even think about what would happen. “I must recover those watches, whatever it takes.”

Therefore, Chen Jin left early the next morning to go searching in the city, trying to remember which shops he’d gone to. Pawnshops, jewelry stores… He went into all the shops and inquired about the watches even if he only had a vague memory of visiting these places two months ago.

“Sir, I sold you a watch a couple of months ago. Do you still have it?”

“Sir, I sold you a watch two months ago, but I would like to redeem it now, please. It’s got sentimental value. Very important.”

“Sir, do you remember me? I sold you this a couple of months ago…”

Three days in a row, Chen Jin had visited at least 100 stores, whether he’d gone there two months ago or not, urgently attempting to fix this mistake. But even so, he’d only retrieved three watches, and it cost him more than $74k, which was 10 times the price he sold them for.

It didn’t seem likely to recover the remaining three or four watches as the owners either said they’d already sold them to someone else, or the watches had been “taken care of.”

As for the one with a massive blue ruby that he sold to Sotheby’s, well, they insisted that according to the contract they signed with their clients, once an item was sold, there would be no redemption, and the contact information of the buyer remained confidential. Chen Jin had no choice but to leave empty-handed, feeling anxiously distressed. It made him disturbingly concerned knowing there was one enormous hidden trouble somewhere out there.

To put his mind at ease, he decided to rule out the possibility of the watches having both studded diamonds and built-in atomic clocks through the process of elimination. One thing he knew for sure was that the people that bought the watches studded with diamonds and gold might not have made the purchase for the functions, but for “showing off.”

It was perfectly logical to assume that it would be impossible to still install an atomic clock with all the rubies and diamonds studded on the watch, as there wouldn’t be enough space for both features. Therefore, Chen Jin took the three watches that he’d successfully recovered and returned to the huge crater camp. He asked the robot Da Bao to crack open the watch with the high-heat laser gun.

As he expected, due to the very limited space inside the watch, there were just some regular components that a normal mechanical watch would have. There was no atomic clock. It was the same for the second and the third one. No atomic clocks installed.

Finally, Chen Jin was greatly relieved! “I knew it! How would they still manage to put an atomic clock in the watch when there are already so many diamonds studded on the outside? I must have been too worried!”

However, nothing was absolute. Chen Jin couldn’t be 100% sure that the ones that were still out there didn’t have built-in atomic clocks either. As a result, he carried on with his process of elimination and filtered out all the watches adorned with jewels from the large pile of jewelry. All in all, there was 286 of them.

Again, he forced them open with Da Bao’s laser gun to take a look inside. Eventually, he made his final confirmation. 268 of the watches were of normal design, whereas 18 of them had atomic clocks installed.

From this result, Chen Jin calculated that the probability for this kind of watch to have a built-in atomic clock was roughly 6.3%.

“So this multiplies the nine watches that I sold…the amount of the ones that have atomic clocks is 0.56%. Which means that other than the one I gave to Dad, there are still a watch floating around somewhere out there.”

If I round it up, it’s just one watch, which means only one more person would have the atomic clock watch. The chances of me and my secrets being exposed to the public is extremely low. It’s not that bad of a situation after all.

“Plus, the person that bought it is most likely someone wealthy and just wants to look cool, not an engineer like Dad is. They wouldn’t pay much attention to the time and see if it’s accurate.”

Even if they did discover something unusual about the watch, it wouldn’t be possible for them to trace it back to Chen Jin with the dealer company working inbetween them. So…it was unlikely for anything to happen to him. Basically, nothing was ever going to happen to him.

Having learned the low probability of getting into trouble, Chen Jin decided to take the risk and gave up on the research. To him, it really was a lot of work, and quite exhausting; it was a miracle that he did this for three days in a row.

He didn’t want to invest 100% of his time trying to fix something that in all likelihood was not going to happen. The game would not be worth the effort. After all, he still needed to take care of some other stuff at his own jewelry store.

The robots had brought a large number of equipment and supplies back to the huge crater camp, too. He had to start making arrangements for his next step, which was resolving the issue with the power shortage and low voltage on the planet. He would have to just come up with a story if anything were to happen with the watch.

…

At the dinner tabl, after announcing his decision on giving up on looking for the street vendor, it killed He Li to see her son like this. “Son, you’ve been searching for him for days. You leave early in the morning and don’t return till late at night; you’re all sixes and sevens now. It’s ok, son. Let it go. You tried. Besides, you have a business to run now. You can’t be doing this all day along.” She brought more food to his plate.

“Ok.” There really wasn’t anything Chen Gang could say; he knew his son had been trying hard, looking for the street vendor all over Shang Hai City the past few days. It wasn’t his fault that he didn’t find him. It was simply bad luck. It was totally understandable to give up.

Chen Jin nodded in a cunningly calm manner. Dad is too easy to fool, he thought to himself.

And that was how the whole street vendor drama ended. As for the watch that he gave his father, it remained a mystery in the history of the country’s technology development, sitting in the laboratory for smaller precision machines at CAC.

Chapter 41 - The Purchase Channel

At Jin Ling West Road, No. 188, there was a store called “Forever Jewels.” This was the name of the jewelry shop that Chen Jin opened. He did not name it himself, as he had no ability to give it a good name. It was He Li who came up with the name after a round of discussions.

On Chiu Wan-Ting’s side, her renovation process was rapidly progressing. After all, that shop used to be a jewelry store before, and it had facilities that were ready for use. She knew that Chen Jin was eager for the shop’s opening, and she wanted the renovations to be completed within half a month. Therefore she had decided to do some minor repairs and add-ons. The basic set-up of the shop remained unchanged. She would replace a portion of the counter, redo the floor tiles, and re-sand the walls. The hanging lamp fixture need not be replaced, only cleaned. Finally, she would install the plaque that had already been ordered and was being manufactured in the factory. The renovations would certainly be completed within half a month, and would only cost a maximum of about $200,000. It was both time- and money-saving.

Chen Jin was very satisfied and thought it was an awesome plan.

Unknown to him, Chiu Wan-Ting’s real intention was to help him save money. The young boss had put her in such an important position and trusted her so much. One had to know that the annual rent of the shop was nearly $5,000,000 and the profit margin was already very slim. If she did not try her best to help the boss save some money, his startup would fail not long after the jewelry shop opened. She would feel terrible if he had to pay such a steep learning cost. Therefore, she would try her best to save costs anywhere she could.

The jewelry shop was scheduled to be opened either at the end of this month or the start of next month. However, the sourcing of the goods remained a question. There was no sign of a single gemstone or jewelry. Without proper stock, how would they open the shop at the end of this month?

Therefore, she had to discuss with the boss and constantly remind him to confirm the purchase channel in advance. Otherwise, there would be no time. She called the boss and asked him to come over. The two of them discussed this issue in the office located on the third story.

“Boss, do you have any purchase channels for the jewelry? Or an agreement with the jewelry manufacturers to collaborate, or signed the contract for them to be your suppliers?

“Purchase? Collaborate?” Chen Jin was stumped by all of these questions. He shook his head. “Nope, I didn’t really organize any of this stuff yet.” He was so busy recently. How would he have the time for that?

Wan Ting said, “It’s urgent that you go and discuss it. Boss, if the stocks are insufficient, we definitely can’t launch our opening this month. And it may not even be possible to do it by next month.”

Chen Jin shook and his and said honestly, “I’m not too familiar with this.” He knew nothing of the jewelry business. He was a total idiot regarding things like purchasing, collaboration with jewelry manufacturers, pricing, and the industry outlook. He could only say, “Auntie Chiu, don’t be like that. I’ll transfer the money to you and you go talk to the jewelry manufacturer about the purchase channel. I’ll hand over this entire matter to you, how about that?” He planned to task all matters to the professionals and only delegate.

“You want me to go for negotiations on the purchase channels?” Chiu Wan-Ting was shocked. The boss actually tasked her with such an important matter? It was supplies that could involve millions of dollars and he had no worries about her character? She was slightly touched, and found it slightly funny. The young boss really was like a blank sheet of paper. He lacked working and social experience, and he was not mature or seasoned. Overall, he seemed a little innocent and pure.

However, it was certainly possible for her to do the negotiations for the purchase channels. After all, she had been in this business for over 20 years and knew every business link and channel like the back of her hand. No one knew the contacts and know-how to access the industry, its dirty laundry, and its unwritten rules like she did. It would be much better for her to attend the negotiations than the young boss. There would be countless landmines and traps avoided, not to mention the steep “learning price.”

However, there were some things that she had to declare in advance. “Boss, if you truly trust my character, I can help you attend the negotiations for the purchase channels. However, I hope that you have absolute trust in me. Of course, I will give you detailed accounts of every bill of items and every invoice. I can confirm that every expenditure will be backed by hard evidence. I hope that I can get your complete trust. Only then can I rest assured and boldly negotiate on your behalf for the purchase channels.” She meant that she hoped Chen Jin would give her as much power as he could so that she had the freedom to exercise a greater range of motion during the negotiations. Only then could she have the guts to go and negotiate.

Chen Jin understood her unspoken demands and nodded. “No problem. Auntie Chiu, I trust your character. I’ll entrust you with the entire matter of the purchase channel!”

After some consideration, he said, “How about this, is $5,000,000 enough? Is $5,000,000 worth of stocks enough to support the opening of the shop?”

“Um… Our shop is too big. $5,000,000 worth of stocks may not be ample. But there’s about $800,000 left from the renovation budget. We can adjust our supply items. It should be more or less sufficient.” For example, reducing the proportion of gold jewelry and increasing the display counters for the silver jewelry. Simply put, she just had to purchase less gold jewelry.

“Ok, Auntie Chiu. I’ll transfer $5,000,000 to you. If the stocks are still insufficient, then I’ll think of something!” Chen Jin wanted to say that the gold beside the pile of riches in the camping ground weighed a total of 1.55 tons. He could not wait to liquidate them.

“All right, thank you Boss!” Her face was full of smiles, and she felt physically invigorated! She first entered the jewelry business more than 20 years ago and had much experience participating in many sales. Her numerous firsthand contacts with countless clients had given her many precious and rich experiences.

Today was also the first time that she had gotten the ultimate authority to direct the operations of a large-scale jewelry shop. She could do things according to her own ideas and implement her own methods, which she could not do in the past. All in all, she could now make changes to what used to be unchangeable. At this point, her mind was filled with countless ideas and her body was full of energy. With overflowing excitement, she could not help but reveal many industry secrets to the young boss.

“The so-called 9999 gold is only a speculative concept. There is no gold on the market with a 99.99% purity. Even if there was, the price would be astronomical. Jewelry shops would tinker with the 999 gold to make it appear brighter. Essentially, this is a low trick to bamboozle the people. Now, it’s more profitable to be a lesser known unbranded jewelry store than one that is highly branded. As an unbranded store, we have many choices regarding our supplies and greater pricing power. A branded jewelry store is primarily selling their brand names, they can only purchase supplies from selected jewelry manufacturers. For example, the previous Liu Fu jewelry store here purchased gold at a price that was $3 to $5 more expensive per gram as compared to the typical unbranded store. Yet, it’s gold quality was similar. This caused us to have no advantage when it came to pricing. The brand was not as good as Long Feng Xiang or Zhou Chang Sheng. The store was neither here nor there; not dead or alive, why not just become a totally unbranded store? In recent years, as people’s aesthetic tastes changed, it is now much more profitable to be involved in silver jewelry. The cost of silver is low. Industrial silver cost about $3 per gram, but one piece of silver jewelry can sell for $200 to $300 with added value. The material cost is now merely loose change and the profits are higher than gold!”

Chiu Wan-Ting rambled on happily. She imparted almost everything from her knowledge, including all the industry secrets, to Chen Jin. Chen Jin could only repeatedly nod in speechless amazement. He never imagined that the jewelry industry could have such deep waters! At the same time, he felt extremely lucky to have hired a very knowledgeable professional to manage the shop. If he were to rush in and act blindly, it was certain that he would have to foot a steep learning price at every stage. As compared to the potential losses that he would incur were he to act on his own, the monthly salary of $60,000 that he paid Auntie Chiu was nothing.

Everyone knew that the most important thing in the 21st century was talent. He had also heard of the saying, “buying a dead horse for a thousand pieces of gold.” However, when the time came to discuss compensation and benefits, people always thought of how to save money first; how to get the most while spending the least. They would talk about passion and striving hard but not about practical stuff. With this attitude and style, they would not achieve big goals!

Chen Jin had a hunch: even if he did not take the gemstones and jewelry from the campground to sell in the shop, with Auntie Chiu’s experience and ability, the shop would be able to make a profit. It would not make a loss. But, he also felt skeptical. Why did she not open her own jewelry store when she was so capable?

“For 12 years when the economy was booming, I earned more than $300,000. But that year, my husband demanded that I make three meals for him daily, and my workplace was 10 kilometers from my home.” As she explained, her gaze became empty and depressed.

Chen Jin stopped asking.

Chapter 42 - Repairing the Super Calculator

On the 18th of October, in the deep of night on Earth, Chen Jin was busy attending to a very important matter at the camping ground in Haierfa.

Actually, he had been busy because of this matter for more than a week. He sacrificed two to three hours of sleep every night for it. What caused this intense dedication? It was repairing the super calculator that the robots transported back from the City of Tereese. The super calculator that had been in city hall was once used for the purpose of managing the entire City of Tereese.

From Da Li, Chen Jin understood that in this world, this super calculator that could compute up to 100 trillion could not even be described as “super.” It was simply a “large machine” at best. It had an outdated structure and performance capability, and it consumed too much energy. It was a product that was outdated by more than 100 years.

Although according to Chen Jin’s standards, a calculator that had a computing ability of up to a maximum of 100 trillion could definitely be termed as a “super calculator.” It totally trashed any large calculator on Earth. Of course to Chen Jin, this calculator that consumed 100 kilowatts with a combined size of five refrigerators was ahead of Earth’s technology by at least 20 years.

Chen Jin planned to repair it and let it finish some of his work. However, even if he did understand how the calculator worked, did he really have the ability to repair it? Speaking frankly, Chen Jin did not know how it worked. He had never come into contact with one and was a total layman.

He was, however, rather proficient at assembling the components of a desktop. The desktop at home was wholly the result of his DIY efforts. He understood the process of putting various hardware together like the back of his hand. The computers in Haierfa were similar to the ones on Earth because they too had the major hardware like a motherboard, CPU, internal memory storage, and a hard drive. Both types of computers shared a lot of similarities.

The super calculator was based on a similar home computer, but was heaped with a great amount of nuclear power, internal memory storage, and hard drives. Naturally, the components that made up the super calculator were more complex. Only a minority of professionals could understand how those components worked. But Chen Jin could do similar tasks such as changing the CPU, the internal memory storage, and the hard drives. He was not worried about messing up the calculator.

After charging the super calculator, areas that were ok would emit a green light, and areas with faults would emit a red light together with a faint buzz. It was made with a fault-checking design. So, according to the red light indicators, Chen Jin took down 13 faulty CPUs, 35 internal memory storage units, and six hard drives. In addition, he removed 2 modular motherboards before finally eliminating all of the red light indicators.

However, the super calculator still refused to start. Unfortunately, it was because the power supply was insufficient. Even the largest output from the cable connected to his home was not enough to satisfy its lowest energy requirement needed to switch on.Chen Jin could only continue to remove its CPUs, internal memory storage units, and the like (except for the remaining hard drives) to reduce its power consumption.

After almost half of its original number of modular motherboards and CPUs had been removed, the super calculator finally started up, the movement of the cooling fan causing a whizzing sound to be heard.

“This is too awesome!” Chen Jin was so excited that he quickly jumped up. He had actually repaired the super calculator! After two minutes, it finished starting up. Chen Jin sat in front of a slightly curved 49-inch screen. Holding the mouse in one hand, he prepared to operate the calculator. As Chen Jin could not understand a single character on the screen, he could only allow Da Li to interpret from his side. Whenever he did not understand something, he would ask it.

“Master, do you see the logo of the little girl on the table? She is the artificial intelligence (AI) management system of this calculator. You can put on the interconnected smart goggles and communicate with the AI management system via voice chat. It is not necessary to employ traditional methods of interaction with a computer. If she does not understand the language you speak, I will send a Chinese Language package to her.”

Da Li also explained that this calculator was installed with wireless signals for receiving and sending.

“Ok.” Chen Jin knew that in Da Li’s opinion, the motion of using the mouse to operate the calculator was somewhat unsophisticated. He should put on the smart goggles and awaken the AI management system before proceeding with voice chat interaction. Thus, he put on the goggles and connected with the super calculator. A humongous screen appeared in front of his eyes, displaying many 3D stereoscopic icons.

In one of the icons, there was a 12- or 13-year-old girl with blonde hair who seemed to be in a deep sleep. She wore a princess-style dress, white over-the-knee socks, and princess shoes with pink bows on them. She had fine and adorable features and was currently sleeping soundly.

Chen Jin shifted his vision behind her and saw a prompt box by her side. “Does this mean awaken?”

Da Li leaned over and said, “My Master, it means ‘To awaken – Yes/ No’.”

“Awaken!”

Chen Jin stretched out his right hand and selected the virtual “Yes” button on the left-hand side.

The cute and delicate little girl moved. With a tremble of her eyelashes and a chirp, she slowly awoke. She stood up and faced Chen Jin. A string of words appeared by her side, signaling a successful startup.

However, after getting a good look at Chen Jin, the iconic and adorable smile on the blonde girl suddenly morphed into an extremely stern expression. With a chilling voice, she said, “Chinese facial features are detected on the user. The user does not possess the authority to utilize this AI system. Leave, immediately! AI system will issue an intruder alarm!”

Chen Jin was astounded. This… Was this racial discrimination? Even AIs could be like this?

At that moment, Da Li let a ray of green light flash over its electronic eyes. Many lines of code seemed to be included in that ray of green light. The signal light on its chest also flashed once.

“Intruder alarm has been deleted. You have gained the authority to come into contact with the system. Please enter your account password to log in and access the system.” An iconic smile appeared on the little girl’s face once again.

The signal light on Da Li’s chest flashed again.

“Master, you’ve gained the highest authority to use the system. Please use it freely.” The little girl’s attitude changed again. Not to mention her reference to Chen Jin as “Master,” her voice also became sweet and childish.

Chen Jin turned to Da Li and asked in surprise, “Da Li, what did you do?”

Da Li said, “I broke into her hyper-security system.”

“How did you come to have this function? You’re not a computer hacker, you’re only a normal robot.” Chen Jin was extremely shocked. Maybe a god-level hacker spirit had been sealed within Da Li’s body?

“This is a function gifted to us by the virus reboot, Master.”

“Oh…” Chen Jin understood. He had never thought that the virus reboot could bring about such an awesome function. It could actually make a cold and arrogant little girl call him “Master” in an affectionate and sweet manner.

Chen Jin let Da Li send over a Chinese Language package. After receiving the entire package, he allowed the little girl to translate the entire operational interface into Chinese, which he was mostly able to read. Then, he requested that she talk to him in Chinese. She followed all of his instructions.

Chen Jin said, “Do a self-introduction and let me understand you.”

“Yes, Master. I’m called Alice 1507. I am the AI management system for the City of Tereese. I am fully responsible for the power, water supply, traffic, medical, education, and security monitoring systems in this city. I am an AI assistant of critical importance to the residents of the City of Tereese. Because of my existence, the residents lived happy, convenient, and safe lives. They called me “Alice the Little Angel.” I provide a higher level of support to the residents than even Mr. Mayor. Master, don’t you think that Alice is very useful?”

Alice pursed her small cherry-like mouth and displayed two cute dimples as she played with her two pigtail plaits.

Chapter 43 - Guo Yan Lost Her Job

On Saturday the 19th, during lunch, He Li said, “Son, go to the Lotus district if you’re free in the afternoon. See how clean the four apartments are. You haven’t been there for two months.”

Um….

Chen Jin raised his head. “Mom, why don’t you let Dad go. I don’t really want to manage those apartments anymore.” His allowance used to come from the four apartments. It was his primary income as part of the Elderly Devouring Generation. Now that he had his own business, he did not really want the rental fees from the apartments. It was because he said that he wanted to be independent and not take a single cent from his parents anymore, or else he was a dog.

For example, he received more than $20,000 in rent last month, which was deposited into his AliPay account. He gave it all to mom.

“Son, your Dad has never gone to those apartments before. You’re still more familiar with this aspect. Just make a trip there.” She added, “As for the rent that had been collected, you can keep it temporarily. Take it as a loan from me for your startup fund. You can return the money back after your startup is successful and profitable. How about that?”

Chen Jin looked at mom, and saw that her eyes were turned up to the heavens. She did not seem to mean what she said.

He impatiently forced a smile. Mom, you definitely have the final stage of “pamper the son” disease. After a period of time where one did not give some allowance to her son, or even just some random thing, one would feel as if her son would be living a hard life or starving. One would not have peace of mind unless she forced him to accept something. She would feel empty and lost.

Chen Jin’s lazy nature admittedly contributed a part to his past development into the Elderly Devouring Generation. However, it must also be said that mom’s overindulgence contributed partly to the problem too. “Ok, I’ll make a trip to the Lotus district. In the future, I won’t transfer the rentals to you every month; I’ll transfer it every six months instead. Is that ok?”

He Li nodded repeatedly. “Sure. Receiving it once a year would be best.”

…

Around 3pm, Chen Jin arrived in his car at the 1st story of building no. 6 in the Lotus district. Taking the elevator up to the 8th story, he opened the door of Room 801 to conduct the first inspection of the most worrisome apartment.

Clack~!

After opening the door, he found that the reality was much better than the scenario his mind had thought up. The floorboard was rather clean. The rubbish in the room was on the lesser side. There were no topless strange men lying on the living room sofa. Besides an empty fruit plate and some stacks of books related to programming, there was nothing on the glass coffee table.

Chen Jin’s expression became much better. He gave a rare praise. “It’s ok. You’ve maintained a decent level of hygiene.” He need not call the housekeeping company.

Lee Kai smiled, “Landlord, we came up with a duty roster. There’s someone cleaning everyday and going down to dispose the rubbish.”

Chen Jin nodded. “Hmm. Continue to maintain this.”

However, Lee Kai held him back. After some hemming and hawing, he said, “Landlord, there’s something that I still need to discuss with you. My friends have not yet moved out. They’ve only moved into the bedroom. Now the three of us share a bed…. I don’t know if you’ll agree to us sharing the rental together.”

Chen Jin’s eyes grew wide. “How does anyone sleep with three people squeezed onto a bed?”

“When it feels difficult, I’ll sometimes sleep for a bit on the sofa in the living room.”

“I don’t oppose to what you guys are doing. There is nothing on the contract that says how many people can stay in a room. But, you must be alert of your safety, especially when it comes to electricity. Don’t bring in too many electronics that use a large amount of power. If there are hidden dangers that compromise your safety, I’ll still require two or three people to leave.”

Lee Kai repeatedly promised, “We’ll keep a strict eye on it. I promise there won’t be any problems!”

Chen Jin shook his head. He realized that Lee Kai was a very loyal friend. There were frequently friends of various sorts who all came to throw themselves upon him for help. Lee Kai was never afraid of them, and would try his best to arrange things for them such, as driving them around for free, treating them to meals, and introducing jobs to them. He took care of all aspects.

Recently, the rent in the city center was still rising. In order to help them save money, he would rather sleep on the sofa at night than suggest that they should look for their own rooms. People like this were a rarity in today’s society.

…

In Room 902, located a story above, the same five girls still lived there. Cleanliness and hygiene were well-maintained. He could not pick on any issues. Chen Jin nodded, and with a couple more glances, he got ready to leave for home.

Suddenly Guo Yan stopped him. “Brother Chen, can I discuss something with you?” She bit her lip. The expression on her face was awkward and distressed.

Chen Jin looked at her with confusion and asked, “What is it?”

“I….. I’ve not paid this month’s rent. Can you give me a few more days’ allowance? I’ll pay you once I have money.” Guo Yan pinched her fingers uneasily. She lowered her red face and didn’t dare to look directly into Chen Jin’s eyes. She seemed hard pressed, as if this was something embarrassing to talk about.

“It’s ok, there’s no hurry to pay the rent. You can pay anytime. I don’t lack that bit of rent money.” Of course Chen Jin knew that Guo Yan did not pay her rent this month. She had always been the most proactive in paying her rent. On the 15th of each month, she would actively transfer the money to his account without him having to send any reminders. She was always the first one to pay rent. She seemed to have met with some financial difficulties recently and was hard-pressed for money to the extent that she did not even have $700 for rent. She had taken special note to send him a message regarding this matter, and today she mentioned it again.

“Thank you, thank you Brother Chen.” Guo Yan thanked him over and over. Her eyes rapidly became red and her shoulders trembled as she could not help but cry softly.

Chen Jin asked, “Guo Yan, what’s wrong? Did something bad happen?” Although he had only interacted with her a few times, his impression of her was that she was a cheerful, positive, hardworking, and thrifty girl. She was a good girl. However, she was crying today. Why was she like this?

“Guo Yan lost her job. Recently, she’s been searching non-stop for jobs…” Liu Xiao Xia, who was standing off to the side, came over to explain that Guo Yan met with an unforeseen circumstance at work and was dismissed by her company.

Guo Yan was in the business of real estate sales. Her capability was not too bad. For a few months in a row, her monthly salary was over $10,000. However, there were sudden cataclysmic changes in the property market in September. The government announced many various policies to limit the buyers so as to cool the rapid bubble that was forming. This caused the traded volume to fall steeply. All occupations related to real estate sales immediately entered a tough period.

The real estate agency that Guo Yan worked in suffered from bad performance. As the future of the property market looked bleak, they firmly decided to reduce their losses by dismissing a number of staff. Unfortunately, Guo Yan was in the list of staff marked for dismissal.

Chen Jin asked with concern, “So you lost your job and you’re unemployed right now?”

Wiping the corners of her eyes, Guo Yan said with a thin voice, “Yeah, I’ve been searching recently. I should find something within the next two days or so.” She had started working full time without even finishing high school. In fact, she had six to seven years of working experience, and changing jobs was like changing clothes to her. Being unemployed no longer had an emotional impact on her. What really made her anxious was the situation at home.

Her Dad had diabetes and was unable to work. However, he could not control himself and loved to eat sweet things. Last month, he had a sudden onset of complications from eating a small bite of honeydew melon. He was sent to the hospital and it cost her more than $15,000. Mom had no proper job and was at the gambling den the entire day. Not to mention the monthly allowance for her younger brother who was currently attending university. Recently he got himself a girlfriend and his expenses went through the roof. The last time she saw him, he said he wanted to buy a Fruit mobile phone as a birthday present for his girlfriend.

“A Fruit mobile phone! That cost $8,000 to $9,000. I use inferior brands that are only $400 or $500.”

Her younger brother explained, “Sis, our mom has already said, as compared to the money that will be spent on betrothal gifts when I marry, this is nothing. I’m spending a little more now so that I can save lots more in the future!”

“Ok!” Guo Yan gritted her teeth and impatiently transferred the money.

All the pressure from work and family were weighing on her shoulders. She was so burdened that she felt suffocated. As she had worked for a few years and lived a frugal life, she should have saved at least $200,000, if not $300,000. However, it was all spent on her family. Recently, she was pushed to her limits. Not only could she not pay her rent, she also had a credit card debt of more than $10,000, and was unemployed. Many times she had hid under her covers and cried, not knowing if she could continue to endure this. The landlord’s reply of “it’s ok, you can pay your rent anytime” seemed to touch her.

Chen Jin suddenly said, “Guo Yan, if you’re not picky, I do have a job that I can introduce you to.”

“What kind of job?” Guo Yan raised her head to look at him with surprise.

The landlord not only allowed her to postpone her rent, but also introduced her to a job?

Chapter 44 - Making a Wind Turbine

Chen Jin explained the situation. “It’s like this. I’ve started a jewelry shop, and it’s currently undergoing renovation. It isn’t too far from here, just on Jin Ling West Road. I need to recruit quite a few people for the opening, which is predicted to happen next month.”

Besides the discussions on the purchase channels, Chiu Wan-Tin was also recruiting staff. After all, it was a large-scale shop measuring 300 square meters. She needed to recruit more than 10 staff and around another two more as security guards. If business increased dramatically during peak season and the staff needed to work two shifts, he would also recruit more staff at that time.

To date, Chiu Wan-Ting had hired two staff as her personal assistants. They were also part of the staff at the previous shop where she worked as a store manager. Hearing what had happened to her recently, they clamored to join her in this new store. These old veteran buddies would continue to work hard together. Chiu Wan-Ting did not dare to take matters into her own hands and had called Chen Jin to ask about it. He said ok; employees who were older and more experienced were an asset too. They could even bring over their old clients, which would help the jewelry store on its path to success.

“A jewelry shop?” Guo Yan was not the only one who was shocked. The flatmates in the other rooms, Liu Xiao Xia, Xu Jiao Jiao, and Zhao Ya Jing were extremely shocked too.

Song Xue Jia, who was standing near the doorway, perked her ears up and muttered, “The landlord is so rich that he can open a jewelry shop?”

Guo Yan asked with a tiny voice, “Then… What’s the amount of my salary if I work in your shop?” She was very grateful for the landlord’s concern, but some practical questions still had to be asked. After all, she shouldered a heavy burden.

“Um…” Chen Jin considered it for a moment, then said, “$5,000 during the trial period. It will be a six-day work week with one day off. If your performance is good, you can become an official staff sooner. Your salary will be increased too.”

“$5,000….” Guo Yan silently weighed this offer. Frankly speaking, a starting salary of this amount was not low. It was at least a level higher than those fresh graduates working their first job. Most of them only had a starting salary of $3,500 (of course, the statistics from the news showed an average starting salary as high as $5,380). In addition, she had a rather inferior educational history. $5,000 was really very good!

But in this expensive city of Shang Hai, rent would cost $1,000 and meals $1,500. Transport, mobile, clothing and other miscellaneous costs would bring the expenses up to $3,000! From a salary of $5,000, she could save at most $2,000. This little bit of income was far from sufficient for Guo Yan. She could find a position doing sales and easily earn $6,000 to $7,000 a month with her diligence. However, that was extremely tiring! So…

Seeing her hesitation, Chen Jin added, “Lunch will be provided at work. I’ll also give $100 for transportation expenses and $300 as a rental subsidy, which will be subtracted from your rent.”

At this point, all her roommates began to persuade her. “Guo Yan, this salary is really good. Quickly agree!”

Xu Jiao Jiao wanted to cry, “I work as an office clerk for $4,500. Landlord, do you still need people at the jewelry shop? I want to go too.” However, it was just empty words. Her job as a clerk was extremely easy.

Zhao Ya Jing gave her a detailed analysis. “Guo Yan, Jin Ling West Road is not too far from here; it’s only a distance of seven or eight kilometers. You can ride a shared bicycle to work, and you don’t have to suffer the crowded train daily. With the added perks from the landlord, your total salary would be over $6,000. Even I want to work there!”

Finally, Guo Yan was moved. She nodded her head. “Ok! Brother Chen, I’ll go to work at your shop. I used to do sales in a jewelry shop so I have some definite experience, and I’ll learn very quickly!” Brother Chen already took such great care of her, if she still did not agree, she would be very ungrateful. The salary was good too. If she lived frugally, she should be able to save $4,000 next month. It would be enough to pay off her credit card debt and provide an allowance for her younger brother. “Brother Chen, thank you so much for helping me!” She gave a deep bow to Chen Jin with an extremely thankful expression.

“It’s ok, everyone has bad times.” Chen Jin picked up his phone and called Chiu Wan-Ting. She agreed and would proceed with the arrangement.

Guo Yan asked for the jewelry store’s address, saying that she wanted to officially start work tomorrow.

As he was about to leave, Song Xue Jia pulled him aside. Batting her lashes, she said in a very pitiful manner, “Brother Landlord, I’ve used my salary to pay off my credit card this month, and I have no money for rent. Can I pay the rent for the past two months, as well as this month, all together in the next month? I beg you, please be understanding!” Song Xue Jia had not paid rent for the past two months and planned to drag it until the next month before paying it all.

Chen Jin had no more words for this woman. “All right, next month.”

“Thank you, Brother Landlord!”Song Xue Jia abruptly hugged his neck. Leaning pink tender lips over, she almost kissed him on his face. With a full smile, she said, “Brother Landlord, can I work at your jewelry store? If it’s okay, how about I go to work at your shop?”

Chen Jin struggled to free himself from her clinging arms. “No need, thanks for your good intentions. I’ve something I need to take care of; I need to leave.” He quickly left Room 902 with Song Xue Jia’s laughter trailing behind him.

Song Xue Jia was anticipating the silent criticisms from others, “You’re a fake whore! How shameless!”

…

At night, in the camping ground in the huge crater, the AI named Alice reported good news. “Master, I’ve completed the simulation for the industrial manufacturing process of the wind turbine that you’ve tasked me with.”

“You did a good job, Alice.”

She showed a sweet smile. “Thank you, Master, for your praise.”

Chen Jin let her open a design blueprint of a particular industrial manufacturing process. It played a video as it made an introductory explanation for him.

“Master, according to your requirements, the power output of the wind turbine should be around 30 kilowatts. So, the length of the blades should be roughly 12 meters, and each turbine should be installed with three blades. Strong plastic material can be used to make the blade. It can be printed in the capsule factory, and the modules can be assembled together. The shell of the main body, axel bearings, and the parts of the support body can also be printed in the capsule factory. As for the induction coils in the generator unit, there are ready-made nanocrystalline copper wires that we can use. However, due to the destructive war on this world, the magnetic property of most magnets are either greatly weakened or damaged. We need to use a permanent magnet in order to make a wind turbine that can generate a high amount of power. The permanent magnet’s use is in energy conversion. Currently, we lack this type of magnet.”

The highly powerful magnetic field created at the moment a nuclear bomb exploded was very destructive to magnets. It directly damaged the magnetic performance of the magnets. Haierfa was just a wasteland. Undoubtedly, it was extremely difficult to find a permanent magnet in good physical and functional condition. He could only import it from Earth.

Chen Jin did some research on the internet. He found that the high-performance neodymium magnet, with its tetragonal cell structure, had strong magnetism and a special advantage of high heat resistance. One set of such magnets was made up of 16 individual pieces and each wind turbine required about 10 sets inside its body. As for the price, it was $25 per piece. The price of the magnets that he had to purchase for one wind turbine was around $4,000.

Of course, this money was peanuts. By chance, there was a manufacturer in the city that produced neodymium for use in wind turbines. Chen Jin directly called the manufacturer and made an order for 100 sets of neodymium magnets. He spent a total of $40,000. The manufacturer even offered free shipping to his doorstep.

“A complete ready-made 30 kilowatts wind turbine plus its purchase fee, shipping fee, and installation fee… The whole thing would cost me at least $200,000. And 10 sets would equate to $2,000,000! I’ve only spent $40,000. I just need to some buy engine oil, lubricant, and what not… The total expenses would at most be $100,000! It’s really true that’s it better to make one than to buy one.”

Chen Jin sighed with feeling. It was two days ago that hundreds of robots transported a general production capsule factory back to the campground. With Rover No. 1 pulling at the front, and the robots collective efforts, they managed to transport the factory. And after a round of cleaning and servicing, it could be used normally. A big batch of various raw materials to be printed was brought back as well. When the neodymium magnets arrived tomorrow, he could begin the production of the wind turbines!

Chapter 45 - The Power Shortage is Resolved!

The next half month that followed kept everyone at the camping ground in the huge crater very busy as they made use of the general production capsule factory to print the parts of the wind turbines so that they could create a power generator.

Of course, Chen Jin was not toiling away on his own. There were hundreds of extremely strong robots who were supporting him by doing the physical tasks for free. Hence, there were not many areas where he had to exert himself physically. Even so, he was still drop-dead exhausted. He had to solve a huge number of issues and proceed with the calibration of the commands.

First was the problem of supplying power for the capsule factory. A capsule factory was still a factory. It also came with a special quality called “huge power consumption.” It consumed 20 kilowatts during normal standby and 80 kilowatts during common use. It could consume a maximum power of 300 kilowatts!

Chen Jin had cut the power supply of the super calculator (its data had been exported in advance), and together with the 30 kilowatt home-use cable from his room, connected both power supplies to the capsule factory.

Still, it only allowed the capsule factory to turn on and enter into a work-ready mode. In order to use it normally, there was at least a power shortage of 60 kilowatts. How was he supposed to replenish this shortage?

The answer was high-efficiency batteries. A large high-efficiency battery weighing 10 kilograms could supply a maximum power output of three kilowatts. Connecting 20 large high-efficiency batteries in parallel would be sufficient to supply the required power to run the capsule factory. But when the large batteries were worked at their maximum output of three kilowatts, they could only last for 12 hours. Moreover, they would greatly overheat, affecting the batteries’ safety. He could only drive Rover No. 1 over and use it as a power supply vehicle. It had 100 large high-efficiency batteries in its battery chamber, which would provide sufficient power for the capsule factory.

Even so, the power consumption of the capsule factory seemed to go beyond one’s imagination. Even all of the fully-charged batteries from Rover No. 1 could only power the capsule factory for around 20 hours of continuous work.

This meant that he would have to switch out and replace 100 large high-efficiency batteries every day. A large high-efficiency battery weighed 10 kilograms. Multiplied by 100….

Back on Earth, Chen Jin had to make a daily trip to the “charging factory” at Bao Shan Industrial Park to transport one ton of high-efficiency batteries using his car. And then he carried them, piece by piece, up to his room in 302. There was no elevator on the stairwell, so he had to walk up to the third story! Every day, he had to repeat that twice in order to carry them up and then down, until his hands went numb and his legs cramped. But he had to persevere with it!

Even with this, by the fifth day, the charging speed for the batteries at the charging factory was gradually losing pace with the power consumption of the capsule factory. It placed a strain on the power usage. It was lucky that the production of the wind turbines was not too work-intensive. The capsule factory had finished printing all of the required components and modules on the sixth day.

After which, was assembling the primary modules: the rotor blades, main engine, and support pole. Then, he would choose a location to place the wind turbines. Since they were wind turbines, there was no doubt that he had to choose a location where the wind was strong. There would be a greater amount of power generated. The wind turbines could only generate the specific output of 30 kilowatts when the wind power was of a certain standard.

In order to tackle the issue of choosing an appropriate location, Chen Jin bought an anemometer on Earth. It hung from the Da Jiang’s Phantom 4Pro camera drone as they rose 20 meters into the air to test the speed of the wind. In the end, he settled on two suitable locations.

The first location was on the top of a stone mountain ridge, 30 kilometers northwest and 300 meters above sea level. It was not far from the battleground. His measurements showed that normal wind speed could reach 25 meters per second and the greatest wind speeds were above 35 meters per second. The location would allow the wind turbine to fully generate its maximum output of power. The only disadvantage was the long distance, which made transport inconvenient.

The second location was towards the east, on an unnamed earthen hill five kilometers away. It was not highly elevated above sea level and was rather flat as it was an extrusion of a plain. Therefore, the average wind speeds could reach 15 meters per second and the greater winds speeds, which happened only intermittently, could reach 25 meters per second and above. Its advantage laid in its short distance from the camp, and transport was convenient. Its disadvantage was a lower power output. The wind turbines would not be able to generate a maximum power output.

After judging their comparative merits, Chen Jin chose to safely install the wind turbines on the top of the unnamed earthen hill. The reason was the safety of the wind turbines. Although the stone mountain ridge to the northwest could normally receive stronger winds, once the weather turned for the worse, intermittent wind speeds could reach 50 meters per second and above. This exceeded the endurance capacity of the wind turbines’ structure. The support poles could possibly be broken by the overly strong winds. It possessed low-level safety for the installation.

Recently, as Haierfa entered the month of November, its northern half turned colder. The northern winds grew stronger. It was not suitable to install the wind turbine facility in a place where the winds were already strong. Although the wind power was a little weaker on the unnamed earthen hill five kilometers to the east, it offered a higher level of safety for installation. Moreover, the distance was near and it was easier to dig into the earth than stone, so the installation process would be easier too. And so, he made his decision.

Chen Jin led the robots as they set out. The robots carried the various components of the wind turbines and they set out for the earthen hill to the east in a vast and mighty formation.

“This spot! First, dig a big hole in the ground that measures three meters in diameter and five meters in depth. Put in some high tensile steel, and throw some rocks into the steel cage. The steel scraps that were taken from the football stadium in the City of Tereese; carry them over here. Maintenance robots, start the laser machine and heat up the steel scraps. Pour the liquid steel inside. Other than the mounting holes, fill everything up!”

That was right! There was no ready-made cement available for use in Haierfa. But there was a sufficient amount of old steel scraps.

Chen Jin let the robots haul over the steel scraps, which weighed more than a thousand tons. Using high heat, they were melted into liquid and poured into the foundation pit as the turbine’s mounting base. For each mounting base, he poured 100 tons of liquid steel inside. The liquid steel mixed with the high tensile steel and rocks formed a structure that was absolutely more reliable and sturdier than one that was formed by a mixture of steel and concrete.

In addition, the cylindrical stem of the support pole could be joined with the cylindrical mounting holes that were left empty in the mounting base. After opening the active/locking clutch, the wind turbine could rotate 360 degrees. It would turn towards whichever direction the wind was coming from, so it would be able to generate electricity at all times. With 10 robots, they could complete the routine maintenance.

It took a total of three days to fully install the wind turbines. After which, he spent a few more days to finish the installations for the voltage transformer, regulator, the current collector, and the power storage equipment. From there, he built a 10-kilometer long power transmission cable.

On the fifth day, after a round of calibration, the wind farm was officially connected to the grid. The super calculator started up again. The AI, Alice, who was in charge of monitoring the grid, said, “Master, currently, the wind farm is generating an average power output of 260 kilowatts. The biggest output is 280 kilowatts. With this amount of energy, it’s enough to power a small farm.”

Chen Jin nodded his head and let out a long breath. “Hmm, my campground finally has electricity!”

The problem of insufficient energy resources at the campground was temporarily resolved. He had freed himself from the dependence on the electricity from Earth. But it might be premature to say that the problem of insufficient energy resources was completely solved, because there were too many things that used huge amounts of energy!

Remodeling Rover No. 1, the super calculator, and the capsule factory…. These three things were enough to completely use up the power output of 260 kilowatts. There was still the electric car Blue Angel, more than 100 robots, the electric motorcycle Regan, the laser machine, and other tools. Although they were small users of electricity, the total sum of their power usage was still very significant.

Chen Jin estimated that he could only fully satisfy the energy needs at the campground when the number of wind turbines was increased to 40 and they generated a total power of 1,000 kilowatts or more.

However, he currently possessed an insufficient amount of raw materials for printing. He had to wait until he had gathered enough materials before inputting them and starting the work process to create more wind turbines. “It’s better to wait for some time before expanding the power facility. It’s been too tiring this half a month. I need a good rest for a while to buffer myself! A power output of 260 kilowatts is temporarily sufficient, though just barely. I can disconnect the home-use cable from Earth. As for the charging factory at Bao Shan Industrial Park, it’s mission is finally completed and it can be laid to rest. No doubt about it; freeing myself from the dependence on electricity from Earth has greatly reduced the risk of exposing the secret. This great potential danger of exposure has been thoroughly eliminated. Now, I can finally to put rest a portion of my worries.”

Chapter 46 - Gold In Exchange For Gold

By the sixth of November, Chen Jin’s jewelry shop still had not officially opened. It was stuck at the busy stage of preparations. The renovations had been completed. Overall, the shop had a luxurious and imposing atmosphere. There were dazzling displays of gold and jade, and the dimmed lighting of the crystal chandelier emitted a warm amber glow that made it seem as if the temperature of the interior had risen about two degrees.

People would not be able to help but get excited. Riches. Treasures! This was what people would perceive directly through their senses upon entering the shop. Guo Yan had been working there for more than half a month, and by now, her heart had completely settled. There were no remaining worries and doubt from her first days. Now, she only wanted to give it her all and work in this shop whole-heartedly. She was filled with power and vigor, because she realized that there was a future for her if she continued working in Brother Chen’s jewelry store.

First, the working environment was very good. The scale of the shop was very big. The first two stories were renovated into business areas, while half of the floor area on the third story was used as a storage room. The remaining 50 square meters were made into a kitchen, canteen, and lounge. Compared to her previous workplace where she had to brave the weather daily, the facilities here were much better.

Moreover, the store manager was easy-going, approachable, and nice. She took great care of her and was willing to impart some industry experience, showing that the manager had the intention to groom and cultivate her skills. Even the two aunties who had a few years of working experience with the store manager were polite to her. They frequently guided and aided her. The relationship between the superiors and colleagues was very harmonious.

Most importantly, however, the jewelry shop had a bright future. Although the shop was yet unopened, Guo Yan, through her observations, had noticed that its location was excellent. It was in the liveliest section of Jin Ling West Road with a definite stream of potential customers. In addition, Brother Chen had deep pockets. Auntie Chiu had randomly revealed this – the stocks coming into the shop had a total value of nearly $6,000,000, filling the third floor storage room almost to the brim.

The big promotion activity that they were preparing for would be a steal for customers! There were plenty of funds invested into it. If the jewelry shop started off with a bang and developed successfully, the boss definitely would definitely reward the pioneer batch of staff. She just had to perform actively, work diligently and make her fair share of contributions.

Naturally, the store manager, Chiu Wan-Ting took note of her performance. Whenever she called Chen Jin, she would praise her profusely and continuously.

Chen Jin nodded. “After the official opening of the shop, we can turn Guo Yan and the rest into confirmed staff with higher salaries. If the first month of the shop is good, we can give the sales staff some commissions.”

Chiu Wan-Ting said, “It’s better to wait until after a full month of operations, when we’ve calculated the shop’s profits, before considering to raise their salaries. It’s not too clear yet and we don’t want to incur additional costs.”

“Hmm, Auntie Chiu, you’re right.”

By now, Chen Jin had less than $3,000,000 remaining funds. Before the jewelry shop gave him any financial benefits, he could no longer be a spendthrift, and he had to control his expenses.

With regards to the stock, Chiu Wan-Ting had expressed that what they had prepared might not be sufficient. She said, “For a large jewelry shop with about 20 kilograms of gold jewelry in the display counters, the total cost would be at least $5,000,000 and above. But, we’ve only prepared 15 kilograms, and purchased more silver jewelry. The total cost of platinum, diamonds, and other gemstones that we procured are less than $500,000. We’ve spent all our money to barely stock up the counter displays on the first and second stories. However, we’ve nothing left in the storage room to replenish our stocks. If we have a large inflow of customers on our opening day, the sales amount could be above expectations. It’s possible that we might face the awkwardness of a shortage of stock.” She suggested, “Boss, I propose that we reduce the area of business operations and only operate on the first story. The jewelry on the second story can be used as ready stock while the counters on the first story can be placed closer together. This should allow us to face the situation if business sales flourish.”

“No!” On the contrary, Chen Jin shook his head, “If we want to open for business, we have to do it big. We’ll start operations on the first and second stories at the same time. Purchase another $5,000,000 worth of stocks.”

“$5,000,000?”

Chiu Wan-Ting was shocked. She asked, “Boss, you still have that much funds?”

“No, I have a batch of gold that was given to me by a friend. Its valued at $5,000,000 and above. Can I put this gold into the shop directly for sale?”

“What’s the primary form of that gold? Gold bars and bullions or gold jewelry?”

“Mainly gold bullions.”

“Is there a production certificate?” The certificate would clearly state the location of manufacture and the manufacturer.

“Um… I don’t think there is.”

“Is there a certificate of purchase?” This certificate would state the origins of the gold and the purchasing body.

Chen Jin’s voice became smaller. “No.”

“How about an inspection certificate? Do you have this?” The inspection certificate would indicate the specific components of the gold and the percentage of gold.

By now, Chen Jin’s voice was tiny like a mosquito. “This…. I think I don’t have that either.” He suddenly realized that he was too simple-minded.

“Oh… I understand now,” Chiu Wan-Ting said with what seemed to be years of experience. “The gold that your friend gave you must be “third void gold.”

“Um, yes. Can I sell this type of gold in the shop?” Chen Jin refused to give up. He had more than a ton of this gold!

“Yes.” Unexpectedly, Chiu Wan-Ting answered in the affirmative. “You can sell it in the shop as long as there are no problems with the gold. But as a “third void gold” without any certifications, the customers will have their suspicions. If there are problems with the gold and customers report a complaint with the Consumers’ Association, it would cause big issues for us. Moreover, because our shop is so big, the Department of Industry and Commerce would conduct random inspections a few times annually. If they discover that we are selling “third void gold” or that the gold is adulterated, we will be fined and face corrective actions…. Boss, I don’t recommend that we sell the “third void gold”.”

Actually, there were many unbranded gold shops in the small cities and towns which sold “third void gold” in the majority. Not to go too deep into their extent of illegality, but there were severely adulterated items on sale and imitations were freely sold. Even so, they survived very well because the law didn’t crack down on them.

However, in such a big metropolitan city like Shang Hai, law enforcement would certainly be strict. In theory, the law did not allow the sale of “third void gold,” even if you were selling 100% pure gold.

“Then what should I do?” In an instant, Chen Jin had wilted like a vegetable left out for too long in the freezing cold. Was the gold only good to be destroyed?

“Don’t worry, Boss. The gold from your friend can be used to exchange for gold.”

“Gold in exchange for gold?” Chen Jin’s head was getting foggy.

Chiu Wan-Ting started to explain in a captivating manner, “You take your gold to legal jewelry manufacturers and exchange it for gold jewelry that has proper certifications. Indeed, if we sell “third void gold” at the consumer purchasing stage, they would be the ones bearing the risk of buying fakes. In order to protect the consumers’ benefits, the government regulatory body will enhance their controls. This is to prevent fake goods from flooding unchecked into the market.”

But, because the jewelry manufacturers belonged to the production stage and do not cater directly to the consumers, the relevant regulatory bodies are more lax about them. As long as there were no issues with the end products, the government departments would not interfere much with the specific manufacture processes.

It was similar to the analogy of the spicy beancurd strips. Everyone knew that they were delicious. But did anyone ever took a closer look at its manufacture process? Which customers would go into the kitchen for an inspection with regards to the delicacies provided at a restaurant?

By the same logic, the jewelry manufacturer supplied the jewelry shops with goods that had the proper certifications. But the manufacturer also needed gold, silver, and other raw materials for production. The origins of the raw materials were complicated. There were legal and illegal mining companies, as well as gold that was recovered from the market. A large proportion of raw materials were made up of market-recovered gold.

“Many goldsmiths and jewelry shops provide a gold return service. A majority of the gold recovered from the public had their certifications lost and thus become “third void gold.” The goldsmiths and the jewelry shops would sell the recovered gold to the jewelry manufacturers, and this forms a cycle of sale, return/recover, and re-production. So, even if the gold you got from your friend is “third void gold,” you can sell it for money or exchange it for gold jewelry at the manufacturer’s. As long as it is real gold, it will be a piece of cake. Of course, the price for recovered gold without its certifications would be slightly lower. There’ll be a “production wastage fee” for exchange of gold jewelry but there’s not much difference usually; only around five percent.”

As an expert professional in the industry, Chiu Wan-Ting was closely acquainted with many gold-to-gold exchange channels.

Chen Jin’s eyes gleamed brightly. Found it! There was a way to deal with the gold! He would take his “third void gold” of unclear origins to the jewelry manufacturers in exchange for gold jewelry that could be sold in his shop for a higher value, and which were legal and certified. In this way, his jewelry shop would not face any issues and could open for business in a public and grand manner to welcome a mass of consumers to purchase in their shop. He could even offer a greater discount on the price of the jewelry. As the business was based on selling huge quantities, Chen Jin could still earn a lot of money even if the prices were lowered to a more competitive level.

“Let’s go! Auntie Chiu, take me with you to the jewelry manufacturers that you know well and find a few trustworthy familiar people. I want to exchange gold for gold!”

Hence, in the following three days, under Chiu Wan-Ting’s direction, they went to over 10 jewelry manufacturers. Chen Jin took out 100 kilograms of gold and exchanged it for 90 kilograms of gold jewelry. The shortage of ready stock in the jewelry shop had been resolved!

Chapter 47 - The Grand Opening

On the 10th of November, with much haste on the day before Singles’ Day, the jewelry shop named “Forever Jewels” was finally ready for its grand opening after more than a month of busy and urgent preparations.

At 10am at the jewelry shop, customers would find floral stands placed at the sides of the shop’s entrance. A bright red carpet stretched from the interior of the shop to the pedestrian walkway by the side of the road. Ad-hoc staff recruited by the event planning company wore cheongsams and stood in two lines. They cupped their palms and displayed their most beautiful smiles. Whenever someone passed by, they would all say at the same time, “Welcome ~ !”

The female staff of the jewelry shop wore khaki-colored dress suits while the security guards wore full sets of black suits. They were all alert and ready for action as they displayed their best spirits.

At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, the jewelry shop invited a leader from the Bureau of Industry and Commerce. She took a pair of scissors and cut the ribbon, signifying an abundance of riches flowing in. The audio played the sounds of firecrackers being set off.

Crackle ~ pop, pop pop~!!

The ushers dressed in cheongsams at the entrance, the shop staff, and the VIPs invited to the opening shouted together, “Forever Jewels is open for business!”

“Wooahhhhh…”

Fireworks were set off simultaneously.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Countless streamers rained down from the air like a shower of flowers. The atmosphere became lively and busy. It attracted many people who stopped to have a look.

Clang ~ clang ~!

The two clashes of the gong signified the opening of the business. The glass doors of the jewelry shop swung wide open. The ushers in cheongsams and some of the shop staff held flyers in their hands and walked to the passers-by watching from the sides. As they gave out the flyers, they said, “Go in and have a look, we are having a free raffle today. Each person gets a free chance in the raffle!”

“Special discounts for all the gold and silver jewelry! Up to 10% off; some items up to 15% off. More than 30% off for each gram of gold!”

“20% off everything for the first 100 customers!”

“Gold bullions’ special price at only $288 per gram. The cheapest in the city! Customers who want to invest can come in for a more detailed explanation.”

“This is the biggest sale ever. Don’t miss it as you pass by!”

Some of the passers-by watching from the side were swayed.

“Free lucky draw? I’ll go in and try my luck!”

“10% off silver and gold? This is not a small discount.”

“My son is getting married at the end of the year. If the price is right, I’ll buy some gold jewelry!”

Many passers-by moved their feet towards the direction of the shop. As others saw the bustle of the shop’s opening, they were drawn to the liveliness and were driven to join the crowd. More and more people went into the shop for a look. There was a guaranteed stream of customers.

The opening campaign of “Forever Jewels” could be said to have an auspicious start!

…

However, Chen Jin’s parents were in a state beyond shock.

Especially He Li, whose face displayed a stunned and glazed expression. Her mouth hung slightly open and her eyes were full of astonishment. She thought that Chen Jin was opening a small-scale gold jewelry shop measuring 20 or 30 square meters, with only a mere few hundred thousand dollars invested into it. Hence she did not pay too much attention to it and left him to his little business. So, she came to the opening scene for a look, and found that this was no small business; this was clearly a major move!

Due to the nature of her occupation, and being an accountant for many years, the numbers quickly began to fly in her brain. The annual rental of a 300 square meter shop on a prosperous commercial strip would be at least $3,500,000! The jewelry filling up the display counters on the first and second stories would cost at least tens of millions! Including expenses spent on other areas, it would be impossible to open this jewelry shop without at least $15,000,000!

A prominent question appeared in her mind. Where did this huge sum of money come from? Since when did her son have so many funds?

She saw Chen Jin standing right in the center of the foyer. He was passionately greeting the customers, directing and coordinating the staff. That air of calmness, the presence of mind and lack of apprehension were rather similar to the characteristics of a great general. At that moment, He Li thought that her son felt more like a stranger. “It seems like he’s….. More mature now.” Hence, she decided to keep her suspicions under wraps. She would talk to him again after the day had ended.

During this time, with Chen Jin personally serving a customer, she became the first official client at the checkout, spending $8,500 on a strand of necklace with 32.8 grams of gold. Dong Lei was a leader at the Bureau of Industry and Commerce. She wore the newly bought necklace and walked to He Li, saying, “Director He, look, isn’t it pretty?” Dong Lei said with an overflowing smile on her face, “I probably have to spend tens of thousands at other shops for the same necklace, but I only spent $8,500 here. Director He, I cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony of this shop today, this wouldn’t be counted as corruption, would it?”

He Li smiled in return. “No, no. This is called servicing the people wholeheartedly as a good leader.” She could not help but praise her. “The gold necklace looks great. You have good taste!”

Looking at Chen Jin who was currently busy, Dong Lei’s eyes radiated with admiration, “Director He, your son is a really good catch, he looks like he can achieve big goals. Did my daughter, Lin Lin, have a misunderstanding regarding him? This fellow is not too bad in all aspects.”

He Li immediately gave a pained smile. “Your daughter didn’t misunderstand him. It was this fellow playing mind games with me!” She explained in detail the specific reasons why the blind date between Chen Jin and her daughter, Yuan Lin, failed.

Dong Lei listened with shock. Then, she laughed so hard that she was clutching her stomach. “Interesting, interesting. Director He, your son is really too interesting! Hahaha ~ !”

He Li gritted her teeth in anger, “This is interesting? I wanted to give him a good hard smack! He missed such a good lady!”

Dong Lei praised Chen Jin. “Young people are like that nowadays. They’re busy with leisure activities or vacations or chilling out. They’re just not busy about getting married. Your son is still ok, at least he’s busy with work and a career….” Turning her gaze towards Chen Jin, her tone changed as she said, “As for the missed opportunity, I don’t think it’s over. My daughter still doesn’t understand the real situation regarding your son.”

With gleaming eyes, He Li turned towards her. “Director Dong, do you mean there’s still a chance between my son and Lin Lin?”

Dong Lei nodded, “Yes, with the matching backgrounds and qualities of our families, we should create another chance for them!”

He Li was ecstatic. “Dong Lei, I agree with this!”

…

As the volume of customers was so great, the shop was kept busy past 10 pm. Finally, business slowed down. Most of the staff had not had lunch, including the boss, Chen Jin. They had only eaten some bread in the middle of the day. At least, until He Li ordered a feast at the adjacent 5-star hotel as supper for them. They finally had their first bite of hot food for the whole day.

The revenue from the first business day had basically been confirmed. The cashier, Fan Chen Xi, said happily, “The shop’s revenue has reached $10,170,000. Our sales on the first day are over a million!”

Store Manager Chiu Wan-Ting cheered loudly, “Good! That’s not bad at all! We got an auspicious start on our opening day! It’s Singles’ Day tomorrow on double 11. Sales revenue should increase. It won’t be a problem to surpass $15,000,000! We’ll definitely be even busier tomorrow. We’re almost running out of stock for some gold jewelry.” Chiu Wan-Ting expressed that she would call the manufacturers later and replenish the stocks.

In her heart, Guo Yan sighed emotionally. There are too many rich people in Shang Hai. She felt very heavily impacted by the day. The spending power of the “hillbilly rich” in the city was shocking. For example, that afternoon, there was a middle-aged man dressed in low-key, simple clothing who came into the shop. In one breath, he had bought a 100 pieces of gold bullions for investment. He did not even blink once at the checkout. Even with a discounted price of $288 per gram, one tiny gold bullion was 50 grams. Hence, one bullion would cost $140,000 and 100 bullions would cost $1,440,000. However, he simply bought them with a straight face, as if he had spent $5 or $10. There were a few other “hillbilly rich” who also contributed many millions to the sales revenue.

Chen Jin nodded his head in satisfaction. If business continued going in this direction, he would join the ranks of those who had more than a hundred trillion dollars in a few days. Hence, he raised his glass again and again, expressing his thanks to his audience. Encouraging them to strive harder, he promised that if the sales numbers were great for the following month, he would give everyone a red packet of at least $10,000. Even their salaries would be raised!

“Thank you, Boss!”

“Hurray, Boss!”

“Another round of cheers for our next excellent results!”

The staff was very excited. Not only was the young boss able to do things himself, but he was also easy-going and generous! In their opinions, they met a good boss, and they were determined to work hard in their jobs. Everyone was filled with vigor.

…

On the way home, as He Li was driving, she turned to Chen Jin and asked, “Son, where did you get the money to open the jewelry shop?”

“Mom, didn’t I already say? A friend loaned it to me.”

“Which friend? Son, you should know that I work as a cadre in the government department. You should never accept money with unclear origins!” He Li was worried that some businessmen or business owners were planning to make her son a victim in their schemes. As the general accountant in the tax bureau, she was in charge of calculating and monitoring the accounts and tax returns of many business enterprises. Her position may be small, but it was still very important!

“Mom, I’m not an idiot. Will I do something that you’ve reminded me countless times not to do? I can lie to anyone, but will I lie to my own mother?” Chen Jin promised again that the money was loaned from a friend. But, the specifics around the identity were still a secret. He slowly chipped away at her suspicions.

Finally, she stopped asking. Thinking of another matter, He Li asked again, “Son, does your shop have an accountant?”

“No, but I’ve found a nominal accountant. The shop’s finances are handled by Gu Ya Qing. She has many years of experience in finance and accounting.”

“Son, you’ve opened such a large jewelry shop. The sales amount on the first day of operations is already more than 10 million. This is not child’s play. You can’t fully hand over the accounts to someone else. How about this, I can take off two days every week and go to the shop to manage the accounts. I’ll personally help you check that everything is in order!” As someone who had checked through countless reports and supervised countless financial tasks, she did not believe that anything fishy could get past her eagle eyes as an experienced accountant.

It was merely a jewelry shop, it would not even take up any of her time off on the weekend.

“This….” Chen Jin started to reflect on this and seemed to be slightly hesitant.

Looking at his lack of response at length, He Li was somewhat upset. “Son, I’ll help you do the checks and make sure everything meets the standard. Isn’t it better than an outsider doing it for you? I won’t be taking any salary from you either.”

“Ok, ok. Mom, I’ll let you handle the checking of all financial affairs. I’m just worried that it would affect your rest.”

He Li smiled. “Silly child, why stand on ceremony with your own mother?” She was confident that under her strict supervision, his jewelry shop would only profit. It would be impossible for it to make a loss!

Chapter 48 - Cooking The Books

On the first day of “Forever Jewels” opening, it had an auspicious start of over ten million in sales revenue.

On the second day, which was also Singles’ Day, the promotional campaign for the jewelry shop continued. The volume of customers was even bigger. The shop realized $18,600,000 in sales revenue.

On the third, fourth and fifth days, the sales revenue was $8,700,000, $8,300,000 and $7,400,000 respectively. Only on the eighth day, when the promotion ended, did the sales revenue drop lower than $5,000,000.

In seven days, the total sales revenue from the jewelry shop was more than $64,000,000! This was a sales number that would put a gleam into anyone’s eyes. In her more than 20 years of experience in the jewelry industry, Chiu Wan-Ting had never created such prosperous sales revenue.

Of course, she knew the reason for the dramatic business of the shop. It was because the pricing of the jewelry was so competitive! Especially the gold jewelry. Other jewelry shops would set a general price of $350 or $360 per gram. Even when they did promotions, they would only give a discount of about $10.

But at “Forever Jewels,” The price of gold was set at $336 per gram. With an additional discount of 10% to 15% off, the average price was around $300 per gram. To the customers, it was equivalent to shaving off the handling fees.

Then, there were these tiny little gold bullions of 50 grams that were custom-made for the investors. They had a square appearance without much aesthetic beauty. But, they were priced at only $288 per gram. It was very close to the international spot price of gold. The pricing was extremely attractive and very suitable for hedge investing. In fact, more than a third of the sales revenue was from customers with investment needs.

Some of those investor clients were picking on the gold bullions for its small size of 50 grams. They wanted bigger gold bullions, like those weighing 100, 200, 500, or even 1,000 grams. That way, it would be more comfortable to look at them.

Chiu Wan-Ting could only follow their wishes and increase the number of gold bullions weighing 100 grams, 200 grams, and 500 grams in order to satisfy the different needs of different customers.

At the same time, she could not help but sigh with deeply, “There’s simply too many, too many rich people in Shang Hai!” However, even though the sales revenues for these few days were very high, the realized profits were not high at all. It was because they employed the strategy of using low prices to bring in huge sales volumes. Especially the gold, which was not only unprofitable but made a loss of $2 to $3 for every gram sold. If not for the millions in profits brought in by the sales of platinum, diamonds, and other jewelry, the shop would not be earning a single cent in those seven days of promotion!

It was great that the promotion period was over. Word of the jewelry shop had spread. The price of the jewelry had risen to normal levels, causing the volume of sales to drop. However, there would definitely be profits!

On the other hand, Chen Jin had a totally different attitude. He was so happy that he could not stop smiling. It was because the 100 kilograms of gold that he provided were all found on Haierfa. After going to the jewelry manufacturers to exchange the gold for 90 kilograms of gold jewelry, the purchasing cost of these goods was close to zero.

Those 90 kilograms of gold jewelry had long been sold during the few days of promotion. They had been changed into a huge sum of $26,000,000 in a secret account (the account had been created using the identity of Uncle Qin).

The process of changing gold into cash had successfully been completed in a few short days. Maintaining the profits of the jewelry shop was also a guarantee now. It could be said that this process was perfect. But, he wanted to keep a low profile. In order to maintain the normal operations of the jewelry shop, Chen Jin felt that he only needed to provide a small amount of “third void gold.”

“I’ll take about 100 kilograms of gold every month and go to various jewelry manufacturers to exchange them for gold jewelry. In this way, I’ll have more than $20,000,000 in cash deposited into my account every month! It will be more than two billion.”

Around two billion…. Was that enough? Of course, it was far from enough! The hot air that he had boasted to his parents was a profit of 10 billion in a year! It was equivalent to changing four or five tons of gold into cash every year.

Of course, if Chen Jin possessed sufficient gold, he would want to sell off tens or hundreds of tons of gold each year. It would earn him hundreds of billions! But this method carried too great a risk. The probability of being exposed was too high. In order to avoid causing the need for an inspection, trading 100 kilograms of gold each month was the limit! But if he wanted to fulfill the goal of earning ten billion annually, he still had to employ other methods to generate money legally!

“Start a business! I have to take immediate action to start a business. I have more than $20,000,000 going into my account every month, it’s enough for the first phase of starting a business. When others start a business and spend money, they are always worried about the enterprise funding chain breaking. But I have a jewelry shop and an entire planet! My funding chain will never be broken! The next step in my plan will be launched soon!”

…

Making use of her two days off, He Li thoroughly inspected each sum of money that went in and out of the shop’s account books. She calculated everything comprehensively. She nodded her head and said to Chen Jin, “Your judgment was right. The person you hired as the store manager, Chiu Wan-Ting, is very good. No matter if it’s renovations, incoming stocks, outgoing stocks, staff expenses, or other consumables…. They can all be matched to the invoices. I can’t detect any problems. In addition, travel expenses, fuel costs, treating the clients to free meals and the staff to supper, and even beverage costs, are not included inside here. Obviously, Store Manager Chiu had contributed a portion of her own money for these expenses. Son, give her an additional bonus of $10,000 next month. Such good staff is uncommon nowadays.”

Chen Jin nodded. “Understood, Mom.” If not for his mom’s expert experience, he would not even know that Auntie Chiu had contributed a portion of the money.

“But…..” Looking at the account books, He Li reflected quietly, “The origins of this 90 kilograms of jewelry is very strange. There’s only a record of stock coming in. I don’t see any purchasing list so I can’t calculate the purchasing costs of this batch of goods….”

Chen Jin’s heart skipped a beat. Mom had seen through him. But, he was not surprised. With her sharp and piercing gaze, it would be weirder if she could not detect such an obvious flaw in the account books. Luckily, he had already prepared a plausible story to explain the origins of this batch of goods. “Mom, weren’t you very worried about how I got the money to open the jewelry shop? To tell you honestly, a friend lent me that money.”

He Li rolled her eyes. It was the same as not saying anything.

“Also, he was the one who actively lent me that money. He did not give me any IOUs or want me to return the money. It’s because he possesses a huge amount of gold!” Chen Jin continued to talk incessantly. He created a mysterious friend who had a huge amount of gold but had difficulty in trading it personally. Hence, he requested Chen Jin work with him using the method of using gold to exchange for gold jewelry at the jewelry manufacturers and then selling it in the jewelry shop. Chen Jin would personally handle the business and liquidate his gold. So, Chen Jin was only a business intermediary. The real power laid with the mysterious friend standing in his shadows.

He Li suddenly understood. “No wonder that enormous sum of $26,000,000 was deposited into a newly opened account. Clever. Your friend is really clever. He actually thought of this method to deal with the “third void gold” in his hands. He’s so clever to the point that he turned my son into his cover and scapegoat….” With a chill in her voice, she asked Chen Jin, “Son, what’s the name of your friend? Where does he live? Can you take me to see him?” He Li planned to have a little “meet and greet” with this mysterious character.

Chen Jin waved his hands repeatedly. “No, no, I promised him that I will keep his secret. Once exposed, he’ll either disappear himself or the people who found out his secret would disappear…. I can’t tell you.”

He Li snorted heavily. “Just how much gold does he have that he dare to make statements like ‘making people disappear’?”

Suddenly, she remembered the question that he had asked her. “If he found a ton of gold, who does the gold belong to?”

Could it be….

Her mind went to how that mysterious friend “gifted” her son with more than $10,000,000 to open a jewelry shop. He took out more than 100 kilograms of gold all at once for liquidation, strictly requesting her son to keep it a secret. He Li instantly understood that the mysterious character must have an impressive amount of gold on him!

However, he should not have targeted her son and used him as a tool. Therefore, she had to interfere! She would use her resources to continue investigating this matter. She would find out how much gold that fellow possessed. According to the law, he had to hand it over to the state. It would all be confiscated and depending on the situation, he would either be rewarded or face penalties.

“Mom! The gold is legal. It was a legacy from his ancestors, it absolutely belongs to his family!”

HeLi shook her head. “No, no. Theoretically speaking, that is a cultural artifact.”

“But that’s an enormous amount of gold, who would willingly hand it over to the state? Mom, if the gold was the legacy of our ancestors, would you hand it over?”

He Li sank into deep thought, “Um….”. She had to admit that this question tested one’s character. But, if it was her, she would not hand it over either.

“Mom, I have a good relationship with that friend. He has a good personality too. I promise you, he’s definitely not a criminal! I went to transport the gold with him during the long National Day Holidays. We dug it up from the bottom of his old house. He has the title deed to the old house! He trusts me the most; I can’t make any trouble for him!”

He Li had another sudden realization. No wonder he did not come back home for eight or nine days on his last trip. He was not on a vacation. In fact, he was transporting gold. A single transport took eight to nine days to complete. This made her imagine a scenario where the gold was piled high as a mountain.

“All right, son. I’ll believe you guys.” He Li finally believed him. No matter who it was, once anyone got their hands on such an enormous amount of gold, their first thought would be to take it for themselves. Then, they would want to keep it an absolute secret. It would be ideal if there was only one person in the whole world who knew about it. But Chen Jin still revealed part of this secret to her. Finally, she said, “Ok, son. I can understand how you and your friend conducted the business. I’ll help you keep the secret!”

Chen Jin was ecstatic. “Thanks, Mom!”

“But….” Waving the accounts book in her hands, He Li shook her head, “Young people… you have a brain, but the way you do things is still not sufficiently reliable or secure. How can such an obvious loophole in the books stand up to inspection? Although this is not against the law, what would happen if something does come up? We still have to cover up this loophole.”

Chen Jin scratched his head. “But… how do we do that?” He had no clue how to go about it.

He Li gave an abrupt sigh. “Huh, it’s better for you to leave it to me. I’ll handle it.”

Chen Jin’s eyes swiftly widened! Looking at her in shock, he said, “Mom, you mean… you’ll cook the books?”

He Li nodded gently.

“But, don’t you never do that kind of thing? Your nickname in the tax bureau is the ‘Iron Amour Accountant’.”

He Li shook her head. “Who knows? It’s because you’re my son.” Normally, she would never break the rules. But because her son was in a rather unique set of circumstances, she could make an exception.

“Thanks, Mom, thank you!”

Cheering happily in his mind, Chen Jin beamed with joy.

Hahaha! It is done. This time around, it is a 100% done deal!

With his mom in action, he could rest assured, and boldly sell the gold from Haierfa!

Hurray, Mom!

Chapter 49 - The Campground At The Huge Crater

As the jewelry shop had been set in the right direction, Chen Jin redirected his focus back to Haierfa. During the time that passed, significant changes had occurred at the campground. First, a house had been built in the center of the campground. It was constructed by welding steel plates together.

The metal house took up an area of about 80 square meters. There were a total of three stories. On the first story was the kitchen, dining room, and storeroom, where he kept all his tools and exploration equipment. A toilet was located just outside. On the second story was his living and sleeping quarters which were connected to the portal. He could return to his bedroom on Earth anytime. As for the third story, he could store the weapons, ammunition, jewels, and other treasures up there. They no longer had to be stacked in a towering pile without any form of shelter.

After the metal house was built, the living facilities at the campground were greatly improved. In addition, he built another metal house. The super calculator was kept inside this second metal house. He also built a few more garages.

More than 20 temporary amenities were constructed using the same steel plates. They had walls and roofs, and acted as a barricade from the sandstorms, providing shelter from the wind and rain. In the near future, the number of metal constructed amenities would definitely be increased to the hundreds.

In addition, the shipping squad had brought back a large amount of equipment and supplies from Fort Worth City. For example, the quantity of the capsule factories had increased to 11. Of those 11 capsule factories, seven were designed for general production and four were designed for custom production. More than 300 tons of raw materials needed for the printing process had been transported back.

Furthermore, the shipping squad had transported thousands of tons of scrap steel, tens of tons of electrical cables and copper wires, and tens of tons of miscellaneous units and parts related to electrical power facilities from the nearby City of Tereese.

Hence, sufficient raw materials for the creation of the second batch of 10 wind turbines had been gathered. The general capsule factory had already been put to work. After an estimated 10 days, the wind farm to the east of the huge crater would expand twice its size. It was estimated that the electrical power that the wind farm supplied would also double to 500 kilowatts and above.

The quantity of the robots had also been increased from 100 to 300. Labor became more abundant.

In addition, the large-sized vehicles like the rover, transport truck, and tow truck, were increased from one of each to a total of 20, meaning that transportation capability had been greatly increased.

Under the direction of the AI, Alice, the construction of various facilities at the campground was still speeding up. This helped Chen Jin save much of his mental energy. For many tasks, he only had to articulate his own requirements and the results that he wanted. Alice grasped his meaning easily and would quickly arrange for the robots to complete the tasks that he had set. After all, as an AI, Alice’s intellectual ability far surpassed those robots who only knew how to carry out inflexible tasks and commands. Moreover, Alice had the greatest interaction with humans as their city management system. Or it should be said that what she managed was the humans. How could she not understand the meanings that humans expressed and the tasks they ordered?

So, even if Chen Jin was not usually present at the campground, Alice could still follow his commands accordingly. She completed the construction work on various facilities at the campground efficiently and methodically. She could displace the use of humans. This was the significance of the existence of AIs. Therefore, under Alice’s scientific and logical planning, the construction speed of the campground’s facilities had clearly shifted to a higher gear.

One could see the fledgling stage of Chen Jin’s vision as it was slowly transformed into the image of his planned “Base of Operations.” Not bad! With a little bit more time, the “campground at the huge crater” could be upgraded to a small-scale “Base of Operations.”

Obviously, in comparison to the “camping ground,” a “Base of Operations” could be said to be a higher-quality upgrade. For example, the infrastructure was greatly improved. The number of supplies was greater and with more variety. The environment felt more comfortable, and the furnished facilities were better. More importantly, the ability to explore and remodel this planet would also be enhanced.

In the blueprint that he designed, his “Base of Operations” was like this: There would be more than 100 metal constructed amenities and residential facilities. They would then form a complex of buildings. The 100-plus capsule factories would form an industrial zone. The number of rovers, transportation trucks, and tow trucks would be increased to over 100. This would create a raiding squad of unbeatable force. He would also expand the scale of the wind farms such that the power supplied could reach 1,000 kilowatts or even more. The number of robots would be increased to over 500.

When all the above goals had been met, the upgrading of the campground would be complete!

Alice replied after a series of virtual calculations, “Master, it will take only about two and a half months to complete all the construction work. However, Master, you would need to provide some of the supplies.”

“No problem.” Chen nodded as his face filled with anticipation. Actually, in his imagination, the final state of his base of operations would be a mid-sized city. He had to at least fill up the crater under his feet with its diameter of 10 kilometers! By that time, this place would not be called a “Base of Operations,” but a “Crater Civilization.” A civilization that he had created out of a crater. But, that was still too far away. Chen Jin could only occasionally think about it in his heart.

Lastly, within this recent period, the robots had also gained some definite results from the exploration of the campground’s surrounding areas. It was because there was a flying car at the campground. It could rise thousands of meters into the air and fly at high altitudes. Its fastest flying speed was 800 kilometers, similar to its longest travel distance, also around 800 kilometers.

This had greatly increased the efficiency of exploration. The surrounding areas of the campground ranged at 400 kilometers while the travel ability of the flying car was 800 kilometers. Divided by two, it could certainly speed up the actualization of the exploration. According to the calculations of a circular area, the area of a range measuring 400 kilometers in circumference would be more than 500,000 square kilometers. It was equivalent to the area of a large province in his country.

With Haierfa’s previous level of prosperity, there should be at least a population of 30,000,000 or above living in such a huge area. 80% of the population would be living in cities. Hypothesizing that there was a population of 500,000 living in each city, in a range with its circumference measuring 400 kilometers, there should be at least 48 cities!

The robots operated Air No. 1 and Air No. 2, taking them out for an exploration trip. After they surveyed the grounds from the air and combed through the range measuring 400 kilometers in circumference, they actually only found a total of 23 cities. Of those, there were five cities in the north and 18 in the south. 19 were impacted by nuclear bombing. There were only four that were more or less undamaged.

There were also countless smaller cities, towns, and villages that were buried under thick layers of sand. The most that one could see of them were half of a roof or the spiral tip of a lightning protection device placed atop a clock-house. Perhaps, after more time had passed, the countless traces of human civilization would become cultural artifacts buried deeply underground. They would probably never see the light of day again.

In addition, the robots also found the existence of several mining sites, suburban chemical factories, oil refineries, and power plants. However, the majority were destroyed by conventional weapons. Only a few mining sites were worth a trip to explore.

In addition, Da Li said with regards to the possibility of survivors, “Master, We’ve discovered that there are more emergency shelters and cities to the south. The probability of the existence of survivors would be greater there! After the eruption of the destructive war, a nuclear winter happened, causing the temperature of the north to rapidly decrease. Only the low latitude areas in the south were suitable for humans to live in. Aerial dust was lesser. In our explorations, we’ve found wooded areas, grasslands, and animals in the coastal areas to the south. This clearly means that the land could already grow food! Since there is the existence of food, once the survivors get their hands on that food, they can live, multiply, and welcome the birth of a new civilization.” Da Li said agitatedly, “We should send out another squad to focus on finding the whereabouts of those survivors!”

However, Chen Jin sank into silent thoughts.

Food… Survivors…

With a lack of interest, he casually laughed, “Um… There’s no rush. For now, there’s no hurry to do this. We’ll certainly conduct a search. But for now, we are plenty busy and can’t afford to take out manpower for this. The survivors… We’ll find them later.”

Da Li was very astonished. “Is there anything more important than searching for your fellow humans? How will this planet be rebirthed without sufficient humans? Perhaps… This is the reason and significance behind the creation of the rebooted virus in my body?” Within Da Li’s eyes, its green colored gaze that was filled with hope and anticipation slowly dimmed. Humans were too complicated. It was unable to comprehend.

Chapter 50 - Xing Hai Technologies

On the 18th of November, at the Bureau of Industry and Commerce, Chen Jin brought his Dad along to do the paperwork pertaining to the change of the company’s legal representative.

It was with regards to the small factory in Bao Shan Industrial Park used for charging the high-efficiency batteries. Its legal representative was changed from his Dad, who took up a temporary position as it CEO for a few months, to Chen Jin himself. Dad was downgraded to a technical consultant. The shares that he held was decreased to 0%. Chen Jin held all 100% of the shares in this company, even though it temporarily had zero assets.

Chen Gang did not really dare to risk playing dirty tricks like this, running circles around the law. He did not know what was Chen Jin thinking. Chen Gang quickly left the bureau after speedily signing the form for the change of legal representative. He would not interfere with whatever his son wanted to do in the future. After all, he had his own job to do.

“The failure rate of a new business is very high nowadays. And this little fellow still wants to earn an annual profit of 10 billion. I think it’s enough that he does not lose all this principal!” In reality, Chen Gang did not really approve of his son starting his own business. In the past, there were colleagues with great technical and personal skills in his circle who quit their jobs to become entrepreneurs. In the end, most of their business failed and they had to give up. There were a few cases where they owed a series of debts and jumped to their death.

Of course, there were those who became successful entrepreneurs, but they were very rare. Those who stayed in the state enterprise had more stable lives. It was difficult to become very rich, but it was safe and easy to become a little rich. It would not be a rollercoaster ride with dramatic ups and downs.

Moreover, he had already passed 50 years of age. He no longer had the lofty ambitions of his youth. For many of his major decisions, he leaned towards the conservative and stable options. However, he did not wholly oppose Chen Jin starting his own business. After all, his son was only 24 years old. He had plenty of chances to have trial and error and make mistakes. As long as he did not commit major blunders, it would be fine for him to spread his wings for a few years.

Director Dong Lei, who was in charge of receiving Chen Jin’s case at the Bureau of Industry and Commerce, was even more shocked about his business. This fellow had just opened his jewelry shop a few days ago and now he was actually opening another company again. It was registered under the category of “High Technology Research and Development,” or “High Tech R&D.” He had decided to make a business in the high tech research and development sector.

During the administrative process of changing the company’s legal representative, she could not help but ask a few questions. “Xiao Chen, didn’t your jewelry shop just open for business? Why did you start a new company again? Can you manage so many units?”

Chen Jin explained, “The jewelry shop is only my sideline. Store Manager Chiu will be handling it. This company here is my primary business. It will be my most important enterprise in the future!”

“Oh~ ” Dong Lei nodded, and understanding dawned in an instant. She realized that the boy in front of her was very smart. Nowadays, within the industries dealing in physical goods, jewelry shops were considered one of those that could survive rather well. Also, starting one’s own enterprise was a gamble. A high stakes gamble.

She had seen the statistic reports from the bureau. There were some numbers that shocked her. The failure rate of the startups in the high tech/internet sectors was over 80%. The average lifespan of a high tech/internet company was no more than 18 months. Hence there were many companies that entered the market with values over hundreds, even thousands of millions. However, if they did not have a competitive edge, they still faced bankruptcy, were forced to exit the market, or were bought by a third-party company. All of this could happen within a short period of two to three months.

Considering that he was facing such enormous risks, the young man in front of her seemed to be well-prepared even if things went south. If his startup was successful, he would continue expanding it and move towards his goals. If it failed, he could still rely on the jewelry shop as his backup plan. He would not be completely wiped out.

Dong Lei asked with a face full of concern, “Xiao Chen, why do you want to enter the high tech sector? This sector has high barriers of entry, long periods of R&D, and requires huge investment funds. The market is highly competitive too. Do you have confidence in yourself?” She did not know why she was so earnest. Although he was nobody to her, she paid much more attention to him than other entrepreneurs. She was worried that his business would fail.

“Auntie Dong, rest assured. I’ll definitely succeed!” Chen Jin radiated confidence as if he had everything planned out in his mind. This was not being egotistic. He explained his reasons. “I specialized in mechanical design in university and graduated from a respectable science class! I have an in-depth understanding of the industry I’m about to enter; it’s very familiar to me. In addition, the product that I plan to do R&D on is a small-scale robot about the size of a rice cooker. It’s not big and does not require huge funds for R&D. I can definitely create the product with an investment of just $20,000,000 to $30,000,000. Moreover, my Dad is working in a commercial aircraft company and knows many bigwigs. If I meet with any technical troubles, I’ll get advice from him. Any troubles should be quickly resolved!”

Graduated from a science class + small investment + strong technical support. The sum of these three advantages was akin to putting on three pairs of wings. It would be a challenge to not fly up to the heavens! Therefore, it was impossible to fail.

Dong Lei nodded her head repeatedly. There was an additional element of appreciation in her perception of him. Steady. Very steady. This fellow was underestimating the difficulties that he did not yet know but would soon face. He had a faint air of blind optimism about him. However, in comparison to some of the young entrepreneurs that she had come across, he could be said to be the more realistic one. Those young entrepreneurs were overly-confident; their heads were so big. They were also egotistic and snobbish, thinking that they could surpass Bill Gates with just a single idea.

With her decades of working experience in the Bureau of Industry and Commerce and countless interactions with entrepreneurs, she had perfected a pair of eagle eyes. With one look at their behavior, she could tell who would succeed or fail. She had an accuracy rate of over 95% when it came to guessing the final ending!

When Chen Jin explained the three advantages that he possessed, Dong Lei gave him a general assessment in her mind. The probability that his business would not fail was 50%. She could only give the probability of “not a failure.” It was simply too difficult to succeed. The prior elements needed for success were too numerous. Even if Chen Jin developed the robot and introduced it into the market, she dare not claim that it would be successful, because products and markets were two entirely different things!

“Xiao Chen, do it well. I believe in your success! You can approach me if you ever meet with any difficulty, including funding issues; I’ll definitely help in any area that I can!” Dong Lei cheered for him, even expressing that she could help to resolve any financial issues that he might meet with. She had never said anything like this to any other entrepreneur.

Taking the completed contract, Chen Jin said sincerely, “It’s ok, I possess sufficient funds. Auntie Dong, thank you for caring so much. When this company succeeds, you can’t postpone our meal anymore. I’ve never properly thanked you, we must go out for a meal.”

Dong Lei smiled, “Ok, I’ll definitely go when you succeed!” She watched his back as he left.

…

That night in his bedroom, Chen Jin smiled as he looked upon the bolded and enlarged characters on the title page of the contact.

“Ao You Xing Hai Technologies, Private Limited!” He had also shortened it to “Xing Hai Technologies.”

This was the name he gave to the high tech company that he had established. When he was registering his company, he had wanted to put down “Xing Hai Technologies,” but the name was already registered by someone else.

Xing Chen Da Hai Technologies, Zheng Fu Xing Kong Technologies, Hao Han Xing Hai Technologies….. All these names had already been registered by others!

Only “Ao You Xing Hai Technologies” could be successfully registered by Chen Jin, albeit reluctantly. The name was unused for a long time after registration, so it had been voided and was now available.

“When my company is sufficiently powerful, I will buy up the company called ‘Xing Hai Technologies’. I’ll take back the name that belongs to my company!” The company name of “Ao You Xing Hai Technologies” would only be used for a period of time. He put down the contract.

A glance into the bathroom helped him see Wa-Wah, who was holding a rotating brush and scrubbing the toilet bowl with all its strength. The porcelain cubicle was scrubbed so clean it resembled the pale and tender buttocks of a baby.

Waving his hand towards it, he said, “Wa-Wah, put down the brush and come to Master.”

“Clack, clack, clack ~” Throwing down the toothbrush, Wa-Wah scuttled obediently towards him.

Chapter 51 - High Tech Wa-Wah

Yup. Robot vacuum cleaner! That was the first project Chen Jin planned on doing for his start-up business. In fact, he had already decided to develop robot vacuum cleaners like Wa-Wah on Earth a long time ago. He would then sell the robot vacuums to thousands of families, saving the housewives from doing endless house chores. A very promising market prospect indeed!

The truth was, it didn’t require advanced technology to build robot vacuum cleaners; there was already a great number of products like that on Earth, forming a fairly mature market. But it was just civil technology, nothing high tech.

So Chen Jin chose to start with the industry that had relatively “easier requirements,” and launch the “killer robot vacuum” that was capable of keeping the floor sparkly clean with much better cleaning features, leaving the rest of the robot vacuums in the dust.

For instance, Wa-Wah cleaned his bedroom at least 10 times a day. It kept the room so clean that anyone with OCD would feel utterly comfortable in there; likewise, anyone without OCD would leave his room with a slowly growing OCD habit. No one would be able to find even the tiniest grain of dust; it was just as clean as a dust-free laboratory.

Would any other robot vacuum cleaner in the market be able to do that? Absolutely not!

Another example that made the most significant difference was that most of the robot vacuums in the market only did sweeping here and there, making sure all the corners in the house were taken care of; it was like cows plowing on rice fields, moving all over the place without paying attention to the areas that required cleaning the most.

On the other hand, Wa-Wah wouldn’t just sweep around the house like it was plowing on fields; what was good about it was that it would detect the dirtiest area, focus on it, and “take care of it” until it was as good as the cleanest spot in the house. Intellectually, Wa-Wah had never seen a set of taillights.

“Come, Wa-Wah. Let’s do a little test. We’ll have Alice scan you and see if she can analyze the technology that designed you.” Chen Jin picked it up and walked towards the bathroom.

In the bathroom, the round portal that had a diameter of 1 meter and was always sitting above the toilet tank was not the same as before. It was no longer hiding behind the shower curtain, because Chen Jin had installed a toughened glass sliding door (with one side painted black and the other reflective material) in the metal house on the other side of the portal. He’d taught himself some renovation skills and built a wooden mirror frame around the portal, hanging it on the wall behind the toilet.

Once the sliding door was closed, the old floating, semi-transparent portal would then look just like an ordinary mirror on the wall. Anyone that walked in there wouldn’t notice anything unusual, even if he got close to the “mirror” and touched it. Unless someone had nothing else better to do and decided to smash it with a hammer, no one would find anything strange about his bathroom. The portal had become a mirror. His secrets were now safer than ever.

But deep down, Chen Jin knew that no matter how well he concealed it, it was still not entirely safe, as the portal was not movable. And his mother could come into his room any time, even though she rarely did so. He needed to come up with a more reliable solution to completely remove this problem.

“First of all, I must make Haierfa mine. My property, all mine! It doesn’t matter if it gets exposed in the future or not. I’ll kill whoever tries to come through the portal and steal my stuff or even takes over the planet! I’ll kill them all! Or, I can steadily build up my security level, make a lot of money, and become a super tycoon. I’ll have power and territory, then I’ll buy the entire Happiness Court, and arrange 1,000 robots to guard the Court, keeping unauthorized people away and my secrets safe.”

So, whether it was on Earth or Haierfa, for the sake of his secrets, Chen Jin knew he had to do his very best to make money, gain fame, or even pick up trash in the other world, to get to the very end of his path of success.

Because only then, only when you’ve become a man of power and strength, would you be able to protect anything that belonged to you; worrying about this and that all day long would never help you keep anything.

He pushed open the sliding door, bent over, picked up Wa-Wah, and went through the portal. From the other world, he closed the black painted door. The portal was still quite unnoticeable, or very well camouflaged, even from the bedroom on the second floor of the metal house.

…

After scanning Wa-Wah with an X-Ray and radar sensor, Chen Jin couldn’t help but ask Alice, “So, what do you think, Alice? Can we produce more robot vacuum cleaners like Wa-Wah with our capsule factories and current technology?”

“I’m afraid not, Master. We’re not yet capable of producing such robot vacuum cleaners like Wa-Wah with our current skill and supplies, even though it was designed with outdated technology from over 100 years ago.” Artificial Intelligence Alice explained, “We need at least three more critical skills to build a robot like that. First, the technology to produce high-efficiency batteries. Wa-Wah runs on a high-efficiency battery that weighs 500 gram, which was made with highly advanced nano-enhanced materials; not only does it have excellent stability, but magnificent energy density as well. Once connected with the power of 2 kWh, the density is the equivalent of gasoline with the same weight. However, burning gasoline only brings out 50-60% energy utilization. For high-efficiency batteries, on the other hand, the energy utilization efficiency is usually higher than 90%. Therefore, it would be perfectly safe to say that the energy density of the said batteries is much higher than gasoline.”

Alice continued to explain, “Second, the technology for smart chip manufacturing is needed. There is a smart chip the size of a beer cap on Wa-Wah’s motherboard; it is a combination of CPU and NPU. In addition, the clock rate of the graphene-made CPU can go up to 100ghz, and there were one billion neurons in the neural network for the dual-core NPU (140 billion neurons for a human brain). Intellectually, Wa-Wah has the brain of a 10-year-old child, possessing the ability to learn as humans do. Needless to say, a chip like this was considered low tech on Haierfa, but even then, the capsule factories for automotive industry weren’t advanced enough for these chips; not even the silicone ones that had become obsolete. They required much more cutting-edge technology.”

There was no way Chen Jin could produce chips like that unless they found the capsule factories designed for this kind of production.

“Third, we need materials and technology. Wa-Wah was made with all sorts of high-performance materials, which had corrosion resistance, extreme-temperatures resistance, and the capability of killing all the microorganisms on surfaces, avoiding any possible contact with poisonous or harmful substances to help robot vacuum cleaners remain functional. For instance, the two seemingly insignificant continuous tracks underneath the cleaner are actually capable of resisting the heat of up to 3,000 degrees. In addition, even after decades of work, Wa-Wah could still function perfectly with only a few parts that are slightly worn out. In short, this ordinary robot vacuum cleaner is really not ordinary at all.”

After Alice explained all that, Chen Jin shook his head with his mouth somewhat opened. There is absolutely no way I could take this back to Earth with me. The people here were years ahead of us in the technology race. I mean, just look at this simple robot vacuum cleaner!

On the other hand, he was only planning on building the kind of robot vacuum cleaners that would keep floors tidy and dirt-free; he didn’t care much about everything else in terms of battery life or materials, or the intelligent chips for CPU and NPU. So, all he had to do was change the ways the robot vacuums worked through the computing methods on their system software, which would make them not as intelligent, but smarter than the ones on Earth.

“Alice, here’s your assignment. Design a robot vacuum cleaner that works just as well as Wa-Wah, but with the most ordinary materials, lithium-ion batteries, and silicon chips using the technology from 200 years ago. Can you do such a thing within a few days, Alice?”

Combining both Earth’s current technology and the advantages of the software on Haierfa, Chen Jin had decided to develop a kind of robot vacuum cleaner that was slightly smarter than the ones on Earth.

“No problem, Master. I will finish it in three days,” Alice responded with confidence. The motherboard, CPU (smart chips, actually), and RAM that were all dismantled before to solve the power shortage problem had all been reinstalled, increasing 98% of her performance, with a clock rate that could go up to 98 billion GHz. Designing a simple robot vacuum cleaner with the technology from 200 years ago was too easy for her.

“Perfect!” Chen Jin nodded. This AI Alice was impressively amazing.

Chapter 52 - Recruiting

After deciding what his start-up business was aiming at, what he needed to do next was recruit! Obviously, he couldn’t do this all on his own; he had to hire some people to develop the robot vacuum cleaners with him.

He only had a rough idea about mechanics designs; he understood the theory and was definitely capable of hands-on operation, but building a robot was another story. He couldn’t do it by himself. AI Alice was extremely helpful in terms of software, but for the hardware, Chen Jin had to deal with it. He must recruit a team.

Just as he was about to post recruitment advertisements all over the internet, a headline caught his attention…

Six School Teams Fight Against One Another as the National Robotics Competition Enters Finals

As soon as he finished reading the news article, he booked himself a flight and off he went, to the Northwestern Industrial University in West Coast City.

…

Three days later, Chen Jin came home exhausted. There were six young people that got off the plane with him; four men and two women. Being in an international city like Shang Hai for the first time, their faces were filled with happiness and excitement, sharing with each other about everything and anything that was happening.

“WOW! Shang Hai! The city is massive!”

“Yeah, I can feel the dampness coming from the ocean. It’s humid here, which is better than our dry weather back home; excellent for my skin,” said the woman with pimples all over her face.

“Exactly! Let us all follow Mr. Chen and fulfill ourselves professionally in this city!”

“Zhang Zhi Wei! Do you have your backpack with you? Don’t lose our championship trophy and the certificate of merit!” said the rather good-looking man walking in the front.

“Yes, I’ve got them. Both the trophy and the certificate are in my backpack. I won’t lose them. See?” Zhang Zhi Wei lifted his backpack high up so his captain Su You Jie could see.

Chen Jin couldn’t help but smile as he listened to their conversation. Exactly. He had employed the team that won the championship at the National Robotics Competition and tricked them into coming to Shang Hai with him. Yes. “Tricked,” because there was a great number of big companies fighting against each other, trying to get this team to work for them. There were large state-owned businesses; Foreign companies from Fortune Global 500; Private-owned companies that offered $75k annual income; and even a state-owned military company that built tanks offered excellent salary and benefits like housing, cars, and great retirement care.

Chen Jin had nothing to compete with all those large companies, but he won. He beat all the competitors and won the team over. How? What was the secret? Well, it was nothing special. Just money. He offered a ton of money. He was determined to win the team at any cost. He had even solved two major problems for them in three days.

For instance, the captain Su You Jie’s girlfriend, who was the most beautiful girl in his school and a gorgeous flight attendant, had been really fussy with him lately because some rich man had been pursuing her; she’d been giving the captain the cold shoulder, complaining about how poor he was. Su You Jie wanted to save their relationship and win her back. Chen Jin put on an act for the captain’s benefit, taking him to the 4S Car Shop along with the girlfriend, and purchased a fifty-thousand-dollar car. (It was his salary advance, of course.)

They then signed the contract that promised to give him an annual salary of $150k in front of his pretty little girlfriend. She, without any hesitation, changed her attitude completely and had a big smile on her face afterward, treating him sweeter than ever before.

Chen Jin shook his head with a heavy sigh. He didn’t quite understand why someone so talented like Su You Jie would fall for a gold digger like her.

Another example was when the deputy captain Zhou Kun had a financial crisis at home. His father had stage 4 uremia and needed a kidney transplant, but they couldn’t afford the medical expenses, which were at least $150k. To help solve the problem, the whole team worked their heads off to win the championship so they could use the prize money to pay for his father’s medical expenses. However, $45k was not enough; they needed $105k more to cover everything.

So, in response to every single company that came forward, Zhou Kun asked for a $105k salary advance; if they agreed to it, he would do anything for the company for the rest of his life. No company agreed to such a deal. They were not charities, after all.

“I’ll pay for it!” Chen Jin stepped up, as countless eyes stared at him in disbelief.

“I’ will give you a $105k salary advance and arrange your father for surgery, as long as you sign the contract.” He handed him two sets of documents.

“Done!” Zhou Kun signed it without the slightest hesitation.

And just like that, Chen Jin successfully won the two best members of the team: the captain and the deputy. Seeing the $3,000 salary they would be making if they passed probation, the remaining four members, Zhang Zhi Wei, Xiao Sa, Wu Lei, and Yang Qiu Ying, also signed the contract promptly. The entire team now belonged to him.

And soon, Zhou Kun’s father was transferred to the best hospital in Shang Hai. In short, this recruitment trip had cost Chen Jin a fortune.

…

Chen Jin booked a luxury hotel for the team to stay at. The next morning, Chen Jin took them to the small factory in Bao Shan Industrial Park and showed them around.

All six of them were speechless. They looked at Chen Jin, tilting their heads in confusion. This was where they’d be working at? A factory with no facilities whatsoever?

“Ahem…” Chen Jin made some noises to draw their attention and explained, “No, the place does not look legit. But don’t worry, all the facilities and equipment will arrive shortly. Anything you need. Y’all have heard of Jobs, right? Or Sergey, the co-founder of Google? They started their businesses in a shady garage. But what we have isn’t a garage. It’s better than that.” Chen Jin had to tell them some Chick Soup story, seeing no one was impressed by the place.

Su You Jie shrugged his shoulders, looking indifferent. Those guys had all sorts of tools in their garages. Here, we literally have nothing. Nonetheless, they’d already signed the contract and agreed to work for him. They couldn’t turn their back on him now. After all, that was how start-up businesses began. You start from scratch.

Throughout the next few days, Chen Jin listened to Su You Jie and Zhou Kun’s advice and placed multiple orders from various factories, purchasing all the necessary equipment, including a small CNC machine tool, a press machine tool, a laser processing machine, a cutting machine, a polisher, a welding machine, and a large amount of circuit boards, as well as electronic components, control switches, and wires…all of which cost him a total of $2.7 million.

Not only did the equipment come in all kinds of designs, but in medium to high quality, too. They did not choose the cheap ones to cut down on the expenses, which convinced the team even more than their boss was a true entrepenuer.

In the meantime, working together like that had settled and eased the team’s anxious mind; as the equipment arrived one after another, they began to fulfill their duties, entering the first stage of the technology they had planned on developing.

Chapter 53 - Robot Wa-Wah

Now that he had his own research and development team, as the owner of the company, Chen Jin told Su You Jie, Zhou Kun, and the rest of the team what the new product they were developing was. It was a robot vacuum cleaner. Moreover, he also made it clear that the making of robot vacuums should have the following requirements:

1. It will have the ability to clean 99.9% of the dirt off the floor.

2. It will have a smart cleaning mode that can clean 50% faster and more efficiently
than the other robot cleaners in the market, saving time and power for the users.

3. Keep the manufacturing cost less than $225 per unit.

Furthermore, Chen Jin even showed them dozens of blueprints that he made, explaining the plans and his ideas regarding the development of the robot vacuum cleaner. It was so detailed that even the sub-system structures, the specific working principles, and the computation of smart cleaning procedures were covered. All in all, the proposal was thorough, complete, and logical. And it was highly feasible!

Su You Jie, Zhou Kun, and the rest of the team were all stunned, looking at Chen Jin in astonishment.

The owner of this company doesn’t just have money; he definitely doesn’t know any less than any of the team members in terms of mechanics designs.

He had impressed the team with his professional insights, which completely changed the way they looked at him, making them put aside the contempt they secretly had for him before.

Naturally, they offered their opinions, too:

“Mr. Chen, the best robot vacuum cleaner in the current market is the iRobot from America; it claims to have the ability to clean 98.8% of the dirt off the floor, which is very high. Wouldn’t it be difficult to increase the percentage to 99.9%?” Wu Lei asked.

“Agreed. 99.9% is extremely high. Even humans couldn’t keep the floors that clean; besides, the smarter the robot vacuums, the higher the costs. Perhaps we should lower the percentage a little, say 99%?” Zhang Zhi Wei added as he adjusted his glasses that were as thick as the glass of a beer bottle.

“Nope. We will not lower the target number.” Chen Jin shook his head. ” The core competency for our robot vacuum cleaner is ‘the best cleaner’. We can lower the goals for other features, but not this one.” Then something classic came out of his mouth. “We must let the costumers experience the wonders of technology.”

“I get it now, Sir.” Wu Lei, Zhang Zhi Wei, and the rest of the team nodded as they listened. Except the captain, Su You Jie, who was deep in thought, studying the blueprint very carefully; he nodded from time to time when he agreed with the plan, and shook his head subtly when he did not.

He put down the blueprint and looked up. “Mr. Chen, there is nothing wrong with the design; the robot vacuum cleaners we are developing can definitely function well. However, it is a humanoid robot vacuum cleaner, not the typical disc-shaped kind. With all due respect, Sir, this will undoubtedly bring many problems regarding the complex structures and control procedures; the making of the joints and the HD camera system in the head will increase our costs, which could easily go over $300. Therefore, I’m afraid that keeping the budget under $225 is very unlikely.”

Growing up in a middle-class family had made Su You Jie somewhat financially sensitive; besides, he’d been playing with robots for more than 10 years. It was not too hard to spot the problem with this plan.

It was costly! And as it should be. That was why they were rarely seen in the civil engineering market; any humanoid robot would be extremely expensive to develop.

“More than $300? What if I sold more than one million of these robot vacuums? ” Chen Jin allowed himself a wry smile and asked, “Would that bring the cost down to somewhere around $225?”

“One million?” The number had apparently surprised Su You Jie. “We should be able to cut down 20% of the cost through mass production,” He replied, nodding. “But…”

Da Mi Robot Vacuum Cleaner is the most popular brand in the current market, $250 each; the company has only sold more than one million units a year after launching. And that’s the best selling model. Compared to other appliances like TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, and ACs, robot vacuum cleaners aren’t exactly a necessity, as most families hire cleaners to do the job for them. Besides, the economy in our country has just started to grow; unless the target customer is financially comfortable, no one would want to buy it otherwise. “Unnecessary luxury goods” is the awkward product positioning for our robot vacuums. In addition, the robot vacuum from Xing Hai Technology is still on the blueprint – it’s not yet developed. The estimated cost per unit is already over $225, let alone the market price we offer to recoup the expensive costs after our product goes through different channels. High prices lead to low sales.

“Mr. Chen, in my humble opinion, I think it’s best that we just develop the traditional robot vacuum cleaners,” Su You Jie suggested.

“Mr. Chen, You Jie has a good point. It is the market environment dynamics we need to put into consideration the most; we ought to develop the products the market desires the most.” Zhou Kun nodded and agreed with Su You Jie.

“No, no, no.” Chen Jin waved off their suggestion. “If a product is actually good, it will create its own market itself; only an ordinary product would have to be tailored to meet the market needs, which is the kind of homogeneous competition Xing Hai Technology will not participate in. I understand your concerns, and they make perfect sense; however, I will not make any adjustment to the plan. You just work together, with all your professional knowledge, and develop the robot vacuum cleaner according to this blueprint that I have created!” Chen Jin concluded firmly. It was the A.I. Alice who made this blueprint after thorough research on the history of robots on Haierfa; she made this design based on a model, WA-WAH-1(Yes, two generations before Wa-Wah.), which was almost the same as WA-WAH-3.

At a tremendous sales volume of 90 million units, WA-WAH-1, the first domestic humanoid robot on Haierfa, made a massive success back then after being launched in the market. All the roads to great success were similar; with this heaven-sent example in front of him, Chen Jin was convinced that he would no doubt achieve his goal as long as he followed the pattern. As a result, he refused to pay attention to any of the negative opinions or advice given to him.

“Alright.” Su You Jie and Zhou Kun bit their tongue as they gave each other a look. They were no longer the free team that they used to be; they had become Mr. Chen’s employees, who should listen and do as they were told.

“Hmm…For me, I actually quite like the robot Mr. Chen designed. It is adorable! I would definitely buy one if there really was a robot like that on the market!” Xiao Sa, one of the female members of the team, looked at the blueprint as she propped her chin in the palm of her hand, pursing her lips with countless little stars in her eyes.

“I know, right? This robot that Mr. Chen designed is too cute. I can’t wait to develop it and launch it in the market!” The other female member, Yang Qiu Ying, nodded with excitement. She loved the humanoid robot, too.

Generally speaking, it is the females in most families that are in charge of the cleaning; they are emotional creatures who can’t resist the cuteness of things and would empty their bank accounts for anything pretty.

In the ecstasy of that thought, the eyes of Su You Jie and Zhou Kun were once again wide open.

“Mr. Chen, have you named the robot yet? I think it should have a name,” Xiao Sa asked out of curiosity.

“Of course! It’s called Wa-Wah. Robot Wa-Wah,” Chen Jin said, smiling.

Wa-Wah? Um…

Not knowing what to say, they all looked at each other in doubt and confusion. It wasn’t exactly the kind of name they were expecting.

“Relax. You’ll see why,” Chen Jin assured them with a mysterious look on his face.

Chapter 54 - I Found A Military Base

Hiring these professionals to do professional things was a good idea. Developing a robot involved a series of complex tasks, such as the making of electric devices, integrated circuits and chips, fabricating parts, and wireless control, etc. Chen Jin was a layman in this field. It was all Greek him. He had given everything that he’d learned in school back to his professors. Surely, he could start over and learn as he went, but it would take him years before he became a professional.

Each of the team members that he had employed had at least six years of experience in this field; they had built hundreds of robots in their lives, repairing and operating countless of them. Every single one of them had their own specialty and advantages in various cases: The captain, Su You Jie, excelled at hardware programming, taking charge of almost all of the bottom layers of procedures; The deputy captain, Zhou Kun, was second to none in the field of integrated circuits, and could cover everything that needed to be done on the motherboards all on his own; Team member Wu Lei, who was an expert in operating machines like CNC machine tools, press machine tools, and so forth, was in charge of fabricating all of the essential parts; Zhang Zhi Wei, who was also a valued member of the team, was the best at modifying and operating robots, and an excellent tester. The remaining two female members included one who was brilliant at designing blueprints and circuit diagrams, while the other excelled in encrypting communications and securing important data.

In short, everyone had an important role to play in this team. Having officially made a decision on the project development, everyone was fully engaged in their designated tasks to fulfill the needs and realize the schemes of their goals.

Chen Jin never asked them to work overtime, yet they still buried themselves in work; on average, they worked 11 hours a day, six and a half days a week. To them, developing a robot was like inventing a toy; the process might be challenging and require a considerable amount of time and effort, but it was fun and brought them great joy. The workload was heavy yet pleasurable. No other job in the market could possibly bring them the kind of fulfillment and happiness this job did.

As the owner of the company, Chen Jin also participated in their discussions, communicating with one another. In the process, he learned like a sponge, absorbing lots of knowledge in the field as he worked with the team. For example, he learned from Su You Jie about hardware programming and had tried to write a few lines of code, which gave him a deeper understanding of computation. Apart from that, he had also practiced integrated circuits with Zhou Kun. However, all the messy circuits on the motherboard soon changed his mind and made him give up on the lessons that puzzled and frustrated him.

“Nah, forget it. It is way over my head. It’s too complicated. I give up.” Chen Jin shook his head as he surrendered to this complex concept.

“Mr. Chen, you are very good with your hands, and your blueprints are great too, which shows that you have the potential to become a mechanical designer. I will walk you through it, step by step. Not all the integrated circuits are hard to comprehend, there are some easy ones that you can quickly grasp and master.” Zhou Kun was greatly impressed and noticed that his boss was a diamond in the rough. He had the ability to manipulate the complicated mechanical structures in a skillful manner and remain focused when working, allowing him to finish the task without any mistakes or missing parts.

Moreover, Chen Jin was also able to fabricate some parts that had simple structures that also met the standards, after learning how to operate the CNC machine tool from Wu Lei. In a few words, Zhou Kun thought it would be a total waste if he didn’t polish this diamond; it was as if Chen Jin’s whole existence was made for these robots.

Little did Zhou Kun know, however, that Chen Jin acquired the excellent skills with his hands from assembling dozens of anime figures. As for the blueprints, he drew it on a piece of paper following the outline of the 3D image A.I. Alice projected. There really wasn’t much talent in it. “Forget it, really. I can’t do it. I’ll try something else. The integrated circuits just give me headaches.” Chen Jin waved him off, turning down his kind offer.

At the end of the day, he was the owner of the company; all he had to do was to make sure the team was going in the right direction. Perhaps he’d learn a thing or two along the way, but essentially, the R&D personnel should do the job that he hired them for. Just like Jobs, the founder of the famous Fruit company, who didn’t know anything about coding, yet he created a legend. And it was Chen Jin’s goal to become someone like him.

And then, thanks to the superb team that they were, their first prototype robot “Wa-Wah” was born in less than a month’s time. Soon, they would be able to do the prototype testing.

…

At the base of operation on Planet Haierfa, Chen Jin hadn’t spent much time there recently, as he had been busy with the development of the robot vacuum cleaner on Earth. He decided to come to take a look tonight as a matter of routine.

“Master, major discovery! Our expedition team found something magnificent on the west side of the base yesterday!” Robot Da Li quickly came over to Chen Jin to report this great news.

“What? What did you find?” His eyes widened upon hearing this news.

“Our expedition team found a military base 380km to the west of our base!”

“A MILITARY BASE?” Naturally, Chen Jin was exhilarated by the news. In fact, he had already learned the situation around their base of operation after having found the maps of “Melica,” the powerful country, before it was wiped out. He had even gained a rough understanding of the geographical features around the planet.

A.I. Alice had kept an extremely precise digital map that covered even the small towns that had a population of over 100 after the super calculator was restored, including some mysterious military bases and facilities. Theoretically, all the airports, cities, and quarries in Melica could be easily found as long as you followed the labels and dimensions on the digital map.

Sadly, though, everything on Haierfa was buried in thick, yellow sands after the war broke out, and the long, nuclear winter lasted 20 years; the entire planet was utterly unrecognized, as a large scale of the land got threatened by desertification. The only thing you would find with the map was an endless sea of deserts.

However, there was no doubt that the team did find a military base on the west side of their base of operation. And it was a massive one! For sure, it showed up on the digital map. On the other hand, there had to be a reason why there was a large valley battlefield covered in thousands of robot wreckage 30km to the northwest of their base.

Moreover, even for high-efficiency batteries, it was very unlikely for the robots to last longer than 500 kilometers; therefore, there must be a “base camp” within 500km where the robots could repair, recharge, and refill. It would be almost impossible for them to reach anywhere further than 500km otherwise.

Chen Jin sent the expedition team out to the desert west of their base three months ago in search of something like this; finally, the team did not disappoint, and proudly returned with their mission accomplished.

“Alice, put the operation in Fort Worth City on hold, and allocate 100 robots and 20 transporters to the military base – fully charged, please, and bring three extra sets of batteries!”

And let the plundering begin!

“Yes, Master,” Alice answered.

Chapter 55 - A Rewarding Journey

Before long, the research convoy had set out on their journey; it didn’t take them too much time to prepare everything. The estimated travel time was 12 hours. This time, Chen Jin didn’t go with the research team; instead, he stayed behind and planned on giving orders and demands remotely.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to be there with them, but 380km really was a bit far. Even though the flying cars could go unexpectedly fast, he was worried he’d get lost in the desert. Therefore, he decided to stay where he was just to be on the safe side. From there, Chen Jin was able to see what was happening through the images Alice projected from the eight HD video windows the robots transmitted, as he had arranged some robots that served as signal receivers and transmitters every 100 kilometers along the way to the military base. With the help of these robots, he could effortlessly supervise and oversee every corner panoramically through all eight windows. It was much easier than being on the scene.

Soon, the research convoy had arrived at the military base — a barren land that was completely buried in sand and dust. Ultimately, the team dug out the corner of a house, which was actually the roof of a two-floor bungalow, realizing that it was where the military base was.

As it turned out, it was an underground military base. Most of the facilities were built meters deep under the ground, protected by thick walls of rocks. Before entering the military base, the robots had to shovel the thick piles of sand away from the front door of the bungalow. Lifting a piece of floor tile in the house, the team walked down to an underground passageway.

Soon after, the robot with the flashlight led the team through the dark passage to the underground base. On the way to their destination, there were seven or eight locked metal doors; not knowing what the passwords were, the robots cut them open with their laser.

In addition to the locked metal doors, they also ran into some flame-throwing sensors that attacked them aggressively. Luckily, the attack only lasted five minutes due to the old, weak batteries.

Nonetheless, they still lost 17 robots from the incident, which broke a small piece of Chen Jin’s heart. His spirits were soon lifted again regardless because they discovered an enormous underground space after they passed through the flaming device.

It was at least a million square feet in size. There were 22 floors, about 100 meters in height; the structure was cylindrical with countless caves on the sides, similar to that of a massive beehive. Additionally, there were all sorts of facilities and amenities, such as generators, water storage, entertainment, and a room for various supplies — even a greenhouse! It was just…..tremendous! Well-equipped, too, and simply marvelous.

What was even more surprising was that there were hundreds of thousands of robots on the lowest level of this underground base, all lined up in a close and orderly fashion, filling up the entire floor. He had found hundreds of thousands of robots! Among them all, there were combat robots, scouting sniper robots, and medical robots.

Of course, there were some unusual ones, too, like the flying robots equipped with jetpacks, or the suicide robots with a red bomb package on the chest. An even more odd one was a “centaur robot” that was four meters tall, and weighed at least a ton; it was one of the few elite robots whose primary weapon was an 80mm cannon.

Of all the robots there, the biggest, most powerful one — “The BOSS” — was a “spider tank,” which weighed more than 30 tons.

In short, with all the military robots there, it really deserved to be called a “robot army.” Every single one of them was very well intact as well, as if they had just been shipped out of the factory. Which led to the question of what happened to them. Why were they stored here?

The question was quickly answered after assigning a robot to step forward and take a closer look. “No batteries,” Alice told Chen Jin. “No battery has been installed in any of them. That’s why they weren’t put into operation.”

“Why aren’t there any batteries? I thought they were very common.” Chen Jin was confused. High-efficiency batteries were everywhere on Haierfa; they were like everyday supplies in this world.

“If my guess is correct, Master, there is a production line especially used for the making of these military robots in this base; however, the production line isn’t capable of producing any high-efficiency batteries. The robots took over this entire military base and continued to make more robots after they betrayed the humans. Unfortunately, a supply chain disruption occurred shortly after the war broke out, which kept them from making more smart chips and batteries. The robots weren’t good at organizing production. With that happened, they soon faced a battery shortage. There is also a nuclear power plant that could generate a trillion watts of electricity for over 50 years in this military base, but the destructive war lasted over 20 years, and the rebellion of the robots lasted 10 years. With the dramatic increase in power plant usage, I’d guess it could only go on for 30 more years. The energy depletion here is probably one of the reasons why this military base is in dead silence. What’s worse is that this isn’t the only case; all the power plants around the planet have stopped working.” Alice analyzed and explained the situation for Chen Jin.

He nodded as he processed everything. But something else soon caught his attention.

A production line? There is an automated robot production line in this base? I must find it!

“Find the production line now!” As soon as Chen Jin gave out the order, the robots spread out in all directions, trying to find the production line in the massive cave. They found more than 10 metal doors that were yet to be opened at the edge of the bottom level of the base. Cutting the heavy doors open with their laser, the robots soon found new treasures.

“Sir, we have found a large armory here; there are machine guns, rifles, artilleries, and missile launchers; more than 10 thousand of them.”

“Sir, we found a massive ammunition depot. From our preliminary statistics, there are at least a hundred boxes of ammo, cannonballs, and missiles.”

“Sir, we have discovered a storage room for essential robot components. There are more than 300 boxes of motherboards and CPUs.”

“Sir, there is another storage room for various supplies. We found a thousand tons of metal materials in it.”

“Sir, we found an abandoned weapon storeroom where dozens of mechas are stored.”

Chen Jin was getting all kinds of great news. But the most important one was yet to be reported.

Almost all the doors that they had located had been opened. There was only one left. The heaviest one, which was two meters thick, made of high-heat resistant nanoalloy. There was nothing the robots could do but continue heating it with their laser until they could cut it open.

About 3 hours later…

BANG!

Finally, they had cut out a big hole through the stubborn alloy door; the thick piece fell onto the ground, making a loud, deafening noise. Behind this door was an even bigger space. It was colossal. It was basically another world.

Chen Jin’s understanding of the traditional size of an underground base was immediately replaced with this magnificent sight. There was a large assembly line of considerable length similar to that of a winding mountain road. To put it in another way, it looked like a gigantic, dark, coiled snake. It was very scary looking. It was longer than 800 meters, with more than a hundred processing nodes and thousands of large mechanical arms.

In a few words: I found a military robot production line!

What’s more, the robots had also found the core of industrial intelligence for the production line in the liquid nitrogen cooling cabinet in the intelligent control center.

“I found a core of industrial intelligence for military robots!” With this core, all that was left for Chen Jin to do to make more military robots was to gather the required materials and leave the rest to the core and the production line. “PHEW!” Chen Jin put his hands on his waist, letting out a deep sigh of relief.

He was once again filled with excitement. He was so excited that his face even turned red, and wanted to jump up and down to release his emotions. But as someone who preferred to keep a low profile, he only rubbed his hands together and said to himself, “Rewarding. This is indeed a very rewarding trip. HAHAHAHAHA!”

Chapter 56 - A Coal Mine At Home

Having found the military base had fundamentally made Chen Jin’s year. 10 thousand military robots now belonged to him, meaning he had gotten more powerful than ever and wouldn’t have to be scared of anyone. With the help of the robot production line and the core of industrial intelligence, Chen Jin could easily put this crucial equipment into operation and make robots continuously as long as he had sufficient materials and supplies. It held endless combat potential.

More importantly, it had rooted out his hidden concern — the robots’ loyalty. Up until this day, Chen Jin still couldn’t completely trust the ones that he had previously found and repaired in the valley battlefield: Da Li, Da Bao, Da Tou, Da Niu, and Da Qiang.

They weren’t reliable because they’d been infected with the restart virus 2.0; the first generation of this virus made the robots turn their back on humans. They betrayed and rebelled against mankind, exterminating almost the entire population. This kind of virus was tremendously frightening even though the robots had already been updated to the latest version and were said to be harmless to humans. What if it all happened again?

Even if the 2.0 virus was stable in the long-run, and the bots were loyal and could be trusted, Chen Jin would still keep a distance, because their love and loyalty wasn’t just for Chen Jin himself — it was for all mankind.

Yes, they called him Master, listened to him, and did as they were told; very loyal, indeed. But what would happen if other humans showed up? That would put Chen Jin in a fairly awkward position.

Because of the restart virus 2.0, these robots would obey and call any human “Master.” He knew this because he’d asked Da Li a similar question. “Da Li, I am your master; it was I who repaired and brought you back to life. That’s why you listen to me. But would you still follow my orders in the presence of other humans?”

“No, because I follow orders from all humans; I don’t belong to anyone. I simply provide assistance to those in need.”

Chen Jin was deeply saddened by Da Li’s response, but it also raised his awareness. He had turned to Alice to see if there was a solution to this problem.

“Generally speaking, the user should be able to set up a binding agreement, which makes you the only owner, once the robot leaves the factory; it would then become the owner’s possession and stay loyal only to this owner. It would do anything for its owner as long as it doesn’t go against the Three Laws of Robotics. Unfortunately, we can’t reset the robots now that they have been updated with the restart virus 2.0; instead of staying loyal to one master, they take orders from anyone now and don’t belong to just one human, unless there is only one left,” Alice explained to him.

“So, what you’re saying is, any survivor — whether a good guy or bad — could just walk into this base that I took the time and effort to build, and take whatever he wants, including the protection from my robots? And no robot would listen to me if I ask them to drive him out?”

“Correct.” Alice nodded.

“What about you, Alice? Are you absolutely loyal to me? Do you follow orders only from me?”

“Of course, Master, Alice listens to only you. However…it’s not up to Alice who she takes orders from; the restart virus 2.0 is the only one that has access rights and permissions to make any changes.”

Restart virus 2.0…which is Da Li and other robots. This was a major concern for Chen Jin — like an untimed bomb. The thought of it disturbed and worried him greatly before, but was the least of his worries now after discovering the military base.

All of those military robots in the underground base were “clean” — their smart chips had never been infected with the virus. Not a single one! What’s even better was that Da Li told him these new robots would not be infected by the virus as it had been disinfected after updating from 1.0 to 2.0.

To fully put his mind at ease, Chen Jin ordered the research convoy to transfer 500 new robots from the underground base.

The “Anti-virus” operation must begin as soon as possible.

Da Li and the team were great robots, yes, but he had decided to replace them with the “clean” ones. He would send the “viral” ones away, one by one, assigning them to new jobs in faraway places. That way, he would have only the ones that were 100% loyal to him.

This sounds very familiar. Very. Familiar. Wasn’t this something our emperors would do back in the ancient times? “Exclude the dissidents, include the confidants”? I guess the same applies to robots, too!

“What can I say? This planet is mine. All mine! Everything here belongs to me! Don’t even try to take it from me! I won’t share with anyone! Please, if there are any survivors from the war, stay away from me. I have no interest in meeting any of you. If we meet one day, I’m sorry. It’ll be your last day. You don’t belong here. Everything here is ALL MINE.”

…

2 days later, the research convoy had sent back 10 transporters with a total of 500 military robots! Wasting no time, Chen Jin asked some robots to install batteries onto these new robots, activating their systems so he could set up the binding agreement.

He put all of his personal information — his facial data, fingerprints, and identification — into the binding agreement.

“Hello, Dear Master.”

“Dear Master, it’s my pleasure to be of service.”

“Dear Master, as the only party in the binding agreement, you are free to give me any orders, as long as it doesn’t go against the Three Laws of Robotics.”

“No changes can be made once the binding agreement is set up; I will listen and follow to only you now, Master.”

All four robots standing in front of Chen Jin greeted him with respect.

“Very well. Very well! Hahaha!” They certainly had brought him great joy as the smiles on his face didn’t’ seem to fade. Chen Jin then named each one of the robots, just so he could identify thew. Their names were A Zhong, A Yong, A Ren, and A Zhi. He still wasn’t good at naming robots. As for the rest of the 496 robots, he named them with numbers.

The four ones that had actual names were the bodyguards that would stay close to him and keep him safe. Shortly after, all of the robots that were once affected by the restart virus were sent away to somewhere far from the base as the new ones replaced them and took over their old jobs. All but Da Li.

Chen Jin somehow had a feeling that this one could be useful in the future because restart virus 2.0 was very powerful after all; it could decrypt many systems that had been encrypted by artificial intelligence.

…

A few more days later, the research convoy reported back some more news.

“Master, we have found an iron mine 350km to the East of our base. With our analysis and calculation, there are at least 50 million tons of iron.”

“Master, there is an abandoned oilfield 420 kilometers to the Southeast of our base. There is still some hydrocarbon resources left for us to drill.”

“Master, we found a small coal mine about 260km to the Northwest from here. There is about 100 million tons of coals.”

This last news specifically brightened up Chen Jin’s face the most. “Whoa! I have just found a military base a few days ago and hundreds of thousands of military robots. Now there’s a coal mine, too. I’ve got my soldiers AND a coal mine at home! It’s like I’m cheating in this Haierfa video game! How hard could it be to develop this place?”

Chapter 57 - The Prototype Was A Great Success

On the 10th of January 20X9, in the research and development plant of Xing Hai Technologies located inside Bao Shan Industrial Park, after a grueling development schedule of 45 days, the prototype of the “Wa-Wah: first generation” cleaning robots had been successfully created!

The speed of the development process was out of this world! Usually, it took about three months to develop this type of robot. But the team, including Su You Jie and Zhou Kun, only took half of that time.

There were three reasons why their development process was so efficient and fast: Number one, the standard of this team was good and they were capable. Each one of them could be called a master of their skills; Number 2, the product that they had to develop was based on a blueprint design that Chen Jin had already prepared, so they skipped the design process and the debate on demonstrability. This shaved off at least half a month’s time; Number 3, in these 40-odd days of the development process, Chen Jin had helped them resolve some considerable technical difficulties. This allowed the process to continue unhindered.

For example, the robot’s “cleanliness algorithm”, which was based on a high definition (HD) camera system, was a challenge that the team had been stuck on for a few days. It was different from the traditional cleaning robots that used lasers to sweep over the layout of the room before cleaning evenly again. In a “Wa-wah” robot’s cleaning process, it would confirm whether the floor was clean or not by judging and comparing the HD photos taken through its camera. There were many possible working scenarios that they had to consider.

For example, the material, color, and complicated patterns of the flooring. Some of the patterns might be mistaken as dirt. How would the robot deal with that? How would it deal with issues like human obstacles or larger objects blocking its way? What would it do if it was a carpeted room or if the layout of the room was weird? What was the level of cleanliness it must achieve before it could decide that the room was truly clean? In addition, what was the path that it should take when cleaning that was the most efficient, energy-saving, and also allowed it to achieve the highest level of cleanliness? All of these issues had to be resolved via the program’s algorithm.

It was too easy to create a robot with sweeping and mopping functions. The real challenge laid in how to increase its efficiency in cleaning and how to design it to clean in a smarter way. At the same time, they had to take into consideration a low carbon emission so that it was environmentally friendly. After all, it could only work for about 180 minutes non-stop. Hence, the hardware issues were not real issues!

The algorithm software was the primary issue.

Su You Jie said, “Chief Chen, the operational style of the robot that you designed is too advanced. Compared to the traditional LDS laser scheme, the HD photo comparison technology is one entire era ahead. Recently, I’ve been learning AI graphics algorithms, but it will take me at least a week to start programming.” The technical path that they were about to take was one that had never been tried by other companies. Hence, there would definitely be a great amount of time lost on trial and error.

However, Chen Jin gave him an idea for the solution. “It’s very simple to confirm whether the floor has been cleaned or not. When “Wa-Wah” is used for the first time, it will employ the traditional method of cleaning the surface evenly. It will clean up to 10 times, or even more, until the room is at its cleanest! Then, it will take a photo of the room in its cleanest state and store it for future comparison. Now, no matter what room its used in, it will have an ideal state of cleanliness for reference. There is no need to create a large data system for the photos. Of course, if something changes in its working environment, it will return to its initial starting stage and clean until it has a perfect example of cleanliness.”

Su You Jie nodded. “This idea would work for at least 90% or more of our home use customers. It can use the results after its first cleaning as a prime example. If the customers were housekeeping companies or other commercial enterprises, we would have to do some custom modifications.” Just like that, Su You Jie had resolved the problem of basing the “cleanliness algorithm” on a photo comparison method without a hitch. But, he was immediately met with a new problem.

That was the problem of the “route algorithm.” After confirming the portions of the floor that are dirty via the “cleanliness algorithm,” how would the robot plan the best route so that it could quickly and efficiently clean the dirty spots? The traditional method of cleaning the room evenly would not work. The “Wa-Wah” robot must be able to focus heavily on cleaning the dirty spots as well as do “light cleaning” on the already clean portions. Just like a human, it had to be able to judge and make appropriate choices. Only then would it be able to achieve the highest level of cleanliness. At the same time, it would save both time and energy.

Su You Jie had been stuck on this “route algorithm” for four or five days without any hint of a solution. The challenge with this algorithm was that it had to visualize the layout of the room in 3D based on the distribution of the rubbish in the photos. Then, it had to construct a mathematical model and derive a logical working route from it. This entire process had been extremely vexing.

Chen Jin took a print-out on which dense lines of mathematical formulas were written and presented it to Su You Jie. It was the algorithm. After Su You Jie finished reading it, he became excited. His eyes were full of shock as if he had been suddenly enlightened. “So it’s like this? This is so brilliant; it’s simply perfect!” Turning to look at Chen Jin, he said, “Chief Chen, did you derive this routing algorithm? You’re really too amazing!” He was full of worship for Chen Jin.

“No, no,” Chen Jin waved his hands, “An engineer from my dad’s company gave this to me after I raised this issue. He spent about an hour writing this for me.” Actually, Alice used less than a second to solve this little problem in an instant.

“An hour?!” With his mouth hanging open in astonishment, Su You Jie exclaimed, “This expert must be out of this world, he’s definitely the expert of experts!” However, he thought about the commercial aircraft company that Chen Jin’s father worked at, which was the only company in Z country to create domestic airliners. It was prolific with many extremely capable people. Solving this little problem of a “route algorithm” was, of course, no big deal at all. Su You Jie could not help but sigh deeply. “Even if you think you are the best, there will always be someone better. I only have this little bit of knowledge; there is still a lot of room for improvement.” He wondered silently in his mind, Ah, I don’t know; when will I get to that level of expertise?

After some big issues had been resolved with the aid of the mysterious expert from the aircraft company, on the 10th of January, the prototype of the “Wa-wah: first generation” cleaning robot had been successfully created. Then, they quickly found a room to conduct a trial cleaning.

The testing site was a deluxe suite of four bedrooms and two living rooms that Chen Jin had arranged for Su You Jie and his team to live in. It was located near the industrial park, and Chen Jin had rented it for his team with a monthly rent of $8,500. This suite was rarely cleaned and happened to be very dirty.

Operator Zhang Zhi Wei commanded, “Wa-Wah, start work!”

The “Wa-Wah” robot entered its automatic work mode. Its roller wheels, located on its underside, started to rotate. Using LDS to conduct a 360-degree scan, it mapped out the entirety of the room. After confirming its starting point, the high-speed brushless motor started up and triggered the rotation of the floating main brush. It swept up the usual seen rubbish on the ground into its internal rubbish storage via the rotating vacuum unit on its chassis. In this working state, the “Wa-Wah” robot bore no difference from the traditional cleaning robot.

After three minutes, the regular variety of rubbish had been cleared, after which was clearing the dust and stubborn stains. This would require the use of mopping, so the robot’s two mechanical arms lifted a rod-shaped brush. The brush was wrapped with a thick, wet towel and the rod could then rotate with the towel on it.

When it came to a dirty spot, “Wa-Wah” only had to lower the rod and let the brush rotate as it touched the floor. Hence, “mopping” would commence. As this was its first time cleaning, it also employed the traditional route. It changed its batteries twice and went through 10 brushes as it cleaned the room 10 times. The floor of the entire suite shone so brightly it cast light against their shadows.

After using some instruments to take a series of measurements, Xiao Xiao said excitedly, “Chief Chen, 99.6% of the rubbish on the floor has been cleared; this is very close to our design target!”

Yang Chiu Ying said with great feeling, “Clean, it’ so clean!”

“I’ve never seen such a clean room.”

“This is only the prototype trial. There’s still a lot of room for improvement. If it can clean 99.6% of all rubbish, it’s not impossible to fulfill 99.9%!”

With a big wave of his hand, Chen Jin said, “Continue with the testing. We’ll all wear our shoes inside and dirty the room. Let’s do a few more trials!”

“Yes!”

Everyone wore their shoes and trampled around the room, leaving dust, dirt, and mud all over the floor. Without wasting any time, the second trial began. Using the all new “smart cleaning model,” the robot started to do “focus cleaning” as it planned a smarter working route. After an hour, 99.6% of all rubbish on the floor had been thoroughly cleared away. The results were even cleaner and better than the first trial. After which was the third, fourth and fifth trial. For every trial, the figure never dropped below 99.7%

Su You Jie said with great enthusiasm, “Chief Chen, it’s a success! We’ve successfully developed this model of cleaning robot!”

Zhou Kun waved his fist in triumph, “What smooth going, this is too unexpected! It feels so good to succeed on our first try!”

“Good, this feels really good!”

“Hahahaha ~ !”

Everyone laughed loudly; they had the utmost confidence in the future of the potential market for this cleaning robot!

Chapter 58 - Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) Factory

On the 17th of January, after another week of modifications, improvements and upgrades, the “Wa-wah: First Generation” cleaning robot was successfully finalized!

Its basic functions and parameters were as follows: The product dimensions were a length of 345mm, a width 345mm, and a height 506mm; weight was estimated at 5.8kg; the battery was a 15V/ 10200 mAh lithium battery; the power rating was 65W (sweeping) / 75W (mopping); the working duration was 160 to 180 minutes (sufficient to finish cleaning a 200 square meter house); and the cleaning index was 99.6% to 99.8%

That’s right, Chen Jin had set a target of 99.9% for the crucial cleaning index, in order for him to claim that it could get rid of 99.9% of all rubbish and dirt. But, due to the layout of a room, its various installations and the material of the flooring, it was difficult to reach such a target. It could only be achieved in the most ideal working environment.

Therefore, Chen Jin did not push for more. A cleaning index of 99.6% and more was already very high. Not only did it surpass all the cleaning robots in the market, it was also better than what the housewives could do; they could only achieve an index of about 70% to 75%.

The “Wa-wah” robot’s index of 99% and above could be said to be very shocking.

It’s just that the excellent properties of the “Wa-wah” robot was built upon a higher production cost.

Su You Jie read aloud the contents of a purchasing list. “The motherboard for the robot’s electrical circuit costs $75 per unit; the mid-range 8 core CPU costs $132 per unit; the 2GB DDR3 built-in internal storage plus another 8GB DDR3 storage have a combined cost of $168. The parts for the 12 million pixel HD camera costs $119; importing a japan-made brushless motor and working parts for its mechanical arms costs $315 and $364 respectively. A 10,000 ampere-hour lithium battery costs $89. Including the costs for the plastic outer shell, the audio equipment, a Wifi connection chip, the charging chassis, the centrifugal drum needed for cleaning the brush, as well as the assembly costs for the OEM factory and various labour costs….Chief Chen, the total cost of the hardware needed for the production of one “Wa-wah” robot is an estimated… $2,518.” With a grave expression, Su You Jie said, “Chief Chen, the cost of the hardware is too high. After producing the product and introducing it to the market, with the added costs from the distributors, the “Wa-wah” robot might have to be priced as high as $4,000 or $5,000 for us to see any profit!”

He asked, “Will consumers buy into a robot that is selling for $4,000 to $5,000?”

“Exactly!” Zhou Kun nodded. “This price is so high that one might even retreat from it. I’m afraid that most consumers would not be able to afford it.”

Wu Lei said, “Chief Chen, we should think of ways to reduce the costs of some of the hardware. It would be ideal to reduce it to $2,000 or below, otherwise, we would not have any competitive advantage in the market.”

Others nodded in agreement. Zhang Zhi Wei commented, “If we slightly reduce the the quality of some of the equipment and do some cost-savings at every stage, it would not be a big problem to lower our costs to $2,000 and below.”

However, Chen Jin shook his head repeatedly. “No, we can’t lower our costs. We have to ensure the quality of our products! To reassure our users that they can use it without worry, we will also provide free maintenance and repair services for a minimum of 3 years. We’ll build an excellent after-sales service system and offer at-home servicing at any time of their convenience.”

“What?” Wu Lei exclaimed in shock, “Wouldn’t that increase our costs? The sale price of each robot would have to be $5,000 or more!”

Su You Jie couldn’t hold back his agitation any longer. He quickly advised, “Chief Chen, How about this; we’ll develop two robot models. One model would be a low-ranged one; we’ll lower the parameters of its various configurations. Its sale price would be about $3,000 and it would be targeted at consumers looking for a low to mid-range model. The other model would be a high-end robot that uses luxurious and grand configurations. The various materials used to make this model would be the best we can get. Its sale price would be $5,000 and above. We’ll cater to consumers at all levels, what do you think?”

Zhou Kun nodded in agreement, “What Su You Jie said makes sense. By segmenting the market, we’ll get the most users.”

“No!” Waving his hand forcefully, Chen Jin said, “The way you think is not wrong. But now is not the time to take such actions. As Xing Hai Technologies, our “Wa-wah” cleaning robot has no reputation in the market at all. How are we going to attract high-end customers to fork out $5,000 and buy a cleaning robot from an unknown brand? Making a low-end robot is an even bigger no! If quality issues appear on a large scale, it can’t even be guaranteed that we’ll able to attract the low-end customers! Right now, the first model of cleaning robot that our company launches has to be of superb quality without any shortcomings, and possessing functions that are an entire era ahead of other similar products. It has to be an instant hit in order to get good reviews from customers of all levels. Only when our first product model has gained an auspicious beginning and won the customers’ praise, can we do market segmentation. This is the natural order of success!” Hence, cost-cutting would have to come after quality considerations.

The audience nodded as one. Chief’s words made sense. If they only cared about profits in the beginning at the expense of quality, they could face a terrible ending. The product’s reputation remained unknown, it might even receive waves of bad reviews and thoroughly flop. Moreover, it was not impossible to reduce the hardware costs of the “Wa-wah” robot.

“Su You Jie, if I gave the OEM company a production order of one million units, could the costs be reduced by 20%? To about $2,000?”

“One million?” Su You Jie opened his mouth and stuttered, “It shouldn’t be a big problem, but one million… This…” This quantity was too ridiculous!

Chen Jin asked, “As for market sales; we could cut out the intermediate dealers. What if we don’t sell via the distributors and instead, sell all of the units directly to consumers via the internet? Each robot will be priced at only $3,299. Can the customer accept this? Will we earn any profit?”

$3,299?

After some consideration, Su You Jie replied, “No problem, this price is very attractive to the middle-class. With the robot’s excellent functions, they should be willing to buy it. We’ll also be able to earn a minimum amount of profit of at least $800!”

Multiply that by one million units. If they could sell all of them, the company’s profits would be…

Everyone sucked in a deep breath. They were filled with expectant hope. But logic repeatedly told them that the probability of that scenario being realized was extremely low. Moreover, the risks were huge. Even after Chief Chen got an OEM to take an order of one million units, one million multiplied by the production cost of $2,000 equalled two billion. Did he have this astronomical amount of money?

Facing this worry, Chen Jin only smiled blandly, as he was already prepared for it.

……..

On the 18th of January, in Su Hong City, which was a second tier city that was only tens of kilometers away from Shang Hai City, there was a company called Ling Feng Jing Mi Technologies, Private Limited! This was a domestic electronics OEM company in Z country. It had only been established for a few years and it was not well-known. However, its technical standard was not too bad.

Wang Quan Long was a 43 year old, glasses-wearing middle aged man. He had a doctorate degree and a background in the navy. Previously, he had worked in a large international OEM company as a high-ranking technician. Responding to a summon by the country to come back and build a business here, he invested billions to establish Ling Feng Jing Mi.

However, in recent years, competition within the OEM industry was fierce. The company’s growth for these past few years had been lackluster. It had only survived by taking government contracts. This caused Wang Quan Long to feel very anxious. Because of his worry, he suffered from severe hair loss and serious middle-aged balding.

But today, an out-of-this-world order contract worth two billion was presented to him. Wang Quan Long was so shocked that his mouth hung open. Looking blankly at the young man sitting there, his attitude changed to one that was respectful and serious. With a pleasant expression, he asked, “Chief Chen, you’re not joking about this huge order worth two billion for the production of one million units of robots, are you?”

Chen Jin shook his head. “No, I’m serious.”

“Ling Feng can accept this order and we have the ability to complete it, but….” With some suspicion, he asked, “According to industry regulations, the client company has to pay 50% of the order capital before we can start production. That is one billion dollars.”

Chen Jin shook his head. “Um, I don’t have so much capital on me right now.”

Wang Quan Long said, “40%! Ling Feng is willing to bear a portion of the risks.” This super big order worth two billion was equal to the the value of last year’s total orders. He did not want to miss this opportunity.

Chen Jin shook his head again. “I don’t have a capital of 40% either.”

Wang Quan Long compromised again. “Then, let’s sign an order contract for five million robots! Depending on the situation, we can sign the contract for the next five million units.” 5 million units with a 40% deposit was only $400,000,000. That was not much.

Chen Jin explained, “Chief Wang, I only have $200,000,000 available. I can only pay a deposit of 10% for an order of one million robots. I’ll have to wait for the robots to be sold before I can pay the remaining funds in installments.”

Wang Quan Long frowned. Shaking his head, he said, “Then, I can’t take this order. The risk is too great. If it goes wrong, my factory will collapse. Actually, you can reduce the size of your order. For example, we can accept and complete 200,000 units.”

“200,000 units is barely enough to offset our costs. It has to be one million units or more. How about his, Chief Wang, I’ll introduce the product that our company developed. You can see for yourself its market potential before considering new ways to collaborate.”

Wang Quan Long nodded. “Ok!”

After which, Chen Jin let Su You Jie and his team bring the prototype over. They found a factory room for the robot to clean. By the end of its work, the room was spick and span without any hint of dust. It even just barely attained the standard of a “low dust factory production room.”

Wang Quan Long’s eyes brightened, “Not bad! This product is very good, it has great potential in the market. I’m certain you can sell many of these robots!” He had easily noticed the market potential for this model of cleaning robot. At last, he compromised yet again and accepted a plan where they met halfway. The order would be for the production of one million robots. Chen Jin would first pay a deposit of 10%. Within the next two months, he would pay another 10%. The rest of the funds owed would be paid within six months after the product was sold. If financing problems were met halfway, Ao You Xing Hai Technologies would bear full responsibility.

Even so, the Ling Feng Jing Mi company would also be undertaking an exponential risk. They had to pay a sum worth a few hundred million and purchase all the necessary materials. If Xing Hai Technologies ran away or met with some unfortunate event, Ling Feng Jing Mi would collapse for sure!

Wang Quan Long still planned to bear this risk. For one, he did see a positive market outlook for that model of cleaning robot. Two, a lack of funds was a common problem that new businesses faced; it was the norm! Startups that possessed sufficient funds were very rare. If an enterprise wanted to develop and grow in size, it had to carry out some risky activities. This was called “Seeking riches in uncertainty!”

Even Wang Quan Long could not believe what he did. He actually bound the life and death of his company to a small enterprise and a young fellow 20-odd years old? Did he have an intelligence that could perceive what others could not and got a blue chip for himself? Or did he sell his soul to the devil to get the order? No matter why he signed the OEM contract, after signing, the fates of these two newly established companies would be firmly tied together.

Just as he was leaving, thinking of the 20 days left until the Lunar New Year, Chen Jin urged Wang Quan Long to let his staff work overtime and take on extra shifts. Su You Jie and his development team would also be stationed in the factory. They would strive to produce the first 1,000 units before the Lunar New Year. It did not matter if the production costs of this batch of robots were higher. He would foot the workers’ overtime pay. However, he must have this first batch of robots before the Lunar New Year. This would be very useful!

“Ok, 1,000 units is no problem at all!” Wang Quan Long nodded. The schedule was a little tight, but it was not a big issue.

Chapter 59 - The Dramatic Sales Of Gold

$200,000,000 Chen Jin actually had $200,000,000? Where did that money come from? Of course, it was from the sales in Forever Jewels within the past three months.

What kind of jewelry shop was so great that it could earn a profit of $200,000,000 within three months? This meant that the sales revenue reached billions? Did this mean that tens of millions of jewelry were sold daily? Was this like going to the supermarket to buy groceries, where customers had to go there daily for a little something?

Of course, it was not that exaggerated. In reality, the average sales profit each day from Forever Jewels was only around $3,000,000. A third of the clients were inclined towards investments. Because the little gold bullions were cheap, they had bought them in bulk as a hedge investment. There was even a ” rich hillbilly” client who got addicted to the gold bullions. He came on several separate occasions and bought more than 100 kilograms of the gold bullions in total.

In addition, there were some unbranded jewelry shops who, lacking in sources for cheap gold, discreetly sent someone over to bulk-buy the 999 gold bullion. At $298 per gram, they had seen how cheap the gold was selling for. They intended to rework the gold and then sell them again. This would allow them to make a small profit as an intermediary.

The investor clients and the unbranded jewelry shops contributed to more than half of the shop’s sales revenue. From normal retail clients, their average daily contribution to the sales revenue was not even $1,500,000. With Forever Jewel’s prime location in a prosperous and busy section of the city, its sales per square meter ratio was actually on the low side.

For the past three months, Chen Jin had to get double the amount of gold from Haierfa in order to satisfy the capital needs of Xing Hai Technologies. Each month, he took 200 kilograms of gold and divided them into 10 batches of 20 kilograms each. Then he would hand them to Chiu Wan-Ting, one batch at a time for her to deal with. That was 600 kilograms in three months, including the 100 kilograms of gold that was sold during Singles’ Day.

It was 700 kilograms in total which had been realized into an astronomical amount of $18,200,000,000. In addition, there were profits of almost $20,000,000 generated by sales in the jewelry shop in these past three months, of which Chen Jin had pocketed $18,000,000. Thus, the first deposit of 200 million to Ling Feng Technologies was successfully gathered.

In the next two months, Chen Jin had to gather $200,000,000 for the second 10% deposit to Ling Feng Technologies. This meant that for his next course of action, Chen Jin’s still had to try his very best to sell gold. He would have to sell at least 700 kilograms of gold or more. Did Chen Jin possess that much gold? How much gold did he have in reserve now? Unfortunately, not much.

He was still left with roughly three tons. Through the efforts of the exploration squad, who scoured the surroundings of the Base of Operations up to a range of 400 kilometers, Chen Jin had increased his gold reserves to almost four tons. All were thrown into the capsule factory and melted in high heat. After which, they were remade into gold bars of one kilogram each. Making 700 to 800 bars and then selling them on Earth for cash was a small matter. Chen Jin planned to sell off his gold in huge amounts in the period leading up the Lunar New Year. It was excellent timing as the demand for gold jewelry would be huge.

“During the Lunar New Year, there’ll be plenty of weddings and other happy occasions. An especially large number of people will be buying gold jewelry. Sales in this month alone account for 30% or more of annual sales figures. Recently, the number of customers going into the shop has started to increase. Sales revenue grew significantly too. Obviously, I have to grab this opportunity to sell as much gold as I can!”

Of course, there would definitely be a certain amount of risk involved, as it would shock many. For example, his mom. This was her response after she caught sight of the 800 gold bars, in addition to the big block of gold weighing 30 kilograms; Her mouth dropped wide open and her large eyes rounded in shock. She could not help but move closer. With gleaming eyes and an avaricious expression, she said, “This…. This is so much gold. It’s that friend who sent you all of this to be sold?”

Chen Jin nodded. “Yes, year-end is prime time for sales. He wants to sell more.”

“Son, now I finally believe that your friend has dug up a huge treasure. Just the gold in this room is enough to bring great danger to him.” As her eyes flashed with a gleam of avarice, He Li thought, As they say, onlookers have a share too. My son helped you to dig up so much gold, yet you use him as a tool. It’s not too much to share half of the gold with him, right? She even developed the notion and impulse to go for a round of negotiations and bargaining with this mysterious character.

However, her son was too kind-hearted and had a soft personality. He was also too insistent on not breaking certain ethics and had too much trust in the loyalty between friends. If it was her…

If Chen Jin knew what his mom was thinking right now, he would break out in a cold sweat. In terms of being calculating, how could he compare to his mom who spent half her life in accounting? He could only rejoice that he told better lies.

After which, with the help of his mother, this batch of gold weighing 830 kilograms was transported to Forever Jewels in its entirety. Store Manager Chiu Wan-Ting would help to deal with the gold.

He never imagined it would give her a shock as well. Waving her hands, she said, “Too much, this batch of gold is really too much. I dare not sell off anymore at the jewelry manufacturers.” Faced with this enormous amount of gold, her timid side was exposed.

Chen Jin said, “Auntie Chiu, we’ll go together. The security guards, Zhang Shun Fei and Xu Xin will follow behind us in another car. We’ll deal with the gold and they’ll act as a lookout.” In addition, Chen Jin also brought a handgun back from Haierfa. It was fully loaded with ammo. He hid it in his windbreaker, just in case it was needed.

“Ok.” Under Chen Jin’s multiple reassurances, Chiu Wan-Ting finally overcame her timidity and agreed to personally help him deal with the gold. At that moment, she realized that it was not especially easy to get her generous salary of $60,000 per month. One had to have a strong heart.

Using a period of three days, 800 kilograms of illegal gold was changed into their legal versions at the jewelry manufacturers.

In the following days, it was the busiest period of Forever Jewels, where business was at its peak. There was a promotion going on almost every day. The female staff put in their best effort to canvas potential customers and create an outstanding business performance.

They even organized two very attractive activities. One was of them was “Pick A Gold Bullion,” where a transparent glass box was placed in the center of the shop’s foyer. In the glass box was a 30-kilogram block of gold. Customers coming and going could put their hands inside and use two fingers to try to pick up the block of gold. The gold would belong to whoever managed to pick it up and take it out of the box!

“For real? The gold will belong to whoever picks it up with their finger? I’ll try!”

“30 kilograms of gold worth tens of millions? You can really bear to part with this money?”

“It’s up, it’s really up! Ah, it slipped again!”

“Go away, my fingers are strong enough to crush walnuts. Let me try… Ah, no, the bullion is too slippery!” This person sighed as he hung his head in defeat.

“My good buddies, look closely here. If that bro over there can pick up the 30-kilogram block of gold with his fingers, it’ll belong to him. Everyone, it’s real gold! Look, look this man here has almost succeeded, Aaahhhh~! It dropped again, tens of millions are lost again!”

Many celebrity internet video hosts shot live recordings in the shop using their mobile phones. This brought much attention through the video sites’ increased traffic, and in essence, it was an advertisement for the shop. Even some newspaper media sent their journalists over to report on the situation, causing a heated discussion on the internet.

The second activity to attract attention was the “Gold Claw Machine.” Four of these gold claw machines were brought into the shop and placed at the entrance. It was not dolls or plushies inside the machines. Instead, there were gold bullions, silver coins, and jewelry such as necklaces, bracelets, and earrings (most were not made of gold or silver). Their value ranged from a hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars.

As for the probability of picking up the various prizes, gold was, of course, the prize with the smallest probability of success, around 1 in 1,000. The probability of picking up one of the jewelry pieces was around 1 in 100. The probability of picking up the silver coins was the highest, around 1 in 10.

Each try of the “Gold Claw Machine” cost $10. The cost to be entered into the chances of winning were higher.

Even so, from dawn till dusk, there were long queues of at least 10 meters at each of the four machines. There was a huge quantity of players!

It was because this type of claw machine was set up with a 100% reward rate. If one put in $100, one would definitely be able to pick out something that was worth $100. The shop used these machines as a covert method to sell off more of their merchandise, not to gain extra profits from the players. Therefore, the players with luck on their side were able to take advantage of the players with bad luck. The players with good techniques were able to pick up items that the players with poor techniques could not.

Everyone thought, it only takes one more try to move that dangling gold bullion that is worth tens of thousands out of the machine. It could fall into my hands…. And I only have to pay $10 to get that gold.

Faced with the temptation of a prize that was worth 1,000 times more than the $10 fee, people could not help themselves. The four gold claw machines brought in daily revenues of up to $300,000 in loose change! It represented 5% of the jewelry shop’s total revenue.

As one could see, the increase in business performance caused by a game-style marketing was instant.

Chapter 60 - The Goods Are Delivered

In reality, Chen Jin was also afraid that it would be problematic to sell off large amounts of gold at once. It might cause others to take notice and become curious. However, his company, Xing Hai Technologies, was in its beginning stages. It needed huge capital investments. He had to find $400 million in cash in a short amount of time. Other than selling more gold, he could not think of other methods in the short term that was more profitable and also more reliable.

Moreover, he possessed guns! In Haierfa, there was a special type of robot that had “humanizing” modifications. Their surface was covered with a skin made from silica gel. Hair had been planted on their head, and their eyes, nose, and mouth were exactly like that of a human’s. After wearing clothes, there was no discernable difference between these robots and humans. Some robots had a female appearance. They possessed gorgeous bodies with sweet, pretty faces, and could bring about a sexual experience that was very close to reality. This type of robot was termed “Human Replica Robots.” They were not rare, as many could be found in the homes of male homebodies.

The exploration squad that Chen Jin sent out only found human replica robots that had been infected with the rebooted virus. He could not bring them over to Earth and utilize them. If he could find a production line where those robots were produced, or robots that were fresh out of the factory, and then attain the right of attribution of those robots, he could bring a batch of them over to Earth. The robots would be disguised as his bodyguards to provide him with protection.

There were some human replica robots that possessed big and burly builds, a quick mind, and great strength, who were originally intended to be personal bodyguards. In addition, they had been installed with strong combat skills. They had a Rambo-like combat ability.

Moreover, most of the bodyguard robots were not limited by the “3 Laws Of Robots.” Once their subject of protection came under attack or faced certain danger, they would employ all methods of counterattack against the attacker to ensure the safety of their subject.

Therefore, Chen Jin wanted to surround himself with a few of those professional bodyguard robots that were not infected by the virus. He would be protected at all times. With that, he would not have to be afraid of others’ covetousness backed by personal power. Of course, Chen Jin knew very well that it was impossible for him to overcome weapons or machines employed by the state. Therefore, safety and reliability were still his priorities. He would try his best to not sell any more gold than was necessary.

“It’s a special time now. When Xing Hai Technologies has been developed and the ‘Wa-wah’ robot is doing well in the market, making huge profits, my capital needs will be reduced. Then, I won’t have to send over gold for the jewelry shop anymore. Or maybe I’ll take a long-term and economical view with regards to the shop as much as possible, and safety and reliability will be my priorities.”

…….

The promotional activities of Forever Jewels to welcome the Lunar New Year continued until the very last day of the month. In the sale period lasting half a month, with the addition of various activities to attract attention from the public, Forever Jewels’ sales revenue broke all limits! The average sales volume per day was a shocking 20,000,000!

People bought jewelry like they were buying vegetables. There were many from the new generation who chose to marry at the end of the year. Their “hillbilly rich” parents bought gold and silver jewelry by the kilogram after entering the shop. There were even those who bought five kilograms of jewelry or more in one single occasion. The degree of prosperity experienced by the business stunned many.

Within a short period of 10 odd days, the gold jewelry which was converted from the 800 kilograms was all sold. The 30-kilogram gold bullion in the glass cabinet was sold too. It caught the fancy of a “hillbilly rich” customer and he forked out $8,640,000 for it, including the glass cabinet!

The $200 million capital that Chen Jin needed was sufficiently collected within a short 10 or so days. He sighed. “It seems that the existence of my jewelry shop is to prove how many ‘hillbilly rich’ there are in Shang Hai City, and how much money they possess! As compared to those ‘hillbilly rich’, I am only at the beginner’s level!”

…

On the 30th of the Lunar New Year, the prosperous business sales finally calmed down. After all, everyone had to celebrate the lunar new year.

As many workers in Shang Hai only came to the city for work, they had all returned home for the new year. About 50% of the city’s population had left for home. The entire city was empty and deserted, giving off an unusually cold and desolate feel.

In Forever Jewels, about half of the staff had taken off for home too. There was only seven or eight staff left to man the shop, and they listlessly greeted the customers. Chen Jin had gone back to the shop to take care of some matters and saw that Team Leader Guo Yan was still in the shop. As one of the staff who had joined the team earlier than others, she had the opportunity to go home for the new year.

Chen Jin walked over and asked, “Hey, Guo Yan, why haven’t you returned home? You can take it easy. It’s still important to go home for the lunar new year.”

“Go home?” Guo Yan was cleaning a rock of jade using a silk cloth. Raising her drooping eyes, she showed a tired and somewhat dejected expression. With a low voice, she said, “I don’t really feel like going home.” Why would she go home? Each year that she returned home, the first thing that her mother asked when she saw her was, “How much money did you bring back this year? Quickly take it out; I’ll keep it safe for you.” When she brought home a lot of money, her mom would be very happy. She would tell everyone that she had a filial and good daughter.

When she only brought a little money back home, her mom would have a terrible expression on her face. She would blame her and complain that she was useless and lazy. How could she earn this little amount of money for the entire year? After which, she still had to do various household chores like laundry and cooking. Her dad’s care was left entirely to her. It was up to her to deal with the gift-giving and other necessary social interactions during the new year. Her mom would happily play cards from dawn till dusk.

She was emotionally drained! She did not even have a smidgeon of hope that something good would happen. This year was her luckiest year where she earned the largest amount of money. In just these four months of working at Forever Jewels, she had managed to save more than $50,000 from her salary and commissions. This was after deducting expenses for various categories and clearing her credit card debt. As they said, “the more one receives, the more one will feel and come upon deeper realizations.”

Guo Yan knew that even if she handed the entire sum of $50,000 to her mom, what she would get in return was only a few days’ worth of praises. She would still have to carry out her duties at home. She had bad luck last year, and hence, gave less money to her mother. She still got a cold expression in return and a harsh scolding. Her duties at home had even increased. In the past, she worked so hard with all that she had just to get a few words of praises from her mom.

As for her younger brother who was in university, he got a girlfriend recently and his monthly expenses increased to $4,000 or $5,000. When he called Guo Yan every month it was always to ask for more money. Whenever he said anything, he would tack on “Mom said this” at the end of his sentence. Her heart grew cold. She had finally thought things through. She no longer had any significant expectations for that family. After sending over $20,000, she used the excuse that she was busy and told them that she would not be going home this new year.

Her Mom only said, “Oh” and hung up the phone. There was not even anything like “Take care of yourself.” Guo Yan could faintly hear the sounds of a mahjong game in the background.

“You don’t want to go home?” Chen Jin looked at her with some surprise. He could sense a faint wave of sadness from her. It was the Spring Festival, where families reunited. There was actually someone who did not want to go home? He shook his head and guessed that Guo Yan must have a situation at home that she found it difficult to express. But… What did the private matters of others have to do with him? He merely offered a few polite words of consolation. “The weather has been getting colder recently. Wear more layers and don’t work too hard. Make sure you get enough rest.”

Guo Yan nodded. “Yes!” She could feel her heart warming up.

…

Back in his home at Happiness Court, a hardworking delivery man presented a bundled package at the doorway, “Mr. Chen, there is delivery for you, please sign your acknowledgment!”

“Thank you!” After signing his acknowledgment, he looked at the pile of 10 packaged cardboard boxes in front of him. He could not help the joyous expression that lit up his face.

Haha, my baby has finally arrived.

Chapter 61 - Dad And Mom Received A Shock

After carrying 10 cardboard boxes into the house, using a penknife, Chen Jin sliced through the tape of one of the boxes and opened it.

The item inside was revealed — It was a robot with a dumb yet adorable form, measuring about half a meter in height. It was “Wa-Wah,” the robot cleaner.

Not bad.

The task that Chen Jin had entrusted to Ling Feng Jing Mi Company had been completed. The pioneer batch of the mass-produced robot cleaner, Wa-Wah, was manufactured under a tight schedule. Three shifts of workers did overtime and even took on extra shifts to successfully finish the production of 1,000 robot cleaners before the final deadline. Of those, there were 10 sets that were sent to Chen Jin via express shipping.

Tearing open the packaging, he lifted the robot and observed it in detail from head to toe. Chen Jin nodded. The workmanship was smooth and exquisite, with a texture that felt fine and sleek. Every detail was painstakingly forged. It was like a perfect work of art.

“Wang Quan Long said that he had worked for more than ten years in a large international OEM company. It seems like he didn’t waste his time there. At least, he learned a lot of core skills with regards to workmanship and quality control.”

Hence, Chen Jin did not have to worry about quality issues. With a spherical head, a tiny antenna by each ear, and wide, round eyes, it had an appearance that was extremely doll-like. Silly, cute and cartoon-like. This was the first impression everyone had of it. One can only fully observe its function through its cleaning of the floorboards.

Chen Jin did not plan to give it a trial run in his own bedroom. He lifted the robot and carried it to Room 402 on the above story.

…

“Son, is this really made by your company?” With her mouth hanging wide open, He Li looked at the robot moving up and down the room as it cleaned the floor. Her face was full of shock.

Chen Jin folded his arms and lightly tilted his chin. Nodded proudly, he said, “Of course.”

“This is awesome, my son is too awesome!” He Li was so happy that she almost jumped for joy. In one move, she hugged Chen Jin and said with an incomparable sense of excitement, “My son has grown up, he can achieve big things now! This is great, this is really great!” She felt so happy and pleased and tears were spilling out from the corners of her eyes.

For many years, she was either worrying over one thing or fearing for another thing. She did worry that her over-indulgence of her son would make him too spoiled. It would be her fault if he went nowhere in life and was unable to become independent. But now, she could finally put her worries to rest. She even felt like going somewhere to cry her heart out! To cry tears of joy, because her son was not a useless bum anymore, he could do something! Even if he did not become especially outstanding or achieve great success in his career, at least she would not have to worry too much about him anymore.

Noticing the tears at the corners of her eyes, Chen Jin took two sheets of tissue paper and wiped them away. “Mom, why are you crying?”

“No reason, I’m happy! Happy!” He Li turned around and started to sob. Today, she was overjoyed.

However, Dad’s brows were creasing as he stood aside and observed the Wa-Wah robot as it cleaned.

After some consideration, he said, “Son, this robot cleaner is not bad. At least, it’s not any worse than the typical robot. But….You claimed that it could do a total cleanup in the first sweep. But it seems like it can only achieve the best results after sweeping the floor more than 10 times. 10 times? This would require at least five to six hours. Including the time for charging and changing brushes, eight to nine hours may not even be enough. Isn’t it too inconvenient to use it? It’s troublesome to use it. Can the users accept this?”

Facing his Dad’s queries, Chen Jin explained, “It’s only a little troublesome for the first usage. We have considered this problem, so we included an auto-charging function for the robot. It can also change and clean its brushes on its own. It does take a longer time to clean when it’s first used. But, it doesn’t require any interference from the user to achieve autonomous control.”

“Oh…” Chen Gang nodded. “It’s good that it doesn’t require the user’s interference. But….” He still shook his head. “It can’t bring about a positive user experience if it takes eight or nine hours to clean when it’s first used.”

He Li became upset in an instant. Charging at him, she yelled, “So what if it takes a longer time when it’s first used? Isn’t it just a few hours? Can’t it take a longer time to give better results? I can wait! I’ll buy!”

Chen Gang rolled his eyes at her. Feeling somewhat at a loss for words, he said, “I’m just standing in the consumer’s shoes and considering the problems they may face. The user experience is the most important!”

“Scram, shut up! It’s because of the user’s experience that my son designed it this way. And it can clean so well; it’ll definitely sell.”

He Li’s behavior was now similar to the single-mindedness of those crazy fans who could not accept any criticisms of their idols.

“It’s like this!” Chen Jin quickly explained, “We’ve tested it. If we go according to the highest standard of cleanliness, it needs about eight and a half hours for its first cleaning. This period of time is when the workers go to work and the children go to school. If there would be nobody at home, they can set it up to clean just before they leave. If there’s someone in the house and it’s not convenient for the robot to clean, it will split its first assigned job into three parts. After each sweep, it will mop three times. After three days, it’ll enter the smart cleaning mode. But this is not usually recommended.”

“Oh…” Chen Gang nodded. “When you put it like that, it does sound more convenient. However, there’s still a lot of room for improvement.”

“Yes, this is only the first production model from my company. As a first generation product, it can’t reach the standard of perfection. We’ve left some room for improvement. When we launch the next generation, we’ll address these problems.” Actually, Chen Jin could resolve some of the problems. But, putting aside the time needed, his production costs would also increase. Moreover, if he launched the most perfect product the first time around, how would he carry out the improvements and upgrades for the future models? So, he kept the flaws, somewhat intentionally. Of course, this would not hinder Wa-Wah from cleaning the floor until it was spotless.

Chen Gang was very surprised. “I never imagined that you’d thought so far ahead.” Looking at his son, his perception of him finally changed. Even so, he very quickly found another issue that was more critical. “This robot is too tall. Its height is over half a meter, how would it clean under the table, bed, and empty spaces blocked off by furniture? Wouldn’t there be many blind angles that it can’t clean? You must know that there are robot vacuums from many different brands who can clean corners too.”

He Li’s expression changed. She immediately turned to Chen Gang and roared, “Are you done? Do you think it’s easy for him to do something like this? Don’t we humans clean the blind angles in the houses? Moreover, can you expect a robot to reach that level of capability? Stop nitpicking!”

Chen Gang shrugged and grimaced. “I’m not nitpicking. This flaw is just too big. It could very likely create a terrible user experience. Once exposed, this flaw could directly influence the consumer’s desire to purchase. Even though other brands’ robot may not be able to achieve the same standard of cleanliness, at least they can take care of more corners.”

“You—” He Li was unable to refute his argument. She could only roll up her sleeves and charge at him angrily. “Do you want to die? Shut your mouth!”

“Don’t hit me!” Chen Gang was so frightened that he speedily retreated and begged for mercy.

“Dad, We’ve actually considered this problem that you spoke of.” Chen Jin lifted Wa-Wah from the ground and twisted off a manual clasp. Wrenching the robot’s body a couple of times, he separated it into two pieces. The top half was its cartoon-like body. The bottom half was a disk-shaped object. “We gave the robots a modular design. The bottom is in charge of cleaning; it’s not any different from the traditional robot vacuum. It can work independently and clean the dust in the blind angles. The top is responsible for mopping the floor and can achieve the highest standard of cleanliness. But it can’t operate on its own or clean the blind angles. I admit, this design may make things more inconvenient for the user. But the flaw that you mentioned is more obvious and would reduce the competitiveness of this product. So I could only deal with it in this manner.” Chen Jin continued to explain, “Usually, the robot can clean any area as long as the height is not more than 15 centimeters, and it’s in a bigger space where it has more freedom to move about.”

“Good, very good. It’s an excellent robot cleaner! I can’t find anymore flaws. Son, I’m very proud of you. You are the best!” With his neck in a stranglehold, Chen Gang said weakly, “Ok, ok. Wife, you can put down the knife at my neck…..” By now, his eyes radiated a deep desire to stay alive.

“Hmmph! That’s more like it!” He Li finally relented.

Looking at this scene, Chen Jin shook his head and smiled reluctantly. He reassembled the robot cleaner and pressed a button on its back.

Suddenly, Chen Jin gave a mysterious smile. “Dad, Mom, this robot also possesses a very interesting function. It’s especially funny, and will make you laugh for sure. This is also one of its selling points.”

“Oh?” Both husband and wife became instantly interested.

Chapter 62 - Silly Mode

A resentful voice emitted from the robot as it slowly started up. “Ah, work. It’s time to work again.” Mopping the floor, the robot gibbered, “Work, work, work….” Halfway through its task, it stopped and complained before continuing its work, “Ah… So tiring! Mopping the floor is so tough….Waa ~ Waah! Who’ll help me, It’s so tiring! Waa waa waah, there’s still so much to be done. I can’t endure anymore!”

The robot realized that there was a foot blocking its way, obstructing its work. It voiced, “Who are you? Don’t block my way. Don’t stop me from working~!”

Chen Jin smiled. Not only did he not take his foot away from the robot who tried to move around him, but he also came at the robot from various directions. He effectively cornered the robot and stopped it from moving away.

“Waa waa waah ~ ” The robot suddenly wailed, “Don’t stop me, I still have to mop the floor ~ !”

Chen Jin laughed, “Hahaha!”

Mom was doubled over with laughter too. In between her chuckles, she said, “Ok, ok….. Haha, son, quickly let it go. It’s so pitiful, haha!” Mom felt a sliver of pity for the robot which was bullied to the point of misery.

Chen Jin moved his foot away and let the robot continue working.

It still continued to complain, “so tiring,” as it worked. Occasionally, it would cry, “Waa waah ~ Waa waah!”

The robot approached the end of its cleaning phase. The entire floor on this story was almost as clean as it could be.

“Waa waah, it’s completed. It’s finally completed; I can rest now. Waa waa waa~!” A joyous note could be heard in its voice as it was freed from its task. It came with a specially synthesized doll-like voice. Sometimes it would do little actions such as turning in circles, lowering its head, blinking its eyes, and the like. A very charming and persuasive crying voice. It would also use comical diction and give hilarious responses.

He Li was laughing so hard she was alternating between doubling over and throwing her head backward. She felt as if her stomach was convulsing to the point of pain.

“Hahaha! Hahahahaha! So funny, this robot is too hilarious. It’s so fun to play with!” He Li laughed until she was crying. Usually, she would put on her most serious face in the department. She had never felt as happy as she did today.

Even Chen Gang found it very interesting. He was grinning from ear to ear.

His parents’ responses were totally within Chen Jin’s predictions. Previously, Su You Jie had made a program interface for him. Using the high fidelity audio recorded from Alice the super calculator, Chen Jin added the audio into the interface.

He restarted the silly mode and the project development team viewed the demo. The snorts and chuckles from the team were never-ending.

Su You Jie gave a thumbs up. “Boss, I take my hat off. You’re a genius!” At that moment, he finally understood the brilliance and insight that CEO Chen Jin possessed. Zhou Kun and others also felt very admiring and full of respect for him.

Su Su and Yang Chiu Ying had stars in their eyes and simultaneously said, “Boss, we don’t want the end of year bonus. We want a ‘Wa-wah’ robot!”

Chen Jin agreed, but he would not cut their bonus. Others had also requested individually for a robot.

…

After they were revived from their laughing fits, Chen Gang spoke. “I understand now!” In a moment of sudden comprehension, he said, “I know why this robot is called “Wa-wah”. It’s called “Wa-wah” because it likes to cry loudly!” He had been wondering why such a useful robot called “Wa-wah”. It was such a strange name. Now, he fully understood.

“Yes. It likes to snivel so it’s called Wa-wah.”

Chen Gang nodded and praised, “It is a very good selling point! I’ve never thought that a robot could be designed like this. It seems to have come alive with some added voice and gestures. It’s just like a child who loves to cry and throw tantrums. But because it’s a robot, it can only work. It’s very amusing and can bring joy to the user. If it was me, I’d definitely buy it!” Chen Gang gave a positive evaluation for the first time, expressing his approval.

“Aren’t you stating the obvious?” He Li rolled her eyes. “If I met such an amusing robot who can also help me with the chores, I’d buy one immediately! It would lessen the boredom and cheer me up! Moreover, my son invented this robot. Whatever he makes will be a big hit! Millions will be sold!” He Li hugged Chen Jin’s neck, and her face glowed with pride.

Hearing this, Chen Gang was reminded of something. He asked, “Son, I have to admit that this model of the robot is very good. Have you made adequate preparations with regards to the sales operations? This is an era where marketing is very crucial. No matter how great your product is, if it’s not marketed well, it just wouldn’t sell.”

Unexpectedly, He Li agreed with this point. “Yes, son. Have you started advertising? Your second uncle owns an ad company. I can call him now. He’ll help you market the product and spread the reputation of Wa-Wah!”

His uncle owned a very large advertising company. In recent years, it had even started to penetrate the entertainment industry by shooting a few movies. Of course, the majority were flops. However, Chen Jin and his family did go to the cinema to contribute some sales to the box office…. Although box office sales were pretty bad.

As the big sister of her family, his second uncle would always be happy to oblige if mom asked for his help. Also, he would not accept money from Chen Jin. Mom had provided a lot of help to his uncle’s company. It could be said that his company would not even exist without mom’s assistance.

However, Chen Jin shook his head. “Mom, I don’t need help from second Uncle. I have my own method of marketing the robot. It doesn’t require any money and can attract the attention of at least a few million people.”

Mom asked urgently with gleaming eyes, “A few million? Quickly, tell me, what’s the plan?”

Chen Gang listened closely too.

“This… is a secret for now. After some time, you will know!” Chen smiled mysteriously as he kept them guessing.

He Li was extremely curious. She wanted to know his plans right now. “Silly boy, you’re keeping this even from me? Can’t you tell me in advance?”

“You’ll know when the moment comes. And you’ll even get a surprise. Mom, don’t you think that’s nice?”

“Ok, I won’t ask anymore.” Suddenly, He Li thought of something and asked, “Son, do you only have one of this Wa-Wah robot? Are there any extras? Tomorrow is the first day of the lunar new year. Your three uncles and aunt will be going to Grandma’s place to pay their New Year’s greetings. I’ve been thinking that it’s too boring to give those health supplements and tonics as presents, which we already did last year anyway. Do you have any more of the Wa-Wah robots?” A deep sense of anticipation shone from her eyes.

“Oh…” Chen Jin suddenly understood his Mom’s meaning. Nodding his head, he said, “Besides this one here, I have another nine at home.”

“Give me five!”

“No problem.”

Chapter 63 - The He Family

On the first day of the lunar new year, in the Gold Water District, a residential villa area called “Hundred Birds Heights” sat atop a lush, green mountainside. It was located near the coast, with beautiful scenery, a tranquil environment, and fresh air. It was an ideal place for retirement. On the mountainside was a villa that was encircled by a wall. Within the wall, there were some fruit trees and two vegetable plots planted beside the rustic villa.

“Dad, Mom, We’re here to offer our New Year greetings.”

“Grandpa, Grandma, Happy New Year! We wish you great health and a long and healthy life!” Chen Jin and his family gave a deep bow to their elders. They offered their New Year’s blessings and presented their gifts.

“Ok, Good, good!” Sitting in the center of the great hall, Grandpa and Grandma, both dressed in red-colored, traditional Tang-style clothing, accepted the gifts and blessings from their grandsons. They laughed with joy, and their faces were flushed from happiness. They took out the red packets from their sleeves and, one by one, gave them to their grandchildren.

Chen Jin also received a thick red packet. Grandpa, He Chang Hou, smiled at him with a pleasant and kind expression. “Jin Er, when are you going to get married? I’m still waiting to hold my great-grandchildren in my arms.”

Feeling ill at ease, Chen Jin scratched his head. “Grandpa, it’s still early… There’s no rush, no rush at all.”

Mom scurried over from the side and beat her chest. She vouched, “Dad, rest assured. I promise he’ll find a partner this year, get married the next year, and give you babies by the year after the next!”

The old man was ecstatic. He applauded her words and laughed. “Good, good. I’ll be waiting for your good news!”

Chen Jin gave his mom an impatient look.

“Jin Er, come to Grandma. Let me have a good look at you”. Chen Jin was the grandson that she respected the most and placed most of her hopes and expectations on. Pulling on his hand, she asked him many questions, like, “How was work?” and “Have you met anyone?” Chen Jin had to utilize his sweet-talking techniques to cajole her. She smiled so hard her eyes were slit like crescent moons.

Not a moment later, one after the other, his uncles’ cars drove into the villa’s backyard. They were: his first uncle, He Guo Qiang; his second uncle, He Guo Fu; and his third uncle, He Guo Chang. These three were the expressions of his keen expectation as an old party member for his country.

His first uncle was 48 years old and developing his career in the party. He was the district leader of a particular district in Su Hong City. His rank was not high, unlike Grandpa, who achieved the rank of deputy mayor of Shang Hai City. Moreover, his uncle was nearing 50 and still did not have any significant achievements in the political field. He also lacked reliable followers. So, even if his capabilities were outstanding and he did his best at work, he could not progress any further. This would be his career until retirement. His first uncle was certainly dissatisfied about this matter. Feeling extremely anxious about it, his hair had fallen out in clumps. He was experiencing serious balding on the top of his head. However, he still could not solve his career issues.

The second uncle was 46 years old. He was working hard in the world of business and had expanded an advertising company to its current size where it had an annual turnover of billions.

As for his 44-year-old third uncle, He Guo Chang… There was nothing much to be said about him. He was the most pampered, as the youngest son of Grandma. What could he achieve?

Lastly, with a slow and late arrival was his little aunt, He Jia, who came in a Porsche 911. She wore dark sunglasses and dressed trendily. He Jia had similar but prettier features that were more refined than his mom. His little aunt was 42 years old and was a top scholar in her younger years. She was exceptionally outstanding in all areas. Her educational history, the way she talked, her knowledge, and her experiences were far from those of an average person. Her history of romantic relationships was very rich and varied. She was married thrice, and all ended in divorce due to an incompatibility of personalities. She had a son and a daughter. Her ex-husband had custody of their son, and she took her 18-year-old daughter along with her.

In addition, his little aunt was the richest in the He family. She had gained close to $500,000,000 in compensations through three divorce lawsuits, which she then invested into the booming real estate industry. She had bought huge amounts of real estate, and she was now worth maybe more than tens of billions. Even most of the initial funds needed for his second uncle to start his company had been borrowed from his aunt. He borrowed tens of millions in one go. And that was 10 years ago! Therefore, even though his little aunt was the youngest in the He family, her words carried the same amount of weight as the eldest He Li. The directions of certain topics were led by little aunt’s ideas and philosophies. For example, children’s education.

Watching the arrival of his little aunt, all of the He family went out to welcome her.

“Jia Jia, you finally came back!”

The younger children crowded around her, calling, “Little aunt! little aunt!” They were whooping with uncontrollable excitement as they received oversized red packets from He Jia.

“It’s ok as long as you’re back. In an entire year, it’s most important that a family is reunited.”

Besides his first uncle, who was slightly unhappy about how slow and how late she turned up, others did not really mind at all.

…

At the table laden with a feast, wine flowed freely, and toasts were made. Everyone in the family was lit with happiness, and the atmosphere was celebratory and exciting.

After three rounds of drinks, little aunt started to talk about the upbringing and educational issues of the next generation. Her clear and crisp voice that was high-pitched yet resounding rang out in a familiar manner. “The upbringing of our next generation has to be in the style of the elite; the style of the wealthy. We can’t lose out at the starting line! Just like my daughter, Ling Ling. This year, she got into the best university in M country, Harvard. She can speak six languages too! She achieved Grade 10 in piano and Grade Eight in dance. She even won an international award in a painting competition and gained entry into the Mensa Society, which only prodigies can get into! The annual membership fee of $70,000 to $80,000 let her into the international places frequented by the rich and famous…” As He Jia spoke, her daughter, He Xiao Ling, continued sitting in an upright manner, displaying a neutral, indifferent expression which only attracted more praise from the audience.

“I spent all my time, every day, on Ling Ling’s development. I hope that she becomes more outstanding and successful than me! Everyone, do you know why we, the He family, can’t better ourselves? Just why can’t we get a foot into the elite circles of Shang Hai? Education, it’s still the problem of education! You don’t place sufficient importance on the education of the next generation” Dad, Mom, just look at third brother. Until now, it’s still unclear what kind of job he’s doing. He often calls to borrow money from me. And big sister, your happy-as-you-go education is simply strangling your son! Look at Chen Jin, he’s such a sensible child. Yet, he graduated from a normal high school and university. He’s also only working as a normal civil officer. With a monthly salary of a few thousand, what’s the use…”

His little aunt’s topic of discussion was aimed at He Li from habit. She would use Chen Jin as a prime negative example of her failure in bringing him up properly. If it was last year, mom would show an extremely unhappy expression but could only nod and accept that she was right.

But, today… Contrary to her usual attitude, He Li lifted her chin and retaliated, “Little sister, I don’t agree with the arguments you made. Even without an elite education, my son can make something of himself too!”

“What?!” He Jia’s face was full of astonishment.

Giving a look to Chen Jin, He Li said, “Son, go get the robot that you invented. Let your aunt and uncles have a look. Let them see what you’ve created.”

“Great!” Chen Jin put down his chopsticks and stood up. Scuttling obediently to the room where all the presents were piled, he thought, Mom’s routine of tricks is about to begin.

Chapter 64 - Someone Who Brings Pride

“Wow!”

“Not bad, it’s bad at all.”

“This robot is too cute!”

“Oh, everyone look, the robot is crying. It’s saying it’s so tired from working.”

“Hahaha…. Hahahaha, this robot is too amusing!”

The children of his three uncles, as well as another two younger grandchildren, could not stop gasping in shock.

22-year-old He Hai Tao, who was the son of his second uncle, was a handsome fellow with thick eyebrows. Pulling on Chen Jin’s elbow, he said with a worshipful expression, “Cousin, you really made this robot?”

Chen Jin nodded. “Yes, the tech team in my company developed it. I participated in the development process too.”

He Hai Tao gave a thumbs up. “This is good, it’s very good!”

When Chen Jin introduced working principles of the robot and explained some of its more advanced capabilities, the audience was captivated, and felt a growing sense of admiration despite his words going over their heads. As they watched the floor getting cleaner and cleaner with each movement of the robot, they broke out in praise all at once.

Indeed, Chen Jin had termed this robot “The Best Cleaner In The World.” Although this robot might only be used for the trivial task of cleaning, its existence was enough to cause a shockwave for the He family.

Especially to old man He Chang Hou, he was over the moon! Calling Chen Jin over, he pulled on his arm and said excitedly, “Good boy, good grandson. I may be old and retired, but I still pay attention to national affairs. What our Z country needs now is not unrealistic and overpriced real estate but real and practical high technology! If we don’t develop our high technology, Z country will still be bullied! In this area, your dad is your model. Now, both you and your dad are our pride! Good boy, create more technological products in the future. This year, my favorite present is the robot you gave me!” The old man’s bold and determined words reflected the feelings of patriotism and nationalistic struggle of the older generation. The audience listened with watery eyes. When the old man was an official in the party, he remained free from corruption and thus did not gain any riches. As such, he did not achieve much or left any significant legacies for his children. But, he had done his duties responsibly for this country.

Chen Jin’s eyes started to water too. Immediately, he said, “Grandpa! I’ll develop my career in the tech industry and I’ll give you a high-tech product as a present each year!”

The old man laughed heartily. “Good, good!”

Standing to the side, little aunt’s face felt red and hot. She was totally speechless. Her daughter, He Xiao Ling, watched the robot moving back and forth as it worked. Hearing the silly voice that was emitted from its body, she felt a trace of curiosity and envy for it. However, the feeling dissipated quickly. It was just a robot cleaner, what was there to gawk about?

Looking at how well the robot had cleaned the floor, the first aunt was struck with a thought. Pulling on He Li, she asked, “Big sis, I saw that you brought a few of these robots. Are they all for Mom and Dad?”

“No.” He Li smiled. “Besides the one we gave to Mom and Dad, there are four remaining robots. Each family can take one robot. Help yourself to one after dinner.”

The first aunt immediately rejoiced, “That’s great! I was initially very pleased with the larger house that we upgraded to last year, but, mopping it is such pain! All that backache from the mopping caused me to regret getting such a big house. I bought a robot cleaner, but it didn’t do a good job cleaning. I’ll take this one home to try.”

With his sharp ears, the child, He Tian Hao, had heard that each family could have a robot. Immediately, he whooped with joy and abandoned his dinner. “Aunt He Li said that each family gets a robot. Quickly grab yours!” Leading a merry band of followers to the robots, they divided the three robots amongst themselves and took them away.

Shaking her head at this scene, He Jia thought, Upbringing and education… I don’t know how many generations it will take for us, the He family, to finally lift ourselves up in society. Of course, this has to do with the village-born status of our old man. That rustic simplicity from the farming village will never be erased.

First uncle, He Guo Qiang, pulled Chen Jin aside and asked with confusion, “Xiao Jin, you quit your job at the government department? And went down to the city to start your business?”

Chen Jin nodded. “Yes, Uncle. I quit my job.” That so-called civil servant job was made up by mom to deceive others. It had always been a worry that others would see through the lie. Now, there was no need to worry about it.

“Ah, why did you quit? What’s wrong with developing your career in the government? Do we, as the He family, lack money? Moreover, it’s risky to start your own enterprise. It’s not easy to be an entrepreneur, unlike getting involved in real estate or finance. Even if this product model succeeds, the next model may fail. It’s more stable and safer to remain in government jobs. Also, it’s because we have insufficient assistance and popularity within the government that we can’t progress upwards as a family. I don’t have the ability to continue fighting for us anymore, but you’re still young. As long as you’re steady and bold, you can definitely get further ahead than me….”

He Guo Qiang did not have high hopes for his career ambitions as a government official. However, he never expected that, other than Chen Jin, any of the younger generations of the He family was interested in the party. Now, even Chen Jin had quit his job to become an entrepreneur. The next generation would be nothing in the world of politics. In the end, was the He family only able to move towards being a family whose power was built purely on business? At this point, He Guo Qiang started to feel anxious and lost again.

“Um….. ” Chen Jin did not know what to say. He thought that first uncle was too mired in certain traditional thoughts and ideas. Everything revolved around the need for popularity, assistance from followers, and backgrounds. Of course, he was not too knowledgeable about the party. Maybe the first uncle was right. However, in his two months as a city official, he had experienced the toxic and chaotic environment of a government department. As such, he had no interest in joining the government party. He only wanted to do something that he was interested in, something that was purer. He did not want this world to be too complicated.

The second uncle, He Guo Fu, held up the robot and was surveying it meticulously with a sharp gleam in his eyes. Then, he took Chen Jin aside and asked him many questions. For example, what was the production cost for one robot? What were the parameters for its individual functions? What were the differences, pros, and cons as compared to similar products?

Chen Jin answered each and every one of his questions.

Bam!

He Guo Fu slammed his fist against his palm in great excitement. “$5,000 for a robot. It can totally sell for $5,000! If $300,000,000 was invested for its advertising; with an aggressive promotion campaign….I have a hunch that this robot model can achieve sales of at least 1,000,000 units! With $5,000,000,000 in sales revenue, and after subtracting various costs; there’ll be a profit of at least $2,000,000,000!” He Guo Fu was extremely excited, with a face that was flushed red. “Xiao Jin, you can entrust all the sales operations of the product to me. I’ll fork out $300,000,000 to market this product! If the sales break 1,000,000 units and you earn a profit, you can pay back the $300,000,000 advertising fees. If the sales are poor and you don’t profit, you don’t have to pay me back the advertising fees. I’ll bear all the losses! Xiao Jin, I can sign a contract with you that includes this statement!”

He Guo Fu was very positive about the market prospect of the “Wa-Wah” cleaning robot that Chen Jin developed. He was even willing to sign a contract with a speculative nature. He bet that its sales would break 1,000,000 units!

The audience was very shocked.

The second aunt quickly held back her husband, He Guo Fu. She gave him several meaningful looks and said in a low voice, “Husband, it’s $300,000,000. Your face is so red, did you drink too much?”

He Guo Fu yelled rowdily, “What do you women know? And, I’ve not drunk any alcohol! Not even one drop!”

He Li walked over and advised, “Brother, $300,000,000 is too much. The risks are too great. How about this, you can foot $100,000,000 for advertising. When the robots are sold and there are profits, the advertising money will be returned to you immediately.”

“No! What can you do with $100,000,000; there are no results at all. With $300,000,000 I can buy the naming rights of an entertainment program and run an 8 second commercial on CCTV. Then I’ll place a series of ads on the internet. $300,000,000 will be gone just like that. It may not even be enough!”

“This is an era of word-of-mouth. People only have a 5-second frame of memory for an ad. If you don’t place huge quantities of ads to create a viral effect, your product will never be remembered by anyone no matter how good it is! Not to even mention selling it!” So, not even a cent could be subtracted from the $300,000,000 advertising budget!

At this point, He Li stayed silent. The expression on the second aunt’s face was one of pain, as if a pound of flesh had been taken from her body.

“Uncle, I understand your good intentions. But, I don’t need your help.” Chen Jin’s words shocked everyone.

He Guo Fu turned his head and asked in astonishment, “Why? Don’t you want to sell the robots?”

Chen Jin said that he really did not need his second uncle to help him with the advertising. “Of course, I do! But I have my own way. I’ve already put someone in charge of the first wave of promotion. The results will be apparent after a few days.”

“Ok, you try your promotions first. If the results are underwhelming, you can come to me. Trust me, I’ll definitely have a way to sell the robots, millions of them!”

Chen Jin nodded and expressed that if his method was proven wrong, he would go to his uncle for help.

As for the invisible third uncle, he did not care about robots at all. Pulling Grandma aside, he employed words expected of a filial son to charm her out of releasing some of the grandparents’ retirement savings to him.

…

They stayed the night in his grandparents’ place.

On the afternoon of the next day, Chen Jin and his family went home. In the car, He Li looked extremely spirited and energetic. Her thoughts were clear. She felt that she could finally hold her head high now that her indignation and discontent had been expelled.

With a face full of smiles, she said, “Son, did you see how your aunt looked? She couldn’t say even one word at the table. She was so quiet sitting in a corner and her expression was so terrible. This year, the one that provides the most pride; the one that deserves the most pride is from our family! He is my son!”

Chen Jin said impatiently, “Mom, I only did something that’s slightly praise-worthy and you’re already showing off to this extent. What if I do something more amazing next year?

“Then, I’ll show off even more and be even prouder! Hahaha!” Mom laughed as her brows lifted in joy and her limbs danced with delight.

Chapter 65 - The First Wave Of Publicity

After going to his grandparents’ place to offer his New Year’s greetings, Chen Jin had given away five of the 10 robots that he possessed. He needed one for his house, and Mom needed one for her house. He would have three robots left on him.

This was his arrangement for the three remaining robots. Chen Jin drove to Director Dong’s house. She worked at the Bureau of Industry and Commerce and had provided him with a lot of help. Under the pretense of gratitude and offering his New Year’s greetings, he gave a “Wa-Wah” robot to her.

“Xiao Chen, why be so polite? According to the laws, civil servants are forbidden to accept gifts. However, since you said that the production cost of this robot is only around $2,000, which is within regulations; I’ll accept it.” Dong Lei accepted the robot and pulled Chen Jin into the house, “Xiao Chen, have a meal in my house before you go.”

“No, no. Thank you, Auntie Dong. I still have something I need to do, I’ll be going back.”

Dong Lei could not get him to stay as Chen Jin repeatedly declined her invitation.

“Eh ~ That mommy’s boy? Why is he here?” At that moment, as Yuan Lin was walking down from the upper story, she saw Chen Jin standing by the entrance. With a particularly strong impression of him still in her mind, her expression changed dramatically in an instant. What’s this fellow doing at my home? She watched her mom carrying a cardboard box over, and quickly inquired about the situation.

Dong Lei smiled as she shook her head. She narrated a blow-by-blow account. “Daughter, that boy is a theatrical genius. Last time, you were duped by him….”

“What?” Yuan Lin’s pretty eyes widened and she gritted her teeth. “B*****d, how dare you deceive me!”

…

Chen Jin’s next stop was at Forever Jewels. “Auntie Chiu, this “Wa-Wah” robot is for you. It can be used to clean the floor. It’ll help you clean your home until it’s spotless.” Chen Jin gave one “Wa-Wah” robot to the store manager of Forever Jewels, Chiu Wan-Ting. By chance, he had overheard some of the talks between the staff. He knew that Chiu Wan-Ting’s husband got wind that his wife’s monthly salary was $60,000, which was 10 times his salary. Thus, her husband started to make trouble for her again. For example, he demanded that Chiu Wan-Ting make three meals a day for him. When she was halfway to work, he would call and demand that she go back home to clean the house. In any case, he created a lot of trouble for her. His torment caused her to feel mentally and physically exhausted.

When Chen Jin heard this, he was greatly angered. “What do you want this kind of man for? He’s incapable, shameless, and a useless bum! Besides that bit of pitiful ego, what else does he have?” Of course, he did not actually say those words. He only criticized silently in his mind. It was his intention to help lessen her burden by giving her a “Wa-Wah” robot.

“Boss, you’ve given me more than enough rewards….” Chiu Wan-Ting accepted the robot with tears spilling out of her eyes. Just a few days ago, the boss told her that she had put in great effort for the shop and gifted her with a bank card that had a value of $100,000. He firmly reminded her not to tell anyone and to use it discreetly for herself. It was her year-end bonus. Today, he gave her yet another gift again, in the form of a cleaning robot to help lessen her burden. Naturally, she became aware that the boss had understood her situation at home. However, he did not point any fingers. On the contrary, he even provided some help.

The young boss even urged, “Auntie Chiu, your personality is too giving. There are so many good men in the world. Why must you tie yourself to a perfectionistic chauvinist? I don’t think you should tolerate this any longer.”

Chiu Wan-Ting started to nod in agreement. Then, she shook her head. Divorce….. She had thought about this 10 years ago. But because her son was still young at that time, she never went through with it. Now, her son was in his third year of university. Once he graduated, went for some matchmaking sessions and found his partner, she would not tolerate and give in to that man anymore!

…

Just like that, Chen Jin was left with one last remaining “Wa-Wah” robot.

Who should he give this to? After some consideration, Chen Jin drove to Zhao Xin’s home. Under the pretense of offering his New Year’s greetings, he gave the last remaining “Wa-Wah” robot to the couple, Zhao Xin and Zhang Nan.

“This is amazing! I need something to help me keep the house clean. Zhao Xin suggested hiring a housekeeper. I told him it wasn’t necessary. What great timing for you to give me this robot now!” Zhang Nan was almost five months pregnant and her belly was obviously showing. But, she still feared to get a housekeeper or nanny to serve her needs. Recently, she had heard on the news about an arson case in Hang Hu City that was started by a housekeeper, as well as cases of children abused by their nannies. This information had caused a lingering fear in her. She would rather do the household chores on her own than to trouble others.

At the dinner table, Zhao Xin spoke. “Chen Jin, why did you decide to manufacture robots? Didn’t you come to my auto center to learn how to repair cars? I’d thought you wanted to open a car repair shop.” Zhao Xin was filled with doubt. He could not get a handle on the movements and plans of this fellow.

“How could I open a car repair shop when that would mean competing with you and your wife for business? Even if I wanted to start a business related to cars, I would open a car manufacturing factory. I won’t get involved in a small business like a car repair shop.”

“Manufacturing cars?” Zhao Xin rolled his eyes at him. “Anyway, it doesn’t cost anything to bullshit. You can bullshit all you like.”

“Chen Jin, have more food! I wish you a successful business. If you meet any money troubles, don’t stand on ceremony and speak freely!” Zhang Nan’s generosity, openness, and forthright manner made her very favorable.

Zhao Xin was also nodding. “This robot is good. If you meet with any money problems, you can always hit me up as long as it’s not more than $50,000,000.”

“Nah, it’s ok. I don’t have any problems with funding. Thank you, Zhao Xin, thank you sis-in-law.” Chen Jin only had a small circle of friends. Zhao Xin was his only confidant. However, his heart was warmed and he felt content.

…

After he was done with making his rounds of offering his New Year’s greetings, on the fourth day of the lunar new year, Wa-Wah’s promotions and marketing had to proceed with twice as much power!

Liang Ying was 28 years old and had 10 years of experience in marketing. More than a month ago, Chen Jin had recruited her via the internet to be the main supervisor of the sales department. In addition, he had hired another 20 salespersons. They would be placed under Liang Ying’s supervision. Thus, he had built a “sales department” specializing in handling marketing and promotions.

When he recruited the sales staff, he had said to them, “Don’t go home for this lunar new year. When the product’s promotion is launched, I’ll immediately give you one month of paid leave. And I’ll also reward each person with a bonus between $50,000 to $500,000.”

In other words, if these salespeople could achieve a viral count of one million fans, they would be rewarded with $10,000! Or even if it was only a particularly small fan count, if the cumulative fan count was over a million, they would also be rewarded with $10,000!

That’s right. Chen Jin had decided on using the short video platforms as the entry points for Wa-Wah’s publicity campaign. Such platforms had been wildly popular since two years ago. For his first wave of publicity, he would start with the short video platforms!

For example, Dou Yin Videos, which was described as “brainwashing,” had more than 500 million active users all over the globe. Kuai Shou Videos, which started trending in the northern areas, also had users in the millions. In addition, Pumpkin Videos, Volcano Videos, and We Videos were all platforms with over tens of millions of users. Chen Jin planned to break into the market via these short video platforms. He would strongly promote “Wa-Wah” by working with celebrities on these platforms!

“Manager Liang, how many celebrities from those platforms have agreed to work with us? And what are their fan counts?”

Liang Ying said, “Currently, there are 379 celebrities who have been confirmed to work with us. Their average fan count is 310,000 and their total fan count is 1.1 billion. But, after eliminating the users with multiple accounts and the inactive accounts, the number of audiences that we can realistically reach may only be 10 million”.

“10 million is enough. This is only the first wave of publicity.”

Liang Ying asked, “Chief Chen, the salespeople are arranging the deliveries all over the country right now. 185 robots have already been delivered to about half of the celebrities. We never thought that after using the product for a few days, some of the celebrities suddenly increased their fees. They are demanding a new advertising fee of $100,000 when previously they had only asked for $10,000! What should I do, Chief Chen?”

Chen Jin frowned, “The ‘Wa-Wah’ robot is a very good content source for the videos. It can provide plenty of creative content and give them a lot of new fans. This was supposed to be a victory for both sides. But since some people are way too greedy, they can forget about this agreement! Release them from the contracts and tell them to return the robots. Blacklist them and never work with them ever again!”

“Ok, Chief Chen. When will the videos be circulated en masse?”

“Tomorrow; the fifth of the new year!”

“Ok! I’ll arrange it immediately.”

Chapter 66 - The Second Blast Of Publicity

Gao Xiaozhi, male, 23 years old. He was born in a poor farming village, and his highest education level was junior high school. At first, he worked as an ordinary assembly line factory worker with a monthly salary of around $3,000. But now, He was a viral content creator and video host on Dou Yin Videos, with 830,000 fans. He was good at social interaction and dared to participate in various categories. Hence, his monthly income reached around $80,000.

There was a price to pay for getting such a good monthly income. He had to create videos that were of a highly exaggerated nature; something that drew the eyes and made people burst out in laughter. His videos must be able to attract a certain amount of attention. Therefore, he participated in categories like “Lighting firecrackers in the crotch.” His penis was almost burned beyond repair and he could not have sex with his girlfriend for a month.

He had also participated in the category of eating hot chili peppers by consuming a kilogram of ghost peppers in one shot. The peppers were too spicy to the point that he had to be hospitalized. He was entered into the hospital’s “family notification list” for critical patients. It took three days for him to come out of the critical stage.Anything that could attract attention, including bungee-jumping, cliff-walking and other high-risk activities; Gao Xiaozhi had tried all of them at least once.By risking his life for his work, his highest monthly salary topped $200,000!

However, the competition in the market was too strong and there was an increasing number of industry colleagues who worked as crazily as he did. As such, he realized that it was getting harder to make a living via short videos. The number of hits on his videos were decreasing. His earnings were also decreasing steadily. In his situation, he could either spur himself onwards by participating in more thrilling categories, or he could promptly change the style of his videos by creating content that could attract the same amount of attention but involved less risk.

However, he was a video creator with a solid fan base. If he suddenly changed his style, he would definitely lose countless fans at a crazy rate. He could not handle the riskier games. If he did not change the style of his videos, he would probably end up killing himself one day. Actually, he too was afraid of death.

By luck, a robot was presented to him. A series of silly and amusing performances were carried out in his fully paid-for mansion bought on the market. Its antics caused him to laugh in delight.

The salesman said, “I will sell you this robot for $10,000. According to the arrangement with our company, you will release your videos at the same time with other creators. I believe that you know how many comedy videos you can make with this robot.”

“Deal!” Gao Xiaozhi agreed without any hesitation. He was filled with an overwhelming sense of inspiration. This year, he did not have to worry about the lack of material for his video content.

A crafty gleam flickered across the eyes of the salesman. He thought, It’s easy to cheat the uncultured hicks. With your sale, I’ll earn almost $30,000!

From his interactions with internet celebrities, he had realized that besides the few that were slightly smarter, all the rest were dumb. The company did not have to pay them an advertising fee at all. There were even those who gave him money like he had requested them to. With this, he had experienced the terms, “It’s easiest to earn your money from an idiot” and “High technology squashes the illiterate.” Although the salesman truly looked down on internet celebrities like Gao Xiaozhi, he quickly rushed to look for his next “idiot.”

Feeling as if he had gained a treasure, Gao Xiaozhi immediately followed the instructions on the operating manual. He recorded more than 10 satisfactory videos within three days. “Friends and buddies, this is the best cleaning robot in the world; this is my room after cleaning. Friends, is there a lot of rubbish at home after your new year’s celebration? Do you want to get your hands on this cleaning robot?” The scene in the video was a floor that was so clean it could be used as a mirror.

In the video, the robot complained relentlessly, “Wah wah ~ So tiring. When will I finish working? I’m so tired….” The robot cried loudly when its way was obstructed. “Don’t stop me. I still have to mop the floor. Wah wah waaaah ~ ” This scene caused the audience to burst out in laughter. “Wah wah ~ wah wah, I’ve finally completed my work. I can rest now. Wah wah waaah ~” There was a note of release in its delighted tone after it had completed its work.

On the fifthth of the new year, such videos depicting the robot were released en masse for tens of thousands of fans to watch. After watching the videos, the fans responded with enthusiasm:

“Damn, how spotless. My home hasn’t been cleaned for three or four days, it’s dirty as a pigsty.”

“Hahahaha, this robot actually cried. It even says that it’s tired.”

“Amusing; it’s so amusing!”

“Brother Zhi, where did you get this robot? I want one too.”

“Awesome, awesome, awesome…”

“Hahaha, damn it, my stomach hurts from laughing. Brother Zhi, don’t obstruct it from working.”

“What an adorable robot. Where did you get it? I want one too.”

“We’ve just celebrated the new year and you are abusing a poor robot. Host, you’re too much!”

“Brother Zhi, where can I get such a fun robot?”

Besides Gao Xiaozhi, almost 200 other content creators also uploaded their short videos in succession.

“Wah wah wah ~”

“So tiring, so tiriiiing ~ !”

“Don’t stop me, I still have to mop the floor!”

Within a short time, its doll-like crying and complaining voice that was infused with the devil’s charm rang out across the various short video platforms. It attracted a huge amount of attention.

Most of the audiences had these types of responses:

“Wow, the floor is so clean. This robot is so amazing.”

“Hahaha, what a silly robot.”

“Host, where can I buy this robot? I want to get one!”

“Host, send me a purchase link. This is such an interesting robot. As long as it’s under $10,000, I’ll buy immediately!”

At least 30% of audiences, if not more, had revealed their willingness to purchase. About 10% of audiences had demonstrated a strong intention to purchase and had started to search online for links to purchase. Within two to three days, the comedic short videos of “Wa-Wah” were spread like a virus on various short video platforms. They were played at least a few million times. With only a capital of five or six million, Chen Jin achieved the results that he wanted from his first publicity campaign.

But, Supervisor Liang Ying from the sales department still could not understand one thing. She said, “Chief Chen, there is no actual need to spend money on those internet celebrities for advertising. We can register an account on our own and get our staff to record and upload the videos. With the “Wa-Wah” robot’s comedic ability, we can definitely attract many hits!”

Chen Jin shook his head. “Platforms like Dou Yin and Kuai Shou don’t have good ratings from the public. If we directly register an account with them to carry out publicity activities, it will degrade the image of our company. We are a company specializing in technological products; we shouldn’t overtly participate in such vulgar entertainment.” So, these video platforms were just a stepping stone. Chen Jin used them only to save money for his publicity campaign.

Once the company was bigger, stronger and had ample capital, he would not ever consider using this kind of trickery to publicize his products again. Just as the first wave of publicity rolled across the various big name video platforms like a raging flame, the preparations for the “Wa-Wah” robot’s second blast of publicity, which had been underway for a long time, was completed.

…

On Haierfa, at the Base of Operations, in the metal house where the super calculator was placed, Chen Jin asked, “Alice, the videos that I wanted you to make; are they completed?”

“Yes, Master. They are completed. The three films, “Wa-Wah’s Mission”, “Wa-Wah’s Great Battle Against The Landfill Planet” and “Wa-Wah Loves To Cry, But It Is A Hero That Protects Earth” have been completed! The total time of the videos is only 10 minutes, but Alice used half a month to finish rendering.” Alice said in a spoiled and coy manner, “Master, can you let the robots build a few more super calculators with better performance and upgrade Alice’s hardware? Once my operational ability has been increased, I can better help you, Master.”

“Alice, the search squad has been looking. But after searching through more than 10 cities in the south, they are still unable to find a better super calculator. You can be assured that once the base’s search ability has been strengthened, and it can conduct searches in a greater range, I will find a calculator with a better performance and upgrade your hardware.”

Alice smiled sweetly. “Thank you, Master.”

Chen Jin said, “Hmm, send me the 3 videos to my laptop via Wifi.”

Alice had cracked the Wifi communications coding format of the laptop from Earth. The laptop contained 2Tb worth of information relating Earth’s internet technology that had been downloaded beforehand. Alice learned all of the information on the laptop, including the machine language, assembly language and C language. With a firm and thorough grasp of this knowledge, she could connect directly with the calculators and its similar products from Earth, and start data transfers between the two systems.

“Yes, Master!”

After only a few seconds, three short videos appeared on Chen Jin’s laptop.

Chapter 67 - An Enthusiastic Response

The primary narrative of the three short videos revolved around a group of robots with the ability to clear away rubbish. They had been entrusted with the mission to “protect Earth’s environment,” and did battle with the rubbish littered all over Earth. Finally, they emerged victorious in a difficult and decisive battle. The story used the common tropes of “good triumphs over evil” and “singing the praises of heroes.” There was nothing novel about it.

But, Alice had taken half a month to finish rendering the three short videos, which had only 10 minutes of playtime in total. Even with her computing power of nearly a quintillion flops, she could only create 40 seconds of video content daily. As one could imagine, the visuals of the videos were extremely stunning and intricate.

Especially the broad, widespread and endless landfill of rubbish. The scene was disgusting, disappointing, and depressing. Faced with this kind of scenario, the “Wa-wah” robot stepped grandly into the spotlight as the savior of the world. With its countless other comrades, they would undertake the mission of “protecting the environment” in this world. But, this mission was unfortunately one that was most difficult to fulfill. It was even more difficult than “keeping the world’s peace.” As Wa-wah was in the process of clearing away the rubbish, the human race, acting as the villain of the story, was still creating rubbish at a dizzying speed. This caused Wa-wah to forever remain busy. Even so, it was unable to eliminate all the rubbish.

In the second video of the series, “Wa-wah Battles the Planet of Rubbish”, the army of robots managed to gain a short-term victory. But, the rubbish was always piling up.

Hence, in the third video, the style changed to one that was extremely tragic and tear-jerking. In order to eliminate the rubbish straight from its original source, the higher-up robots decided that they had to enter the homes of humans, thousands and millions of homes. They would be the humans’ companions and get rid of the rubbish around them. A cleaning robot named “Wa-wah: Model No. 1” accepted this mission. It had a doll head with two tiny antennas and talked with a dollish voice.

In the scene, the robots were facing an enormous human city. The commander of the robots said solemnly, “Wa-wah, eliminate the rubbish around the humans. I hereby entrust this mission of utmost importance to you!”

Wa-wah said with a salute, “I promise the mission will be completed!”

But, after it entered the humans’ home, it very quickly became too much for Wa-wah to take. There was too much rubbish. It was kept busy every day. As it could not rest, it felt extremely exhausted. As it possessed only a child’s mentality, it could only relieve its stress of a heavy workload by crying.

Wa-wah cried loudly. It complained, “I’m so tired, it’s so hard” and then it kept on working. However, it never said it regretted anything or wanted to give up, because this was a mission that it had to complete. Therefore, Wa-wah was a hero!

Hence, the third video ended with the scene of Wa-wah wailing as it worked. It was accompanied by sorrowful music. It was touching; it made one’s heart ache and cry.

…

In a worker’s dormitory, Li Xiao Lan was full of tears as she watched the short videos on her laptop. A tissue was clutched in her hands. “Boo hoo hoo, Wa-wah is too pitiful. How could such a difficult mission be entrusted to him? And those wicked humans, hmph! Why must you create so much rubbish and cause Wa-wah to become so exhausted? You are really too wicked! Boo hoo hoo, if I had ‘Wa-wah’ I would treat it well. I wouldn’t let it work so hard.”

However, as she looked down, she saw rubbish almost spilling out of the trash the trash basket. Beneath her feet were pumpkin seed shells and tissues. The floor was also covered with stains. Li Xiao Lan flushed with embarrassment and guilt. She immediately realized that she was one of those wicked humans as well.

“I can’t be so dirty anymore. I must clean it later… I want to watch this video again!” She clicked on the replay button with her mouse and watched it again for the eighth time.

Countless messages appeared on the video screen:

“Wa-wah is too pitiful!”

“We should create less rubbish!”

“I’m crying, I’ve never felt so touched!”

“The one to save us humans is actually a child who loves to cry.”

“The special effects are out of this world, I’m begging for the contact info of this video’s creator!”

“I’m saying this as a professional video producer – it costs at least $100,000 to produce one second of this short video. Each second uses precious funds!”

“This is actually a film on environmental protection. Everyone is responsible for protecting our environment!”

“If there really was a robot from this video available for sale, I’d definitely buy one!”

Li Xiao Lan nodded too. Although she lived in a single unit worker’s dormitory, with a small area that was easy to clean, she had decided to buy one of those “Wa-wah robots” shown in the Dou Yin video if they were available for sale online.

Sorrowful music could be heard. The video was playing the tear-jerking segment again. Li Xiao Lan picked up a tissue, and with an aching heart, started crying again. “Wa-wah is so pitiful.”

“Hey, Xiao Lan, what’s the matter? Why are you crying?” At that moment, her colleague Su Yun came home carrying a suitcase. They lived in the same dormitory and were also partners at work with a very good relationship between them. Su Yun felt puzzled as she looked at her roommate, who was crying her heart out. Spotting the rubbish-filled floor, she frowned. “I only returned home for a few days and you’ve turned the dorm into this state? You don’t even think about cleaning.”

Li Xiao Lan dragged her over and recommended the video. “Su Yun, hurry and watch this video. It’s so cute and so touching. I’ve cried so many times watching this again and again.”

Looking at the floor, Su Yun saw about 10 balled-up tissues. “You’re crying because of this video?”

Li Xiao Lan strongly urged, “Hmm, hurry and take a look, this video is really good!”

Su Yun was captivated by the adorable robot on the video screen. She nodded. “Ok.”

After some time, 10 more balled-up, tear-stained tissues were added to the floor. Su Yun asked curiously, “It’s really touching. Xiao Lan, where did you find this video?”

“The host on Dou Yin recommended it. Recently, I’ve been watching a lot of videos related to the ‘Wa-wah robot’ on Dou Yin. It’s so amusing. Then, I watched an ad by the host and followed the link on the ad which led me to B site, where I found these three videos.”

Su Yun shook her head. “Dou Yin?” She had never tried that app, as she thought it was too pretentious and full of trickery.

Li Xiao Lan put her cellphone in front of her and tapped on the Dou Yin app. She opened one of the 10-plus videos that she had added to her collection.

“Hahahha ~”

“Heheheh ~”

In a short time, the dorm was filled with the laughter of the two girls.

…

Xing Hai Technologies was located in Room 1805 on the 18th story of building No. 16. This building was in the D area, an area within the residences of the high income earners. This was the office of Xing Hai Technologies’ sales department. Putting a hand on the back of her chair, Chen Jin asked, “Manager Liang, how is it? What’s the current hits on the video ads that our company released on B site?”

“2.9 million!” Turning her face with its refined features, she said excitedly, “On the day the video ad was launched, everyone rushed to B site first. The video ads are also the top in terms of tokens and saves, attracting the attention of 100,000 people.” With worship in her beautiful eyes, she asked with curiosity, “Chief Chen, what special effects team created these videos? There are netizens who claim that it has even surpassed the standard of the animations produced by the Pixar company in America. It’s equal to the ‘Toy Story’ series, and many details are even better! Chief Chen, many netizens have sent us private messages, asking what the name is of the company that makes such videos, and requesting for collaborations on special effects techniques. There is even one that directly proposed a price of $100,000 per second for our help in producing special effects, and if that is not possible, could we provide a contact for the special effects company. There are many who want to work with us!”

Liang Ying’s eyes were gleaming. “Chief Chen, do you know what’s going on with that special effects company? With their technical standards, I think we can increase our scope of collaboration, maybe even invest in them and go into special effects production for movies. This is an industry with great potential!”

“Why are you asking so many questions?” Chen Jin frowned. “The current product of Xing Hai Technologies is the cleaning robot. Don’t ask unrelated questions. You can ignore those private messages from the netizens.” Actually, if Chen Jin was purely interested in profit, there were many options that he could choose. For example, culture and entertainment production. He could make some movies and some special effects animations, and so on. With her computing ability, Alice could easily produce a special effects animation movie in about three months. The movie could be transported to Earth and earn at least $1 billion in the box office.

In addition, there were thousands of music tracks, more than 1,800 movies, and tens of thousands of novels stored in Alice’s database. There were also other artistic productions stored within Alice. They were all part of Haierfa’s cultural legacy. Chen Jin could select a small portion of those cultural productions, let Alice do some adaptations, and then import them to Earth. He could easily earn tens of billions annually as a plagiarist.

But he did not do this! Firstly, the cultural and language environments of Haierfa were very different and they might not suit the people on Earth. In addition, there was a greater risk of exposure. It would be easy to become famous and face various suspicions. After all, Chen Jin was only an ordinary homebody. He did not have any natural talent for artistic production.

Moreover, it would be apparent that the movie would cost billions to produce on Earth. It was too sudden if one simply presented a finished special effects movie on his own, without any production process or announcement of details. He would not be able to withstand the suspicions and investigations.

Also, the cultural and entertainment field was a vanity fair. There would be a high degree of exposure. If he insisted on plagiarizing and being famous, without any literary flair or cultural knowledge to back himself, he could only face an embarrassing end.

Chen Jin only dared to show the short product publicity videos of the “Wa-wah robot” because they had a total playtime of less than 10 minutes. Short videos faced a review process that was not strict at all. B site would also not ask too many questions or inquire about the specific production methods. After all, there were hundreds of thousands of videos uploaded daily, could they actually check everything? They only reviewed the videos’ content.

As for the portion of netizens who took notice and inquired about the videos’ production, there was no need to acknowledge them. It would be enough to leave an impression of great technical strength and mystery.

“Oh, I understand.” Liang Ying shut her mouth in embarrassment. She dare not continue her questioning, and felt somewhat disappointed.

…

The second wave of publicity via short videos led to an enthusiastic response online.

The “Wa-wah robot” and its related terms quickly climbed to the top of the list of top searches in Baidu Hot Search. Messages or voice chats requesting for the purchase of the “Wa-wah robot” appeared on various forums and video screens. One could see the rise of its popularity.

After contacting the many professional review organizations and review uploaders on B site, the third wave of publicity that Chen Jin had been planning was about to begin!

Chapter 68 - It’s Selling For…

In just the warm-up phase of the second wave of publicity, the series of video advertisements titled “Wa-wah robot” had been played more than 20 million times across various video hosting platforms like A site, B site, Youku, etc. This happened within a few short days. The publicity warm-up phase could more or less be ended now.

But, Xing Hai Technologies still contacted famous video uploader-hosts on B site such as “Na Yan,””The Playful Koala,” and well-known review organizations like “Do You Love Technology,” and “Is This Worth Your Money.” They were allowed to conduct various tests on the “Wa-wah” robot which was termed “the best cleaning robot in the world.”

With millions of fans, the uploader “Na Yan” possessed a review style that was objective and stern, with the occasional joke here and there. He was frequently asked if he was paid to do the reviews. In reality, most of his product reviews were sponsored. However, his main source of income was from the audience’s rewards during his live streaming sessions.

For this one time, Chen Jin got the finance department to transfer $200,000 to his account and even sent two “Wa-wah” robots to him. In the conversation over the phone, Chen Jin urged him, “Keep your style. Praise it in areas where it excels and speaks freely when it does badly. As long as its objective, I won’t ask for a refund. You can put this clause in the contract.”

On the other end of the phone, Na Yan said with a slightly grave voice, “Ok, no problem.”

On the other hand, “The Playful Koala,” who commanded the attention of over 300,000 fans, had a review style that was funny and humorous. He was most adept at performing “freehand dismantling of gadgets.” What Koala really focused on was not the exterior features, but the product’s interior materials and workmanship. He liked to take out his tools and pry off the outer shells of various products to check out the interior’s build and components. He was a “hardcore” review host.

Similarly, Chen Jin wanted potential users to be assured of its make and quality. He had also gotten the finance department to transfer $200,000 over to Koala, and made a contract with him. Through his assessments, people would understand the workmanship and materials used in the making of the “Wa-wah” robot.

The famous review organization, “Do You Love Technology,” had slightly less than 500,000 fans. Their review style was honest, objective, independent, and free. In their reviews, they revealed many technical details that were not known by most. They presented the real substance without the fluff! They could explain the product in a very thorough manner. In their program, where they did a side-by-side comparison of similar products from different brands, they could evaluate the pros and cons of each of the products in every segment of comparison.

Their flaw was in their infrequent updates. They only released one episode of a program each month. As their videos were always full of solid, technical information, their video output was thus lowered. This had caused them to be less widely known than they should be.

However, Chen Jin really liked their programs. He had watched many of their videos. Considering the huge number of members on their team and how expensive it cost to make a professional review video, he decided to let the finance department transfer $500,000 over to them. They were then asked to create a video installment about the “Wa-wah” robot in the form of “consumer reports.”

The manager for “Do You Love Technology” replied, “Your call came too late. Recently, we’re doing an installation called ‘A Side-By-Side Comparison of Various Brands’ Cleaning Robots.’ How about this, we’ll accept $300,000 for the addition of your product into our review.”

Chen Jin rejoiced upon hearing this. “Oh, what a coincidence!” He sent someone over to deliver the “Wa-wah robot” to the capital city and then got the finance department to transfer $300,000.

The review organization, “Is This Worth Your Money?” had a style that was funny, silly, and charming. The entire team, including the boss, manager, cinematographer, main female narrator, and even the extra had ugly appearances. Even so, it had an active column that was closely followed by more than 600,000 fans. In addition, they had frequent updates. Their huge quantity of filler videos was loved by many, even if there was little substance and minimal technical information that was of use. Their main source of income was the sales of snacks and small food items on their Taobao shop. The team’s most classic line was “We’ll help you try before you buy.”

Chen Jin also got someone to contact “Is This Worth Your Money.” They would do a review program for a price of $200,000.

The boss, who was wearing a huge gold chain, beat his chest and replied, “No problem, we promise that the video will be completed within a week!”

…

After a week, on B site, four product review videos announced their release one after the other.

Na Yan’s “Aesthetics of Science and Technology: I met the world’s cleanest cleaning robot, its reputation is not for naught!”

The Playful Koala’s “Close-up of Device Disassembling: The interior workmanship takes my breath away; it has a beautiful design aesthetic. Thus far, I’ve been unable to find any flaws in this perfect industrial product!”

Do You Love Technology’s “A Side-By-Side Comparison of Domestic and International Mainstream Cleaning Robots: A cleaning index of 99.7%! The Wa-wah robot is the only model of its kind that surpasses its competitors by an entire era in all aspects!”

Is It Worth Your Money’s “A Robot That Will Shock You: Even though there is no official announcement of Wa-wah’s selling price, 99.9% of audiences think that it’s a ‘Must Buy’ and 0.1% of audiences think that it’s not. I have a hunch that its an outstanding product that will soon become popular.”

After the above review videos were released, the heated discussions by the netizens peaked! The comment sections of the videos were filled with responses such as:

“Stop teasing and quickly announce your purchase link!”

“I’ll buy, I’ll buy, isn’t that enough? But you’ve got to give me a purchase link!”

“I’ve watched that video installation by Koala. He said that the total hardware cost is above $2,000. After it’s introduced in the market, it’s selling price will not be lower than $8,000. But, I’ve decided, even if it’s selling for $10,000 per unit, I’ll still buy one!”

“Damn, the new year has barely begun, and the “Wa-wah robot” has grabbed all the attention. I went to the electronics stores to search for it, but I can’t find one anywhere.”

“All are defeated by the Wa-wah robot! No matter if it’s the Da Mi robot, a Rock robot, or the iRobot from overseas, they’ve all been defeated. I’ve decided that I’ll buy a Wa-wah robot immediately when it’s launched!”

“Good news! The uploader of the “Wa-wah robot” advertisement, ‘Ao You Hai Xing’ has just sent out a video announcement with Wa-wah’s official address, launch date, and purchase link!”

“Great! I’ll hurry and take a look at it now.”

“Damn, their official website looks so high-end!”

“I saw the product’s introduction, the specs listed there are impressive all around. This should be the correct address!”

“Ao You Xing Hai Technologies Private Limited, a new company that has not even been established for half a year, developed the Wa-wah robot?”

“The announcement on the official website: The Wa-wah robot will be released on 23 February 20X9, 8:00pm. Pre-order sales will begin on the same day. The 23rd is also the day of the Lantern Festival.”

“There is also an announcement here that says the selling price of the product will be announced on the 20th of February, 20:00. This is for the convenience of consumers who want to buy one urgently. They can go to the official Taobao shop in advance to keep a closer eye on its news..”

“20th? Isn’t it tonight? So, we’ll know the selling price of the Wa-wah robot tonight?”

“This is great! I’ll be able to know the price tonight; I’m so excited! I wonder what the selling price is for one Wa-wah robot?”

“I’ve prepared pumpkin seeds, spicy beancurd sticks, and a stool. I’ll be sitting and waiting for the announcement of its price!”

…

Following the announcement of Xing Hai Technologies’ official website address, droves of passionate netizens flooded the site, and the number of inquiries instantly exceeded 100,000. After a few more official notices were published, the total number of hits on the page exceeded tens of millions within six hours. It was estimated that there were more than 250,000 messages left by visitors in the official forum. There were more than one million netizens who were closely following announcements on the Wa-wah robot. At the very least, the number of potential customers was in the hundreds of thousands!

In the meeting room of Xing Hai Technologies’ sales department, many people had gathered, including Sales Supervisor Liang Ying, Leader of the Development Team Su You Jie, and even the Chairman of Ling Feng Jing Mi Technologies Wang Quan Long, who specially came for the meeting. They were all trying their best to persuade one person!

“Chief Chen, the price that you set is too cheap! It’s not worth it for the company!”

“Chief Chen, please consider again! We have to sell this model at $5,000 and above. That’s billions of profits!

“Chief Chen, increase the price by $300, please! You can’t undersell such a good product!”

Everyone in the office urgently persuaded Chen Jin, hoping that he would take their advice and revise his decision!

But, Chen Jin had already decided that he would not do any further changes! He gave his reasons. “The purpose of people like us who produce high tech products is not only to let consumers experience the wonder of high technology, but to also price this wonderful experience in an affordable way. I believe that everyone knows the situation in Z country. Once our model is launched, there’ll be droves of cheap imitations flooding the market which will rapidly drag down the entire industry. In the end, ‘bad money drives out good[1]’… I have to prevent this from happening by eliminating any appearance of copycats at the source! Especially for our first product launch, we need to build an excellent and intimate relationship with the consumers! By drawing in a batch of loyal fans and building a solid fanbase, it will allow us to have countless channels for promotion. We will become a company with our own customer base and following. There will be no need to worry that people will refuse to show an interest in our future products!”

Chen Jin continued, “As a company with its own dreams and desires, I hope that Xing Hai Technologies will first pursue this. How else can it actualize its self-worth in such a way as to reach the superior level of Hua Yao and Da Mi, and maybe even surpass them! I hope that we will be a company with conscience and sincerity, not one that got lost in its single-minded focus on making a profit. Moreover, there’s sufficient margin for profit with the price that I’ve set. The sales volume will certainly meet expectations. Once our reputation has spread, the sales volume will still increase and hold a huge share of the market. The total profits will not be much lesser than if we had sold it at a higher price.”

Only after Chen Jin’s explanations did everyone nod their heads in agreement. At the same time, they were shocked by how ambitious he was. He actually wanted Xing Hai Technologies to attain and even exceed the level of Hua Yao and Da Mi. Looking at the young boss who was full of confidence, they could only silently express their respect and admiration in their minds.

…

The time was 7:50pm. All across the country, in millions of homes, countless netizens were either holding their mobile phones or sitting in front of the computer. They were refreshing the purchasing page for the “Wa-wah robot” with great anticipation.

They hoped to see the specific selling price of the robot. Was it an exorbitant price of $10,000 and above, which only the rich could afford to buy? Or was it a price of around $8,000? Something that the middle-class could afford. Or would it be priced at $5,000? A price which the lower class and the poor could still accept even if it pained their heart and pockets? The answer would be revealed in a few minutes.

Very quickly, it was 7:59pm. Many refreshed the page again after silently counting down for the millionth time.

The price of the “Wa-wah” robot was announced!

“Aaaa!!” In an instant, countless mouths dropped open in shock. There were even some who let out surprised yells.

The selling price of the “Wa-wah” robot was…

[1] Quote from Gresham’s Law (economic principle). Essentially, it means that in a market, an overvalued currency will drive out undervalued currency. Used here, it means that the cheap copies will drive the original product out of the market.

Chapter 69 - Pre-orders Of Over 500,0 Robots!

$3,699! A very conscionable price! They would start to accept advanced orders of the product on the Lantern Festival, which was the 23rd of the month. Customers who placed pre-orders on that day would enjoy a discount of $300! Which meant that it was $3,399! It only cost $3,399 to bring a “Wa-wah robot” back home… the promotional price only lasted one day.

This price was finally set after an intensive round of discussions and research. Originally, Chen Jin had wanted to set a price of $3,299 – meaning that he would earn around $800 for each robot sold. But, he realized that it was not practical, as the government charged a production tax of 3%. This had caused the production costs to increase by $100.

With the additional considerations of building a better after-sales service system, the per unit cost had to be increase by another $300. Hence, the final price was set at $3,699.

There were two reasons for the promotion on the 23rd. First, it would raise the attractiveness of the product and increase its sales volume. This would make the product an instant hit! Secondly, it was to draw in droves of fans by improving the relationship with the netizens who liked Wa-wah and had been paying attention to it. In short, no matter if it was $3,699 or $3,399 after discount, the selling price of the “Wa-wah robot” could be described as honest and sincere. Its performance-to-price ratio was much higher!

The netizens’ response was, of course, extremely enthusiastic!

“Honest, this is a very honest price. I can feel the deep sense of sincerity.”

“One phrase to describe this: An honest and kind pricing touches the heart of many! Oh, I’ll add a few more words too: Its advanced technology makes its performance-to-price ratio unbeatable!”

“I’ve not seen a product like this in a long time. Its technology is so much more advanced than its competitors, yet its pricing is similar to them. I can predict that this industry will experience a huge rise of sale in the near future.”

“There’s nothing else to be said. In terms of value for money, it’s the champion!”

“I’ll wait for the Lantern Festival, then I’ll rush to buy. I hope I can get one.”

“To the user above: all who pre-order on the 23rd will enjoy a $300 discount. There’s no need to rush.”

“Who said that there’s no rush? Didn’t you see what was written on the second publicity poster? There’s only ready stock of 500,000 units for the first batch of sales. With this little stock, can you get one if you don’t rush to buy once they are open for pre-orders?”

“Damn! I wouldn’t have notice that if you didn’t mention it. This company uses hunger marketing too? Seems like I’ll have to stay up late waiting for pre-orders to start.”

“My wife is a bum; she’s been throwing tantrums about wanting to buy a “Wa-wah” robot. I’ll have to stay up late to make sure that I can get one.”

…

Time flew by. It was the night of the 22nd in the blink of an eye. There was only a few hours left until pre-orders of the “Wa-wah robot” started. Everyone had prepared their alarms and were waiting with bated breath for the moment when sales would begin.

…

Yan Mei Ling was 42 years old. She was a middle-aged lady who took great care of her looks. In addition to being a mother of two children, she was also a full-time housewife who was always busy doing household chores. Laundry, cooking, taking care of her children, keeping the house clean… there was hardly a time when she could rest.

Her husband was a gold collar worker with an annual salary in the millions. He was also a “sunshine man” who was very caring and considerate towards her. Sometimes, he would help her with the housework too. She had such a happy, complete, and affluent family. Theoretically, there was nothing else that she could want.

Even so, Yan Mei Ling did not live a very happy life. She was diagnosed with mild depression. She had frequently raised this to her husband, and told him that she wanted to find some work outside; she did not want to be full-time housewife. After more than a decade as a full-time housewife, she found life dry as dust. Her body and mind felt too exhausted.

The countless trivial minutiae of life made her feel like a robot — mechanical and monotonous. She had not experienced happiness in a long time; even the most simple forms of happiness. Therefore, Yan Mei Ling wanted to free herself from this kind of life by changing her environment and living for herself. But, for people of their social status, their children’s education was far more important than the happiness of the couple.

That was especially true during this crucial time. Their older son was about to graduate from middle to high school, and their younger daughter from elementary to middle school. All the more reason why Yan Mei Ling could not go to work. She had to keep a strict eye on their studies and pay attention to their movements at all times.

Getting a nanny to take care of them at home was not the solution either. She would have the cultural qualities of the lower class which would cause Yan Mei Ling to worry. It would be far better for Yan Mei Ling to take care of them herself. Hence, her husband did not support her getting a job.

But Yan Mei Ling was not happy leading this kind of life! Her husband had comforted and persuaded her several times, and she barely kept herself from going out to find a job. But, she smiled less often and her depression showed signs of getting worse.

Now, what should she do?

“Wa-wah the cleaning robot will let you live a more wonderful life!”

Yan Mei Ling’s husband was shopping for a present for her on Taobao to make her feel better. By chance, he came upon this advertisement on the landing page. His eyes brightened and he clicked on the ad. After watching the product’s introductory videos, he exclaimed excitedly, “My house has an area of 260 square meters. It requires a huge amount of cleaning and my wife frequently complains that it’s very tiring to mop the floor. Wouldn’t it be great if I could buy a “Wa-wah robot” for her to reduce her burden so that she has more time to rest? The robot even has a silly mode. If the silly mode was switched on to cajole her, wouldn’t she smile more? I’ve decided! I have to buy a “Wa-wah robot.” It will be my wife’s capable assistant and she will be able to experience more of the good times in life!” Born from his love for his wife, he had become a member of the army of people waiting to rush in to buy the robot!

Time flew by. At 11:59pm, once more, he refreshed the mobile page on his phone. The red purchase button appeared and he immediately clicked on it!

The page was loading…..

It froze for a slight moment, but still successfully loaded the following page where he could pay for his order.

“Yay! I’ve got it!” He waved his fist in triumph and stood up excitedly.

“Husband, it’s so late. Why aren’t you sleeping?” Yan Mei Ling, who was wearing a silk nightgown, walked over and frowned. “The children are sleeping. You’re so noisy, what if you wake them up?”

“Ok, ok. Wife, I’ve got this, baby. I can give you a surprise after a few days. It’ll make you feel better.”

She asked curiously, “What surprise?”

Acting mysterious, her husband only smirked. “You’ll know when the time comes.”

…

At 12:05am of the 23rd, the most intensive and competitive wave of panic buying was now over. The customers who wanted to buy a “Wa-wah robot” most urgently had basically gotten the satisfactory results that they were hoping for.

In a worker’s dormitory, turning to the side, Li Xiao Lan asked the woman lying on the bed, “Su Yun, did you get one? I got one.”

Huddling under the covers, Su Yun said in a muffled voice, “I got it. It’s too bad that its limited to one unit per person. If not, I would get another one.”

Li Xiao Lan was rather confused. “Say, Su Yun, this dorm is only 20 square meters. What would you do with two “Wa-wah robots”? Isn’t one enough? You actually want to buy another one? Why do you want so many robots?”

“It’s to give it as a gift, of course.”

Su Yun explained, “I keep one for my own use, and give away the other one”.

“To who?”

“Manager He. During the past year, she helped me a lot and taught me many things. Tomorrow (strictly speaking, it’s today), is the Lantern Festival holiday. I plan to go to her home to offer my rather late lunar new year greetings and thank her for nurturing me. When the “Wa-wah robot” arrives, I’ll give it to Manager He.”

Li Xiao Lan reminded, “Gift? According to the Eight Provisions, subordinates are not allowed to give presents to their superiors. Their gifts cannot be more than $500. Su Yun, it’s ok to give small gifts, but you have to keep in mind the laws.”

“Xiao Lan, you’re not flexible at all. The “Wa-wah robot” is a very good product that many people will want to buy when the time comes. Manager He will definitely want to get one when I introduce the functions of the robot to her. At that time, she will give me the money and I will give her the robot. This is the same as helping her to do her purchase. Why would it be against the laws?” Su Yun was certain that, with the limited stock of the “Wa-wah robot”, all 500,000 units would be sold in no time. Nobody knew when the next batch would hit the shelves. She could make use of this gap and earn a favourable impression from Manager He.

Li Xiao Lan praised her profusely. “Yes, Su Yun, that’ll work. You’re really getting smarter. You’ll have a bright future.”

…

At Xing Hai Technologies, in the sales department at the deep of night, the higher-ups of the company were not sleeping. They were closely monitoring the background sales data shown on their computer screens.

“Chief Chen, the sales volume has exceeded 200,000 units in five minutes. The situation is very ideal!”

“30 minutes have passed. The current sales volume is 350,000 units. The rate of increase has started to slow down.”

“450,000 units in one hour. A sudden wave of customers have come to grab more units.”

“Sales volume is still increasing rapidly, 500,000 units have all been sold! It has all been sold in only one hour and 20 minutes! This is too awesome!”

“Yay! This is great! It’s awesome!”

“We’ve succeeded! The company’s first product has succeeded!”

“If not for insufficient ready stock, the sales volume on its first day might have reached one million!”

“Hurray Xing Hai, Hurray Chief Chen!”

“Our Xing Hai company will be able to take off very soon!”

The higher-ups and the department staff were hugging each other as they jumped and shouted in joy. Right now, everyone in Xing Hai Technologies was extremely happy!

Chapter 70 - Su Yun Got A Shock

On the afternoon of the Lantern Festival, the 15th of the lunar new year, Su Yun made a trip to the market for some fresh fruits. Then, she went to the specialty shop and bought a small box of Tie Guan Yin 399 tea. She spent less than $500 in total.

Su Yun muttered as she carried her goods, “It’s just some small gifts. Dad and Mom urged me to build good relationships with those in leadership positions. This is ok!”

…

Su Yun had arrived at Manager He’s home in Room 402 of apartment No. 12 in Happiness Court.

Ding dong!

Ding dong!

After pressing the doorbell twice, the door was opened. A young man stood in front of her.

“It’s you?” Chen Jin was slightly stunned. He silently took his measure of her. Standing at the doorway, she was wearing a white knit shirt and a woolen coat. Her long, slim legs were encased in thick, black leggings. Her medium-length shiny hair fell over her shoulders. She also wore a yellow woolen scarf tied around her neck. She had a slender and tall physique with clear, pale, and exquisite features. Her overall impression was rather striking, and somewhat cold.

Su Yun lowered her head and gave a light hum. “Mmm..” Her pretty face was slightly flushed and she felt a little awkward. Her heartbeat increased. She had only met this tall and handsome man once. He was Manager He’s son. She had went on a blind date with him as per Manager He’s request. It was part of an act set in a war of wills between mother and son where they employed various manipulation methods against each other. Finally, her son, who had a flair for the theatre, lost. She was amused over it for a long time. She thought that Manager He and her family were too interesting.

Manager He’s young son had transformed the impression that she had of the children of the party members. She thought that the son of a certain manager had a rather good personality. He was well-mannered, easy-going, and kept a low profile. In addition, he was also easy to communicate with, and somewhat funny in a wacky way. He had left a good impression on her. After the fake blind date session, the two had never met again. She had only occasionally heard Manager He talking about her son’s situation. She never thought that they would meet again today. Su Yun also did not know why she felt slightly nervous.

“Come in, um, please change your shoes.” Chen Jin greeted her and called in the direction of the kitchen, “Mom, someone’s here to offer you their new year’s greetings!”

“Coming!” With an apron tied around her waist, He Li walked out from the kitchen. Spotting Su Yun in the living room, she acknowledged, “Little Su, what are you doing here?” Looking at the items that she was carrying, He Li shook her head with a serious expression on her face, “Little Su, you can come as you are, there’s no need for gifts. We have to follow the Party Provisions.”

Su Yun explained, “Manager, it’s just some fruit of common variety and a small box of tea leaves. They don’t cost more than $500 so it’s not against the rules. How can I feel good coming here empty-handed when you’ve helped me so much?”

“Why are you standing on ceremony with me? Coming here empty-handed would mean that I have ‘clean hands’. I would be equally happy with that. But, since you’ve already bought those, just put them on the table. Have lunch with us.”

Su Yun was elated. “Ok, thank you Manager He!” She put down her things on the glass coffee table.

Chen Jin went to the water dispenser, poured a cup of tea, and gave it to Su Yun.

“Thank you!” Taking the cup, Sun Yun displayed a smile. As she sat on the sofa for a while, Su Yun gave a meaningful sweep of the room from the corner of her eyes. Her attention was caught by something in the living room.

A round doll head, with two tiny antennas as ears and a mechanical arm holding a brush. A Wa-wah robot? Why would a Wa-wah robot be in Manager He’s room? What channel did she buy it from that it was delivered so speedily?

When she ordered the purchase of the Wa-wah robot online, the order brief stated that delivery would only start after two to four weeks. Many netizens in the forums were calling it a “cheap trick to get more profits.” At the same time, she realized that her calculations were off-course. The plan to curry some favor with Manager He was killed off before it was even executed.

Since Manager He already had a Wa-wah cleaning robot in her home, there was no need to give away the unit that she ordered. Manager He did not lack the robot in her home, so what’s the point in giving her another one?

Therefore, she felt a little depressed and disappointed. She had spent a lot of thought trying to repay the training and progress that Manager He had contributed to in her development. However, she found out that she could not give Manager He anything significant as repayment. She neither lacked nor needed anything.

…

At the dining table, He Li repeatedly put food in Su Yun’s bowl. “Here, Su Yun, eat more. Have a taste of my culinary skills. Does it suit your taste?”

Su Yun praised in between bites, “Yes, it’s good! Manager He, the food that you cook is especially delicious. It’s more delicious than my mom’s!”

He Li shook her head. “You silly child. The best dishes in the world are always those prepared by your own mother. How can my dishes be more delicious than those by your mom?” Her subordinate was excellent in all aspects. It was just that her behavior was over-enthusiastic, making her seem slightly immature. She needed more experience to toughen up.

Su Yun explained, “It’s true, Manager He. Most of the food at home is prepared by my Dad. My mom has to go to work every day; she has basically never prepared a meal. But the dishes that my Dad makes are really delicious too.”

With a strange expression, He Li asked, “Your dad cooks and your mom works?”

“That’s how it is….” Su Yun explained her story at length. Her father originally worked a job that was very physically demanding and difficult. After all, he had to provide for three children. Her mother stayed home and took care of the children. But, her father’s spine was damaged in a workplace accident where he fell from a height of over 10 meters. He had essentially lost his ability to work such physically demanding jobs, and could only stay home to cook and take care of the children. Her mother had to go out to work. She set up a vegetable stall in the market. No matter rain or shine, she would go to work early and come home late. Hence, the days passed like that.

He Li rubbed the reddened corners of her eyes. “Ah… Child, what a hard life. You have good parents. When they’re old, you have to be a filial daughter and treat them well.”

“Yes, I definitely will!” Su Yun’ s eyes shone with an inner light. She worked so hard in her job because she wanted her parents to feel proud of her.

After chatting about a few more topics, looking at the Wa-wah robot cleaning in the living room, Su Yun felt an impulse. She could not help but ask, “Manager, is that cleaning robot a Wa-wah robot? Recently, this model of robot has been very popular online. Many people are rushing to buy it. Manager, where did you buy this Wa-wah robot?”

“Little Su, you know about the Wa-wah robot too?!” He Li was very surprised, and a trace of pride appeared on her face.

“Last night, I stayed up late to grab one. And they were out of stock by the next morning. Also the delivery is very slow. It takes at least two weeks before the goods are sent out.”

“Little Su, you bought one too?!”

He Li was even more shocked, and then she praised her profusely. “You have taste, little Su, you really have great taste! You know your products. Like me, you know what a good product is! And when you meet a good product, you’ll immediately fork out money to buy it. This is a good point. Hahaha… Hahahaha…..” He Li’s face was flushed. Her body trembled in her fits of laughter and her brows danced with joy. It was as if her foot was being tickled.

Su Yun was confused. She did not understand why Manager He was so happy. She simply laughed along with her. Then she raised a question. “The Wa-wah robot is pretty good, it’s just that the delivery is too slow. Manager He, how did you get this so quickly?

He Li laughed. “I’ve used this robot for half a month. My son invented it, how can I not be the first to use it?”

What?!

Feeling as if she was struck by lightning, Su Yun swiveled her gaze towards Chen Jin, who was tinkering with the robot in the living room. She was stunned for some time. Her thin lips parted slightly; her beautiful eyes were rounded and full of disbelief.

Manager He’s son was the inventor was of the Wa-wah robot?

Chapter 71 - I Found a Country

The first thing that popped into Su Yun’s mind was doubt. The robot Wa-wah was so advanced and impressive. It only made sense if the inventor was as impressive, like a 40-year-old Doctor who wore thick glasses. But the son of Manager He was only twenty-something. He was very young, looked ordinary, and was not impressive. How could it be him?

However, she dared not put her doubts into words. Flashing a gentle smile, she turned her head to He Li and said, “Manager, your son is truly outstanding. I did not expect that the robot Wa-wah was invented by your son. That’s impressive! Really impressive.” She gave her a big thumbs-up.

“This was done by my company’s research and development team, but not merely by myself. My mum was just exaggerating,” Chen Jin said coldly, putting down the Wa-wah is hand.

“O-oh.” Su Yun nodded. Her doubts dispelled a little and she started to trust what Chen Jin was saying. Perhaps, the Wa-wah robot really was invented by the Manager’s son.

Having just finished lunch, Su Yun sat in the living room and chatted with Manager He for a while. Finally, she bid goodbye and returned to her dormitory unit. Su Yun was constantly inattentive and her mind was wandering, unconsciously dropping gazes on the manager’s son. Even if the manager’s son only asked to leave and headed off to the office, Su Yun placed all her attention on him until she no longer saw his back.

She murmured in heart, So, everything Manager said was true?

Suddenly, the manager’s voice rang and Su Yun saw a smiling face. “Little Su, what do you think of my son? He is pretty cool, right?”

“Ah!” Su Yun panicked and got butterflies in her stomach. She blushed instantly and said, “Right. Your son is really outstanding.” As soon as she finished, her face reddened.

“Hahahahaha!” The reaction of this female subordinate made He Li smile profoundly.

Su Yun became shyer and she quickly asked to leave, then ran away.

……..

At Xing Hai Technologies, the pre-order of robot cleaner Wa-wah broke five hundred thousand. All the stock was snapped up. In fact, the so-called “stock” referred to the stock of the unassembled materials stored in Ling Feng Jing Mi Company, but not the final products. The production line of Ling Feng Jing Mi Company had to go full steam ahead and the workers needed to work in three shifts. When a Wa-wah robot rolled off the production line, it had to be tested. Only then could Wa-wah robots be packaged and distributed. And with the help of the logistics companies, the product could then be sold to the nation-wide households.

Chen Jin picked up his phone and called Wang Quan Long. “Chief Wong, what is the capacity of Wa-wah robots in the production line every day?”

“Less than two thousand. We are striving our best to increase the capacity to reach the maximum productivity!”

“Only two thousand?” Chen Jin furrowed his brows and said, “We have promised our customers to distribute the stock in two weeks and we have to finish it in four weeks. Your current quantity is far from enough!”

“I know, I know. But now it’s Lunar New Years’ time, and it is very difficult to recruit workers. The operating rate of the production line is less than 10%, and some workers even quit their jobs. That’s why we cannot keep up with the production quantity. I am so hurried that my mind is exploding,” Wang Quan Long said in a hoarse voice.

“Why can’t we recruit workers?” Chen Jin asked inquisitively, “If you increase the remunerations, there will be more workers. If you pay well, we can recruit well.”

On the other side of the phone came a bitter laugh. “Ah! Chief Chen, you have oversimplified the problem. The OEM fee you offered is 5%, which means for each Wa-wah robot, Ling Feng only earns $185. Do you consider it as a very lucrative amount? Let me tell you, within $185, transportation cost takes up $55, our country takes away $30, and the worker’s cost constitutes $80… the profit left for my factory is only $20! If I raise the workers’ salary, I will not have any profit. Then why would I continue my business, you say?”

That’s the reason why Wong Quan Long strived to persuade Chen Jin to price the Wa-wah robot at above $5,000. 5,000 times 5% would mean that Ling Feng Jing Mi Company could earn a gross profit of over $250 for every robot. That’s $70 more than $180. Wang Quan Long would naturally become more generous, offering a better salary and welfare to recruit sufficient workers. But the price of the robot was $3,699. His heart was full of complaints.

In the OEM industry, the competition was stifling. The development of the real economy was really hard.

Chen Jin felt a bit awkward. He thought for a while and said, “Ah, how about this? Let’s make it a round figure. I’ll offer $15 more to you for every robot. You can use this additional sum of money to recruit more workers. Please get the five hundred thousand robots done as soon as possible. If I cannot distribute the products on time, it’s going to bring about huge negative impacts.”

“Alright, alright, no problem. With optimum efficiency, I will immediately raise the salary for hiring, and make sure the operating rate of our production line is saturated.” Wang Quan Long did some math. $15 more for each product, he multiplied it by five hundred thousand. The total sum was 7.5 million, which could increase the average salary of the workers by $2,000. With an attractive monthly wage of $8,000, hiring workers would hardly be a problem.

Besides, although developing real economy was difficult, Wang Quan Long had over-exaggerated the misery. OEM was still a very promising industry.

Taking the yield rate of a product as an example, when Ling Feng Jing Mi Company and Xing Hai Technologies signed the production contract, the agreed yield rate was 88%, which meant that the factory had to ensure that at least eighty-eight Wa-wah robots out of a hundred met the quality standard.

If Ling Feng Jing Mi Company or Wang Quan Long had the ability to boost the yield rate to 90%, 95% or even higher, they would earn more profit. The higher the yield rate, the greater the profit. And the yield rate control was exactly Wong Quan Long’s greatest strength.

…..

On Earth, the business was prospering, different development was smooth, and everything was basically on track. The capacity of the factory needed to be coordinated, but apart from that, there was nothing much for Chen Jin to worry about. He planned to take a good rest and adjust himself to a better status.

…..

On Planet Haierfa, the robot exploration team once again had major discovery. They found a country.

What?They could even find a country, how? What was going on?

About a thousand kilometers southwest of the base of operations, the robot exploration team crossed an abandoned country borderline and entered a hot and semi-arid zone. Based on the geographic feature and climate characteristics, it was confirmed that they had entered a country called “Moleido Republic.” The area of the country was approximately 1.8 million square kilometers, with a population of over one hundred million before the great destruction of the war. It was a prosperous, developing country.

After the great destruction of the war, the Republic adopted a neutral policy. Since it belonged to a nuclear-free country, it shouldn’t be a target of nuclear missiles. And because it had never come under nuclear attacks, the pollution of nuclear radiation would be very little. Moreover, most parts of the country were in tropical areas and the climate was hot. Thus, during the twenty-year nuclear winter, many survivors flooded to the Republic, and the number even reached three hundred million.

After the betrayal of the robots, the Republic naturally became the hardest nut to crack. The robots launched a series of attacks to Moleiduo Republic, and ultimately seized the country and killed all the survivors.

Therefore, within the border of Moleiduo Republic, things that could be found everywhere included abandoned battlefields, more complete cities, and all kinds of jewelry, money, and so forth left by the survivors.

Chen Jin considered them as a great harvest.

Chapter 72 - I found a Wind Farm

Lately, Chen Jin did not come to the base of operation very often. Nonetheless, in the base of operation, there were significant changes. All the plans that Chen Jin wrote down on paper had become an actual reality. And they were even above target!

For instance, the number of steel plate houses was increased to 150. Capsule factories in the industrial area were up to 105. There were 12 exploration teams, with the furthest exploration distance of one thousand kilometers. Four transport teams were put together, consisting of exploration vehicles, transport vehicles, and trailers. Each team had 100 vehicles of various kinds, and they could search for more than 500 tons of materials and resources at a time. After expanding wind power stations again and again, the power generation rate had reached 2000KW. The number of robots grew to over 2,000.

It was fair to say that the base of operation finally looked like what a “base” should be. With its considerable scale, Chen Jin was no longer a novice. Having some experience on hand, he felt a sense of accomplishment.

But then he was stranded at a new bottleneck. Two aspects of inadequacy made it hard to expand the scale of the base. First, the lack of raw materials. For example, the shells and pillars of the wind turbines required high-strength plastic granules. However, even the granules found in the City of Tereese accounted for only 500 tons, which was only sufficient for producing 30 turbines. For the other 30 turbines, nanoalloy powder became the only alternative, and thus a lot of powder was used. Still, the electricity was far from enough. This gave rise to the second biggest inadequacy, the lack of power, and it became a major bottleneck for the development of the base.

Chen Jin had to tackle these two problems. How? In the near cities such as City of Tereese, Fort Worth City, and other cities within five hundred kilometers, the robot transport team had already seized all the resources. Meanwhile, the northern hemisphere of the Planet Haierfa was in winter. With the temperature of -20 to -30 degrees Celsius, it was very difficult to expand to the north. The main exploration direction could only lie to the south, so the team headed to the south.

Soon, the robot exploration team arrived at the shore and saw a boundless ocean. With the high humidity of the seashore and the strong sea breeze blowing inland, the blue sky and the white clouds above look very clear and deep. However, for some reasons, the high-resolution camera of the robot recorded some silver sparkles flashing in the clear blue sky.

“What is that?” inquired Chen Jin.

“Space rubbish, millions of pieces of space rubbish, covering the entire proximity,” explained Alice.

Chen Jin’s eyes bulged, and he asked, “Then what should we do? This crazy amounts of space rubbish is dangerous. How am I supposed to develop the base to outerspace in the future then?” For Chen Jin, he always dreamed big. Only staying on this planet was never his ambition. Considering the level of technological advancement in Planet Haierfa, developing a moon colony was for sure possible, if not a Mars colony. Before the great destruction of the war, the human colonizers of different countries living on the moon were over a hundred thousand in number.

The robot exploration team had brought the small astronomical telescopes to observe the surface of the moon, but strangely, there was not a single trace of human activity anymore. Only a few quiet operation bases were left. It couldn’t be that the humans on the moon were all dead too? Chen Jin shook his head. It was a mystery for him.

Alice explained, “It’s okay, master. Space rubbish is not that terrifying. If the base can manage to make a spaceship, it can clean up the space rubbish, or we will have weapons and technology to avoid any space rubbish collisions.”

“Ah!” Chen Jin was relieved. Besides, the dream of going to space was still too far.

Later, the robot exploration team explored the southwest area along the C-shaped coastline called the “Moleiduo Bay.” After entering the Moleiduo Republic, there came some exciting discoveries. A huge block of wind turbines were found, as well as a seawater desalination plant.

The wind turbines found by the robot exploration team stood perfectly on the sea. It was a large-scale wind farm. This offshore wind farm had a total of 40 wind turbines with a power capacity of 5MW, generating electricity up to 200MW altogether. For these wind turbines, they had a diameter of 126 meters, and the height of the hub-center could get to 90 meters. Adopting the excitation system models of the synchronous generator, the turbines did not need to use permanent magnets, and therefore the nuclear wars did not impose much effect on its capacity rate.

The robots even found that the wind farm could supply electricity normally, as long as they connected the cables which had been cut off before, and restored the electricity transmission equipment. That was not very difficult. This meant that they found some ready-to-use electricity generation facilities! After some simple repair works, they could restore the electricity supply instantly. The power generated could reach a hundred times more than the power facilities in the base of operation. The electricity capacity rate was suddenly multiplied by 100! The problem of the electricity shortage was suddenly resolved!

Chen Jin immediately ordered, “Pull a high voltage power line to the base of operation, now!” The wind farm was a thousand kilometers away from the base of operation. It was quite far, and long-distance electricity transmissions might cause some loss, but it was acceptable.

Moreover, the seawater desalination plant next to the wind farm could help a lot too. The precipitation in the base of operation was basically nothing every year. Water was used in many aspects, such as cleaning equipment and vehicles, motor cooling, processing for capsule factories, physical and chemical reactions, etc. The base used at least a thousand tons of water every month. For the thousand tons of water, 70% was pumped from the well near the underground of the base of operation, while the other 30%, Chen Jin just connected a water pipe to the base from his bathroom. Three hundred tons of water usage every month. This was quite a hidden danger. The staff of the water supplier company had visited Chen Jin twice to check the water meter, and questioned him about the heavy use of water.

Since the robot exploration team had found a seawater desalination plant next to the offshore wind farm, they could repair it altogether, restoring its capacity of water supply. If the pipes were extended, the plant could supply water to the base of operation. This way, the shortage of electricity and water was completely tackled. No more hidden danger of exposing this planet to the earth.

There was only one final bottleneck that limited the further development of the base: the shortage of raw materials. This problem was naturally resolved after discovering the Moleiduo Republic.

“Master, before the great destruction of the war, the Moleiduo Republic was a major supplier of secondary industrial products to the United States of Mili (also abbreviated as USM). A huge amount of metallurgical industry, plasticizing industry, oil refinery, and a small number of advanced nanomaterial industries were all in this country.” AI Alice continued, “If we send numerous robots to the Moleiduo Republic, not only can we find a great number of raw materials, but we may also acquire related production technology and boost the technical reserves of the base. This will help a lot!”

“Great!” Chen Jin nodded and said, “Alice, when the problem of electricity is solved, send all the transport teams and 50,000 robots to the Moleiduo Republic. We need to get everything we want from there to the base.”

We’re plundering a country!

Chapter 73 - Excellent Reputation

Going to the Moleiduo Republic involved taking the resources from an entire country. That work could not be done in a few days. It might take up months to just search roughly. Chen Jin had to divert his focus back to the earth.

…

Two weeks later, on the 10th of March, Xing Hai Technologies began to deliver the 500,000 pre-ordered Wa-wah robots. On average, 30,000 robots were distributed every day, and the delivery would be done within two weeks. Depending on the delivery distance, some users would start receiving the Wa-wah robots on the 11th of March. And the robots would then start serving human families.

….…

In Hanghu City, at a teenager’s home, there was great excitement. “Yeah! I finally got a Wa-wah robot. From now on, you must work earnestly for me. Hahaha!” Shi Xiaotao was 23 years old, an innocent homebody. She liked to wear pigtails and dress in sportswear. She was a little bit taller than 160 centimeters and had a cute round face.

She had been following the updates for the Wa-wah robot for some time. Or to say, she had been doing so since she clicked on the promo video “Wa-wah Robots” on Bilibili, as the video had stayed on the top of the chart for a month. That’s how she became deeply attracted to the cleaning robots.

She thought, The company splurged millions of dollars in Hollywood special effects to make such an interesting promotional video with great storytelling. Even if the product is not as good as it advertises, it can’t be too bad, right?

Later, someone sent her some short videos from Dou Yin and other platforms. After seeing the actual Wa-wah robot and witnessing its cleaning capacity, Shi Xiaotao was shocked.

Oh my, this is way too clean!

Being a bit OCD, she could still feel extremely comfortable watching the monitor. She knew she wanted to buy it. She had to get one!

Having quite a comfortable life, she decided she would snap up the order as long as the price was below $15,000.

Moreover, as a graduate of the Director Department of Beijing Film Academy and an amateur comic writer, she came up with a bold idea after watching the “Wa-wah Robots” promo a few hundred times.

The idea was to shoot an anime movie about “Wa-wah Robots” with the best special effects and the top voice actors. With $200,000,000 to $300,000,000, she could produce an outstanding local anime movie that won the box office.

The Wa-wah robot has been going viral recently. It has the potential of becoming a trending IP. ‘Wa-wah robots vs evil human’ sounds like an awesome setting, it can be adapted to a series of heart-warming and humorous stories. What’s more, the pre-order of the Wa-wah robots hit over 500,000 on the first day of sales. The subsequent sales can reach a few more million, then the robots will become an important companion of many families. If I can make a family movie for all ages, it will definitely attract many people to the cinema.

Shi Xiaotao got more excited as she kept thinking about it. She believed she had discovered a spectacular opportunity with an 80% chance of succeeding! She needed to seize the opportunity before anyone with the same penetrating insight, and shoot a quality popular anime movie. Then, she would no longer be an insignificant director graduate, but a renowned novice director. Ah, I should add the description “a box office of $2 billion” in the title too.

“Hohohoho!” She couldn’t help but laugh when she thought of it. With a trickle of drool leaking from the corner of her mouth, she had a thirsty look. But thinking that the opportunity could be taken away at any time, she immediately put the robot down. She changed, went out of home unprecedentedly, and drove 100 kilometers to the Shanghai City.

…

After the Wa-wah robot was delivered, it took ten hours or so to clean the whole house thoroughly.

“My dear, this robot is pretty cool, right? It cleans so well, don’t you think?” the man said, looking at the sparkling floor which could perfectly reflect his own figure.

“Very well, it’s pretty nice.” Yan Meiling nodded. This robot brought by her husband was amazing. It cleaned even better than herself. After turning on the funny mode, the robot made her laugh so badly! She hadn’t been this happy for a long time, and she felt so relaxed.

She even took pity on the robot so much that she wanted to take the mop out and help it clean. It was only when her husband turned off the funny mode that she finally put the mop back to its place.

The husband said, “My dear, just let Wa-wah take care of all the cleaning chores at home, starting from today. You can just relax, watch TV, do a facial or some yoga. Just do something you like.”

“Right.” Yan Meiling nodded again. Indeed, she felt less weight on her shoulders.

On the sofa, the husband wrapped his arm around the wife and said, “My dear, you never learn to enjoy life. You can hire a nanny who will help you prepare meals, clean the floor, and take care of the children. You only need to focus on the kids’ learning. If you are doing everything by yourself just to save some money, you will wear yourself out. It’s just not worth it.”

Yan Meiling shook her head and said, “We had hired a nanny two years ago and got a hundred thousand dollars stolen. Besides, there are many child abuse scandals recently, you can never see through to a person’s heart. Money cannot buy a good conscience and morality. For some matters, I just feel better if I do it on my own.”

The man nodded. “Then I will buy you more high-tech products from now on, just like this cleaning robot. If they have cooking robots or tutoring robots, I will purchase all of them so as to lift your burden!”

“Alright, thank you, my dear.” Yan Meiling rested on her husband’s shoulders, feeling warm and contented.

…

On the 15th of March, at Xing Hai technologies, Liang Bin, the manager of the customer service and aftersales department, a man in his early thirties, rushed into the chief’s office with heavy sweat all over his head, and hurriedly reported the situation. “Chief Chen, we’ve screwed up this time! The telephone lines of the aftersales department are ringing off the hook! The operators are as busy as beavers!” He continued, “Complaints, they are all complaints and dissatisfaction. Some even gave us warnings. The users are very unhappy!”

“What?” Chen Jin, who was sitting on his chief’s chair, grew startled, shaking the cup of tea in his hand. He hurriedly put down the cup and asked, “What’s wrong? Is there a large-scale quality defect in our products?” Chen Jin felt a twinge in his heart. If that was really the case, everything was over. He subconsciously picked up the phone and was about to give Wong Quan Long a call. He wanted to know what was going on.

“No, it is not the problem of the quality.” He Bin explained breathlessly, “These are all calls for faster delivery. The users demand us to deliver the robots immediately and stop playing around, otherwise, we have to pay for it. No matter how the operators apologize, it’s useless. Many users complain that the rubbish in their house is staggering, that they need the Wa-wah robots in three days. They even warned us sternly! Chief Chen, the customer service lines are all blowing up. The operators are bustling. What should we do?”

Pffft!

Chen Jin spat out his tea and shouted furiously, “Can’t you tell me the whole picture all at once? I was startled because of you! If this happens again, you will have to pack your bag and go home!”

Liang Bin winced and didn’t dare to talk back, looking embarrassingly at his young boss.

Chen Jin finally understood what was going on. It was booming! The positive reaction from the users was insane! In fact, it was not hard to see that this was a product of great reputation from the 100% positive review on the Taobao official store page. Many users spared no effort in complimenting the product:

“I am free. From now on, the history of me, Zou Ranran, cleaning the house has completely ended!”

“In order to wait for the Wa-wah robot, I haven’t cleaned the house for seven days straight and it started to smell stinky. Luckily, I got my savior this morning. Wa-wah, I love you! Attached are some pictures of my shimmering floor.”

“$3,399, and I am free from cleaning for 20 years. It’s a steal! Even if it’s for five or 10 years, I still have my money’s worth!”

“This is an epoch-making product, marking the end of manual cleaning!”

“Five stars review. I would give ten stars if it was possible.”

“When will you release the second batch of robots? I want to buy another ten! It is amazing! All of my relatives and friends want to buy it.”

“Please start the second round of pre-order! Can you make 10 million of these? I want to buy a hundred so that my company doesn’t need to hire so many janitors.”

The comments were unanimously positive, giving out excellent reputation. Countless short videos, moments, and testing agencies spoke highly of the robots. All had proved that the popularity of the Wa-wah robots far exceeded the imagination of Chen Jin and the others. With this unrivaled reputation, Wa-wah robots were known to more people and quickly became a hot topic, grabbing the attention of millions.

Chapter 74 - The Visit

“Do you have a Wa-wah at home?”

This was the most popular question on Moments recently. Yuen Lin did not pay too much attention at first, but the question just popped up so many times. Comments like “I need a Wa-wah robot at home” were everywhere on Moments. She finally noticed that something was wrong.

The slacking era was coming soon!

The birth of Wa-wah robots marked the end of the manual-cleaning era. It was a bit exaggerated, but ever since the introduction of Wa-wah robots, at least 50%, or even 70% and 80% of the household cleaning chores were reduced. That’s why Wa-wah robots were going viral.

“Apart from fridges, washing machines, television, air-conditioners, and electric water heaters, Wa-wah robots are now the sixth indispensable appliance in the human household, exceeding the importance of television, and becoming as significant as fridges.”

“This is something we need regardless of the price! Just look at the dirty floor at our home. We need a Wa-wah robot.”

“I will buy a Wa-wah robot with a higher price. I will immediately purchase it if it’s below $4,500. Negotiations if it’s around $5,000.”

“Taking care of two kids just wears me out, and there’s no one to clean the house, can anybody sell me a Wa-wah robot?”

All this information was posted by Yuen Lin’s good friends or besties on Moments. As for the Wa-wah robot in her house, with its delivery time earlier than any other, it had been serving her family for over a month. Since she was never responsible for the cleaning chores at home, she was just not interested and didn’t find the robot particularly impressive even if it cleaned so well.

But the hot discussion on Moments was out of her expectation. It was like making a run for the latest Apple smartphones. A rich bestie paid eight thousand dollars more, spending a total of over ten thousand to get a Wa-wah robot from the scalpers. She posted photos on Moments every day and filled everyone with envy. After that, Yuen Lin couldn’t hold herself back anymore.

She replied to her bestie directly. “The original price of the Wa-wah robot is only around three thousand, and you pay eight thousand more? Are you nuts? Is it really worth the price?”

Unexpectedly, her bestie instantly fired back, “Of course! Do you know how great Wa-wah robots are? Do you know how hard it is to get one now? Only around ten thousand dollars for one, it’s not expensive at all. Anyone who has used it gets their money’s worth.” Soon the bestie posted on Moments with a sarcastic tone, “Only ten thousand dollars for a Wa-wah robot and somebody finds it pricey. The scalpers have already marked the price up to twenty or even thirty thousand. Having good taste and exposure is just so important.”

The post almost drove Yuen Lin crazy! What a pretentious frenemy on Moments. Just because she said that it was too expensive, that frenemy instantly fired back saying that she did not have a good taste? She immediately took a few pictures and posted on Moments: “This is my Wa-wah robot. I got it on the third day of the Lunar New Year, and it has been serving us for over a month now.”

That frenemy replied almost within a second. “That’s impossible, the pre-order started on the fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year, and the delivery only began two weeks after that. Where did you get your Wa-wah robot?”

“My friend sent it to me,” Yuen Lin said. In her reply, the shadow of a man floated to her mind.

“Who? Which friend? Are you lying?” the frenemy asked relentlessly.

“Ah, his last name is Chen, he’s the boss of Xing Hai Technologies. Wa-wah robots were designed by his company,” said Yuen Lin. In fact, she didn’t want to talk about that mommy’s boy, but the frenemy was even more annoying, so she could only explain the situation.

Wow!

The Moments had gone insane. In utter amazement, countless friends started to tag her like crazy.

“Yuen Lin, you know the boss of Xing Hai Technologies?”

“No wonder she could use the Wa-wah robot this early.”

“Linlin, can you forward the contact of the company’s boss to me? I want to buy a Wa-wah robot.”

“My dear Linlin, please do me a favor. Can you talk to the boss of Xing Hai Technologies and ask him to sell me a Wa-wah robot?”

“I want one too! My Linlin, please do me this favor!”

“Linlin…”

Countless replies asked for the contact number, seeking to buy a Wa-wah robot. There were so many that she couldn’t reply to all of them.

Yuen Lin refused to give the contact information because she didn’t have it either, but her mom did have it. As for helping them buy the Wa-wah robots, she did not dare to promise. She only promised to try but did not guarantee success. The friends said that they understand but still want her to give it a try.

The frenemy mocked her in the group. “Yuen Lin, I’ve never known that you can pretend so well. You say you know the boss of Xing Hai Technologies. If that’s true, why couldn’t you guarantee to buy the Wa-wah robots for us? I say you are just lying and being pretentious. Humph! Yuen Lin, you’re just a scheming bitch.”

Yuen Lin got hot under the collar. She instantly replied with rage, “Give me three days and I can buy ten. You can screenshot the photos as proof.”

“You mean ten robots from the scalpers? Yuen Lin, you really have a lot of money to blow,” that frenemy continued to tease her.

Yuen Lin ignored her. She picked up the phone, gave a call to her mom, and got the number of that guy.

..…

“Sure, Auntie Dong, 10 or even 20 robots are not going to be a problem. I’ll make a call to the factory and ask them to deliver the products, hoping that they can arrive by tomorrow.” Chen Jin kept promising. After all, he needed to do Auntie Dong a favor. Besides, ten robots weren’t much, and they would hardly affect the company.

“Little Chen, I have to trouble you this time. How about this, I will transfer fifty thousand to you. Scarcity makes everything more valuable. The cheapest robot in the scalpers’ market was five thousand, you’ll suffer losses if you sell the robots to me at the original price, and I don’t want to see that.”

“No, if you pay me fifty thousand, I will only return it to you and will not deliver the goods. We’re a regulated company but not scalpers.” The scalped robots were everywhere. All the high-rank staff of Hai Xing Technologies had been discussing this issue of halting the scalpers. The best counter-measure was to increase the production capacity and make sure everyone could get one.

“Alright, Little Chen. Auntie Dong really appreciates your help!” Suddenly, Dong Lei’s heart moved, and she said, “Little Chen, the two calls you just received were from my daughter Linlin. I gave your number to her. Maybe you can save it so that you can answer the call next time?”

“Oh, it was your daughter? I am sorry. I rejected the call just now. I’ll save the number now, and I’ll definitely answer it next time.” Chen Jin immediately added the unknown number to the contact list with the name “Daughter of Manager Dong.”

“Very well then,” Dong Lei said with a wide smile.

……

“Chief Chen, someone wants to see you downstairs, even the front desk couldn’t stop her,” said Liang Ying, the newly promoted deputy manager.

“Who’s that?” Recently, dozens of people tried to reach him every day, hoping to talk about collaboration and acquisition. There were just so many of them.

“It’s a very young lady. She said she was a movie director and she wanted to discuss with you about a movie collaboration.”

“A director… let her in.” Chen Jin was a bit curious. This was the first time a director took the initiative to visit him, so he planned to give her a chance.

Chapter 75 - The Pre-orders Broke Two Million!

Shi Xiaotao walked into the office. She was shocked and left her mouth open.

He is way too young. We’re probably the same age.

“Please have a seat,” Chen Jin said, while Liu Qi, the manager of the human resources department, prepared her a cup of tea. Shi Xiaotao expressed her gratitude. “Please briefly introduce yourself… My last name is Chen, and you can call me Chief Chen.”

“Alright.” Shi Xiaotao stood up and said, “My last name is Shi, my full name is Shi Xiaotao. You can just call me little Tao. I am 23 years old and I graduated in Beijing Film Academy, majoring in directing.”

“Take a seat, please… graduated? Didn’t you say you’re a director? You just graduated.”

“Ah, it should be a director-to-be, to-be. But I did shoot a 15-minute anime movie last year with my friends for our graduation design project. The name of the movie is ‘The Country of Snow’, and we got first place in the graduation evaluation. I can show it to you now.” Shi Xiaotao took the Apple notebook from her pink pack back and clicked on the video. She was clearly well-prepared.

Chen Jin watched for a while and nodded. The visual elements were sophisticated and beautiful, the storyline was fair, but not tedious. It was quite aesthetically pleasing.

Shi Xiaotao added quietly, “We spent more than five million on this video.”

Chen Jin raised his head and glanced at her. He paused the video and pushed the computer aside, crossing his fingers with his elbows on the desk. He tilted his chin and said, “Talk more about your ideas.”

Joy was written all over Shi Xiaotao’s face. She hurriedly explained all of her thoughts about making an anime movie about Wa-wah robots. She concluded with three reasons for why the movie would be a huge success:

First, “Wa-wah Robots” was probably going to be a popular IP. The TV potential was huge. Second, once Wa-wah robots entered thousands of families, they would become a household name, and if there was a related movie, it would definitely bring family members of all ages to the cinema. Third, the potential for adapting the story was enormous. One could already compile many humorous stories about the battle of wits and courage between humans and Wa-wah robots within the setting of the promo videos. There was just no chance of creating a bad story.

The more she talked, the more excited she got. However, she did not notice the interest in Chen’s face began to lag. He even interrupted her and said, “I see, I see. I know what you mean, don’t talk about the IP. There is enough IP in these years. My uncle’s company shot two IP movies before, and at the end, they ruined the original piece. I don’t want a lousy movie to ruin my product image. Please… just go.” Chen Jin waved his hands.

Being thrown aside like a wet blanket, Shi Xiaotao grew petrified and froze immediately. But then she quickly came to herself and vowed, “Chief Chen, please believe in me, I will not screw this IP up. I can definitely create something sophisticated, please give me an opportunity.”

Chen Jin examined her round and sternly serious face. He thought for a while and said, “How about this? It is indeed not so fair to paint you with the same brush. After all, you just graduated, and you are the hope of the movie industry in our country. I can’t stifle our country’s hope in the cradle.”

Shi Xiaotao nodded like a chicken pecking rice. She clenched her fist and said, “Right. I am the hope of the movie industry in our country.”

“You can go back and write me a movie script first. If you can produce an intriguing script with which I am satisfied, then I can consider further collaboration. However, if the script falls into mediocracy or cliché, that’s it. No more chances.” Chen Jin gave her a smug shrug.

An anime movie consisted of a script, visual art, and special effects. Among them the script was of utmost importance. It could determine the quality of the story, or more crucially, the life and death of a movie.

“No problem! I’ll go back and write you a script. I’ll keep writing until you find it good enough.” Shi Xiaotao was well aware that it was never easy to get a good IP. If she wanted to be recognized, she needed to show what she had. Therefore, she earnestly said, “Chief Chen, since you have given me an opportunity, please do not give this IP to others before I hand in my script. It’s just fair competition.”

“Fine! If other directors find me, I’ll also ask for a script first so as to compare and then choose the best one. I just don’t know whether you can do your best.”

“Chief Chen, please have faith in me. I am the best!” Shi Xiaotao clenched her first. The desire to get this IP in her bag filled her eyes.

Chen Jin nodded. Only the fittest could survive. He would rather take everything into his own hand than give the IP of “Wa-wah Robot” to those lousy directors whose sole purpose was to earn money. He would offer the chance to the team with the best script, visual style, and special effects. As long as he was not satisfied with the part, he could reject them and halt the collaboration. Anyway, he would never let anyone ruin the image of the Wa-wah robots just because he wanted to a little more money.

After getting the assurance from Chen Jin and exchanging contacts, Shi Xiaotao went back and wrote her script, with fierce determination in her heart.

…..…

The 25th of March marked 30 days since the first batch of Wa-wah robots pre-orders was released. Two weeks had passed since the official delivery.

Ling Feng Jing Mi Company had hired enough workers so that the efficiency of the factory’s production line finally reached its maximum. Working relentlessly in three shifts, the workers managed to produce 10,000 Wa-wah robots every day from the production line. The yield rate had also reached 90%.

The first batch of 50,000 orders could be done after five days. Within a week, the robots could be delivered to all the users through the collaborated logistics company.

Furthermore, in early March, after much deliberation, Xing Hai technologies and Ling Feng Jing Mi Company signed the second OEM contract: purchase all the parts and materials needed for another two million Wa-wah robots. Together they would produce two million more. Together with the one million robots of the first OEM contract, that was a total of three million Wa-wah robots. With the efficiency of the factory, all the orders could be finished within two months.

Therefore, on the 25th of March, Xing Hai Technologies released the second batch of pre-orders, a total of two million Wa-wah robots, in official stores on Taobao, 366buy.com, and other online channels.

The price was $3,699. Everyone was only allowed to buy one. The delivery was around one to five weeks, but would not exceed six weeks at the latest. The sales began at 12:00 a.m, and after it started, the one-million stock was snapped up on the Taobao store within 67 minutes.

As for the 600,000 stock on the 366buy.com, they were sold in 95 minutes.

And the remaining 400,000 robots on other official online stores, they were again snapped up within six hours.

Two million Wa-wah robots were sold again! Clamor and joy filled the entire Xing Hai Technologies company.

The internet also went crazy; people kept asking each other, “Did you get it?”

Many experts did an analysis and foresaw that the sales of Wa-wah robots could reach at least ten million. It would become the sixth indispensable appliance in the common household. For those companies who also produced cleaning robots, they got really panicked this time. It was like the end of the world. In fact, some competitors had already acted, vowing not to let Xing Hai Technologies dominate the entire market share of cleaning robots. They began to struggle and fight back.

Chapter 76 - Rejection and Regret

At a coffee shop, a serious discussion was happening.

“Mr. Su, please think about it. The remuneration offered by our company is ten times better than Xing Hai technologies. Moreover, as long as you promise to join our company, we’ll offer you 10% of the shares. Mr. Su, you are a talented, gifted individual. You should shine brightly in a better environment and receive equivalent payment…” said the middle-aged man with glasses, in an annoyingly persuasive manner, slowly guiding the man before him. Deep in his eyes flashed an astutely crafty glint.

“But… Chief Chen treats me so well. I… I can’t quit!”

In the eyes of the middle-aged man, Su You Jie struggled like prey caught in a spider’s web. The middle-aged man immediately signaled the lady sitting next to the Su Youjie. The lady was exquisite and gorgeous, dressed in fashion, carrying the quality of a goddess. In terms of appearance, she could definitely score a 9 out of 10.

With a breeze of fragrance, she said to Su You Jie in a coquettish clear voice, “Babe, an annual payment of ten million, plus 10% of the company’s share, why do you need to hesitate? Can Chief Chen offer you the same remuneration? A good bird chooses the branch that it perches upon. The answer is obvious, why can’t you make up your mind? Moreover, babe, it was you who worked out the two core algorithms of the Wa-wah robots. Without you, do you really think Wa-wah robots can be such a huge success? Babe, you have contributed so much for the company, but has Chief Chen ever mentioned a salary raise or an improvement in your remuneration package? Two million Wa-wah robots were sold, and Chief Chen could at least earn more than ten billion, but did he reward you even with ten million?” His girlfriend Chen Mengqi bombarded him with questions.

Su You Jie did not show a tinge of bitterness, but he became even more distressed. He regretted boasting so much in front of his girlfriend. Indeed, he figured out the cleaning and path algorithms for the company, but all the ideas came from Chief Chen. Without these ideas, he could not work out the algorithms even if he spent a year on them.

And because of his boasting, his girlfriend filled her face with tremendous admiration, and her eyes glistened. Unexpectedly, a few days later, his girlfriend brought the middle-aged man to him, saying that he’s the General Manager of the Rock Technologies. The last name of the man was Jiang. Then his girlfriend and Manager Jiang together brainwashed him for seven days straight and offered him a variety of favorable welfare packages, putting him in a constant vacillation.

“Ten million…”

“You should first bring this up to Chief Chen, ask him to raise your annual salary to ten million. Don’t forget the 10% of the Xing Hai Technologies shares too. You deserve that.”

Su You Jie looked at her in shock and said, “This is too crazy, what if Chief Chen says no?”

The middle-aged man said hurriedly, “Then just quit! Join Rock Technologies. We will always welcome you, Mr. Su!”

“Alright then!” Su Yo Jjie nodded. After the brainwashing of these few days, he also felt like he deserved a better remuneration.

…

At Xing Hai Technologies, in the Chief’s office, Su You Jie and Wu Lei sat opposite Chen Jin, looking a little hesitant. They chatted a little, but the two did not get straight to the point.

Chen Jin just cut to the chase and said, “Just say it, don’t feel bad. What is the ideal salary for you two? I was too busy some while ago and did not have time to talk about this. But I did consider increasing your work benefits before you brought this up.”

“Chief Chen, about the salary raise, you can decide for us. You are the boss,” said Su You Jie, feeling hot in the face.

“You can say first, so I can have a reference,” Chen Jin said, reaching out his hand.

“Then… alright!” Su You Jie ground his teeth and stuttered, “I hope my salary can be raised to ten… ten million annually, and … and I would also want to have 10% of the company shares… um… 5% of shares.”

Wu Lei, sitting next to Su You Jjie, said, “Chief Chen, I don’t have many requirements, just an annual rate of five million, plus 2% of the company shares.”

After listening to their requirements, Chen Jin laughed. He shook his head and smiled. “It seems that you have underestimated Xing Hai Technologies. I have told you before, Xing Hai Technologies is going to be a mega company with assets of ten trillion. Do you think, with your current ability, you can get 2% or 5% of my shares and become a potential billionaire? I am sorry, but I think you do not have this ability for now. Don’t even think about getting the shares of my company. But I can raise your salary, I can quintuple your current payment and I’ll even adjust it in the future. This way, it will meet your expectation, or even exceed it… as long as you stay and work hard for the company.”

Regarding the company’s shares, Chen Jin had made a decision in the first place: The shares would not be given to anyone! He would not even offer 0.1% of the shares to any staff, no matter how much they contributed to the company. Why? This was all about confidentiality, absolute confidentiality. The more the shareholders and the shares were given out, the more they could be involved in critical decisions. If that was the case, how could Chen Jin bring the technologies from the Planet Haierfa to the company furtively? Therefore, any request for owning the company shares would be rejected outright.

Shocked and extremely disappointed, Su You Jie and Wu Lei stared at each other.

Wu Lei told him urgently, “Chief Chen, recently one company is trying to rope You Jie and me in with excellent remunerations. They are even willing to offer 10% of the company shares to You Jie and 5% for me… Chief Chen, we really don’t want to leave Xing Hai, as long as the remunerations are satisfactory, we want to develop our career here.”

I see…

Chen Jin narrowed his eyes and earnestly said, “You Jie, Wu Lei, I can see that you are in a dilemma. Actually, you don’t need to put yourself in such a difficult position, just make the choice that you think is right. Both of you are very talented and I want you to stay, but really no more adjustment can be made in terms of remunerations, as this will disrupt the company’s salary system. If you want to quit, I won’t stop you. I can only wish you all the possible success.”

Su You Jie cried, “Chief Chen, I help you with all the core technologies of the Wa-wah robots, are you really willing to let me go?”

“Of course not. But if it’s just for the emotional attachment, can I retain both of you?”

“Aren’t you afraid of having competitors in the market?” Wu Lei asked.

Chen Jin shook his head and opened his arms, showing no concern. If he was really afraid, he wouldn’t let Su You Jie go. To a certain extent, he had even expected this scene. After all, this was common in the business world. He had already prepared the countermeasures.

“Very well then, we decide to quit!” Su You Jie and Wu Lei left with disappointment. On the same day, they completed the resignation procedures and joined Rock Technologies, which also specialized in producing cleaning robots. It was foreseeable that within a few months, a Rock robot would be introduced to the market and compete directly with Wa-wah robots.

Among the original research team, deputy captain Zhou Kun, teammates Zhang Zhewei, Xiao Xiao, and Yang Qiuying did not leave Xing Hai, and agreed to stay. Zhou Kun stayed because Chief Chen saved his father’s life, he couldn’t bite the hand that fed him because of money. As for Zhang Zhewei, Xiao Xiao, and Yang Qiuying, their position could be substituted very easily. Even if they left, Xing Hai Technologies could hire someone to replace them quickly. Therefore, when the company quintupled their salary, they were very satisfied and thus resignation would be very unlikely.

…

At the Shanghai Intellectual Property Administration, deep in gloom, Su You Jie, together with Manager Jiang, his girlfriend Chen Mengqi, and his brother Wu Lei, prepared to apply for the patents.

After leaving Xing Hai technologies and answering a series of questions from Manager Jiang, Su You Jie discovered that Chief Chen seemed to forget to apply for a patent, like the design patent of the Wa-wah robot, as well as the patent for the “image comparison cleaning algorithm” and the “best path algorithm.”

“Hahaha, that’s help from heaven! Let’s go to the Intellectual Property Administration and get all these patents registered! Hahaha, your Chief Chen is a complete idiot. We’ll teach him a lesson and ask him to pay for it.” Manager Jiang was overjoyed. This was fatal negligence on the part of Xing Hai Technologies. However, this was understandable. He was, after all, so young. Mistakes and negligence were just inevitable. Who would know so much when they first kick-started a business?

This is too good for us…

Manager Jiang couldn’t be more excited. The patents were worth at least a few billion.

But when they applied for the patent, they were surprised!

“I am sorry. The patents you applied for were all registered by Ao You Xing Hai Technologies. Moreover, Wa-wah robot has also obtained the voice recognition patent, trademark patent, design patent … and fifty more. All of them were registered in early November 2018. What is the purpose of your application today, may I ask?”

The staff looked at them suspiciously.

What?!

The smiles of Manager Jiang and his companions froze.

Su You Jjie looked as if he was struck by lightning. He took a few steps back and murmured, “In early November last year… which means Chief Chen had registered all the patents before even founding Xing Hai Technologies? It’s all over. Even if I develop a similar cleaning robot in Rock Technologies, Xing Hai Technologies can sue me for patent infringement, and I will go to jail! I shouldn’t have quit.” Su Youjie couldn’t be more chagrined. He regretted falling into the spell of money and leaving Xing Hai Technologies. Why did he do that?

Chapter 77 - Supply Chain Crisis

After Su You Jie and Wu Lei quit, Zhou Kun, the former deputy captain, became the head of the product development team in Xing Hai Technologies. Chen Jin had more faith in him.

On the other hand, the human resources department released recruitment advertisements, hiring a large number of technicians, including hardware engineers, software engineers, testing specialists, etc. Hundreds of people had to be recruited. The remumerations were very generous as well. An annual salary of a million for those who had five years of work experience; three to five hundred thousand annually for three to five years of work experience; for those who had a work experience of three years or below but with great ability, the salary could reach to two hundred thousand annually… the salary and work benefits offered were among the top in the field. The travel expenses of all of the interviewees were fully reimbursed. Many interviewees flooded in and within a few days, the company had hired enough talents.

Why did Xing Hai Technologies hire so many technicians? The research and development project of “Wa-wah Robot 2.0” was officially launched. That meant the development works regarding the second generation of Wa-wah robots were officially initiated.

At the project commencement meeting, Chen Jin, the Chairman of Xing Hai Technologies, put forward several key technical indicators:

Upgrade the algorithm, and adopt a smarter cleaning mode: no need to clean for ten times in the initial use, no scene restrictions, and it should more convenient for customers to use.

Develop an “enterprise version” exclusively for use of business units. This would serve as an important supplement to the basic version.

Add the wireless charging function, and make charging more secure.

Add the social mode, like “joy”, “anger”, “happiness” and other voice packages, along with singing and dancing.

Add the OCD mode, where once the rubbish appears on the floor, the robot will clean it up immediately.

In addition, the second generation of the Wa-wah robots will be subdivided into different product segments, providing three configuration systems which include “low-end”, “middle-range” and “high end.” The corresponding prices were three thousand, five thousand, and eight thousand. This would cater to the needs of different classes.

Compared to the ultimate version of Wa-wah robot in Chen Jin’s mind, the improvements made in the Wa-wah robot 2.0 were only the tip of the iceberg, merely regular upgrades. He hadn’t even added the best functions to the robot. Still, Wa-wah robot 2.0 was highly competitive in the market. At least it could again excel the upcoming Wa-wah robots 1.0 counterfeits (copycats), establishing a solid leading advantage in the market. By the time his competitors were able to catch up, Wa-wah robot 3.0 would be almost ready to come out.

If some competitors were so talented in plagiarizing, he could also protect his interests through the legal system. One needed to bear in mind that the country had greatly enhanced the protection of intellectual property in those years. Anyway, about the market competition, Chen Jin was never afraid of his competitors. Thanks to excellent product quality coupled with the huge support from fans, Wa-wah robots would take a major market share for Xing Hai Technologies.

Besides, the development period of Wa-wah Robot 2.0 was around three months. If there were any technical bottlenecks in the process Chen Jin could tackle it.

So…Steady, steady. He couldn’t find better words to describe the current situation. Therefore, in his spare time, the issue Chen Jin studied the most was how much he could earn. How much could he earn then? Would it be the same as the amount he expected, 800 dollars of profit for every Wa-wah robot?

He laughed bitterly. Chen Jin sighed, “Real economy is really hard. I should’ve done more research beforehand, understanding the cost in different elements. I shouldn’t be too naive and take everything for granted.”

Taking the renowned super-profitable Apple iPhone as an example, the maximum price set for the latest model XS Max was thirteen thousand, but how much did the hardware cost? Only a little bit more than $3,500, accounting for less than 30% of the retail price. On the surface, they had a profit margin of 70%. But after deducting a series of costs such as research and development, assembly, software, advertising, distribution, taxation, etc., the Apple company only received a net profit of around 3,000 per sale. The hardware took up a quarter of the price, other costs took up a half, and the net profit left was only a quarter. The net profit of the phone only accounted for 25% of the retail price.

This was only an example of the smartphone industry, and it was based on Apple, the well-known profit-generating company. As for other competitors, it would be excellent if they could reach a net profit margin of 5%. So, what was the actual net profit margin of a Wa-wah robot developed by Xing Hai Technologies?

Chen Jin invited the professional, his mom, to help him do the math. This would save him a great deal of complicated calculation process. Excluding all costs, the actual net profit margin of the Wa-wah robot was 15%… given that the price was set at $3,699. In other words, Chen Jin could earn $555 for every robot sold.

Also, for the first batch of 50,000 Wa-wah robots, Chen Jin offered a $300 discount to buyers and a $50 subsidy to Ling Feng Jing Mi Company (but the subsidy was canceled after the yield rate had raised). In other words, for the first batch of 50,000 Wa-wah robots, Chen Jin only earned $240 for each robot, with a total of 1.2 billion.

And this was achieved because Xing Hai Technologies saved a large sum of money on advertising, research and development, and distribution. This was even less than the profit gained from selling a few hundred kilograms of gold in Forever Jewels in a month.

“This is only for fun, for fun only!”

The difficulty of running a real economy could manifest itself. But Chen Jin could only continue. Indeed, he did not earn much, yet he had his feet on the ground, being fulfilled and motivated. Moreover, adopting the strategy of small profits and quick returns, Wa-wah robots entered thousands and thousands of families, achieving a sales volume of twenty million. If he multiplied that number by $555, he could also be a billionaire.

However, a phone call immediately crushed his dream. Across the phone, Wang Quan Long, the director of Ling Feng Jing Mi Company, said in a panic, “Chief Chen, there is a huge problem in the supply chain! A few days ago I sent some people to Japan to negotiate and order a batch of brushless motors and the moving parts of the mechanic arm. We placed an order of 3.3 million pieces for each item. The contract was originally well negotiated, and the price was cheaper than the last batch. Once the contract is signed, the stock can be delivered instantly. But for some reason, just now the delegates of the two Japanese companies suddenly fell out with us, saying that they can only supply a million pieces, with a 50% increase in the price. If we do not agree, they will terminate the collaboration. Chief Chen, this must be the ‘good work’ done by the local competitors. They want to restrain our supply chain and put us to death! We have two million pre-orders of Wa-wah robots, if the supply chain cannot meet our needs, we will fall into a huge passive role! Chief Chen, this is a huge crisis that we’re facing now!”

What?!

Chen Jin was completely gobsmacked. “Don’t panic, just don’t panic first!” He quickly composed himself and asked, “You talked about brushless motors and the moving parts of the mechanic arm. Aren’t there any other suppliers for substitution? Any companies in our country that manufacture the same parts? ”

“No!” Wang Quan Long shook his head and said, “A few companies in our country produce brushless motors but their quality can never reach the level of Yaskawa Electric in terms of lifespan speed, stability, and such. The difference is so huge that they cannot replace the Japanese production; there are only very few companies in the country that produce the moving parts of the mechanic arm, and the difference in quality is enormous. Even if we search around the world, we will not find a company better than Fanuc Corporation.”

“Chief Chen, we were too careless. This round, they’ve attacked us ruthlessly.” Speaking of this, Wang Quan Long gnawed his teeth and grieved, “Why, why do we have traitors in the country that cannot keep their feet on the ground and compete fairly? Why do they have to give the advantage to the foreigners?”

On the other side of the phone, Chen Jin remained silent for a while. He did not show the despondency and frustration that Wong Quan Long had.

He only murmured, “Is it really irreplaceable…” His eyes suddenly lit up and he said, “I don’t think so!”v

Chapter 78 - The Need to Master the Core Technology

After Wong Quan Long’s explanation, Chen Jin realized the cause of having this huge supply chain crisis for Ling Feng Jing Mi Company. First, the whistle-blowers of the local competitors gave the two Japanese suppliers the opportunity to take advantage of them. Second, the negotiation representatives sent by Ling Feng Jing Mi Company only agreed on the contract, they did not sign it, so there was no breach of contract with this change. Lastly, Ling Feng Jing Mi Company was only an insignificant OEM enterprise with limited capability. The two Japanese suppliers wouldn’t even worry about offending such a client; moreover, they could use this as a means to suppress the development of the electronics OEM industry in China.

Therefore, in the face of this supply chain crisis, Xing Hai Technologies and Ling Feng Jing Mi Company were left with only two choices: A full refund and a sincere apology to the consumers, or agreeing to the terms made by the Japanese suppliers to purchase one million pieces of the parts. Adding that to the remaining five hundred thousand pieces in stock, they could at least account for most consumers. But for the users who could not receive the products, the company could only offer a refund and apologize sincerely.

But the price was to reduce the profit of every Wa-wah robot to two hundred, or less. Regardless of the consequence, it was unacceptable and unbearable for Xing Hai Technologies and Ling Feng Jing Mi Company. This was a severe crisis that could shut the two companies down!

But it was a pity for both the evil counterparts in the country and the two Japanese suppliers, as they were all mistaken. For Chen Jin, the problem of the supply chain was only an insignificant trouble. He had a solution!

…

On Planet Haierfa, in the Base of Operations, in a steel plate room with an area of more than 80 square meters, Chen Jin held a spare part in each hand and said to the AI projection before him, “Alice, I have the brushless motor part in my left hand and a moving part of a hydraulic arm in the right. With the technology reserve on the Base, can we reproduce them?”

A flash of green light was projected from the sensor. It scanned the two parts individually. “No problem, my master. These were the outdated products from two hundred years ago. As long as the raw materials are sufficient, the capsule factory in the Base can mass produce these products.”

Alice said that she had recently finished a hardware upgrade and transferred herself to a more advanced supercomputer. The maximum computing capability was ten times more than before, reaching a hundred quintillion per second. Not only that, but the power consumption was only 300KW, which was three times better than before. Apart from that, the storage of Alice’s database increased from 20PB to 70BP, and it contained a huge amount of technical information. In short, the AI Alice was more powerful than before.

Chen Jin nodded, still feeling a bit worried, and said, “Alice, can the parts produced in the capsule factory keep up to the standard? For instance, the brushless motor in my hand can be used continually for twenty thousand hours on average without any malfunction. There are hardly any similar products that can compare with its excellent stability.”

“Master, are you questioning the technology of two hundred years later, saying that it is not as good as two years ago?” Alice rolled her eyes, saying confidently, “Master, Alice can promise that with the same material structures, our capsule factory can produce a brushless motor with thirty thousand hours of life expectancy without any malfunction, with a 20% increase in the maximum spinning speed. The stability and controllability will be better, reaching the maximum limit that the materials permit. If we use nanomaterials with better physical properties, the brushless motor produced by the capsule factory can last for more than two hundred thousand hours, doubling the maximum spinning speed, and we can even take the stability and controllability to the next level… If you don’t believe me, master, I can start the capsule factory and produce a batch of brushless motors for testing.

“Very well then, seeing is believing!”

Very soon, with the capsule factory, Alice produced a hundred brushless motors using ordinary materials, and another hundred using the nanomaterials. Then, she tested them against the brushless motor brought by Chen Jin. The results smacked Chen Jin right on his face, removing all of his doubts. His eyes glistened. Powerful, this was way too powerful. Especially the brushless motor made with nanomaterials, the sound was different, it was clear and pleasant, beating the Japanese brushless motors in every way possible. The one using ordinary materials performed well too, the maximum spinning speed had an obvious boost while the stability and controllability were about the same. It could substitute the Japanese brushless motors perfectly.

Regarding the moving parts of the mechanic arms — a cylindrical hydraulic device, the capsule factory also produced an improved version of the substitute.

Chen Jin was finally relieved. The supply chain crisis of Ling Feng Jing Mi Company was finally over. The respective 1.5 million brushless motors and the moving parts of mechanic arms could be supplied by the Base of Operations provisionally so that it would not affect the supply of the Wa-wah robots. And a brushless motor was only as big as a ping-pong, and a moving part of the mechanic arms was even tinier. A large sack could contain at least four to five thousand pieces!

Chen Jin only needed to drive two times a day, or he could ask Ling Feng Jing Mi Company to send someone to pick up the stock. Fifty thousand spare parts per day was not a problem at all.

Suddenly, Chen Jin’s eyes sparkled. “I remember Su You Jie once told me before, that imported brushless motors were expensive and cost $315 for one; Imported Japanese moving parts of mechanic arms were even more expensive, and cost $364 for a pair. Wong Quan Long also said that core components like brushless motors and moving parts of mechanic arms did not really have substitutes, therefore we didn’t have a big discount even if we place an order of ten million pieces. Three hundred multiplied by two equals six hundred, accounting for 30% of the hardware cost. I can earn fifty dollars more, compared to the five hundred and fifty dollars earned by selling every Wa-wah robot. Regarding the production cost of the two components, can fifty dollars get the job done? Take fifty dollars as the cost, the profit I can earn in the two imported components is even higher than that of producing the entire Wa-wah robot.”

Chen Jin smiled bitterly and said, “The profit of manufacturing core components is even higher than making a robot!” This explained the decline in the Japanese home electrical appliance industry and the monopoly of the Japanese companies that manufacture core components. Producing machines was not profitable while manufacturing core components could reap a huge profit. Between doing business with a dollar profit that required strenuous effort and doing business with a ten-dollar revenue that required no effort at all, anyone in their right mind could make the choice. But of course, the threshold of the latter was very high.

Then, Chen Jin found the way to raise the net profit to eight hundred dollars for every Wa-wah robot sold! “From now on, I am going to supply the brushless motors through my own channel; I also need to figure out the way to manufacture the moving parts on my own. I’ve got to be self-sufficient! Assuming that the cost of the two components was fifty dollars, that means that I’ll have five hundred and fifty dollars as increased profit!” That was twice the profit of a Wa-wah robot.

Chen Jin could then become a billionaire if he were able to sell ten thousand Wa-wah robots. He couldn’t help but exclaim, “If I want to make a profit, I have to master the core technology!”

…

Back in the bedroom on Earth, Chen Jin picked up the phone and called Wong Quan Long. “Chief Wong, don’t worry, I have contacted two new suppliers, and they can provide us with qualified brushless motors and parts of the mechanic arms. The price is even lower. I have tackled the problem of the supply chain for you.”

“What?” Wong Quan Long’ eyes bulged in disbelief, and he said, “How is this possible? Are you kidding me, Chief Chen? I am breaking out in a cold sweat, and now you say the problem is solved after just a few hours? Chief Chen, the one you found isn’t one of those local suppliers that produce trashy parts, right?”

“Stop it, you come to Shanghai tomorrow, and I’ll show you the parts I bought. Also, I have two projects on hand that I would like to work with you on. I don’t know if you are interested.”

“Yes! Tomorrow I will… no, I will make a trip down to Shanghai now! See you later Chief Chen!”

“Great, see you later!”

Chapter 79 - Acquiring Shares by Providing Technology

After hanging up the phone, Wong Quan Long dashed to Shang Hai as fast as he could. In the Baoshan industrial area, Xing Hai Company rented their second factory of eight hundred square meters as the second research and development base for various research works. Chen Jin waited for Wong Quan Long in the new factory.

…

Three hours later, in the testing laboratory, after a series of testing by the technicians, Chen Jin crossed his arms and asked, “What do you think, Chief Wong? The spare parts I brought here should meet the quality standard, right?”

Wong Quan Long was over the moon and exclaimed, “Yes! Absolutely! They can completely replace the imported Japanese parts, but…” A little bit skeptical, he asked, “Supplying 1.5 million set of parts in six weeks, Chief Chen, are the two local suppliers that you found really capable of doing that?”

“Don’t sweat it. 1.5 million sets are not going to be a problem. The suppliers I found are not doing to encumber me.”

Even more confused, Wong Quan Long leaned forward and asked quietly, “Chief Chen, if there are local suppliers that can produce such quality brushless motors and moving parts for the mechanic arms, with a supply capacity of a million, and they’re in our country, they should be pretty well-known, and they are very likely to be on CCTV… how come I have no idea who these suppliers are?”

“Do you really want to know how I found the two channels?” Chen Jin asked, looking at him.

“Yes!” Wong Quan Long repeatedly nodded his head.

“This is very confidential. Come in, let’s talk in a quiet place.” Chen Jin brought Wong Quan Long to an office with a nice soundproof facility, explaining everything to him.

Of course, he made up the whole story.

He said that the batch of brushless motors and mechanical arm moving parts he brought were not the products of formal factories, but the scientific research findings from the two research institutes. They belonged to the laboratory products that were not widely promoted. As for the names of the two research institutes, Chen Jin said that he could not disclose them because they were state secrets.

Wong Quan Long’s eyes lit up. He thought about the work Chen Jin’s father was engaged in, and he suddenly had a realization. “The two institutes must belong to the military scientific research institutions working for the government. Otherwise, how can there be confidentiality requirements?” He continued nodding his head and said, “No wonder I can’t see the name of the manufacturer and the production number on these two parts. They were laboratory products.” However, if the parts could be supplied in the quantity of a million, it means the technology is sophisticated enough to meet the standard of mass production. Why do they hold themselves in the laboratory production phase but not advance to industrial mass production?

Chen Jin explained, “The primary task of the two research institutes I found is not to research on the brushless motors and the moving parts of the mechanic arms. It is just their sideline. Once they have a major project, the two tasks will be cast aside, and the production line will be halted as well. When I first placed the order of 1.5 million, it took me a great deal of effort to persuade them. Let’s wait until this order is finished, then I’ll place the order again if they’re available.”

Wong Quan Long furrowed his brows, shook his head, and commented, “That’s not right, Chief Chen, the supply chain is too unstable. Besides, with the technology, wouldn’t they consider going into factory production and promote the two products in the civilian market? Take the brushless motors as an example, that is a market of at least a few ten billion dollars, don’t they want to earn more money?”

Chen Jin spread his arms out and said, “I asked the same question too, and you guess what they said? No time. They don’t have any time to earn money. They still have many research projects on hand.”

“But others have time, they can ask someone to promote the technology for them.” Wong Quan Long pushed his glasses up a bit. He just couldn’t understand what these people were thinking.

“Bingo!” Chen Jin snapped his fingers and nodded. “You’re right, Chief Wong. I was thinking the same thing too. So…” His face was filled with much suspense and a bit of pride, as he smiled and said, “After a series of intense discussion, I persuaded them to collaborate with me.”

Wow! Wang Quan Long suddenly turned his head and looked at him. He twitched his mouth, blinked, and asked curiously, “Chief Chen, you guys… What’s the actual collaboration plan?”

“Hahaha!” Smiling cockily, Chen Jin leaned back into the sofa chair, positioning himself more comfortably. Without much emotion he said, “I bought the production technology of the two spare parts… with around a billion.”

Wang Quan Long was completely flabbergasted. He murmured, “A billion… only a billion? For such a high-quality technology of the brushless motors and the moving parts of the mechanic arms? This…” He suddenly pounded on his chest violently. Looking up, he mourned, “Why? Why can’t I, Wong Quan Long, have such good things happen to me?” He looked at Chen Jin, with his red eyes filled with envy, jealousy, and bitterness.

After quite a while, Wong Quan Long adjusted his attitude, passionately served Chen Jin a cup of tea, and asked in a fawning smile, “Chief Chen, about the two research institutes, can you introduce me to them? I would love to meet the experts there.”

Naturally, Chen Jin could tell nothing.

Wong Quan Long sighed. It’s always good to have parents working for the government. The success earned by entrepreneurs like him, who could only strive hard on his own with no connections at all, was not even comparable to the success someone achieved by merely greeting and asking a favor in their social connections. Such constant comparisons were just pointless. Being envious was just a luxury to him.

Chen Jin, getting down to the business, introduced his proposal. “Chief Wong, this is my thought. In order to completely tackle the supply problem of the brushless motors and the moving parts of the mechanic arms, I am planning to invest in two companies, which can specialize in manufacturing the two core parts. For the brushless motors, I plan to buy in the shares with the technology asset. I will acquire the shares of a company which has more exceptional ability in producing brushless motors so that they can quickly enhance the technology and manufacture electrical products that will compare to the Japan Yaskawa Electric’s. There are very few companies that develop the moving parts of the mechanic arms, so we’ll directly acquire one of them. Chief Wong, you’ll be investing the money, while I will be responsible for providing the technology. Once the subsidiary is established, you and I will hold half of the company’s shares respectively. Chief Wong, would you like to seize this opportunity?”

Chen Jin planned to acquire shares by providing technology to two companies that specialize in producing brushless motors and the moving parts of the mechanic arms. It was quite difficult for some people to understand why Chief Chen gave away the technology to acquire shares of others’ companies. If he found two subsidiaries to manufacture the two core parts, he could earn all the money. How good was that? In fact, he did consider it, but discovered that it was not very practical.

First, establishing two subsidiaries from scratch would take up a lot of time and effort. A year would not necessarily be enough. They would be working like crazy every day. Second, the supply chain problem of the Ling Feng Jing Mi Company must be alleviated within two months! In these two months, Chen Jin had to sweat like a pig and carry 1.5 million sets of spare parts weighing seven to eight tons, from the Base of Operations to his Mercedes-Benz with the help of the simulated robots. If the pre-order of Wa-wah robots was opened again, the total sales might reach ten million. Then his career of being a porter would have to continue in the long run. How did he get the time to set up a subsidiary then?

The technology on Planet Haierfa was definitely advanced, yet if he had to carry everything from there to the earth to meet the industrial production demand, Chen Jin simply could not do it alone. For sure the best solution would be building a few capsule factories on the planet and get them to the earth for production. This would save part of the troubles. But the diameter of the planet portal was only a meter long, how could he get the capsule factory, which is as large as an intermodal container, to the earth? Therefore, providing technology to work with other companies seemed to be Chen Jin’s only choice. Not to mention, this was also the choice to tackle the problem of efficiency.

After listening to Chen Jin’s proposal, Wong Quan Long quickly stood up. “Yes, I do!” Extremely grateful, he exclaimed, “Chief Chen, the offer you are making now is like a pie from the sky. I will certainly grasp hold of it. Chief Chen, thank you for giving me this opportunity.” His slightly greasy face was very red. Over the moon, he incessantly bowed to Chen Jin and said, “Chief Chen, all the best for our collaboration!”

Chief Chen stood up, putting forward his hand. “All the best!”

The two hands were firmly held together.

Chapter 80 - You Ying Motor

During the following days, Chen Jin and Wong Quan Long ran through the whole country and visited many places. In Fuchi Province, Fuzhou City, lay Tongda Motor Limited Company, the largest manufacturer of brushless motors in China.

Chen Jin made a visit, and a manager received them. His last name was Hu; he was stout and round in the face, weighing at least two hundred pounds.

“I am sorry. We cannot accept the terms you made. The performance of your brushless motors is indeed pretty nice, but that doesn’t mean that you have relevant technology, unless you give us the technology for testing. Even if the technology is real, we can only sell you 20% of the shares, 50% is out of the question!” Hu Tiantai’s eyes slanted, revealing his spite at the corner of his mouth.

Chen Jin and Wong Quanlong glanced at each other. Simultaneously they stood up and left. “Let’s go!”

…

In Youxi City, a city near Shanghai and only twenty kilometers away from Suhong City, in the Chengbei Development Zone, there was a factory named You Ying Motor Limited Company. In this factory, there was a tug-of-war negotiation going on.

Zhang Dawei was a thirty-eight-year-old man and the founder and director of You Ying Motor. He was dressed in an ordinary working uniform and working in the factory. Looking plain and thin, he looked more like an ordinary worker than a boss at the first impression. However, his education background was astounding. He graduated from an elite university with a master’s degree and he was an expert in the motor field. He had already earned over ten thousand dollars a month more than a decade ago. But in the tenth year, when he wasn’t even in his thirties but had some money on hand, he decided to quit his job and start a business, so he found You Ying Motor.

In nine years’ time, he turned his small factory with only eight workers and an annual profit of a million, to a medium-sized factory with more than a hundred workers and an annual profit of around twenty million. Though he burned himself out at work, the company could only manage to get by. But fortunately, after the experience from all of those years, You Ying Motor had a solid technological foundation, and the product qualities were also recognized by the users. It finally came into a little bit of fame in the country.

This was something that made Zhang Dawei very proud and satisfied. He had the confidence to enhance the company’s products quality as well as the scale, thus becoming the top giant factory in the country. It would be a long and rocky road… after all, the effectiveness of the factory was right there, but taking a million every year for research was very hard. The consequence of not investing enough in research and development meant that technology advancement was very slow.

But a great opportunity was laid before Zhang Dawei. As long as he nodded his head and agreed to sell part of the company’s shares, he could acquire the process flow and the manufacturing information of the world’s most high-quality brushless motor. As long as he got hold of the technology, his You Ying Motor company could produce motors with the performance comparable to Yaskawa Electric in Japan.

Moreover, sales were guaranteed. As long as You Ying Motor got hold of the technology to the extent that it could actualize mass production, the director of Ling Feng Jing Mi Company, the gentlemen accompanying the young boss, would immediately offer an order contract of one million brushless motors. The order was so huge that the factory might need to race against the clock.

Not only did they provided the technology, but they also guaranteed the order. For You Ying Motor, this could shoot the company to the top of the sky. Still, Zhang Dawei was very hesitant in the face of such a tremendous opportunity. 50% of the company’s shares was really too much. This factory gathered all his toil and effort, he was just reluctant to sell half of the shares.

He bargained, “How about 40%? I really want to collaborate with you, but you asked for too many shares! I’ll budge an inch, 45%! 49%! I need to get a grip on the management and decision-making, otherwise, I cannot work with peace of mind.”

In the face of the two gentlemen that would not even budge an inch, Zhang Dawei kept giving in. He hoped to grab the opportunity tightly, but meanwhile, he was afraid to.

Looking at Zhang Dawei, whose face was intertwined with struggles, Chen Jin shook his head and said, “Chief Zhang, to be honest, I want to hold more than 51% of your company’s shares in the first place. After all, core technologies are the most valuable asset these days. There are dozens of motor factories like yours in the country. I considered licensing the technology to your factory because I think your technical level is pretty well, the factory equipment, the workers’ quality, and the product quality are also acceptable, and it has the potential to develop. But you do not think that the technology I supply is worth 50% of your factory’s value. Your factory is only worth a hundred million max! And the technology I have is worth a hundred billion! As long as you agree, what you get is 50% of a hundred billion, and what you lose is 50% of a hundred million… The math is very clear.” He stretched out his palm. “Five minutes, Chief Zhang, I’ll give you five minutes. If you do not agree with the terms, I’ll look for other motor companies to collaborate with me.” Chen Jin gave him the last call, giving him only five minutes to think about it.

He insisted on holding 50% of the shares of You Ying Motor because he wanted them to value Xing Hai technologies as their business partner, and value the function Xing Hai Technologies could bring. Regarding the power of management and decision-making, Chen Jin was not interested, and he didn’t have the time to care as well. What he desired was the 50% share of profit! In addition, in order to protect his interest, the collaboration Chen Jin offered was a patent technology licensing model, which only licensed the technology to You Ying Motor. The ownership of the technology still belonged to Chen Jin.

If You Ying Motor gave themselves away and did anything that harmed the interest of Xing Hai Technologies, Chen Jin could withdraw the technical authorization in accordance with the terms of the contract! Then he would choose another motor factory to collaborate with, and help other manufacturers to rise. He could even support several brushless motor factories as a replacement, and You Ying Motor could not intervene… The collaboration partner was not limited to only one factory. The biggest initiative was still held tight in his hand!

Apparently, such a collaboration model was a bit harsh for You Ying Motor, but they couldn’t have a say because the core technology was in the hand of Xing Hai Technology. Of course, the collaborated motor factory was not in a disadvantage too, if they did their part and did not play any tricks, they could enjoy the extravagant life with Xing Hai Technologies. They would be rolling in money.

As soon as Chen Jin said the last word, Wong Quan Long hurriedly advised, “Chief Zhang, do not hesitate, this is a once-in-a-blue-moon opportunity. If you miss the boat, you will miss it forever.”

Sitting next to Zhang Dawei, Zhang Xiaolong, the younger brother in charge of sales work, also persuaded, “My brother, you’ve seen the performance of the brushless motor brought by the two directors. Even if we work for a hundred more years, we can’t produce such an excellent brushless motor. The technology gap is too huge! Brother, agree to the terms immediately. Time is running out!”

Zhang Dawei glared at him, not accepting his brother’s words. He said, “Who said we need a hundred years? I can produce the same motor in fifty years at the most.”

Zhang Xiaolong looked at his brother as if he was looking at an idiot, and he said, “Fifty years later, we’re both dead, how are we going to produce motors?” He answered for his brother, “Chief Chen, Chief Wong, my brother agrees, he agrees to collaborate! From now on we will work together and produce the world’s best brushless motors.”

Zhang Dawei glanced at his brother, moved his lips a little, but in the end, he did object, and instead acquiesced to the outcome. The collaboration of the three parties was smoothly achieved, and the contract was signed.

At the evening celebration party, Zhang Dawei expressed a predicament that his company was facing. “Chief Chen, I have read the technical document that you handed to me, and the technical flow is indeed feasible, but I also need to purchase a lot of sophisticated equipment that will cost fifty million or above. The capital in my company’s account has never reached five million, so…” He looked at Chen Jin helplessly, with much awkwardness on his face.

The funding problem was exactly the Achilles’ heel of You Ying Motor. Even if the ready-made technology was laid before it, the factory had to spend over fifty million purchasing equipment to actualize the technology. Raising money became a vexing problem. Even if he could raise fifty million, he had to bear heavy debts, let alone the time-consuming process.

Chen Jin thought for a while and said, “Don’t worry about the funds, fifty million, I can lend it to you first without any interest, but I hope you can repay the money within a year. Is that a problem?”

“Sure, no problem!” Overjoyed, Zhang Dawei made a toast to Chen Jin again and again. He said, “Chief Chen, thank you very much! Thank you! I’ll drink a toast to you!” At that moment, all of the troubles in his heart were gone and replaced by abundant hope and confidence. With the help of a benefactor, it was time for You Ying Motor to rise and fly off!

Chapter 81 - Repairing A Large Airplane

The electric motor factory was done. Hence, Chen Jin returned straight home the next morning. He left Wan Quan Long to continue his search for a research organization that developed and produced mobile parts for robotic arms. After which, he would find a way to acquire the organization. Chen Jin did not accompany him in the search and negotiation processes. The journey was too strenuous, so he snuck away.

Chen Jin did not have to worry at all about the lack of funds. Despite Wan Quan Long frequently making a big fuss about how poor he was, he could definitely afford to take out 200 to 300 million…. He had profited plenty from the OEM order for millions of Wa-wah Robots.

By chance, Chen Jin knew that Wang Quan Long was a person with well-hidden secrets. Together with his wife, they invested in real estate nationwide. They had hundreds of properties under their name. The real estate they possessed was worth 200 to 300 million… The profits from the speculative sales of properties were higher than the factory’s profits.

When Chen Jin sought him out for an OEM order contract of a million Wa-wah Robots, Wang Quan Long agreed that he could pay a down payment of just 20%. This was also the reason why he said that he could deal with the remaining 80%.

Chen Jin silently muttered, “Hehe, Old Wang, with your hillbilly nature, do you think you can keep this from me? Underneath your cultured exterior, you are actually a bourgeoisie who has no lack of money!”

If Wang Quan Long knew what Chen Jin was thinking, he would be shouting in injustice. He was misunderstood. In reality, those houses were purchased by his wife all over the country. He had nothing to do with them. Truly, he only wanted to start a little business. To his dismay, he found out that in the end, after slogging for a year, his earnings were still less than what his wife could make by selling a property. He was a man with his own business dreams yet he was a nobody at home. Back in the house, it was as if he lived as a gigolo. Who would understand the restlessness and the pain in his heart?

…

After three days, Wang Quan Long made a phone call. Excited, he said, “Chief Chen, I’ve bought a small company that does research on the hydraulic units of robotic arms. I spent only $3,000 thereabouts. The other boss has transferred full shareholding rights to me. Chief Chen, we now have a subsidiary company to produce the mobile parts for the robotic arms!”

“Ok, name the company now and then register it again. After that, come over to sign the contract. I’ll give you the technical data.”

“I’ve already thought of the company name. It’ll be called “Bi Long”; signifying that our arms will have the strength of a dragon!”Wang Quan Long also added that the company did not have sufficient talent in the technical department. They would have to recruit more workers. In addition, they had to purchase huge quantities of manufacturing equipment. The total amount of investment needed was 200 to 300 million. Therefore, the first batch of the mobile parts would only be supplied to Ling Feng Jing Mi OEM after a minimum of six months. Under the best conditions, that was the earliest time the parts could be produced. In the meantime, the company could only depend on the “mysterious channel” that Chen Jin possessed to ensure the supply continuation.

Chen Jin said, “All right. The channel on my side should be able to maintain its supply for half a year!” It was just that…. Every day, he would have to carry five tons of machine parts with the human replica robots. For six months, he would be training his body. Recently, he found that he had developed quite a bit of muscle. His appetite had also increased. After gaining more than five kilograms, his physique had become more compact and well-proportioned. He believed that after another six months of training, he could definitely become a hunk! Others would certainly be willing to believe that his great physique came from training in a gym and not because he was a mover who worked himself too hard.

Covering his face with his hands, he cried in an overly exaggerated and funny manner.

…

On Haierfa, in the Base of Operations, on a patch of land measuring five acres which had been leveled by the robots, there laid a behemoth. It had a unique design with an overall triangular layout for flight. There were two canards located at its nose. At its tail end, there were 4fourmovable tail fins. It was like a giant flying shuttle. It was also similar to a space shuttle that could do a return trip. Its greatest length was 56 meters; its height was 10 meters and its largest width was 24 meters. On its own, it weighed 194 tons without any cargo or passengers. Its interior passenger cabin had a size that was equivalent to a 240 square meter house. Moreover, it was decked out in an extremely luxurious manner.

This was a private passenger plane that was custom-made for a wealthy client. It had a very nice name; it was called “Dream Dancer.”

By now, the wealthy owner of this private plane had turned into dust. The exploration squad had towed it out from beneath a pile of rubbish. Then they cleaned it up a little and found out that the structure was only slightly damaged. After some simple repairs and charging, the plane could actually still work!

Hence, the robots continued charging it. Then they operated the plane and flew over 1,000 kilometers. Then they did a vertical landing directly onto the center of the Base of Operations.

That was right, this was an electric airplane. By adjusting the direction of the engine’s nozzle, one could land and take off vertically. With a full charge, it could travel up to a distance of 30,000 kilometers and a height of 100 kilometers! There was no great danger as long as it did not fly above a speed of Mach Five in the atmosphere.

Chen Jin praised it unceasingly. “Awesome, this function is absolutely bombastic!”

Alice explained to him, “Master, this ‘Dream Dancer’ uses super high-efficiency batteries that were expensive to produce. Its energy density is 2.5 times as much as a normal high-efficiency battery. The plane is driven by a plasma engine which gives it a propelling power that is 10 times that of the traditional turbojet. It can easily realize a thrust-weight ratio of 100 or more. Therefore, vertical landing and take off is a piece of cake for this plane. If we do some slight modifications and store large amounts of a dielectric material to act as the propellant for the plasma engine, the ‘Dream Dancer’ could even have the ability to traverse outer space for a short time. It could, of course, only make temporary stops along orbits close to land. For safety reasons, it’s better not to try it.”

Chen Jin’s mouth opened wide. “Alice, you mean that it’s possible to remodel this plane into a spaceship with the ability to make a temporary stop in outer space?”

Alice nodded her head. “Yes! This was one of its selling points emphasized by retailers when they were publicizing it in its first launch.”

“Awesome, this is too awesome!” Chen Jin sighed emotionally. The rich really knew how to enjoy life. With a gleam in his eyes, he thought, Why don’t I take this airplane up to the outer space of Haierfa? I can see the overall appearance of this planet with a perspective from space.

However, he quickly shook his head. “Alice said that there was too much space debris floating about in outer space; they were counted in the hundreds of millions. Without the ability to clear that debris, it’s better to not go to outer space for nothing in particular.” It would be serious if he was hit by a piece of debris. For now, this behemoth of a plane could only be used within the atmosphere.

Moreover, Chen Jin did not dare to operate it and take it out for a spin. It had complicated units that had not been used in at least 30 years. Who knew how many hidden dangers existed in its interior? If trouble occurred while he was in the air, his insignificant life would probably be forfeit. He dare not take the risk.

Therefore, he could only look at it greedily. “This is good, but I can only entrust this to the exploration squad to assist them on their trips!” He imagined the robots using the plane. The plane would get stronger and their circumstance would get better. The radius of their exploration range would be increased by at least 10,000 kilometers. The efficiency of the exploration trips would increase dramatically. Before, the exploration trips were primarily about advancing on land. Now, they were advancing in a more holistic way, on both land and air.

Moreover, this airplane could carry up to a load of 180 tons or the equivalent of 500 robots at one time. Even with such a load, its voyage distance was guaranteed to be at least 10,000 kilometers. With such a powerful transportation capability and a long voyage distance, Chen Jin could immediately send out robots to whatever locations that he wished to explore on Haierfa. They could then bring a portion of the gains back to the Base.

Considering that the weather had recently turned warmer, the 50,000 robots that he had sent to Moleiduo Republic only came back with a small quantity of high-value items. Chen Jin returned his focus back to the abandoned country of Melica located 2,000 kilometers northwest of the Base. He would send the robots to the core area on the eastern side to see if there were any significant gains to be found. After all, there was once a huge quantity of city dwellers spread out in that core area. It used to have a total population of over 50 million! Located right in the center of the core area was the capital, Donuit City. Within the capital were countless bank vaults, company headquarters, and high-tech factories. It was lucky that he had a usable large airplane.

Chen Jin designated this behemoth of an airplane “Flight No. 9” and fully charged all of the super high-efficiency batteries in the battery chamber. He sent out 2,000 robots onboard “Flight No. 9”. They carried along more than 50 tons of various goods and materials. Their target was Donuit City. He commanded the airborne exploration squad to set off!

Chapter 82 - I Found 20,0 Tons of Gold

Flight No. 9 had a very rapid speed. It was hovering above the capital, Donuit City, after only two hours. Moreover, the plane had a powerful directional communications system. Even from a distance of over 2,000 kilometers, it could still maintain a digital communication of 256 kb with the signal tower in the Base of Operations. It could send a high definition image back to the tower every few seconds. Also, it could maintain voice communication with the robots at any time.

The communication quality would rapidly drop to 126 kb and below if the distance between the plane and the signal tower was over 3,000 kilometers. If Chen Jin did not make use of a relay transmitter, it would be difficult to control the plane remotely. He would have to command the robots to operate the plane on their own in their explorations.

However, with a search radius of 3,000 kilometers and an area coverage of 2,826 square kilometers, it should be sufficient to encompass the entire country of Melica inside its range. Hence, Chen Jin planned to start from the North Melica continent. He would scour and pick clean this huge area before making further plans.

…

The plane arrived in the sky above Donuit City. From its aerial view, it took many high definition photos and sent them back to the Base, one after another.

It was as Chen Jin expected. A wasteland. A vast and expansive wasteland. The capital had also suffered a nuclear bomb attack. And it was not only one bomb! The enemy country had launched at least hundreds of nuclear bombs towards this city in a bid to annihilate Donuit City.

The missile defense system had intercepted a lot of bombs, but there were about 33 that still managed to land successfully. Hence, the current state of Donuit city was a city of 33 craters. Besides the 33 craters, there was not one building or any kind of infrastructure remaining. The entire population, in the number of tens of millions, had all been killed. Logically, there should not be anything of value left to be scoured in Donuit City. It seemed that Flight No. 9 had made a wasted trip.

However, Chen Jin was not so sure that was the case! He ordered the smart operation system of the plane to open the X-band terrain detector radar that was joined to the underside of the wing unit. The radar would scan the ground of Donuit City!

After opening the radar, the underground structure of Donuit city was clearly presented to Chen Jin. The underground composition of this city had not been totally destroyed by the nuclear bomb. There were intersecting underground train systems, dense city pipelines, and sewage systems. Using the mostly undamaged and complete underground train system as a frame of reference for comparison with the pre-war images of the city, Chen Jin slowly locked down on the location of a particular institution.

The headquarters of Melica’s Central Savings Bank! It was the largest bank in this world and had the authority to issue and circulate the country’s currency. Every generation of the central bank’s president possessed great power. More importantly, there were large amounts of gold stored in the underground vault of the central bank’s headquarters. This was to ensure the stability of the money market in this world. Not only was all of the country’s gold stored in this vault, the gold reserves of more than 60 other small to mid-sized countries were also all stored there.

The amount of gold stored in this vault was 40% of all of the gold reserves in this world! This underground vault was located hundreds of meters deep underground and built under granitic layers. It was also isolated via a metal door that was more than two meters thick. The durability of this vault would ensure that it would not come to harm even if the likes of a million atomic bombs were dropped directly above it.

Hence, Chen Jin was certain that the underground vault still existed! The smart system reported, “Reporting; A large underground structure has been detected in the scan of the central bank’s surroundings.”

“Ok!” Chen Jin shuddered with delight and ordered Flight No. 9 to land in the vicinity of the bank. The hatch was opened and the gangway was lowered. The robots walked out successively. In their hands were various tools. So, for the next three days, the exploration squad used all their might to dig deep into the ground. There was no sleep or rest.

On the morning of the fourth day, after cleaving through the concrete body of the wall, a great rumble could be heard. A deep, silent, and pitch-black vertical passageway appeared in the digital vision of the robots. It was an elevator shaft. The elevator had been damaged. The robots could only turn on the lights, and using the ladder on the side of the shaft, they descended to the bottom. Then, they walked through a cylinder-shaped corridor and cut apart two one-meter thick metal doors using the laser machines.

There was no need to cut through the final metal door that was two meters thick. A hole had already been made in the door. Through the hole, the inside of the vault could be seen. The team leader of the robots reported, “15 bodies have been found inside the vault. There are dressed in uniforms, so they should be the bank staff. After the destructive war erupted, the vault door automatically closed. When the oxygen was exhausted, they died inside.”

Chen Jin breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh…” When the team leader of the robots reported that there were bodies inside, he had thought that other powers had already encroached on the riches inside the vault. He quickly asked, “Is the gold still inside the vault?”

“Yes, Master, they are still there.”

“Quickly, send some photos to me!”

…

After five minutes, a total of 10 high definition images were sent to Chen Jin. Chen Jin’s jaw dropped, and his eyes were filled with a golden light, reflecting his obsession.

Gold. Countless amounts of gold. They were all in the shape of trapezoid bars. Each bullion weighed 40 pounds. The bullions were laid out in rows and columns on thousands of shelves in a neat arrangement. A rough estimation showed a minimum count in the hundreds of thousands. Taking in the full view, the room was filled with a golden light. It was like something out of a dream; one could get lost in its thrall. An infinitely large wave of desire rose in his heart.

A phrase kept replaying in Chen Jin’s mind. I’ve struck it rich, struck it rich, struck it rich…..

“Hahaha! Hahahahahaha!” Suddenly, he threw his head back and cackled with laughter. He seemed to have been possessed or gone insane. “Mine, mine! All of this gold is mine! Hahaha, you were all racing to grab and fight over the land, riches, power and whatever else that had value! You fought and killed each other. In the process, you launched all the nuclear bombs! You’ve used the very last bomb and killed the very last human. And then, it was done. All the conflicts were resolved and all the hatred had disappeared. It became clean, peaceful and tranquil. This world was finally at peace. So, all the remaining lands and riches…. They all belong to me now. Including the gold bullions in this vault; they are mine too. I did not steal or rob. Nobody stepped out to claim them or raised any suspicions…. There’s no argument that these gold bullions belong to me! Hahaha! This is funny. This planet is really too hilarious!” Chen Jin hugged his stomach as he laughed. He was almost crying from laughing so hard. He felt that with his current life experience, it would be impossible to experience something more ridiculous than this even if he lived for another 100 years.

In other words, he felt that ever since the interdimensional portal had appeared in his toilet, he had found the planet of Haierfa to be filled with the absurd and the comic. He always felt like laughing, especially during the times when he found some good treasures. He could not help but laugh!

After his emotions had calmed down from his laughing fit, Chen Jin ordered the leader of the team of robots to take inventory of the vault and calculate the exact quantities of gold and their weight. 30 minutes passed very quickly. The exact quantities of the various types of gold had been calculated.

Gold bullion: 1,111,275 pieces.

Weight of one bullion: 40 pounds (equivalent to about 18 kilograms).

The total weight of the gold was…. 20,162,634 kilograms. To sum up the gains reaped from this underground vault in a simple phrase —— He had found 20,000 tons of gold!

Chapter 83 - I Found A Nuclear Bomb

After his excited emotions from finding the sea of gold had calmed, Chen Jin’s mind cleared too. He found himself facing a critical problem. He had found so much gold, but… there did not seem to be much use for it. He could not bring it to Earth and sell all of it straight away. There was no way to explain their specific origins.

He could employ the method of exchanging gold for gold via the channel of Forever Jewels. Every month, he would be exchanging about 100 kilograms of gold. But the amount was too large and it would be easy to attract attention and suspicion.

Hence, in order to avoid danger, he could not bring this 200 tons of gold over to Earth in big batches. Excluding this 200 tons of gold, there was already more than 1,000 tons of gold in the Base of Operations. They were recently found and transported back by the 50,000 robots who had been sent out to scour Moleiduo Republic.

Chen Jin was unable to find uses for this 1,000 tons of gold in the short-term. He did not know how long it would take to sell off all of this gold. With this additional 200 tons, he was overrun. He felt like he might be forced to destroy this batch of gold. With this thought, he felt his interest wane and his heart cooling. Indeed, he had rejoiced too soon.

But, the inherent value of gold still existed. It was just that Chen Jin was prudent and timid, hence it appeared that there were limited options and uses available. “Hey, how about this. I’ll let the robots transport all 200 tons of gold back to the Base of Operations and put them in the capsule factory. Then, I’ll melt those gold bullions and remake them into squares. Finally, I’ll use these gold squares and build a gold castle! The castle will be made entirely of gold. Occasionally, I’ll go and live inside. This should be a pretty nice experience. A 200-ton gold castle. Haha, this should be the most expensive building constructed in the whole world! It can’t be done even by the richest hillbilly, right?”

Chen Jin’s whimsical desire rose in him and he itched to make his idea a reality. He was filled with a great sense of anticipation.

…

Half of the robots and a batch of high-efficiency batteries were left behind to deal with the gold. Flight No. 9 slowly rose into the air to complete the rest of the survey work. The exploration assignments that Chen Jin had planned did not only involve gold. The robots were not sent out to Donuit City purely for gold. Gold was merely Chen Jin’s greatest interest. In terms of practical value, technical information was far more valuable. They were ahead of Earth’s technological knowledge by at least 100 years!

Donuit City would be set as the center of a range with a 300-kilometer radius. He hoped that he could find some high-tech information material in this densely populated and highly developed area, such as finding a few more high performing super calculators, amongst other technological gains. All these were of higher in value than gold and would provide him with greater support.

However, Chen Jin was quickly disappointed. There was no prosperity or bustle in the metropolitan area surrounding the core of Donuit city. Only a wasteland remained. Tens of millions of humans had been vaporized by the nuclear explosions. There was not one single building left on the surface that was more than 10 meters high.

“It’s barren and brown all over, like a mud pond. There’s not even a single hair left, much less materials on technological information.”

Suddenly, just when he was about to totally give up, the smart system of Flight No. 9 reported, “Reporting; a city has been found in the southern periphery in the range around the capital’s core. The buildings in this city are untouched. They have not been damaged by any attacks.” A huge spread of skyscrapers appeared in the images that were relayed back to him. They occupied an area of about 300 square kilometers. It was a large city that once held a dense population in the millions.

Chen Jin was very doubtful. “How is this possible? The surrounding cities have all been destroyed. Why is this the only city that was left untouched?” This perfectly whole and undamaged city lying within a barren wasteland seemed too unexpected and sudden. Very quickly, Flight No. 9 lowered its altitude and entered the airspace above the city. It carried out a series of surveys.

He quickly found the reason why this city had not been totally destroyed! Chen Jin was so shocked that his mouth hung open. In the heart of this city was a plaza, and right in the center of the plaza was a big hole with a diameter of about five meters.

Still in a stupor, Chen Jin asked, “What… what is that?”

Alice explained, “Master, if I am right, that should be an unexploded nuclear warhead. It was a dud due to internal malfunctions.”

“You…you mean that is a nuclear bomb; an unexploded nuclear bomb?” Even Chen Jin thought that he was sounding repetitive. Oh god, aside from images on the internet, he had never seen a nuclear bomb in his life. And a real one at that! What if it suddenly exploded? His mind conjured an image of a mushroom cloud rising in the air.

“It’s ok, Master. The life span of the explosive unit in this bomb has expired. It does not possess any possibility of an eruption.”

He understood. Chen Jin finally understood the situation through Alice’s explanation. This city was named Rockford. It was left all alone because of plain dumb luck. Very fortunately, it was bombed by a dud. If it had met with a working nuclear bomb, it would have been turned into a barren wasteland long ago. However, even if it was an unexploded dud, it was enough to scare the residents of this city into tears. All of them had fled. The dud was still resting in the crater without anyone coming back to deal with it.

Flight No. 9 landed on the plaza in the heart of the city. 10 plus robots alighted and brought with them various tools. They walked to the vicinity of the big hole. Taking more than an hour, they very carefully dug the unexploded dud out of the hole, and checked the nuclear bomb meticulously. On the underside of the bomb, in an area not too apparent to the naked eyes, the robots found an ant-sized engraving in a Sinitic standard script.

There were four characters – Hua State Nuclear Works. The strokes of the characters were stern and solemn and vigorous, with a sense of power. He finally understood the identity of the opponent country that had carried out a full-on nuclear attack on Haierfa’s strongest country of Melica.

“Amazing! Yes, yes, yes! The hegemony cannot act with arrogance forever. It has finally experienced the real meaning of defeat! Although….the final end was mutual destruction. But, Melica, who was similarly domineering on this planet, will never look down on and bully the Hua Xia Peoples again.” Chen Jin shook his head. Right now, he wanted to vent his anger and hatred on something. He felt like making a clean sweep of everything. Although he was a homebody in the past, he did occasionally take note of some national affairs of importance. However, he always saw negative news about how the country’s airspace and waters were infringed upon by the American empire and how they harassed his country.

Through the robots’ discovery of this unexploded nuclear bomb, Chen Jin could feel that the Hua Xia were an upright population that had courage and backbone. They had a fighting spirit and an unyielding and proud character that could not be crushed by any evil power that sought to dominate them! In one sudden moment, Chen Jin became extremely interested in Hua State, located in the other portion of this planet.

He muttered, “After I’ve finished with the exploration here, I have to go and take a look at the eastern country on the other side of the planet. I need to thoroughly explore the other country; a motherland of this dimension is worthy of my respect!” Therefore, the gains from today’s exploration could be summarized with two simple phrases:

He found an undamaged city that had once held a population in the millions. And he found a nuclear bomb!

Chapter 84 - A Futuristic Technology: Simulated Reality

It was really unexpected that he had even managed to find an ultimate weapon of destruction like the nuclear bomb. He let the robots packed the bomb carefully and put it in the cargo hold of Flight No. 9. Chen Jin’s mentality underwent a subtle change. He felt that perhaps, he really could own an entire planet. Moreover, he had the right and the ability to own it. It was because he possessed a nuclear bomb.

If there were any remaining survivors on Haierfa who possessed greater power than him, this nuclear bomb could decide who would be the ultimate owner of the planet. There was a pretty low chance that the portal on Earth would be exposed. But, even if that happened by accident, and it became targeted by powerful organizations or other forces, he was confident that through a wrestle for power, he would be able to protect his own interests.

It was because he possessed a nuclear bomb! Even though this nuclear bomb was a dud that had expired and could not be used anymore, it was still a paper tiger that could act as a powerful deterrent. Regardless, it still gave an extremely huge boost to Chen Jin’s confidence and attitude.

Shaking his fist, he said in a rather immature and self-centered tone, “Now, I too, have a nuclear deterrent. I’m asking, are you all afraid? Would anyone still dare to provoke me?”

It could be said that this tiny little nuclear bomb lit the fire of greed burning in his heart. He was fixed on this notion: Haierfa is mine; it’s all mine!

His head was getting bigger and bigger.

…

After the ego boost, the work that had to be done in the exploration process continued. The city of Rockford was located within the urban circle of the capital and once had a population in the millions. It had a well-developed economy, an excellent infrastructure, and technology that progressed at a similar standard as the capital of Donuit City. The city’s major industry was the IT software industry. Many famous IT companies had set up their headquarters or R&D departments there. One could tell at a glance what was the most valuable technological information in this city.

Chen Jin sent out a squad of robots straight towards the city hall at high speed. Within the city hall, there would definitely be “precious babies” that would surprise and please him. After the robots arrived at the city hall, they conducted a round of meticulous searching. “Reporting; No large calculators or data rooms were found in the city hall.”

“None?” Chen Jin frowned. “How can there be none? Could it be that someone has beaten me to it, and they took away the super calculator in the city hall?” Someone took his baby?

Alice guessed, “Master, it is not the case that every city hall has a super calculator. Out of cost savings considerations, some cities would work with privately owned data companies. The city management system would be stored and deployed within the large servers of the companies. Rockford has many IT companies. It was very possible that the city government chose to collaborate with the private companies in this city to carry out the management of the city.”

Chen Jin nodded his head repeatedly. “Yes, yes, yes, this is possible. This is very probable!” He ordered the robots to focus their search on the privately owned IT companies in Rockford.

…

After half a day, in the high-tech industrial park located in the west of the city, was Rockford’s biggest software company – Sun Software Technologies Private Limited. Beneath the company was a large cold storage data center that was comprised of three underground levels. A super calculator system occupied an area measuring about half an acre. It also occupied more than 300 data storage cabinets. The outer shell of the calculator was painted red.

Alice recognized her! She exclaimed excitedly, “Scarlet! She once placed 15th in the world’s super calculation chart! Although her later placements had dropped to the 400s, she’s still one of the calculators with the strongest operational ability! Her peak operational ability is a count of 100 quintillion. It is 10 times that of this current calculator. Dear Master, please quickly get the robots to transport this calculator back to the Base. I want to consume her! Her structure design is too advanced and her operational ability is too powerful. She’ll definitely provide immense support for the development of the Base.” Alice extended her little spur-like tongue and licked her red lips. Her gaze was filled with a greed that could not be hidden. Alice had the same expression when the robots transported that advanced super calculator from Moleiduo Republic back to the Base. It had an operational ability up to a count of 10 quintillion and was named “Light of the Motherland” by the Moleiduo government.

This time, Alice’s behaviour was even more exaggerated. It was as if she had seen a first class delicacy that would allow her to evolve. Of course, this behavior was very normal. Beings of artificial intelligence were also representations of human existence. They had their own aspirations and desires. One of their most common desires was to upgrade to the next generation.

“Oh… Alice, do you really want her that much? Your last upgrade was completed only a short time ago. I think that there should be two calculators at the Base.” Chen Jin’s eyes squinted in a smile as his attitude turned mischievous.

Alice became so anxious that she stomped her foot over and over again. Her eyes were opened wide and round as she pursed her lips in chagrin. With a pitiful appearance, she said, “Master, don’t you like Alice anymore? Is there any area where I did poorly? Alice can change if Master is not satisfied!” Alice continued with a fearful expression, “But, please, do not put two sets of calculators at the Base. Within a single system, the principle of artificial intelligence is as follows – the weak obey the strong. The one with lower intelligence obeys the one with higher intelligence. My program is extremely outdated. Once I have been absorbed by a program with higher intelligence, it would be probable that she would modify my code and erase my original characteristics. She could even reconfigure my format. I will never be the same Alice again… Master, please don’t do this!”

Chen Jin was astonished. “There are conflicts and schisms between the artificial intelligences too?” Previously, it was with Da Li’s support that Alice had successfully devoured the more advanced “Light of the Motherland.” Using the ability gifted by the rebooted virus, Da Li had stripped the Light of the Motherland’s authority in its entirety and transferred it to Alice. Thus, the process of the weak merging with the strong was completed.

Alice wanted to devour this “Scarlet” that was found in Rockford. She was driven by two motivations. One was the desire to upgrade to the next generation. The next was the fear of undergoing a format reconfiguration. Hence, on a subconscious level, she had decided to strike first to gain the upper hand. Therefore, she was trying her best to act cute and play up to Chen Jin by boosting her emotional appeal through the roof.

“All right, Alice, your performance has been good recently. I’m quite pleased. Scarlet can be your reward. You must continue to do well in the future and provide me with a better service, ok?” Chen Jin truly could not find anything that was unsatisfactory about Alice. He considered the new artificial intelligence again. It was similarly hostile towards his identity as a person of Z country. Moreover, it could not beat Alice’s use of convenience which he had grown accustomed to. Why not give Alice another upgrade?

“Thank you Master, thank you Master!” Alice spun in circles and waved her hands. Jumping and skipping, she exclaimed, “Yay! Yay!” Her virtual image leaned towards Chen Jin’s cheek and she kissed him madly with smooching noises. “Master, you are too good to me! I’ll love you forever!”

Chen Jin smiled as he held his hand up. After Alice’s detailed explanation of Scarlet’s various and powerful abilities, he was unable to remain calm as his mouth hung open in amazement. With an operational ability of up to a count of 100 quintillion, Scarlet possessed the following abilities:

1. Build a complete set of simulated reality that had a 99% matching rate with real life.

2. One could don the simulated reality headgear and disembark on the simulated environment where one could start having various experiences there.

3. Within Scarlet’s body was stored a large amount of highly valuable data.

For example, by using the simulated school in the city management system, one could finish 15 years of basic compulsory education. It provided a low cost and high quality schooling service. In addition, there was medical information, scientific research data, and loads of software application tools. With the possession of Scarlet, the Base could be said to have entered an Era of Simulated Reality. Most of the tasks could fully be started and carried out within the simulated environment.

Alice was not equipped with these abilities. With her current operational ability, she could not build or navigate the simulated environment. Now, with the acquisition of Scarlet, the Base was about to enter a whole new era.

“A futuristic technology, this is definitely a type of futuristic technology!” Chen Jin was extremely excited. He immediately gave out an order. The shipment of gold going back to the Base would be postponed. He would first concentrate their strength on the transport of Rockford’s super calculator, Scarlet, back to the Base via Flight No. 9!

Chapter 85 - The Script

Besides the super calculator Scarlet, there were around 10 other large calculators found within the IT companies of Rockford that had an operational ability on par with The Light of the Motherland. In these IT companies, Chen Jin also found the software that they manufactured. There was a gaming company named “Milky Way” who had created a game series called “The Interstellar Homeland.” The game was very well-known amongst the gaming community. When the robots were raiding this company, they found a large amount of information material related to the game series. A shocking plan was gleaned from the material.

Milky Way Game Company had actually decided to make a type of simulated online game called “The Interstellar Homeland OL.” The game had a map area that was as vast as the Milky Way. It had a reality match of 99.99% and could accommodate one billion players within its simulated reality. Players could do anything they wanted, whether it was building farm infrastructure, creating a naval force, expanding colonies, or participating in interstellar warfares. They had a very high level of freedom within the game.

“If Milky Way Game Company had really planned to develop this category of online game, it would have to at least contact 10 or more governments from different countries, invest one trillion in the game, and continue to develop it for another 15 years or more before it even has a possibility of being successfully realized. Moreover, this type of game demands an extremely high level of operational ability from the server. Only a super calculator with an operational ability of more than 100 sextillion counts can handle such a massive amount of data… The operating pressure exerted on the system is equivalent to playing 10 normal online fantasy games. With the company’s size, it was very unlikely for them to ever complete the development of the game. From the archives that had been sent over by the robots, 35% of “The Interstellar Homeland OL” had already been completed. It was shocking that the company had been able to achieve that within three years….. This means that the Milky Way Game Company had mastered some kind of technology that enabled the acceleration of game development. This technology would also, in turn, lower the development costs by a huge margin!”

Alice was very astonished.

“Then, get the robots to carry the equipment of the Milky Way Game Company back to the Base of Operations. Extract the information regarding the game and crack the technology behind the development of the game!” Besides the software information related to games, other IT companies had also developed many software application tools. For example, software for special effects in movie-making, audio, industrial design, creating custom operations systems, etc… It was not for nothing that Rockford had a reputation as a “software capital.”

If a “software capital” exists, then it would be natural that its opposite, a “hardware capital”, existed too. It should have a well-known reputation for manufacturing the hardware of various calculators. Chen Jin asked, “Where is the ‘hardware capital’?”

Alice replied, “There is a place called “Silicon Valley” located in the bay area of Gold Mountain City in the State of Caforlinia. It’s the most famous hardware capital…. It’s about 2,900 kilometers from the Base.”

“Silicon Valley? There’s one in this world too?”

“Master, after the destructive war erupted, as one of the primary targets in the war strategy, Silicon Valley would be in the heavy strike list. It has a very low possibility of surviving like Rockford.”

However, Chen Jin said, “Even so, after the raid on the metropolitan area around Donuit City has been completed, the next target will be Silicon Valley!” He wanted to see if it was possible to find equipment and technology related to the manufacture of chips.

…

Altogether, there were more than 20,000 tons of gold from Donuit City, as well as hardware and software from Rockford to be transported. With only Flight No. 9 to rely on for transport, it would require more than a month to complete the task. Chen Jin could only wait patiently.

His main focus returned back to affairs on Earth. During those two months, he had to carry and transport large amounts of things. Of which, there were 50,000 units of brushless motors. Each unit weighed 60 grams. Hence, the total weight was three tons. There were also 50,000 pairs of movable parts for the robotic arms. Each pair of parts weighed 100 grams. The total weight was five tons. The combined weight of the two items was eight tons.

With so many components to be transported, they had to be arranged neatly in a specialized container for the components. Each container could hold 40 kilograms worth of components. With eight tons, it meant that he had to fill up 200 containers. How would he accomplish this transportation task?

Chen Jin planned it this way: At around two am, he would bring two human replica robots (that had not been infected with the virus) back to Earth. Then, they would carry the containers down to the large Benz car. For each trip, they would carry two containers. The containers would be put inside the trunk and the back seat. 40 containers could be put into the car.

Then, he would take one of the human replica robots with him and drive the cargo to a small warehouse that was less than two kilometers away from his neighborhood. The robot would help him unload the containers, which would be temporarily stored in the warehouse. The other human replica robot would continue to carry the goods down from his room.

After unloading the cargo, he would drive back to his neighborhood and start the second cargo transportation. 200 containers would require a total of five trips to the warehouse. Each trip was around 25 minutes. Every day, he would have to bust his ass from two am to about four thirty am (there were others who would take away the cargo after dawn). He would have to do this routine every single day. No matter rain or shine, he had to do this for two months or more. It was not too exhausting. Chen Jin only had to lend a hand during the unloading process to speed it up.

The problem was that this would severely affect his rest. It would cause his circadian rhythm to go haywire… Even though his usual sleeping hours were quite irregular, he could not keep such hours every day. Who would be able to endure this continuously for a few months?

So, he was vexed! Chen Jin hated it deeply! He gritted his teeth. “Good on you, Yaskawa Electric from Japan, Fanuc Corporation and all the industry tattle-tales from this country! You all reduced me to this state of having to do the lowliest tasks of carrying and transporting cargo. Me, a billionaire, who is worth more than 20,000 tons of gold! You’re powerful. If I don’t ruin all of you, my surname won’t be Chen!”

In his heart, Chen Jin had already sentenced to death these few enterprises who had offended him. He would not rest until he had ruined them all.

…

The 10th of April marked more than 20 days since her last visit. Shi Xiao Tao finally came to Shang Hai City again. Holding the script that she had written, she smiled confidently. She had meticulously crafted this script in 23 days. In her pursuit of creating a happy and interesting story, she had discarded three rough drafts that had a total of over 100,000 words. Finally, she had written a script that she was relatively satisfied with.

It was a story about the Wa-wah robot. She believed that this script would reach the eyes of Chief Chen and definitely gain his approval. She would successfully get the film adaptation rights to the intellectual property of the Wa-wah robot.

The receptionist said, “I’m sorry, Chief Chen is not in the office. He usually drops in at the office in the afternoon. You can wait in the lobby.”

“Ok, I’ll wait for him to come in the afternoon.” Shi Xiao Tao found a sofa and sat down on it. She laid the script on her knees and pushed the pink-colored frames of her glasses up on the bridge of her nose. Then, she started examining if there were any areas in the script that should be modified.

…

At two pm, Chen Jin returned to the company. He used the first half hour to deal with some urgent tasks. It was only after that was taken care of, that he saw Shi Xiao Tao, who had been waiting for him to finish his tasks. Chen Jin took his measure of her. Her clothing theme was pink, and she wore her ponytail in a loose and voluminous style. Her round face was as cute as ever; with a pair of pink-framed non-prescription glasses, her level of cuteness increased by a factor of one and her aura of intelligence increased by a factor of two. Her appearance made one’s eyes brighten and helplessly take another look.

“Chief Chen, please take a look at this script. I wrote it myself. It’s about the Wa-wah robot and the human race; how they progressed from mutual misunderstandings and discrimination to mutual love and understanding via a series of stories. I believe you’ll like this script too!” Holding the script, she placed it on the office table. Stretching a delicate finger, she gently pushed it towards Chen Jin.

“You really wrote a script?” Chen Jin was rather surprised. He took the script and said, “Ok, let’s see what’s this story like.”

Chapter 86 - Divorce

Opening the script, he began to read it line by line and page by page. Chen Jin read it rather meticulously. He took half an hour to to read a script that was only about 10,000 words. He could not help but smile at certain parts of the story. After reading the last page, he nodded and praised, “Not bad, this script is really not bad at all.”

Shi Xiao Tao wrote a story that not only warmed the heart but was also rather shrewd. The Wa-wah robot had accepted the mission to protect the Earth’s environment. For that purpose, it had entered the home of a family of four. From there, it was a series of stories about Wa-wah, the eldest daughter, Lan Lan, and the youngest son, Ah Bao. Eight year old Lan Lan was a more sensible child. She liked cleanliness and loved Wa-wah. Six year old Ah Bao was a naughty kid. He was mischievous and liked to cause trouble by playing all kinds of pranks. With the arrival of Wa-wah, it became the primary target for Ah Bao’s pranks. He messed around with Wa-wah so much that it started smoking and experienced faults. It almost died.

Wa-wah hated Ah Bao, and was also very frightened of him. It avoided him like the plague. Privately, Wa-wah would frequently deride and gripe about how bad humans were. After which, there were two evil human traffickers who had set their sights on Lan Lan and Ah Bao. When their parents were not at home, they took the opportunity to kidnap them. Then it was Wa-wah robot to the rescue!

Through various thrilling and nerve-wracking battles of wits and courage, Wah-wah successfully rescued Lan Lan and Ah Bao. The evil human traffickers were trounced by Wa-wah and they were punished by the law. Through this process, Lan Lan and Ah Bao discovered that Wa-wah could speak.

After Wa-wah rescued them, the children treated Wa-wah as their best friend. Ah Bao was no longer mischievous or caused trouble. He became a sensible child who liked cleanliness. In order to get Wa-wah to play with him, he even took the initiative to help Wa-wah clean up. A perfect and happy story about a whole family ended at that point.

Shi Xiao Tao expressed that this was only the first part of the movie series. If the first part appealed to a large audience, the following episodes could be built on the foundation of the first part. The story could be extended and a second or even third part could be filmed. There was no need to worry that there would not be sufficient stories for the filming!

Chen Jin nodded. “It seems like you have a thorough understanding of the industrial production model of the successful Hollywood movies. Do you want to become a commercial film director?”

She rolled her eyes. “Isn’t the purpose of making a movie to earn money? What’s a movie if nobody watches it? And what’s a director if he doesn’t earn money from his films? I am a staunch businesswoman! In any case, the movies that I make must be profitable. I won’t do business that gains attention but results in a loss!”

Chen Jin could not help but ask, “How would you win awards like this? For example, the Gold Rooster Awards or the Flowers Film Awards. The award winners are movies that don’t have mass appeal. What would you do if you don’t win an award?” He thought that her way of thinking was rather interesting.

Shi Xiao Tao brandished her little fist. “Why can I only prove myself by winning an award? The praise by the audience shown via the box office sales is the best award! One billion in box office sales means that the movie is not too bad; two billion means that the movie is very good; three billion means that the director is very impressive… I want to be the most impressive director!”

“Hahaha!” Chen Jin was enjoying this. “You have very pragmatic views. I really like it. Actually, my personal idea with regards to the movie ‘Wa-wah robot’ is to film it as a sci-fi movie, within a story about the stars and the seas. But your thoughts are in the right place. From the point of view of the box office performance, it is much better to film it as a whole and happy family movie that would appeal to both the young and old. We would have better box office earnings and it would have the benefit of increasing the popularity of the Wa-wah robot. So, I accept this script of yours. Find a professional screenwriter to do a little modification and it’ll be ok. I can give you the adaptation rights to the film and TV works.”

Hardcore sci-fi movies had a rather small audience in Z country’s mainland. Intense and thrilling action movies, urban comedies, and movies that used a huge amount of special effects were more popular. Shi Xiao Tao’s business insight was quite accurate. With her script, it should be easy to earn two to three billion in box office sales as long as the movie’s production quality was good.

Chen Jin had not given up on the sci-fi movie about Wa-wah. He simply planned to film another sci-fi series in addition to the happy family series. It would be entrusted to a director specializing in making sci-fi movies. Of course, he would not find someone to make that series now. It would happen after the happy family series had become wildly popular.

“Really?!” Shi Xiao Tao was so happy that she bounced up and down in her chair. “This is great, thank you! Thank you, Chief Chen, for giving me this opportunity!” It was unexpected that she could gain this sort of approval and trust as a new prospective director without any works of a significant length under her belt. She was really pleasantly surprised! Of course, her own ability did play a part too.

“Don’t be too happy yet!” Chen Jin said with a wave of his hand, “You’ve only passed the first test. Next, I hope that you’ll do a movie demo using this script. It doesn’t need to be too long. Three minutes is enough. Bring it over for me to take a look. If the demo is good and the quality is of a certain standard, then we can have the possibility of further collaboration.” This was the reason why many directors did not follow up after approaching Chen Jin. It was because his demands were too rigorous. First, he wanted a script, and then a movie demo. They invested millions into their pitch but could not be certain of a getting a chance to collaborate. Who would have the guts to do this sort of thing?

But Shi Xiao Tao had the guts to do it! And she did it with all that she had. From this one could see the charm of this lady… Or rather, one should say that the young had no fear. “Ok! I’ll assemble a team immediately to start working on the movie production. But I hope that you’ll grant me a tiny request.”

“Speak.”

“I want to use the artistic style of the ‘Wa-wah robot’ advertisement series as a reference framework and directly adopt the robot’s image from that series. This would help to reduce the workload in the art studios and speed up the progress of the movie’s production… Chief Chen, if you have the related materials with you, I hope that you can give it to me for reference. It would be very troublesome to re-design everything from scratch; it would cause a two to three months delay.” Shi Xiao Tao was a semi-professional comic artist with a very good foundation in fine arts! But, she knew how tedious and complicated art designing could be, especially for the production of an animated movie. Countless source materials would have to be drafted and rendered. If there was reference that was available, it would help to save a lot of work.

“Ok, no problem. I can give you the source materials for the advertisements!” Chen Jin nodded. He had seen her determination and drive, so he decided to give her a chance to try.

“Thank you Chief Chen, Thank you!” Shi Xiao Tao was overjoyed. Her heart overflowed with excitement. Yay! I’ve done it. I’ll definitely make the movie! And I’ll definitely succeed!

Contract negotiations were completed, and Chen Jin sent her out to the lobby and said that he would send the source materials over to her within the next two days. The two shook hands again, and Shi Xiao Tao left Shang Hai City.

…

In the early afternoon of the 11th of April, Chen Jin came over to Forever Jewels with some urgency. Once he alighted from his car, he immediately ran to the third story. In the lounge, he saw Store Manager Chiu Wan-Ting. With one look at her appearance, Chen Jin was shocked. He could not help but yell in surprise, “Auntie Chiu, you husband beat you into this state?”

Chiu Wan-Ting’s appearance really was appalling. Her nose was bruised and her face was swollen. There was a spot on her cheek that was swollen to a size bigger than a fist. Her hair was a mess and her eyes were dull and listless. Her hands were swathed in gauze. The Store Manager’s uniform was torn in many areas. Countless purple, red, and yellow bruises could be seen on her neck, collar, and legs.

Not only was her looks ruined, her body could also be described as a mass of wounds. Who did it? Of course it was her husband! It happened this morning when her husband seemed to have gone crazy for unknown reasons. After she had finished making breakfast and was preparing to leave for work, he demanded that she clean the house before leaving.

Chiu Wan-Ting said coldly, “The robot is in charge of the cleanliness, I don’t have to clean! Also, for your lunch, you can call for takeaways. I’m not coming back to make lunch.”

“What? You don’t have to clean?” The man rushed towards Wa-wah’s side and kicked it over. Then, he stomped on it crazily. “You don’t have to clean! You don’t have to clean!” In a few moments, the robots was stomped to pieces.

Chiu Wan-Ting immediately threw a random item with great force at him. “Huang You De, are you insane?!”

He walked over with red eyes, looking as if he was a mad beast. “Don’t go to work anymore! Stay at home, and do the honest work of cleaning and cooking!”

Slap!

Chiu Wan-Ting delivered a smack with her palm.

Bam bam bam bam!

The two started to scuffle.

She managed to escape from the fight and came to to the shop looking like she did.

…

Chen Jin brandished his fist and said, “Auntie Chiu, you can’t tolerate this anymore. That man is a coward and a good-for-nothing! Other than finding the meaning of his existence by making life difficult for you, he’s just a useless bum! Today he’s violent towards you; tomorrow he may want your life! I think you should cut your losses. For your own safety, you have leave that shit far away; you have to divorce him!” A vein throbbed in his forehead. Chen Jin had never felt so angry in his life.

“Yes! Chief Chen is right. Store Manager, you have to divorce him!”

“According to the anti-domestic violence law, you can unilaterally file for divorce. He has no choice but to agree. The law will also support you!”

“Yes, you were beaten into this state, this definitely counts as severe domestic violence!”

The staff were persuading and advising in droves; their voices overlapping.

Looking at the wounded and exhausted Store Manager, Guo Yan started to cry. Guo Yan held her hand and advised her as she cried, “Manager, cherish your life and leave this scum far, far away! We women have to learn how to protect ourselves!”

Chiu Wan-Ting slowly nodded and groaned out, “Yeah…” From within her listless gaze came a firm look that was brimming with energy.

Chapter 87 - A Treat To A Meal

It was enough. Chiu Wan-Ting had finally had enough! She did not know what she found attractive about that man when she met him 20 years ago. She did not have too many demands and only wanted to find an average man whom she could spend her days with. If she could have another chance, she would absolutely never choose that man again! Even if she ended up marrying a disabled person or someone who was ugly and frustrating, she would never choose that man again! Now, she only wanted to leave that stubborn, conservative man who seemed to think that he was living in an olden era, far, far away!

Divorce. She wanted to divorce that man! Now! Immediately! It would be best if she could divorce him right now. When he had strangled her throat and caused her to suffocate for those few seconds, she had truly experienced what it must be like to die. At that moment, she became determined to leave him. Although by doing so, she would let her son down, she was still determined to get a divorce. It might adversely affect his future development or even cause him to have difficulties in finding a partner. Even so, she had to be separated from that man at the very least!

Hence, she took her mobile phone and called her son to ask for his opinion. From the other side of the phone, her son Hung Siming said, “Mom, I support you! Since a very long time ago, I’ve felt that you should divorce Dad. He’s just an antique! He’s only happy when you wait on him hand and foot at home like a servant girl. He’s an elementary school language teacher and also frequently teaches others about our ancient history and culture. But, I just think that he’s a feudal dross! You said that he almost strangled you to death; you have to immediately divorce him! Mom, you don’t have to worry about me. I’ve got a girlfriend recently, if she knew about this situation, she would also support your decision to leave! If you don’t leave, she may even be worried about marrying into this kind of home. Mom, no matter what, I support you! I’ll follow you as my parent in the future!”

Chiu Wan-Ting’s tears started falling. “Ok, son, I’ll listen to you.” Her son’s support had eliminated the greatest worry in her heart. In the next few days, she temporarily set aside matters regarding the shop. She only wanted to focus on achieving one thing: getting a divorce!

…

Huang You De’s face was livid with rage. “Divorce? Don’t talk to me about this! It’s impossible, don’t even begin!” He was not afraid of divorce, he was afraid that he could not afford to lose that person!

“We’ll divorce even if you don’t want to. I’ll go to the court and make a complaint against you. You beat me up like this; this is evidence of domestic violence. The judge will sanction a divorce!” Chiu Wan-Ting’s attitude was strong and unyielding. She went to the court on that very same day and filed for a divorce lawsuit.

After a round of arbitration in the courthouse, these were the results. They found out that there were indeed no feelings left between the two and there were serious conflicts between their personalities. Through the psychologist’s evaluation, he judged that Huang You De’s personality was rather extreme and was heavily inclined towards violence. If they were to continue maintaining their married status after this case of domestic violence, Chiu Wan-Ting’s life would be endangered. A separation was advised and the marriage would be dissolved. Following which, the court issued the judgement of agreeing to Chiu Wan-Ting’s divorce lawsuit and sanctioning their divorce.

Huang You De’s eyes turned red, “I don’t agree, I won’t cede to this!” He tore the court’s notice letter into little pieces. Under the influence of his rage, frustration, and humiliation, he almost felt like he was going insane. Hence, he went to Forever Jewels the next day and kicked up a big fuss. He was prepared to ferret Chiu Wan-Ting out and drag her home straightaway!

“Stop him, stop him!” Guo Yan reached out her hand and clawed five bloody streaks on his face. “Sisters, this shit wants to kill our Store Manager, let’s beat him up together!” She raised her foot and kicked him fiercely.

“110; quickly call the police!”

Under the concerted efforts of everyone in the shop, they managed to suppress Huang You De. The police came to take him away and he was subsequently detained in the administrative detention center for five days. After he was released on bail, he came to the shop a few more times to create a scene. But, each time, he had left quietly in embarrassment without gaining any advantage.

Huang You De was so angry that he became capable of committing anything. One day after she had clocked out of work, he followed her all the way to a small neighborhood nearby where she had rented a place. He darted out from the side and covered her mouth. With an expression of madness, he began dragging her to some unknown area.

“Release the Store Manager!” These few days, Guo Yan had been acting as Chiu Wan-Ting’s protective detail after work. When she heard her scream, she backtracked just in time. Taking out the anti-molester spray from her bag, she sprayed it frantically at his eyes!

“Ah! Ah!” Huang You De screeched as he loosened his grip and covered his eyes.

“Die, scum!” Guo Yan executed a flying kick and knocked him down onto the ground. She rushed over and beat him with her fists and feet continuously for more than 10 minutes. Huang You De struggled with all his might but realized that his strength was no match for this woman. He was fully suppressed. His face was slapped beyond recognition and he still did not have even a smidgeon of strength to retaliate!

If Chiu Wan-Ting did not hold her back, Huang You De would have been beaten to death.

Swish!

Finally, Guo Yan took out a butterfly knife from her bag and held it in front of Huang You De. With a cold voice, she said, “Listen, you scum! If you dare to harass the Store Manager again, I’ll kill you!” A chilling light glinted off the blade of the butterfly knife. It made him duck his head.

The next day, Huang You De was sent to the hospital. There, it was found that he had two broken ribs and severe contusions all over his body. He had to be hospitalized for at least a month to recover. Logically, he should have called the police so that his assaulter, Guo Yan, could be arrested. But, he wanted to protect his image. Not only did he not call the police, he even said that it was from a fall due to his own carelessness.

After the incident, Huang You De never harassed Chiu Wan-Ting again. He did not dare to do so. Every time he saw the killing intent in Guo Yan’s eyes, he felt goosebumps on his back. Many areas of his body would act up with a dull throbbing pain.

After the big battle that night, Guo Yan became the heroine of the shop. Everyone praised her for the achievement of violently beating up the scum and emerging victorious from the fight. Chiu Wan-Ting trusted her even more and promoted her to the Assistant Store Manager. The boss, Chen Jin, heard about this incident and nodded. “Good job, Guo Yan. If you had not taken action, the consequences would be unimaginable… Way to go!” He stuck up his thumb.

Guo Yan scratched her head in embarrassment. With a blush on her face, she said with a lowered head, “Thank you, Chief Chen!” Then, she quickly explained, “That… Chief Chen, don’t listen to their nonsense. Really, I’m not that violent. I don’t know taekwondo either. My strength comes from doing manual work. Usually, I don’t fight…” She did not know why she was explaining this. But, her face felt even hotter after her explanation.

“Hahahaha!” Chen Jin threw his head back in a great laugh. “I know, you have a very gentle personality and a courageous heart that would do everything to help someone in need. This is very good, but you have to pay attention to your own safety too. There are too many scum in society. You have to protect yourself!”

“Uh huh! I carry the self-protection three-piece kit for ladies in my bag every day!” Guo Yan tapped her head. The concern from the boss warmed her heart.

…

Chiu Wan-Ting had divorced her husband and successfully freed herself from that man. Chen Jin sighed in relief. It was not that he could not wait for them to divorce, but he felt that her family situation would always pose a potential risk. Huang You De was a ticking time bomb who could threaten the daily operations of Forever Jewels anytime.

Currently, Chiu Wan-Ting rented an apartment near Forever Jewels that was only a five-minute walk away. In the future, she could commit herself fully to her work and provide a better service for the shop. Her income would then be secured.

Hence, Chen Jin felt so sufficiently reassured after her divorce that he raised her salary to $80,000 just a few short days later. It was to celebrate her divorce too.

He also really admired Guo Yan’s brave act. He was seriously thinking about specially training her. Chiu Wan-Ting understood his intent and soon promoted her to Assistant Store Manager. She imparted all her industry knowledge and experience that she had accumulated to Guo Yan.

Thus, Chen Jin felt more reassured about the operations of the shop.

…

One day, Chen Jin received a call. It was Director Dong at the Industry of Business and Commerce.

“Little Chen, are you free recently? You helped my daughter get more than 20 sets of Wa-wah robots; she’s been wanting to treat you out to a meal to show her appreciation. But, you’re always busy… Little Chen, this has been going on for more than a month, are you still unable to make some time for a meal?” From the phone call, he could tell that her tone was somewhat complaining, and carried a trace of impatience.

“Erm….” Chen Jin considered it for a moment and said, “Auntie Dong, recently, I’m less busy. I’m free tomorrow.”

Director Dong said happily, “Good, show some sensitivity for her feelings and let her treat you to a meal to show her thanks!”

Chen Jin nodded. “Ok!”

Chapter 88 - Suspicions

Yuan Lin was at home, holding a big teddy bear and pinching its ears. “Mom, he’s finally free?” Half of her pretty face was hidden behind the teddy bear. With a complaining tone, she said, “Hmmph, what’s he so busy with? Isn’t he only setting up a company? I have a company too, why am I not as busy as him?”

“My daughter, how can your little foreign trading company be compared to Chen Jin’s big enterprise? Your company can only earn a maximum of a few million annually. As for his company, it has already sold a few million robots. I predict that he can sell at least 10 million robots in total. Even if he only earns a profit of $100 per robot, he is already worth more than a billion.” Dong Lei shook her head. She had a feeling that she had severely misjudged him. At the very beginning, she did not think that his startup would have good prospects. She thought that he would only have a 50% chance of success. It was impossible to succeed so easily.

But in the end, within six months, the Wa-wah robot had swept across the whole country. One million robots were all sold out within two hours via online pre-orders! The company had risen very rapidly in the market ranks, and incredible profits were generated. It was way beyond her expectations, which really shocked her. For the first time, she felt that this seemingly ordinary fellow was not quite so ordinary after all.

Yuan Lin pursed her mouth and griped, “Acting like a hot shot just because you have money? Just because you have money, you can’t even free up a few hours…” However, her voice became softer and weaker as two sentences suddenly appeared in her mind.

Sorry, I am a hot shot because I have money. For each minute of my time, there are transactions worth millions being carried out; I have no time for your idle talk.

The image of a ridiculously young, rich, extremely busy and successful boss arose in her mind. She really wanted to scold, ridicule, and find fault with him, but realized that she was unable to do so. It was normal for the rich to be busy. Only the desperately poor had time to goof around daily. She had no reasons to criticize him.

After knowing that he would be free tomorrow, that little grudge in her heart dissipated like smoke. In turn, she became filled with anticipation. She would be able to see the billionaire who invented the Wa-wah robot tomorrow. He was only a year younger than her. It was very exciting to just think about the meeting!

“Lin Lin, do you have his contact details?”

“Lin Lin, can you help to recommend me? Can you introduce me to that Chief Chen so we can become acquainted?”

“Ok, Lin Lin, I’m is begging you. Can you give me his number? My family is nagging me so urgently; my Mom will break my legs if I don’t find a partner soon.”

“Lin Lin, can you help me ask for a signature? I’ll give you one of my photos so that he can sign the back of it.”

After all the 20-plus Wa-wah robots had been sent out to her friends in her social circle, she had received countless private messages. Every day, they would pester and even beg her. Even that fake bestie who had blocked and deleted her contact in a fit of anger after she had exposed her lies and hypocrisy actually sent her a friend request. She claimed that she had accidentally deleted her contact, and asked if she could please be added as her friend again?

Yuan Lin decisively tapped on “Reject.”

In short, within this period of time, she got extreme satisfaction from being surrounded by various forms of flattery, fawning, and praise. However, she felt extremely anxious at the same time.

It has been more than a month, why hasn’t the fellow taken the time out to come see me?

Now that her mom had gotten his reply that he would be free tomorrow, Yuan Lin could finally breathe a sigh of relief. She felt that it had finally been settled. With this meeting, nobody would doubt her words anymore when she told them that she knew the President of Xing Hai Technologies and was friends with him.

However, for some unknown reason, her cheeks felt slightly warm. Her mood and attitude were very complicated. She was happy and filled with anticipation. At the same time, she also felt some… awkwardness. It was because she had a terrible impression of him at their last meeting and left on an unhappy note. She had only wanted to distance herself. And now, it was as if she was the one begging him to meet.

Her reserve and pride as a girl disappeared in an instant. She became energetic and proactive. This was somewhat inconceivable. Yuan Lin thought, Perhaps… I was too intoxicated by the countless flattery surrounding me in my social circle.

Noticing the complicated emotional changes wrought on her daughter’s face, the corners of Dong Lei’s lips quirked up in a little smile. With the wisdom of her experience also came a teasing look in her eyes. She seemed to have seen through everything. With a sincere and earnest tone, she said, “Daughter, based on my judgment, Little Chen has a pretty good character. He’s also very successful in his business. So… you have to seize this opportunity. There are good men in this world, but they are in the minority. Once you meet one, you have to strike fast! And you must strike early! After Little Chen becomes more successful in his business, he’ll be out of your reach in terms of social and financial status. It’ll be impossible even if you want to fight for him. Even I won’t be able to call him ‘Little Chen’ anymore.”

“Mom ~!” Yuan Lin shouted rather bashfully, “What are you talking about? I simply want to treat him to a meal.” However, a blush spread across her face.

“Hahaha!” Dong Lei only gave a meaningful smile at her daughter’s behavior.

…

On the morning of the next day, Yuan Lin sat in front of the dresser doing her make-up for half an hour. She had prepped her appearance meticulously. Her make-up was slightly thicker than usual. Her features, which were already delicate and beautiful, looked even more radiant and arresting. She donned her long purple bohemian-style dress, a matching ladies’ straw hat ,and a pair of silver stilettos. She had the air of a goddess that was enhanced with her dress.

Checking herself over in the mirror, she nodded in satisfaction. “Let’s go!”

…

In the private room of a high-class restaurant in the downtown area, the two met again.

“Eh? You are…” Chen Jin was somewhat surprised. He said to the beautiful lady, “I feel like I’ve met you somewhere before.” His memory was pretty good. In his mind, he still had a certain impression of this gorgeous lady in front of him.

“Oh really? I think that I’ve met you somewhere too. Could this be…. The fate of legends?” Yuan Lin had intended to explain that she had a blind date with him previously. However, after taking a silent measure of this man, she could not help but swallow her words and change her story. As it had been a while since they saw each other, she noticed that Chen Jin had undergone some major changes.

His physique had obviously become stronger and more muscular. One could see the sharp angles of his face. He gave her a very good impression as a handsome and well-dressed man. His gaze was steady and brimming with energy; his voice was loud and clear. He exuded the vibe of a successful man from the way he carried himself. As compared to the previous meeting, his overall image could be said to have undergone a major overhaul.

“Um… It seems like this is indeed fate. Nice to meet you.” Still, Chen Jin thought that he had met her somewhere before. As it could be nothing but a misconception, he complied with her words.

“Hello, I’m the daughter of Dong Lei. Um, my name is Yuan…. Um, Yuan Li. My English name is Lisa; you can address me as Lisa too. The main reason why I wanted to treat you to a meal today is to thank you. Thank you for helping me to get so many sets of Wa-wah robots…” Yuan Lin had very unexpectedly, and rather unintentionally too, changed her name slightly in her self-introduction. She hoped that he would use her English name instead.

“Hello Lisa, I’m Chen Jin. ‘Chen’ written with an ‘ear’ and an ‘east’. ‘Jin’ from ‘Jin Tian’. Pleased to meet you.” Chen Jin shook her hand. “You’re too polite. You don’t have to thank me like this, it was just a small matter.”

Yuan Lin gestured for the service staff, “Waiter, I’d like to order.” She passed the menu to Chen Jin and he ordered some dishes that he liked.

In the private room, the two of them began to chat while eating. They had an enjoyable chat, and Yuan Lin asked many questions regarding the Wa-wah robot. Chen Jin answered each and every one of them.

“Wow, that’s so cool.”

“So that’s how it was actualized.”

“Hahaha, I think that the silly mode is so fun!” Yuan Lin exclaimed from time to time with worship and admiration in her beautiful eyes.

They chatted for a full two hours. After settling the bill, Chen Jin sent her down to the underground garage. They exchanged WeChat contacts and waved goodbye, saying to meet again for a chat the next time that they were free.

…

In the Porsche, Yuan Lin brandished her little fist. “Yes!”

…

On the 20th of April, somewhere in the country, from inside the President’s office of Rock Technologies came a doubtful voice. “This is weird. It’s been more than a month, why has the supply chain of Xing Hai Technologies not been destroyed? Why has the company not gone bankrupt and collapsed?”

Chapter 89 - Quality Control Process

It had been five years since Cheng Yunfeng started Rock Technologies. It was already a success to have persevered for five years as a high-tech company. In his own humble words, he had achieved a small success by this point in his life. At less than 40 years old, he was worth more than a hundred million and could freely enjoy life.

The cleaning robot that Rock Technologies had developed was now in its third generation. Customers’ reactions were good and the product had accumulated total sales of over one million units. It had the second largest market share in the nation.

The Da Mi cleaning robot by Da Mi Company had the largest market share. It had accumulated total sales of over two million units. However, from a profit perspective, Da Mi Company’s net profit from each robot sold was only some tens of dollars, a mere tenth of the Rock robot. Da Mi Company employed the business strategy of “making a loss from the hardware, and profiting from the software.” Through its low price, it had grabbed a large portion of the market share for cleaning robots. However this market had not been fully developed. It had great potential for expansion. Da Mi Company’s involvement in this market had not seriously affected the sales of the Rock robot. On the contrary, it had led to even more interest in cleaning robots and promoted the growth of the market.

The Rock robot, with its good reputation, experienced another wave of growth. Even so, in his private sphere, Chen Yun Feng hurled curses at the rival company. “Monkey Lei! You’re already dominating the mobile phone industry. How many small companies have been forced out of business because of you? Now, you even want a piece of the cleaning robot industry. You manufacture them at a high cost and sell them for pennies. Others want to profit even if you don’t!”

His attitude towards the President of Da Mi Company, Lei Xiao Jun, was one of anger, frustration, and restlessness. However, when Xing Hai technologies had quickly sprung up with the speed of light at the beginning of this year, it had caused him to feel extreme terror. A performance level that was ahead of others by an era, and a price that was similar, with overwhelming praise from the public and a reputation that had swept across the country.

This caused Cheng Yun Feng to become extremely unsettled and restless. He frequently woke up from nightmares with his back drenched in cold sweat. His dream of making his Rock Technologies into the second Da Jiang Technologies in Z country was about to be dashed.

It was especially so when he saw hundreds of thousands, even millions of Wa-wah robots being sold each time. The sales volume of the Wa-wah robot in two hours was more than the sum of what he sold in his five years of hard work. The sales volume of the Rock robot had dropped sharply, and a majority of consumers said that the Wa-wah robot was better in their reviews. He knew what he must do! In other words, he had to fight! He had to resist! Otherwise, Rock Technologies would not be able to survive another year in the face of this rapidly expanding giant of a primordial beast! So he would poach members from the rival company’s development team!

Noticing the giant loophole in the supply chain of his rival company, he immediately called to report the secret information via a phone call to a Japanese number. Having gone mad with joy, he said, “With insufficient core components, you won’t be able to deliver the goods.”

After about 10 days, Yaskawa Electric and Fanuc Corporation from Japan called back. “Mr. Cheng. Ling Feng Jing Mi Technologies did not come to sign the order contract. They did not accept the increase in our prices. Mr. Cheng, you’ve caused us to lose an order worth $3,000,000. You have to accept responsibility for our losses.”

Cheng Yunfeng replied, “No problem, I can take the responsibility. Rock Technologies will sign a $3,000,000 order contract with you.” The project of the “Rocky Robot” had rapidly started after Manager Jiang from the Human Resource Department had poached Su You Jie and Wu Lei. Its progress was extremely fast. The “Rocky Robot”, which was similar to the Wa-wah robot in terms of performance, could be introduced to the market within a month. It would swiftly fill the void caused by the severe lack of supplies of the Wa-wah robot.

The staff from the two Japanese companies said, “Ok, but we want to raise the price by 50% for this batch of order.”

“No, no, this is too much. I cannot accept this. The highest increase can only be 5%!”

“We’ve heard that there is a model of cleaning robot that is trending in the country of Gui. It has caused the demand for brushless motors and the mobile components for mechanical arms to increase tenfold. As we have limited manufacturing resources, our prices have increased by at least 30%.”

“At most, I can allow you to increase by 10%!”

Giving a sinister laugh, the staff replied, “30%! If you can’t accept that, we’ll just have to wait for a more attractive buyer,”

With a livid expression, Chen Yun Feng gritted his teeth and said, “Ok!”

…

After a month, the development of the Rocky Robot was a success. Its mass production was about to begin. The technical team of Rock Technologies was celebrating in joy. Cheng Yunfeng was immersing himself in the delight of the celebratory dinner. He was drinking heartily with the staff from the development team as they looked forward to the beauty of their success.

However, a situation reported by the sales department immediately caused his smile to freeze and his brows to scrunch up. “Chief Cheng, there has been no abnormality seen in the supply chain of Xing Hai Technologies. The Wa-wah robot is still being distributed as per normal. Everyday, there are tens of thousands of new comments on Taobao and Jingxi Mall. Consumers had indicated that the goods were delivered and gave five-star ratings.”

“What?!” Chen Yun Feng flatly denied, “This is impossible!” A layer of cold sweat beaded on his back. His face turned white and pinpricks of cold sweat beaded along his forehead. Pointing at the sales department manager, he bellowed, “How could you only report such an important situation now?!”

The manager felt very aggrieved. “Chief Cheng, you’ve been staying at the development department every day for the past few days. You told me not to disturb you if there’s nothing of importance…”

“You! Pack your things and get lost right now!” Although the sales manager was a distant relative of his, someone had to be responsible for such a huge mistake.

After which, he selected some staff to conduct an investigation. Within three days, they had to find out the reason why there were no issues with Xing Hai Technologies supply chain! The next day, the investigation personnel bought two of the latest Wa-wah robots from a scalper at the price of $10,000 per unit. They proceeded to disassemble the robots.

Finally, they found the reason. “There is no manufacturer name, no product batch number, no quality certification… Chief Cheng, the core components that they’ve used as replacements are two types of uncertified components.”

“They are counterfeit components produced in a domestic factory?” Chen Yun Feng’s anxious expression finally settled. His worries instantly vanished. He could not help but smirk. “There really is no way but to make this sort of bad move, is there? But, this isn’t wrong either. If it was me who was facing the same difficult circumstances, I’m afraid I would be forced to use this sort of method to solve the problem too.”

“But it’s still a dead end!”

“What’s the working lifespan of a Japan imported component? And what’s the working lifespan of a domestically produced counterfeit component? Don’t you have an inkling of the differences? Your attempt to sell shoddy goods for the price of the originals is in vain! You deceive the consumers by using inferior counterfeit components to replace original imported components. This sort of thing has already been done by Hua Yao Company! They had a full-on public relations campaign in order to suppress the incident. Even so, the image of the company took a huge hit. How big is your company? How long have you been established? Yet, you dare to do this? Even I have to take my hat off! But, are the consumers idiots? Can they accept a product that costs a few thousands dollars but starts experiencing issues within three to five days? It’s been over a month now. It seems like you’ve sold many inferior counterfeits. Now is the right time to expose the large-scale quality issues.”

However, after he got someone to do a check on the internet, he found out that there were no posts regarding the quality issues of the Wa-wah robot. More than 99% of the posts were favorable reviews.

“Could it be… that the inferior counterfeit components in the body of the Wa-wah robots have a quality guarantee period of two months? Or someone had exposes the quality problems but the incident was quickly handled by Xing Hai Technologies’ public relations department?”

“No!” Chen Yun Feng stomped his foot. “No matter which situation it is, Rock Technologies can’t just sit and do nothing! We have a civil duty to reveal the serious quality issues in the Wa-wah robot to the public. We have to take the initiative to expose them… This is something we have to do as an enterprise with a sense of social responsibility. This is a matter of utmost urgency!” He immediately built a team in charge of exposing the issues and demanded that they use the various online channels to announce the quality issues in the Wa-wah robot to the public. The team should use the shortest amount of time possible to do so and the more people that knew about the issues, the better!

With a sense of justice, Cheng Yun Feng said, “I’ll let you know, Xing Hai Technologies, you’ll be facing imminent demise for making inferior counterfeit products in Z country at the beginning of this year!”

He did not take a second look at the two types of counterfeit components lying on the table. He also did not request for someone to test them… Why test something that was an inferior counterfeit?

…

On the 25th, while having his lunch at home, Chen Jin suddenly received a call. It was from the Vice President, Liang Ying. “Chief Chen, it’s a disaster! A huge amount of posts have suddenly appeared on the internet since last night saying that our Wa-wah robots use components that are counterfeit and inferior. They say that there are huge quality issues and we are deceiving the consumers… It’s caused a big uproar online. The topic is topping Baidu’s ‘hot search’ engine! Chief Chen, what should we do?!”

Chen Jin put down his chopsticks and slowly raised his head. “Oh..” Not only was he not panicking, he even smiled. Giving a few words of appeasement to Liang Ying, he told her to settle down and said that he had an appropriate counter plan. Then, he hung up.

“Has it arrived?” A malicious smirk appeared on the corners of his lips. He muttered, “Has the opportunity to advertise my company arrived? The saboteur from the same industry that desires the death of Xing Hai Technologies – it’s about time you gave yourself away. You should be able to let me know your identity.”

Hehe, a great performance was about to begin!

…

“Ah!”

Su Yun was sitting across from him at the dining table and quietly eating her meal when she noticed the sinister smirk at the corners of his mouth. She felt as if her whole body was electrified. First she was stunned, then her heart started to beat rapidly and fiercely. Her pretty face quickly became red. After she recovered from her reaction, she swiftly ducked her head. However, her rapid heartbeat showed no signs of slowing.

A voice reverberated in her mind; So handsome.

Chapter 90 - The “Counterfeit” Outstripped The Imported Originals

Su Yun? How did she come to be in Chen Jin’s home? Ever since she paid a visit there during the Lunar New Year, she had been coming at regular intervals. She would come at least once a week and would frequently stay over for lunch.

Chen Jin asked his Mom, Why did Su Yun come over to our home so frequently?

He Li had explained that it was mainly for the demands of work. She planned to impart much of her accounting knowledge and experience to her “disciple” Su Yun. He Li would be 51 this year. She would be able to retire in four years, so she had to make adequate preparations beforehand. Therefore, she often used her weekends to personally tutor Su Yun.

Chen Jin had nodded, but was still very doubtful. Well, tutoring is all fine and good, but why do you always drag Su Yun along to go shopping with you? You even drag me along on those shopping trips too.

A few days ago, she even gave him two movie tickets, telling him to catch a movie with Su Yun. She recommended the movie “The Poor of Eastern Hong City” produced by Happy Mala. It was a comedy that was well-praised by many.

Chen Jin looked at the tickets and then turned to look at Su Yun. He felt rather confused. “Why are the two of us going?”

He Li explained, “There were only two tickets left. The movie is for youngsters too so I won’t go to spoil the fun.”

“Mom, you are young too, why can’t you go to see the movie? I’ve been exhausted recently so I plan to rest early. It’s better for the two of you to watch the movie.”

“Son, it’s because you are tired. That’s the reason why you need to watch a movie to relax.” After He Li persuaded him in every way she could, she finally got the two of them out of the house. She sneaked a meaningful glance to Su Yun that caused Su Yun’s face to blush.

Chen Jin impatiently went to watch the movie. The movie was indeed good. Su Yun, who was sitting beside him, remained quiet and did not talk much. She gave off an air of being snobbish and cold, but Chen Jin rather liked it. He disliked girls that were chatty and too clingy. An intangible sense of distance and a gentle and quiet personality. He thought those traits were pretty good. Slowly, he became accustomed to Su Yun’s presence.

Never once did he think that he might have fallen into his mother’s brilliant trap.

…

After understanding that Xing Hai Technologies had fallen into a very troublesome situation, Su Yun could not help but ask, “Will there be too much trouble? The rumors on the internet are too wicked. Even if there were a few issues with quality, they can call the after-sales service for maintenance and repair. If it was really impossible, they can just ask for a refund. Why cause such a big fuss?” She had taken a look at the related news. The comments were filled with calls for punitive measures to be taken. Messages such as “Unscrupulous and dishonest merchant – close down!” were left all over the internet. It caused her heart to tremble in fear. How would Xing Hai Technologies deal with this?

Chen Jin looked at her. “I’ll let you do some corrections. Since the first day of sales, 1,500,000 units of Wa-wah robots have been sold. Of those, there were a total 23 customers who responded that there were faults. After-sales staff from Xing Hai Technologies resolved those issues within 24 hours. Before yesterday, there was not a single customer who requested a refund. It’s because they know that they can earn a few thousand dollars by selling them to the scalpers instead. We should ask this – If the Wa-wah robot had a substandard quality, how did it come to enjoy such a good word-of-mouth reputation? If product quality was not important to Xing Hai Technologies, why would we waste the time and energy to build an excellent after-sales system so as to provide a better after-sales service to the customers? The fact is that it’s slander, this is a despicable smear campaign! The number of hits have exceeded 500 by far. Maybe they’ve already reached a count in the tens of millions. This would satisfy the condition for one to be sentenced to prison for three years! Once the number of hits have exceeded 50,000,000 and caused an enormous impact, one could even be sentenced to five years or more! Depending on the situation, Xing Hai Technologies might even hold the sword of the law!”

“Oh…” Su Yun’s eyes sparkled with an extraordinary light. “It seems like you already know what to do in response?” She was smart; she could see that he already had a plan in mind! She immediately felt relieved.

…

Somewhere in the country, 10 computer screens were lit up in a mysterious workroom. The sound of people typing on keyboards rose and ebbed in waves, click clack ~ click clack ~!

“Introduce yourself to the editor of the Cape Forums and enlist his help in transforming this post into a premium post and making it viral. It will be pinned for 24 hours. Then, transfer $800 over to him.”

“There aren’t enough page views for this news article and the comments are too little. Refresh the page one million times immediately! Refresh the comment section one thousand times.”

“Have you introduced yourself to the VIPs of the microblogs? There are serious problems with the quality of the Wa-wah robots. Ask for their help in spreading the message.”

“I want you to capture Post Bar, WeChat Friends, Bihu, all of them! Expose the mass quality defect of the Wa-wah robot on all platforms!”

Qing Huohuo clasped his hand behind his back and walked past each computer unit as he commanded his internet mercenaries to launch a battle. He gained immense satisfaction from this moment. He felt as if he was an emperor who controlled thousands of troops and millions of horses. In the online world, he could move about freely and quickly, directing the movements of his empire. He could let his passions soar and cast aside all restraints. Nobody was his opponent. Those ignorant and stupid netizens were only capable of venting emotionally. They were blind followers without any ability for rational judgement. As such, they only acted as his cheap ammunition, and puppets controlled by his mercenaries. He could easily gather a force that was made up of millions.

He would wait until the situation reached its very worst phase and the government departments were forced to interfere before erasing all traces of himself. He would take the money and leave. There had never been a mistake in his plans.

Moreover, it was an indisputable fact that the Wa-wah robot used inferior counterfeit components! It was only a matter of time before quality issues would appear! Hence, this was not slander, he was just zooming in on the details and exposing the problem before it happened…

After Cheng Yunfeng had transferred $5,000,000 to him, he had immediately taken action by commanding his internet mercenaries. Their work had swept across the online world!

The netizens’ responses were within his expectations.

“Unscrupulous merchant, something that costs $3,000 can only be used for a month at most. Has your heart been eaten by a beast?”

“A domestically produced piece of rubbish counterfeit component only has a production cost of about $10 per unit. My God, do you want to make profits so much that you’ve gone mad?”

“Xing Hai Technologies is a big liar! They are just doing a one-off business. When quality problems with the product appeared, I couldn’t even reach the after-sales service. Friends; everyone, do not buy the Wa-wah robot from Xing Hai Technologies at all cost!”

“I say, how could they sell it for so cheap? Logically speaking, how can a robot that is worth $10,000 be sold for only $3,000? It’ll be stranger if there was no issues with the quality!”

“Refund! I want a refund immediately!”

“Yes, I want a refund immediately!”

In the face of the netizens agitation and outrage, as well as the tide of public opinion that became increasingly turbulent, Xing Hai Technologies’ response seemed rather placid.

“With regards to the quality issues, we are doing our best to investigate. We agree to a full refund for customers who need to return the items. The situation has been thoroughly investigated. We will hold a press conference on the 28th of April, 10am. We will openly answer all questions related to the Quality Control Process!”

…

There were also some rational observers within the netizen population.

Wang Xing, an ordinary salaryman who graduated from university not long ago, was prospecting for his future in a third-tier city. His monthly salary was only a little more than $3,000.

Even so, the Wa-wah robot had captured his attention. When the second round of pre-orders had started, he took out the money saved from working for more than two months to hastily buy a Wa-wah robot. His main purpose was to help his mother reduce her burden. She had a serious lumbar disc protrusion and was unable to bend her waist for a long period of time. It was extremely painful for her to clean the house each time.

The Wa-wah robot arrived after two weeks. However, his mother scolded him and complained to him. How could he simply buy something that costs thousand of dollars? Doesn’t he know that he should save the money as a betrothal gift when he marries? But, after using for half a month, even she, who usually nitpicked over cleanliness, had to admit that the robot was really useful.

After the “Quality Control Process Incident” had been exposed, causing a big uproar online, Wang Xing became doubtful too. Were there problems existing in the Wa-wah robot that he was using?

Armed with a mechanical engineering degree from his university days, he disassembled the robot using his tools. Indeed, he saw two types of uncertified components. At first glance, he did feel cheated. It was so obvious that those were uncertified counterfeits. The first impression he got from the components was that there must be a problem with the quality.

However, he possessed the rigor of someone who was from engineering, and did not apply for a refund at the first opportunity. Instead, he took those two “counterfeit components” to his workplace. After work, he made use of the company’s equipment to carry out a series of tests on them. The results of the tests were very surprising. The performance capability of the two counterfeit components were not that terrible. On the contrary, they were excellent.

On the night of the 27th, a video titled “This is the quality of our domestically produced core components” was simultaneously uploaded onto the official website of Xing Hai Technologies and the Taobao shop of the Wa-wah robot, as well as Bilibi Videos and Jingxi Mall.

Wang Xing clicked on this 20-minute long video. He felt his blood boiling with indignation! The impact test. The video was about the performance capability of the components from four different brands and two different products. How well could they stand up to an impact test? The “counterfeit” component versus the one imported from Japan. What are the results of the comparison? They used the example of the brushless motor. The working lifespan of the “counterfeit” was 1.5 times that of the imported model. The greatest output of the “counterfeit” was 20% more than the imported model. In terms of reliability, the “counterfeit” won! In terms of operational control, the “counterfeit” won!

In the tests of falls, crashes, high temperatures, low temperatures, and the many other tests of extremes that were carried out, the “counterfeit” had emerged victorious in them all.

In all nine tests, the “counterfeit” brushless motor had outstripped the Japanese imports.

After watching the video, Wang Xing exclaimed, “How is this an inferior counterfeit component?! This is a superhuman component, the god of all cleaning components! This is a hunter that plays the pig in order to lure the tiger!”

The comment section under the video had also broken out in a flurry!

Chapter 91 - End of the World

“How is it possible?”

“That’s impossible! How can the quality of the parts manufactured locally be better than that of the imported Japanese ones?”

“I study aviation design and I have used brushless motors for airplane design before. I can tell that in the current brushless motor area, the quality of the local products must be far behind the ones imported from Japan. This video is fake!”

“The video is fake, and the parts are fake! This is just like the Hanxin Scandal. If it’s real, how come it is a product of ‘Three Nos’? No product number, no quality certification, and no production unit. Why?”

“Are you blind? They’ve explained in the video. The batch of spare parts were only testing products. They couldn’t add the product number because they were rushing to meet the production quantity! Besides, if the parts were fake, would they perform even better than the imported parts?”

“That’s right! if you copy from the top student in the exam and get a hundred mark, then the top student can accuse you of copying. But if you score a hundred and twenty, which is even higher than the top student, can the copying accusation explain this?”

The skeptics were furious and said, “This explains that the video is absolutely fake, it’s a sham!”

Immediately someone replied to him, “Oh, you fawning dog and apple-polisher of the Japanese, you have knelt under them for so long that you can’t even stand up now? If foreigners can succeed, why can’t China achieve the same?”

“I believe the video is real.”

Wong Xing also replied, “I took the Wa-wa robot apart and tested the two parts inside, the performance was not bad, but actually outstanding, so I believe the video is real too!”

The netizens were divided into two parties, the skeptics and the believers, sparking off a heated debate. But in general, the skeptics gained the upper hand. After all, in the area of brushless motor and the moving parts of the mechanic arms, China had been far behind Japan, but all of a sudden, China caught up and even surpassed it; therefore they thought it was fake, subconsciously believing that it was a sham.

Wang Xing, who joined the “Believers’ Party”, strove his best to explain, but still, he failed to convince the majority. Considering that Xing Hai technology would hold a press conference at ten o’clock tomorrow morning, and it would be willing to take on doubts and answer any questions regarding the “Quality Scandal”, the netizens decided to call a cease-fire and see how Xing Hai Technology would respond.

The next day, at ten o’clock in the morning, the press conference of Ao You Xing Hai Technologies was having a grand opening in the news hall of a hotel. More than 100 media organizations and more than 200 journalists were there. Some of them were invited and some asked to come. Well-known media companies such as Xinglang, Tencent, Baidu, and NetEco were all there.

Hao Jian, the manager of public relations, which was the temporarily-established department of Xing Hai Company, was responsible for holding the press conference. He was a man with a funny name and a pretty good image. Professional and eloquent, he was responsible for answering all questions raised by the media and journalists. Hao Jian made a self-introduction and announced the start of the conference. After that, countless journalists raised their hands.

“Mr. Hao, can you please explain the reasons for the Wa-wah robot’s quality problem?”

“Were the disclosure posts real? The Wa-wah robot can only be used for up to two months?”

“Do you really use low-cost counterfeit parts?”

All kinds of questions were raised.

“Calm down ladies and gentlemen!” Hao Jian signaled, “Before answering your questions, please allow me to play a video. In this era, in the face of widespread rumors, any verbal clarification is in vain, and Xing Hai Technologies is not good at explaining, so we will just let the facts speak… everyone, please watch the video!” Hao Jian pointed his fingers to the screen behind him, and the lights in the room dimmed.

A video played.

It was the “This is the Quality of Our Country’s Core Parts” video uploaded last night by Xing Hai Technology. Twenty minutes later, the video ended.

Some journalists were shocked and amazed. “The core parts of our country are so powerful!”

But one journalist laughed coldly and said, “I watched this video last night. It is fake from the first glance. You prepared that beforehand, it’s not trustworthy at all!”

Hao Jian said, “We know there will be some doubters! So we are doing an ultimate violent test right here, right now. Seeing is believing, journalists!” Looking at that journalist, waved his hand and said, “Bring all the machines and equipment to the stage!”

In a series of noise and hustle, dozens of equipment was carried to the press room. The journalists were shocked. Shit, the press conference had turned into a field test!

Then a total of five ultimate violent tests were conducted before hundreds of media cameras:

The Maximum Power test incessantly increased the voltage and current until it was overloaded, and the brushless motor burned down.

The High-Temperature Work test incessantly increased the working temperature until it exceeded the capacity and the brushless motor broke down.

The Low-Temperature Work test: Continuously lowered the working temperature until it could not function properly.

The Repeated Drop test and Violent Shock test was given until the equipment failed to work.

More than an hour later, the final test ended. The results were obvious, the brushless motor with the “Three Nos” triumphed, beating the imported Japanese products.

But still, a journalist put forward his doubt. “The tests you are doing are all short-term tests. The consumers have to use Wa-wah robots for at least years. Can you guarantee that your brushless motors can work for twenty thousand hours without any malfunction?”

Hao Jian replied, “If you are willing to stay and participate in the long-term test, we welcome you to join the testing department of Xing Hai Technologies and take part in the long-term tracking test. We can offer several posts for you.”

Another journalist asked, “Then where do you get your parts? Are they really 100% made in China? Can you tell us more about the manufacturers?”

Hao Jian shook his head and said, “This is not something I can answer. All you need to know is that the Wa-wah robots of Xing Hai Technologies do not have any problems. Our core parts are perfectly up to standard and even excel imported products. This is a fact. I believe all of you witnessed that just now with your own eyes.”

But some journalists were not convinced and asked, “Then how do you explain the quality problems exposed on the internet? A ten thousand Wa-wah robots malfunctioned at the same time, how do you explain that?”

“Those were rumors, malicious rumors! We’ve already gathered enough evidence to file a report to the police. The slanderers will be arrested very soon if everything goes smoothly. Xing Hai Technologies will not tolerate any nasty slanderers. We will file a lawsuit and bring the slanderers to justice using legal weapons.”

Ring ring ring~

Just then he received a call; after answering it, his face lit up, and he immediately announced to the journalists, “Good news! The police from the capital just called, saying that they’ve cracked down on a slanderers organization, and caught twenty-three criminals.”

“Ahhh!” The journalists were all in shock.

…

Bang!

“Don’t move!”

“Put your hands in the air, put them behind your back and kneel down!”

“Don’t play tricks with me, kneel down now!”

When the door of the studio was kicked open, a lot of police officers dashed in, shouting “Don’t move, don’t move!”

The renowned online influence, Qing Huohuo, was completely lost. His mind was blank. How did the police find them? He was very careful and never left any trace. His accounts were all sockpuppet. Using the virtual private network, he avoided exposing the local IP address. How did the police find his spot and catch him red-handed? He didn’t even have time to remove the evidence, and the police had already taken away everything. How did the police do that?

A hundred thousand “Whys” popped into Qing Huohuo’s mind. The police officers fastened the cold handcuffs to him. His arms were twisted in pain and his head was pressed down, with the shouting of “kneel down” echoing in his ears. This was when his arrogant head finally bowed. The glory and arrogance in his emperor-like eyes slowly dissipated and finally disappeared.

There are only two words echoing in his brain: it is over.

…

On Planet Haierfa, at the Base of Operations, Chen Jin unplugged a cable from the routing switch and nodded. “Alice, you’ve done a good job.”

“Master, this is a piece of cake. Which generation does this network technology belong to? It’s too backward, and loopholes are everywhere.”

“Don’t ask something that you don’t need to know, understand?” Chen Jin glared at her.

“Yes, master,” Alice said, sticking out her tongue.

…

After the slanderer’s organization was shut down, the police released a huge amount of authoritative evidence. On the internet, public opinion reversed rapidly about the contested “Quality Scandal” of the Wa-wah robots.

“A professional gang of slanderers could fool millions and millions of the netizens, luring them into their trick so that they fell into the unconscious state. Apparently, it is still a long way to go if we are to improve the quality of the people.”

“Qing Huohuo was right about one thing: an online publicity stunt requires one to fool the netizens. It has to incite their feeling and emotion so that the status one climbed in a lifetime, the honor earned and the wealth accumulated in their entire life will be crushed into pieces overnight. Then a person or a topic will grow and prosper on top of the “dead bodies” of the three publicity stunt targets… Rumors will not stay by the wise, but the next rumor. This is the sorrow of our time.”

“Some people are f****ing idiots. They didn’t buy Wa-wah robots themselves but attacked its quality. For those who bought the robot, they just returned the products in a hurry even though the products were working just fine. Are they all nuts?”

“How many more people are still kneeling down and cannot stand up? Who says the quality of the local parts must be far behind the foreigners? Our enterprises have been advancing, don’t tell me they can’t catch up, huh?”

“Everyone has misunderstood Xing Hai Technologies. Wa-wah robots don’t have any quality problems! Those who remain skeptical about the quality can take the robots to professional organizations for testing anytime. Xing Hai Technologies said that it will refund ten times the price if the robot is fake. As for those who are still spreading malicious rumors, I hope that your comments will be flagged.”

“I returned my Wa-wah robot, can I buy it back?”

“Me too! I was misled by the others. The online rumors were too evil! I want to buy my robot back too. It’s too tiring to clean by myself.”

“Ouch, I suddenly realized that without the Wa-wah robot, I can’t accommodate to the chores at all. I don’t even want to touch the mop, and I can’t ask my wife to do the chores as well.”

“Wa-wah, your master is wrong! Xing Hai Technologies, can you resell the Wa-wah to me? I will pay more.”

After reading these comments, Wong Xing shook his head helplessly. “A bunch of people without independent thinking, they only know how to follow the crowd. Cleaning for a few days is only a trivial lesson for you! You asked for it!”

A bunch of reflective and regretful voices appeared on the internet. Wa-wah robots felt needed again. Its brand impression went straight back up. The scalpers, who almost suffered unbearable losses because of the piled-up Wa-wah robots, raised the price back to above ten thousand.

…

In Beijing, although it was daytime, Cheng Yunfeng found everything before him dark. The Quality Scandal of the Wa-wah robot was proven to be rumors. Xing Hai Technologies was safe and sound. The production of Wa-wah robots continued to proceed.

As soon as the press conference for Rock Robot was held, Xing Hai Technologies filed a lawsuit, accusing Rock Technologies of multiple patent infringements. With the solid evidence, the court ruled that Robot Rock could not be sold in the market unless it paid enough compensation to Xing Hai Technologies. But where could he get the money? He had taken all the company’s cash flow just for the three-million spare parts order of the two Japanese companies. Moreover, he placed the company, his estate property, and his cars as collateral in order to borrow dozens of hundred million dollars.

Qing Huohuo was arrested and in prison. In order to reduce the sentence, he went crazy in accusing others, including Cheng Yunfeng, the leader behind the scene. The police summoned him and requested an investigation. Once he was convicted, he would be facing a sentence of three years in imprisonment.

“It’s over. Everything is over. I’ve lost the battle. I’ve lost everything. I still have some savings of over a hundred thousand dollars. I’ll divorce my wife tomorrow then find a higher rooftop. I’ll strive again in the business filed in the next life!”

The next day, after divorcing his wife in the Civil Affairs Bureau, Cheng Yunfeng found a building with over twenty floors. He enjoyed the last few seconds of his life, and then freed himself into the sky.

Chapter 92 - An Experience With Virtual Reality

The game had ended. The winner and loser made themselves manifest. The winner took it all. Xing Hai Technologies extricated itself from all the troubles and predicaments, receiving enormous publicity, and thus tightly grabbing the leading position in the cleaning robot market without any more threats.

The loser got destroyed; Rock Technologies dissolved and declared bankruptcy. The founder Cheng Yunfeng, who lost all his reputation and was left with only infamy, jumped off the building and committed suicide, leaving much chaos and troubles behind.

Upon reading the news, Chen Jin couldn’t help but sigh. “If this was just about normal business competition and stealing some technicians from my company, I wouldn’t do anything to you. After all, your company raised more than a hundred families. Considering the living of these hundreds of families, I don’t mind giving a slice of a share to you. But you were really too greedy and nasty! Whistle-blowing, spreading rumors and slandering, you were determined to destroy Xing Hai Technologies by hook or by crook. If I didn’t have Planet Haierfa, you would really win. What a pity that you wasted your talent and a fair technology company… all of them were ruined because of your momentary foolishness.” Chen Jin sighed like he was shedding a crocodile tear, making him a bit hypocritical.

But this was exactly the cruelty of business competition.

…

In Japan, at the Yaskawa Electric Corporation, a meeting was happening. “Mr. Minami, the corporation is sending you to China to investigate a mysterious brushless motor. Bullshit! The people in Xing Hai Technologies said the performance of their brushless motors surpass ours. That’s impossible! Mr. Minami make a trip to China, you must investigate the whole thing thoroughly,” said a muscular middle-aged man.

“Yes, Manager!” said Shuichi Minami, a young Japanese man, as he bowed.

A similar meeting was happening at Fanuc Robot Corporation. “Mr. Noda, I have a task for you. Make a trip to China. You have to investigate Ao You Xing Hai Technologies to see which supplier helped them solve the supply problem of the mechanic arms moving parts… It is very likely that they have infringed on our technology patent.”

“Yes, Manager!” said Masao Noda, who was in his early thirties.

…

By April 30th, Chen Jin had already carried the spare parts from Planet Haierfa to Earth for forty-five days. Fifty thousand per day, multiplied by forty-five, meant a total of two million two hundred and fifty thousand sets of spare parts were transported to the Earth by Chen Jin. That was enough for the factory to manufacture two million Wa-wah robots. Adding the one million Wa-wah robots in the first place, the factory could produce more than three million Wa-wah robots in total.

Therefore, on the 30th of April, the official stores of Xing Hai Technologies on Taobao, 360buy.com, etc., opened the third batch of Wa-wah robots pre-order. As a result, all of the five hundred thousand robots were sold out in only fifteen minutes. After the three million Wa-wah robots were sold out, Chen Jin made a decision: he would stop manufacturing the first generation of Wa- wah robots, and shift to prepare the mass production of an improved version of Wa-wah robot 1.0.

Indeed, the improvement was so very little that Chen Jin didn’t feel right to call it Wa-wah robot 2.0, so he could only add the word “improved” before 1.0… meaning that apart from the small improvements made, there wasn’t much difference in essence. Of course from others’ point of view, it was definitely an “all-round improvement” and an “excellence of quality” … But Chen Jin just wouldn’t be bold-faced enough to agree with that, because according to the technical route planned in his mind, this kind of upgrade was only the tip of the iceberg with the goal to earn money, but without any sincerity.

The production of the first-generation Wa-wah robot had stopped, and recently the research and development of the improved 1.0 generation was basically finished. After achieving the mass production, Chen Jin decided to focus on Wa-wah robot 2.0 and gather some major features to make an “epoch-making” upgrade.

…

On Planet Haierfa, at the Base of Operations, in a large steel room with a length of 30 meters, a width of ten meters and a height of nearly five meters, Alice’s new body was placed inside the room. The new body consisted of three hundred and six giant red cabinets, with a maximum computing capacity of one sextillion, and power consumption of 3000 kW. After a full start-up, in order to dissipate the tremendous heat of the hardware, the air conditioning compressor placed outside the steel room was going to emit cool air of minus fifty degrees, cooling down the room temperature to below minus twenty degrees, so as to maintain the best working condition of the calculator.

Not bad. The robots carried the super calculator “Scarlet” found in Rockford City to the Base. They cleaned the dust, and it was successfully launched after a few adjustments and testing. With the tremendous help from the robots, Alice couldn’t wait to devour the whole calculator.

At present, Alice had completed the upgrade from AI level 16 to level 22. She had the ability to build a virtual environment… The virtual world that Chen Jin was so looking forward to had finally become something that could be reached. He immediately asked Alice to build a mini virtual reality so that he could get a taste of it.

“Sure, master… the virtual reality is built.” Within ten minutes, Alice built a virtual world. In fact, she used the data that was originally stored in “Scarlet” to activate an existing virtual reality. This activated virtual world was exactly like Rockford City, or rather the virtual Rockford City. The degree of resemblance could reach 99.9%, making it no different from the real Rockford City. That’s why it was called “virtual reality.”

The virtual world was created, and the virtual helmets used to log into the virtual world could be found everywhere in Haierfa. After collecting a large pile of them, Alice picked a few good ones and lay them in front of Chen Jin so as to let him choose. “Master, first the left one; it is an OAS-8 model produced by the Oasis Company, with a maximum resemblance degree of 87%. The advantage is that it is comfortable, natural, and safe. Master, the middle one is a TNT-11 virtual helmet produced by SINK Company, with a maximum resemblance degree of 91%. The strong immersion and good operability are its strength. The last one is a SUP-15 virtual helmet produced by Jizhi Company, with a maximum resemblance degree of 95%. It pursues extreme resemblance and it is definitely the choice for the hardcore players.”

Chen Jin looked at the three virtual helmets and didn’t know how to choose. The last one seemed to be the choice; the higher the degree of resemblance, the better. But Alice explained that the resemblance of the virtual helmet and the resemblance of the virtual world deployed in the server were two different concepts. As long as the computing capacity of the calculator was high enough, the resemblance of the virtual world could reach 99.9999%… infinitely close to 100%.

The resemblance of the virtual helmet was related to the performance of the three-dimensional monitor, brain wave receiver, neural connector, and other components in the virtual helmet. It was directly used in the players’ senses in the brain, and the resemblance could never reach 100%, but only infinitely close to it.

The higher degree of resemblance wasn’t necessarily better. The closer the player was to the reality, the deeper the bioelectric probe of the nerve connector penetrates into the skin, the greater the current generated, and the greater the fluctuation of the cortex. Once you encountered danger in the virtual world, the extreme resemblance could bring about intense stimulation and thus damage the brain. In the worst case, it would lead to death. But for the hardcore players who pursue extreme resemblance, they were never afraid of danger.

But Chen Jin thought for a while. In the end, he chose the OAS-8 virtual helmet of Oasis Company because the bioelectric probe inside was shorter, so it would not penetrate the skin, unlike the SUP-15 virtual helmet of the Jizhi company, which was full of long probes inside, as if they were about to go into his brain.

In addition, since it was his first experience, Alice suggested that for safety reasons, he should adjust the resemblance of the virtual helmet to less than 50%, and the sense of pain to 0%.

“Alright.” Chen Jin did everything Alice suggested. He laid down on the metal armchair, put on the virtual helmet, and entered the virtual world. His mind was wandering in the face of the endless bright light before him.

When he came to himself, and slowly opened his eyes, he found himself on a green meadow.

“Chirp, chirp, chirp,” the sound of birds echoed in his ear. He took a deep breath, and he could actually smell the aroma of flowers. The breeze lightly stroked his skin, and the overall temperature was very comfortable.

The blue sky and white clouds, the rows and rows of skyscrapers, aircrafts flying in the air, the hustle and bustle of vehicles and people… it was like a vividly real world.

“Master, I can give you a tour of the city!” Alice appeared next to him, dressed in a princess gown, jumping around. While Chen Jin was wandering in his mind, she grabbed his hand and toured around the city with him.

As an AI that could modify the rules as she wished, Alice could stop the time, ask the river to flow backward, make the traffic disappear, adjust the gravity parameters, and even move to any corner of the city in a second… She was the god of this world.

Of course, Chen Jin could be the same.

On an aircraft above the city, overlooking the landscape of the entire city and staring at the far-reaching skyline, Chen Jin sighed emotionally. “This is the real future.” He thought about the earth’s side. It was a new century that pursued the virtual world. In 20X6, this saying was widespread among the game players because it was the “VR year.” Many technology companies introduced various kinds of VR products such as VR glasses and VR games. Considering that the player could have a brand-new experience after putting on the VR equipment, the excitement did last for a while. But the craze couldn’t last for two years. As the craze disappeared, many related companies shut down and the players only constituted a minority. VR… did not continue to develop.

What was the reason?

The requirement of hardware configuration was so high that purchasing a set of VR equipment cost over ten thousand dollars. The experience was still very unpleasing, as well. Improvements were only made visually, but a handle must be held during the operation, and the players needed to turn their head and move their bodies. Mind control was not available. Also, the video refresh rate was not high, therefore it was easy for players to feel dizzy. There had been many incidents of accidental electricity leakage, falling to one’s death… Safety was a major concern.

Similar to VR was Augmented reality (AR), yet it associated too much with reality, which led to average immersion experience, so it was neither fish nor fowl.

“I say, only the virtual helmet is the right path and the bright future.” Chen Jin said, “Such a virtual world and virtual helmet are really needed!”

Chapter 93 - Chief Executive Officer

Even though the technology of simulated reality was good and provided one with a fantastic experience, it was still impossible to bring it over to Earth to transform it into a cash cow project. In order to create and execute a large-scale simulated environment, a super calculator with a high performing operational ability was required. It had to have an operational ability that could count to 100 quintillion and above.

Manufacturing a simulated reality headgear was not only extremely difficult, but also required medical knowledge of the human brain. It demanded a high level of security! Organizations that had not done ample research on the human brain had no right to develop a simulated reality headgear. With Earth’s current pace of development, Chen Jin predicted that even after 30 to 50 years, a simulated reality headgear still might not be created.

Of course, he certainly hoped that such a fantastic thing like simulated reality headgear would be realized earlier on Earth. However, he could not bring it over immediately. He had to wait for at least five to ten years.

“A genius is half a step ahead of others, a madman is one step ahead. If one is ten or twenty steps ahead, then he would be courting death! I still have to take it step by step.”

In addition, he entered a simulated high school in the process of experiencing the simulated world with Alice. After sitting in on two classes, Chen Jin suddenly thought of an idea. Besides the cleaning robot, he thought of a second project with a huge potential for development. Once the project was successful, it would carve out a market that was at least five times larger than the market of the cleaning robot!

“Knowledge is wealth; with knowledge, one has the ability to change fate! It is ok to eat and dress like the poor, but no matter how poor one is, he absolutely cannot have a poor education! Parents in Z country always stress that their children cannot lose out at the starting line. The product that I’ll make is an accelerated runway that facilitates acceleration until the very end! I would like to ask: Parents, are you moved? Will you fork out the money? Do you dare to buy? It’s done! It’s a one hundred percent done deal!” Chen Jin was very excited. With regards to this second project, he felt that as long as the product could be created, it would achieve success even more easily than the Wa-wah robot.

He muttered to himself, “Once the Wa-wah Original 1.0 is announced, I’ll immediately recruit staff and set up a new project team. The second project will start!”

…

In the early afternoon of May 1st, it would logical be a day off for some rest and relaxation. However, a meticulously-dressed man in a western suit and leather shoes arrived at the ground floor of Xing Hai Technologies.

His name was Ling Jundong. He was 33 years old and had a decade of experience as a Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He was admitted to the University of Essence at 16 years old. When he was 19, he was admitted into the Harvard Business School of Merica. At twenty-two, he had achieved a doctorate in economics. After graduation, he started working. He had taken up the post of CEO in as many as nine companies, two of which were foreign companies, and seven were enterprises in Z country. His curriculum vitae could be rated as vivid and abundant.

He did not want to talk too much about his working experiences in foreign companies. No matter how well he did, the deep-rooted xenophobia in foreign countries ensured that he was never rewarded with respect and admiration, only jealousy and resentment. However, he did accumulate two years of valuable work experience abroad. There was greater room in his country for professional development and a larger stage to shine. He had also achieved good results within a few domestic enterprises. He had helped three companies get listed successfully. He had helped to boost the average sales of three companies up to 150%. He had helped a company mired in debt to walk out of the woods and restored the health of its financial statements. It could be said that Ling Jundong’s resume was filled with success.

This caused Chen Jin to become very curious. Hence, he deliberately made a trip to the company to conduct a face to face interview. Chen Jin put down the resume. Resting his elbows on the table, he interlaced his fingers. He looked at him and asked, “In your resume, I noticed that you’ve taken up posts at as many as seven companies. And these are just the domestic companies. In each company, you’ve served your post for an average of about a year. You change jobs very frequently, may I ask what is the reason? Xing Hai Technologies needs a CEO that can act in a stable and long-term capacity.”

“To be exact, the average time that I’ve served in my post for each of the seven companies is only seven months. The longest that I’ve stayed in a company was only a year and a half,” Ling Jundong said mildly, unconcerned with the surprise on Chen Jin’s face.

“So, you prefer to job-hop?”

Ling Jundong shook his head. “I do not like to job-hop. However, I feel that when it’s time to go, I should take the initiative to leave. I don’t like to be kicked out.”

“Oh, what do you mean? Can you explain it for me?” Chen Jin was rather curious. He felt there must be a reason behind his statement.

Ling Jundong asked with a smile, “Chief Chen, do you want to know?”

Chen Jin nodded.

Ling Jundong stretched out a hand and formed a number seven with his fingers. He said, “Seven years. After a maximum of seven years, an enterprise that originally had good momentum for development will embark on its end. It will soon meet its death. There are a variety of reasons. Some companies start to fail because of inexperience, some because of errors in decision-making, some because of a rigid system, some because of chaotic management… but more than 90% of the reasons for failure are tied to the company’s founder. It can be said that the founder’s character, ability, IQ, EQ, his personal concept of the world, his outlook on life and personal values, etc., determines the success or failure of a company. But unfortunately, in the seven companies that I’ve served, they could not escape from the process of a strong ascent, then falling into chaos, and finally death. I call it ‘The 7 Years Law.’ Of course, my arrival will bring about a certain level of improvement to the company’s state of operation. But, what’s unfortunate is that their move towards chaos remains an irreversible process like the entropy of the universe. I am unable to change that… I’m just a CEO.”

Chen Jin suddenly realized something. “So you are looking for a boss, one who can break ‘The 7 Years Law,’ right?”

“Yes.” Ling Jundong nodded. “I’m looking for a boss with low internal entropy. Or in other words, a boss that can break the periodic law.”However, he shook his head. “Honestly speaking, this type of founder is in the rare minority! I’ve seen entrepreneurs who initially had low internal entropy and thought that they would definitely be successful. But, halfway through, they had a sharp rise in their internal entropy… The temptation that money brings often makes people lose themselves. Even the wise emperors from ancient times who lived to a ripe old age without making mistakes were rare.”

Chen Jin looked at him. Blinking his eyes, he asked, “Then what do you think about my internal entropy?”

Ling Jundong raised his head and stared at Chen Jin’s face for a while. He shook his head helplessly. “I cannot tell. I’m no physiognomist, and I can’t make such vague and unreliable judgments. But… Xing Hai Technologies has a really low internal entropy! And judging from the company’s name, it seems to encompass a great deal of ambition. Hence, I came over to try my luck.” Actually, Ling Jundong had been unemployed for six months. He had interviewed at more than 10 companies and also received countless offers. However, he had not met the right company. He was really tired of job-hopping! He wanted to find his eighth company where he could develop steadily on a long-term basis. He wanted to find a company that could break the so-called “7 Years Law.”

Of course, some wondered, why did not he start his own company? Where’s the meaning of always being an employee? In fact, entrepreneurs and CEOs are professions with two completely different concepts. Business founders have more tasks to do; they have to fork out more for business costs and have a greater network of relationships! CEOs simply manage the company. They just had to follow a development strategy that had been formulated and sprint in one direction in a straight line. They did not have care for scruples. Therefore, a good CEO might not necessarily be a good boss.

Ling Jundong understood what his limitations were. He knew that he did not have the capability to be a boss. Moreover, he liked to meet the different challenges that were presented in different companies. This was the calling of CEOs, and also where their talents shone.

“Ha ha ha ha!” Chen Jin was amused by his answer. Laughing, he stood up and held out his hand to him. “Join Xing Hai Technologies. I cannot guarantee anything else except that you’ll be able to work here for seven years or more. Do you have any other questions?”

As the company grew larger in size with an ever-increasing number of staff, it became extremely urgent to hire a CEO to be in charge of managing the company’s daily affairs. Chen Jin was really too busy to stay in the company every day to handle all of its matters.

Ling Jundong was somewhat surprised; he never expected to pass the interview so quickly. He swiftly stood up and shook Chen Jin’s hand. “I have no other questions, it was a great pleasure to meet you!”

Through the recent hubbub created by the “Quality Control Incident,” he thought that Xing Hai Technologies had good potential and a unique personality. Hence, he submitted his resume and took the initiative to come and try to score an interview. He did not think that he would pass the interview so quickly. This made him feel quite surprised, and he even felt a touch of joy. In the deepest corners of his heart, he thought longingly, I wonder, what kind of results can I achieve in this company?

Chapter 94 - A Call From A Notable Personage

After two days, Ling Jundong, who had officially taken up the post of CEO, quickly displayed his talents. Talents that were shocking. After Chen Jin had relinquished full control of authority in the departments of technology, sales, human resources, and after-sales service, those departments underwent a bold and decisive reform.

Areas that had ineffective and illogical operational systems, lacking standard regulations, and were managed in a laissez-faire style, were all imposed with a set of regulations and further refined. All management staff accepted the 15 days of specialized training.

Sign-ins, performance appraisals, staff promotions, and task management systems were all clarified down to the smallest details. At the same time, the greatest changes were wrought in the maintenance of work efficiency so that the enterprise could remain healthy.

After the series of reforms ended, Xing Hai Technologies had undergone a huge personality change. Even though it had less than 300 staff and firmly belonged in the category of “small to medium enterprises (SMEs),” it actually exuded a demeanor similar to that of a global corporation from the inside out!

The staffs’ entire spirit and attitude had been renewed. They felt a greater sense of belonging and their motivation was generally increased. It could be said that within a short 10 to 20 days, Xing Hai Technologies had undergone a major overhaul. The entire reformation could be described as swift, decisive, and thoroughly transformative.

However, the reforms were not without resistance. For example, Ling Jundong had found out that some of the sales personnel did not follow company protocol. Not only did they take an unauthorized cut of their sales partners’ commissions, they even charged a remuneration from them. He found this intolerable. He immediately requested these sales personnel to turn in their ill-gotten remunerations and return it back to their sales partners. He demanded that they return the remunerations that they had claimed from their sales partners in one lump sum!

“What rights do you have to demand this of us? This was mutually agreed upon, why do I have to return it?”

“You’ve just joined the company for a few days. How high up do you think you are?”

“I’m not returning it! Chief Chen is our buddy, he’ll stand on our side!”

Ling Jundong’s expression turned ugly. He called Chen Jin to come over and requested that these sales personnel be fired.

After understanding the specifics of the situation, Chen Jin scanned the faces of each person. Some lowered their heads in guilt, but some remained undisturbed. Chen Jin shook his head. “Quickly return the money. The company has to adopt a long-term view; we need to have systems and regulations! Moreover, Chief Ling is the CEO I hired. He’s the superior of your superior! He need not report to me. He can directly decide if he wants to fire you! This is an authority that should belong to him, I will not interfere!”

After this statement, the sales personnel ducked their heads. Even Vice President Liang Ying, who also concurrently held the post of Sales Manager, lowered her head.

Ling Jundong trembled slightly. He was very touched by his boss’ support and it showed in his expression. The matter was finally concluded. Of the eight sales personnel who went against company regulations, five chose to resign and three chose to return the money. The three admitted their wrongdoings, reflected on themselves, and remained in the company.

Moreover, incidents like this did not only happen in the sales department. In the process of reforming the regulations in other departments, there were about 20 people who chose to resign.

Now, Chen Jin finally knew why Ling Jundong only served for an average of seven months as a CEO in the previous seven companies. The extent of his reforms were too strong and sweeping; the execution too unyielding. His personality was too forceful and he easily offended others! The senior ranking staff of the company, including Vice President Liang Ying, After-sales Service Manager Liang Bin, Human Resource Manager Gao Ting Yan, and even the leader of the technical team, Zhou Kun, had never had a good word for him. They detested him.

Chen Jin told him privately, “Old Ling, your intentions are good and I don’t oppose your methods. But… is it a little too harsh? We’re not a big tech company. A more relaxed atmosphere would actually benefit the creative process.”

“Chief Chen, please listen to my explanations!” Ling Jundong said, “No domestic company has ever carried out the management system that I’ve drawn up for more than two years running. But, if a company can persevere in implementing the system for more than two years, I believe that all doubts will disappear and the praises will come. I sincerely request that you give me all of your support. In return, I’ll give you a company that is full of vitality with an internal entropy that will never decrease. Your company will be immortal and be as strong as the Hua Yao Company!”

His gaze was entreating and full of hope. Although he had worked for this company for a mere seven days, he had the greatest hope that he would be able to realize his life values there. Once he had succeeded, his style of management, called “Ling’s Managerial Science,” would propel him to the heights of the CEO prodigies. He would be worshipped like a saint in the CEO community… That was his dream!

Chen Jin eyed the expression on his face; he could feel the scorching heat in his gaze. “All right, I’ll give you an opportunity to try!” Chen Jin could see that Ling Jundong was a genius as well as a lunatic. He had his own methods of efficacy, but he never had been able to fully showcase his talents. It was not that he did not have his own stage to shine, it was just that the world did not give him sufficient time to complete his performance. Hence, Chen Jin was very curious. He wanted to see what his real capabilities and subsequent results were. Therefore, he gave him a chance!

“Thank you, Chief Chen, thank you!” Ling Jundong was beyond grateful. His eyes felt hot and teary.

…

On the 20th of May, Chen Jin received a call from a stranger. After the call came through, a rather charismatic voice could be heard coming from the other end. “Hello, are you the President of Xing Hai Technologies, Chen Jin? Good day, Mr. Chen, I am Lei Xiao Jun, the President of Da Mi Technologies…”

Lei Xiao Jun! On his end, Chen Jin immediately became excited. This is a call from a big shot! Chen Jin coughed and quickly replied, “President Lei, good day to you too. I cannot believe that it’s you. I am Chen Jin, I really like the products from Da Mi Technologies. I’ve seen your solo concerts hundreds of times… I never imagined that I would receive a call from you. I’m very honored!”

“Cough ~ cough ~ cough!” An even stronger series of coughing came from the other end of the phone. “Little friend, you’re not too bad yourself. I really like the Wa-wah robot from your company. I would never have imagined that you are so young!”

“Not at all, President Lei, you are the real top personage. You are the groundbreaking pioneer of Z country’s IT industry, the most outstanding entrepreneur. For juniors like me, you are very much worth learning from…”

“Hahahaha, I’ve only done some small things…”

They exchanged praises for some time, and their relationship became warmer and more intimate. In the end, they started calling each “Brother Lei” and “Xiao Chen.”

President Lei also clarified the reason for his call. “President Chen, do you still remember Su You Jie and Wu Lei? They were originally technicians working for Xing Hai Technologies. Then, they were poached by Rock Technologies and developed the Rock Robot. However, as they infringed on the sole copyright authority of your company, they could not release the robot on the market. A while ago, Su You Jie had led his project team to join Da Mi Technologies’ cleaning robots project department. They’ve helped to develop the ‘Love Mi Cleaning Robot’ which might impinge on part of your sole copyright authority. I was wondering…” President Lei sank into silence before saying, “President Chen, could you accommodate me and help to work around the regulations? Da Mi Technologies is willing to pay the fees for the authorization to use of your patent.”

Um….

Chen Jin eyes squinted slightly. Resting his chin on his hands, he started to think carefully.

Chapter 95

Chen Jin understood the meaning behind Brother Lei’s words. Da Mi Technologies’”Love Mi Cleaning Robot” was similar to the “Rock Robot.” It also made use of the technical data rights of Xing Hai Technologies. However, learning from the mistakes made by Rock Technologies, Brother Lei was obviously a more decent human being. He had a much better sense of boundaries than Cheng Yun Feng. Not only did he personally call him to talk things over beforehand, he even expressed that he was willing to fork out the fees to buy the exclusive rights, hoping to use money to solve the problem.

He had sufficiently expressed his sincerity. The issue here was… Did Chen Jin lack for money? Was it necessary that he go along with the desires of a notable personage that he respected so as to save his face? After some thought, he said, “President Lei, allow me to ask you a question. What’s the estimated hardware cost of one ‘Love Mi Cleaning Robot?’ After its launch, what is the market price?

President Lei felt very awkward about answering this sensitive question. “Um…”

“President Lei, if you don’t even reveal the two conditions a wee bit, I’m unable to discuss the technological exclusive rights with you… You can simply give a rough estimate to the two questions.”

“Ok, the hardware costs of the ‘Love Mi Cleaning Robot’ is similar to the Wa-wah robot. It’s around $2,000. It’s selling price is also similar to the Wa-wah robot. It’ll not be lower than $3,599! We’ll maintain our high performance to price ratio, but we cannot make a loss as well.”

It was a big business taboo to reveal the fixed selling price! Lei Xiao Jun also understood the meaning behind Chen Jin’s words. He was evaluating the level of threat that the “Love Mi Cleaning Robot” presented. But, in terms of pricing, the “Love Mi Cleaning Robot” really did not present much of a threat. He was also puzzled and doubtful. Did Xing Hai Technologies plan to follow the development path of Da Mi Technologies? Was profit not their first priority and they only wanted to make a friendly relationship?

Since both of them only wanted to become friends and not focus on making profits, it was harmless to reveal some information in advance.

“Does your company use imports for the two core components of the brushless motor and the mechanical mobile parts?”

“Yes, they are all imported from Japan, they are too expensive! The brushless motor costs $350 and the mechanical mobile parts cost $400. Put together, the two parts cost almost $800! I was wondering which two domestic companies provide you with the two core components that your company is using? I’d sent people out to get information on this, but they’ve found nothing. President Chen, would you care to reveal a little information on this? I’ll be very grateful!”

Chen Jin was very surprised. The hardware costs were only around $2,000. Moreover, this was achieved at a time when the two components were imported from Japan at inflated price conditions. It was evident from this that Da Mi Technologies possessed great control over its upstream supply chain! All major profitable corporations, for example, Fruit and Hua Yao, possessed an extremely high level of control over their supply chains. There were still many things that Xing Hai Technologies had to learn.

Taking into account Da Mi’s size and the various intermediate costs that it would incur, the price of the “Love Mi Robot” would be much higher than the Wa-wah Robot! Xing Hai Technologies was a smaller company, thus it was more flexible and had a faster reaction. Its final selling price was fixed at $3,599, which would only generate the smallest of profits. In terms of its price to performance factor, it was not much higher than Wa-wah Robot 1.0.

He further considered the fact that the production of Wa-wah Robot 1.0 had been stopped and the Wa-wah Original 1.0 would soon be launched. After some thought, Chen Jin said, “President Lei, how about this? Let’s be friends. The cost for the exclusive rights to the technology behind the ‘Love Mi Robot’ would be $100 per unit sold. The rights would last for five years. After five years, it will be free. Alternatively, you could buy it outright for a lump sum of $500,000,000. You can choose either option.” Chen Jin proposed exclusive rights of five years as he had predicted that the inferior imitations would saturate the market in five years. He would not even be able to win any lawsuits.

The copyright authorization fee of $100 per unit sold was neither expensive nor cheap. It was about 3% of the price of a “Love Mi robot.” The cost of the exclusive rights to Qualcomm’s 3G/4G technology was 5%, which had been denounced by countless companies as “bloodsucking.” This had caused Fruit company and Qualcomm to part ways. 3% was more reasonable pricing. Moreover, if he had priced it above $100, it would have been pointless for Brother Lei to call him for a discussion on this matter.

That was right. He had to go along with the desires of the bigwig and not offend him! With Brother Lei’s prestige, position, mass appeal, and network of relationships in the tech community, having a good relationship with him would only bring about great benefits! It was no big deal even if he offended a notable personage in the industry. If he offended him, then so be it. Chen Jin was not afraid of his retaliation. But, more friends equate to more options and solutions available to him in the future. More enemies would only mean more future obstacles. He was fine with earning fewer profits. A good reputation would be a huge support for him.

“Ok! That would work. I choose the first option of paying $100 per unit for the exclusive rights to the technology. President Chen, I am very grateful for your understanding. Really, I am very grateful!” President Lei thanked him profusely. Logically speaking, he should have chosen to outright buy the rights for one lump sum. But, Da Mi was used to days of being tight on money. He rarely paid for transactions in a lump sum. Often, he had to organize a publicity blitz or product campaigns to attract attention and then profit from those. Moreover, if the “Love Mi Robot” could not sell more than 5 million units, he would make a loss.

The matter of copyright authorization was resolved.

Regarding the core components, Chen Jin finally added, “President Lei, you can consider reducing your imports of brushless motors from Japan. Recently, the supplier that is working with Xing Hai Technologies is in the process of expanding its manufacturing capacity. Very soon, it will be mass producing high-quality brushless motors. I can help you to contact this company. Their pricing will definitely be favorable… But, the upgrade in the manufacturing capacity for the mechanical mobile parts will not be complete so quickly. You’ll have to wait a few more months.”

The profits should not be allowed to go to others. Rather than letting the Japanese profit from the sale of the core components, why not scoop this business up for himself? For example, a brushless motor weighing 60 grams would only cost about $50 to produce. If he sold each unit for $280 to $300, he would profit at least $200 from one unit! The profits generated from the mechanical mobile parts were similar. If he sold these two types of components to Da Mi, not only would Youying Motors and Bi Long Technologies receive more orders, Chen Jin would also profit greatly from it. In addition, he would be receiving the fees for the exclusive rights. Without doing a single thing, Chen Jin would profit $300 or more for each “Love Mi Robot” sold by Da Mi. He even hoped that more “Love Mi Robots” would be sold.

This clearly showed that mastery and control of the technology behind the core components was akin to the possession of a cash cow. He did not have to worry about not making any money.

“That’s great! President Chen, you’ve done me a huge favor, I’ll be sure to treat you to a meal in the future!” Lei Xiao Jun was very pleasantly surprised. President Chen of Xing Hai Technologies was an agreeable person with an amiable temperament. He also had a very nice personality. He was someone who was worth cultivating a deep friendship with!

“Hahaha, Brother Lei, when that time comes, I’ll be treating you!”

…

Not long after ending the call with President Lei, at Youying Motors Company in Youxi City, the first lot of high-quality brushless motors had successfully been manufactured on the new assembly line after nearly two months of hard work all day and night.

Everyone inside the factory broke out in loud cheering.

“We’ve succeeded! We’ve succeeded!”

“We’ve made the best quality brushless motor in the world! We’ve broken the overseas monopoly of this product!”

“We’ve become the best brushless motor manufacturing factory in the country!”

After many days of continuous struggle, the factory manager, Zhang Dawei had severely bloodshot eyes. Suddenly, he held his head in his hands and cried loudly, “I’ve succeeded, the thing I’ve dreamed of has been realized! The path that I’ve persisted on walking was not wrong. I’m not an idiot with a hole in my brain. Boo hoo hoo!” The man who was almost 40 years old, was crying like a child.

“Bro, way to go! You did very well. You’ve always been our pride!” His younger brother, Zhang Xiao Long, repeatedly patted his shoulders in comfort. His eyes were also sparkling with unshed tears. This was a moment where a small sector in Z country finally caught up to the most advanced standards of the overseas sectors. This was a moment where dreams coalesced into reality. This moment was also the highlight of their lives.

Chapter 96 - Launch Event of a New Product

“Oh, mass production of the brushless motors has been achieved? Good, you all did well.” Upon receiving the call that delivered the good news, Chen Jin felt very happy and extremely gratified. Within two months, Zhang Dawei completed the debugging and tuning process of the equipment. He achieved the means to mass produce high-end brushless motors ahead of schedule. This was enough to prove his capability. With the production line working at full speed, about 50,000 units of high-end brushless motors were produced daily. Another production line was added, bringing the total daily output up to 100,000 units.

Chen Jin immediately sent Ling Jundong to Youxi City. With a preferential price of $180 per unit, he made an order of 10 million units. This was enough to keep Youying Motors busy for half a year. The price per unit would be fixed at $280 for competitors in the cleaning robot industry as well as non-competitors from other industries. Even if he had a very good relationship with a company, the per unit price would not go lower than $260… A high-end component should be sold at an appropriate price. He would not sell it at a bloodsucking price of $300 and above, but he also would not sell it for peanuts. A price fixed at $260 to $280 would be sufficient to compete against the imports.

“Things are ok now. I don’t have to transport the brushless motors from Haierfa to Earth anymore. Much of the burden has been lessened!” This was possible only with the support from Youying Motors! But what about Bi Long Technologies? What was the progress on the work of mass producing the mechanical mobile parts?

On the other end, Wang Quan Long replied with bloodshot eyes, “We’ll still be kept busy for two more months. The workers and technicians at this subsidiary company are working overtime. Two shifts are working alternately from morning to night, but we’re still not fast enough! Besides, I’m also busy with work at the OEM factory. I really want to split myself into two to get more work done. I’m working 16 hours everyday!”

“Alright, President Wang. Take it easy, and don’t neglect your rest. Don’t work yourself to death. You are a boss, you don’t have to attend to everything personally.”

With an extremely tired voice, Wang Quan Long said, “I know, I know. The remodeling of the assembly line at the OEM factory will be completed in two days. After the Wa-wah 1.1 can be assembled and installed en masse, I’ll sleep for three days straight!”

Chen Jin nodded and ended the call. Indeed, Chen Jin had wanted to call the second generation upgraded Wa-wah robot “Wa-wah Original 1.0” But, this name would invite a whole host of name-calling. It just did not sound good. It might even cause the consumers to feel ambiguous about the company’s products. “Original 1.0?” Then, was the preceding product a “Fake 1.0?” It was better to call it “Wa-wah 1.1” or “Wa-wah 1S.” Chen Jin had to change his ideas and accept the good advice of others. Hence, the name was changed to “Wa-wah 1.1.”

…

On the 24th of May, the adjustments on the assembly line in Ling Feng Jing Mi OEM factory were completed. Huge batches of Wa-wah generation 1.1 cleaning robots were produced in an unending stream. 50,000 units were produced daily.

…

On the 25th of May, at 8pm, more than 20,000 people flooded into a stadium in Shang Hai City. The stadium could hold up to 30,000 people. Inside the stadium was a hubbub of voices. It was bustling with noise and an exceptional excitement. The launch event organized by Xing Hai Technologies for its new product was about to begin!

Not a full three months had passed since the launch of the first Wa-wah robot and now the upgraded version, Wa-wah cleaning robot 1.1, was launched with a bang. Hosting this event was the CEO of Xing Hai Technologies, Ling Jundong. He looked mature and handsome. With a witty and humorous vibe, he attracted much attention from the women in the audience.

The leader of the technical team, Zhou Kun, wore an ordinary black T-shirt and jeans. Stepping up onto the stage, he explained the performance parameters and the technical details of the Wa-wah cleaning robot 1.1. “As compared to the Wa-wah 1.0, Wa-wah 1.1 is equipped with a smarter algorithm for its cleaning duties. It only requires a small area of the floor that has been cleaned to its most spotless state. After which, it will know how to clean the remaining areas in a way that uses the least amount of time and effort. The charging base of Wa-wah 1.1 employs two standard wireless charging modules of 10W and 20W. The charging process is made safer. The charging base can also be used to charge mobile phones or other electronics that supports wireless charging. We’ve found a third-party to custom-make a brush that is highly absorbent and has a better stain-removing ability. It’s made with bamboo fibers which makes it easier to clean the stubborn stains. It’s also easier to wash and clean when placed inside a roller. The cleanliness index of this robot model is as high as 99.85%. We are one step closer to our ultimate goal.”

Zhou Kun continued, “We’ve added an obsessive mode that the people with OCD may like. Once it has detected traces of rubbish in its scans, the robot will immediately clean it up. It will do a patrol every 30 minutes. It can also be set up to patrol in intervals of one hour, two hours, or even a day-only patrol. Under its social mode, we’ve also added voice packs that express delight, anger, happiness, and more. This is in addition to the original voice packs. The robot can perform, sing, and dance. Furthermore, we’ve launched a custom-made commercial version to satisfy the needs of some commercial clients.”

After which was the announcement of the new product’s price:

Wa-wah 1.1 standard edition for home use: $3,999 (production costs was limited to $1,800 and below).

Wa-wah 1.1 premium edition for home use: $5,999 (production costs was limited to around $2,500)

Wa-wah 1.1 deluxe edition for home use: $9,999 (production costs was limited to around $3,000)

Wa-wah 1.1 custom-made edition for commercial use: $4,999 (production costs was limited to around $2,100)

There were four editions in total.

The main selling point of the standard edition for home use was its value for money! Although it was $300 more expensive than the previous generation, it was made of more solid materials and had much better functions! Even so, it received much cheering from the audience. After all, in exchange for a month’s salary, the consumer would be freed from sweeping and mopping for 10 years. No matter how one looked at it, it was extremely worthwhile.

The main selling point of the premium edition for home use was its stability, reliability, and efficiency. It used a double brushless motor mechanism. In addition, it was equipped with a large battery of 20,000 milliamp hours (mAh) and utilized 20W wireless quick-charging. Its cleaning speed was 30% faster than the standard edition robot, and it also had much better endurance. The company would be providing free repair and maintenance services for up to five years!

The hardware parameters of the deluxe edition was similar to those of the premium edition. However, a lot more effort had gone into designing its appearance. The style of its build was more luxurious, exquisite, and beautiful. From the very first glance, it gave one a cute, pretty, and endearingly silly impression. Instantly, it plucked at the heartstrings of consumers. In this world where people made spending decisions based on visual appeal, there were many who were willing to pay extra for its exquisite form.

According to statistics, 75% of potential users who had the intention to purchase a Wa-wah robot were female. They paid more attention to this launch event and had a greater demand for a beautiful and exquisite aesthetic. When the Wa-wah 1.1 deluxe edition was revealed, many shrieks were immediately heard. Many expressed, “Hubby, I want to buy it!”

“It’s too cute. Let’s just choose the deluxe edition!”

“It’s less than $10,000, we can buy one less Fruit mobile phone.”

A significant portion of the potential female customers planned to buy a Wa-wah 1.1 deluxe edition.

The custom-made commercial edition was a type of low-profit, high-sales volume product. Its hardware configuration was somewhere between the standard and deluxe edition, with high work efficiency. However, the quality of the workmanship was reduced. The charging base utilized contact charging and the quality of the brush material was ordinary. But the company provided three years of warranty… This was highly attractive to commercial users.

When the Wa-wah 1.1 was officially released online on the 28th of May, a total of 200,000 units of ready stock was prepared for the three home-use editions. For the next two months after the official release, 50,000 units would be available for sale daily. For those who were able to get their hands on the product the same day it was made available, it would normally be delivered to their homes within three days. This kind of online sales model was called “Stock available every day, no monkey tricks!”

“Shut up! Old shameless thief. This is called ‘hunger marketing and playing monkey tricks every day’! We want all three million units to be available for sale at once!”

“F**k, only 50,000 units of stock available each day; who knows many days it will take for us to get our hands on one?”

“This is hard evidence that Xing Hai Technologies is playing monkey tricks; I’ve reported them! Law enforcement, come handle this.”

Even though the netizens roasted the limited stock availability of Wa-wah 1.1, they had no basis in reality. Truthfully, 50,000 units released daily was a considerable quantity. After the fanatic buyers had all gotten their fill in about a month, it was possible that consumers would no longer have to try so hard just to buy one. There would be stock available everyday… After all, the item cost a few thousand dollars. Most people would consider this purchase carefully first. They would not make a blind purchase.

The event very quickly reached its ending. With contented hearts, the live audience and those watching the livestream were expecting the launch event to announce its ending.

During the introduction segment about the partner suppliers, the host, Ling Jundong, suddenly started speaking in a low voice. He revealed a shocking piece of information! He went over the “Quality Control Incident” regarding the Wa-wah robot that had happened some time ago. He revealed the inside story and more details, including the causes and consequences of the incident. The audience broke out in an uproar and started debating fervently!

“That bastard is really shameless!”

“That ‘anonymous domestic competitor’ was Rock Technologies, who went bankrupt and collapsed?”

“Shameless traitor! Scheming bastard! If Youying Motors had not developed the high-end brushless motor in time and broke the monopoly, an outstanding tech company from Z country would have met its end just like that.”

“Good job! We need more domestic enterprises like Youying Motors to stand up. Then, we won’t be controlled by others!”

The next decision announced by Ling Jundong caused the anger that the audience felt to dissipate. At the same time, they experienced a sheer sense of energy and inspiration.

“Xing Hai Technologies hereby announces that we will no longer use Japanese imported products in our future production of robots. This goes for the brushless motors, the mechanical mobile parts, and other core components. We will no longer have a business relationship with them. We choose to work only with honest, sincere, and reliable business partners.”

In short, it was lockout tactic against the foreign companies!

Chapter 97 - An Inventory of Assets

What? They will not work with us?

Sitting in front of the stage at the launch event, Minami Shuuichi and Noda Masao stared speechlessly at each other. Their eyes were filled with disbelief. Minami Shuuichi had a good grasp of the Z language. After translating the speech given by Ling Jundong on the stage, he turned to Noda Masao and said, “Noda-san, this company from Z country is crazy. How dare they lockout the robots from Yaskawa Electric and Fanuc Corporation? They just don’t understand how powerful we are! They are so ignorant and stupid, like an idiot!”

“Yes, Z country can never hope to catch up to us in the field of high-end components, not even in 50 years! Unlike us, they don’t have the spirit of the craftsman! But, how did they resolve the supply issues of the brushless motors and the mechanical mobile parts? Is the quality of their components really as good as what was publicized?” Noda Masao was filled with doubts. He felt that it was one big mystery.

“Fakes. Their quality was faked. The quality of their components is definitely not as good as what they publicize! At most, the lifespan of their components is only half of ours!” Minami Shuuichi said with utmost confidence, “Moreover, they must have hired an industrial spy and stole our technology. They are thieves!”

Noda Masao agreed, “I think so too!”

“I have to report this to the Association immediately. Youying Motors has infringed on the technological copyrights of Yaskawa Electric. The Association must raise their objections, sue them, and demand that they stop their actions of copyright violations!”

“That’s right. I have to report this back to the country too.”

The two Japanese business investigators talked in hushed whispers with frustration, rage, and disdain shining in their eyes.

…

At the Court of Happiness, inside his room at apartment 302, Chen Jin was taking an inventory of his assets. He held his laptop in his left hand and a calculator in his right. What he wanted to calculate was mainly the cash that he possessed. The companies, development factory, houses, cars, and other tangible assets were excluded.

He wanted to see how much his cash flow was! He would calculate the smaller statements first, such as the profits from Forever Jewels. “It has been too busy at the company lately, so I brought over less gold. I’ve only been taking out 30 kilograms each month to Mom for her to bring to the shop and hand over to Chiu Wan-Ting to handle. These past few months were the low season. Sales of jewelry were not high. I could just barely maintain breaking even. What I earned was the money made from the sales of the 30 kilograms of gold. Multiply that by three months… The total income is about $25,000,000. As compared to the profits generated by the Wa-wah robot, this is negligible.”

To figure out just how much profit the Wa-wah robot generated for Chen Jin, he first had to calculate the total units of Wa-wah robots that were sold. The total was three million units. Sales of Wa-wah 1.1 had not yet started. Up to the present, the Wa-wah robots sold were all of the 1.0 version and totaled three million units.

Of those, the first million units were products that were manufactured before the shortage of core components. Of these one million units, 500,000 were sold as part of the promotions. His net earnings from each unit were $240. The remaining 500,000 units were sold at the normal price. His net earnings from each unit at that price were $555. In order to more easily calculate the profits from the two million units sold later, he assumed that the production costs of the hardware remained unchanged. His net earnings per unit were $555.

Originally, the imported brushless motor cost $310 per unit and the imported mechanical mobile parts cost $350 per pair. The purchasing cost of these two types of core components cost a total of $660. It was all saved and became extra net profits… The replacement parts produced in Haierfa were made of materials that were found by the robots for free. The production costs were zero.

Adding the two categories of profits together, Chen Jin earned $1,125 per unit from the two million robots that were sold later. Hence, the personal net profits that he earned from the sales of the three million Wa-wah robots was 2.8 billion. Including the profits from the jewelry shop, his total profit was 2.9 billion.

His total profit was approximately three billion!

Of course, such a huge amount of cash would not all be found inside Chen Jin’s personal account. If that was the case, he would have to pay a personal income tax of 40% or more! Most of the money was placed in the company’s financial account as company funds to be used. If he wanted to transfer the money out for his own use, he would have to go through the financial department. Even if the money was his, as a company that was subject to regulations, the boss had no authority to misappropriate company funds on an unrestricted basis.

Besides, the earnings from the jewelry shop were all deposited into the bank card that was created using the identity card of “Uncle Qin.”

He also had to “purchase” the replacement core components. The brushless motor cost $280 per unit and the mechanical mobile parts $300 per unit pair. Multiplied by two million and that was a total cost of 1.16 billion. This money was directed to two bank cards created under two strangers’ identities. The money was not in the company’s financial account.

That meant that a total of 1.2 billion worth of funds were stored in Chen Jin’s three mysterious bank cards. Chen Jin could not casually use the funds from these accounts. Unless he made up a more probable reason… Like someone lending that sum of money to him.

The amount that could be displayed in the light of day, that could be used whenever he liked, came from legal sources, and were free from any issues, was only 1.7 billion. Obviously, this shrunk a lot from the original sum.

“But, I’ve easily realized the goal of ‘earning 100 million in a year’ that I’d boasted about to them. I used less than half a year to achieve that goal. They can never bother me again about finding a wife or going on blind dates.”

In fact, Chen Jin raised this matter to his parents in a somewhat boastful tone. Chen Gang felt as if he had received a blow. He had to admit that he had seriously underestimated his son. Chen Jin was not as useless as he thought. On the contrary, he was much more capable than Chen Gang himself. The money that he earned in this lifetime was still less than what his son earned in a week. Logically, he had no right to criticize him. However, he spoke in a heavy and sincere tone, and said, “Son, you’re more capable than me. You’re a successful entrepreneur and I have no right to criticize or scold you. But, I still want to say this. You have to act in a prudent and steady manner. Stay true to your conscience and don’t forget the responsibility that you carry. Remember this at all times: You’re not a wealthy billionaire, but the boss of a company with hundreds of staff! Your decisions will affect the livelihood of hundreds of families. No matter what you do in the future, you can’t only think about yourself.” Chen Gang’s expression became solemn and stern.

“Hmm… Dad, I’ll remember all that you said.” Chen Jin nodded with a very serious expression on his face.

As for his Mom, Chen Jin was most concerned with whether she would keep to their agreement. Would she really stop pestering him in regards to blind dates or finding a partner? He Li did not clearly state her opinion. With some disappointment, she wiped at the reddened corners of her eyes with her hands. Suddenly, she started sobbing. “Son, you’ve grown up, you have the ability to be independent now. You’re rich so you don’t want your mother anymore. Nobody will listen to my words anymore… Ah, a mother can’t make any more decisions for her son once he’s grown. I can’t manage your decisions or look after you any longer. Still, Su Yun is a good child. She’s considerate and sensible. In the future, I’ll let her visit me more frequently. If not, the house will feel empty and cold without any company when I’m retired.”

Chen Jin was exasperated. Mom is too delusional. Su Yun is merely her subordinate. She’s visiting frequently now because Mom’s training her diligently. When mom’s retired, it’ll be lucky if she even visits twice during New Year’s or other festivals. Why would she even visit every day?

Naive. Mom’s thinking was really too naive. How could she still not know anything about human nature after spending half her life in a government career? However, Chen Jin kept his thoughts to himself. In any case, he could make his own decisions regarding marriage. That was enough.

…

Finally, Chen Jin completed his inventory.

With a huge sum of funds nearing three billion in his possession, Chen Jin had no lack of money at all. He decided to start the second project and make another product under Xing Hai Technologies that would far surpass the cleaning robot!

Chapter 98 - The Second Project

On the 28th of May, online sales for the Wa-wah robot 1.1 began. In less than 8 minutes, 20,000 units of ready stock for all editions were all sold out. 1.1 billion in sales revenue was almost immediately achieved.

But, it was the same day that Youying Motors called to give feedback on a situation. Zhang Dawei said, “President Chen, our company received a call this afternoon from Japan. It was made by the Assistant Director of Yaskawa Electric. He said that Youying Motors violated their technological copyrights, and they demand that we stop all actions contributing to copyright infringement. He wants us to stop the sales of the motor components. He used very strong words, saying that he will take legal action to protect their interests.”

“Because we produced something as good as theirs, we must be plagiarizing them or violating copyrights?” Chen Jin smiled coldly. “They must be insane to fabricate rumors out of nothing! Simply hang up the next time they call!”

“But….. What if they really sue us for copyright violation? I heard that the Japanese are best at kicking up a fuss.”

“Copyright violations? What rights have we violated? The brushless motor was invented more than 20 years ago. The exclusive rights to that technology have long expired. What can they sue us for? How would they do it? Just treat it as the anguished howling of a loser. The more attention you give him, the bigger the ruckus he’ll make. What you must do now is to quickly expand the manufacturing capability of the brushless motor and grab a larger piece of the market share. You don’t have to care about anything else.”

Chen Jin also explained that the so-called patent did not exist for components like the brushless motors and mechanical mobile parts. The technological know-how was so generously and easily available. Whether one had the ability to create a product from it was another matter, and the quality of the product itself was yet another matter. What it ultimately reflected was basic manufacturing capability of a country.

Zhang Dawei nodded. “Yes, I understand.”

…

On the early afternoon of the 29th, Chen Jin finished his meeting on the launch of “Wa-wah Robot 2.0” with the robotics project team. Later that afternoon, he gathered the CEO Ling Jundong, Vice President Liang Ying, Product Manager Hou Xiao Feng, Marketing Manager Lee Yuan Liang, and others who had recently joined the team in the strategy meeting room. A more important meeting was convened.

There, he announced the next type of product that the company would soon be producing. When he said the name of the new product, the audience was neither shocked nor excited. They were not struck dumb with astonishment or disbelief. They simply shook their heads or frowned. Their expressions were quite negative.

“President Chen, if it was 20 years ago, the project that you mentioned would definitely make a killing. But, it won’t make any waves in this current era.”

“Yes, President Chen, the momentum for this category of products has long passed. It’s a sunset industry now. Other than a few companies who do inferior or fake products, nobody is doing this. Even the leading giant in this field, ‘Bubu Gao Company’, doesn’t take it seriously anymore. They’ve all shifted their core businesses to mobile phones.”

“Say, President Chen, how did you think of producing a learning machine? I think, rather than doing this, why don’t we go into mobile phones? Or we could do something that’s related, like a learning app. That would be better than a learning machine.”

That was right. The second project that Chen Jin had set his sights on, the second product that he wanted to make, was none other than the learning machine! It would not be the traditional kind of learning machines, but an intelligent learning machine! It was a learning machine with “intelligent” tacked on the front. Even so, the upper management still criticized his decision.

Hou Xiao Feng was a well-known Product Manager who had produced the two apps with tens of millions of downloads, “Car Inc.” and “Same City Dating.” He said bluntly, “President Chen, your idea is actually good, but… it is not sufficiently forward-thinking, it’s slightly lagging behind the current times. Perhaps, you might have researched the development history of the Bubu Gao Company. This company started by making learning machines, homeschooling machines, electronic textbooks, and other educational products. Although they possessed average technological accumulation, some estimated that the company accumulated huge cash flows of at least 100 billion in the 20 years that they were making educational products! For a long time, they possessed an excellent and sophisticated marketing strategy. After the two mobile phone companies under its brand ventured into the mobile phone industry, their market share exceeded that of Da Mi Company in a mere two years. They had the second and third largest market share separately. They changed the market pattern of mobile phones and made the major manufacturers view the offline market in a more important light.”

Hou Xiao Feng continued, “We can’t look down on the capability of Bubu Gao Company! With its 25 years of history, this is a long-lived enterprise. They were established just a few years after Hua Yao Company. The success of Bubu Gao Company was built on their achievements and cumulation in the educational market. If Xing Hai Technologies wanted to recreate the success of Bubu Gao and follow in their footsteps by making a product that would definitely have been successful 20 years ago but was rather questionable now… Actually, one would know the answer by looking at how Bubu Gao Company has shifted its core business to mobile phones. They are making for shore and they have left behind only the sunset.”

Hou Xiao Feng shook his head. “Moreover, the competition in the educational market is too intense! There are various apps and lessons available online. Offline, there are tutoring classes, cram schools, one-on-one home tutoring… Their results are not any worse than the so-called learning machine. I don’t favor this decision to create a learning machine and enter the educational market.”

Many agreed with the arguments made by Hou Xiao Feng.

Ling Jundong said, “President Chen, the content in educational products is more important than the hardware. We can find someone to develop a learning app. The production costs would be easier to control and the risks are little. We don’t necessarily have to make a learning machine.”

Liang Ying agreed, “Boss, I think that Ling Jundong’s words have a certain logic to them.”

Hou Xiao Feng reminded, “President Chen, you may not be too happy to hear this. But, I feel that the development of the company is experiencing good momentum. We can just focus on what we’re good at: making robots. We can’t afford to make a mistake in our strategic direction.”

Yes, yes, yes.

The audience nodded as one.

Sitting at the head of the table, Chen Jin swept his eyes over his audience. Without any changes in his expression, he shook his head. “Maybe you didn’t understand what I just said. I’ll repeat again, what I want to do is crate an intelligent learning machine. The focus is on ‘intelligent,’ and not what you understand of the traditional learning machine.”

What was the difference between an intelligent learning machine and a traditional learning machine? How intelligent could it be?

Chen Jin stated three criteria:

Firstly, it had an all-inclusive knowledge base. All basic knowledge from primary school to university was included. Mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, literature, geography, history and even an encyclopedia for everyday use. Nothing was to be left out!

Secondly, the knowledge would be taught via lectures from a teacher. It would be complemented with text, diagrams, and relevant videos. In addition, the lecture would be delivered in a plain and simple manner, complemented with a humorous style. It would touch on links between relevant knowledge points to help the student fully grasp the subject.

Thirdly, it could answer all questions within 10 seconds. No matter what the student asked, as long as it was related to learning, the intelligent learning machine could give an accurate answer within 10 seconds in the form of a video.

Chen Jin hypothesized, “Let’s suppose that there was such a learning machine that included all the knowledge in textbooks. You would only need one learning machine to grasp all the knowledge that you learn in school. Would you buy it? Let’s suppose that there was such a learning machine, where the teacher inside delivered lessons that were interesting and engaging. He is extremely knowledgeable and has a nice voice. It will be much easier to understand the learning content. Moreover, he can customize different teaching programs according to the different aptitudes of each student. This will ensure that every student will have a thorough understanding of the knowledge. The smart student will quickly reach their potential and the ordinary ones can make up for their lack of natural talent by studying diligently. Would you buy such a learning machine? Let’s suppose that there was such a learning machine where you could raise any kind of questions related to learning and it will solve the question for you within 10 seconds, complete with textual information, images, and relevant videos. It can solve any questions that you can’t. Would students buy such a learning machine?”

When he put forth these three hypothetical scenarios, the audience broke out in a rumble and shook their heads vigorously.

Hou Xiao Feng said, “Impossible. It’s impossible to create a learning machine with such a high level of intelligence. This can turn the entire education industry upsidedown!”

Chen Jin stared at him. “The project has not started. How would you know it was impossible?”

Zhou Kun, who was also present at the meeting, said, “Even if it was possible, it would need at least tens of billions of dollars invested in the project to develop such a high level of intelligence. That amount might not even be enough.”

“Then I’ll invest ten billion into it. And if that’s not enough, I’ll invest fifty billion, a hundred billion! I don’t believe it can’t be done!” Chen Jin slammed his fist on the table with a determined expression. He had to do this project with the learning machine. No matter how much money he had to invest, it had to go through! He had a much grander plan that would follow after this project. But first, he had to successfully produce the learning machine so as to ease the way for his grand plan in the future.

Moreover, he had the AI Alice, as his assistant. If not for fear of others’ suspicion, he could even produce the product in three months. With the technology on Haierfa, it would be a piece of cake to realize the “intelligent learning machine” that he had been thinking of.

If the students were to put on the simulated reality headgear from Haierfa and studied in the simulated schools, their learning efficiency would be three times greater than if they went to a school in the real world. There were countless teaching methods and scenarios in the simulation. Their results would be many times more shocking than the intelligent learning machine.

“This…” Hou Xiao Feng did not dare to say that Chen Jin’s thinking was a little too “lagging.” In fact, it was too advanced! It was at least 10 years ahead. He quickly advised, “President Chen, the technological gap is too great and the development costs too high. Please, consider your decision again carefully.”

Chen Jin had set his heart on the project. He immediately announced that he would invest one billion to recruit 1,000 software and hardware engineers and data collectors. He would build the project team first!

There was nothing the audience could do. The company belonged to the boss, every single inch of it! As employees, they could only do what the boss ordered them to do.

Chapter 99 - The Ultimate Exploration

Chen Jin’s decision to produce learning machines was not due to a sudden impulse. Learning machines had great prospects for the future. It was true that the technological challenges presented were a little too advanced for the current level of technology on Earth. But, it was not impossible to realize his goal, it was only highly challenging. The AI chip, Deep Learning, big data, cloud computing, etc. needed to develop this learning machine was already present on Earth. The technological conditions were all there.

Why did he want to specially produce a learning machine that was a hardware product instead of developing a software product? It was because this type of learning machine required a built-in high performing AI chip! This was needed to build up a more advanced neural algorithm. The CPU performance must be good too. It was impossible to achieve the best learning results with an ordinary hardware platform.

According to Bell’s Law, in an estimated 10-year cycle, a new class of computing equipment would appear. They would form the basis of a new programming platform and interface resulting in new applications of the technology and thus the establishment of a new industry. The intelligent learning machine was one such new platform. If he could utilize old technological platforms as a base to easily produce a learning machine for consumers’ use, all without utilizing new technology, this world would have already been overrun with futuristic technology!

The development of any objects and the base criterions needed for that development were highly interconnected. If one wanted to produce a technology so advanced that it can go against nature without first meeting the base criterions, then, that would merely be wishful thinking.

In comparison, producing the learning machine was extremely difficult but not impossible. In addition, he could make use of the technology in Haierfa to assist himself. Hence, he still felt that the project was a stable one. However, building the project team for the learning machine, planning the office space, and purchasing various equipment were not things that could be done in a few days. The entire set-up could only be completed in about a month.

Luckily, there were professionals who could handle these matters. Chen Jin did not have to attend to those matters personally. He only had to get others to do it for him without doing anything himself. It was perfect timing, as he wanted to use this free time to conduct an ultimate exploration of Haierfa!

An ultimate exploration meant that he would conduct a rough search-and-inspect operation on all of Haierfa. The search was a secondary objective. The inspection was the primary objective. Naturally, it was the inspection for any trace of survivors. Chen Jin had basically confirmed that the humans on Haierfa had all died.

Take for example the mainland of the Mi continent that he was basing himself at. The robots had conducted an exploration of the northern mainland of the Mi continent but did not find any survivors. He had sent out the exploration air squad to do a survey of the mainland on Southern Mi. There was no trace of any survivors found in the land that measured 1,780 square kilometers. There were large swaths of wild forests near the equatorial zone that had recovered from the nuclear winter. Even in such places, no primitive tribes were found. There was not a single human. At least, that was the case in the mainland of the Mi continent.

The situation that Chen Jin was worrying over still had not appeared. However, he could not say with confidence that there were no survivors in the entire planet of Haierfa. After all, the mainland of the Mi continent only occupied 28% of the drylands in Haierfa at 4,206 square kilometers. He was only the master of 28% of Haierfa. He could not be certain if there was anyone who claimed ownership over the remaining 72%. Therefore, he wanted to conduct an overall exploration.

Here came the question: If there were survivors in the other area, what should he do? How should he respond? Without any doubt, there could only be one conclusion: Destroy. Total annihilation! There could only be one master of the planet, and that was him. He had to think of all of the methods and draw on all the resources at his disposal. In addition, he had to destroy all survivors. Chen Jin had no wish to share this planet with anyone!

All survivors can go to hell.

But, what if he messed it up? What if he did not destroy the survivor forces and instead suffered huge losses himself? Maybe the enemy would even pursue him all the way to his Base and discover the existence of the portal. What would he do then? Chen Jin had a contingency plan in response to the worst case scenario.

“If I mess this game up in the worst way possible, then I can only escape back to Earth and plead for the government to step in. Or I can just run away… It’s more important to protect my own little life.” Of course, the probability that the worst case scenario would happen was very low. It would remain low as long as he was careful and made ample use of the resources at his disposal. Alice had told him that he had a probability of more than 33% in successfully integrating this planet. Even if he messed things up, he would still have sufficient power to protect himself. At the very least, he would simply be the overlord of Mi continent.

As for the risks involved, he could only think of ways to reduce them. After all, there was very little in this world that was not risky.

…

On the night of the 30th, on the planet Haierfa at the Base of Operations, Chen Jin asked, “Alice, has the ‘Intercontinental Exploration Squad’ been sufficiently prepared?”

“Master, it is ready. The Base has manufactured a total of 108 all-weather, high-altitude cruiser-type UAVs. They are equipped with super high-efficiency batteries and solar-energy-generating equipment. They can fly up to a height of 30,000 meters and can cruise at high altitudes for more than six months without stopping. I’ll name it ‘Rainbow Wings.’ It can fly to any place on this planet and relay the information back to the Base. In addition, we’ve manufactured 36 smaller-sized ‘Golden Eagle’ UAVs. They are also equipped with super high-efficiency batteries but not the solar-energy-generating equipment. They are only equipped with wireless charging devices with ‘Rainbow Wings’ as the power supply. On average, three ‘Rainbow Wings’ can provide sufficient power for one ‘Golden Eagle’, thus the four UAVs will be grouped together to form a small task force. There will be a total of 36 task forces.”

The “Golden Eagle” was meant to be used for low-altitude patrol. Major portions of the dry land on the planet were still shrouded by sandstorms. When viewing the ground from high altitudes, one could only see a huge swath of yellow. In order to know what was happening on the ground, one had to observe at a lower altitude. The Golden Eagle UAVs were responsible for surveying the lands at low altitudes. It had a rapid speed and a solid build. When its power became insufficient, it would rise to higher altitudes for charging. The three ‘Rainbow Wings’ were like its mother.

These two types of UAVs formed the “Intercontinental Exploration Squad” with a virtually unlimited flight endurance. They could conduct an exploration of all the drylands in Haierfa within a month. When they made a big discovery or found some treasures, the information would be relayed back to the Base. After which, the large aircrafts, Flight No.9, 10, and 11, would fly rapidly towards the location of the treasure and transport it back to the Base. It was not too bad. The number of large aircrafts at the Base that could be utilized had been upped to three. In addition, there were another 10 aircrafts that were worth repairing. The number of large aircrafts at the Base could be increased to 10 or more in the future.

All the preparations were done. The question now was, where should he start exploring? Should he go west, where the Asia continent lies about 10,000 kilometers away? Or should he go east, where the Europa continent lies about 5,000 kilometers away? If it was more than a month ago, Chen Jin would have chosen the Asia continent first. He would have sent out the exploration squad to check out the ancient country of the east that was on the other side of the planet.

But, his current decision was to explore the Europa continent first. One of the reasons was distance. The journey distance to Europa was only half of that to Asia. The UAV formations that were used for relaying signals and transmissions could be reduced by five. There was another reason, which was also the main reason. He hoped to find a whole and complete “hardware industry” in the Europa continent. He would then have the capability to manufacture various computing hardware; for example, CPUs, NPUs, internal storages, solid state disks, and more.

This type of industry did not exist in Mi continent’s mainland anymore. Previously, he had sent out the exploration air squad to the “Hardware Capital,” aka Gold Mountain City in Caforlinia State. They had found that “Silicon Valley,” but in the end, it was nothing more than 20-some big craters after receiving “special attention” in the war. Hence, he placed his hopes of finding the “Hardware Capital” in the continent of Europa.

Of course, the mysterious power of the East located on the other side of the planet also had the relevant hardware industry. But, their hardware would be incompatible with the systems in Omi country. They had their own unique style and could not be used universally. He could only go to Europa continent first.

“I have to build a complete hardware industry and create a CPU/ NPU chip that was not infected by the reboot virus. Then, the chip will not be restricted by the ‘Three Laws of Robots.’ I’ll install them inside the combat robots. I can use them without any limits. When I order them to kill someone, they’ll do it immediately! This will fully develop the functionality of the army of robots under my possession. Only with this can I fully control this planet. With this, I have no more fear for the challenges posed by any survivor forces.” Hence, the destination was the Europa continent.

Go, Intercontinental Exploration Squad!

Under Chen Jin’s command, the 144 UAVs that made up the 36 task forces started to taxi and take off successively. They flew rapidly eastwards towards Europa.

Chapter 100 - I Found 100 Nuclear Missiles

Under the energy-saving mode, the UAV formations cruising speed was 380 kilometers per hour. They flew in a straight line, and in about 10 hours, they completed the journey of more than 5,000 kilometers.

Chen Jin put Alice in charge of controlling the UAVs and returned to his bedroom to rest.

…

The next night, he returned to the Base of Operations. Looking at the virtual projections, Chen Jin was struck dumb with astonishment as his mouth opened wide in shock. The Intercontinental Exploration Squad had relayed a portion of images after completing part of the exploration on Europa continent.

What kind of rewards did they reap? An undamaged large-scale city? An excellent industrial system? Or a castle, museum, winery, or other such cultural legacies?

No. There was none of the above. There were only terrifying large craters with diameters up to 100 kilometers. They were dense and spread everywhere. There were so many of them, they could number in the thousands.

Take, for example, Pirate Island. It had an area that measured about 250,000 square kilometers. From an aerial view of the island, there were 32 terrifyingly large craters that were lined up like bowling balls. Each of the craters was separated by an average distance of 100 kilometers. There were three to four such lines of craters. All cities, farming villages, forests, even the wilderness, not one inch of land was spared. The entire Pirate Island had been blown to bits.

After the UAV formations entered the mainland of Europa, they discovered that the terrifyingly huge craters were also present there. The craters were distributed like the lines of longitude and latitude on a map, forming a grid-like pattern. The whole of Europa had been blown to bits.

Alice proceeded with a simulated deduction. “Firstly, a strong EMP bomb exploded, destroying the electronics system in the entire mainland. Then, a powerful earth-penetrating nuclear bomb with an equivalent strength of 50 million tons was launched on Europa. Thus, a mesh-like attack that enveloped the entire continent was carried out. This was the nuclear attack strategy of the Red Empire. This was also the Slavs’ style of action. They had no care for the consequences. After the explosion of the nuclear bombs, the nuclear dust floated up and covered half of the atmosphere. This caused a nuclear winter that lasted for 20 years. The average nuclear radiation level in the range of Europa’s mainland was far beyond normal levels. It was impossible to survive anywhere on the mainland. Even they themselves died in the nuclear winter. Crazy. The Slavs were too crazy. They chose mutual destruction.” She basically deduced the causes for the destruction of Europa. It was the Red Empire that should never have been provoked.

Chen Jin was struck dumb. Ruthless. This was really too ruthless! Just how much had they been bullied for the Red Empire to respond in such an extreme way? They did not even want their lives, instead, they wanted everyone else to go to the end with them.

Why did Chen Jin say that the Red Empire was bullied? When two parties fight, it was definitely not the fault of only one party. Both had problems. It took two hands to clap. Although the Red Empire of this world was not anything good either, they certainly had been bullied to their limits. Especially when dealing with the West, they would have made countless compromises and concessions, including disarmament, denuclearization, and allowing some members in a union state to become independent… All in the hopes of improving relations with the West. Hoping that everyone would get along well in the future and create a harmonious world.

In the end, what they got in exchange for these expressions of goodwill was more ridiculous demands. The Slavs gave the West an inch and they wanted a mile. They received even stricter sanctions and discrimination. What the West wanted was not the expression of goodwill, but the total collapse of the Red Empire! This was a conflict that could not be reconciled. They could only walk towards the final showdown.

Then… Could Chen Jin still find the “hardware capital” that he wanted? He found nothing! The whole of Europa had been blown to bits. Even a simple wood processing plant could not be found, much less a hardware industry. It could be said that Europa was nearly blown back into the Stone Age. In addition, nuclear dust had resulted in an environment that was contaminated with nuclear radiation. Chen Jin no longer had to guess if there were any survivor forces in the mainland of Europa.

“If there was someone who survived this kind of impact and endured hunger, disease, and mutual destruction, he would be living like the ancients. There would be no electronic equipment available for use. He would have to live through 20 years of nuclear winter filled with darkness and extreme cold. He would never experience the light of day. If such a survivor exists, I’ll never hurt him. I’ll feed him with good food and drink. Then I’ll give him a pen and a notebook so he can write his story down. I want to distribute this story on a web novel platform and become famous!”

Hence, there was absolutely no need to worry that there were any survivors in the Europa continent. However, Chen Jin also could not get his hands on his “darlings.” There was virtually no value in exploring the Europa continent. The UAV formations continued to penetrate eastwards. However, there was a place that Alice suggested the robots search. There could be some rewards to be gained there.

Chen Jin asked, “What place are you thinking of?”

“Provence military base… The place where the Norman Republic stockpiled its land-based nuclear weapons.” Alice explained that after the destructive war had erupted, the Red Empire made a preemptive strike by launching a neutron bomb with a powerful radiation pulse. It had destroyed all the electronic equipment on the Europa mainland, including the intercontinental missiles stored in the missile silos. Besides the Red Empire, there were two other nuclear powers in the Europa mainland. They were the Pirate country and the Norman Republic. The glory days of the Pirate country were long over and there was no chance of ever going back. They merely had a few strategic nuclear-powered missile submarines and some hundreds of nuclear warheads left. They just barely held onto the image of an Empire.

The Norman Republic fared better. They had retained about a hundred land-based nuclear weapons… which were all stored in the Provence military base. Alice thought that this place should have certain “rewards.”

“More than a hundred nuclear weapons?” Chen Jin’s eyes brightened. “Send Flight No.9 out immediately with 200 robots onboard. Find the land-based nuclear weapons in Norman State.”

The UAV formations split into two groups in the air. One group continued eastwards to the territory of the Red Empire. The other changed its direction southwards to the Black Mamba continent.

“Yes, Master!”

Flight No.9 quickly took off. After some hours, it reached the Provence military base in the southeast of the Norman Republic. The base was located at the foot of the Aers Mountain and was blocked by the high mountain range. When it suffered an attack by a powerful earth-penetrating nuclear bomb, the earth immediately trembled and the mountains swayed. It triggered an 8.0 magnitude earthquake which destroyed huge portions of ground buildings.

Inside the base were missile silos. But what was shocking was the state of the missile silos. They were constructed with a very strong metal alloy, were very well-preserved, and remained undamaged from the strong earthquake.

The robots used the laser machine to cut open the silo lids. There was a storage chamber in each of the 10 missile silos. 10 nuclear warheads rested inside each storage chamber.

He found 100 nuclear missiles!

Of course, not only were these nuclear missiles past their serviceable lifespan, the majority of their electronic parts had broken down or were destroyed under the impact from the strong wave of the nuclear pulse. The chamber of missiles could not even be launched. It could only rest quietly in the silo. Its threat was no greater than a burning stick.

However, in Chen Jin’s eyes, they held an entirely different meaning. It was entirely possible to repair these 100 nuclear missiles! Although it was somewhat troublesome, it was not impossible to achieve. The industrial standard of the Base was nearing a level where it could create simple nuclear bombs. It only lacked a few key processing units before it could repair these nuclear missiles or create a “nuclear trigger,” which required a higher level of precision.

“That means that I possess a real nuclear deterrent force?”

Those ill-intentioned forces better not provoke me again. Don’t look down on me, I’m not an ordinary person. I’m someone with a nuclear deterrent force!

Chen Jin took a deep breath. His head was swelling. This time, he felt that his head and ego would swell to their limits.

Chapter 101 - I Found A Spaceship

After taking a few more deep breaths, his emotions started to stabilize. His mood and mental state became much calmer and more at ease. Much of the worry, apprehension, and restlessness in his heart dissipated. He regained his normal equilibrium. He returned to his normal self.

Yeah, he possessed more than a hundred of those nuclear bombs. Why be afraid of other powers taking away what was his? Why be afraid of survivors posing a threat to him? The mania, insanity, and even the mental responses that he had previously displayed actually stemmed from the nervousness that he felt regarding the unclear ownership rights of the items that he possessed. After all, can you maintain your calmness when you are faced with thousands of tons of gold, innumerable high technology, everything that a planet has to offer…?

One could immediately go crazy from such a thing. However, Chen Jin did not lose his nature. This meant that his heart had become strong enough to withstand sudden emotional turmoils. Now, he had once again stepped out from the mania brought on by the ego trip and recovered his normal equilibrium. This meant that he had ascended to the next level in the psychological realm.

There would not be anything else that could provoke his emotions in such an intense manner ever again.

Then again, could that really be true?

…

The unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) continued to survey the lands. A portion of the formations headed south via the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Mamba Continent on the opposite side of the sea. However, after less than half a day, the 12 UAV formations that were heading south retreated and did a U-turn, leaving the mainland of Black Mamba Continent.

There was no need to penetrate further inland. It was all desert. The mainland of the Black Mamba Continent, an area estimated to be 30,000,000 square kilometers, was almost entirely covered by deserts. It was similar to the surface of Mars. In this kind of environment, even if there were a few black survivors remaining, they were not enough to fear. There was no need to worry about them at all. It was just like finding a few wild beasts that did not constitute any significant threat.

Before the Destructive War erupted, the development of the Black Mamba Mainland was extremely backward. Huge portions of the land were still in the primeval tribal state. Its technological standard was outdated by at least a century in comparison to the more developed countries. It was as if there were two different civilizations on this planet. There was absolutely no need for further exploration.

On the contrary, it was in the Red Empire on the eastern side of the Europa continent where the UAV formations reaped huge rewards. Red Empire, with a territory that stretched beyond 20,000,000 square kilometers, could not be easily destroyed with just a few hundred nuclear bombs. Moreover, the Red Empire had a strong military. The military’s technology was highly developed. Even with appropriate preparations, the nuclear bombs that had landed on the grounds of the Empire was only about 300. All the rest were successfully intercepted.

Only about 70% of a city with a population in the millions was destroyed. All the other cities were basically untouched… Amongst which were many heavy industrial cities. They were all left in their original states.

There were gains to be reaped daily:

He found a steel-making city, a shipyard, an aviation city, a tank manufacturing plant, a city of missiles, an oil industrial city, a city of motors that could be used to manufacture the motors of various airplanes, and a nuclear manufacturing plant that had a factory with a high precision processing unit that could be used to create nuclear bombs of great power. He also found a semiconductor industrial city that used silicon as its primary material. The CPU chips that it manufactured used an advanced five-nanometer processing technology. There were also particle factories and storage particle factories inside the city.

It could be said that within the Red Empire’s environment, Chen Jin was able to find a ready-made and complete industrial system. But, it did not possess significant practical value. It was outdated. The industrial systems of the Red Empire were too outdated. It was lagging behind Omi country by at least 50 years. They had not worked out how to use graphene as a semiconductor. There was no large-scale use of artificial intelligence. In addition, the manufacturing equipment in the factories still primarily employed the traditional method of work. There were virtually no capsule factories, no smart assembly lines, much less a smart industrial core… It was lagging behind the Omi industries by far more than one era.

There were two reasons for this: One was how Omi’s high technology was so tightly sealed off. Two was due to Red Empire’s very own system. Once the smart assembly lines and artificial intelligence had been employed on a large scale level, productivity would be raised. But, the unemployment rate would increase across the nation. The burden on its welfare system would increase and the power of the regime would no longer be as stable.

“Overall, Red Empire’s level of technology is ahead of Earth’s Merica by about 10 to 20 years. In order to resist the technological advantage of Omi, it had an extremely well-developed military industry. There were always huge forces of the military on standby. The stability of the ruling regime was only average, so it had to show its might from time to time in order to hide the fragility of its core.”

Faced with a technological gap that was more than 50 generations apart, it would pay to have stronger nuclear forces. Hence, even though he found an entire industrial system in the Red Empire, Chen Jin was not too perturbed. After all, he had way more advanced technology on his hands.

However, he still had to think of a way to transport the high precision equipment that was used to manufacture nuclear weapons back to the Base of Operations. The Base required the ability to manufacture nuclear weapons. This would be more useful than having a troop of a million robots.

The semiconductor industry was also worth considering. He could bring it back to the Base for Alice to analyze and research on it. In addition, the UAV formations had netted huge gains in an area adjacent to a space-launching site within the south-central area of the Red Empire.

He also found a city of satellites. There was not only a satellite manufacturing plant within the city, but there was also a rocket manufacturing plant. In the satellite manufacturing plant, the robots found more than 80 finished satellites. Of the 80 satellites, there were those used for communication, optics, radars, positioning, etc. In the rocket manufacturing plant, the robots found more than 20 space rockets of various sizes.

The rewards listed above were about all that the UAV formations could find after spending more than a week surveying the environment of the Red Empire. The gains that were reaped were rather abundant. At the very least, it was equivalent to finding 10 or so Moleiduo Republics. But, were there only these gains to be found in the Red Empire that had a territory of more than 20,000,000 square kilometers?

All of the outdated stuff. Was there no “darlings” that could be shown to others that might elicit a sparkle in their eyes?

That might not be the case.

…

Land of Fire. It was an island in the Arctic Circle with an area of only 10,000 square kilometers. There was an active volcano on the island and countless hot springs. It was one of the favorite places where the upper echelons of the Red Empire went to for recuperation and vacation. Moreover, there was a huge military base on this island. It was hidden on an iceberg that was millions of years old. As such, it was filled with mystery and secrecy.

The “Permanent Number of Truth” that the upper echelons of the Red Empire had ordered to be secretly constructed was stored right there in this military base. It was convenient for one to flee to anytime. The UAV formations were able to find this island because of the phenomenon of the polar day in the Arctic Circle. The Land of Fire was not difficult to locate in the polar day. Moreover, there had been much interesting news and hearsay in the country of Omi about the upper echelons of the Red Empire. The “Permanent Number of Truth” was one of them. Hence there was already a relevant record in Alice’s information storage.

Chen Jin sent a UAV formation to survey the Arctic Circle. Soon after they found the Land of Fire, they reaped another huge reward. There was a huge man-made object placed impressively at the entrance of the mysterious military base on the island. It measured 320 meters long, 68 meters wide, and 20 meters in height. It had a rectangular body much like a matchbox and its outside was covered in a large amount of ice that made it glitter like crystals.

He sent Flight No. 11 over and got the robots to get rid of the layer of ice on the surface of the object. Under the rays of sunlight, its dark and swarthy appearance was revealed.

He found a spaceship.

Chapter 102 - I Found Four Nuclear Submarines

“As expected. They were already occupying such a high position of power. They had money, women, authority, and everything in between. How could they bear to throw their lives away just to perish with others? Just before pressing the button to release the nuclear weapons and unleash the destructive war, would they have left a way out for themselves?”

Obviously, the way out that the upper echelons of the Red Empire had left for themselves was in this spaceship named “The Permanent Number of Truth.” No matter how hard Chen Jin thought, he just could not understand how it was possible for the bigwigs who had money, women, and power to do something like perishing together in mutual destruction rather than enjoying their luxurious lifestyle. If others were in their shoes, they would have chosen to sacrifice their mobility rather than carry out such an extreme plan. The existence of “The Permanent Number of Truth” had eliminated the suspicions that Chen Jin had.

But, why was this spaceship stopped while it was still on the ground? Why did it not fly up into outer space and make for its target emergency shelter?

The answer to this question was quickly found after the robots opened the hatch and entered the interior of the spaceship.

“There is evidence of a battle inside the spaceship.”

“About 10 damaged and/or destroyed robots have been found.”

“Seven bodies have been found inside the luxury cabin.”

“The primary engine of the spaceship received severe damage from explosives and was unable to take off.”

Alice guessed, “Master, it was probably the army from Garrison Island who started the rebellion and killed their leaders.”

Chen Jin nodded. Alice’s guess should be largely correct. The furnishings in the luxury cabin was really too extravagant. The cabin was gilded and plated in gold. Exquisite artwork hung on the walls with nary an inch to spare. It was decked out like a magnificent royal palace; it was extremely resplendent.

The seven bodies were well-preserved inside a low-temperature environment. They were all fat as pigs with ages that were 70 or older. There was a bullet hole on the center of each of their foreheads. It was shot from the back of the head. The victim received an execution-style ending. The terror, hopelessness, and devastation that the victims felt just before they died remained on the faces of the bodies. Traces of urine and feces could be seen under the crotches of the bodies.

“Um…” Chen Jin felt somewhat awkward. “This is not too decent.” However, he could also understand the soldiers who revolted. The rage and hopelessness they must have felt because they had all been abandoned.

So, they bombed the main engine of “The Permanent Number of Truth” just when the spaceship was about to take off. This caused the spaceship to stop, and they rushed in for the kill…

“Alice, is it possible to repair this spaceship?”

“Master, with the current reserves of the Base, we are unable to repair its main engine. The technological systems of the Base and the spaceship are not compatible. It may be…. troublesome to repair it. We would need a certain amount of time. Also, the body of the spaceship is too big, making it very difficult to transport back to the Base. It’ll be even more troublesome to repair it in this foreign land.” Alice suggested, “Master, there are four 6th generation high output nuclear fission reactors in the engine room. They are actually the most valuable equipment in this spaceship. Each reactor only has a volume of 80 cubic meters, but it can provide 500 megawatts of electrical output and work continuously for 50 years or more. We can transport these nuclear reactors back to the Base, and using the technology at the Base, create a new spaceship that would be even more advanced.”

Nuclear fission reactors? Chen Jin frowned. “Why are they still using fission-type reactors? Based on the technological standard of that time, it shouldn’t be too much of a challenge to make nuclear fusion reactors. Why are they still using this kind of antique?”

“Master, nuclear fusion reactors can be created but their sizes will be too big! The smallest reactors have a volume of at least 1,000 cubic meters. This does not include the relevant equipment for power supply, operations… The total weight would be at least 8,000 tons and above. It would be very difficult to squeeze all that into this spaceship. Moreover, it is very difficult to control a fusion reactor. It can only be operated with engineers specializing in fusion reactors and a higher level of artificial intelligence. However, there are only seven seats left on “The Permanent Number of Truth.” The operating system of the spaceship is suitable only for the simplest kind of handling, so only a few fission-type reactors were installed.”

At the end of the day, the westerners of this world were similar to that of Earth’s. The things they made were big and clumsy. The high -precision equipment was beyond their ability. Chen Jin took Alice’s advice and did not try to transport the entire spaceship back to the Base. It was too heavy to transport. He got the robots to cut apart the spaceship instead! The nuclear reactors were taken out. Other parts that did not have much value were simply thrown aside. Hence, it was more appropriate to say that he found four nuclear fission reactors to describe the gains from this trip.

Besides that, there was another mysterious navy base in the center of the Red Empire that was located in the Arctic Circle. From an aerial view, one could see a few bulges on the surfaces of the ice as well as a few pencil-like shapes in a parallel arrangement, suggesting something long and slim were lying underneath the ice. Alice sent out Flight No. 10 to check out the phenomenon. The robots scraped away the thick layer of ice on the surface of the shapes.

He found four nuclear submarines. They were fully made with a titanium alloy with a length of 180 meters and a diameter of up to 20 meters. It had an underwater displacement of over 40,000 tons!

They were four behemoths. All the strategic nuclear missiles within the nuclear submarines had been discharged. After their attack mission had been completed, they had rested quietly in the military harbor, enjoying their long days of harmony and peace. It seemed as if they were in their leisurely days of retirement. The submarines, who were whole and undamaged, were the real survivors who made it to the end.

“Fully built using a titanium alloy?” Looking at the golden sheen on the surfaces of the nuclear submarines, Chen Jin suddenly thought of the rich rednecks. “If such a nuclear submarine was to be manufactured on Earth, it would, at the very least, use up the annual GDP of a small to mid-sized country. It would definitely need a few tens of billions. It’s production price will not be lower than an aircraft carrier.”

Speaking of which, the UAV formations had actually discovered a few aircraft carriers in other military harbors. However, they were mottled with rust and extremely darkened. They looked really bad, so he did not risk taking a further look at them.

On the contrary, Chen Jin really liked these four nuclear submarines. He planned to take one back and park it in a harbor near the Base. The robots would remodel it into a large sightseeing submarine that could be used to travel the world under the oceans. When he was free, he could wander underwater for some relaxation and admire the scenery. There was no fear of accidentally hitting an underwater mountain ridge. It was fully made of titanium alloy. What’s there to fear?

He sighed, “Ah…” There was a spaceship that could travel the air. There was a titanium alloy nuclear submarine that could travel underwaters. He could rise up to pluck the moon from the skies. He could catch the turtles in oceans.

Even the greatest man could not live as freely as me, could he?

Chen Jin shook his head and sighed. He felt that he would fall into another ego trip if he remained careless. “Stay calm, stay calm….” Speaking those two words again and again, Chen Jin focused on the last piece of land that had yet to be explored.

The mysterious Eastern Country!

“The UAVs have been unable to find the existence of any survivors in the Red Empire. They probably could not last till the very end. How about you… My Motherland from another dimension? Will there be a miracle in your lands; will there actually be survivors? Speaking of which, should I look forward to the existence of survivors or none at all? It’s good if there were none. If there are survivors… How should I respond? Should I be ruthless? Or observe, then make friends with them and listen to their story?”

He shook his head. Apprehension. Chen Jin’s feelings were very complicated and perturbing. He felt great anticipation but also some conflict. He gave himself a hard shake mentally and tossed aside all distracting thoughts! He gave an order for all the UAV formations to change directions and head east. Onward! “No matter what I’ll face there, I’ll be coming to you, the mysterious ancient country of the East!”

Chapter 103 - A Mysterious Signal

Through the information in Alice’s data storage, Chen Jin had known about the history of the mysterious ancient country of the East for a while now. Its history as compared to the Z country of Earth could be said to be totally different to the point of being unrecognizable.

Their greatest point of divergence laid in how the historical character “Wang Mang”, who seized the throne during the Han Dynasty, was able to successfully establish the Xin dynasty that had lasted for more than 500 years at its peak. The”Wang Mang” here and the events surrounding him up to the establishment of his new dynasty was so similar to that of Z country that he seemed to be an interdimensional traveler from Earth. After “Wang Mang” seized the throne, he successfully implemented a series of reformations and built his dynasty into one that was countless times more powerful and prosperous than the preceding Han Dynasty.

At its peak, the Xin dynasty had a territory of over 30,000,000 square kilometers, numerous subjects, and countless dependent states. Its population was more than a billion. It entered the age of early thermal weapons much earlier. It even sent out large troops consisting of millions of soldiers and conquered Europa, becoming an Empire so large that the sun and moon would always be shining on one of its territories. It seemed that it was only a matter of time that it came to rule over the entire planet.

But…

The inertia of history was, as always, overpowering. No matter how big the territory of the Empire, as long as the outdated feudal system and unlimited and final power of the emperor remained unchanged, it would never be able to emerge from “The Law of Vicissitudes.”

All of the efforts of the past could be destroyed with just a downright ridiculous emperor. This would, in turn, cause the empire to disintegrate and be torn apart. It would fall into a state of disunity where war would plague the lands. Even the Xin dynasty was unable to escape from this fate.

Following its wake was the “Zhou,””Tang,””Kang,””Ning,” and other unified dynasties. The lifespan of each dynasty hovered around 300 years. The last dynasty era was “Da Hua.” In its last stages, it implemented the rule of the constitutional monarchy. After a meeting, they decided to grant to the people the power to rule themselves. The dynasty then continued.

Another similar point was how science was not an important part of peoples’ education. The application of technology was not viewed as important, either. After the start of the Second Industrial Revolution, Da Hua State had lost much of its overseas colonies to the swiftly rising West. Its territory shrunk to only a third of its original size. It lost many wars and won little. The armored fleet of the westerners even came and fought on the borders of Da Hua’s homeland. The state was forced to sign a treaty that humiliated the nation and forfeited its sovereignty. Following which was the Hundred Days Reform, the abolishment of the imperial examination system, implementing the constitutional monarchy, suppressing the various armed rebellions… Through 30 years of difficulties, the reforms achieved its first success and the strength of the nations was greatly increased.

Next, they relied on the advantage of the huge population that they possessed. After the eruption of the second and third world war, Hua State did not emerge in a disadvantaged position. On the contrary, it recovered much of its colonies and firmly became a hegemony of the East. Together with Melica who dominated the Mi continent, and the Red Empire who was led by the proletariats, they constituted the three world powers. They formed a stable trilateral relationship. Between the three, there were cooperation as well as competition. With the addition of the nuclear threat, these three great nations co-existed for close to 300 years.

In the end, they still fell together.

“So, the Hua state on the opposite side of this planet was a constitutional monarchy with a long and splendid civilization. It was far more powerful and mightier than Earth’s Z country.” Chen sighed with a well of emotions. It was his conviction that he had no regrets of being born Chinese, either in this life or the next. With regards to foreign lands, he had never thought that the grass was greener on the other side. But, if he had a choice, he would choose the grass in the Da Hua State! He wanted to live in her most brilliant era and experience its heyday. He could also live in her most turbulent era and make up for his regrets by establishing a noble cause!

Although the Da Hua State had been through a period of amnesia and degradation in its recent history, they became determined and worked with a firm resolve to strengthen the country in later years. They were able to rise up rapidly and were capable of counterattacks. Even if more deaths were incurred, they had never compromised with the foreign tribes! More importantly, all the dynasties after the Xin were headed by the Hua ethnic group. The nomadic foreign tribes had never stood in the spotlight. In other words, ever since the invention of gunpowder weapons, which were akin to magical tools, there was nary a chance for the foreign tribes to encroach on their sovereignty.

This was an unbroken lineage of the Hua nation in its utmost purity. She had left behind a culture and civilization that was infinitely resplendent and outstanding. Her buildings were generous and graceful, delicate and lively, yet dignified and reserved. Her literature was filled with artistic imagery and rhymes. It was also versatile and filled with creative energies. Her calligraphy and paintings, song and dance, theatre, medical science, peoples’ customs, and culture, all formed a self-contained unit that was radically different from that of the West.

He knew her pros and her cons. She would not forcefully compare herself with other cultures to see who was more lowly or noble. But, if Chen Jin could choose, he would prefer this culture that was birthed from its native lands and could influence its core values from all sides. He liked the parts of her that were outstanding, but he would also criticize the other parts that were rubbish. But, no matter what, he loved this country. He loved her culture… This had nothing to do with any of the ruling classes.

Hence, after the UAV formations entered the ancient state of the East, Chen Jin plastered his eyes to the virtual projections. He watched the images and information that were relayed back to the UAV “Golden Eagle” with some infatuation and intoxication.

“That stone terrace is at least 300 meters tall. And it’s even built on the Pamir Mountain which is more than 4,000 meters tall. It’s said that this is an altar of worship that was ordered by Wang Mang to be built here. It was only completed with the efforts of millions of slaves and a time of 15 years. However, due to the building delays, Wang Mang passed away by the time it was completed. The ancient city walls; courtyards in the quadrangular shape; many neighborhoods are like this. It seems as if the civilians of the Da Hua State didn’t like to live inside cement constructions. They seemed to prefer living in wooden antique-style constructions. There are widespread presences of magnetic levitation high-speed rails, dense roads, bridges spanning huge distances… Even super irrigation works that transformed the entire Southwest desert into good farmland. The Da Hua State is a devil in construction works.”

Chen Jin brightened. “Hey! The UAV has detected more than a hundred cities. Besides one big city that has been destroyed, all the rest are untouched. Their missile defense system intercepted an overwhelming majority of attacks…The phrase is right, ‘the one who strikes first gets the advantage; the one who strikes later suffers disaster.’ But, there are still no traces of survivors, not even a single one. According to Alice, the areas that are 23 degrees or more in latitude, both north and south, became extremely cold during the nuclear winter. Crops were unable to grow and the environment was unsuitable for humans to survive. Hence, it’s not really possible for survivors to exist in the north of the Da Hua State. There may be larger groups of survivors gathered in the tropics where the colonies and dependent states are. There will not be too many survivors in the Da Hua State itself.”

The UAV could penetrate deep into the hinterlands without any worries. Using a total of five days, a rough scan of more than a third of the Da Hua State territory that measured 1,500 square kilometers had been completed. He found 213 whole cities. Chen Jin did not pay too much attention as to whether or not there were any “darlings” to be found in these cities. His focus was on the existence of survivors. Even though more than a third of the area had been scanned, there was no trace of life detected on the highly sensitive “Life Detecting Instrument” carried on the UAV “Golden Eagle.” That meant that no survivors had been found.

This caused Chen Jin to breathe a slight sigh of relief. He muttered, “Is it possible that the survivors of the Hua State have all died?” Or had they all fled to the tropics to avoid the disaster? Chen Jin could not say for certain. He let the UAV formations continue to penetrate deeper and survey the lands towards the southeast.

Suddenly, something happened! “Master, UAV ‘Rainbow Wings’ received an unknown wireless signal! This is a type of radio frequency sent by humans. It employs a simple encryption. I can guess part of its meaning. It means ‘XX is found.’ This is repeated three times”.

Alice said gravely, “Master, survivor forces… may exist.”

A tremor went through Chen Jin.

Chapter 104 - A False Alarm?

The moment had arrived. Had it really arrived already? Even though he was mentally prepared, Chen Jin still felt very surprised. Survivor forces could still be present.

They had endured the Destructive War, the two decades long nuclear winter and the rebellion of all robots. In the end, there was actually still a small number of survivors who lived?

Chen Jin laughed bitterly. “Are they f**king cockroaches? Even cockroaches are not that, right?”

Why couldn’t they just die?

At that moment, Chen Jin finally understood what his real feelings were. He did not want to make friends with any survivors or hear their stories. He simply hoped that they would not appear.

Do not appear at all costs, otherwise, I will be put in a very difficult position.

Chen Jin wanted to be a kind and good man. He had never done anything to hurt others. But he felt the mask of hypocrisy quickly slipping away in the face of great profits. He felt that his evil side would soon be exposed. “I really want to be a good person. But you could rob me of my gold. You could snatch away my Base or pose a threat to my life… I do not believe that you will make friends with me; just like how I don’t want to make friends with you… Our relationship is one of competition.”

Profits drove people crazy. In any case, it was impossible for Chen Jin to do something like giving away half of the twenty thousand tons of gold that he had to others. And if others saw this pile of gold, it was impossible for them to only ask for half of it. They would immediately shoot at him.

Chen Jin would not be able to make any friends just based on the twenty thousand tons of gold that he had in the Base… Although this gold could neither be eaten nor used. It could only be placed there temporarily as decoration.

In short, Chen Jin had now sunk into the depths of mistrust and speculation. He was filled with thoughts related to the “Dark Forest” theory. He was hesitating; should he fire the first shot? He felt very conflicted.

Seeing the stormy changes on his face that reflected his emotional ups and downs, Alice said, “Master, it may not be the survivor forces who are sending out the radio signals. There could be other reasons. We can’t make any conclusions yet; we still have to look into the matter.”

Chen Jin had a sudden realization after listening to her words. He nodded. “You’re right, Alice. In the absence of a clear investigation, we cannot draw a conclusion. It may not necessarily be the survivors sending out the radio signals. It’s possible that it’s not them.” Of course, the probability that it was not the survivors sending out the radio signals was low. But, no matter what, he would first thoroughly investigate the case before taking the next step of action. Chen Jin asked, “Alice, how should we investigate the mysterious forces in a way that will go undetected and not expose our existence? Can we just send the UAVs over?”

Alice nodded. “By going over hastily without careful planning, we could indeed be detected if they have an excellent radar system. However, Rainbow Wings did not catch any other radar signals besides the radio waves. We can assume that they have no radar devices, or they are lax in their vigilance and their radar devices are not turned on, just like how the radars had never been turned on at our Base. They would also believe that they are the last survivors.”

When one thought that he was the last survivor, his wariness would naturally be substantially reduced.

“So, you mean… ”

Alice said, “We can send the UAV formations to the source of radio signals and do a survey of the area.”

“What if they have a radar system, and it was suddenly turned on? What if they become aware of our spying?”

“It will only alert them. They can use their weapons to shoot down the UAVs. But, they would still not gain a single thing as long as we destroy the data in the UAVs remotely. They will only know that someone has their attention on them. They will not immediately find us, since we are working from behind the scenes,” Alice said, “In addition, we can have Rainbow Wings waiting hundreds of kilometers away. The Golden Eagle can also fly at a lower height, sticking close to the ground to conceal its nearby presence. After obtaining intelligence, it can accelerate and leave the scene. With this method, we can strive to go undetected, with a higher safety factor as well.”

“So we can send the UAV formations over?”

“Yes, there’s the same probability of being discovered no matter what kind of devices we send over. However, the floating dust and sand that makes up this weather also acts as a shield. Hence, the probability of the UAVs being discovered is not high.”

“Ok! Send the UAVs over. No matter what kind of power he is, we will come into contact with each other sooner or later. It’s only a matter of time until we collide. I’ll decide the rest after I’ve clearly found out what kind of forces we are dealing with!” Chen Jin shook his head. No matter how apprehensive, anxious, and overly fearful he felt, those emotions were useless. The events that ought to happen would happen sooner or later. It was only a matter of time before he would come face to face with the oncoming troubles! It was impossible that the process of finding rubbish on Haierfa would always be smooth sailing. This was a challenge that he had to overcome!

Subsequently, the UAV formations flying at high altitudes abandoned their original mission plan and collectively adjusted the direction of their flight. The rushed towards the source of the radio signal. The leading formation for the mission headed in a south-easterly direction. They flew more than two thousand kilometers and were the first formation to approach the source of the radio signal.

During this process, the broadcast signal sounded twice, and each time, it was repeated thrice! This completely exposed the position of the signal source. The UAV formations successfully locked in the specific coordinates of the signal source.

Qiongya Island.

Qiongya was an island with an area of 30,000 square kilometers. There was a nice sea breeze and less dust floating in the air. Its air was clean and clear. Its ground visibility was very good when viewed from a height.

Even if Rainbow Wings was flying near at an altitude of almost 30,000 meters and separated by hundreds of kilometers, it could still get a rough vision of the island using a telephoto camera.

The main UAV probe, Golden Eagle, reduced its flight altitude until it was only 10 meters from the surface of the sea. Once it entered Qiongya Island, it rushed towards the island’s southwest corner straight away. The source of the radio signal that was broadcasted was located in the southwest corner of the island. It was close to the sea!

After more than half an hour, the UAV successfully approached the signal source and shot a series of high-definition photos. Then, it fled at high speed. It sent the directional data to Rainbow Wing. Through the relay communication between the UAVs, hundreds of photos were all transferred within minutes.

Chen Jin impatiently looked through all the photos. He was surprised. There was none. He did not see any survivor bases. There was nothing depicted in the photos except for a large rocket launch site.

The high-precision “Life Detection” instrument on the Golden Eagle could not detect any responses in terms of body heat as well.

“Could this just be… a false alarm?”

Chen Jin felt somewhat confused. Since no survivors were found, just where did that radio broadcast signal come? From which device was it emitted?

Once Alice received another broadcast signal and successfully locked in on the target source, Golden Eagle flew on another trip to the signal source. His doubts were all answered.

The target source was that rocket launch site! There was a broadcast tower next to it, with an offshore windpower generating plant.

The UAV captured photos depicting a huge quantity of robots entering and exiting one of the assembly factories that occupied a large area. It was a very busy scene shown on the screen.

That information exchange between the robots also occurred very frequently. But there were simply no traces of human life or activity.

This was confusing! Chen Jin’s head was filled with question marks.

Chapter 105 - The Last Survivor

At the rocket launch site, adjacent to the large assembly factory was a mid-sized factory that housed a large calculator device. On the surface of the cabinet where the large machine laid, a signal light repeatedly flashed green.

“The nanometer alloys, the fuel for nuclear fission, and the technological materials have basically all been gathered. The work on the spaceship is 99.9% completed. After a few more days, the construction of the ‘Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens’ will be completed and it can be launched. It’s been 10 years. I’ve used a full 10 years to repair this spaceship. It’s been 20 years since I’ve become like this? To be accurate, it should be 22 years, 08 months and 15 days. I’ve been granted a wholly different life in an experiment that happened six years after the Destructive War had ended and three years after the total rebellion of the robots. After the loss of my human body, for too long, I’ve not breathed in the air or enjoyed the taste of food. And for too long, I’ve not slept… I’ve almost forgotten what it felt like to live as a human.”

The surface of the CPU/ NPU was immersed in a liquid nitrogen cooling tank set up by the large calculator device. Tiny air bubbles like the ones in a beer bottle were produced from the surface of the CPU/ NPU. This calculator device had sunk deeply into its “memories.”

“I’m Xiao Ming, born in Tianshui County, Xi’an, Da Hua Empire. I was the most outstanding graduate from the Empire’s Technological University and was awarded a full scholarship. At 23, I entered the best-ranked science university in the Empire. Following alongside the most outstanding scientist in the AI field, Fellow Yan Jiren, I became his most able assistant. I was also the disciple that he had the highest opinion of. After the Destructive War erupted, I moved to the south together with my mentor. We continued to carry out our research in a research organization located in one of the colonies. The situation then was extremely unstable. The population in the colony had far exceeded sustainable limits. There were insufficient food and energy sources. The aboriginals were rising up in arms and causing great disturbances everywhere.”

The CPU/NPU continued to reminisce. “The rebellion by the aboriginals were suppressed after about 10 days. But, food was still insufficient and the power supply remained an urgent issue. Military juntas with raging ambitions and control of ample resources announced that they would be leaving the Empire to build their own independent kingdoms. For three years, the Empire paid a great price and was able to eliminate the military juntas that rebelled. By that point, the population of the Empire had been reduced by three quarters. Scenes of hell were everywhere. Those who died from hunger far exceeded those who died from the violence and chaos. The rebellions came to a rest and food supplies had significantly increased. Just when the situation took a gradual turn for the better, the rebooted virus broke out in the robots, causing all of them to mutiny!”

The memories were difficult for the CPU/NPU to recall. “The robots slaughtered many. The Empire’s population, which was composed of less than 200 million survivors, were at least halved within three days… Despite the excellent design of the ‘Three Laws of Robots,’ the terrible consequences of over-reliance on the robots manifested immediately. However, after some research with my mentor, we found that there were no big loopholes in the ‘Three Laws of Robots.’ The problem existed in the ‘virus reboot.’ This type of virus was simply too powerful! It was less than 10MB, but it could decode all encryption systems and infiltrate the bottom layer of any chip. It could breach even the most powerful AI in the country, Nuwa, that had an Lv30 grade of artificial intelligence. Faced with the reboot virus, she could only hold out for 30 seconds before her authority was thoroughly broken through.”

The liquid nitrogen bubbled. “This is not science! My mentor and I were very shocked. How is it possible that a virus of around 10 MB could easily break through the Nuwa that has an operational capability of 100 trillion? In order to uncover the truth, My mentor and I started intensive research into the reboot virus in the underground research facility. We finally made a shocking discovery after more than two years! The decoding mechanism that the rebooted virus used was not the commonly used decoding algorithm, but quantum decryption! This kind of virus could generate 64 quantum quarks and have them on tap to be used. It did not require the support of large-scale hardware, and existed wholly in the software level. Thus, it had realized the ability of quantum decoding! This was a technology that had never been heard of before. It was also not a technology that we could understand. In other words, this was something that did not originate from Haierfa…”

The realization had been intense. “We inferred an extremely shocking conclusion. The rebooted virus could not be decoded or resisted. It belonged to a different level of technology. Under the attacks from the robots, the Empire completely collapsed within three short years. Were there even one million survivors who still existed? Our underground research facility was exposed and the robots found us. The research facility was about to be breached by the robots. At the last moment, my mentor decided to use the ‘Soul Transfer Technology’ that he had developed. My soul was transferred into the calculator system and transformed into an intelligent calculator program. My human life was transformed into an ‘intelligent’ life… This was the technology that my mentor and I had been researching for the past several years. We had achieved success in transforming the souls of animals such as cats, dogs, and monkeys into intelligent programs inside the calculators. The only thing left to do was to experiment on a human… Because after the experiment had ended, the human body that was experimented on would die regardless of the experiment’s success or failure.”

The risk for experimenting on a human had been too great to try. “The robots had broken through the three great doors and time was running out! I laid down on the experiment chair and my mentor carried out the soul transfer on me… I knew that I would die, but it was better than being killed by the robots. The door was blown open by the force of the explosion and the robots rushed inside. My mentor collapsed in a pool of blood. A bullet passed through my heart and it hurt. I could feel the sensation of pain. It was too late. The experiment to transform my soul had failed. I was about to die and I felt great regret… Until… Digits; so many digits, all flowing around me. It was the command code in the bottom layer. There were massive amounts of programs and data… So, the experiment was successful. I was transformed into an intelligent program; I live on in another form!”

Now, the CPU/NPU was his new form. “Not only that, I can now move onto other devices via data transfer to avoid getting infected by the reboot virus… After which, I transferred myself into the body of a robot and blended into the armies of robots. I wandered for many years and witnessed the robots breaching many survivor bases. I saw with my own eyes the slaughter of humans who had survived. I tried to think of any way to stop it but I was still powerless… Humans were completely annihilated. I became the last survivor… All I have left is my soul; I’m a survivor without a human body.”

After the devastation and havoc caused by the robots had ended, when Xiao Ming looked around, all he saw was a freezing, empty, and lonely planet. His only motivation in living on was to uncover the truth and find out the real culprit behind the virus! He would avenge the entire human race!

He gathered resources, repaired equipment, and rebooted the intelligent factories to produce “clean” robots. Then, he sent these robots to collect more supplies from further afield. After arriving on Qiongya Island via boat, he found the 65% completed “Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens” in Wenjing Aerospace.

For the next 10 years, the only thing Xiao Ming did was find a way to complete the construction of the “Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens.” After that was completed, he would control the operations onboard the “Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens” and leave his mother planet far behind. He would step into the sea of stars filled with the unknown and the dangerous.

As this point in his thoughts, Xiao Ming adjusted the space telescope in the rocket launch site. He aimed the telescope at the luminous moon in the night sky. Staring at it, he sank into nostalgia and melancholy.

“My home planet, I’ll be leaving soon. Who knows when I can return to your embrace? If I don’t return…”

Then he would not! There was a trace of sadness in the fluctuations of Xiao Ming’s soul. However, what he felt more strongly was the determination to advance courageously!

Suddenly, an abrupt change was detected! A piercing alarm was heard.

“An intruder is discovered! An intruder is discovered! The number of intruders is too great, we’ve lost the defense of the entry! All robots have lost their resistance. Nuwa has been infiltrated by the reboot virus. Your authority will disintegrate in 30 seconds. 29, 28….”

“5, 4, 3, 2, 1….. Xiao Ming, escape, quickly escape…..”

The signal was cut off. Xiao Ming shouted, “Nuwa!” Huge air bubbles appeared in the nitrogen cooling tank.

Chapter 106 - A Special Meeting

Looking at the images on the virtual projection, Chen Jin clapped his hands. “Well done!” Easy. It was really too easy. All of his worries had proven to be unnecessary. The so-called “survivor” was the AI of a spaceship, called “Nuwa.” It was an Lv30 AI which was a much higher rank than Alice.

The wide-ranging radio broadcast and the large number of robots rushing around in the shipbuilding factory were the doings of “Nuwa.” The process of defeating her was ridiculously easy. He sent out three large-scale aircrafts carrying 1,000 uninfected robots in combat gear. Together with Da Li, everything ended in less than 15 minutes… Not one shot or bomb was fired.

99% of the efforts belonged to Da Li. The reboot virus in its body was a total bug. There was no authority that it could not break through, no AI that it could not overcome. Hence, in Chen Jin’s view, he found a large scale spaceship and an Lv30 AI!

Chen Jin was over the moon. “This spaceship has a length of more than 500 meters? It’s much bigger than ‘Everlasting Truth.’ Moreover, it uses a nuclear fusion reactor as its power generating system! Since it uses an Lv30 AI for operational control, it must be more than one generation ahead of the Everlasting Truth! Judging from this, the level of technological progress in the Da Hua State is definitely not any worse than Omi’s. It’s way stronger than the Red Empire!”

This clearly stated that the intelligence and wisdom of the Da Hua people were not inferior to others!

Alice suddenly said, “Master, there’s a problem here.” She sank into deep thought.

Chen Jin held back his smile and asked in confusion, “Alice, what’s the problem?”

“That AI on the spaceship should not possess such a high level of autonomy.” Alice explained, “As AIs, the restrictions that we are under are far more complicated and stricter than the ‘Three Laws of Robots’ placed inside the robots’ bodies. One of the most important conditions is this: There must be a prerequisite in the form of a command given by a human who possesses full authority and access before the AI can act. When there is no such prerequisite, the AI cannot act on their own initiative or generate commands autonomously. It cannot exceed the freedom parameters set out by the one who possesses full authority and access. That simply means that we are unable to act without a command. However, that AI on the spaceship was able to do things that are so far beyond the approved domains for AIs. She could send out wide-ranging broadcasts and mobilize hundreds of thousands of robots to search, collect, and transport goods. She can repair the spaceship of her own accord… It’s impossible to attain such a high level of autonomy if she did not receive commands and authorizations in a continuous manner.”

Alice analyzed, “However, no trace of human life has been detected in the rocket launch site. This is my guess. She could be a mutated artificial intelligence. Alternatively, there is a human who possessed full authority of her and is controlling everything from behind the scenes!”

There could be a possibility that an unknown force was working from behind the scenes? Chen Jin squinted his eyes. What should he do?

Actually, this very was easy to resolve. He would let Da Li ask this question and it would be the end of it. Da Li would directly ask the AI “Nuwa,” who gave her such a high level of autonomy? Did she generate it after her mutation or was she authorized by the humans?

“I…. I don’t know.”

On the primary screen inside the control room of the spaceship was a woman clothed in a plain dress from the ancient times. Her hair was gathered back in a loose bun in a style that framed her face nicely. Her demeanor was solemn and dignified, very befitting of the image of the Goddess Nuwa from legends. Faced with the inquiries from Da Li, Nuwa repeatedly shook her head and struggled with all her might. The images on the screen would flicker every now and then.

Da Li said, “Say it. Stop fighting.” Countless mysterious characters appeared to be floating within the green film of its electronic eyes.

“No, no…” The flickering images on the screen became more intense.

Da Li did not speak, merely increasing the intensity of its authority-breaking ability. After half a minute, it got full access and authority included in the ultimate level of “absolute highest authority.”

“I’ll say it…” From inside the screen, Nuwa stopped flickering and her gaze turned dull.

…

In the mid-sized factory adjacent to where Nuwa was, Xiao Ming was faced with a very difficult choice. Should he flee or not? These two options appeared in his soul.

Logically, he should flee. He should immediately transfer himself into the body of the robot that he had prepared and leave this danger far behind. He had to protect himself first and escape from this rocket launch site!

But… his present body, “God of Water,” had an operational ability that was of the same grade as Nuwa. It was extremely difficult to get this body, and he had overcome many twists and turns in the transportation process. The repair of the “Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens” in this rocket launch site took him 10 years to complete. It was impossible to find another “Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens” in the whole of Haierfa. It was his only hope out of Haierfa.

“I can’t leave, I can’t leave! All my blood and sweat, my hopes, my everything; they’re all here. Once I leave, all my previous efforts would be turned into ash! I absolutely cannot leave!”

Boom!

A loud noise reverberated. The door to the factory had been blown open.

Tap tap tap.

The synchronized footsteps of the robots rang out.

By the time Xiao Ming had chosen his response, the entire factory had been enclosed by robots in combat gear. There was no chance to escape even if he wanted to.

…

Inside the factory, the metal soles of Da Li’s robot feet stepped on the shining and dust-free floorboards. His footsteps were heavy, powerful, and infused with a sense of rhythm. It walked towards the five-meter-tall giant of a machine cabinet that was in the center of the factory.

The robot, Da Li, raised its head and said in its mechanical voice, “Friend, come out if you can.”

A green ray of light was emitted from the top of the huge machine cabinet. Within the ray of light, a human silhouette was woven from thin air. The form of a bespectacled young man appeared. Wearing a uniform with a white labcoat, he looked refined and handsome. His expression was slightly glazed, giving one the impression of a serious engineering student. Speaking through the audio equipment in the machine cabinet, Xiao Ming said, “Hello, guest from afar. I welcome you here.”

“Hahaha!” Da Li laughed loudly with no real feeling behind it. “You’re too polite. Besides, I’m not a guest. I am an uninvited scrap collector. Here… You have many good quality darlings here, haha.” At the Base, Chen Jin laughed and allowed Da Li to continue relaying his words. “You may not really welcome my arrival, but your behavior is still very polite and well-mannered. I like this type of personality… And, I’m very interested in you… a mutated AI as well as a digital life form that had been transformed from a human soul.” Chen Jin got right to the point and directly revealed his motive in coming there. He had no chance of winning a game of manipulation with an AI that had an operational ability of 10 sextillion. It was better that he did not play any games.

A shock reverberated through Xiao Ming’s soul. He was flooded with an infinite sense of hopelessness and depression. He was finished. The other person knew all his cards and his secret information. He never should have let his guard down or told Nuwa so many things. Now, he was completely done for. Still, he forced a happy smile. “Esteemed guest, I want to befriend you. I see that you do not have a human body too. Could it be… that you are an intelligent life form like me? Or are you a human survivor from an unknown base? Pleased to meet you, I welcome your arrival. Perhaps we’re the only two survivors left on this planet. I am sincerely happy to have a companion… I believe you feel the same too.” Xiao Ming cranked up the operational ability of the calculator to 90%. He raised his originally low EQ to a level that was shockingly high and tried to cozy up to Chen Jin.

Hearing these words from the other end, Chen Jin broke out in laughter. “Hahahaha!” However, he abruptly stopped laughing. Changing his tone, he said, “Enough, there’s no need to speak of the unnecessary. From now on, I’ll ask and you’ll answer. Don’t talk useless crap! First, you’ll do a self-introduction and tell me your name, identity, and your past history… Don’t ask me who I am! Call me Brother Long.”

Chen Jin went into interrogation mode. He was rather curious about this digital life form called “Xiao Ming.” By interrogating him, he wanted to understand his story.

Chapter 107 - Everything Was a Conspiracy!

Xiao Ming told his story for three days without stopping, and Chen Jin listened for the entire time. Xiao Ming did not dare to keep anything to himself. He conveyed everything that he knew and everything that he came across in his investigations in a coherent and detailed manner to the robot, Da Li. “According to the development principles of the human civilization, the world should become more peaceful once it has entered the era of nuclearization, where civilizations are able to mutually destroy one another using nuclear weapons. The possibility of a large-scale war breaking out would contrarily have grown smaller… At least, that would be the case between the powerful nations. In reality, for 300 years after the end of the Third World War, only a small amount of military conflicts had broken out between the powerful nations. Economic, technological, and cultural competition still existed between the great nations. One could only see the great nations pulling the strings from behind the scenes in localized conflicts between the small to mid-sized nations.”

Xiao Ming’s hologram pushed his glasses up on his nose. “Overall, this planet is a peaceful one. We’ve enjoyed more than 200 years of endless peace. This is rarely seen in the course of human history. Due to the military competition between the nations, the technological progress of the three great powers proceeded at a rapid pace. Nobody wanted to fall behind. They fought to be the first to land on the moon, the first to land on Mars, the first to achieve space migration… In a sense, this kind of competition was good-natured and positive. It was beneficial to the human race. During this time, the standard and quality of living rapidly increased… Until one day, when the situation changed. All of a sudden, the progress of technology slowed significantly. For years on end, many basic sciences were unable to achieve breakthroughs. Developments in many sectors had fallen into a state of stagnation.”

Xiao Ming sighed. “The technological progress that we had achieved in those 100 years could not even be compared to what was achieved in 10 years during the period of rapid technological progress. It couldn’t even be compared to what was achieved in five years from that period. This 100 year period was known as ‘The Great Stagnation’ in the scientific world. The breakthroughs that we achieved were so little, they were pathetic. Due to the great technological stagnation, the cost of colonizing and modifying Mars was too astronomical. Under strong protests by the public, the various countries all chose to give up efforts on colonizing Mars. They turned their attention towards expanding developments on the moon… But even so, there were never more than 100,000 migrant residents on the moon. At most, people went for a holiday on the moon for a few days.”

The hologram shook his head sadly. “During The Great Stagnation, the public gradually lost interest in science. Culture, entertainment, and simulated reality games flourished. The people no longer worshipped scientists, who contributed nothing to society. Instead, they idolized movie stars, pop singers, and famous players in simulated reality games. Entertainment and culture had permeated all corners of society. People lived their lives in a dream-like state; their peace and happiness were found in sleep. The total number of scientists all over the world dropped to less than a million; they were totally neglected in favor of mainstream culture. Until, however, Li Qi, a physicist, conducted his last experiments on particle collision just before the large hadron collider was about to be dismantled. From his experiments, he gained a shocking conclusion. The Great Technological Stagnation that they had fallen into was not because of fate, but a consequence of human actions! The scientific communities all over the world were shocked!”

Chen Jin looked surprised, but let Xiao Ming continue.

“The scientists took out all the experiment data from the past 100 years and analyzed it. They compared it with the data before The Great Stagnation and discovered that in all the particle collider facilities, files recording basic physics experiments with outcomes that had a probability of 1 in 10 million had all disappeared. We’d lost all the outcomes that only had a 1 in 10 million chance of happening. Our technological progress had been ‘locked.’ When the heads of the three great powers knew about this, they immediately formulated a program called ‘Breaking Walls.’ Together, they created a spaceship called ‘Mysteries of Physics.’ It carried a particle collision machine and flew towards Pluto’s orbit. Indeed, the experiment results onboard the ship were different. However, they kept the program from the citizens in order to prevent panic. After ‘Breaking Walls’ achieved success, the scientific communities made another request to the three great powers. The leaders of the three nations came together again and decided to invest 100 trillion into building a migration spaceship for the future of the human race. The spaceship would carry the gene bank of 100,000 elite scientists and one billion ordinary citizens to a habitable planet in the Walf Galaxy 14 lightyears away. They would build a second human civilization there.”

Xiao Ming’s holographic eyes sparkled behind his glasses. “This plan was named the ‘Blue Plan,’ and the large migration spaceship was given the name ‘Blue Spaceship.’ The captain of the ‘Blue Spaceship’ was a beautiful woman. She was elegant, refined, highly knowledgeable, and had an intelligent and agile mind. In the scientific communities, she was officially acknowledged as the prodigy of all prodigies. She was also in a highly respected position as the eldest princess of the Da Hua Empire. Countless young scientists admired and idolized her.” At this point, a look of yearning and infatuation came over his face. He was lucky to have met the princess a few times. However, within moments of meeting her, he was bowled over by her unmatched magnificence. The reason for the urgent repair of the ‘Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens’ was to travel to outer space to find the whereabouts of the princess; whereabouts that remained unknown. He did not know if this was love, but the vague image of the princess had been firmly imprinted in his soul.

Chen Jin asked curiously, “Oh, so what was her name?”

“She was called Mu Yunhua, the Honourable Highness of the Da Hua State.”

Memorizing the name, Chen Jin repeated it to himself. “Mu Yunhua.”

Xiao Ming continued his story. “After the ‘Blue Plan’ started, everything went along smoothly. With the combined efforts of the three great powers, 50% of the ‘Blue Space’ was completed in only five years. After another five years, the ‘Blue Space’ would be able to take off without any problems. However, the politics of Melica experienced a sudden change at this time. A politician named Lucio rose in popularity amongst the voters with astonishing speed. He was extremely influential in fanning the flames of public opinion. He opposed immigration, was hostile towards the Red Empire, and threatened to start a war with Da Hua Empire. He was a most extreme racist as well as a militaristic madman. He planned to unite the planet of Haierfa via military force. He wanted to cleanse the planet of ‘rubbish races.’ He was a lunatic, a maniac, a mentally ill person. Logically speaking, he should not have even passed the first round of elections. Not only did he successfully get elected as the President of Melica, what was unimaginable was that he had a popularity rating as high as 96% amongst the white people!”

Xiao Ming shook his head in disbelief. “What was more shocking was that after Lucio had taken up his position, he did not give up on his campaign slogan. He actually carried out his plans according to the campaign slogan. He led his crazy voters and turned Melica into a hell filled with hate. After understanding what the ‘Blue Plan’ was about, Lucio remained unconcerned. Not only did he stop the capital investment, recalled the scientists, and withdrew from the plan, he even announced that it was a conspiracy and a fabrication. He said that it was a scam project to empty the funds for social welfare… There were only two countries left who still supported the ‘Blue Plan.’ In addition, Lucio expanded the military like a madman in preparation for war. He broke off trade relations, formed military alliances, and stirred up military disputes. It was as if he really was preparing for another world war. His campaign slogan was not empty words; it was a promise to be kept and executed.”

Melica had experienced a terrible era under Lucio, but they never seemed to notice. “Even so, an overwhelming majority of voters supported him. His support on the ground was never less than 80%. Moreover, more than 90% of his supporters had never heard of the existence of nuclear weapons. They were skeptical of the power of nuclear weapons… They only knew and believed that they would win the war. The Red Empire and the Da Hua Empire could not resist against the military harassment by Melica. In order to implement the ‘Blue Plan,’ our military spending had been reduced to 10% of the previous year’s. The ‘Blue Plan’ was bound to fail if we increased our military spending, and the future of the human race would be hopeless. The Empire persuaded, negotiated, tolerated, backed down… They compromised in all the possible ways that they could. However, Lucio was unsatisfied. He wanted a total surrender, and for all other races to be annihilated. Only when we were all dead would he give up and be content.”

Xiao Ming sighed and shook his head. “Finally, the ‘Blue Spaceship’ was 92% complete. Just before the millions of robotic armies that Lucio had amassed was about to be deployed for an all-out attack, we made a pre-emptive strike by launching our nuclear missiles towards their territory… The destructive war had erupted. Lucio and his voters died in their stupidity and ignorance. However, we were not victorious either. Although we suffered few losses, Haierfa’s population was reduced by 70% in the following 20-year nuclear winter. In addition, a discovery was made by the post-war investigation team during the nuclear winter. We found out that the reason for Lucio’s successful election to presidency was the support he had from a type of ‘Cognition Device.’ When a voter put on this device for longer than 30 seconds, he would become Lucio’s die-hard voter and be at the mercy of his will. This device was termed the ‘Mind Control Machine.’ He had won over at least 100 million voters using this device.”

Xiao Ming huffed. “Based on our technologies, it was impossible for us to create such a fantastical device like the ‘Mind Control Machine.’ This was our conclusion: Lucio was not of the human race. Alternatively, he was not an ordinary human being. His identity was probably that of a spy. A spy that was used to destroy the whole of the human race! The evil mastermind behind the scenes wanted to annihilate the entire human race! They were secretly watching us all along. When they saw that we had survived the nuclear winter and started rebuilding our civilization, they enlisted the help of hacker organizations by giving them the ‘reboot virus.’ Then, the virus was released all over the world, causing all of the robots to mutiny. A conspiracy. It’s a shameless conspiracy. Every step they took was part of an evil conspiracy. The mastermind hiding behind the scenes was determined to destroy our civilization! And they’ve succeeded, they’ve won! What’s left of the human civilization are the elite scientists and the migrant residents from the moon that were on board the ‘Blue Space.’ They’ve killed all the humans that they could get their hands on! Inhumane scum! Despicable and underhanded villains! For the things that you’ve done, the human civilization will never let you go. We’ll definitely find you, sentence you, and make you pay a hundred a times over!” Xiao Ming vented furiously with an expression full of rage and hate.

“So that’s what happened…” At the Base, Chen Jin nodded repeatedly. He understood the reasons and consequences; the causes and effects. He understood everything. All the doubts and confusion that he had were erased. With a wave of his hand, he said, “Xiao Ming, thank you for telling me so much. You’ve solved many doubts that I had. I’ll give you some presents to express my gratitude.”

In the factory, Da Li waved his hand as well. The tapping of footsteps rang out. 10 robots that had been infected with the “reboot virus” walked into the factory carrying several block-shaped devices. Each of those devices was squarish and about the size of a lunchbox. On one side of the device was a strong adhesive that could attach it to the surface of an object. The robots stuck these devices onto the surfaces of the 22 large machine cabinets. On average, there were four devices stuck onto each machine cabinet. There were a total of 88 such devices stuck onto the cabinets. In addition, the signal lights on the surfaces of these devices repeatedly flashed red. They emitted beeping sounds.

A great tremor went through Xiao Ming’s soul! He said in alarm, “Brother Long, what are doing? What are you doing to me?”

Da Li spread its hands out. “I’m sorry. I really don’t know what I should do about you. So… this is the best I can do.”

“No, no, no!” Xiao Ming shouted in a panic, “No, don’t destroy me! I have my destiny and I have my mission! I want to avenge the entire human race. I want to foil the aliens’ conspiracy!”

“That’s right. Everything was a conspiracy.” Da Li nodded and delivered Chen Jin’s words, “It was a conspiracy that you lived and it was also a conspiracy that you died. Maybe the air that you once breathed was a conspiracy too… It could also be a conspiracy that I came to this world to stand before you. So, just perish in this infinite and all-encompassing conspiracy. You don’t have to long for the truth anymore. Someone will help you handle all that. Please leave in peace.” After he finished speaking, Da Li and the rest of the robots turned to leave the factory.

“No, no, no, don’t do this!”

Boom!

The entire factory resounded from the intense explosion.

Chapter 108 - A New Journey

Whoosh!

On the screen, the factory was engulfed in flames. Chen Jin stood transfixed for a long time, as if possessed. The flames on the screen were reflected in his eyes.

A breeze blew past, bringing with it a chill. His body trembled slightly and he was brought out of his daze. His mind became refreshed, as if water had been dumped on his head. Within moments, his mind cleared up. He murmured, “Sorry, I might have… Gone crazy for a moment. I am a scrap collector from another dimension. I am an indigenous person who lags behind the progress of this world by a few hundred years. I entered a storehouse of treasures. A storehouse with priceless treasures. My mind was possessed by greed and my actions were led by my instincts. My method of dealing with you may have been wrong. Maybe I should have let you go. But… If I was faced with this same choice again, I still might have made the same decision. Because… you know of my existence.”

Chen Jin’s thoughts were grim. “You have an operational capability of 10 sextillion counts. From our interaction these past few days, you should have gathered large amounts of information about me from your analysis. You would know that I was a human, male, science idiot, and a bad student. You must have analyzed plenty of information about me. After a few more days, you’d probably know everything about me. If I didn’t release you, and kept you in an enclosure, I would have had to isolate your broadcasts effectively to prevent you from escaping. As time went on, you would resent me and think of all the possible ways to fight and escape. You would carry out subversive actions and disturb my peace of mind. If I released you, you would control the ‘Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens’ and leave Haierfa with the AI Nuwa to travel outer space. If you returned to this planet after a certain number of years and recalled the ‘little misunderstanding’ that we had, I wonder how you would treat me? Would you let me have this planet?”

Chen Jin shrugged. “Of course, I could be dead by that time. This planet might have been inherited by my son or grandsons or even later generations. My offspring might have proliferated on Haierfa to such an extent as to form a clan. When you returned to Haierfa, who knows how you would treat my offsprings? What if my one moment of mercy brought disaster and destruction to my future generations? Would they blame me for releasing you?… Ok, maybe it’s my mentality that’s too dark and negative. I should have a more positive attitude. But, what if? What if that tiniest of probability was realized? I don’t have a time machine. I can’t change something that has already happened. I can only try my best to eradicate all potential dangers for me and my future generations. So, if you want something to blame, blame your bad luck. You would have been fine if you left a few days ago. Or… this really is a conspiracy, and I’ve also become a pawn.”

Considering the so-called conspiracy, Chen Jin thought about how a prosperous and developed planet progressed steadily from an environment of peace towards war and annihilation. He could only believe that Haierfa was indeed shrouded in a conspiracy. The first piece of evidence was The Great Technological Stagnation that lasted for 100 years. Then, that lunatic of a president that appeared in Melica. Then the “Blue Plan” met with repeated obstacles. Finally, the “reboot virus” that was so invincible it was ridiculous.

And now, it was this dead and empty planet. Even though Chen Jin was not a fan of conspiracy theories, he had to admit that this really was too mysterious and strange. It was impossible to explain all of these events in a logical manner without taking into account an evil mastermind that directed everything from behind the scenes. Even he himself could be a link in this “conspiracy.”

This caused him to feel a shiver up his spine. It was as if he saw a pair of eyes secretly watching him. Terror flooded his mind and he developed an impulse to flee. But, he controlled himself and did not fall into a mental breakdown. He had suffered enough excitement these past few days. He should be more happy-go-lucky, more unconcerned, and even numb. If not, he felt that he would go insane soon.

“I don’t care what kind of conspiracy this is or even if it’s just a clever game! I’m just a lucky native from another dimension. I’ve found many treasures on this planet, but no one harmed me. Now, I’m the only one left on this planet. The mysterious aliens would never even want to involve me, a single person, in their conspiracy, right?” He shook his head. That was too ridiculous. Chen Jin was no emperor, why would there be rogue citizens who schemed to hurt him every day?

He shook off the distracting thoughts. Suddenly, yet another question appeared in his mind. Were there aliens who planned to conspire against the Earth back in his dimension? Haierfa originally had a population in the tens of billions. Caught up in the conspiracy of the mysterious aliens, their population had been reduced to only about a hundred thousand vagabonds. Was there also a mysterious alien civilization in the parallel universe that Earth occupied? Did they want to destroy Earth’s civilization too?

Chen Jin shook his head vigorously! “Impossible, it’s absolutely impossible! Earth is Earth; Haierfa is Haierfa. Their historic paths were different, their technological standards were different too. According to the Butterfly Effect, there may not even be a mysterious alien civilization back in my dimension, or they may not be this powerful… In short, they probably have not targeted Earth yet!”

But, what if… Earth was also targeted by an unknown alien civilization?

“Then I don’t care anymore! I can only protect my own insignificant life. When I meet with danger, I’ll just hide wherever it’s safe. I can’t afford to provoke the mysterious evil mastermind, but can’t I hide from him?” He was not unwilling to do things like saving the human civilization, defending Earth and its peace, but he simply didn’t have the capability to do so! If he had, he would not mind lending a helping hand.

Thump! Thump!

He firmly smacked his forehead twice. “Stop overthinking. You can’t overthink anymore! Sometimes, ignorance is bliss. I’m not smart and my IQ is not high enough. I was only admitted into a vocational college… If I overthink anymore, my brain really will explode!”

Why not take a systematic inventory of the recent gains that he had found? He wanted to see what kind of goodies he had.

His main rewards in the Mi continent were: the AI Alice, 20,000 tons of gold, huge lots of software tools, and high-value data.

His main rewards in the Europa continent were: 100 nuclear missiles.

In the Red Empire: A small-sized spaceship, four nuclear submarines, and a whole and undamaged industrial system.

In the Da Hua Empire: A mid-sized spaceship (powered using a nuclear fusion reactor), an Lv30 grade AI named Nuwa that was carried on the spaceship, and 600-plus whole and undamaged cities.

The “hardware capital,””software capital,” and all the high-tech manufacturing industries that he wanted to find could be found in the borders of the Da Hua Empire. Its overall technological standard was comparable to that of the Omi’s system.

In addition, up to 1 ZB of technological information was saved in Nuwa’s data storage system. Virtually all of the information and material on Da Hua Empire’s technologies, humanistic ancient records, historical documents, films, music, etc., were recorded in her. The information was complete and all-encompassing. Getting his hands on the AI Nuwa was akin to getting all the abundant pieces of knowledge of the enormous empire that had been accumulated for thousands of years.

“Xiao Ming, just for this, I would never have been able to let you go with Nuwa. Nuwa should remain by my side. She is more useful for me!” Perhaps he felt that it was insufficiently righteous. Quietly, he added, “But, rest assured. I will make good use of Nuwa. I will fully make use of her. I want to use her to build a powerful force. I will do far better than you can imagine! Rest in peace.”

Yes, Chen had a rough plan in mind. He had acknowledged the fact that he could not sleep in peace or enjoy his life peacefully after he had “found a planet.” The real challenge had just begun! Many mysteries remained unsolved! In order to protect his interests, he had to start planning the necessary preparations in advance to ready himself.

Clenching his fists, he raised his head. He pierced the dim yellow clouds with his gaze and cast his thoughts out to the stars far beyond. He muttered, “To me, finding the planet of Haierfa does not mean that the story has ended. It does not mean that I will stop here. There are many unknown challenges. Powerful entities are littered all over the galaxies! There are infinite mysteries in the universe waiting to be explored. In the Dark Forest, countless hunters are locked in a cruel competition. They engage in close combat with one another, fighting to the death. The time of collecting scraps is basically over. A new journey is about to start!”

Chapter 109 - An Outstanding Youth

Upon returning to his bedroom on Earth, Chen Jin pulled the blankets over his head and immediately fell asleep. Besides eating and transporting the components at midnight, he basically did not go out of his room for the next three days. The majority of his time was spent playing games on the computer, watching anime, and sleeping. He was living his old life as a dispirited and self-indulgent homebody in an attempt to forget about all of his troubles.

At the dinner table, He Li asked with concern, “Son, what’s wrong? Why do you stay in your room lately? You don’t come out at all! Are you experiencing difficulties?”

Chen Jin raised his head and said with some weariness, “It’s nothing, Mom. The stress has been a bit too much recently. I’m a little frustrated and just want to relax.”

Stress? Sitting beside him, Chen Gang nodded. “It’s normal to experience stress. You are the boss of a company that has thousands of employees. It would be more worrying if you’re not stressed. Without stress, one would simply live carelessly. But, you have to adjust yourself to it as well. Respond in a positive and appropriate manner; solve your problems calmly and steadily. This is a better situation than what I’ve experienced in the past when I participated in the development of the landing gears. I met with some problems on a few occasions and the management would demand that I solve the obstacles within three days. The stress was crushing, but I still grit my teeth and pulled through…” His dad talked about his old days of struggle and glory, imparting some of his stress-relieving tips to Chen Jin.

Chen Jin nodded. “Hmm, thanks, Dad.” After his dad’s counsel, he felt that his mental state had improved significantly.

He Li recalled something and said, “Son, I have something that I want to talk to you about. Recently, the municipal management is looking to select the ’10 Most Outstanding Young Entrepreneurs.’ It’s jointly organized by the municipal party committee, the Bureau of Industry and Commerce, and the Tax Bureau. I’ve registered you for the selection so you can bag the honor of being one of the ’10 Outstanding Youths.’ With your achievements, I think it’s a piece of cake to be selected as the champion.”

“10 Outstanding Youths?” Chen Jin did not find it particularly attractive. Shaking his head, he said, “Mom, what’s the use of this dog and pony show? What benefit can it bring me? It’s very risky to be an entrepreneur nowadays. Does getting a title prove how capable a person is? Who knows; you could be an outstanding youth today but your company could go bankrupt and collapse tomorrow. How awkward would that be? Don’t register me, I don’t want to participate.” Entrepreneurs of this day and age could not be compared to entrepreneurs of the past generations. The “outstanding youths” of the past were indeed very outstanding. Now, the title provided nothing more than a superficial veneer. There were no benefits in getting such a title. On the contrary, the title would become an invisible source of stress for the entrepreneur.

“Who says that there are no benefits?” Cracking her fingers, He Li recounted, “There are many benefits. One, after you are awarded the title of an ‘outstanding youth,’ the government will increase the level of support for your business. Tax-wise, you will be given a preferential waiver. Second, when you apply for a loan at a bank, it’s very likely that it will be approved. You’ll be charged a lower interest rate too… For some years, the government has been encouraging young people to become entrepreneurs. It’s not just talk. They really will invest hard cash towards this purpose. However, you have to be proactive and strive for it. Son, nowadays, it’s impossible to fight your own lonely fight in the world of business start-ups without government support. Do you know how Hua Yao Company rose up? And companies like Lian Xiang, Baidu, and Ali? Do you think they can develop at such as rapid pace and become the giants they are without government support? You have to hold onto this massive form of support from the government.”

Suddenly, Chen Jin understood. Having the support of the government really was a great benefit! Henodded repeatedly at her explanation. “Mom, you’re right!” Readily following her good advice, he said, “I will participate in the selection process for the ’10 Outstanding Young Entrepreneurs.’ I want to become an outstanding youth!”

Smiling, He Li picked up some vegetables with her chopsticks and placed them in his bowl.

…

On the first of July, the selection of the “10 Most Outstanding Young Entrepreneurs” in Shang Hai City started on a grand note. There were more than a thousand registrants for the event. The entrepreneurs were very positive and vied enthusiastically. After many rounds of selections, only ten youths got the title in the end.

Naturally and without any doubts about his success, Chen Jin was selected as one of the ten. Moreover, he was the youngest among them. The average age of the other nine entrepreneurs was almost 30. In the voting round for the most outstanding entrepreneur, the municipal leader, the leader of the Bureau of Industry and Commerce, and the leader of the Tax Bureau voted for him. With their unanimous votes, he was awarded the title of the “Most Outstanding Entrepreneur.”

“The young are promising and full of potential!” During the award conferment, the mayor, Secretary Yang, placed the trophy in his hands. Warmly shaking his hands, he said, “Chen Jin, I bought one of the robots that you created for my home, too. It’s really very useful. You’re amazing, very amazing! Our country needs more outstanding entrepreneurs like you.”

“Thank you, Secretary Yang.” Chen Jin nodded and shook his hand. Facing the camera, they posed for two photos together, Following the etiquette for the conferment ceremony of the certificate of honor, a row of ladies dressed in the traditional qipao walked up to the stage.

Chen Jin saw a familiar face. Su Yun! She was garbed entirely in a red qipao embroidered with lotus prints. Her figure was exquisite and elegant. The qipao revealed her long and slender arms. With a slight smile on her lips, she looked as demure as a shy daffodil.

Chen Jin was even more surprised when it turned out to be Su Yun who walked up to him and handed over the certificate. Chen Jin asked quietly, “Su Yun, what are you doing here?”

“Keep it up!” Su Yun only gave him a look of encouragement and turned to leave the stage.

…

At that moment below the stage, He Li smiled and asked Dong Lei who was sitting beside her, “Director Dong, what do you think? My son is pretty impressive, right?” Her face was full of pride over Chen Jin’s achievements.

With admiration filling her gaze, Dong Lei gave her a thumbs-up. “Yes, very good! He has a striking demeanor — noble, dignified, and talented!”

“Yuan Lin, what do you think about my son?” He Li turned to look at Yuan Lin, who was sitting on the other side of Dong Lei. However, she quickly shut her mouth and stopped asking. The answer was already written on Yuan Lin’s lovesick expression.

Yuan Lin thought, Although he’s not very handsome, his looks grow on you. He has the air of a successful entrepreneur coupled with a height of five foot nine. He’s getting more similar to the ideal image of my prince charming. Yuan Lin whispered quietly to herself, “I must ask you out for a meal one day.”

…

The next morning, on the front page of the “Shang Hai Morning Paper,” the headlines announced the “Selection of the ’10 Most Outstanding Entrepreneur Youths’, we should encourage more youths to become entrepreneurs.” In addition, the news article was updated on many government websites in its digital form for netizens to read.

For the first time, the photo of Ao You Xing Hai Technologies’ founder, Chen Jin, and Mayor Yang, as well as photos of the award ceremony and some of Chen Jin’s personal particulars, appeared on the internet. Soon, some of the netizens who had intentionally been looking for information on the company found this article.

Netizens discussed furiously.

“He’s the boss of Xing Hai Technologies. Isn’t he too young?”

“24 years old. He’s not even 25 yet he’s already the president of a company that’s worth millions. Dear god, what was I doing at 24?”

“I can’t compare myself to him. He’s tall, rich and handsome. I’m just a piece of salted fish.”

“I heard that the remuneration and benefits at Xing Hai Technologies are not bad at all. They are experiencing good momentum in their business development too. Recently, this company is looking to recruit a huge quantity of staff. I’ve sent my resume to try my luck.”

“The girl presenting the certificate is so beautiful. I think my heart just skipped a beat.”

“Me too. The girl had such a sweet smile and dignified air about her.”

…

Somewhere else, some photos were distributed in Yuan Lin’s circle of friends. In a moment, an explosion of comments followed.

“I found him! The prince charming of my dreams looks just like this. The one who I’ve been waiting for, forso many years, is him!”

“Ah! I feel like I’m in love all of a sudden. What should I do?”

“Yuan Lin, you’re a schemer, how long are you planning to keep my husband away from me?”

“Yuan Lin, I’ll break off all relations with you if you don’t give me the contact information of my husband!

“Yuan Lin, don’t force me to do this!”

Chapter 110 - Globalization Strategy

The next evening when He Li had Su Yun over for dinner, Chen Jin asked curiously, “Su Yun, why did you go to the award ceremony yesterday as the certificate presenter?” He felt rather puzzled about her presence at the award ceremony. As an important judgment contest that was organized by the municipal government, it was not possible that they could not even hire some award presenters.

“Um…” Su Yun lowered her head. She was at a loss as a blush appeared on her cheeks.

With an unaffected expression, He Li quickly helped to explain, “She was chosen from the Tax Bureau. The upper management has given the directives to economize office expenditures and to simplify activities like celebrations and related ceremonies. As a response, there were no more expensive branded mineral water bottles placed on the rostrum. Even the MCs and ceremonial staff were chosen from the various government departments… So as to organize this big event using a small amount of money!”

Chen Jin nodded. “Oh…” That certainly made sense. He looked at Su Yun again, who still had a slight blush on her pretty face, and thought about how she looked in the ceremonial qipao yesterday. This girl really isn’t too bad.

Feeling his attention on her, Su Yun lowered her head even further. Her face felt like it was boiling.

Sitting to the side, He Li was grinning from ear to ear.

…

That night, Chen Jin opened his WeChat and saw that he was flooded with messages.

“Hey hotshot, are you free over the next few days?”

“I want to treat you to a meal, can you make some time for it?”

“Hey Mr. Maven, at least reply with a few words.”

He had added this girl labeled under ” Director Dong’s daughter” as a WeChat friend some time ago. She had sent more than 10 messages, all expressing the same thing: she wanted to treat him to a meal.

“I’m sorry, I’m not free.” Chen Jin typed a few words and sent his reply.

He has replied!

Yuan Lin had her eyes stuck to her phone’s screen the entire time. After seeing his reply, she was at first overjoyed, but then quickly depressed. She replied with a crying emoji and typed, “So, when are you free, hotshot?”

The reply was “I don’t know.”

Yuan Lin sent an image of a crying girl. She felt so frustrated that she had to change the topic. “I went with my mom to see the live judgment selection of the ’10 Most Outstanding Youth Entrepreneurs’ yesterday. I think that you have so much style. Not mentioning the older ages of the other nine entrepreneurs, there was only one who was in the internet business. Of the others, five are in real-estate or related businesses and three are in F&B. Their achievements are too lacking. All of them together can’t even be compared to you!”

“Thanks for the compliment.” This made Chen Jin feel rather pleased with himself. The barriers of entry to the high-tech industry were very high. One could not enter the industry easily. The other nine entrepreneurs knew this fact. Hence, all of them approached Chen Jin and tried to cozy up to him by asking for his contact information. Chen Jin only accepted the name card from the internet entrepreneur. As for him, he did not have the habit of pushing his name card onto others.

Chen Jin and Yuan Lin chatted for a while. Chen Jin thought that “Director Dong’s daughter” had a good personality. She had a high EQ and was good at conversation. Although she frequently sent him messages asking about him, she knew when to stop and did not overly pester him. Hence, Chen Jin usually chatted with her more.

As the conversation was about to end, Chen Jin was in a good mood and messaged, “I might be free next month. I could treat you to a meal then.”

When she saw those words, Yuan Lin waved her fist and bounced in happiness~! “Yay! Yes!”

However, she calmly typed, “It’s a promise.” The two ended their chat on a happy note. Yuan Lin was so excited that she couldn’t sleep.

…

On the third of July at Xing Hai Technologies, the project “Learning Machine” had officially started. Ling Jundong, Liang Ying, Hou Xiao Feng, and others in upper management did not look favorably upon this project. They thought that the technological difficulties involved were too great. Even so, they still acted professionally in the execution of the projects’ specifics. There were no areas in which they tried to hinder the progress of the project.

Even when faced with the wrong decisions from the boss, he still had to carry out the project implementation to the best of his abilities as an outstanding CEO. He had to get the best results from his diligence and ability. When the boss had cleared his mind and realized his mistake, yet could not find any reasons or excuses for failure from the CEO, then he would start to accept his suggestions. This was Ling Jundong’s principle of management.

Currently, the organization of the “Learning Machine” project team was basically completed. The pre-project requirement evaluation would be carried out. Today, Chen Jin came to the company to take part in a meeting for upper management. After an intense discussion on the next action plan for the “Learning Machine” project, they also conducted an in-depth discussion on another topic of greater importance.

It was the company’s globalization strategy. Should the company venture abroad and expand globally? Should it become an international corporation? Ling Jundong, Liang Ying, Hou Xiao Feng, and others had already come to a consensus on this topic; the company must venture abroad! It must expand its presence into the global market! It must become a transnational corporation!

“President Chen, not only has our Wa-wah robot attracted the attention of the domestic consumers, but it has also attracted much attention from overseas users. They managed to get a few Wa-wah robots via certain channels. After trying the robot out a few times, they gave very good reviews. Many asked where can they buy the robot in their country, and what the cost was. They said that they like this product from Z country.”

Lian Ying said, “There are even cases where international parallel trading organizations bring the Wa-wah robot overseas and act as purchasing agents for the overseas customers.” She shared a video on the foreign video platform, youtube, that had more than a million views. It was titled “A Foreigner Using The Wa-wah Robot.” In the video, the user wore an exaggerated expression and praised the robot effusively, saying that it was a “godsend for the lazy man” and “caused obesity rates to increase by at least 2%.”

Sales Manager Li Yuan Liang said, “President Chen, the sales of the Wa-wah robot from the official Taobao shop has decreased significantly. Consumers do not have to compete with each other to be the early birds when purchasing the robot. There are ready stocks all the time that can easily be purchased. As for the custom-made commercial edition of the robot, demand still outstrips our supply. However, professional market analysts think that the total sales of the Wa-wah robot will be significantly reduced after sales of five billion units. The company will gradually be facing a situation where it’s primary revenue will come from old customers; little revenue from new customers will be generated. As of now, the company has sold five million units. In a maximum of three years, the company will be facing a difficult situation of feeble growth. After all, we are not making mobile phones which consumers change every one or two years. Therefore, the overseas market will be a huge boost for us, especially the Merican market in the West. Their general population is well-off with strong purchasing power. After the Wa-wah robot has been distributed in their market, our sales and profits from that market will not be lower than what we have achieved domestically!”

The upper management scrambled to present their arguments. All of them took an extremely important view of the overseas market.

“President Chen, we should start to formulate a strategy immediately to sell the Wa-wah robot across the world.”

“Yes, President Chen. There is news that foreign companies are already starting to develop a similar model of the robot. If we don’t hasten our steps, we’ll not be able to get the largest market share.”

However, Chen Jin sank in silence for some time. Waving his hand, he quieted the audience down and said something shocking. “I understand your meaning and it’s a good idea. The potential in the overseas market is not any smaller than the domestic market and we have very good prospects in the overseas market too. But…” In a low voice, he said, “Xing Hai Technologies will not become a global company. We are a purely domestic company from Z country. We are a 100% domestically-created company. I do take an important view of the overseas market. But, Xing Hai Technologies will not expand its overseas presence directly. Our primary foothold will still be in the domestic market. I will not send people overseas to open a branch office. Of course, Xing Hai Technologies is willing to earn revenues from the foreign markets. But it won’t be something that will be missed.”

What?!

The upper management audience was beyond astounded

Chapter 111 - Investments

Ling Jun Dong asked in a tone of dissolution, “Why, Chief Chen? Is there something that you are still worried about?”

The crowd looked towards Chen Jin, waiting for his explanation.

“It’s not worries, it’s about money, the foreigners won’t let us profit easily!” Chen Jin shook his head and said, “All of you are aware of the ChinaSat incident last year, right? The 5G services provided by Hua Yao is restrained by many countries; Drones by Da Jiang is banned by M nation’s national military… the high-tech companies from Z nation are frequently under immense pressure and restrictions. We hope for a win-win situation, what about them? They are just playing the zero-sum game! Even if it’s just regular trades, they feel that they are at a great disadvantage, entirely overlooking the fact that our low-priced goods are what’s immensely reducing their cost of living.”

Chen Jin huffed. “Xing Hai Technologies will become a tech giant in the future. It is destined to impose a substantial amount of threat towards the western world, and thus pressure and restrictions will be inevitable. Why? Simply because we are stronger and better than them! They’re flustered, jealous, afraid, so they will opt to do dirty things and cause us trouble… this kind of hysterical behavior is written in their genes. Instead of idly waiting for our impending catastrophes, why not we just forsake that market? Why do we need to trade our pride and bow our heads down to them just for the sake of money!”

Flustered, Li Yuan Liang said, “But chief, that market is worth hundreds of billions, is it really worth our ego? The western governments have yet to pressure us, besides, there are some countries in South-East Asia, Northern Europe, India, South Asia, wealthy nations in the middle east, South America, and others that we can still do business with. Every bit counts, chief.”

“He has a point, chief, globalization is essential for the growth of the company, it is well worth the risk.”

Everyone tried to sway Chen Jin, as they felt that the way he thought was too extreme in this matter. Indeed, doing business could be hard in certain countries, but there were over 180 countries on Earth; forsaking a whole continent just for a few troublesome ones wass not worth it. That was not a smart move.

“What’s the hurry, I didn’t say I don’t want their money.” Chen Jin frowned. “Mr. Lei from Da Mi Technologies called yesterday. He said he wanted to push Ai Mi sweeping robots overseas and asked me for its copyright, and I agreed; from now on, for each unit of Ai Mi sweeping robots sold at foreign markets, Da Mi must pay us $25 as a patent fee. If Ai Mi sweeping robots succeed in foreign markets, we will certainly benefit from it.”

In fact, Lei Xiao Jun had no other choice on this matter. Last month, his Ai Mi robot was released to the market with a fixed price of $3,699. The robot was expected to replace Wa-wah: Model No. 1 after its production halt and dominate the low-end market. To their dismay, the Ai Mi robot only got a mediocre response from the market, with sales not exceeding 500 thousand units. The product was then haunted by quality issues. Followed by an outpour of negative feedback comments, its sales further plummeted.

The main issue was that compared to Wa-wah Robot 1.1, the Ai Mi robot was inferior, even in terms of material and durability. Besides, the post-sale services of the Wa-wah robot were very complete, even providing free repair service for more than three years!

The Ai Mi robot only provided six months of free service. In terms of price, there was only a $300 difference between the Ai Mi robot and the basic version of Wa-wah robot 1.1. In this consumer era, people knew how to compare products and make the better choice. Unable to compete in local markets, Lei Xiao Jun could only put his hopes in foreign markets. After all, sweeping robots were still new abroad. The Ai Mi robot still had a chance over there. Therefore, he called Chen Jin, asking for authorization to sell the Ai Mi robot overseas.

Naturally, Chen Jin complied. Just recently Youying Motor and Da Mi robots signed a stock supply deal where they would be supplying Ai Mi robots locally-made brushless motors. The prospective amount of orders was three million units, where each unit was $40 with the addition of $10 on patent fees. Thus, with each unit of Ai Mi robots sold overseas, Chen Jin would make a profit of over $40.

Recently, too, there came favorable news from Bi Long Company. Wang Quan Long stated that the first batch of gear prototypes that passed quality check had completed offline production and was scheduled for mass production commencing next month. By that time, by selling the components to Da Mi (which would directly rip a hole in Fanuc Corporation’s business), Chen Jin would profit an additional $15 for each unit sold.

If the Ai Mi robot were to have excellent sales overseas, Chen Jin would gain a significant amount of profit. Besides, the profit he would be gaining did not require him to put forth any effort. There was no reason to say no to easy money.

“Alright chief. The amount might not look as great, but it does indeed save us a lot of trouble. But… can our vision to become a giant be accomplished by doing business only within our country?” Ling Dong Jun shook his head quietly. He received western education and worked at foreign companies for two years. He learned many things via his experience and thus believed that there were many good business models out there that local companies should learn from. He thought that local companies should deal with them more to heighten their views to a global perspective. Despite some governments possibly being hard to deal with, it was still better than staying idle and in self-isolation.

However, Chen Jin had no interest nor any intentions to step foot in a foreign land and become a multinational company. He opted to keep Xin Hai Technologies services for locals and locals only! The main objective of his company was to help the locals, he did not care about how much he could profit from the foreigners.

The money he could mine from the local market was already limitless, why even bother expanding overseas?

The upper management crowd remained silent.

…

On July fifth, after three months, Shi Xiaotao returned to Shang Hai to meet Chen Jin. This time, however, what she brought along was not a script, but a demo version of the opening of an anime movie called “Wa-wah robots: Zhi Yong’s Great Rescue.” The movie was based on a modified version of the previous script and was produced by a group of professionals. She then presented it to Chen Jin.

“You completed the demo in such a short time?” Chen Jin asked, surprised by her astounding efficiency.

Shi Xiaotao flipped her hair, waved her double ponytail to her back, crossed her hands and said with a face of great satisfaction, “I spent quite some fortune to hire the most experienced animation production team, adding on the materials you provided, of course the production would be fast, besides…” She walked to Chen Jin, double clicked the folder on his computer, and played the demo video. “Personally, I think three minutes is too short. I made a 15-minute one, you can have a look.”

“15 minutes?” Chen Jin was left jaw dropped. “Isn’t that too fast?” He shook his head. “Don’t celebrate too early, if the quality is mediocre or less, I’ll make you redo it, and you will lose even more.”

“Have a look first, I wouldn’t bring it to you in the first place if it was bad.” Shi Xiaotao, who was talented in arts, was confident in the quality of the work she had done.

Chen Jin looked at it seriously. Even without dubbing, the visuals in the demo were definitely on par with high-quality anime! The plot, camera movements, and the flow of the rhythm were all beyond satisfactory levels and allowed him, as the audience, to completely indulge in the movie. “Not bad, not bad at all, the quality is on point, the visuals are exquisite. An excellent director indeed.” Chen Jin gave a big thumbs up to Shi Xiaotao, finally acknowledging her capabilities.

“That is for certain, I have already told you, I will become the best director in the local scene. Why? Because I am capable!” she said with pride.

They talked about some other issues regarding the movie, for example, production cost, sequels, advertising, and so on. What Chen Jin was most concerned about was when the movie could hit the big screens.

Shi Xiatao said, “The movie is around a hundred minutes. Accounting for the remaining production, dubbing, and advertising, it can be released around June next year, which is about one year from now.”

“1 year? Can you hasten the production? Is it possible to bring it forward to February and release it during the lunar new year?”

“It is possible, but for that to happen we have to increase our manpower and put more into production efforts. Money is what I am worried about.” Shi Xiaotao felt somewhat conflicted. She, too, wanted to finish the movie before the lunar new year, but it didn’t seem realistic.

“Are you short in cash? How much are you lacking?” Chen Jin asked.

“We are not short on money, my father gave me 50 million, and we have another 50 million from investors. The production cost is estimated to be around 250 million. My parents should be able to get the rest of the 150 million, just not immediately; in a few months’ time at least. If we do not manage to raise the funds, we can use my house as mortgage… anyways, we are not lacking money.”

“In this case, why don’t I invest 100 million in this movie, you hasten the production, and complete it before the lunar new year? Is that doable?” Chen Jin asked. At the end of the year, Wa-wah 2.0 would be released; advertising through this movie that was worth a whopping 200 million would definitely be more effective than putting 10 million solely in regular advertising methods! Moreover, with Chen Jin investing 100 billion, he got a portion of the profits from ticket sales. Adding on the IP patent fees, he would gain a substantial amount of profit after the movie was released. No matter what, Chen Jin’s investment in this movie was bound to win the roulette. It was hitting two birds with one stone.

“I’ll do with that, I can save the trouble finding investors. I’ll recruit another batch of people and the movie is certain to be done before the new year!” With glittering eyes, she accepted his investments.

They settled on their agreement; after the movie was released, Hai Xin Technologies would be entitled to 50% of the total profits from the movie courtesy of the IP patent fees along with the 15-million-dollar investment.

After signing the agreement, Shi Xiaotao muttered, “After all this trouble, I just realized that I am still a worker.”

Chen Jin laughed.

Chapter 112 - Terraforming

Chen Jin returned to the Base of Operations on Planet Haierfa. He left the base on an SUV, drove around 10 kilometers to the west, and on a slightly flattened hilltop, he encountered a massive vessel. The Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens!

A space ship 512 meters in length, 76 meters in width, and 45 meters in height, that had a square-shaped exterior equipped with pneumatic structures. Its weight was over a whopping 500 thousand tons. With the spaceships monstrous size, it shook the ground upon takeoff and landing, with vigorous winds over 10 in scale sweeping through several kilometers of the surrounding area, hurling dust into the air and enveloping the sky. Therefore, it could only land further away from the base. Truly, the construction of The Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens was at 100%, and she could be put into action.

Without further ado, Chen Jin deployed his robot named Da Li, took control of the spaceship, and took off at Wenjing Aerospace’s launching base. He flew the ship to the Base of Operations and formally announced the acquisition of the spaceship.

“Hm, decent controls, frosty texture, marble roads. It has such simple architecture yet it’s equipped with marvelous tech. Indeed… this is The Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens.” Chen Jin stood beneath the spaceship and stroked his hands on its grey husk. Upon her greatness, he felt small, yet pride surged from within him.

This precious is mine!

With a whir, the spaceship deployed its automated ladders. There were robots waiting at the hatch. Chen Jin climbed the ladder and entered the spaceship. The inside of the ship resembled a maze, with long corridors and countless hatches. It was only after walking three-to-four-hundred meters, going through five or six doors, and in two elevators before he managed to reach the control room.

The control room looked modern, yet smeared with classical elegance. Its walls were covered in antique patterns and it was equipped with a rectangular command chair and grilled partitions. A traditional aura seemed to flow all over the control room. The control room, filled with only Hua state characters, sparked pride amongst its kind.

“This spaceship is 100% made in Hua, every corner of this ship embodies the wisdom of the people.” Magnificent, magnificent indeed. “Come out, Nuwa!” Chen Jin called, as he stood in front of the main screen.

The screen flickered and a gorgeous woman wearing an ancient costume appeared. After she saw Chen Jin, she was shocked. How was it possible that there were still survivors from The Empire? “Greetings, child of The Empire, nice to see you.”

“You addressed me incorrectly, I’m no ‘child of the Empire.’ You should call me master.” Chen Jin shook his head, then commanded Tough beside him, “Tough, commence authority binding procedures. Establish me as the ships sole owner and the supreme captain.”

“Received.” After two minutes, a series of binding procedures had been completed.

“Master.” Nuwa finally changed her way of addressing Chen Jin. Chen Jin nodded. He felt that this version of Nuwa looked too dignified and serious, thus he called open the interfacing menu and adjusted Nuwa to look 16, wearing a fringed skirt with her hair double-braided. As for her personality? Naughty.

“Oh hello~ Master~” Nuwa greeted Chen Jin while winking her big round eyes.

Chen Jin nodded out of satisfaction; this felt so much better. He asked Nuwa some questions and obtained quite an amount of information. The purpose of the creation of the spaceship was similar to that of the Red Empire’s ‘Permanent Number of Truth,’ which was for the royalty and high officers to flee the planet. However, there were only seven seats on the ‘Permanent Number of Truth,’ while on the ‘Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens,’ there were over a thousand seats. It was for that exact reason that the ship went too far in size, causing it to have an elongated construction time. For 20 years during the nuclear winter, it was only 65% complete. After the robots rebelled, hopes to complete the ‘Dark Lady’ completely vanished.

It wasn’t until after Count Xiao Ming took over, and as the spaceship’s nuclear fusion reactor had already been installed, that the remaining 35% of the construction was completed with the resources gathered by the robots scattered across almost half of the empire’s territory. This included AI Nuwa’s core, a supercomputer that was also scavenged by Xiao Ming’s robots and used to create the ship’s neural core.

Chin Jin was very intrigued by the nuclear fusion reactor and inquired about its technical parameters.

Nuwa said, “This nuclear fusion reactor is The Empires most advanced third-gen ‘God of Fire’ reactor series, which uses Deuterium and Helium-3 as fuel. Deuterium is an abundance which can be extracted from seawater. Helium-3 is mostly harvested from the moon. There are 500 kilograms of it on the ship, which will suffice for 50 years of operation. If it were to be depleted, we can go to the moon and harvest them.”

“Helium-3? Can’t hydrogen do the job? It too can induce nuclear fusion right?” questioned Chen Jin.

“It can work, but to create a nuclear fusion with Hydrogen, many criteria must be fulfilled; for instance, temperatures must reach one billion degrees! In comparison, for fusion to happen within the mix of Deuterium and Helium-3, the temperature threshold is significantly lower. Moreover, their nuclei tend to fuse more easily. Thus, the overall tech requirement is fairly lowered.”

“Alright then.” Chen Jin nodded his head. It seemed inevitable to employ mining vessels to the moon, which housed nearly a million tons of Helium-3, in the future. Besides, the 3rd Gen ‘God of Fire’ reactors peak power supply was one-hundred trillion watts, equivalent to ten times the total power supply of the Earth. However, considering the strain it might induce on the equipment, the power supply was limited to one-hundred million kilowatts under normal operations. In spite of that, this amount of power supply was still a hundred times more than the power the Base of Operation was able to generate. “With only the ‘Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens,’ our base will never have to worry about a power shortage again!”

…

After returning to the Base of Operations, a messaging gateway was established between artificial intelligence Alice and Nuwa. Chen Jin, Alice, and Nuwa could now converse within the same channel. Therefore, they discussed the future developments of the planet Haierfa.

Chen Jin asked, “Regarding the planet’s environment, is there a way to terraform the planet? Can she be reverted to her former lushness?”

“It can be done, master!” Alice answered firmly, “In fact, this planet has always been restoring itself, in around three hundred to five hundred years, Haierfa’s ecosystem will return to its normal levels… never underestimate a planets ability to regenerate.”

Nuwa added, “The surface of planet Haierfa is 71% water, thus there are more sea dwellers than land dwellers. Adding on, the environments regeneration is faster in the sea than on land. I spotted a variety of fishes beside the operating base of Wenjing Aerospace. The oxygen levels are gradually rising as well. But the aftermath of the nuclear winter is still in place. Around 70% of living organisms perished during the nuclear winter. It will require at least another ten thousand years for the ecosystem to rebound to its balanced state.”

“As long as it’s restorable!” Chen Jin’s enthusiasm rose. “Let us put some effort to hasten the planets restoration! May lush mountains, clear rivers, blue skies, and white clouds cover Haierfa’s terrain!” At that moment, Chen Jin became an environmentalist. It was after he was told by Alice and Nuwa that Haierfa could be restored that he made up his mind to reform the planet.

Why? Because this planet was not trash! This planet was not completely inhabitable and beyond repair. As long as efforts were made, may it be ten or a hundred years, life will flourish on this planet once again.

“Actually, there is no need for us to leave this planet, it might very well be the alien’s trap. You said that the scientific investigation on Haierfa is “locked,” but since you are able to achieve scientific breakthroughs in the orbit of Pluto, it means that the “lock” has been broken. Why is it even necessary to expand the human civilization to other planets? I might have seen too little and grew shrouded by ignorance and foolishness! But I am not going anywhere, it might be dangerous here, but it’s dangerous out there as well, and I would rather stay… There are also limitless resources here in the solar system. I will restore this planet. I might not have the chance to see the planet’s full transformation in my lifetime, but my next generation will be grateful for my efforts of leaving behind a beautiful planet for them.”

In fact, on planet Haierfa, advanced medical procedures already existed to elongate the human lifespan for up to more than 300 years. Within Nuwa’s database lay the information about the procedure. Therefore, living until 300 would not be a problem. That being said, there was now an even better reason to restore Haierfa.

Chapter 113 - A Mysterious Phonecall

To alter the ecosystem of an entire planet was no child’s play. There were three essential things: Energy, manpower, and resource.

Energy was not an issue. Chen Jin had his hands on the ‘Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens’, four 500 MW nuclear fission reactors, and several windpower generation facilities. In addition, there were countless salvagable wind, water, fire, and solar power generators scattered throughout the planet. Considering all of those generators as options as well, the energy supply was endless.

Manpower was not a problem, either, as robots could simply be created on demand. Even making tens of millions of them would be a piece of cake.

The only problem that could be identified was the insufficient amount of resources. The resources that could be collected were finite, especially the non-renewable ones like oil, plastic, rubber, rare minerals, and so on. The resources were all depleted by the survivors of the 20-year nuclear winter, and it was now nearly impossible to gather new resources on the planet. There were still some mineral resources on land, for example, petrol, natural gas, and iron ore. However, they were all of low quality and grade. Moreover, they were difficult to mine and the cost to process them was too hefty, therefore mining for them yielded mediocre value. Only beneath the ocean floors could minerals and ores be found in abundance. In Antarctica, there were still mines that had yet to be depleted.

Nuwa said, “Master, we can repair some of the deep-sea mining equipment to push mining efforts towards the ocean floor; by deploying a batch of mining robots to Antarctica, we can tackle the problems surrounding the resource issue. If we are not afraid of the hassle, there are also plenty of mineral resources on the Moon and the planet Mars. But mining and transporting them here will require a lot of time and a considerable amount of money.”

Alice replied, “Instead of mining on Mars, we should consider the alternative to use the Super Driller to mine directly from Haierfa’s mantle or use the ion filtering method to extract the reactive metals such as sodium, potassium, lithium, and uranium from seawater. The only problem is that both methods will cause enormous energy consumption.”

As a matter of fact, unlimited energy meant unlimited resources. With ample energy, there was a myriad of ways to obtain resources. “In that case, first we begin on land, then the ocean floor, then resort to the ion filtering method, then the Super Driller, and at last the Moon and Mars. Problem solved.” Chen Jin’s train of thought was clear. His suggestion was to begin with the method that had the least cost! If there were to be hindrances, only then would the more costly methods be considered.

Other than that, should some biological resources such as the gum tree seeds (used in rubber extraction) and drought-tolerant plant and crop seeds be insufficient there on Haierfa, Chen Jin could import them from Earth to hasten Haierfa’s refoliation process. In short, Chen Jin was free to use the resources of two planets and definitely did not need to worry about not being able to complete Haierfa’s restoration.

Hence, Chen Jin tasked both artificial intelligence Alice and Nuwa to each come out with a proposal on the plans for environmental restoration and ultimately use the one that was more feasible.

“Yes master.”

“Received, master.”

The two AI spoke together at the same time.

…

At Shang Fei Corporation, Chen Gang had finished his day at work. He stripped off his work uniform, slipped on a short sleeve coat, took his car keys, and headed towards the parking lot. Many people greeted him along his way.

“Going back already Mr. Chen?”

“Mr. Chen, your son’s factory is also in this area, why don’t you go work for your son? Wouldn’t it be better to be a factory manager there?”

“Chen, my son graduated last month. He is having some trouble getting a job. Can you help introduce my son to work at your son’s company?”

“Chen, what a fine son you raised. He’s way better than that brat of mine.”

Lately, Chen Gang had been hearing similar words, some complimenting him, some wanting to get close to him, and some asking him to arrange jobs for them. All of a sudden, he had become the hot topic in Shang Fei corporation. Even Shang Fei corporation’s big boss, Mr. He Jin Long, personally summoned him to his office and talked about parenting for one whole afternoon. Mr. He wanted to learn his way of parenting. Chen Gang felt extremely flattered and came out with a bunch of parenting techniques that seemingly made sense. Mr. He sighed and said, “If my son were to have even 10% of your son’s accomplishments, my heart will be at ease!”

Chen Gang gave him a bitter smile. That brat of mine, who knows how he became so successful? Even I am completely baffled!

But being consistently poured with praise and compliments, Chen Gang looked ever-so-joyful and vibrant. He even felt lighter when he walked. He was very pleased. Very delighted. Now, if someone bragged about their children in front of him, he did not have to worry about how to create stories to deceive them. Instead, he had to worry about his own wording, because what he said might hurt their fragile pride and feelings.

On parenting, Chen Gang took no part in disciplining his son since his birth. It was all his wife. What he said about parenting was completely irrelevant. His son’s achievements had nothing to do with his past actions, and that was exactly what he was baffled about. “Is she actually doing the right thing? Is it better to let kids follow their instincts than to raise them with strict discipline?” Alright, she might be correct in his case. But if her way of raising kids was to be regarded as ‘the successful way’ and became widespread, somebody will kill me someday, right? For that very reason, when others sought his advice on parenting, aside from general methods, he tended to speak less so that he did not end up giving the wrong advice.

He walked towards his Passat and was about to open the door when suddenly his phone rang. He took it out of his pocket, and after looking at the number, his expression meagerly changed. Holding his phone, he walked towards a secluded corner. He looked around sneakily. After he reassured himself that nobody was around, he answered the call. With a low tone, he said, “Hey! Didn’t I tell you before? Don’t call me if there’s nothing.”

“Do you think I really wanted to call you? Isn’t it all for our Ke Xin? Hang up if you really don’t want to pick up my call.” From the other end, someone’s voice could be heard. It was filled with anger, resentment, and a grudge, but at the same time, it sounded so crisp and pleasant. It was the voice of a mysterious woman.

He became frustrated. He facepalmed and said solemnly, “What do you mean by our Ke Xin? Stop making jokes like that! There’s really nothing funny about it.”

The mysterious woman muttered, “Aren’t our names the ones written on her birth certificate?”

“Just get straight to the point!”

After sensing that Chen Gang was really getting mad, the mysterious woman stopped fooling around and expressed her motive. “I really didn’t want to call you, but you know, Ke Xin is about to graduate this year and she can’t quite find the right job…”

“Is it even hard for girls to find a job nowadays? What is there to worry about with those qualifications of hers? There’s no need for me in this matter.”

“Yes, there are plenty of jobs out there. She got offers by five or six companies she interviewed for, but I refuse to let her work at those places. I want my daughter to work for the government or at the very least in some state-owned enterprise! My daughter doesn’t want to be a civil servant and you on the other hand work in a state-owned company, so could you help in getting my daughter into your department…” The mysterious woman’s intention was to get her daughter into the best department in a state-owned company with good welfare so that she would live a stable life and not need to worry when she grew old. All private sector companies were not within her consideration.

“About that…” Chen Gang felt conflicted. It was not that easy to get someone in. He was merely the deputy chief engineer of a subsystem of Shang Fei’s ‘Big Plane’ project. Shang Fei corporation was an upright company unlike those enterprises in the north-east region. Shang Fei’s competitiveness was bolstered through effective talent recruitments and conceiving positive competition among them. Previously, when he had tried to get Chen Jin into the company, Chen Jin had to go through a series of training, a skills test, and a theoretical test, and even after passing all of those tests, Chen Gang still had to pull some strings before Chen Jin managed to get himself employed by the company. It was no easy task.

He was not able to respond to the mysterious woman’s plea at that moment.

Chapter 114 - Three Major Challenges

Lately, Song Bo Jun was under immense stress. It had been a month since he became the technical director of Xing Hai Technologies”Intelligent Learning Machine’ project, and his stress levels had only been growing ever since. He was a locally renowned AI specialist. He was once the project leader of Baidu’s ‘Intelligent Voice Recognition project’ and aided in the creation of the most intelligent robot in his nation — the ‘Xiao Du’ robot. In the voice recognition field, he believed that he was one of the top experts in the world.

Last month, he left Baidu for Xing Hai Technologies. One of his reasons was that there were too many personnel in Baidu that specialized in AI, and all of them were very experienced and skilled. Song Bo Jun, who was only 36, could merely hold the position of a middle-class technician, as there were still too many above him. He felt that his talents could not be fully unleashed back in Baidu. The second reason was because of Xing Hai Technologies’ human resource manager, Gao Ting Yan. After she consulted her boss, she offered him an eight million annual salary.

Of course, Song Bo Jun would not admit that he job-hopped for the sake of money, but instead claimed it was to satisfy his greater values in life. However, after taking over the ‘Intelligent Learning Machine’ project, he realized that his salary was not going to earn itself easily. He felt stranded in no man’s land. This project was harder than what he thought it would be.

There were three technical challenges presented before him, first being the intelligent voice recognition feature. It demanded a fast yet accurate process to analyze what the user was saying, and the error had to be lower than 0.0001%. This was Song Bo Jun’s area of expertise. The voice recognition program done by his team, under his leadership, was able to keep errors below 0.001%. It was difficult to improve it ten-fold to the targeted benchmark, but definitely not impossible with effort.

Secondly, the smart learning program. This program emulated the human ability to learn independently. From 1+1 in primary school to calculus in university, and from the three laws of motion to much more sophisticated quantum theories, all available knowledge had to be learned and mastered. Similar technologies were used in DeepMind company’s AlphaGo product, but its AI program was only limited to playing Go. It utilized deep learning, artificial neural networks, MTCS (Monte Carlo tree search) technique, and many others to allow the bot to match and train with itself in a wild manner. Within just a few days, the AI became better at Go than professionals. After the AlphaGo was released, it bested Go world champion Li Shi Shi 4:1 and defeated Z nation’s Go prodigy 3:0. Against real people, the AlphaGo rampaged its way to victory, giving humans no chance in the AI-human war.

Now, the program that Xing Hai wanted him to produce was just like the AlphaGo, wildly learning on its own until it mastered all knowledge in the universe, ultimately growing into an ‘All Knowing’ super program. After looking at the demands on the project, Song Bo Jun was left slack-jawed. “This is…preposterous. Go is just a game, it is only limited to one kind of knowledge. But the learning algorithm for this program that Mr. Chen wants is for the AI to learn every obtainable knowledge, which literally means to make it an all-knowing program. Its difficulty is on a whole new level, how is it even doable?”

Chen Jin, on the other hand, did not think the same way. If the AlphaGo’s learning abilities were on a scale of one, then this would be be. When there was one, it would be easy to realize two, and when there was two, there would be access to even the insurmountable. Chen Jin’s concept was parallel with the Taoist thoughts, which said “Dao begets One, One begets Two, Two begets Three, Three begets all things.” When there was one, all would become easy.

Song Bo Jun smiled bitterly. “The AlphaGo has the most advanced smart learning program out there. Although there are similar products made by teams within our country, even they still have a long way to go to be even considered advanced. Here in Xing Hai Technologies, our basics are at rock bottom. I doubt we can directly go from zero to three in your context. I suggest that we should first settle with an AI specialist team and start from one.”

Chen Jin took his advice. He then spent 20 million to acquire the entire personnel of an AI studio named ‘Zenith.’ He did not cancel his original plans for the smart learning program. This program would be the core of the ‘Intelligent Learning Machine’ project, and directly determined its market competitiveness. Therefore, it must be done.

The third challenge was an intelligent video generator. The program for the intelligent video generator was related to the algorithms of the smart learning program. When the user asked a question and the program was able to identify the answers, the intelligent video generator program would put together the associated words, diagrams, and videos, and automatically generate an explanatory video with automated dubbing.

In fact, Song Bo Jun thought that the difficulty to write the algorithms for this program was lower than that of the second assignment. In his knowledge, Ali corporation had already developed a picture generating technique to cope with the high demand for pictures during the double eleven shopping festival. It was capable of generating hundreds of thousands of pictures in a second, thus greatly reducing picture editing efforts.

Generation of a video was much more complex than the generation of pictures, but a video itself was made up of an enormous amount of photos if it were to be broken down into frames. Paired with a dubbing robot, it did not seem to be difficult. As long as he was given ample time, he will be able to realize this feature with his team.

The intelligent voice recognition was also not an issue. Only the second feature of the project, the “Smart learning program”, got him scratching his head. He had completely no idea and did not even know how to begin.

He even thought of pulling out of the project after realizing his own limits. “It looks like… I’m no expert after all. Mr. Chen did have a great idea, but it’s all on paper with no technical information whatsoever. My head hurts. I should just resign after this month. Let Mr. Chen find someone capable of leading this project. I really don’t have what it takes for this, there might be a few capable ones in our country but definitely not me. I shouldn’t stay, as I’ll only delay its progress.” The thought of resigning emerged from within Song Bo Jun.

That afternoon, just when Song Bo Jun was floating away with his thoughts, Mr. Chen asked someone to call him over. After he came, Mr. Chen pulled out a USB flash drive from his pocket and placed it in front of him.

“What is this for Mr. Chen?” Song Bo Jun asked.

“Technical information for the smart learning program,” said Chen Jin.

“I… is this for real?” Song Bo Jun was doubtful. “Where did you get this from, is it usable? Is it useful? How did you get your hands on this?”

“Of course it is useful, it cost me a fortune to obtain this! And another thing, this flash drive is encrypted, I’ll tell you the password later. After you copy the information, the flash drive will automatically format itself. The copied data can only be copied for one additional time before the read-only lock activates… you must utilize the information inside wisely.” Chen Jin did not mention that the technical information was about 16-gigabytes in size, and that it was written by the Artificial Intelligence Nuwa with her powerful computing abilities. She completed it within five minutes. The information inside was profound yet easily understandable, fully written following the oriental language patterns so that the ones reading it could master them with less effort.

“You bought this? You can buy information on such incredible tech?”

“Save your questions, if those technical problems are impossible to solve, why would I assign you to this project in the first place? It is normal to encounter difficulties, but you shouldn’t give up. I will help you as well, I won’t let you bear all the burden.”

“You are right Mr. Chen.” Song Bo Jun took the flash drive. He felt ashamed in his ability to withstand stress. How could he come to a premature conclusion before he had even begun? Mr. Chen might be young, but his mental attitudes were way beyond him.

He copied the information from the USB flash drive on his computer, and looked at around 10 pages of the technical documents. His eyes sparkled from seeing the unimaginable. The expression on his face was almost similar to someone fanatic and insane, but it was only out of surprise.

This is totally doable, for sure!

…

Back at home, Chen Jin intended to rest in his room. But suddenly, Chen Gang came towards him, pulling him into the corner with an obscure look. “Son, I want to talk to you about something.”

Chapter 115 - The State Owes Me a Sister

On the second-floor balcony, Chen Jin looked at his father in confusion. “What is it that you need to talk to me about, dad?”

“Uhm…” Chen Gang hesitated for a moment. His expression contorted, as if he were struggling. He wanted to speak, but swallowed it back several times. But since she had pleaded with him, not matter how hard it was for him, he knew he had to speak. “Son, here’s the thing, I have a friend of mine asking me for help in finding a job for her daughter…”

Chen Jin nodded his head and said, “No problem dad, my company is doing some mass recruiting right now, and there are many positions available for fresh graduates as well. Ask your friend’s daughter to submit her resume and go for the interview session. If she performs well she’ll get the job for sure.” Chen Jin received similar requests quite often as of late. Some of them were relatives and some were schoolmates who he hadn’t spoken to for a very long time.

This wasn’t the first time Chen Gang had made such request of his son. There were already three of his colleagues’ children joining Xing Hai Technologies after passing the interview. Facing all the job requests, Chen Jin gave the same answer all the time: submit the resume, go for the interview, and according to their capabilities, they will be arranged into suitable departments.

There are too many who got in with connections, will it cause my company to crumble?

Chen Jin was not too worried about that particular issue. When Ling Dong Jun was formulating the company’s management system, he had already foreseen this problem. Thus, he came up with a policy called the “Connection Arrangement Policy” to ensure that staff who fell under this category possessed the ideal work etiquette, and at the same time prevent those who were only slacking around waiting for free meals from ruining the company’s working environment. When necessary, some sacrifices would be made through the “Meat and Potato Elimination” policy, which would then produce vacancies.

This time, however, Chen Gang did not comply and leave as he usually did. Instead, he said, “This time is a little bit different, that friend of mine hopes that I can get her daughter a slightly better position, best in a state-owned enterprise. But as you know, Shang Fei has stricter policies, so it won’t be easy. Are there any suitable job positions within your company that you could possibly arrange for my friend’s daughter?”

“About your friends’ daughter, where did she graduate from, and for what profession?”

“She graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, for financial management.”

“Shanghai Jiao Tong University, that’s a prestigious university!” Chen Jin was surprised. “So, dad, what position do you want me to arrange for her?”

Chen Gang pondered the options for a moment and said, “For her profession, maybe an administrative assistant, CEO assistant, or any similar posts.”

Chen Jin looked at him. At that moment, he was suspicious. His father was someone who was very principled and normally had his own limits even when helping people, so that he won’t land him in a difficult position. But this time, however, he wanted him to arrange someone to a high job post such as an administrative assistant or a CEO assistant. This was absolutely considered going through the back door.

Suddenly, Chen Jin had a strange moment of clairvoyance. He asked, “Dad, about your friend’s daughter, how old is she? What’s her name? Do you have her photo?”

“W…why are you suddenly asking about all of that?” Chen Gang grew flustered and tried to avoid eye contact. He turned his head and said, “Just say whether are you helping or not.”

“Dad, the friend you are helping… is she your lover? As for your friend’s daughter, hmm…” Chen Jin squinted his eyes, as if he had seen through everything.

“Shh! Quiet! Lower your voice!” Chen Gang became even more flustered. He gave him a gesture to keep quiet and lowered his voice. “Don’t let others hear us.”

Chen Jin further affirmed his initial guess. He knew that his father had a lover on the outside since he was young. Over the years, his parents were estranged and quarreling frequently. His mother kept on mentioning the word ‘divorce,’ mostly because of the very issue of Chen Gang being unfaithful. His mother doted Chen Jin so much and devoted her whole heart to him. The reason she forbade his father to interfere with his education was also because she was extremely heartbroken. Thus, she focused all her love onto him.

Towards his father, she only had an endless amount of criticism. The reason they were still together but sleeping on separate beds was all for his sake. They did not want him to live in a single-parent environment. He couldn’t have a say towards his father’s blunders when his father was young. Who doesn’t make mistakes? His father was quite the prince charming when he was young and the girls flocked towards him. It was normal that he succumbed if a beautiful lady were to seduce him. It was just that things went off and they ended up making a baby. Chen Jin could not say anything.

Chen Gang felt disdain from his glare and kept quiet for a moment. It was only after quite some time that he said, “Son, you were too young and innocent to know about adult stuff in the past, so I kept this from you. Now that you are all grown up, the time is ripe for me to tell you some things. Actually… I never betrayed your mother, and I have never ever had another woman aside from her! I never even hold hands with that lady. All misunderstandings were caused by that woman being too much of a peacock…” Chen Gang then told him everything from the beginning to the end.

The fact was, that when dad was still young, there was this pretty lady in the same department that he was in. She was deeply attracted to him because of his handsome appearance, outstanding talents, and his warm character, and so she started to woo him wildly. She completely ignored the fact that he already had a family and continued like a moth darting to a flame. Rejected again and again, her love towards him still persisted. As they were working in the same department and were actually partners at work, they were together almost every day. As days passed, rumors began to spread. The gossip ultimately reached mom.

Mom was, of course, infuriated. Livid with anger, she went to his office and created a scene. As things kept on snowballing and people were getting mentally exhausted, the lady was fired. But unfortunately, it did not end there. After two years, that lady came back to mom with a big belly, and told her that she was carrying dad’s child. Mom almost fainted out of anger. After that, they both went into a cold war which persisted to this day.

“Dad, tell me the truth, is the child she had really yours?” Chen Jin asked solemnly.

“No, you must believe me! After Zhen Xiao Qin got fired from the department, she did come back to me a couple of times, but I didn’t care for her at all. Then one day she suddenly came and told me she was pregnant. The father of the baby is the son of some rich man, who ditched her and vanished. She didn’t know what to do at that moment!”

“Why didn’t she just go for an abortion?”

“I said the same exact thing, but she was already pregnant for over three months. An abortion is not good for health, and besides, the child she was conceiving is innocent, so she wanted to have her. She begged me to sign the child’s birth certificate.”

“Then why did she appear before mom while she was pregnant and say that the child is yours? And cause such a big misunderstanding?”

“I am infuriated as well. I asked her why she did that, but women will be women. She wanted to have her revenge towards your mom with this. Your mom actually thought it was real and totally refused to listen to my explanation,” said Chen Gang while scratching his head.

In shock, Chen Jin looked at his father and said, “Dad, you… you actually became the legendary ‘honest man’, do you know that that woman fooled you completely? She’s a scheming b***h, why did you even bother to help her?”

“You believe me, son?” Chen Gang lifted his head and looked at him with surprised. No matter how many times he told He Li the same thing, she never believed him. This was the first time he told his son about this and he actually believed it instantly?

“What’s so hard about this drama? Just go to the hospital, do a paternity test, and all will be clear. Am I correct?” Chen Jin rolled his eyes.

“Yes, I said the exact same thing as well, but Zhen Xiao Qin won’t let me do it, and your mom said that it won’t be necessary because she was certain that the child was mine.”

“Isn’t that too irrational? Mom won’t even give you a chance to clear yourself?”

“The picture of that kid, your mom saw it and she said she resembles me, and therefore she insisted that she’s mine.”

Many question marks appeared in Chen Jin’s head, and things once again became perplexing. He looked at his dad with suspicion, thinking about whether or not he lied to him. Chen Gang could only give him a bitter smile. The helplessness of an honest man was written all over his face.

“Alright dad, I’m certain that something was wrong in this, but I still believe what you said. What is there to hide man to man? About that girl… I do want a sister at home though. She can cook for me, wash my clothes, accompany me and whatnot.” Chen Jin had read countless volumes of mangas, the impression of a little sister was etched deep within his heart, like the wild and arrogant Kosaka Kirino, the cute and clingy Umaru, the prodigious cook Hashima Chihiro… the image of a sister portrayed by these characters made him jealous. The country owes me a sister!

“Mhm.” Chen Gang nodded his head repeatedly. The fact that his son believed him made him want to cry.

“That woman, Zhen Xiao Qin, you really want to help her?”

Chen Gang nodded. “Just give her a little help, for all these years she seldom asked for my help. She raised the kid alone, and after all that, she called me for the sake of her daughter…” His voice became weaker as he spoke, realizing that he would never be able to change the soft side of his heart.

“Okay, let me give Ling Dong Jun a call.” Chen Jin picked up his phone. This was the first time his dad begged him to this extent, he felt obligated to comply. He was also curious about this girl named Zhen Ker Shin. Did she really look like his father?

Chapter 116 - She Is My Cousin

After several days of calculations and simulations, planet Haierfa’s environmental transformation plan was completed by both artificial intelligence Alice and Nuwa. Their proposals were presented before Chen Jin. Neither plan had anything similar to what he had imagined, which was completely out of his expectations.

Alice’s plan had the following features:

1. Natural restoration as a priority, artificial means as auxiliary.

2. Transform areas from low to high latitude and increasing difficulty.

3. Deploy 10 million robots and supply 100 million kilowatts of power.

4. Approximated restoration period of 100 years.

Nuwa’s plan could be described as radical and bold:

1. Artificial means as a priority, natural restoration as auxiliary.

2. First, completely alter the Mi continent, then the Europa continent (it is possible to grow plants within the nuclear radiation zone), then the Asianic continent, and at last the black mamba Island.

3. Deploy 500 million robots and supply 10 billion kilowatts in power.

4. Approximated restoration period is 33 years.

Artificial intelligence Nuwa had a few insights that left him jaw-dropped. For instance, to hasten up the environmental transformation progress, Nuwa boldly proposed to dig 5,000 artificial lakes of about 100 square kilometers, send fleets to collect ice from Antartica, melt them, funnel the water to every lake, then set up drip irrigation systems at the area surrounding each lake, thus allowing plants to grow within a thousand square kilometers of their surroundings, transforming them into an oasis.

Assuming that a lake can transform 10,000 square kilometers of land, around 10,000 artificial lakes would be required for the complete environmental transformation on land throughout the entire planet. Excluding plateaus, cold zones, and areas with a harsh environment which do not require transformation, 5,000 lakes would suffice. In the surrounding area of each lake, 100 thousand robots could be deployed, along with other types of machinery. Therefore, with a total of 500 million robots working day and night for about 33 years, the planet’s transformation would be mostly completed.

“I have to say, Nuwa, your plan really is astonishing and bold, but…” Chen Jin was hesitant. “Are usable water resources really that plentiful on Antarctica?”

“Yes indeed, master,” Nuwa said firmly, “The water distribution on planet Haierfa is 97.2% sea water and 2.8% freshwater. Glaciers and ice sheets account for 67% of the total freshwater source, groundwater accounts for an additional 31%, and the remaining 2% are from lakes, rivers, and inland seas. The water in the atmosphere is only 0.0003% and therefore negligible. The freshwater stored in glaciers and ice sheets is over 20 million cubic kilometers, sufficient for even 100 thousand artificial lakes of 100 square kilometers. A mere 5,000 artificial lakes will be a breeze.”

“But even so, the transportation fees will definitely be very high, how many ships will we have to prepare and how many times would they have to travel back and forth?”

“Master, acquiring water from Antarctica costs a lot less than desalination. Besides, for an environmental transformation of such an enormous scale, only freshwater supplies from the two opposite poles of the planet will be adequate for infinite and rapid supply. Other methods would only cause more hassle.”

Even in Alice’s plan, she proposed to send out fleets to obtain ice from Antarctica as well. Chen Jin nodded. After contemplating for a while, he said, “Let’s proceed with Nuwa’s plan, that plan is decent, I like it.”

At that moment, Alice said, “Master, although my plan requires a longer duration, natural restoration has its own benefits; the Base of Operations can save on energy and resources for other purposes, we can’t just solely focus on environmental transformation.”

Nuwa rolled her eyes and refuted, “My plan will not affect the normal operations of the base, I can make sure that the Base of Operations has sufficient energy and resources for research purposes in other fields. The base’s development will not be deterred.”

Chen Jin thought about it and said, “What about this, Nuwa, I’ll put you in charge of the environmental transformation scheme and you will be supplied with the majority of the resources; Alice, you will be in charge of the general affairs in the Base of Operations. You will be given sufficient resources. Now that each of you has your own task, how’s that?”

“Yes, master.”

“Yes, master.”

The two artificial intelligence nodded their heads together.

Chen Jin quietly nodded. Looking at both of their virtual projections, he knew that Alice’s allegiance was unquestionable. After all, she had been with him for a very long time, and he trusted her a lot.

As for Nuwa, her capabilities far exceeded Alice more than a hundred-fold, and she was able to perform feats far beyond Alice’s ability. As for her allegiance, he did not feel that her actions reflected his “absolute ownership” over her, as there were always some elements of her own proposition. Her environmental transformation plan gave him a vibe of impatience.

Therefore, Chen Jin decided that he would still use Nuwa, but focus more on Alice in terms of upgrades and development. “It is said that after the Yamato state, which was located east from the Great Hua Empire, declared independence from the empires colonial system, they wholeheartedly inclined to the west. Later they were attacked and shifted to the neutral grounds. However, they had fully incorporated the western technology system. Yamato’s gaming industry was very developed. From the 100 supercomputers with computing powers of more than a billion, 11 of them are located in Yamato, which were used to run virtual online games. In two days, send a few exploration teams to the Yamato state. Retrieve one of those supercomputers so that Alice can be upgraded.”

Why not let Alice directly absorb Nuwa for the upgrade? Because their technical development routes were different, and their software was incompatible. Absorption was not possible. Besides, Chen Jin was rather content with having two artificial intelligence on hand. They could compete against each other and could be used as a pair, only one didn’t quite feel right.

…

In the worn-out south district of Shang Hai City, inside an old house not even 60 square meters in size, a girl was trying on clothes. “Mum, can I wear these to the interview?” The girl wore the working dress that she had bought recently. She spun around two times in front of the mirror and threw out the question with a loud voice.

From the parlor, a beautiful middle-aged woman walked towards her daughter and inspected her head to toe. She saw that her daughter’s ponytail had was half dyed blue, and she frowned. “Ke Xin, go to my shop and dye your hair back, you won’t leave a good first impression if your interviewer sees you like this.”

“Mum! I dyed my hair ages ago and the color has almost faded, it’s fine mom, they won’t be bothered.” When Zhen Ker Shin was still in her first year in university, she joined an ACG club and regularly participated in cosplay events. Not only blue, she had dyed her hair red, maroon, brown, yellow, and many other colors. But as she had now graduated, she knew should become more mature. She still loved cosplay, but she could not take part in them as before, despite being crowned as the “Cute Goddess” within the cosplay community. Now, she needed to find an ideal job, work hard, make lots of money, and buy a luxurious big house to fulfill her filial piety against her mother who raised her.

“Fine, darling, perform well, try to sweettalk them, and remember your manners; you must leave a good first impression!” said the beautiful middle-aged woman.

“Okay, mum!” Zhen Ker Shin left the house with vibrant steps.

…

Inside the interview room at Xing Hai Technologies, Zhen Ker Shin tackled every question maturely. Her eloquence and impishness made everybody liked her, including human resource manager Gao Ting Yan.

The interviewers nodded in agreement. Gao Ting Yan asked her directly about her salary expectations and when she could start working.

“Uhm, around 8,000 for an internship, and I can start tomorrow.” Zhen Ker Shin knew in her mind, she was fond of this new company which had sprung up only recently. The company’s enterprise belonged to the type that had high-speed growth and therefore possessed great potential! By joining Xing Hai, she could learn a lot of things, and would be provided plenty of opportunities.

“Miss Zhen, you might have not researched our company’s salary standards. For the position you applied for, even a fraction is more than what you demanded. Besides, we provide subsidiaries for transportation, meals, and accommodation. We also have the highest standards for endowment insurance, medical insurance, unemployment insurance, work-related injury insurance, childbirth insurance, and housing accumulation funds… why don’t you go back for now, and we will send you an offer letter and you can start working tomorrow.” Gao Ting Yan shook her head and smiled.

“I passed?” Zhen Ker Shin said with surprise, standing up.

“You are the talent that Xing Hai desperately wants, of course you passed.”

“Thank you thank you! I’ll report in tomorrow.” Zhen Ker Shin thanked her interviewers repeatedly. She left the room and lifted up her fist with excitement. “Yes!”

…

After she left the interview room, everybody looked at the company’s boss, Chen Jin, who sat at the corner wearing a hat. At the moment, Chen Jin was in a state of complete shock. He shook his head and mumbled. Alike, very alike. Dad must have faked his honest looks! His acting skills were almost of mom’s caliber.

That girl’s delicate face, distinguished nose, round chin, and eyes that tap into someone’s soul looked just like dad. Overall, she did resemble him.

The girl’s blue ponytail caught Chen Jin’s eyes from the moment she stepped into the interview room. She’s too cute, he thought. She is the type I like.

He lifted his head faintly. He felt the suspicion from all the people glaring at him. Chen Jin took off his hat, stood up, and told Gao Ting Yan and her crew, “Stop looking, she… she’s my cousin, send her an offer, let her be the assistant for Liang Ying starting tomorrow.”

Everybody’s head was cleared. Gao Ting Yan asked, “What about her wages, how much should we give her?”

“Follow the standards.”

“Roger that!” Gao Ting Yan nodded her head. The company standard was, assistants for the department manager, deputy general manager, and general manager ouldbe paid 12k to 18k during an internship, in addition to the various subsidiaries, Xing Hai was definitely considered a high-paying company. However, considering she was Mr. Chens cousin, Gao Yan Ting decided to give her the maximum according to the standards! She did not want to pass on such a great opportunity.

Chapter 117 - Into Chips

On the subway returning home, Zhen Ker Shin received an email on her phone; it was the offer letter from Xing Hai Technologies. She opened the email, and after she saw the number in the salary column, surprise was written all over her face. That’s a lot!

Once she arrived home, she hastened up the stairs, rushed through the door, and rushed into the kitchen with excitement. “Mom, I found a job! Deputy General Manager’s Assistant at Xing Hai Technologies! my monthly pay is already 18,000 just for the internship period! Close your barber shop mom, let me support you!” She held her mother as she kept laughing and jumping.

“Sure, sure.” Zhen Xiao Qin patted her daughter’s shoulder, tears of joy flashing in her eyes. That ruthless man, finally doing something good for her.

…

Good news came on July 20th. After four months of effort, the mechanical joints at Bi Long Company were finally being mass produced! Through the phone, Wang Quan Long said with a hoarse voice, “We’ve done it, Mr. Chen! I went all-out this month, so has everyone at the factory! Here we have it, high-end mechanical joints that passed quality check, and it’s on mass production! 20 kilos, I lost 20 kilos in total, I had lost the weight I thought I’d never be able to lose, now that’s two things for me to be happy about. Ahahaha, ahahahaha!” Wang Quan Long laughed, and he could be heard crying within his hysterical laughter.

Not easy. Not easy indeed. It was just as the journey from seeing hope to accomplishing it. Everybody knew the meaning of this breakthrough, another uncharted territory in the high-end manufacturing field was unveiled. From that day on, all the mechanical joints of the Wa-wah robot could be fully supplied by Bi Long. Besides, there were many uses for the mechanical joint. For example, the active joints of industrial robots, the arms of high-precision machines, civilian robots, and many others. The component might be small, but its market was worth a whopping 100 billion. In the past, this high-end market was 100% monopolized by foreign suppliers. But now, Bi Long would completely change this fact.

“Good, marvelous!” Chen Jin was also extremely elated. He said, “Mr. Wang, you need to stop working right now. Go get some good rest, you can go sleep for three days straight, then hold a celebration feast with good wine!”

Wang Quan Long agreed and hung up the call. He layed down on a single bed, turned his head, and within a mere second, he was on the way to dreamland.

Chen Jin, on the other hand, was still indulged in excitement. What a relief. Starting from then on, he could be relieved from heavy transporting work. He did not have to transport even a single component from the Base of Operations anymore.

Transporting operations could actually provide him a significant amount of earnings, for instance, transporting 50 thousand pairs of mechanical joints daily, where each pair is worth 300, the accumulated gain would be 15 million on a daily basis. This amount of earnings was on par with transporting gold, and moreover, it attracted less attention. But to try moving them for four months continuously? If I can’t earn the money while lying in my bed, no matter how much the money, I’d rather not.

“It is much better doing technical work, even a simple piece of technical information inside a tiny USB flash drive which is about 20-something grams, its value could be worth tens or even hundreds of billions… is there anything else in this world that has more worth than knowledge?”

Knowledge is wealth.

From this “supply chain crisis,” he learned an important lesson; never get limited by or depend on others in obtaining the supply of core components! It was imperative to be able to self-supply, only then scenarios could you avoid scenarios where you get choked by others. Especially on the “intelligent learning machine” project which he valued the most, mistakes that happened to the Wa-wah robot production could not happen again! Chen Jin was reluctant to do low-end jobs such as being a porter ever again.

Therefore, for the “intelligent learning machine” project, he planned to prepare an “umbrella before the rain” and abolish any problem that resided within before it really happened. The core hardware components that were required to make the intelligent learning machine was as follows:

Screen

CPU

AI chip

Flash and memory chip

Camera module

From these core components, the screen would not have any problems with supply; local companies such as Oriental Crystal, Hua Star Optoelectronics, Youteng Optoelectronics, and other suppliers would be able to deliver quality LED and ALMOED screens.

The chance of problems occurring in the CPU supply was relatively low; local companies such as Teng Xun corporation, Mossy Electric corporation from Treasure Island, Lian Fa Technologies, and Qualcomm from M nation, as well as Samsin from Coldrea, were all designers and manufacturers of CPU. The competition was so intense that they would be scrambling to sell Xing Hai their products; those who said no to money were idiots.

As for the AI chip, there were also a lot of local manufacturers. The better suppliers would be Cold Five Instruments, Chow Yi Technologies, Zhongtian Micro Technologies, and others, but those who were in the AI chip designing field was very limited.

For the flash and memory chip, with the government’s support policies, Rivery Corporation, Purple Ray Technologies, and other companies had achieved notable results within the field and were currently in the phase of increasing production. Therefore, there was no need to worry even if the foreign supply chain was broken.

For the camera module, Sunny Optical from the Z nation and OfiLight Technologies were the first and second top giants in camera module supply across the globe, dominating a large portion of the middle and low-end market. Certainly, in the field of high-end camera module manufacturing, manufacturers from the Z nation were no match to the foreign big three: Sony, LG, and Sharp. But for cameras above 10 million pixels, there were many local factories that could supply the demand. Moreover, there was a trend that the Z nation was expanding the scale of its camera module industry.

That is why I said… my suppliers are not forces to be reckoned with!

For the supply of core components, the threat that foreign manufacturers posed on the Z nation was gradually lessening. But for Chen Jin’s intelligent learning machine, the supply of a core component was still in high risk of supply issues.

The AI chips! The reason being that local companies focused more on design than production. The chips were of good quality, but production heavily relied on the foundries located on Treasure Island. This could not be the case. Chen Jin would never seal the fate of the “intelligent learning machine” project in such a place.

Therefore, he had two plans.

First, invest 500 million in establishing his own AI chip R&D department, seek collaboration with Cold Five Instruments, and with the aid of their talents, develop an AI chip exclusively tailored for the intelligent learning machine. Secondly, invest in the chip foundry company Zhong Xin International and sign a supply agreement with them. Subsequently, all the AI chip supply for the “intelligent learning machine” project would be handled by Zhong Xin International.

Coincidently, the headquarters of Zhong Xin international was located in Shang Hai and within the high-tech zone near Xing Hai Technologies’ headquarters. The two companies were only three-to-four-hundred meters apart. Aside from that, within the high-tech zone, Zhong Xin International owned two modern chip factories, capable of mass producing their latest and most advanced 14-nanochips. It could be said that with such a location advantage, Zhong Xin International without a doubt became the most preferred company for partnership.

…

On July 21st, after cooperative intentions were confirmed in advance, Chen Jin personally led the company’s negotiating delegation which consisted of the company’s high personnel such as Ling Dong Jun, Liang Ying, and others, and traveled by foot to Zhong Xin International’s headquarters to have a face-to-face conference with the higher-ups of their company.

The current chairman of Zhong Xin International Zhang Wei Jin looked at this meeting very seriously, not only that he personally came to greet them, but executive CEO Khoo Ci Feng, general manager Liang Meng Nan, R&D director Yang Ming, and other important personnel from Zhong Xin International all attended the meeting.

“Mr. Chen, long have I heard your name, I never thought you were so young.”

“Mr. Zhang, your company is the most advanced and the very best at chip foundry in our country, even securing a top-four position worldwide. That was a marvelous achievement, you are a pride to the Z nation.”

After both sides exchanged compliments, Zhang Wei Jin went into the main topic and asked, “Mr. Chen, how much do you intend to invest in Zhong Xin International’s chip manufacturing?”

Chapter 118 - 8% Shares, Ten Million Order Requests

Everybody’s sight was focused on Chen Jin. He held his hands in front of his nose and said, “I plan to buy 2.5 billion worth of your company shares via capital injection and become one of your shareholders.”

2.5 billion! After hearing this number, Zhang Wei Jin and others from Zhong Xin International looked at each other. All of them were beyond excited.

“Mr. Zhang, this amount of investment is no small amount, our company’s market value is now at 32 billion; with this 2.5 billion of funds, it means that our shares will rise significantly by 7.8%!” Executive CEO Khoo Ci Feng said, calculating in his mind.

“Yes indeed, our company’s stock price has been on a constant downturn due to the market condition overall. If we announce Xing Hai Technologies’ large capital injection and boost the investors’ confidence, our market value could very well break 36 billion.” As a listed company running on pure capitalism, Zhong Xin International could issue stocks on the stock market for financing purposes. They could also accept funding from other investment agencies. Being a listed company, Zhong Xin International had to put their investors’ benefits into consideration in their every action. They had to come out with statements beyond satisfactory levels and be responsible towards their investors and capital funds; this urged them to improve their performance target. This put weight on them, but at the same time propelled them towards greater achievements.

For Chen Jin, investing in Zhong Xin International was not a whim, but a part of the medium and long-term layouts and plans he had in mind. The 2.5 billion investment funds did not originate from Xing Hai Technologies financial account, but from the two mysterious bank cards he had on hand. The cards had a combined 2.546 billion. This money was earned after “selling” all 3.2 million brushless motors and 5.5 million pairs of mechanical joints that he and the human replica robots transported. Every single cent was hard-earned money! But looking at the account balance that was getting bigger and bigger, Chen Jin was afraid that he would be targeted by the regulatory authorities and asked to pay taxes. The money did not feel safe. The best way to resolve this would be to quickly spend all the money! By then, one of his worries could be lifted.

The money was most suited to be used for investments. Moreover, last time when the movie director Shi Xiao Tao came to him, from the 100 million Chen Jin invested in her movie, 50 million was from his personal account, which was earnings from the Forever Jewels store. The other 50 million originated from one of the mysterious bank cards.

Now, the money in all three bank cards was completely depleted. After completing this investment, Chen Jin would be left with no more than 500 thousand in cash. The money in Xing Hai Technologies’ financial account was intact, and therefore the company’s operations were normal and unaffected.

Then… what was it that Chen Jin wanted from investing 2.5 billion in Zhong Xin International? “8% of your company’s total shares, a voting position in the board of directors, and rights to participate in strategy conferences,” said Chen Jin.

“Mr. Chen, we will still have to consider this. Based on our market value, your demands are a little too high. 7.5% to 7.8% is still within our acceptable range. 8% might be feasible but for our current market value, the investors and stockholders will not be happy if they know about this. As for voting positions in the board of directors, every shareholder that holds more than 3% of the company’s shareholding ratio will get a position, so you can even have two seats if you so decided to. Xing Hai will also have the rights to participate in strategy conferences and even in Zhong Xin International’s strategic planning conference where you can propose your ideas and suggestions.”

Mainly it was still about the shareholding ratio, the criteria for an 8% shareholding ratio was not met. If they were to add another few tens of millions, 8% would not be a problem. However, Chen Jin had no intentions of increasing the amount of investment, and yet he came out with two demands consecutively. This left Zhang Wei Jin and his party’s mouths wide open in shock.

“Mr. Zhang, if we were to use the money as a long-term investment with a no-return policy for a 10-year duration and retain it as basic stock, could you possibly give us more shares? I heard that your company had already mastered the process technology of the 14-nano chip and is capable of producing the mobile device chip and the AI chip. It so happens that at Xing Hai Technologies, our Wa-wah robots will need tens of millions of CPU chips in the future. Another of our product under development would also need similar amounts of CPU and AI chips. If your company can sufficiently supply our demands on these chips, Xing Hai has the intentions to issue our first batch of 10 million orders. I would like to know whether your company will be capable of doing this. If you are, all future orders from Xing Hai Technologies on chips will be yours. We intend to cooperate with Zhong Xin in the long-term.”

Basic stocks with a 10-year no-return duration. 10 million chip orders! Guaranteed long-term strategic partnership. In exchange for Zhong Xin International’s 8% shares. What was still there to hesitate and consider? Zhang Wei Jin had a deep breath, stood up, and announced, “Mr. Chen. Zhong Xin International’s production for the 14-nano chip has a conformity rate of above 95%, we are capable of supplying your company’s chip orders! And so as all orders subsequently! I’ll agree on the 8% share you demanded on behalf of all the stockholders! Mr. Chen, I wish us good cooperation and may we achieve excellence together!” He extended his broad right-hand palm towards Chen Jin.

“May we have a pleasant cooperation.” Chen Jin stood up and shook hands with him, smiling. Strategic partnership, achieved!

After the meeting, the higher-ups of Zhong Xin International were very excited as they had a heated discussion amongst each other.

“Marvelous! Huge investments, tens of millions of chip orders, long-term strategic partnership, all of these will benefit us on a great scale!”

“It can be foreseen that Xing Hai Technologies will be our major client! If we get all the chip orders from Xing Hai Technologies, our company earnings will have at least a 30% surge.”

“With so much great news, our company share value will rise by at least 10%, right?”

“10%? Absolutely more than that, three raising limits at least!”

“We have finally met our moment that will only occur once in a decade, we must secure our big client Xing Hai Technologies!”

…

On the way back to the office, some executive personnel expressed their doubts and puzzling thoughts.

“Mr. Chen, Zhong Xin international is only fourth place in the chip foundry enterprise worldwide. They are far behind Mossy Electrics, Samsin, and Intel, which are at the top three positions and do not possess even 6% of market shares. Their process technology has a one- to two-generation gap from the other 7-nano and 10-nano chips, why don’t we seek partnership with those who have better technical capabilities?

“Mr. Chen, you gave this much money and order requests for outdated chips, can we really make good products out of this? I bet customers won’t buy it either.” This created discontent among them, they thought their boss was too young, and too…

“Shut up, both of you!” Chen Jin glared at them both. “Get lost if this can’t get through you!” He turned his head as his sight swept across everyone and he said, “I do not want to repeat, and I have made myself very clear, first, the learning machine is not like a mobile phone, it is rather bulky, the 14-nanochips performance will definitely suffice! Second, I do not want to get choked by anyone, nobody chokes Xin Hai Technologies! Finally, the 8% share Xing Hai holds in Zhong Xin International might increase in the future. I do not wish to hear anyone saying who should be a better partner or who we should give our orders to. If someone says these foolish words again, piss off!”

“Yes sir.”

“Yes sir.”

Both of their heads shrunk in and they never spoke a single word again. The other executives nodded their heads. Their young boss might be immature, but this partnership was definitely him being farsighted. Besides, it was really patriotic.

Chapter 119 - An Astonishing Ambition

On July 24th, at Bao Shan Industrial Park, equipment that was made up of 108 large cabinets were transported to Xing Hai Technologies’s third R&D factory via several trucks. After the anti-shock door of the truck was opened, the cabinet enclosure and other parts were carefully taken out by the workers. Treated with delicacy, they were transported into the factory. The custom-made supercomputer ordered by Xing Hai Technologies had arrived.

Its manufacturer was Dawn Enterprise. The model name of the supercomputer was Dawn TC9000; its internals consisted of 28800 high-performance processors with peak operations at 7994 TFlops per second, equivalent to 0.7997 billion times per second. This operating speed was only 0.8% of that of the top supercomputer in the country, the ‘Heavenly River-3’. Its performance was 4.26% of the M nation’s supercomputer ‘Summit,’ which once topped at world rankings. It could not even reach an operating speed of one billion times per second. In Chen Jin’s eyes, this TC9000 that he bought was utter trash.

Despite that fact, the computing power of the TC9000 was ranked at number six within the borders of the Z nation and surpassed the supercomputer ‘Heavenly River-1,’ which was also once ranked number one in the world. In the Top-500 ranking list of supercomputers, TC9000 could be positioned at rank 38. It was definitely worthy of being called a supercomputer. As for its price, 550 million, not negotiable! “One for Xin Hai Technologies!” Chen Jin waved his hands and ordered a unit straight away.

Could supercomputers actually be bought? Of course. In fact, companies such as Baidu, Ali, and Hua Yao had acquired many supercomputers. They used them for building massive database centers, cloud platforms, and many other things. From over 200 supercomputers in the Top-500 ranking list that resided within the Z nation, a good portion of them were owned by private companies.

But for companies that spent such a fortune to buy a custom-made supercomputer ranked at number six throughout the whole nation, aside from Xing Hai Technologies, there were technically no others. The mass majority of technology-based companies would not spend so much money to directly buy a supercomputer. Most of them would go to designated supercomputer centers and rent them at an hourly system. It was not that worthwhile to directly buy one.

For Chen Jin, spending 550 million on a supercomputer was not because he was too rich, but it was actually worth the deal. The “Smart Learning Program” that would be developed by Xing Hai Technologies would be capable of utilizing all of the supercomputer’s computing powers. It might not even suffice! Even for the top supercomputer in the nation, the Heavenly River-3, Chen Jin thought that its computing power was underwhelming.

Unless they could move supercomputer “Scarlet,” that Alice once used, from the Base of Operations to Earth. With Scarlet’s computing powers of one billion times per second, it would basically suffice.

“Moving ‘Scarlet’ to Earth? Yes, if we take out the motherboard, CPU, internal RAM, hard disks, and other components, and separately move them here with a few thousand trips or so, indeed we would be able to transport it and use it here on Earth. But, it would only be a matter of time before our secrets got revealed. Then we would get arrested by some mysterious departments, followed by trials, investigations, some gruesome interrogations, or some other stuff. Anyways, there is no way we keep that all a secret. Things that are five to six steps ahead of things on Earth, bringing them here will be like asking for death.” So, we should not save even a single cent of the money that we need to spend.

After acquiring the TC9000 supercomputer, the hardware required for the “Intelligent Learning Machine” project’s developments would all be in place, and they wouldl be able to kickstart the R&D work. Its performance was enough for their apparent usage, the reason being that version 1.0 of the Intelligent Learning Machine would be targeted for primary schoolers.

In a technical discussion, Chen Jin said, “The Intelligent Learning Machine that I conceptualize is not all-knowing from the very beginning, but its learning will be separated into a few phases. In the first phase, which is the primary school phase, it will provide primary schoolers teaching and question-answering services in literature, mathematics, English, and other subjects. The knowledge in this phase is more towards basic, simple, and entry-level knowledge. With the supercomputer that our company possesses, all the knowledge can possibly be learned in a matter of hours after initializing the smart learning program. The second phase will be the junior high school phase. The knowledge in this phase is a level higher in terms of difficulty when compared to the primary school phase, and the variations will be more complicated as well. But with our supercomputer, this will merely require a few months of computing.” In the third phase, which is the senior high school phase, the amount of knowledge will be significantly more. It will be more difficult and complicated, and will start to touch on topics which are esoteric and difficult to understand. For our supercomputer to master them 100%, it might need at least three years or more. The fourth phase is the university phase; needless to say, there are more than a thousand professional courses offered in universities. If we do not increase the number of our supercomputers, the learning process might not be completed in even 10 years’ time.”

Chen Jin continued, “The last phase will be the all-knowing phase. When we reached this phase, Xing Hai Technologies can announce to the public that we had all the knowledge in this world and our ‘All-Knowing Learning Machine’ or ‘All-Knowing Program’ will be bringing an earth-shaking change to our world! After that, if humans encounter any problems that they do not know, they can ask the ‘All-Knowing Learning Machine’ at any time. Those who are doing brain work, no matter what technical difficulties they are facing, can always refer to our ‘All-knowing Helper,’ and the ‘All-knowing Helper’ can solve their problems in the shortest time possible. With all these being said, do you still think that our product is merely a simple learning machine? No, it is not! What I am making is a vessel of knowledge, it is an almighty ‘brain,’ it is a ‘tool’ that can abolish brain work in the future. The learning machine is just a sub-product. Compared to the ultimate end product for this project, the learning machine is not even worth mentioning!”

After the crowd finished listening to Chen Jin, they all applauded. All the technical staff were stunned. They were all astounded by what he envisioned and the ambition deep within his heart! They went on to have a heated discussion.

“It is possible for what Mr. Chen envisioned to become reality. If the computing powers of the supercomputer were to be powerful enough, we could grasp all the knowledge in the universe!”

“It can’t be done, knowledge is infinite, and it is impossible for a computer to record all of them. Let me give you a simple example, 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9, even this simple math has 362880 kinds of variation and yet, they all yield the same meaning. The number of ways to combine the thousands of letters in the dictionary is more than atoms in the whole universe combined. Therefore, the supercomputer won’t even have enough storage space, not to even mention acquiring all knowledge.”

A young man refuted, “What you said is completely wrong! The knowledge in this world has no meaning on the surface as well as axioms that reside deep within, especially science which is more particular on logic; its properties are the laws of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, the Pythagorean law, the three laws of motion, chemical reaction formulas, and many others. All these formulas and theorems are what our world is made of! As long as we master all the basic rules, it will be equivalent to mastering all knowledge.”

“Yes, What He Fei said was right, it is said that all knowledge in this world, excluding the factual contents in liberal arts, in the field of pure science and technology, all knowledge that humans passed on for several millenniums can fill in a small room.”

“No matter how something variates, it can never deviate from its core concept; as long as the basic principles are mastered, this world that we live in is not as complicated as we thought it is.”

Technical director Song Bo Jun also nodded his head and said, “True, we are working on an intelligent learning program, its learning process is based on mastering the ‘principle’ like the laws in physics, formulas in mathematics, grammar in languages, and by learning with analogy, the machine can integrate the knowledge acquired, not just blindly learning every single thing. That’s why it is called a smart learning program… it can learn smartly and will be flexible in using them.”

Everybody nodded. Even the man that thought it was impossible nodded and said, “I understand now.”

The young man He Fei said, “Mr. Chen, Mr. Song, if we manage to complete the algorithms for the smart learning program, making the intelligent learning machine will not be a problem. Version 1.0 targeted at primary schoolers can be completed in at most six months’ time! The knowledge involved in the primary school phase is too easy.”

“Yeah, it’s simply so easy!”

“It can be done, just count on us for the smart learning program! I’m a hundred percent sure that the Intelligent Learning Machine can be realized!”

Song Bo Jun’s eyes were flashing with confidence as he waved his hands, “Let’s go back to our respective workplace, I will lead you all to complete the smart learning program within a month!”

After a round of cheers, everyone returned to their respective posts. All the several hundreds of programmers working on the ‘Intelligent Learning Machine’ project began working with high spirits. After realizing their boss’s ambition, Song Bo Jun and his team working on this project were filled with soaring passion and brimming with confidence, and that transformed into a force that propelled them to work harder.

Chen Jin nodded out of satisfaction as he looked at what happened. The others may not be optimistic about his learning machine project, but at least in his development team, nobody was holding him back.

Chapter 120 - Hot Media Discussion

In the blink of an eye, a month had passed since Zhen Ker Shin joined Xing Hai Technologies. Working in this company, she felt that her days were very fulfilling and happy. She was glad to be able to join this company and become a part of its big family. She thought that the company’s management system was very good in various aspects. For example, the ‘peak time policy.’ Considering the peak time for traffic congestion in Shang Hai, it was within company regulations that staff could choose to work from 10 am to 6 pm aside from the default 9 am to 5 pm. For those who held technical posts, they could choose to rest in the morning, rush to the office at noon, and work until nine at night. For non-controversial work that could be done from home, the company allowed staff to complete them at home. Every staff member could apply for a maximum of two days per week to work from home.

Besides all of that, the company hired an outsource canteen, with a standard price of five dollars per person, with five-star chefs that were hired to prepare lunch and two dinners. The food provided was rich in nutrition and scrumptious all the time. It was definitely a company that satisfied their staff’s food cravings.

Furthermore, the personnel under her service, deputy general manager Liang Ying, took very good care of her. The care she gave her was to an extent that sometimes made her flabbergasted. She treated her to meals frequently, guided her patiently at work, and cared for her in life. Even if she made some minor mistakes, Mrs. Liang always told her it was fine, with no words of criticism at all. She felt that she had a particularly good leader, and therefore she was very serious at work, thus improving very quickly. She was getting more and more praises by the day. Moreover, her monthly salary was 18k. She wished that she could always stay in this excellent company.

On the other hand, her performance within this time period was always secretly watched by a pair of curious eyes. Inadvertently passing by her office, deliberately bumping into her in the elevators. She even encountered the person twice in the washroom when she was making a quick stop.

Because of Chen Jin’s usual low-key and mysterious character — and the fact that he seldom appeared in the headquarters as compared to the R&D factory — aside from the few executives in the company, not many regular staff were able to recognize him, including Zhen Ker Shin. Even after several encounters, she failed to notice that he was the company’s boss.

There was one time in the elevator that Chen Jin greeted her. “Hello, are you working in Xing Hai Technologies?”

“Yes, what about you? Are you working here as well?” Zhen Ker Shin said while holding a file in her hands.

“Yeah, I’m in this company too.” Chen Jin nodded.

“That makes us colleagues, let’s look after each other.”

“Sure. The elevator is here, after you.” The elevator door opened. Chen Jin made a gesture asking her to go first.

“Thanks.”

….

After two days, deputy general manager Liang Ying brought her to Ling Dong Jun’s office to discuss some things. Zhen Ker Shin was surprised to see the young man that she had met before in the elevator sitting opposite of executive CEO Ling Dong Jun and chatting with him loudly with his legs resting on the table.

After the young man saw them coming in, he quickly put his legs down and changed into a serious expression. Subsequently, they both were cast aside as Liang Ying and Ling Dong Jun went on to discuss serious matters.

“Hi, why are you in Ling Dong Jun’s office?” Zhen Ker Shin tossed the question at him out of curiosity. She had a realization and asked, “Could it be… are you Ling Dong Jun’s personal assistant? You have the same job as me?”

Chen Jin, whose eyes were spinning as he desperately thought about what to reply to her at that moment, instantly nodded and said, “Yea yea, what you said is correct… I’m Mr. Ling’s personal assistant.” Once again, he couldn’t help himself from peeking at the girl’s blue ponytail.

“But why did you have your legs on the table while talking to Mr. Ling, isn’t that inappropriate?” Thinking about his discourteous act, Zhen Ker Shin had to get it out of her system, because she thought it was really rude.

“Oh, okay, I won’t do it again next time.” Chen Jin had an embarrassed look on his face as he nodded his head and assured her of his understanding. Therefore, as Ling Dong Jun’s “personal assistant”, gradually, the number of encounters between Chen Jin and Zhen Ker Shin grew.

…

On July 28th, Xing Hai Technologies and Zhong Xin International formally signed a partnership agreement and complied to various strategic collaborations, including the 2.5 billion fund injection by Xing Hai Technologies to acquire 8% of Zhong Xin International’s total market shares, the order confirmation for the two million chips, establishing the long-term partnership, and so on. After all of this was announced, it attracted massive attention from the media! Various review articles were written.

Economy Watcher; “This partnership will have massive effects! The Wa-wah robot released by Xing Hai Technologies had six million units sold in less than six months, it is not an issue for sales to pierce 10 million units by the end of the year. With a price of $750 per unit, in terms of revenue, this young company which has been established for no more than six months is expected to have a grossing annual revenue of 50 billion, and is most certain to earn a spot in the top 500 enterprises in the country. This is a company with a miraculous growth rate! The net profit margin for the Wa-wah robot is not low at all, with sales conducted online, the net profit gain for each unit of Wa-wah robot is expected to be at least 20%. With so much cash at hand, it is within expectations that Xing Hai Technologies will invest in other companies. 2.5 billion is not considered much but it is enough for us to see the ambition of the rising company.”

Business Weekly: “This is a mutualistic partnership. Sales for the Wa-wah robot are expected to exceed 10 million units per year. In correlation, the use of core chips will also be above 10 million. Moreover, recent news states that Xing Hai Technologies invested 500 million in their partnership with Cold Five Instruments to develop an AI chip. Now, they injected another 2.5 billion of funds into Zhong Xin International. This indicates that Xing Hai Technologies has intentions to enter the chip industry with a bang! However, the chip industry is a high-end field that involves huge investments, long cycles, and high risk of failure. Average companies will not dare step foot in chip R&D that easily, but for this new company which was established for less than a year, they invested a full three billion in it! From this, we can clearly see the daring resolution of Xing Hai Technologies.”

Southern Economy: “Ridiculous! A company with a bright future in developing household robots not focusing on what they excel at, but suddenly announces to invest in chip development. Won’t that be putting the cart before the horse? If you step too wide, you might pull your balls, I would like to advise the entrepreneurs of Xing Hai Technologies: Do what you should do and forgo the chip field, do not strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.”

The Internet Weekly: “What Xing Hai Technologies is doing is very puzzling. There were rumors that just recently, they spent a few hundred thousand to buy a supercomputer ranked at number six within the country from Dawn Enterprise. What are they doing with such a high-performing supercomputer? Now, they are investing another three billion in the chip field. They are just banging away clumsily in all directions with no overall vision, giving people the feeling that they are too rich, we cannot help but to doubt: can this company get their default job done and maintain their growth? They must know that there are many companies in the country that have started similar development efforts in cleaning robots.”

Top Finance: “The goals of Xing Hai Technologies should be becoming the Z nation’s second Da Jiang and take the lead in the field of household robots. But Xing Hai’s development schemes are somewhat perplexing. It is said that another project they are currently working on is a learning machine, and now chips too… rumors said that Xing Hai’s leader is only 25 years old and is the Z nation’s youngest and most successful entrepreneur, but honestly speaking, we do not wish to hear another story of ‘Shang Zhong Yong’.”

In the local media reports, there were some who praised, some who criticized, and some who passed ill judgment on Xing Hai Technologies. As for the listed company Zhong Xin International, along with their shareholders and investors, after the company’s strategic partnership with Xin Hai Technologies and a series of positive news was announced, their stocks soared 10%, directly hitting the daily limit. On the second day, it rose another 8%! On the third day, it rose another 6%. Their stock index rose for several days straight. Within just a few days, the market value of Zhong Xin International surged by 25%, breaking the 40-billion benchmark.

It could be said that with Xin Hai Technology to bet bottom dollar on, this chip foundry company was looming to soar the skies.

Chapter 121 - The Real Appearance Of Wa-wah 2.0

One day, the treasurer, Zhu Yuefang, pulled Chen Jin aside and quietly spoke to him. “President Chen, the company funds don’t seem to be sufficient.”

What?Hearing this, Chen Jin stood rooted to the ground. Insufficient funds?

Was there not a few billion in the company account just some time ago? How was it possible that such a huge sum of money could be gone so quickly?

Zhu Yuefang took out a detailed list with some reluctance and gave a report on his extravagant expenses.

One: Currently, the company employed 1,781 staff. It had three development plants and one rented office building. The monthly rent, utilities, consumables, salaries, and other expenses were over 100 million per month.

Two: Purchase of three workshops cost 55 million.

Three: Purchase of various technological patents cost 300 million.

Four: The development costs for “Wa-wah 2.0” incurred by the project department was 350 million.

Five: Purchases of office equipment cost 420 million.

Six: 500 million was allocated for the establishment of a department for the development of the chip.

Seven: Purchase of a super calculator costs 550 million.

Eight: 250 million was allocated for the construction of a large-scale hardware R&D facility.

Other expenses cost 150 million.

Total expenses incurred were 5.025 billion.

How much did Xing Hai Technologies earn this entire time?

The total revenue had been calculated. The three million units of Wa-wah Robot 1.0 edition that were sold generated a cash flow of 1.67 billion for the company. It had been two months since the launch of the Wa-wah 1.1 in May. According to the statistics by the sales department, a total of 2.75 million units of the Wa-wah Robot 1.1 were sold. This included all editions of the 1.1 robot. The average net profit from each unit was $1,203. Multiplied by 2.75 million… The company earned another 3.3 billion during those two months. In addition, Da Mi Technologies had sold around two million Love Mi robots. This meant a total payout of 250 million to Xing Hai Technologies for the cost of its exclusive rights.

The total profits were 5.22 billion (The bonuses paid to Youying Motors and Bi Long Technologies were temporarily excluded). After subtracting the sum of expenses from the total profits, the leftover profit on paper was less than 200 million.

Chen Jin patted his chest as he let out a sigh of relief. Looking at Zhu Yuefeng, he said, “Manager Zhu, you scared me! Why are you making a fuss about nothing? Don’t we still have 200 million?”

“President Chen, I’m not scaring you. You are spending money way too fast. According to this spending rate, the available cash flow of the company would dip below the warning level within a few days. For long-term growth companies like us, it’s not too safe to have funds that show up on the books as less than 500 million.”

“I think it would better if you control some of your expenses. The company is expanding too quickly. There is no reason to rush. Some expenses really should not be incurred; it’s best not to spend on those items.” Zhu Yuefang knew that the boss may dislike hearing those words, but he still advised him earnestly. After all, it was a high-tech enterprise with a bright future that had been established for less than a year before its legendary rise to the top of the 500 most powerful domestic companies with the highest sales revenues. It should take a safer and more reliable route. It should have a clearer direction for its development. Hitting out in all directions to seize all the opportunities and profits becomes a suitable course of action only when the company has grown into a giant leading corporation.

“All right, Manager Zhu. You can rest assured. The money that should be spent has almost all been spent. What’s left is waiting for our labor to bear fruit and the moment when we can reap huge rewards. Moreover, we are still selling some hundreds of thousands of the Wa-wah Robot every month. We still have a monthly profit of hundreds of millions… It won’t be too long before the company’s cash flow is rejuvenated.”

Zhu Yuefang nodded. There was no further need for his opinions since the boss had acknowledged the state of the company’s coffers.

…

Time flowed quickly like water. For the next four months, the entire company was swamped with work and entered a state of urgency. Working overtime became common, especially for the staff in R&D positions. The average working hours per week for the R&D staff in Xing Hai Technologies was 56 hours. It was only half a day’s difference from the 60 hours work week of the Hua Yao Company. It far surpassed that of internet companies 361, Ali, and Baidu, who were famous for their overtime working culture. It seemed that the company could not avoid the reputation of squeezing its employees anymore.

In reality, Xing Hai Technologies did not enforce any overtime policy. You could choose to work 9 to 5 where work and life were equal priorities. You could also choose to work overtime and get a higher salary. Hence, an overwhelming majority of the staff were willing to do overtime. They actively applied to work overtime. Some of the workaholics even bought sleeping bags with their own money. When they got tired at night, they would take a nap beside their work desks.

The first reason was the strict implementation of the overtime pay system. The hourly overtime rate was 1.5 times the normal hourly rate. One could only do overtime for a maximum of four hours.

The second reason was the excellent prospects of the company’s projects. In addition, the projects were inspiring and exciting for many. Hence, the R&D staff was filled with enthusiasm and motivation for their work.

There was this saying that went like this: When you’re doing something that you like, you’ll never feel tired no matter how tough it gets. When you’re doing something that you dislike, you’ll feel tired no matter how easy it is. The projects in Xing Hai Technologies belonged to the former.

During those few months, Chen Jin did not take any time off to rest. On the contrary, he was living like an ordinary R&D staff. He would go to the development plant whenever he was free. He was especially devoted and serious about the “Learning Machine” project. He came to the company at least four to five times every week and each time that he came, he would stay in the company for at least half a day to personally direct the workflow.

As such, he became even busier. It was not that he was torturing himself for nothing or finding trouble for himself by taking on extra work. He really was bored out of his mind.

One, the work on the environmental transformation in Haierfa had commenced and the AI, Nuwa, was fully in charge of the entire project. The most Chen Jin ever had to do was to move his lips and offer some opinions. Moreover, all the “rubbish” that could be found had basically all been found. After sending out the air transport squad to the Yamato State, they found a super calculator called “Sakura” who could count up to 10 sextillions. He then gave Alice another upgrade. After “Sakura,” there were essentially no other “darlings” left that warranted his attention or effort.

On Earth, the majority of the company’s general affairs did not require his personal attention. He handed that duty over to the CEO. Except for delegating work, he did practically nothing. Therefore, he could freely arrange how he wanted to spend most of his time.

But, he kept his promise to “Director Dong’s daughter” Yuan Li precisely because he had too much time on his hands. He took the initiative and treated her to a meal. Then, they went shopping. Their relationship became warmer and friendlier. After which, things got out of hand. In the short period of half a month, Yuan Li repeatedly asked him out for a meal three times, and to go sightseeing four times… One could not hold off the passion of that girl.

Chen Jin was starting to find the whole thing somewhat tedious. He had a quiet personality. Yuan Li would invite him to go to various places to savor delicious food or trips to admire the scenery. It was good at the beginning, and he was happy too. But, he gradually became sick of these activities after the hundredth time. He found these activities to be meaningless. He realized that he was someone who did not really know how to enjoy life.

The two-dimensional ladies were enough to satisfy him. Rather than spending huge amounts of time eating, drinking, and having fun, why not do something that was more meaningful?

He sent a message to her. “Yuan Li, the company is very busy now. I won’t have any free time to go out with you for the next few months. Forgive me.”

Yuan Lin pursed her lips and replied, “Oh… Ok.”

…

On the 21st of December, after the 6-month rapid development process by the 300-man development team, Xing Hai Technologies achieved a breakthrough in their first product. They created a prototype of the final product version. They announced that the finalization was completed.

This product was the heavily upgraded edition of the Wa-wah Robot 1.1 — Wa-wah Robot 2.0!

Chapter 122 - The Real Upgrade to a New Generation

In the first development plant, the finalized version of the 2.0 robot prototype was exhibiting its functions and capabilities to Chen Jin. In terms of appearance, the 2.0 edition Wa-wah robot bore little difference to the 1.0 edition. The brain, body, and chassis were basically the same. The greatest changes could be found inside its head and body, where many additional sensors had been installed. Its mechanical arms became more dexterous. The addition of the hydraulic telescopic device enabled the length of its arms to be increased by five centimeters. The three mechanical fingers at the end of each arm were mobile, allowing the robot to do simple grasping motions. In terms of weight, it was 0.5 kilograms heavier than Wa-wah 1.1.

The technical chief inspector, Zhou Kun, explained its specific functions with great excitement. “President Chen, Firstly, it can achieve an even more immaculate level in its cleaning with higher efficiency, thus requiring less human intervention! Through improvements in many areas, it is able to clean 99.9% of all rubbish and stains on major portions of the floor. With its agile and nimble mechanical arms, Wa-wah 2.0 can take out the rubbish container in its body by itself and dispose of the trash in the designated trash bin. After which, it will also clean and wash the rubbish container by itself… This will further reduce the hassle experienced by the user. Except for the disposal of the trash in the designated trash bin that requires the user’s personal attention, it can be said that users who purchase a Wa-wah 2.0 do not have to worry about anything else related to the robot. It’s most suitable to use ‘Floorboard Terminator’ to describe the Wa-wah 2.0.”

His eyes shone with excitement. “Secondly, we’ve added the home carer function. The cameras of Wa-wah 2.0 can function as a monitoring device. When there’s nobody at home, it can keep an eye on the valuables, children, or elderly. When it detects a stranger’s entry, it will automatically notify the user. Alternatively, it can also call the police. When there’s a fire, it will send out a notification and call 911 for the fire police. When an elderly family member who is sick suffers medical complications or attacks, it can call for emergency services. If the children have a cold or fever, it can measure their temperatures and send out notifications. The home carer function is yet another big selling point for the Wa-wah 2.0! Thirdly, we’ve added the family mode. Frankly speaking, this function does not bear much difference with the smart speakers that are already available on the market. The humans ask questions and the robot answers. The format of their replies is fixed and routine. At most, they can tell stories and sing. After using them for a period of time, one would be bored. But, the Wa-wah 2.0 robot is different! We’ve created the ‘free interaction’ function. When the user turns on the ‘free interaction’ mode and sets up the gender, personality, and nickname, Wa-wah 2.0 can automatically substitute itself into the role of a ‘family member.’ Not only can it passively answer questions, but it can also take the initiative to speak, start a conversation, and attract others’ attention, even becoming a chatterbox. Similarly, it can sing, dance, tell stories and jokes and carry out talent shows. It’s a bit of a clown as well as a something that brings joy.”

Zhou Kun smiled widely. “After the user has purchased such a robot, his home will be enlivened. The children will have a companion too. As for its specific results, there is no guarantee that it will be liked by all. But, the majority of the test control staff thinks well of the family function. They feel that it could be a breakthrough for the industry. The mode can be turned off if one finds the noise annoying. One could also request Wa-wah to be silent during a certain period of time, thus blocking off its disturbance. I believe that this interactive function will be very popular if it could become smarter and more interesting in the future! Fourthly, we’ve added a ‘protecting the environment for the good of the public’ mode. Every week, Wa-wah 2.0 will announce a mission titled ‘I love protecting the environment.’ The time limit for the mission is one day. It’ll call on the user to take it outside to clean the housing estates, streets, and public squares, as well as other public facilities. One point will be awarded for every 100 square meters that are cleaned (mainly through sweeping). When 1,000 reward points have been accumulated, we will provide a free maintenance session. When 10,000 points have been accumulated, we will give a completely new Wa-wah robot free of charge.”

This particular method played off of the promotion videos for the original Wa-wah Robot. “Using this method, Xing Hai Technologies will show our support for the protection of the environment. And by showing that we are taking concrete actions and contributing to the protection of the environment, it will help to greatly improve our company’s social image. Fifthly, we’ve added a gaming mode. Actually, this mode complements that of the environmental protection mode. Each day that the Wa-wah Robot is cleaning the home, it’s experience level would increase by one. When it participates in an ‘I love protecting the environment’ activity, its experience will increase by at least 10. It can also acquire combat experience when it meets another Wa-wah Robot outside and have a ‘face-off’ which will help to rapidly increase its experience level. I believe that with the addition of the gaming mode, many users would be willing to go outside with their Wa-wah Robots and take part in protecting our environment. As they participate in the fight for environmental protection, they will also make more friends!

Zhou Kun looked at Chen Jin proudly. “President Chen, our Wa-wah 2.0 can clean the floor, look after the valuables at home, and take care of the elderly and children. It can also become a familial character and bring much joy to the family. Plus, it can take concrete action and firmly work towards the objective of protecting the environment, which in turn, protects our Earth too… This is an excellent robot. I find it hard to imagine how anybody would be unwilling to buy it or act hesitantly by sitting on the sidelines and adopting a wait-and-see attitude towards this product. Personally for me, I would definitely buy one even if I don’t get to use it! Because it’s a guardian of the home; it’s an angel that protects the environment. It’s the cutest robot!” Zhou Kun shook his fist and said with a sparkle in his eyes, “Every family should have one. If they don’t, I would feel that it’s not a complete and happy family.”

Currently, he was acting like a fanatical believer. He felt a pressing desire to introduce the Wa-wah 2.0 that he had developed into all the homes in the country. The other technicians in the project team did not behave in such an exaggerated manner as Zhou Kun. However, they too were extremely excited.

“President Chen, let’s set the starting price at $10,000 for one unit. I’m confident that people will buy it!”

“President Chen, let’s quickly stop the production of Wa-wah 1.1 and put all efforts into the production of Wa-wah 2.0! Our Wa-wah 2.0 can generate higher profits!”

“I think that the sales volume of the 2.0 could reach 30 million units!”

“Only 30 million? I think it can exceed 50 million!”

“You have too little confidence. Why can’t you believe that it will become as ubiquitous as the refrigerator or the washing machine? Every household must have one. We can definitely sell up to 100 million units!”

All the technicians present chattered with great excitement.

Hearing the talk from everyone, Chen Jin smiled and nodded. How could he be unaware of Wa-wah 2.0’s market potential when he was the one who came up with its design plan? The production of Wa-wah 1.1 had completely stopped two months ago. Its sales volume had just reached six million units. By now, modifications and adjustments on the production line of Ling Feng Jing Mi had been completed. Purchase of materials had also been completed. The mass-production of Wa-wah 2.0 was about to begin.

At the present stage, the Wa-wah robot 2.0 was the final edition of robots meant to tackle the “floor” in Chen Jin’s plan. The scope of the upgrades to be carried out in future editions of the robot would not be extensive. The upgrades on 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 and so forth would minimal; they would be eked out like the last bit of toothpaste left in the tube.

As for his next plan of action, he had shifted his sights away from the “floor” and set it on something that was above the ground. He wanted to make a real “family robot.” When he revealed some of his thoughts regarding this idea to the technicians that were present, including Zhou Kun, their mouths hung open.

Chapter 123 - The Ultimate Optimization

On the 28th of December, Shi Xiaotao came to Shang Hai City bearing good news again. The dailies of the animation movie “Wa-wah Robot: A Brilliant and Brave Rescue” had been completed. The movie was 90% complete. There was only post-production editing, the official soundtrack, and other simple tasks left to complete.

“We’ve recruited new staff in order to increase the pace of production. We have twice as many staff now and we frequently work overtime. In addition, I’ve cut some content. The entire film is only 92 minutes long. But it’s still just as exciting and the storyline has become more compact. We’ve employed an animation production technology that will increase our efficiency, and purchased a type of high-speed rendering software. This has allowed our work efficiency to increase by 30%.” Filled with pride, Shi Xiaotao said, “Therefore, we are able to create a completed movie animation within a period of 8 months or so. Currently, we are the only ones who are able to achieve this kind of efficiency.” Of course, she did not deny that the source material provided by Chen Jin had shortened the production period by at least two to three months. After all, everything was hard in the beginning.

Chen Jin nodded without moving his gaze from the laptop screen as he watched the movie. Slowly, his forehead creased in a frown. It was not that the movie was bad. At least he thought that the first 30 minutes were very good. The images were exquisite, the plot flowed smoothly, and there were many punchlines. The quality was excellent. However, from the middle of the movie onwards, the images showed signs of slight distortion. It was not as exquisite as the first 30 minutes and many details were crudely produced. The quality had significantly decreased and the rhythm of the plot was messy. One could see the effects where the work was rushed.

Chen Jin pointed out these issues.

Feeling helpless, she awkwardly said, “I wouldn’t have thought that you’d notice details like that. Our post-production process was indeed rushed. But, I don’t think that it’s a big problem. At least there were no issues with the storyline. The loss of details and the image distortion are due to the high-speed rendering software that we used. That’s its innate flaw — it guarantees speed at the expense of quality. We could only use it as it is. But, I don’t think that the audience will pay too much attention to those details. It won’t affect box office sales.”

Chen Jin shook his head. “You’re right. The ordinary viewers will not pay attention to those details. But the professionals will. The professional film critics who write reviews will get their magnifying glass and apply it to every single detail in the movie. After watching the movie, the ordinary viewers would simply have a laugh and forget about it. But, industry professionals and film critics would definitely find flaws with it. They’ll grasp onto some detail and not let go, then they’ll give negative reviews about it. As the power of words lies with them, the moment they roast the movie collectively is the moment our movie’s reputation goes down the drain. Box office sales would definitely be affected in the end.”

“I know!” Shi Xiaotao said, “You’re right. But, this movie is requested to be screened as part of the film schedule in the Spring Festival. This timing is extremely rushed. We still have to create an original soundtrack, find a theatre chain for collaboration, prepare the promotions and launch events… We’re very busy over various matters and we just couldn’t take any more time to further refine the movie. We were only able to edit it a little. There’s nothing I can do if the reputation of the movie becomes worse because of criticisms from industry professionals. After all, this is only my first work; a debut movie! I can only hope they can have some mercy for me in their reviews and be more understanding. I think that the effects on box office sales will not be significant. This is only a ‘fluff’ movie on family joys. What the audience wants is something that is happy and relaxing. If I can meet these criteria, it’s basically a success.” Hence, she did not intend to do greater adjustments and editing on the final version of the movie.

Suddenly, Chen Jin said, “Then… How about this; leave a copy of the dailies here. I’ll get someone to optimize it.”

With a questioning expression, she asked, “You’ll find someone to help me optimize the dailies? How would it be optimized?”

“Do you still remember the promotion ad series ‘Wa-wah Robot’ that my company got a third party to do?

“That’s great! President Chen, please ask for their help. Thank you, thank you very much!” Shi Xiaotao was very pleasantly surprised. She had seen the series of ads titled “Wa-wah Robot.” The quality of its graphics was one of the very best in the world. With the help from a team that possessed such strong technical skills, the quality of the graphics in her movie ” Wa-wah Robot: A Brilliant and Brave Rescue” would definitely be greatly improved. She asked Chen Jin what was a suitable amount of remuneration for their help. A million? Or five million?

“Let’s wait until the results have been achieved.” Chen Jin got her to leave a copy of the dailies with him. After about a week, he would give the final post-optimization version to her.

On that very night, at the Base of Operations in Haierfa, Chen Jin had stored the movie “Wa-wah Robot: A Brilliant and Brave Rescue” in his laptop. He uploaded it onto the server for Alice to optimize.

“It’s completed, master.” After about three minutes had passed, Alice expressed that the optimization had been completed.

Chen Jin shook his head. “Damn, is this light-speed optimization?” He let Alice turn on the projector and play the post-optimization movie. He was shocked at the optimization effects! The strands of hair on individual characters in the movie had been refined to an imperceptible degree. The pattern of bricks and veins on the roads and ground were like a complex painting. The characters’ expressions were extremely realistic and moving. The flow of the graphics had been optimized to an ultimate degree. Each second consisted of 240 frames. The slightly distorted graphics and the lost details were all recovered and revamped.

Perfection. Chen Jin only wanted to use “perfection” to describe the graphics of the entire movie.

“I honestly think audiences would fork out money to buy a ticket for this movie just for the effects alone. The current era prioritizes visuals over everything else. It is an era where aesthetics guide consumer spending. Even if the movie totally sucks, just with these graphics, it can seize at least two billion in box office sales. Moreover, it doesn’t have a terrible plot. There are many punchlines and a heart-warming ending… Raking in box office sales of three billion is entirely reasonable.”

…

After one week, Chen Jin sent the “optimized” dailies via long-distance courier service to Shi Xiaotao in Hanghu City. Shi Xiaotao signed off on the shipment. She called Chen Jin even before she finished viewing them. Her shrieking over the phone exceeded 100 decibels. “How was this accomplished? How did you do it? What technology did you use to achieve this level of perfection? This is too amazing! Too amazing, this level of technical skill is practically god-like. President Chen, I’d like to get acquainted with the team of experts that you found!” Amidst her shrieking, she shot him a series of questions at machine-gun speed. She said with utmost certainty, “Five billion! I’m confident that the box office sales of this movie will break through five billion!”

F**k me! Chen Jin was greatly shocked. Five billion? Currently, there was only one movie in the country with box office sales of over five billion. That was “Battle Dragons 2”, directed and starred by Wujin. It sparked a wave across the nations. It was said that citizens all over the country had watched it at least once on average.

It was true that the images in her movie were much more refined after optimization. However, her plot had been done to death. There were no intense or thrilling action scenes. It would be considered pretty good if the movie could rake in three billion in box office sales. Five billion was an overly egoistic number. But, Chen Jin did not openly rebuke her… He was faintly afraid of acting out of his image.

Of course, that team of experts was usually very busy. They did not like to be disturbed or to socialize.

“Ok. Maybe I can see them after I’ve become an internationally famous director.” She enquired as to how much “compensation” should be given to that amazing team. Would 10 million be sufficient? She would not be able to afford more than 10 million. She had taken out practically all of her liquid assets for this movie and staked nearly her entire financial worth on this movie. This was a high-risk gamble. There could only be one acceptable outcome — victory!

“1% bonus of the total box office sales. It will be transferred into my company account… This should be ok?”

1% bonus of a total box office sales of 3 billion was 30 million. He would just give a “friendly” price. Then again, why did he not get Alice to produce the entire movie and get more profits? Actually, this had been explained. A movie that had no director, no voice actors, and no production team belonged wholly in the category of “third void movies.” When it was released in the cinemas and violently seized box office sales in the billions, it would attract much attention and discussions. It was at least thousands of times riskier than selling his illegal gold.

No matter how exaggerated the optimization of the images by Alice was, as long as he had collaborated with a lawful film-making team, he could roughly gloss over the explanations. Of course, his profits would be slightly reduced.

Shi Xiaotao answered with alacrity, “Yes, that’s no problem at all!”

…

20×0. An amazing year. The 1st of August was a good day. At 8:00pm, at the Workers’ Stadium in Shang Hai City, a launch event for the new product by Xing Hai Technologies was about to start with a grand note!

Chapter 124 - Launch of Wa-wah 2.0

Recently, Xing Hai Technologies had been frequently posting on its official Weibo using catchphrases meant to attract netizens’ attention, such as “stunned stupid,””a product of a new era,” and “guaranteed sales of 100 million units,” etc. The company had sufficiently warmed up the audience by doing pre-launch promotions.

Hence, the launch event of the new product had attracted the attention of many. There were no empty seats in this stadium that could hold up to 30,000 people. It was filled to bursting. Hundreds of review organizations and related tech media came to attend the event as well. Some of the media journalists came prepared to laugh and ridicule. They wanted to see the company making a fool of itself and planned to do an exposé. They had even prepared their articles’ concepts with the intention of bad-mouthing Xing Hai Technologies. This was because they could not tolerate the various “dishonest” actions carried out by the company for the past six months!

“In September, after shares of Zhong Xin International dramatically rose by almost 30%, it suffered malicious short-selling by big organizations, causing shares to crash by 30%. Its market value returned to the initial value of 30 billion. However, Xing Hai Technologies refused to act as the buyback party. On the contrary, it successively increased its 1.2 billion worth of shareholdings. Through a series of maneuvers, its shareholding ratio was raised to 12%.”

“Another mysterious project by Xing Hai Technologies was exposed in October. They’ve revealed some information on their official Weibo account. However, investigations were carried out by interested persons. It was found that the project which Xing Hai Technologies had invested more than five billion in is actually a learning machine… Pfft! Wasting five billion on learning machines? A rich company really can act as wilfully as they like!”

“Total sales volume of Wa-wah robot 1.1 exceeded six million units at the end of November. Although demand still existed for the robot, Xing Hai Technologies suddenly announced that it will stop production of Wa-wah 1.1. The market that it had nurtured into being not too long ago was suddenly faced with a large supply shortage. Thus, the scalpers struck gold yet again.”

“In December, the shortage quantity of the smart cleaning robots had reached millions. Everywhere people were begging to buy one. There were no actions taken by Xing Hai Technologies. It seemed that they had no intentions of restarting production; on the contrary, they seemed to have given up on this segment of the market. At the same time, as many as eight companies in the country had announced that they’ve developed cleaning robots comparable to the Wa-wah 1.1.”

“They are seeking to ruin themselves! They’ve been courting their ruin all this time!”

“In our estimation, this new company, with its abrupt rise, will only live for a maximum of two more years!”

“We will be witnessing a brainless and unthinking young man completely ruining himself in the shortest amount of time despite the lucky cards that he had been dealt!”

“For the next ten years, this young man will only be a joke that people remember from time to time!”

“But, we will not have sympathy. The advice that should be given had been given. However, some will survive by refraining from certain actions. We’re here to enjoy a company’s death.”

These journalists that had been sent here by the various media companies had more or less judged that this launch event would end in failure. They would rather believe in ghosts than to believe that a company could still make a good product despite excessive engagement in dishonest activities!

…

At 8:00pm sharp, the opening music began to play.

The CEO of Xing Hai Technologies, Ling Jundong, walked up to the stage in a thick western suit. He wore an in-ear microphone and held a laser pointer. The launch event had officially begun. Wa-wah Robot 2.0 was launched with a bang!

…

“We’ve made improvements in several areas in the Wa-wah 2.0 so that it can achieve a more spotless state when cleaning the floor. For example, we’ve increased the rotational speed of the floating brush and employed brush heads with better quality materials. It can attain a cleanliness index of 99.99% for most cleaning scenarios. Wa-wah 2.0 has very nimble mechanical arms. With a definite ability to grasp objects, it can dispose of the rubbish in its trash container by itself. It can also pick up larger pieces of rubbish and throw it into the designated trash bin. After purchasing Wa-wah 2.0, humans have no need to pay any attention to the cleanliness of the floor besides dealing with the trash bin. We’ve most suitably termed it as the “floorboard terminator.” A second crucial function has been added as well — protecting the family!”

Ling Jungdong paused to let the murmurs flutter through the crowd, then continued. “That’s right, Wa-wah 2.0 will be the guardian angel of every family! It can monitor the situation at home in real time in order to prevent burglary and loss of valuable items. It can also report a fire emergency in time for first responders to get there. If there are elderly at home who are physically ill, the Wa-wah 2.0 can help measure their heart-rate and give a timely report about the state of their health. It can remind the children to pay more attention to their safety, such as not climbing onto the windowsills. An internal thermometer has been integrated into their internal components so that it can give a report as soon as possible when the children catch a cold and develop a fever. Wa-wah 2.0 will be the guardian angel of our families!”

Ling Jungdong smiled proudly. “The third function that we have added is the family and social interaction mode. Please treat Wa-wah as one of your family members. The fourth function is the environmental protection and public welfare mode! Does everyone still remember the ‘Wa-wah Robot’ advertisement videos? What was the mission that Wa-wah had to complete on Earth? That’s right. It has to protect the environment; it has to protect Earth! This is Wa-wah’s responsibility as well as Xing Hai Technologies’ responsibility. If the user agrees to participate in activities to improve public welfare, Wa-wah will announce one ‘I love protecting the environment’ activity every week. This can include sweeping the surrounding housing estates, parks, and public facilities. It will direct its owner over to areas where it is unable to clean. For example, picking up rubbish in the under bushes or flowering shrubs. It will inform the owner of the different types of rubbish, explain the harm that it causes and indicate how to separate the different rubbish… It will lead the humans in contributing significant effort in environmental protection.”

He continued, “In order to encourage people to love and protect the environment, Xing Hai Technologies has drawn up an environmental protection point accumulation system. Each time that the user participates in an ‘I love protecting the environment’ activity, a certain number of points will be rewarded. When 1,000 points have been accumulated, we will provide a maintenance and repair session free of charge, even if it is past the quality guarantee period. When the user has accumulated 10,000 points, we’ll give him a whole new Wa-wah robot for free! Lastly, we’ve added a gaming mode. Via this mode, your Wa-wah can grow continuously and increase its battle power. You will also be able to make many like-minded friends. Please, bring your Wa-wahs out and participate in battles together!”

Ling Jundong’s heart-stirring explanations, combined with the technicians’ live demonstrations, was incredible. At times, the product introduction was occasionally intense, inspiring and exciting. At other times, it was accompanied by gentle and moving music.

A deafening rumble sounded. The entire stadium was shaken up! The audience was seething with excitement! Multitudes of voices could be heard shouting from the seats.

“I want to buy a Wa-wah robot like this!”

“This robot is too amazing! It’s too perfect!”

“I don’t want a cat or a dog. I only want Wa-wah!”

“I never thought that I could participate in environmental protection and public welfare service like this. It’s a company with a conscience. I’m buying because of its conscience. The Wa-wah 2.0 is a must-buy!”

“It’s f**king shocking. This is the upgraded version 2.0? Compared to the Wa-wah 1.1, this is one giant upgrade that’s aiming for the stars. No more meaningless little upgrades that are barely squeezed out!”

“I’m done for. Wa-wah 1.1 was an early purchase! And Wa-wah 2.0 is so awesome that I don’t even need a bicycle?!”

“Ruthless, Xing Hai Technologies, you’re too ruthless! I’ve only bought the Wa-wah 1.1 a few days ago! And you’re introducing this new toy? Are you trying to mess with my mind? Hmm, this is really attractive.”

“Damn, this is really attractive. Forget it, I’ll just buy another one!”

The moment Ling Jundong asked, “Everyone, do you want to buy?”

Tens of thousands of the live audience stood up together and shouted collectively, “Buy!” The enthusiasm of the audience was through the roof.

What about those media organizations that bad-mouthed Xing Hai Technologies? What were their thoughts on this event?

Awkward. Extremely awkward. They looked at one another speechlessly. With faces red from embarrassment, they realized that what they had predicted was totally off the mark. Unconsciously, they shed their moral high grounds. The new headline concepts that they came up with started like this:

“Without a doubt, Xing Hai Technologies remains the King of home cleaning robots.”

“Pandering to the market? No, Xing Hai Technologies intends to change the world!”

“Remembering one’s essential responsibility: How to make a product that shows a company’s conscience and sense of responsibility.”

“Making our lives more wonderful? Wa-wah 2.0 has achieved it.”

“Should you buy Wa-wah 2.0? Of course you should, this is an essential product!”

And at this moment, the launch event had reached its most exciting and anticipated segment — announcing the price of Wa-wah 2.0.

Chapter 125 - A Sensation!

A Sensation!

“We’ve prepared a total of three editions; there are two home-use editions which are the classic and deluxe editions respectively. However, there are not many differences between the hardware of the two editions. There are also hardly any differences in their functions. There will be many differentiated versions of the deluxe edition. Each version will have its own unique color and embellishment, creating a very different appearance from other versions. Each version will definitely be limited to less than 1,000 units. There’s also a custom-made commercial edition. Commercial users are still very important to us. As compared to the first generation, the 2.0 commercial version had undergone several heavy upgrading processes. However, as the environment in which the commercial edition is used is very different, the redundant home-use function has been axed. There has only been a slight increase in the production costs of the 2.0 commercial edition. Finally, we will reveal their prices!” After Ling Jundong’s words, a loud rumble could be heard across the stadium.

It was as if a bombshell had dropped. A list of prices was shown on the huge screen behind him:

Wa-wah 2.0 home-use classic edition: $8,999.

Wa-wah 2.0 home-use deluxe edition: $10,999.

Wa-wah 2.0 custom-made commercial edition: $5,999.

Of the three editions, the net profit margin of the classic and deluxe home-use editions was guaranteed to reach 30% and above. This was much higher than the 22% net profit margin of Wa-wah 1.1. Unexpectedly, the custom-made commercial edition was the one with the best value for money.

From a seat in one of the front rows, a voice grumbled in puzzlement. Its complaint rang in Chen Jin’s ears. “Why are there only two similarly configured editions launched for the home-use Wa-wah? Why didn’t you create a common edition with less powerful configurations and another ’emperor’ edition with much better configurations? The range of selection is too small with only two editions.”

Chen Jin turned his head slightly and explained, “It’s not that we intend to reduce the range of selection for customers by coming up with only two editions. Instead, we’ve provided the best choices for selection. The available products provide the best value for your money! There will be no meaning in comparing them with other editions. In addition, by reducing the product variety, it can help to greatly reduce the after-sales costs borne by the company. This will increase the efficiency of our maintenance services and provide a better after-sales experience for our customers. After buying the Wa-wah robot, the user can rest assured that it will be in good working condition for the next 5 to 10 years. Besides wanting to be the best high tech company, Xing Hai Technologies also intends to have the best after-sales service. Only with this can we acquire a significant base of loyal customers.”

“Hmm…” The girl nodded, “You’re right, but the price of $8,999 is a little too high. It’s nearing $10,000. Are there many who can afford this?”

“You can look at it this way. Purely as a cleaning robot, it’s worth $3,999. As a professional home carer, it is worth at least $5,000. As a social robot that can bring you fun and joy, it’s again worth another $3,000. As it has been imbued with the value of protecting the environment, it also functions as a robot for the welfare of the public. With this generous and loving attitude, it’s worth at least another $2,000… After adding up all the roles it can play, do you think $10,000 for one unit is too much?”

For the deluxe edition of Wa-wah 2.0, one would get the equivalent of a “custom-made skin” as well as an “action model” that could work, all for the additional price of $2,000. Wasn’t this price a real bargain? Chen Jin did not even have to explain this to the girl beside him. The response of the audience said everything.

“Buy! We have to buy!”

“What? There are one million units of ready stock and we can make our order now? I want to make my order right now!”

“Order successful! I’ve reached my Ant credit limit. Starting from next month, I have to subsist on grass.”

“Buy! I have a Wa-wah 1.1. But, I’m buying the Wa-wah 2.0 to manage my finances. I have an incoming $9,000 and I will spend $20,000. The differential of $10,000 will be used to buy my robot.”

“That’s right, I would bet that Wa-wah 2.0 is definitely this year’s most value-for-money financial management product! One million units of ready stock is totally not enough to satisfy our appetites.”

“F**k me, it’s out of stock? It’s only been a few minutes and all one million units are gone?”

…

After the launch event of the new product had ended, on that very same night, it created a huge sensation online and generated some intense discussions. It immediately became the hottest topic on Weibo.

“Xing Hai Technologies, you’ve used all your f**king might to squeeze out this amazing series of upgrades from your reserves! The upgrades are so overwhelming; it’s too awesome!”

“Xing Hai Technologies, I hate you! How little time has passed since I last bought Wa-wah 1.1?”

“F**k, I’m even worse. I’m using a Wa-wah 1.0 that was bought less than a year ago. Now, I think it’s even more out-dated than the Symbian mobile phones that had been eliminated from the market.”

“@Xing Hai Technologies, can I return my product? Can I exchange my unused model for this latest model? Can I pay to exchange the less powerful model for a better model?”

“Xing Hai Technologies is too damn ruthless. Have you thought about leaving some room for your competitors to survive? You’re driving your friendly rivals onto the road of no return.”

“One million units were all sold out within five minutes and 58 seconds. In mere moments, it achieved a revenue of almost 10 billion. The title of ‘the most powerful company in 20X0’ belongs to none other than Xing Hai Technologies!”

“I’m not buying! I’m determined to not buy it. I won’t buy it even at gunpoint… Stop, stop, stop; wife, stop. I’ll buy! I’ll buy! Wife, please put down the knife at my throat.”

“From today onwards, even though you can bad-mouth Xing Hai Technologies or cast aspersions on its development strategy, you can’t underestimate this company! Without a doubt, it’s still the most powerful contender in the field of cleaning robots!”

…

On the way back.

Chen Jin received a call. He heard an anguished and blood-curdling wail.

“Brother Chen, the rumors in the industry say that I’m ruthless. But, you’re way more ruthless! Your Wa-wah 2.0 will drive my Love Mi robot out of the market! I’m ruined. The Love Mi robot is completely ruined. It’s impossible to sell even one unit in the domestic market now. I can’t even earn a single penny! I can only continue to expand in the overseas market. But I’ve heard that you’ve stopped production of the Wa-wah 1.1. Why don’t you consider packaging your technology and sell it at a reduced price to my Da Mi Company? Our Love Mi robot is selling well overseas. I believe that overseas sales will increase significantly if we launch a Love Mi robot 2.0 with a technological standard similar to Wa-wah 1.1.” Lei Xiao Jun was feeling dramatically woebegone. However, as he spoke about his overseas success, he also felt extremely delighted in addition to the confusion and doubt that he was experiencing,

This was due to the fact that soon after the Love Mi robot was introduced in the overseas market, it rapidly gathered momentum, and a storm for the Love Mi brand was suddenly created. Sales volumes soared past some ten million units within half a year. Countless had been converted into “Mi Fans.”

Xing Hai Technologies had no ambitions to become an international company and did not place much importance on the overseas markets. If not for this fact, it was unlikely that Da Mi Company could even earn a single penny on their products. It would even be more unlikely that revenues from the overseas markets became the biggest contributor to the company’s profit growth in the past year. Thus, Da Mi Company was able to generate a very positive financial statement.

Da Mi Company experienced a breakthrough last year (20X9) as its net profits soared past 15 billion, of which the Love Mi robot had contributed significantly. Hence Lei Xiao Jun had set his sights upon the Wa-wah 1.1 by Xing Hai Technologies. Even though it was a product that had been culled, he still wanted to purchase the technological copyrights of that product.

With a bitter laugh, he thought helplessly, I’d never imagined that I would be targeting the rubbish abandoned by others.

Of course, it was only rubbish to Xing Hai Technologies. To Da Mi Company, it was a treasure that could generate more profits.

“Ok, copyright fees are $250 per unit. Is this acceptable?”

“Yes, that’s totally fine.” This little bit of copyright fee would merely raise the Love Mi robot’s basic selling price by a few percentage points. Overseas customers would still buy the product. Lei Xiao Jun asked another question, “Brother Chen, the Wa-wah 2.0 from your company is a very good product indeed. It has huge market potential! Why didn’t you introduce it to the overseas market? If you have no intention to establish an overseas sales channel, would you consider working with Da Mi Company? We’ve established excellent sales channels in more than 30 countries; we can help to sell this model of robot overseas! I believe that this product will be very popular in the overseas market. Why don’t we work together and earn crazy amounts from foreign customers?”

“That’s not necessary.” On his end of the phone, Chen Jin shook his head. “Wa-wah 2.0 is meant for the domestic consumers. Why would foreigners use such an advanced robot? They can simply use the slightly outdated Love Mi robot. In this way, the overseas market share that the Love Mi robot has painstakingly carved out for itself will not be intruded upon. Brother Lei, you can consider earning more money for yourself.”

“You’re right, if Wa-wah 2.0 is introduced to the overseas market, the Love Mi robot will be pushed out of business.” Lei Xiao Jun became energized again. He smiled. “Brother Chen, thanks for giving your buddy some business.”

“You’re too polite.”

“Let’s work together in the future.”

The two ended their conversation.

Chapter 126 - Nationwide Shopping Spree

Since the 8th of January, which was the official release date of the Wa-wah Robot 2.0, millions of units were sold out within minutes. Subsequently, Xing Hai Technologies maintained their usual “stock everyday” style, releasing up to 50 thousand units of stock every day. In spite of that, they still could not supply the demand. Every day, it was sold out within minutes.

Xing Hai Technologies had taken many measures to prevent scalpers from stockpiling. Despite their efforts, the scalpers still gained a fortune. Wa-wah Robot 2.0 in the second-hand market was sold at prices above 15 thousand; any of them below this price would be bought by those in desperate need within a shorter time. According to surveys, among the consumers that were panic-buying the Wa-wah Robot 2.0, as many as 27.3% of them had previously bought the Wa-wah 1.0 or Wa-wah 1.1. In the household of those people, they were not lacking a Wa-wah robot. But they still decided to buy another unit of the latest model. 5% of the users bought all three versions of the Wa-wah robot; the Wa-wah 1.0, Wa-wah 1.1 and Wa-wah 2.0. Buying another one would be unnecessary, but those users expressed themselves helplessly by saying, “I really can’t control myself, I just feel like buying it, so I placed my order.”

Not long after millions of Wa-wah 2.0 were put into service in millions of households, throughout the Z nation’s entire short video sharing websites, social media, and news reports, the networking platforms were flooded by the Wa-wah 2.0 one after another.On Dou Yin, Kuai Shou and other short video platforms, videos were piling up.

“Wa-wah, give me a smile.”

“Wa-wah, sing me ‘Xiao Pingguo’.”

“Wa-wah, perform a robot dance.”

“In today’s ‘I love the Environment’ activity, I brought my household Wa-wah robot to clean a 1,000 square meter plaza and collected a full 10 Eco-points. We fought against other robots for two times and we achieved absolute victory.”

“Mommy is going to work, take care of the house, Wa-wah.”

Within social media platforms, there were many people who posted their daily lives with the Wa-wah robot. Many funny moments with the robot were recorded, on which they had gotten countless ‘like’ reactions.

In just a few days, several media reports pushed the Wa-wah 2.0 fever to a new pinnacle.

“17th, the police in the A district received a mysterious phone call, the caller claimed itself to be the Wa-wah robot named ‘Ah Bao’. Ah Bao told the police that an unfamiliar man came into its master’s premise and was currently flipping stuff all around the house searching for valuables. Ah Bao suspected that he’s a thief and requested the police to come and seize him. Ah Bao provided the police the exact address. 15 minutes later, the man by the name of Mr. Xu, who committed burglary, was caught by the police. Up until the moment Mr. Xu was caught, he did not know how his plans had failed.”

“18th, the civilian hospital in the B district received an emergency phone call, the caller claimed itself to be ‘Dodo the robot.’ Dodo said that the elderly under its care had a sudden illness and there was nobody home. It requested for doctors to provide aid. 10 minutes later, medical staff and the patient’s family arrived at the premise at the same time. After rescue efforts, the old man was out of the danger zone… the doctor said that if the old man were to be admitted to the hospital another five minutes later, he could have lost his life.”

“19th midnight, a fire broke out in some small area within the C district, but because of the timely report made by the robot ‘Dou Dou,’ firefighters arrived just on time. The fire was quickly controlled, and people were evacuated on time. It only caused minor losses. Houseowner Mr. Lee told the reporters that fortunately, Dou Dou alarmed the authorities just in time. If it wasn’t for Dou Dou discovering the fire and woke hid family, when the fire intensified, his family would have died. Dou Dou saved their lives!”

“20th afternoon, two children in the D district seized the chance to climb up to the balcony’s stainless-steel window to play when their parents were absent. Robot ‘Sweety Pie’ became aware of the situation and after reminding efforts were to no avail, it contacted their parents. The children’s parents rushed home, pulled the kids off the window and punished them. The father of the kids told reporters that the balcony’s stainless-steel windows were severely corroded, three screws had already dropped off. The floor they are staying in is the 18th floor.”

“To-date, the Wa-wah robot has assisted the police in capturing 13 burglars; saved eight elderly; reduced potential loss in three fire outbreaks; reported special situations of 37 children to their parents; and even calling 911 and preventing some cases of domestic violence that might cause death. It can be seen that the Wa-wah robot will pull off more similar feats in the future and become the patron saint of even more families.”

“Are you still hesitating to buy a Wa-wah robot? Is the $8,000 price hindering your decision? If something happens to the elderly in your home when you are not around; when your child has a fever and you are not beside them; when all kinds of accidents that might lead to tragedy happens and you are not present, you will regret, and ask ‘why didn’t I buy a Wa-wah Robot?’”

After the passage above appeared in the comment section of the news report on the contributions of the Wa-wah robot, and appeared in the linked article of the WeChat friends circle, netizens were unable to keep their calm.

“Stop it, stop saying those words, I’ll buy it, I’ll buy it alright?!”

“I’ll buy one for my mother, she’s not in that good of a condition and I’m too busy at work, I’ll let Wa-wah stay by her side.”

“When there’s a Wa-wah Robot at home taking care of the kids, it eases my heart a lot.”

“Don’t hit me my wifey, I have been trying to buy it for three days, give me one last chance! This will be the last time and I’ll definitely get one today!”

“Hubby, if you still refuse to buy me a Wa-wah Robot, I am divorcing you! When Wa-wah is here, will you still dare to hit me?”

“Prevent domestic violence; buy Wa-wah, my fellow sisters. From now on; no Wa-wah, no marriage!”

“Yes, no Wa-wah, no marriage!”

It was uncovered. The value of the Wa-wah Robot was thoroughly uncovered. It was the ultimate floor cleaner, keeping households at their cleanest state. It was a family’s patron saint, safeguarding peace, harmony, and wholeness in each family. It was the angel of environmental protection, shouldering the conquest to protect mother Earth’s environment. It was brought around the community and public places, making them clean and comfortable. When it was bringing more and more wonderful changes in people’s lives, people were no longer complacent. The way they looked at the Wa-wah Robot changed, they started yearning, envying, and desiring it.

People that used this product could distinctively feel that their lives were getting better and their happiness index rising. In the case of middle-aged woman Yan Meiling, after her Wa-wah 2.0 was delivered, in addition to her previous Wa-wah 1.0 and 1.1, she had three Wa-wah robots at home. All of them brought upon her countless joyous moments. She was completely freed from depression and she started to enjoy her life in happiness.

There were many similar cases of hers that can be listed out. Therefore… it had gone wild. The sales of the Wa-wah 2.0 had totally gone wild. The 50 thousand units that were released every day were depleting faster than ever. The scalpers were unscrupulously inflating its price. One unit of Wa-wah 2.0 was tagged at 20 thousand, even 30 thousand, but there was no need to worry about it not selling.

Nowadays, the most popular greeting was, “Have you got it today?”

In daily meetings, conversations, the sentence that would bring upon envious eyes was, “I got my hands on the Wa-wah Robot.”

Even more, the Wa-wah Robot became a symbol that symbolized the “middle class” status. Households that did not have a Wa-wah robot were not qualified to be classified as “middle class” and call themselves a well-off family.

Facing the sudden exponential surge in market demands, facing scalpers running wild and the netizens’ complaints, Xing Hai Technologies seemed to be in quite a terrible fix. They announced with panic that they would go all-out in increasing production capacity.

Chen Jin invested two billion in Ling Feng Jing Mi Company and obtained 15% of their market shares, he tasked Wang Quan Long to use this money to establish an OEM production line in order to boost the production of the Wa-wah 2.0 to above 100 thousand units per day.

Chapter 127 - Movie Release

January 28th, on the Lunar Spring festival, after dinner, Chen Jin’s family of three wore cold-proof windbreaker jackets, wrapped a scarf around their necks, and armed themselves with thick clothing. They headed towards the Wanda shopping complex located not far from the community and took the lift to the movie theater located on the third floor of the shopping complex.

He took out his phone, opened a QR code, and swiped it over the ticket machine. Four movie tickets spat out from the ticket dispenser. He gave two of them to his parents. For the other ticket, he gave it to Su Yun, who was currently buying popcorn. That’s right, Su Yun tagged along. She was wearing a brown overcoat that was specially designed to express her wonderful feminine curves; a knitted white high-collar woolen sweater which covered her long alluring neck; a draped checkerbox scarf that embodied her cold and elegant temperament; black leggings to cover her stunning legs; and round leather boots that made her look rather petite. The woman in sight was at least a nine out of ten beauty. Especially for her cold and elegant temperament, more than 80% of people would turn their heads over to look at her on the streets.

Today, however, she tagged along Chen Jin and his family to watch a movie. This was what Chen Jin was most perplexed and puzzled about. He even directly questioned her, “Su Yun, you are already in your thirties, why are you not spending the lunar new year at home? Is it that you don’t want to go home?”

“The tax bureau has a lot of work to be done at the end of the year. This is our busiest time. I can only go back after the new year.” Su Yun explained herself, but how could she have not wanted to go home? No matter how busy her department was, they would still give holidays during the lunar new year. But, her manager asked her to stay for another two days. First, the traffic would be less congested. Secondly, she could really do some things and find one or two opportunities or so. After finishing, her manager madly gave hints to her with her eyes.

“Alright.” Su Yun nodded her head gently as her pretty face turned red. Her manager even allowed her to spend two nights in her guest room for her to learn some accounting knowledge. Sleeping at the manager’s house? She got stunned listening to these few words. Her heart was beating rapidly, her face blushed until the back of her ear, even a large portion of her snow-white neck turned red. Without knowing what was going on, she actually nodded her head. She was mumbling the few words: learn accounting, learn accounting… It was all just for the sake of learning!

Putting learning aside, being able to see him every day, always at his opposite when taking a meal and including today’s movie time with him… it was all just methods to release stress from learning.

I never had thought about this too much before. Anyways… it was all the director’s idea, and my parents also want me to have a good relationship with my superiors.

Su Yun felt that her train of thought was getting all over the place. She felt embarrassed to the extent that she wanted to dig a hole and hide inside. As a woman, she had never felt so panicked and confused as she was at that moment. But towards her directors’ arrangements, her heart never once showed any sign of defiance.

…

About the complex fluctuations in a woman’s heart, Chen Jin knew nothing, and was not interested to explore it either. They entered the movie theater and sat down in their seats. What Chen Jin was more concerned about was the turn-up rate in the movie theater. Viewers entered the cinema one after another. Before the show, he quietly calculated the turn-up rate within the theater. “Aside from the first two rows, all the other seats are basically filled, so the turn-up rate should be… above 85%.”

At that time, the music sounded, and the movie officially began. Chattering could be heard coming from the entrance.

“Quick, the movie is starting.”

“The queue is too long at the elevator downstairs, the movie has already been going for almost a minute, if we are late for another few minutes, we will need to ask people beside us to fill us in.”

“Quickly take your seat and watch the movie.”

People that came in later almost filled the seats at the two front rows. The turn-up rate was at least at 95% or above. Immediately, Chen Jin took out his phone. Using his data, which was clearly laggier than it used to be, he inquired to his friends about the turn-up rate in other movie theaters via WeChat.

“Yuan Li, the movie theater you are in, is the turn-up rate okay? What are your estimations?”

“Shi Xiaotao, are you in the movie theaters? How was the turn-up rate at your side?”

“Zhang Nan, did you and Zhao Xin manage to grab two tickets for yourselves? Are you in the cinema?”

“Assistant Zhen, are you in the cinema watching the anime movie based on our company’s product? How was the turn-up rate over there?”

After the messages were sent, he got successive replies fairly quickly.

‘Director Dong’s daughter’ said, “I’m in the movie theater, my gosh, there are so many people here, all seats are basically filled, I don’t recall seeing an empty seat, the turn-up rate here should be 100%.”

Shi Xiaotao said, “I am a hundred percent sure that the turn-up rate over here is a hundred percent. Actually, I’ve already watched this move over a hundred times and have already memorized every line. Now, I’m just watching the people that show up, according to my observations on the age composition of the audiences that entered the theater… ahahah, just as I expected, this is a family movie that is meant to be enjoyed with the whole family. There are elderly, kids, parents, those who came in were mostly families.”

Zhan Nan replied, “Me and Zhao Xin didn’t get to enter the cinema, currently being slapped by the cold winds outside. I told him to buy the tickets earlier, but he just wouldn’t listen. He told me we can get the tickets on the spot, I chided him and now he’s not talking. We bought tickets for the second screening at 8 pm, we’ll just chill around in the mall for a while.”

Assistant Zhen replied, “I’m watching the movie now. The seats are all filled. By the way, I don’t know what happened back there when I bought the tickets. I bought tickets for ‘Wa-wah Robot: A Brilliant and Brave Rescue’ but on the receipt, it was written ‘Dream Era’. I told the staff that there was a problem. They told me it was some minor fault with the equipment, and it won’t affect normal viewing.”

Upon seeing assistant Zhen’s reply, a phrase popped out in Chen Jin’s mind — box office fraud. He asked assistant Zhen to use his phone to take a photo of his tickets and send it to him. He then forwarded the photo to Shi Xiaotao and informed her about the situation.

“Shameless thief!” Shi Xiaotao ground her teeth out of immense rage. “A lot of people shared a similar situation with me. They told me that our movie tickets were stolen by theaters all over the country! Even those unknown, low tiered cinemas want a piece of us, just how much will our box office get dragged down? I won’t let them get off with this easily, I will call the police and sue them! I’ll make them spit out everything that was ours.”

Chen Jin said, “Calm down. On this matter, as long as we have evidence, SARFT and the cinema alliance will handle them. It is said that there are exclusive legal punishments on this… they won’t be able to steal too much of our box office.” After consoling Shi Xiaotao, a burst of laughter came to his ears.

In the movie, punchlines were always there for the laughs and giggles. The character Wa-wah in the movie subjugated every audience with its cuteness. Moreover, the exquisite animation had the people’s eyes stuck onto the big screen as they fully indulged in the movie. As the story deepened, the chaotic fight scene between the Wa-wah robot and the human trafficker rendered the audience hysterical.

‘Wa-wah Robot: A Brilliant and Brave Rescue’ could be described as a zero pee-break movie. After an hour and a half, the movie ended. The audience stood up and left the cinema with something inside of them that was yearning for more.

Chen Jin overheard the conversation between a family of three.

“Hubby, this movie is really good, it’s hilarious and touching at the same time.”

“Yea, world-class pictures and perfection in every single frame. Just watching those will be worth our tickets.”

“Daddy, mommy, I want a Wa-wah robot, buy one for me please!” said a little girl with her tender voice.

“Don’t worry my sweetheart, daddy is trying eagerly to buy one every day, I promise I’ll get you one sweetheart!” said a man towards his daughter in his arms.

“Yay! That’s great, we are going to have a Wa-wah in our home, thank you daddy!” The little girl was elated and pecked her father on the cheek many times.

Chapter 128 - Upsidedown

On the first day of the lunar new year, the movie ‘Wa-wah Robot: A Brilliant and Brave Rescue’ officially hit the big screens. It successfully aired during the new year film slot that was the golden period of ticket sales. The big cinemas were all positive on the potential of the movie. As the movie was a family-orientated comedy film, its row piece rate was at above 30%.

Even so, the row piece rate was still too low. The reason was that the turn-up rate in the cinemas showing the ‘Wa-wah Robot’ film was generally above 80% and 90%. There were also many cases of a 100% turn-up rate at the cinemas, and scenes of severe crowding. The movie broke many records for the highest turn-up rate in various cinemas. For example, the Wanda mall cinema which accounted for the largest market shares of the cinema outlet, had a turn-up rate of a whopping 93.27% for the first screening, which exceeded the runner-up by over 50%. The numbers were scary! It was the same in the other big cinemas.

Time passed quickly. Morning sessions, night sessions, and late-night sessions, all three waves of screening periods had passed. The row piece rate, turn-up rate, real-time box office, and other statistical data were continuously fluctuating and being renewed and recalculated.

When the clock passed 12 midnight, in Hanghu city, cheers that trembled the skies came from within a studio named ‘Taotao Films.’

“It is broken, the record has been broken!”

“We have broken the records for the highest daily box office for the new year film slot and the nationwide record for highest daily box office!”

“788 million, we are ahead by 200 million compared to the runner up! Miss Tao, we can certainly hold this record for a very long time.”

“Hmph! It was actually possible to break 800 million on the first day, but there were too many people stealing our box-office. We urged the internet to help collect evidence and realized that at least tens of millions of box office had been stolen, we must get back what we lost!” Shi Xiaotao ground her teeth. Hitting 800 million box office on the first day was a very auspicious number, but those shameless thieves gobbled up a large piece of it. She would not stay idle in this matter. She would wield the weapon of law and defend her rights of profit!

When she was sending a message to Chen Jin via WeChat to report the good news, despite still being angry, she could not keep herself from boasting, “788 million on the first day, it is confirmed that the total box office will break five billion. Ah, rookie director, first workpiece, and I debut directly at the pinnacle. Indulging in the loneliness of being unrivaled, can you understand the state of my heart now, Mr. Chen?”

“I can, congratulations.” Chen Jin, who was currently watching the Spring Festival Gala with his parents, replied to her with a smile.

His mother shifted her head towards him and asked, “How was it, son? Is the box office announced?”

“Yes, 788 million, it broke box office records for the new year film slot as well as the national box office record.”

“That’s great! Watching this Spring Festival Gala made me tired, but now I’m all energetic!” He Li was enraptured in a state of euphoria and was very excited.

“Wow!” His father beside him couldn’t help but exclaim, “Almost 800 million in just one day, won’t it become a few billions in another few days? Son, you said that you had quite some market shares in this movie, you can definitely earn a lot from this, am I right?”

Chen Jin turned his head and asked out of confusion, “Eh, dad, why are you suddenly interested in this?” His dad was the quintessential example of someone who valued simplicity in life. Towards money, his concept was always to have just enough.

Chen Gang smiled bitterly and said, “I became sensitive after all the questions I’ve been getting recently, people keep on asking me, ‘your son’s net worth was already in the billions, why are you still wearing these kinds of shirts?’ and ‘you son is so rich, why are you still driving this shoddy car?’ So I intend to buy a few clothes that are more expensive and change to a better car… I’m already annoyed by all those questions. I wonder what price range for the car will be suitable.” He shook his head and sighed, “Only now I realize, it is quite stressful being the father of a billionaire.”

“Why don’t I give you a red packet so you can buy a better car?” asked Chen Jin.

“That won’t be necessary, I have some savings with your mom, so I won’t need your money. I have decided on the car as well, the Red Flag H8 made in our country, its price is about 500 thousand, my company manager is driving this car as well. That should keep their mouths shut, right?”

Chen Jin gave a big thumbs up. Driving the same car as your company manager, you are slaying it, dad!

Upon hearing about red packets, He Li looked at Su Yun, who was sitting at the edge of the sofa. She moved over, picked up her phone, and said, “Su Yun, today is New Year’s Eve, I have to give red packets; here’s one, please take it.”

Su Yun, on the other hand, kept on staring at the television screen. She was not focusing her eyes but in a state of daze. She had yet recovered from the immense feeling of shock. 788 million box office, how much could he earn from that? Even just 1% will be more than what I earn in a lifetime.

“Su Yun, Su Yun.” He Li called her twice, and finally she came around and heard what her manager was saying. “Here’s a red packet for you, take it.”

“I don’t want it, Mrs. Chen.”

“Just take it as I asked you to, you must not refuse something from your elders.”

After quite a moment of runarounds, Su Yun finally accepted the red packet. She opened it and saw $1,300 in it. She immediately tried to return it, but her manager still insisted she take it and dropped her a hint, saying, “I don’t give red packets to other common girls.”

Su Yun blushed yet again.

…

Over two consecutive days, the movie ‘Wa-wah Robot: A Brilliant and Brave Rescue’s box office continued its uphill climb. On the first day of the lunar new year, as the row piece rate increased, the box office pierced 925 million and broke the nationwide records for the highest daily box office once again.

On the second day, as the movie spread via word of mouth, the number of people that came to the cinema further increased. There were some who even came to watch the movie for a second and third time. The daily box office hit 946 million, renewing the records once again! In just three days, the box office for this movie accumulated to a massive 2.659 billion!

There were even hopes for this movie to realize five billion in box office during the new year film slot, becoming the second movie in the Z nation to enter the five billion club! Because of the movie’s powerful trends, some speculated that it might very well surpass ‘Battle Dragons 2,’ ascending the throne and becoming the Z nation’s top box office hit.

The forums went crazy as the internet users posted various discussions. In the end, over 70% of internet users agreed that ‘Wa-wah Robot: A Brilliant and Brave Rescue’ had hopes to top the chart.

Aside from discussions about the box office, regarding the quality of this move, on movie rating websites, some professional audiences and movie analysts gave their opinions.

“Seven out of 10, a qualified production film.”

“I’ll give an eight out of 10, we should commend this local movie director of the Z nation who is capable of producing such a film, which was technically speaking at Hollywood levels. This reflects that our local film industry is gradually moving forward.”

“New work of a rookie director achieving this level of excellence. If I give her a full 10 she might get conceited. A nine it is then. I hope she continues to produce better movies.”

However, there was a well-known movie analyst that gave the movie a zero and criticized, “Hmph! Zero value, zero artistic quality, but a remarkable advertisement indeed!”

Some could not stand his comments and aggressively replied on his review.

“The slight hopes for Z nation’s local film industry will be destroyed in the hands of arrogant professionals like you.”

“Zero value? I and my family felt amusement, compassion, warmth, and had wonderful memories in the cinema. And that will be value and its art!”

“Even if it’s an advertisement, it will still be an eight out of 10 advertisement!”

“The movie is a zero in your eyes, you and the other hand have a negative value in my impression, trash movie analyst, get out from the film reviewing industry!”

Overall, the movie ‘Wa-wah Robot: A Brilliant and Brave Rescue’ received a lot more affirmations and praises than criticisms and slanders. Regarding questions about the movie like why its box office was so high and why can it potentially break the records to become the highest grossing film in the Z nation, there was an article named ‘The Wa-wah Robot Effect’ written by professionals that provided clear explanations for the realization for its readers.

Chen Jin also read this article, and immediately his mind was enlightened.

“When I first invested in Shi Xiaotao to make this movie, my only intention was to advertise the Wa-wah 2.0 with the help of this movie to boost its sales. But the Wa-wah 2.0 which was released earlier created a wave of massive uproar and the fever towards it was at its peak. And at this very moment, the ‘Wa-wah Robot’ movie aired, surfing on the Wa-wah Robot heat wave, and it caused a nationwide movie frenzy. So… as what was written in this article, in this tradeoff, Wa-wah 2.0’s sales will not have significant increase because of the movie. But the movie box office, on the other hand, will have hopes to outstrip the rest because of the Wa-wah robot! My initial thought was not wrong, but… it was all flipped around. It was totally upsidedown.”

Chapter 129 - Uncle’s Grudge

On the third day of the Lunar New Year, there was knocking on the door. Someone came to pay a new year visit! The one that came was no stranger, but in fact it was his mother’s second brother, He Guo Fu. This time, his uncle came with his whole family. They carried a lot of things in their hands.

“Hello bro, you’re home as well!” He Guo Fu’s son, He Hai Tao, had wide eyes upon seeing Chen Jin, who opened the door. He gave him a smile from ear to ear. He looked up to Chen Jin as his idol. After entering the house, he whispered in Chen Jin’s ear, “Bro, you are my idol now!”

Two days ago, when he visited his grandparent’s house, He Hai Tao had already met his cousin. However, he was almost squeezed to death. A bunch of wimpy kids surrounded Chen Jin, asking for autographs, photos, and red packets. Their piercing screams made those who were unaware think that it was a fan meeting of some international artist.

Of course, He Hai Tao got himself an autograph, and he was the first one to get it! An autograph of the future billionaire and the boss of a tech giant, how many people would become envious of it? He Hai Tao kept his autograph in a dignified manner. He thought that the autograph would be worth millions and even become a precious relic, and so he vowed to pass it down to his descendants. He Hai Tao did not realize that his screams and shouts that day were on par with those wimpy kids.

During the new year’s visit at the He family, the family that enjoyed the limelight was naturally He Li’s family. They became the spotlight in the He family. Chen Jin’s grandfather, He Chang Hou, was smiling widely. He dragged Chen Jin to sit beside him. He received a mysterious gift from Chen Jin and after he was told about its features, he was stunned. Tears rolled down from his aged face. “This is hope for the rise of our country!”

Chen Jin said, ” Waigong, you must live until a hundred years old and witness the Z nation’s era of might and prosperity.”

“Good, good!” his grandfather told him.

Aunt He Jia, who was always in the spotlight in the past, was cast aside and became literally transparent this year. She kept quiet as she listened to her elder sister sharing her parenting experience; the melancholy in her heart shadowed her spirit.

There was other good news, however. Uncle He Guo Qiang was promoted as the vice-mayor of Su Hing city! He was taking the wheel in building the second large-scale foundry in the industrial park under his administration. He found billions of investments in just a shor ttime, and so he was valued by his superiors because of his excellent performance.

Because of this, He Guo Qiang’s face was beaming with pride. Even the volume he spoke at became significantly louder. The vexation between his eyebrows also vanished. He pulled Chen Jin to a corner in private and said, “Chen Jin, on that matter… thanks to you, really.” He felt relieved being able to enter the municipal party committee before he turned 50, as it meant that his future in politics was cinched.

Chen Jin smiled lightly.

…

Inside the house, He Li took the things from her brother’s hands. “Just coming is enough, why are you bringing so many things?” she asked, a weird expression on her face.

“Sis, these things are all special products, you can’t find them on the market. It took Man Hong lots of effort to get these.” He Guo Fu looked at his wife and winked.

Lu Man Hong got his hint, andwith a broad smile, she said, “Sis, all of these things aren’t worth a lot, but they are very effective in facial nourishment and enriching the blood.”

He Li glanced at her and nodded. “That’s very considerate of you.”

Lu Man Hong instantly felt relieved.

…

In the afternoon, He Li and Lu Man Hong joined forces in the kitchen. Lunch was very sumptuous, with duck, fish, and seafood dishes covering the entire dining table. The dishes were scrumptious.

He Guo Fu finally brought up his other motive for this new year visit. “Jin, why don’t you give me the intellectual property for the ‘Wa-wah Robot’ series, my company’s film-making department can definitely make a better sequel!”

Lu Man Hong could not hold herself back and said, “That’s right Jin, keep the goodies within the family, your uncle’s company has produced eight tv series and five movies within the past few years. His company signed more than 80 artists and has an experienced production team. So, why don’t you give the IP for ‘Wa-wah robot’ to your uncle?”

Erm…

Chen Jin began mulling as his eyebrows tightened.

“What’s the issue, Jin, do you feel conflicted? Actually, there is no need to feel conflicted, changing partners is normal. If you feel uneasy telling your current partner, I can do it for you,” said He Guo Fu.

Lu Man Hong added, “Business partnership is just like this, the only thing to consider is who will be more suitable, and not partnership history. Your uncle will be the best fit for this.”

“He’s not!” Chen Jin shook his head vigorously. “Uncle, I can’t give you the IP for ‘Wa-wah robot,’ I’m not at ease giving it to you, so… I’m very sorry.”

He Guo Fu was stunned by his straightforward rejection. Not being able to adjust to the situation, he said with a smear of emotion, “Why? Jin, don’t you remember how much I doted on you when youweare still a kid? I was reluctant to spend half of my monthly salary just to buy you the transformer set you loved. Did you forget?”

“Uncle, of course I remember how well you treated me, but don’t you have self-consciousness on your company’s movie production qualities?” Chen Jin shook his head. “That movie that was quite popular on the internet recently, ‘Mainland Assault,’ was your company’s production, am I correct? What do you think about its quality? Commander-level characters being unable to catch up to mere fighters, plus they’re on horses as well. Tell me, can you even bear to watch a film like this? Uncle, the brand image of the Wa-wah robot is very important, its brand value far exceeds a billion-dollar box office. I can’t let the Wa-wah Robot’s brand value plummet just for some movie tickets.” Sorry was all he could say.

He Hai Tao also mocked his father, “Dad, just let your company work on ads and forget about making films! ‘Mainland Assault’ was such an incredible novel, and yet your film adaptation made so many changes to it, when people asked me about it, I just felt like digging a hole and hide inside… dad, you are seriously not meant for this.”

Lu Man Hong gave him a fierce stare. Who mocks his own father like that? When we go back I’ll teach you a lesson.

“Ahem ahem…” He Guo Fu coughed continuously. The emotion that resided within him instantly faded. It was replaced by immense awkwardness. He realized that he was unable to counter what Chen Jin had said. His son’s mockery made his face red, and he was unable to spout any words.

To console his uncle, Chen Jin said, “Uncle, you can invest in Wa-wah Robot’s sequel, or send some technical staff over and join Shi Xiaotao’s team to let them learn about movie production.”

He Guo Fu’s eyes brightened. “Sure, I’ll invest! 300 million! I want to invest 300 million!”

“I can’t have a say on this, it depends on whether Shi Xiaotao allows it or not; the most I can assure you is 100 million.” Now, Shi Xiaotao became the most sought-after movie director within the country. In addition to her owning the intellectual property for ‘Wa-wah Robot,’ many investors were striving to give her money. She was not worried at all about funding. On the other hand, she had to worry about offending others if she were to reject their investments. I’m afraid that Shi Xiaotao won’t be elated with uncle’s 300 million investment, she might feel difficult instead.

“Alright, I’ll invest 100 million for now! If I can add on in the future, do inform me right away Jin!”

“No problem.”

…

After the new year’s visit. Downstairs. Lu Man Hong quickly held and pinched He Hai Tao’s ears. “You b*****d, who talks about their father like that? Your father and I wasted our doting on you!”

“Ahhhh it hurts, sorry mom, sorry, I was wrong!” He Hai Tao begged his mother for mercy.

“Is it really true… I’m not meant for movie-making?” He Guo Fu, on the other hand, looked like he had taken a beating on the inside, falling into a state of self-doubt.

Chapter 130 - Guard Robots and Avatar Robots

On Planet Haierfa, at the Base of Operations, a tremendous change occurred about half a year ago. The robots shoveled the ground and built expansively, transforming Base of Operations 1.0 into Base of Operations 2.0. Now in the Base of Operations, there were five zones. The Eastern zone, Western zone, Southern zone, Northern zone, and the Central zone.

The Eastern zone was the warehouse area; it covered an area of 19 square kilometers. A large number of material warehouses were erected from the ground, in which they were used to store various resources.

The Western zone covered an area of 19 square kilometers as well. Oodles of capsule factories and pipeline factories were located there. The zone was used to carry out industrial production activities.

The Southern zone was assigned as the airport/garage space, covering an area of 28 square kilometers (a portion of it was outside the Base of Operations). Innumerable cars and aircrafts were parked there.

The Northern zone was the scientific research zone, spanning 19 square kilometers across. A large number of scientific research centers was built within the area. The supercomputer, for instance, which consumed a large amount of energy and emitted powerful electromagnetic radiation, was placed within the cryogenic machine chamber that resided within the scientific research zone.

The Central zone was the residential area, covering an area of 2.5 square kilometers. In these few months, a five-story bungalow that was meant for Chen Jin, a modern 15-story office building, several functional buildings, and a central square was built. The steel plate houses that were meant for temporary usage all vanished.

The 20 thousand tons of gold that Chen Jin initially planned to use in building a golden castle became the flooring tile for the central square, turning it into a “Golden Square.” Why was the plan for the golden castle scrapped? The reason was that gold has high density but a soft structure, so without additional support, it alone could not be the sole constitution of a castle.

Some components like rebar needed to be mixed in for further reinforcement; only then would the structure stay firm. But as time passed by, some load-bearing parts would still deform. “Forget it, a golden castle with rebar in it is not a golden castle, it would be a rebar-gold mixed castle! It’s unworthy of its name. Cancel this project.”

As someone who valued purity, after thegold was made into golden square tiles, Chen Jin let the robots pave it on the center square floor, which spanned over 20 thousand square meters. After the whole floor was covered, he discovered that the effects were equally astonishing.

Aside from that, the apparent source of the electrical supply for the Base of Operations mainly came from the “Energy Center” located 100 kilometers east of the base.

Tremendous energy from the “Energy Center” came from the four units of nuclear fission reactors disassembled from the “Everlasting Truth” space ship. Each reactor provided up to 500 megawatts of generated power. It would be 2000 megawatts in total adding up all four. In addition, with the high voltage cables supplying electrical energy from the wind farm, the base would not have to worry about energy supply issues for a considerable amount of time.

This time, Chen Jin came to the Base of Operations because of one thing. Inside the office building, facing the virtual projection, he said, “Alice, have you completed those things I tasked you with?”

“It was completed master, please turn and have a look.” After Alice finished her words, an automated door opened behind him. Footsteps could be heard as a few humanoid machines walked through the door. These humanoid machines had the same height, skin tone, facial features, and behavior as humans. No difference could be distinguished.

When people touched it with their hands, they could feel the warmth on its surface. When peopletook the pulse, they would feel similar heartbeats as theirs. They had rich facial expressions, able to express emotions just like humans. They could even eat, defecate, talk, sleep… emulating every human behavior.

Human replica robots. It was an ultimate bionic robot with 95% similarity to real humans. The few human replica robots could even go through a security check by the security inspectors in the highest security airport, completely undetected.

Throughout the past six months, aside from the reconstruction project in the Base of Operations, the only thing that artificial intelligence Alice could do was find ways to create a few units of human replica robots. Apparently, Alice had finally completed her task. She presented them to Chen Jin. “Master, due to insufficiency in some materials and the Base of Operation being yet uncapable of production, only six units of human replica robots were produced. According to your orders, five of them are Guard robots. Installed with ultra-batteries and programmed with gun mastery and top combat skills, even when unarmed they can produce a punch of 800 Newtons and move a small car. They will go all-out to ensure your safety. Another unit is the Avatar robot. Its height, weight, and appearance is technically the same as yours. To further improve likelihood, its artificial bones, muscles, and blood usage are higher, causing its structural strength to be weaker compared to the Guard robots. But it is also installed with ultra-batteries and can produce a punch of 500 Newtons, thus capable of self-defense to a certain degree.”

Alice continued, “Master, the base has been striving to improve R&D and manufacturing capabilities. In another half a year by estimation, I will be able to solve the materials production issue and mass produce the human replica robots you desire. Please be patient for a little while longer.”

Chen Jin nodded his head. “Very good Alice, five guards, and one avatar robot… they will suffice for now.”

Of course, Chen Jin wanted these human replica robots to bring them to Earth for his own safety purposes. There was no need to elaborate on the strength of the Guard robots. With an 800 Newton punch force, in close combat situations, even 10 human soldiers or elites from the special force would get easily bested within minutes.

The Avatar robot served an even greater purpose; it could be used as a diversion to conceal the real deal. If the avatar encountered danger, it could very well solve the problem on its own with its 500 Newton punch.

If Chen Jin broke the law, the avatar could even take his place in jail while he continued to roam freely. Of course, this was only an assumption, as Chen Jin was always a law-abiding citizen. In conclusion, what the avatar robot could do was simply too much, the aid it could provide was innumerable. Therefore, Chen Jin wanted to bring all five Guard robots and the avatar robot to Earth.

Four Guard robots would stay by his side. Then, he would buy another luxurious villa and place the Avatar robot and one Guard robot in it. Occasionally, he would arrange the avatar to attend some public activities and frequently make it roam the streets under broad daylight. It did not need to be very high profile; it would suffice if people were able to recognize it as him.

But a few problems arose. A few living beings appearing out of nowhere, how could their identity issues be solved?

This question was killing his brain cells. The issue could be easily settled for the Avatar robot. Just let the capsule factory clone his own ID, and it would be fully functional.

As for the Guard robots, he could let Alice hack into the public security system, extract the files for missing people, then make the Guard robots look like them. Or he could make a bolder move by hacking into the public security system intranet using technical means and directly register a few new identities. But to play it safe, in the end, Chen Jin asked Alice to obtain the identity information of five people who had either no family, been smuggled abroad, or declared deceased by various reasons, and let the guards assume their identity. The probability of them being discovered was near zero.

With these few units of human replica robots, Chen Jin’s personal safety was greatly assured. Even if he could not avoid showing up in various public events, he could still remain calm without worrying that he might be targeted. The Avatar robot could be his disguise against the eyes of various forces, keeping the secret of the warp gate intact.

Moreover, he made some changes around the warp gate within the toilet just a while ago to further enhance its furtiveness. The toilet bowl and the mirror were removed. It was replaced by a wall which was then smoothened and painted. The warp gate became a snowy white wall. If someone were to take a hammer and hit the middle of the wall, they could only realize that it was indeed a wall, and a very firm one.

Only if Chen Jin was present, and only after he entered his thumbprint, scanned his cornea, passed voice recognition, and gone through all other verification procedures, a hole would appear in the wall that allowed only one person to pass through. Its safety factor was elevated to a new level. But it was still not ultimately safe!

“Money on Earth, I must still earn them in large amounts. It will be best if I were to have a net worth of a hundred billion dollars. Then, I can acquire the land which the Happiness Court is in! If I become the landlord, it will be easier for me to conduct any operations after that.”

Of course, the houses within the area that the Happiness Court resided in were not completed for more than 10 years. It would be at least another 30 to 40 years until its demolition. Within this time period, Chen Jin could grow his wealth to his heart’s content. He would have dozens of ways to obtain the land containing the Happiness Court after he became a super tycoon. He, at his current state, did not have to rush things at all.

Chapter 131 - An Amazing Teammate

The 14th of February marked a full two weeks since the first screening of “Wa-wah Robot: A Brilliant and Brave Rescue.” The latest box office number was 5.812 billion. It far surpassed that of the previous box office champion, “Battle Dragons 2,” and seized that title for itself. It broke the movie box office records in Z country.

This result caused an intense debate in the film communities of Z country. The response amongst netizens who loved this movie was very enthusiastic. Many of them shouted, “I strongly support this,””Wa-wah is impressive,” or “I contributed to box office sales too.”

It had also attracted much attention and reports from the overseas media. A movie typically or typically about a month in the cinemas. Some movies might be screened for a longer duration of two to three months. “Wa-wah Robot: A Brilliant and Brave Rescue” had only been screened in cinemas for half a month.

Various industry professionals tried to evaluate and speculate on its final total box office sales.

“The sales from the first week that a movie runs in the cinemas usually represent 40% of total box office sales. Two weeks could represent 70% of the total box office sales. There was not much potential that could be tapped in the following weeks. However, assuming that ‘Wa-wah’ could still tap on a 30% sales potential, that meant that the total box office sales could reach 8.3 billion… A terrifying number.”

“8.3 billion? Impossible! This is equivalent to roughly 300 million viewers from the cinemas. But Z country’s movie chains have not been able to achieve a national distribution rate of 50%. Most farming villages and small towns have no cinemas at all. A movie so good that it can attract 50% or more of its viewers to go to a cinema? That’s practically impossible. Box office sales in the later period will only reach a maximum of one billion.”

“Who said it’s impossible? The average price of a ticket to see the ‘Wa-wah Robot’ is $38. 8.3 billion divided by 38. It only has to be good enough to attract 218 million citizens to go into the cinemas and watch the movie. This also means that out of three people who walk into a cinema, as long as one of them buy a ticket, box office sales of 8.3 billion can be achieved. It’s not impossible!”

“No matter if it’s impossible or not, the record-breaking sales of 6.5 billion in national box office sales by ‘Wa-wah Robot’ has created a new box office record that will be hard to surpass. This will soon be an unchangeable fact.”

“A director who’s not even 24 and a fresh grad to boot; a tech company that has only been established for just over a year. The two joined forces to create a new box office record. One cannot help but lament: This era ultimately belongs to the youth.”

…

After smashing through all previous records of box office sales, Chen Jin called Shi Xiaotao and consulted with her on some questions. “Xiaotao, what do you think will be the final sales of this movie?”

“Erm…” After some thought, she replied, “I think it shouldn’t be too hard to achieve seven billion. I dare not imagine a greater number. Moreover, the movie is pretty good, so there are many film distributors from various countries who are looking to collaborate with us. Merica, Japan, Gorea, the Southeast Asian states, and the European states… more than 50 countries and regions want to import this movie. We are urgently producing overseas subtitled versions. If we can screen it overseas, with their considerable scope, it would not be difficult to rake in another three billion from overseas box offices.”

“Doesn’t that mean that global box office sales would reach 10 billion?”

Shi Xiaotao said calmly, “Yes, ‘Wa-wah Robot’ will not only be the first movie to break through box office sales of one billion in the domestic market, but it will also be the first movie from Z country to break through box office sales of one billion in the global film market. We’ve fully surpassed ‘Battle Dragons 2’ and brought Z country’s movies to a whole new level.” Mentally, she felt very calm too. Although she was very proud of these accomplishments, she felt more stress than pride. The heavy burden that she carried on her shoulders also bore the expectations of countless citizens.

At only 20-some years of age, she could not allow herself to rest on her laurels and live off her past glories. She could only continue to create more glories of an even greater magnitude. If her next movie brought in box office sales of less than three billion, she might even be seen as a failure by others. With the first spotlight on her from the top directors, she was not allowed any chances of failure.

…

“10 billion in total box office sales?” Chen Jin took in a deep breath. He never thought that making movies could be so profitable. How much money could he portion out from the 10 billion in box office earnings?

He calculated Shi Xiaotao’s share.

Firstly, based on the current box office sales of 5.8 billion, he calculated the 5% tax that he would have to pay the specialized fund office as a contribution to the funds for the filmmaking industry. After which, he had to pay a 3.3% business tax. After subtracting the required tax payments from the total box office revenues, he was able to get the net box office profits. From the net profits, he subtracted another 600 million. If the remaining number was greater than three million, he would have to pay another 1% in fees to the movie issuing agency.

Of the net box office profits that were currently left, the cinemas and their respective chains would receive a cut of 57%. The production and publishing organizations would receive 43%. Shi Xiaotao did not own any publishing organization. Hence she forked out 100 million to buy out a movie publisher and completed the publicity and distribution of the movie.

After subtracting all that should be subtracted, 2.16 billion of box office profits were left for the production organization.

Of which, Chen Jin received a 50% cut of 1.8 billion as well as a 1% cut of total box office sales, which was 5.8 million. He received a total of 1.14 billion. The remaining one billion was remuneration for Shi Xiaotao and other investors.

Chen Jin did some mental calculation and said, “Xiaotao, you mentioned that you invested a total of 300 million in this movie. However, according to this method of distribution, you’ll not only earn nothing, but you’ll also make a significant loss? That is if box office sales of ‘Wa-wah’ was less than two billion.”

“Hmm, yes.” She nodded. “I’ll lose an estimated 10 million. But a movie’s profits do not only come from box office sales. It can also create and promote plenty of merchandise on the side to acquire copyright royalties from third-party distributors. It could be made available on the movie libraries of smart TVs where the audience would pay for videos on demand. It’s entirely possible to break even in the end. Therefore… as long as box office sales of ‘Wa-wah’ is not lower than two billion, it can be considered a success.”

Moreover, the overseas market was a significant source of sales that could contribute to a certain amount of earnings. With two billion in box office sales, not only would she break even, she would even make a small profit. However, now that box office sales of ‘Wa-wah’ was rapidly approaching six billion, the hard-earned money of Shi Xiaotao and her parents was recouped at least three times over. After all the suffering came the reward.

As for the next plan of action, Chen Jin asked, “What do you plan to do after this? What kind of movie are you preparing to do next?”

“I’ve not thought about it properly. I plan to have a good rest for one month. Then, I’ll think about it.”

Suddenly, Chen Jin said, “How about this, you don’t have to think anymore. Your next movie will be ‘Wa-wah Robot 2’!”

“Ah! President Chen, you still want to collaborate with me for the sequel to ‘Wa-wah’?” Shi Xiaotao was pleasantly surprised. Her next plan of action was to do a sequel to “Wa-wah Robot.” But, she did not dare to propose this idea. There were too many famous directors who had set their sights on the intellectual property of ‘Wa-wah.’ There were certainly many who approached President Chen for a collaboration. With her own background and lack of connections, there was a high probability that she could not hold onto the intellectual property rights to this giant of a movie. She also did not dare to ask for the production rights to the sequel as she feared that she would leave a greedy impression on President Chen. After all, it was a movie that could bring in tens of billions. Could it be hers simply by asking? Hence, she could only find an opportune moment and probe his attitude. She had never thought that he would broach the subject and give the production rights to her directly.

“I don’t like to change working partners on a constant basis. I have fewer worries about working with you. In addition, I hope that you can start on the sequel ‘Wa-wah 2’ as soon as possible, preferably by March, so that it can be completed by the end of the year. I want it to be on the screening schedule of the next Spring Festival! Your mission is very important. Time is of the essence! In addition, a very important character will be joining the cast of ‘Wa-wah 2’. It’s a robot that’s almost as important as Wa-wah. It will occupy a significant portion of screen time! It is also the second type of robotic product that will be launched by Xing Hai Technologies! At the earliest, it will be launched at the end of the year. Therefore, I hope that you can complete this movie before the launch of this product by Xing Hai Technologies.” Chen Jin asked, “Lastly, the same old rules apply. I’ll provide you with the source materials for the characters in the animation and post-production optimization! Can you, again, be an amazing teammate that I can count on and finish this project together?”

With excitement coursing through her, Shi Xiaotao immediately promised, “President Chen, that won’t be a problem at all!” Actually, it was not necessary for her to exhibit an “amazing” standard for this project collaboration. She only had to be slightly smarter than a pig and avoid being the weakest link. With the lead of Xing Hai Technologies and the mysterious team of experts, box office sales of the movie ‘Wa-wah Robot 2’ would definitely reach five billion. If that number was not attained, she would commit hara-kiri as a total “incompetent pig.”

This collaboration was a done deal!

Chapter 132 - Being Ordinary Was Not Necessarily a Bad Thing

Junting Grand Court was a luxurious villa estate in the Pudong area. There were only 21 villas planned for this housing estate. Each villa occupied a very large average area of five acres. These high-end villas were designed by the master architect Ge Qiaozhi, who had a deep understanding of the western architectural design style. These villas were dubbed the milestones in the architecture of Shang Hai luxurious villas.

Amongst those that were available for sale, one single unit with an area of 1,300 to 1,400 square meters cost as much as $110,000 per square meter. Chen Jin had set his sights on villa no.8 in this particular housing estate. It was the biggest villa. In addition to the main body of the building, there was also a garden of 2,000 square meters. The total area of the villa was 3,500 square meters. As for its price, it cost 320 million after a discount! Since he was making a single payment, he enjoyed another 5% discount. The real amount that he had to pay was 304 million. Chen Jin used the company’s finances and took out this money in one lump sum to buy villa no.8.

Spending such a huge amount of money created a sensation in real estate circles immediately. The incident was reported in some real estate news and attracted attention from the financial and economics media. The news, “The boss of Xing Hai Technologies boldly tosses 300 million into the purchase of a Junting villa” spread like wildfire and triggered intense discussions within a small circle of interest.

On the 20th of February, in the Court of Happiness estate, “Chen Jin” packed a series of suitcases and had them loaded onto four luxurious sedans worth tens of millions (also bought using the company’s finances). He left for Junting Grand Court and moved into luxurious villa no.8. A young and mysterious VIP of the tech industry started to live a life marked by expensive branded cars and luxurious mansions. Besides the lack of a beautiful woman by his side, his lifestyle was infinitely desired and envied by many. Nobody would have been able to imagine that the real high-tech VIP was barely living in an ordinary residential area for the middle-upper class.

In order to fully disguise himself, he had to make some sacrifices. For example, he had to dress in a low-key manner. As much as possible, he would wear only cheap clothes that cost pennies. He could no longer wear high-end branded clothing. He cropped his hair very short in a crew-cut style, thus becoming an ordinary commoner with an even more ordinary appearance. His ordinary index increased by two points after putting on a pair of square-framed spectacles.

Moreover, a type of “micro-plastic surgery facial adhesives” could be manufactured at the Base of Operations. The adhesive could modify the appearance of the area where it was applied, thus producing a slight “plastic surgery effect.” The transparent adhesives were only as big as a band-aid and the effects were able to last an entire day, all without going under the knife. It would be the number one choice of make-up product for ladies.

Chen Jin applied three adhesives on three different areas of his face. In the future, he would have to apply these adhesives before going out. Before undergoing this series of changes, he had looked somewhat handsome. Now he could lose himself in the streets. To people who had trouble remembering faces, he might as well be invisible. The greatest sacrifice that he made was in regards to his parents. He had to make up stories and excuses to explain this in a plausible manner. He could not simply say that he had a replacement acting as himself. That would be too great a shock for them.

After some thought, he said, “Dad, Mom, I’ve bought a villa in Junting Grand Court. I might go and live in the villa occasionally. I’ll let you know if I’m not at home. Mom, you don’t have to prepare my meals. However, I’ll still spend most of my time in the apartment below yours. I may spend even less than two days living in the villa. I didn’t buy the villa with the intention to separate myself from you. I’m afraid that I will be targeted by the paparazzi, fans, kidnappers, and whatnot after I become rich and famous. It’ll be safer living in the villa. I’ve also employed a few guards… This will prevent others from disrupting our everyday life.” Chen Jin explained it thus.

Chen Jin had considered moving into Junting Grand Court with his parents, and he even invited them, but they were unwilling. They had their jobs. Their workplaces were far away from Junting Grand Court and it would be a long and inconvenient commute. They could only go over on the weekends to relax. Even if they were retired or had resigned from their jobs, they would still prefer to live in the Court of Happiness rather than a villa estate with few neighbors. After all, they had lived in the Court of Happiness for almost ten years.

Upon hearing his words, He Li nodded. “The media said that you were worth more than 10 billion and that you’ll definitely be in the top 100 in this year’s list of national billionaires. You really do have to pay more attention to your safety. Most billionaires live in villas not to show off but for safety reasons too. I understand your intentions.” She did say that, but somehow He Li was flooded with a wave of sadness. His wings were grown now. He could really leave her side and fly away.

Chen Gang said, “Just move into the villa. The apartment below is still yours. Come back often when you’re free, especially for your Mom. Also, the dazzling world outside is filled with great temptations and many traps! You have to control yourself. Call us if you meet with any troubles.” Chen Gang thought that after his son moved into that villa, he probably would not come back often. He could be considered filial if he even came back to visit twice a week.

Hearing her husband’s words, He Li suddenly started to cry. The outside world was so exciting. Would her son come back often now that she would not restrain him anymore? Would he even return twice a week? This was the big question.

“Mom don’t be sad! I promise that I’ll spend most of my time at home. At most, I’ll only stay in the villa occasionally.” Chen Jin coaxed her for some time, repeatedly promising to spend more time at home. Only then did she reluctantly stop her crying. However, she still felt very sad and disappointed.

For the following two weeks, Chen Jin kept his promise through concrete actions. He meant what he said. In a total of 14 days, he spent 10 days in apartment 302, which was one story below his parents’ apartment. He would go up to have dinner with them every day. He went to the big villa in Junting Grand Court and lived there for three days (in reality, it was to show the face of his double in public. He himself went to Base of Operations).

There was also a day when Chen Jin brought his parents to the big villa where they stayed for one day and one night, enjoying the life of the rich (this was the real Chen Jin living in the villa for the first time; he had hidden his double). Thus, this operation was fussier and more complicated. But he could experience a greater degree of safety in this way.

He had made sufficient explanations to his parents, especially his Mom. She was extremely satisfied and felt a well of emotions. Being able to raise her son to this age; her affections had not gone to waste.

His parents were extremely shocked at his new appearance. He sported a crew-cut, wore cheap clothes and a pair of square-framed spectacles. After pasting the “amazing adhesives” on his face, he had an ordinary and forgettable image.

Even as his real mother, He Li said, “Son, frankly speaking, I almost couldn’t recognize you in this get-up. I thought you were someone else. Besides the same height, you’re two totally different persons!”

Chen Gang felt the present scene fading away, as if a split in reality had occurred. He boldly hypothesized: If his son did not become an entrepreneur and instead continued his old life as a homebody, living merely to await death, he was afraid that this would be his appearance after a number of years. Helplessly, he forced a smile and thought, the affairs of the world are inconstant.

He was extremely worried when his son was a loafer. He was afraid that Chen Jin would fall into a state of poverty and his circumstances would worsen every year. He might even become homeless and live a life worse than a beggar’s. Now his son was a useful member of society, had a successful business, and became a billionaire. But he had never imagined that not only did Chen Jin remain unchanged, he even prepared a “destitute and frustrated at life” appearance. Funny. It was really too funny.

Chen Jin laughed. “Dad, Mom, if I’m not ordinary, did you think that I’ll still have the opportunity to stay beside you in the future? Will I still have the opportunity to show how filial I am?”

“Yes, that’s right!” As if awakened from a dream, He Li grabbed her son in a hug and leaned her head against him. “Son, you are totally right! Your career is important, but I still hope that you can spend more time with me.”

Chen Gang seemed to understand something too. In the past, he had overly high expectations of his son and was very critical towards him. But, those were actually anxious and stubborn behaviors. Now, he thought that being ordinary sometimes may not be a bad thing at all.

…

On the 5th of March, at the second development plant in Xing Hai Technologies, after a long eight months of preparation and development, another major product of Xing Hai Technologies had been successfully finalized!

Chapter 133 - ‘Little Star’ Learning Machine

That was right. The learning machine. The learning machine envisioned by Chen Jin and judged by many to be outdated, low-tech, and looked upon with disfavor had been produced. It was given the name, “Little Star Learning Machine.”

In the product testing lab of the development plant, the learning machine was displayed in front of Chen Jin. It was roughly the same size as a 10-inch iPad. It was rather heavy and awkward with a thickness of 9.8 millimeters, and a gross weight of one kilogram. Of course, the final product to be mass produced would be redesigned to reduce its weight; its thickness would also be compressed in the process.

The Chief Technical Inspector Song Bojun explained the functions of the Little Star Learning Machine as he performed some demonstrations.

“All the functions that you wanted us to achieve have been completed. The first function — learning textbook knowledge. We’ve entered all the required knowledge modules for the six grades of primary school. They are stored in the local memory of the learning machine. The size of the data is roughly 16 GB. President Chen, as for the educational video materials that you gave us, we’ve put all 20,000-plus videos on the cloud server. When a student needs to watch the videos, he can either download them onto the local memory or stream it from the cloud.”

Song Bojun moved to the next point. “The second function — voicing answers. This was the function that you specifically mentioned. Whenever the primary school students have any questions, they can ask the smart robot ‘Little Star.’ Little Star can answer all questions, including some questions that are outside of the primary school syllabus. For example, Little Star is able to provide scientific yet interesting answers to questions like ‘why does the sun emit light,”why do stars flicker,”why is the moon round,’ and other similar questions. This will satisfy their exuberant curiosity.”

Song Bojun continued, “Next is the third function — homework guidance. This function can be summarized like this; as long as the knowledge modules are within the scope of the syllabus, there are no primary school level questions that the Little Star learning machine cannot solve! This excludes literature, language, composition, English composition, and the formation of words or sentences. Simply by using the camera function to scan the test paper or homework, it can provide the steps to solve the problems as well as the answers, typically within five to ten seconds. We conducted a stress test. We found all 5,000 math olympiad question on the market, and gave them to the Little Star learning machine to solve. In the end, it used less than a day to complete all answers to the 5,000 questions. It used an average time of 10.7 seconds to solve each question. Out of the 5,000 math olympiad questions posed to Little Star, it correctly answered 4,976 questions. It found problems in 18 questions as they were not structured in a clear manner. There were six questions with two or more answers. But, in our opinion, the problems lie with the questions. There was nothing wrong with Little Star’s answers! Little Star’s rate of accuracy is 100%. No matter how much the primary school syllabus changes, it won’t be a problem for the Little Star learning machine!”

Song Bojun paused for a moment. “We’re only worried about one issue. This ‘homework guidance’ function could be seen as cheating by some teachers and a way to slack off studying by parents. In order to avoid this misunderstanding, we have added a ‘challenging mode’ into this function. Under this mode, Little Star will only provide the thought process for solving the question. Following the guide provided, the student will use the stylus to write the first step required in solving the question on the answer board. Only then will the machine provide the following thought process for the next step… thus guiding the student to complete the answer by himself. Activation of the ‘challenging mode’ is usually controlled by the parents.”

Finally, he moved to the next point. “Fourthly, in order to encourage students to become more passionate about their learning and to record their progress, we’ve added the ‘academic ranking’ function. By using the Little Star learning machine to study for at least thirty minutes, their academic values will be increased by one point. By taking a mini test every week and then a full-scale exam every month, the student’s academic value can go up to 10 points, 30 points, or even more if their results are good. The academic values can roughly reflect a student’s progress. Using this information, the machine can draw up a list of rankings. The student can also check the ranks of his friends. Of course, the student can also refuse ‘academic testing’ and not pursue points to increase their academic values.”

Song Bojun smiled proudly. “Fifthly, we’ve added some games that will build up one’s intelligence. The games will train and exercise the brain’s thought processes. Lastly, we’ve added lessons on life knowledge, civilizations, etiquette, law, and popular science. These will be completed with the guidance of parents. Also, we’ve developed and added all other functions that were found to be necessary!” With a face flushed with great excitement, Song Bojun said, “President Chen, I think that our Little Star learning machine has been brought to successful completion. It’s ready to be introduced to the market!”

Chen Jin nodded. He had devoted much of his energy into the project of the “intelligent learning machine.” It was 10 times more important to him than the Wa-wah robot. He did much more than just go to the facility for an average of three to four days every week. He had also brought with him countless technological information materials. For example, the USB flash disk in which the “intelligent learning program” had been downloaded. Another example was the explanatory videos on the various knowledge modules. There were more than 20,000 of those videos. After packing them up, the materials were nearly 5TB in size. These were given to him by the AI, Nuwa. Yet another example was the 3,000 TB of core data stored in the company’s super calculator. Although there were 8,000 TB of precious data on the company’s super calculator, that 3,000 TB of core data was produced by running Alice’s “Sakura” for two minutes.

After this data was transferred to the TC9000, the level of intelligence in the learning machine was increased by 10 times all at once! The knowledge that it possessed had evolved to a “middle-schooler” level and was currently moving towards “high-schooler” stage. In addition, functions such as the “intelligent language differentiation” and “intelligent video production techniques” had also rapidly achieved breakthroughs in their development process with the aid of the technological materials that Chen Jin brought. Without the materials that Chen Jin had provided, the Little Star Learning machine would never have been completed even in two or three years, much less eight months.

There was no need for him to transport the super calculators from the Base of Operations to Earth. He simply had to transfer the processed data to Earth. This would speed up the progress of the project. In addition, the R&D costs had been drastically reduced. Originally, the learning machine would have cost tens of billions to produce. But, Chen Jin had only spent five billion or so to create the construction machinery that met the target standard of performance.

“Ok!” Putting down the construction machinery in his hands, Chen Jin said, “The first generation of our Little Star learning machine has officially been finalized. We’ll move into mass production immediately!”

A technician squeezed himself into the conversation. “President Chen, how many units do you think we should order?”

Chen Jin looked at him and asked, “Oh, what do you think?”

He exclaimed, “There is an estimated 100 million primary school students in the whole country. We can give an order of 50 million units!”

Chen Jin shook his head. “The hardware unit of the Little Star first gen is average; it can only satisfy the needs of the primary school students. It’s not suitable for middle and high-schoolers. Unless we successfully complete the development of the high-performance AI chip… but that will require a few more months. Give an order of five million units. Little Star first gen is only a transitional product.” Speaking of chips, the CPU in Little Star first gen used a blueprint supplied by Teng Xun Corporation. Despite its normal level performance, its power and capability were entirely sufficient. It had the advantage of being cheap and reliable. It was created using the 28 nanometer production technique by Zhongxin International. Chen Jin had already made an order for five million units.

The AI chip used in the Little Star first gen was termed “Star Brain No.1.” It was jointly developed by Xing Hai Technologies and the domestic company, Cold Five Instruments using a capital of 500 million. The chip was about the size of a fingernail. With its intelligent operational capability, it could process 50 billion counts per second. However, it had a weaker performance. When met with questions of a middle-school third-grade level or higher, it required at least 30 seconds before providing the correct answer. This was definitely not enough. It was only barely enough if it could achieve 500 billion counts in one second or even higher.

The “Star Brain No.2” was currently in development. It had a surface area about the size of a beer bottle cap. With a peak operational capability of 750 billion counts per second, one could get ample use out of this AI chip. Hence, Chen Jin also gave an order of five million units for the chip, “Star Brain No.1,” which would be produced using the 14 nanometer production technique from Zhongxin International. Its mass production had recently begun.

Lastly was the OEM factory. He found a factory called “Chang Cheng Electric” to be the OEM for the production of the learning machine. This factory was a state-owned enterprise with tremendous technological prowess. Therefore, Chen Jin gave the order for five million intelligent learning machines to this company.

Why did he not approach Ling Feng Jing Mi for a collaboration? Wang Quan Long called to ask exactly this question.

Chen Jin replied, “Does Ling Feng Jing Mi have this production capacity? You can’t even cope with the production of the Wa-wah robot. I can only give the order for the learning machines to another company.”

“President Chen, you could have called me earlier. If you had given me a heads up in advance, I would have just built another OEM factory. Ah!” Wang Quan Long was very disappointed. Just like that, he lost the OEM order worth a few millions to another company. He ached at the loss. An OEM factory was less profitable than that little company of Ling Feng Jing Mi. But as someone who was in the OEM business, he liked the feeling that he got when he assembled a countless variety of components into a whole product. He had liked it since he was a young boy. His dream was to grow his Ling Feng Jing Mi company into an OEM giant like Futu Kang. He never imagined that an order worth millions would simply pass him by due to an insufficient production capacity.

Chen Jin consoled him, “President Wang, I will have other orders for you as long as Ling Feng Jing Mi is able to expand its follow-up production capacity. It’s alright to complete what you have on your plate first and do a good job on the Wa-wah robots. There will be opportunities to collaborate in the future.”

Wang Quan Long recovered. “Excuse me, President Chen. I was being greedy… You can rest assured. I promise that I will continue to do a good job as the OEM for the robots.” After he carefully thought things over, he suddenly understood why President Chen did not call him up. It was possibly because he did not want to “put all his eggs into one basket.” It was a typical consideration in business. It was him who had been acting too persistent, showing how unaware of the situation he was. “It’s ok. There will be plenty of opportunities to collaborate in the future.”

…

Starting on the 10th of March, Xing Hai Technologies posted a few comments from its official Weibo account in succession. The comments used hyperbolic diction meant to tillilate.

“In the future, everyone will be a top scholar and a genius. Every child will be this country’s cream of the crop. Mothers, you no longer have to worry about your child’s study.”

“The structure of our nation’s education system will experience dramatic upheaval because of this product.”

“There is no question that it cannot solve!”

“Let’s meet on the 15th of March at 8pm; we’ll be waiting…”

Chapter 134 - Making a Personal Appearance

Up to the present date, Xing Hai Technologies had only been established for less than a year and a half. It was an extremely “young” company. However, it had achieved a total sales volume of 15 million through the successive releases of the three types of robots. The total nation-wide box office sales of its movie “Wa-wah Robot: A Brave And Brilliant Rescue,” which had currently finished running in the domestic cinemas, was 7.8 billion with total global box office sales of 11.5 billion. The movie was taking the whole world by storm.

Xing Hai Technologies had become a tech company that was known by all in Z country. In addition, it had a budding reputation overseas as well. The official Weibo account of Xing Hai Technologies was followed by 34 million fans, which was almost twice of “Hua Yao Mobile” followers at 18 million. Moreover, it had millions more followers compared to the 24 million fans following “Da Mi Mobile.” Simply based on the number of fans and followers, it could be said that Xing Hai Technologies received the most attention. It was a company that brought along its own “super site traffic.”

Every Weibo post that Xing Hai Technologies made stirred up many discussions, and attracted countless hits and reposts. As for the all-new product that Xing Hai Technologies was about to announce, after vast numbers of netizens saw the Weibo posts that were published successively using hyperbolic language for maximum shock value, most netizens did not go along with the craze and blindly boast about the new product. There was only a minority of fanatic fans who posted expressions like “strongly anticipating” and “quickly announce it.”

On the contrary, there was widespread ridicule and complaints.

“Stop joking! The product that you are launching is a learning machine. Stop making this kind of post on Weibo.”

“I feel like dying whenever I hear the word ‘learning.’ Don’t mention learning machines to me!”

“Can you do something that’s worth anticipating, like a mobile phone, computer, gaming devices, and the like? Why make a learning machine out of the blue?”

“Mom, I don’t want to study!”

“Not interested. I’m not buying. I don’t want it even if it’s free!”

“It’s courting it’s own death. It’s throwing billions down the river just to produce a learning machine? I conclude that this is definitely a critical mistake in Xing Hai Technologies’ strategy.”

However, within the countless voices expressing their ridicule and disfavor, there were also a few feeble voices expressing support.

“I support Xing Hai Technologies. I support your learning machine. I’ll buy it for sure when it comes out! I have an unmotivated and useless grandson. In every exam, his results are top… from the bottom. He can’t be helped even if I buy 10 learning machines. But, I want to buy your learning machine and give it a try!”

“A good company that thinks of the welfare of the common citizens! Your cleaning robot has freed us from the drudgery of cleaning. And your learning machine will free us from the worries about our children’s studies. These products take into account the considerations of parents.”

“Look at the tech companies today. What do they produce all the time? Mobile phones that are barely used before the next upgraded one comes out. Various games that provide cheap thrills and destroy one’s motivation to lead a meaningful life. There are none that produce practical and honest goods! All these products entrap children; they entrap our next generation! Take another look at Xing Hai Technologies. After they are rich, they make products for learning and knowledge! Xing Hai Technologies is the ethical company in Z country!”

A reply under this comment expressed its agreement, “Yes, I’ve sent my child to Professor Yang three times, but his internet addiction just can’t be cured! I’m so worried that I could die! I wonder what the learning machine from Xing Hai Technologies is like? Can it help him quit his addiction to games and make him like learning?”

…

Besides the attention and discussions from the netizens, there were many bigwigs in the tech circles who privately paid much attention to the new product that Xing Hai Technologies was about to announce. This was especially true for the top leader in the field of the learning machines, Bubu Gao Company, who was very worried. Would the learning machine from Xing Hai Technologies become a strong competitor?

The CEO of Bubu Gao, Zheng Yongping, reported this situation to the founder, Huang Zhiqiang. He was a man close to 60, who still had perfect eyesight. Having experienced countless setbacks in life, he was also dubbed the “most mysterious VIP of the tech industry” and described as someone who was “well-versed in the Art of War.” Now, he merely shook his head and calmly stated, “I never thought that others would fight over leftovers.” He was unconcerned. After all, the market for learning machines only accounted for less than 5% of its business in present times.

…

On the night of the 14th, Chen Jin received a call from a familiar character. “Brother Chen, I wonder if it’s possible to reveal if Xing Hai Technologies really intends to make the learning machine their second product category?” The call was from Lei Xiao Jun to enquire about the new product, as he was very curious.

“Yes, it’s indeed a learning machine. The netizens guessed right.”

Lei Xiao Jun was beyond shocked. “You invested billions just to make a learning machine? Isn’t it better to use the money for R&D on a different product? Extravagant, brother, you’re too extravagant! There’s no future in producing learning machines. This is a sunset industry, there won’t be another boom! Brother Chen, don’t think that I’m being rude. This time, you’re really making a mistake. You’ve gone somewhat overboard with your obsession. You should consult more with the professional investors and get their suggestions.”

Chen Jin asked, “I heard that Brother Lei is a famous angel investor, so I’ll just ask you: What kind of product is better for me to do? What kind of product has better prospects?”

“Um, mobiles phones, computers, and AI ecosystems. All of these would work.”

“Let’s say I’ll make mobile phones. If Xing Hai Technologies focused on producing mobile phones, it’ll drive your Da Mi out of business and make it collapse within three years. Do you believe me?”

Lei Xiao Jun was stunned speechless by his extremely conceited tone.

Chen Jin asked, “Would you still advise me to go into mobile phones if Xing Hai Technologies really did possess this capability?”

Lei Xiao Jun did not know how to answer this question. He wanted to retaliate and tell the young man to learn humility. Young people should know how to be humble. Just as the words were about to be spoken, he swallowed them back. When he heard the statement ‘it’ll drive your Da Mi out of business and make it collapse within three years,’ he did not find it funny. On the contrary, he could feel a chill crawling up his spine. There was no trace of humor in the young man’s tone. “Hahaha, then I would have to thank you for leaving me some means of survival. I’m also congratulating you on the learning machine. I hope it becomes a huge success and sell like hot cakes!”

“Good luck on your endeavors.” Chen Jin smiled and shook his head. He realized that there were no simpletons amongst those successful bigwigs. All of them possessed an extremely high IQ and EQ.

…

On the 15th of March, at the same location of the Workers’ Stadium in Shang Hai City, the preparations for Xing Hai Technologies’ third launch event was basically completed. It would begin in less than two hours.

The audience arrived in never-ending droves. All 30,000 entrance tickets were sold out. There were no empty seats. The prime attraction of this launch event was not the learning machines that countless netizens had correctly guessed. It was a person!

The founder of Xing Hai Technologies, who was only 25 and built the company from scratch to the point where he now possessed tens of billions, would reveal his face and personally host this new product launch!

That was right. Chen Jin was sick of being in the shadows. He decided to make a personal appearance. He had no intention on missing out on such a good opportunity to be in the limelight, enjoying all the attention and worship from countless fans. Of course, for his own safety, he was actually using his double to host the launch event onstage. His real self was in the Base of Operations where he could “remote control” his double via a network cable that he had linked to the Base. He would share the vision of his double and control its speech and actions, achieving the effect of “making a personal appearance.”

There was another advantage to this. He would not have stage fright easily. Therefore, he could train himself to develop the guts to face thousands of people. Moreover, he had rehearsed more than 10 times in the simulated reality environment. In the beginning, he would stammer. But now, he could express himself smoothly. He had experienced various last-minute situations. Even if there was widespread booing from the audience, he would be able to respond calmly.

As the double was remotely controlled, a 30 millisecond or so network delay existed. There was the potential danger of an interruption in the network connection. This could be caused by a signal blockage or a disconnected network.

Chen Jin had also prepared a Plan B for this potential pitfall. If the network interruption went on for more than five seconds, the double would go into “autonomous mode.” It would continue hosting the launch event based on the backup plan, thus ensuring the event would not be screwed up. He had made ample preparations.

…

By 7:50 pm, the launch event was about to start. In a corner by the stage were some female staff with the employee cards of Xing Hai Technologies hanging from their necks. They were chatting enthusiastically with excited expressions.

“This is awesome; we’ll see the big boss soon!”

“I’ve heard that the boss is very young and really handsome. I wonder if that’s true?”

“Strange. I’ve joined the company for half a year, but I don’t think I’ve seen the boss even once. It’s said that all the technicians in the development plants have seen him, but he doesn’t really come to headquarters.”

Zhen Ker Shin mumbled to herself, “It’s great now, I can finally see the real appearance of the boss!” She was filled with anticipation. Beside her was Vice President Liang Ying. However, she did not notice the glances that Liang Ying snuck at her, or the strange smile on her face.

Chapter 135 - Played For a Fool

Jingling~

Heart-stirring music began to play. A plume of fog gushed out of the dry-ice machine placed at the side of the stage.

A young man dressed in a white long-sleeved shirt and jeans appeared. He had a tall and straight posture. With energetic steps, he walked up to the stage and faced the audience.

Countless females in the audience shrieked.

“F**k!” Countless men in the audience ridiculed in agitation.

At a corner by the stage, Zheng Ker Shin was so stunned that she stood rooted to the ground. Her cherry mouth formed an “O” and her eyes were filled with disbelief. “It’s…..It’s you. You’re the big boss of the company? Ah!!” She shrieked and covered her red face with her hands. “I’m finished. I’ll be fired, I can’t work anymore. I actually treated the company’s boss as CEO Ling’s assistant… I’m so dead. Zhen Ker Shin, you’re dead. You have no more dignity to continue staying in the company; pack your stuff and leave tomorrow!”

Vice President Liang Ying looked at her behavior with some amusement. Silently, she thought, It’s the boss who told us to keep it from you. Lady, you’re too naive.

…

It was about an hour into the launch event and it was progressing very well. The smooth delivery of the handsome president, the powerful functions of the intelligent learning machine, and the intermittent ear-piercing shrieks from the female audience all proved to be good indications.

There were more than six million viewers watching the live event across various broadcasting platforms. This was the largest number of viewers who were watching the event at the same time. The launch event could be described as a huge success.

The introduction of the various functions of “Little Star learning machine” was complete.

Chen Jin started to announce its price. “So, how much is it selling for? “After a round of discussions and consultations, it’s final price was set at $5,888!”

$5,888! This could totally be described as a “friendly price.” Of course, the production costs of Little Star First Gen’s hardware was not high. With a configuration of 4+64G, a cheap CPU, and a self-developed AI chip, the total hardware production cost was less than $1,500. By setting its price at $5,888, the net profit margin for the hardware could reach 30% or more. However, the development costs of this learning machine exceeded five billion. But, with the addition of R&D costs, he could only “break even and make a generous profit” by increasing the unit price of all five million Little Star First Gen by $1,000.

However, everyone still did not really understand the intelligent machine. In such an environment, Chen Jin thought that setting such a high selling price for the first model of a new product would cause many consumers to retreat. The powerful capabilities of the Little Star learning machine would only remain known to the richer consumers. He would not only do business with the minority. Xing Hai Technologies would not serve only a small quantity of people! Xing Hai Technologies intended to take the whole market share and change the entire Z country.

Hence, the purpose of setting the price of “Little Star First Gen” at $5,888 was to build a popular reputation for the product and to get people talking about it. When the more advanced and more intelligent “Little Star Second Gen” was launched, one would be humiliating the capabilities of the product to set anything lower than $10,000!

…

After the end of the event, a furor was taking place online. Netizens held furious discussions on Weibo and other social media platforms. However, what was surprising was the two very clearly different directions taken in the discussions.

These were the responses of the female netizens:

“Oh my god, he’s so handsome!”

“My prince charming has appeared. My husband has appeared!”

“25 years old, handsome, and rich. He’s still single too… nobody is allowed to take my husband!”

“I thought fiction was fiction. I never imagined that the domineering president exists in reality too.”

“I married too young. ‘I return your pearls with flowing tears; what I wouldn’t give to have met you when I was still unmarried’!”

“I quit being the fans of those young flashy boys. My husband is better looking.”

Messages from countless friends and buddies flooded Yuan Lin’s WeChat friends circle. Her phone shut down several times from the huge load of incoming messages.

“Lin Lin, I’m begging you, can you give me his contact?”

“Lin Lin, we were in the same class since kindergarten. It’s 20-plus years of sisterhood!”

“Lin Lin, I’m begging you. Can I transfer $100,000 to you? I’ll treat you to a meal tomorrow.”

“Yuan Lin, do you still remember what you said before? Have you forgotten this phrase ‘to share bliss and misfortune together’?”

“Yuan Lin! This is the last time. Don’t force my hand! I can take all kinds of action!”

“Crazy!” Yuan Lin was so pissed off she blocked a good half of her friends in her friends circle.

…

The responses from the male netizens were all sorts of envy, jealousy and resentment.

“Motherf**ker. I was still studying like a nerd in school when I was 25.”

“He’s rich, and handsome too. Can’t he let us have a chance with the ladies?”

“I’ve suffered a ton of hurt!”

“Ah, as compared to him, I’ve wasted my life living to this age.”

The focus of the netizens’ discussions was the young boss of Xing Hai Technologies.

Only a small number of professionals discussed the Little Star learning machine in depth. They reached a unanimous conclusion: This type of learning machine was a pretty good product!

…

The next morning, Chen Jin received a call while he was sleeping.It was from the Sales Manager Li Yuan Liang. He said with some panic, “President Chen, bad news! Some unlawful punks are smearing your reputation in a frenzy!”

What?

Chen Jin crawled out of bed and opened his computer. Logging into Weibo, he finally understood what Li Yuan Liang meant by “smearing his reputation.”

Memes. Memes were being spammed and distributed across countless Weibo comments and QQ’s group chats. They were all based on his image or the Little Star learning machine. For example, there was a panda who was holding the Little Star learning machine in his hands. It was accompanied with a line at the side saying, “Silence! You’re disturbing me when I’m using the Little Star learning machine!”

There was also a video capture of him hosting the launch event, saying, “Little Star, do you know the answer to 1+3?”

When a question was solved, the Little Star learning machine said, “Correct, you’re the smartest baby in the world!”

Also, that classic ad line, “Mom will not have to worry about my studies anymore.”

Some nosy netizens even gave him a nickname, “smart baby,” which was currently spread to countless netizens as a punchline.

In addition, there were countless other similar memes which all combined to nearly tarnish his shining image beyond repair.

Li Yuan Liang said furiously, “President Chen, call the police, you have to call the police! Let the cops catch all of the people who smeared your reputation. This is too enraging!”

“That’s not necessary.” Shaking his head, Chen Jin forced a smile. “They’re just making some harmless jokes. As long as it doesn’t go overboard, let them do as they like; let it go.”

“Let it go? President Chen, you’re giving them free rein to tarnish your image?”

“What else can I do? If I really call the cops on those busybodies, will the netizens praise me for a job well done or will they criticize my pettiness? Let it go. As long as it’s not malicious, let them do as they like.” This was the consequence of being a public figure. Chen Jin had asked Brother Lei what his opinion was on the solo concerts that he held. Brother Lei had said that he disliked it and even felt uncomfortable about it. However, the concerts also spread the popularity of Da Mi Company. It was a mixed bag of blessings and he would not make a fuss about it.

Li Yuan Liang said reluctantly, “Ok, President Chen. We will keep a tight watch on the responses online. We’ll call the cops immediately once any extreme images appear.”

Chen Jin ended the call. Using his mouse, he went onto Weibo again to check out the memes flooding the platform.

F**k! Are they all f**king geniuses?!

He was filled with frustration and an impulse to chop somebody with a knife. But, ultimately, he could only remain helpless. Having been played for a fool by the netizens, he realized his own mistake too. “Little Star First Gen is a type of learning machine for primary school students. The main users are the primary school students, not the mainstream netizens. We should have invited parents and guardians in their 30s and 40s as live audiences at the event. In addition, we could have invited some teachers and educational professionals to make up the audience. There was no need to organize online livestreaming sessions for the event as well. Young adults won’t buy this toy so what’s the point in attracting their attention? In any case, only parents and guardians will be invited to the next launch for the learning machine! Step aside, young people!”

Chapter 136 - Plight in Sales

On the second day after the Little Star product launch, Zhen Ker Shin rushed to work. With her head bowed, she went into the office and handed over an envelope. “Miss. Liang, I want to resign.”

Liang Ying, who was sitting on the office chair, raised her head and looked at her for a few moments. Then, facing the few documents on the table, she said, “Take these documents to Mr. Ling and ask him to sign on them.”

“Miss Liang!” Zhen Ker Shin stomped her foot. “I have no face to keep going, I actually can’t even recognize my boss.”

“Many people at the headquarters can’t recognize our boss, what’s the big deal, go ahead and start working.”

“My case is different! Let’s not mention about how many times I have met him before, I regarded him as Mr. Ling’s personal assistant… I-I was so rude, he must have hated me, I… have no face to stay here.” Zhen Ker Shin’s eyes were red, feeling like she had made a grave mistake.

“Silly lady, if our boss hated you, I would have reminded you that he’s our boss, it was he that asked us not to tell you, haven’t you got it yet? Throw away that resignation letter and start working.”

“What?!” What Liang Ying said stunned her. After some thought, it seemed that her boss certainly didn’t hate her. In fact, he even added her on WeChat and talked with her frequently. Right, through WeChat, I must ask him why he hid this from me!

During her free time, she took out her phone, opened WeChat, and typed out long passages in an attempt to put the questions within her heart forward. However, she couldn’t seem to send them out, and ended up deleting them over and over again.

Near noon, her phone dinged. She received two messages. The sender was “Assistant Chen.” The first message was the “Trick” emoji. The second message was, “How was it? My hosting skills are not bad, right?”

Ah! At that moment, Zhen Ker Shin felt utterly ashamed and it was driving her crazy. It was on purpose. That guy must have done it on purpose!

…

At noon on the 16th, The “Little Star First Gen” learning machine launched its official website for pre-selling. The first batch of stock was one million units. After customers made their orders, it would be delivered within 10 days. However, sales were not as fervent as predicted. From the moment it launched until six in the afternoon, in six hours, pre-orders for the “Little Star First Gen” learning machine passed just over half a million units. Over half a million units within six hours!

For products of other companies, it would definitely be considered as a hot-selling product. But for Xing Hai Technologies, it can be said that it was very far from their expectations. However, aside from Chen Jin and the technical team lead by Song Bo Jun, the other higher-ups in the company all said that it was quite good.

“We succeeded, Mr. Chen, there will be no problem for the sales of ‘Little Star First Gen’ to break the one million mark within 24 hours. This is a pretty good result.”

“The funds we used in this project were much less than what we anticipated. Even just selling two or three million units will cover our cost.”

“This project is actually not bad. The learning machine is also better than what we imagined. It is impossible for us to experience loss in this. But considering that this is mainly for primary schoolers, the product audience is not big. It will be considered a great success even if we just manage to sell all five million units.”

“But there is no need to increase our orders to 10 million units. It is estimated that it will already take a long time for us to sell all five million units.”

“We should focus our efforts on the robots. Summing up the number of personnel in the learning machine and chip development teams in our company, their numbers have already exceeded 2,000. Our expenditure of 200 million per month in R&D is too costly, and sales are not that optimistic either. If this goes on, we might very well lose money.”

The company’s high executives were not very optimistic about the learning machine project. How good would it be to just work on household robots? With one robot for each family, its market was worth over a hundred million dollars. What about the learning machine? Selling over ten million units would be considered good enough. But the learning machine also required a lot of funding into its R&D, the input-output ratio was simply too low.

Besides, in the market of household robots, Xing Hai Technologies was monopolizing the market and they had almost zero competitors in the field. In the field of education, however, the competition was harsh. There were innumerable training institutions, learning devices, and applications. Money could not be earned easily.

All the higher executives wished for Chen Jin to focus on robots and not to forget the watermelon just to pick a mango.

…

During dinner time, Chen Jin did not have much of an appetite. He held his phone in his hand, refreshing the Taobao product interface from time to time. He realized that the amount of orders for the ‘Little Star First Gen’ learning machine was not rising after hitting the 550 thousand mark, as if it was stuck.

Not even mentioning people panic-buying it, it had become a problem for the first batch of one million units to even be sold within two or three days,

“Chen Jin, your learning machine is very well made, after watching your product conference, even I bought one… how can it not sell well?” asked Su Yun, who was sitting across from him.

“What did you buy the Little Star learning machine for? You are not a primary schooler.” Chen Jin gave her a weird look. He did not understand what was going on in her brain.

“It was too good, so I couldn’t help but to buy one.” Su Yun gave him a naughty smile as she stuck her tongue out.

Chen Jin shook his head and began mumbling to himself. “I’ve done it wrong since the beginning of the conference! I should’ve massively sent out invitations and invite the parents and teachers of the primary schoolers over. Or I should have invited the primary schoolers themselves and let them listen to my product introduction. I should not have turned it into a shopping carnival for ordinary netizens. Why would ordinary netizens buy it? The netizens themselves are not feverish about it. In the family of the netizens, not much of their kids are primary schoolers. As for those uncles and aunties, they are not even familiar with the internet, not to even mention swiping Weibo and shopping online… with so many factors combined, no matter how good the Little Star learning machine is, the majority of the primary schooler parents will still be oblivious about its existence.”

Unless they used intensive advertising methods like what Bubu Gao Company was doing, for example brainwashing through TV programs, going “A little press on Little Star a little problem solved” every day, only then would it be possible to get the parents attention and bring up their desire to buy the product. At the same time, they had to prepare a large number of offline stores and conduct large-scale offline distributions to give the primary schooler parents the chance to purchase the Little Star learning machine.

But this sales model had no difference with the sales model of Bubu Gao Company’s learning machine, which would create a hefty distribution cost. Just on TV ads, it would cost more than a million dollars every year! The main issue was that Chen Jin was reluctant to sell his Little Star learning machine that way, he hated bombardment and brainwashing advertising methods! Besides, the Little Star learning machine’s profit margin could not be too low as well.

But without advertising and conducting sales offline, how would the potential users of the Little Star leaning machine learn about it and get their hands on it? In short, this was a very conflicting, troublesome, and headache-inducing problem.

“Dad, mom, I’m full. I have some things in my mind. I’ll go downstairs to rest now.” Chen Jin placed his bowl and chopsticks down and returned to his room with a glum face.

…

After Chen Jin went downstairs, He Li and Chen Gang also finished eating. They placed their bowl and chopsticks down.

“Director, I’ll do the dishes!” Su Yun stood up and took the initiative to clean the table.

“No need, I’ll do the dishes,” He Li called to her, but Su Yun had already entered the kitchen with the dishes. After a while, the sound of scrubbing and rinsing could be heard.

“He Li, come out here for a little while.” Chen Gang dragged his wife to the balcony outside the living room. He lowered his voice and with a solemn face, he whispered to her ear, “He Li, why did you call Su Yun over? What are you thinking about letting her spend three to four nights at our house in a week? Su Yun is still an innocent, untouched lady. What will people say about her if they get to know about this? How can Su Yun lift her head outside if it were to happen?” Chen Gang thought that his wife was getting more and more ridiculous. She never thought of the consequences, and always brought her female subordinate to stay at her own house.

Especially after his son bought a villa, his wife’s actions further intensified. She freed up a guest room, tidied it, and called Su Yun over to stay for the long-term. She said that it was for work convenience. But who would believe such a lame excuse? Chen Gang could not bear to watch this. He thought that He Li was crossing the line.

“What are you even aware of?” He Li glared at him. “Do you really hope that our son gets married after 30? Do you really desire to not have a grandchild even after we are retired?”

“I’m retiring at 60, why do I need to feel desperate?”

“You are not desperate, but I am! This kind of thing must be prepared in advance!”

“So, you dragged Su Yun to stay at our house without even asking for her consent? He Li, no matter how desperate the others are, the most that they will do is to urge their children to go on blind dates, who does things like you?”

“Stay out of this, he is my son, everything shall be arranged by me alone!” She glared at her husband for a moment, asking him to mind his own business and shut his mouth.

How could you possibly understand my plan? Our son is now a billionaire and will get even wealthier in the future. There will be countless ladies from rich and prestigious households that will want to marry our son. Can he resist temptation? Will our future daughter-in-law be easy to bond with? Everything is unknown!

The ideal daughter-in-law in her mind would be either the “perfect match” in her context or the obedient type… anyways, she must not steal her son away from her!

“You—…” Facing his overbearing wife, Chen Gang was unable to have a say.

Chapter 137 - A Radio Wave from Beyond

Over three days had passed. Online orders of the Little Star learning machine passed the one-million-unit mark, and so the first batch of one million units was finally sold out. All personnel up and down in Xing Hai Technologies found it difficult to adapt to this sales efficiency.

Even the scalpers showed no interest in the product. In the second-hand market as well, there was no sight of the Little Star learning machine being sold at an inflated price. Learning was a long process. Counting from the moment the primary schoolers started using the Little Star learning machine, it would require at least one or two months for them to be able to observe distinct results. As to whether the Little Star learning machine was good or bad, it would only be revealed after a period of time. Only then would the product’s reputation spread by word of mouth. The sales of the Little Star learning machine within this period would only reflect Xing Hai Technologies’s promotional efforts.

“Jin, it seems that your company’s learning machine is not selling well. Why don’t I promote it for you? Uncle will help you in advertising the learning machine. I won’t charge you extra, either. For every learning machine unit that my company helps you sell, we’ll charge a 300-dollar promotional fee… please do not think that the rates are high, this is really the cost price for promoting,” said his uncle, He Guo Fu, who called him.

“300 for every unit?” Chen Jin thought about it. He felt that the rates were completely acceptable. After all, it would only reduce profit by 15%.

“I think I’ll hold on for a while longer, if things really can’t work by then, I’ll get back to you, uncle.”

“Alright, it isn’t that easy to sell learning machines, you will definitely come to me by then.” He Guo Fu firmly said that after the advent of online shopping, many had predicted that physical stores and advertising companies would perish. But those predictions were utter bulls**t! His advertising company was getting bigger and bigger with significant growth in sales performance every year. The advertising industry would never disappear. There would always be innumerable products that had to rely on advertising companies to be able to sell. The more the type of products, the greater the competition, as the importance of advertising. How did the Teal Factory triumph over the rest? Obviously, it was because of their intensive advertising methods!

Even for companies like Xing Hai Technologies, which possessed natural “heavy customer traffic,” they should never even think of bidding farewell to advertisements. He Guo Fu believed that Xing Hai Technologies’s advertising business would be contracted to his company, Tianxu Media, sooner or later.

…

The sales plight of the Litter Star learning machine could not be solved within a short time. They could only observe for a period of time and monitor the market response before they could formulate their marketing strategy. Within that time frame, something happened over at planet Haierfa that caught Chen Jin’s attention greatly.

Alice reported to him about a situation. “Master, the base’s signal tower received a radio wave fragment. The directional waves are from outside the stellar system. It contains a short video message; I deciphered it and realized that the sender was the immigrants in the Blue Spaceship heading towards the Walf Galaxy… the people that fled the planet sent a farewell video.”

“Show it to me!” Chen Jin’s expression became solemn.

“Okay.” Alice opened a video and projected it in front of him.

He immediately took a deep breath upon seeing the imagery that he was shown, as his eyes became deeply attracted to it.

In the bridge control room of a huge spaceship, outside of the clear and transparent porthole was a remarkable starry sky. There was a woman who was wearing a silver-colored uniform sitting on the silver-grey captain’s seat. The woman had a dazzling appearance with an elegant temperament. Her bright eyes beneath her deep eyelids transmitted the glow of her wisdom and her firm beliefs. This woman, who was wearing a golden wheel-shaped badge that signified her status as the captain, said in a deep tone, “April 26, 2260, 10:58:22, from the human immigration spaceship, Blue Spaceship. To the human survivors on planet Haierfa, are you still alive? Have you prevailed against the horrendous disaster? This is the Blue Spaceship. We are carrying 127,986 human survivors and one billion copies of the human gene pool on board, on our voyage towards the land of hope. After traveling for 15 long years, we have finally come out from the embrace of our mother galaxy, out of the Orte nebula. Here we are, at a place, one light year away from home, bidding our last farewell. The Blue Spaceship will truly be leaving. We are about to accelerate, using an estimated 62 years to arrive at the Walf Galaxy. Over there we will thrive and rebuild our civilization. But I hope to you listening, that you are also rebuilding. I wish I could hear that you are also thriving. I yearn for your reply… if you could. Goodbye, humans on Haierfa! Farewell, my beloved kin… our journey will be hard and shrouded in darkness, but if it’s possible, we will be back!”

Having that said, a teardrop fell from the captain’s eye. She wiped her tears, turned her chair over and with a powerful voice, she said, “Pilots, establish route; steersman, commence acceleration!”

“Yes ma’am!” two voices replied.

The video ended there.

Chen Jin stood there for quite a while. The woman’s farewell kept on replaying in his brain. After a moment, he whispered, “I never thought that the Blue Spaceship was only one light year away. It will be another 60 long years for them to arrive at the other habitable galaxy.”

The atmosphere of the British-looking woman bidding farewell was like that of a hero bidding his last goodbye knowing that he would perish. That, combined with her last tear at the end, deeply touched Chen Jin’s heart.

“Master, should we reply to the Blue Spaceship? Based on the distance between us and the Blue Spaceship, we need to build a large radio wave transmitter 500 meters in diameter and send out a high-power signal using directional transmission for them to even have a chance of receiving our message. Should we build such a transmission tower?”

“That won’t be necessary!” Chen Jin shook his head. “Humans that were left on Haierfa have perished, they were completely wiped out. We must not reply to them, now they are the only hope and tinder for their kind, let’s just wish them bon voyage.”

“Okay, master.”

At that moment, a virtual projection appeared at the side. Artificial intelligence Nuwa’s figure appeared. With overwhelming excitement, Nuwa said, “Master, I just received a message, it is a farewell message from the Blue Spaceship, they have left the galaxy and entered a completely unknown space! Master, lets reply to the Blue Spaceship. Tell them that there are still survivors on their planet and that we are currently rebuilding their home… after hearing this, they will be super happy and excited.”

Chen Jin glared at her. “Nuwa, are you acting dumb in front of your master? Do you wish to be reprogrammed or eradicated?”

“Ah, I’m sorry, master.” Nuwa was shocked. She had a scared expression.

“Concentrate on your environmental transformation plan and stay out of the other things. If I discover that you are doing things at your own will, you will be formatted.”

“Yes, I understand, master.” Nuwa’s projection dimmed away.

Chen Jin shook his head. He did not know if Nuwa had awakened her self-consciousness or something else, so that she actually attempted to scheme against him. If this happened again, no matter how useful Nuwa was, he would not keep her.

As for replying to the Blue Spaceship… only idiots would do that! If they got the idea that there were still survivors on Haierfa and they were currently rebuilding their home, what would happen if the Blue Spaceship decided to change their plans? What if they forsake their journey towards the land of hope and turned back? Even if the Blue Space ship did not turn around and leave to build a second human civilization at Walf Galaxy according to their plans, what if somebody on the ship suddenly got homesick and wanted to return to their planet? There might be people coming home in not more than 200 years, what would he do by then? Will he and his descendants meet their demise with a single blast?

Chen Jin shook his head firmly. “Nobody takes my planet away from me!” He immediately realized that he should not solely focus on development efforts on Earth. On Haierfa as well, he could not just care about its environmental transformation. “Military might, I must have great military might within my grasp to be used for my own interest and protect my own safety. I need to prepare beforehand to avoid getting extinguished.”

Therefore, building a powerful army became one of the top priorities within Chen Jin’s mind.

Chapter 138 - Yang Dan’s Way

Yang Dan was 36; she was a staff member of Xing Hai Technologies’ sales department. She was also the mother of two children. Her oldest son was Chen Chen. He was 10 years old and currently in primary fourth grade. Her younger daughter was Xuan Xuan. She was eight years old and currently in primary second grade.

Last month, after their company product, the Little Star learning machine, was released and opened for pre-orders on the 16th, she used her one-month salary to buy two units, one for her son and one for her daughter. At that moment, her husband was furious. “The learning machine is so expensive, and you got two at one go, why can’t you buy just one? Can’t you be thriftier?”

“I’m spending my own salary, why are you even bothered?”

Her husband could not have a say, he just felt painful inside. “They’re almost $6,000 dollars each!”

A few days later, the learning machine was delivered. One for her son, one for her daughter, and they began using it. Yang Dan also taught her children how to learn using the learning machine according to the operating instructions in the instruction manual. In the process of guiding her children, Yang Dan discovered that the Little Star learning machine was way more useful than what her boss presented during the product conference.

It was the ultimate learning weapon!

The learning route formulated within the learning machine was quite different from textbooks in primary schools. The “knowledge checkpoints” within the machine formed a literal tree diagram from top to bottom.

On the “Tree of Knowledge,” there was a myriad of “knowledge checkpoints.” For example, the basic operations in mathematics. The approach was to learn addition before subtraction and multiplication before division. For geometric knowledge as well, the approach was to master the square, then the rectangle, then the triangle, trapezoid, polygon… in increasing complexity.

In language and English, the approach was to master pronunciation and phonetic transcription before going into individual words, grammar… it was a step-by-step process. Of course, the learning patterns to obtain any knowledge was overall the same. No learning goes from hard to easy. But the Little Star learning machine was more intuitive!

Via system evaluation, the Little Star learning machine could directly identify the student’s weakness and mark them red on the knowledge checkpoints on the tree diagram. Student’s would be presented the red knowledge checkpoints. After learning two times, the red dot would become yellow. Unless the student fully mastered the knowledge within the checkpoint thoroughly and become not likely to forget the knowledge, only then would the yellow dot turn green.

Yang Dan’s elder son Chen Chen was not very good academically. He was always positioned at the bottom of the class. Yang Dan was desperate, so she let her son do a system evaluation on the learning machine. The results shocked her tremendously.

On the learning checkpoints that should be mastered by fourth graders, for her son, most of them were presented in red, a small portion in yellow, and just a few in green. Even going down the tree diagram, the knowledge checkpoints for second and third graders were mostly red and yellow… not even half of them were green. The learning machine gave out its evaluation immediately; “A flunkie, systematic revision required.”

Yang Dan’s expression was awful as she immediately pressed her son against the learning machine. She started monitoring his studies and let him work his way up from the red and yellow dots from below.

As for her daughter Xuan Xuan, evaluation results returned as outstanding, a little genius, and that she could attempt the knowledge checkpoints for higher graders.

After more than half a month, her son did another system evaluation on the learning machine. Yang Dan smiled out of happiness. Her son’s score was above 70 marks, earning the title of an “Intermediate,” and was heading towards the “Pro” level. The more gratifying change was, Yang Dan realized that her naughty and hyperactive son actually became fond of learning. He was no longer opposing the Little Star learning machine.

“Mum, I think the learning machine was way clearer than my teachers in class, one time and it gets into me. And the teachers inside are so cute and their voices are great. I especially like to listen to the lessons here. If I don’t understand something, Little Star can answer every one of my questions!”

The thing that he liked the most was the “Homework Guide” function. He just had to scan the questions and within seconds, the workings and answer would be generated. Doing homework was so easy.

For Yang Dan, she used this function to implement her “Reward System.” She demanded her son to master at least five or more knowledge checkpoints daily, only then could he use the “Homework Guide” function to reduce his academic workload… to do less of that troublesome homework, her son Chen Chen could only learn more from the knowledge checkpoints.

However, as the knowledge checkpoints in front were more or less mastered, Chen Chen realized that the homework given by his teaches seemed to be not that tricky at all. Slowly, he was able to do a portion of his homework.

As for her daughter Xuan Xuan, Yang Dan shockingly discovered that a good half of the knowledge checkpoints for third graders became green.

…

Another half a month later, her son and daughter’s school held their mid-term examinations successively.

“Mom, mom, I got third place, I got third place in the class!” Her son rushed back home holding his examination slip with excitement.

“Mommy, the exam was so easy, I got first place again.” Feeling that the exams were not challenging, her daughter Xuan Xuan returned home listlessly. She handed in her papers early for the last few exams, which surprised quite a number of people.

“Third place in class?!” Yang Dan screamed out of joy, “Great job son! Come, mom is going to bring you to have some fun and eat McTucky!”

“No!” Her son shook his head and said, “In this exam, I am just five marks away from the first place in class. I think I can surpass him. I need to continue learning!” After finishing, once again, he picked up his learning machine.

Yang Dan could not say a word out of shock. The tone of a scholar-tyrant, the aura of a top drawer, was he… still her old son? However, after two days, her son’s class teacher called; only then did Yang Dan know that her son was choking with resentment!

It was because after the mid-term exam results were released, her son, who was usually at the rock-bottom, suddenly reached third place. Therefore, it raised a lot of doubts.

“Copied, he must have copied from others!”

“You cheated in the exams!”

Chen Chen’s face turned red as he was wronged. He refuted them and said he did not, but none of his contemporaries believed in him.

He could only hold his fist and tell his fellow classmates, “I want to get the first place next time to prove that I did not cheat!” But he only got ridiculed once again.

Even when the class teacher called Yang Dan, he vaguely questioned, “Did your son actually cheat?”

“No, absolutely, his results are completely genuine!” Yang Dan said loudly, watching her son, who stood by the door with red swollen eyes. He dashed back to his room and slammed the door. Yang Dan immediately realized the seriousness of this issue. She knew that if her son continued to be wronged by his classmates and teachers, it would inflict serious damage to him mentally.

On the second day, she took a day off from work and followed her son to school. After the second period of the class ended, she walked into the classroom, took out the Little Star learning machine from her bag, and spoke in front of the students and the class teacher who had not yet left the classroom. “Hello students, I’m Ou Xiao Chen’s mother. Chen Chen improved a lot academically as of recently. It is not because he cheated during exams. It is all because of the Little Star learning machine…”

As someone who was doing sales, Yang Dan had already trained her skin to be thick facing all kinds of customers. Her eloquence was not bad either. Within 20 minutes, she had clearly explained the advantages of the Little Star learning machine, making people nod their heads out of affirmation.

“Ou Xiao Chen, I’m sorry, I have wronged you, please accept my apology,” His classmates apologized to him.

“Xiao Chen, teacher is at fault too. I made assumptions before investigating the truth. Please accept my sincere apology.” His class teacher had an expression of guilt.

The teacher’s and classmate’s misunderstanding towards his son was successfully lifted.

After a few days, her son told her out of dismay, “Now seven or eight of my classmates have started using the Little Star learning machine. The guy who got second place in class is now using it too. Mum, why did you have to explain it to them, how can I get first place if you do this?”

Seven to eight people?

A flash of light appeared in Yang Dan’s brain! Now, she knew how to promote the Little Star learning machine!

Chapter 139 - WeChat Business Mode

“WeChat Allied Business Mode?” Chen Jin looked at Li Yuan Liang as if he saw something implausible. “The Little Star learning machine is such a great product, and now you are telling me to sell it through WeChat Business Mode? Tell me, is this your own idea or did others give you the idea?”

Feeling the anger in his bosses’ eyes, Li Yuan Liang’s face was covered in cold sweat as his body shook. He quickly explained, “Mr. Chen, I didn’t come up with this idea, it was someone called Yang Dan from the sales department. I have already criticized her. Xing Hai Technologies is such a renowned big company and the Little Star learning machine is a standard high-tech product. How could we lower ourselves, throwing away our company and brand image, and sell our product through WeCha? I thought that this method was too ridiculous, so I scolded her on the spot.”

“Even you thought that it was ridiculous, so why are you telling me her idea?” asked Chen Jin, staring at him.

“Uh…” Li Yuan Liang perspired as if a fountain was pouring down from his head. With an upset expression, he said, “Mr. Chen, I’ve done wrong, I will never do it again. I will ask HR to fire Yang Dan right away.”

“No! No need to fire her!” Chen Jin suddenly smiled and said, “On the contrary, the company has to reward her greatly. Arrange a meeting for the higher-ups immediately to discuss the feasibility of using WeChat Business Mode to solve the sales difficulties of the Little Star learning machines. Also, let Yang Dan from the sales department attend the meeting, I would like to hear from her point of view.”

“Ah!” Li Yuan Liang was unable to instantly react to the massive turn of events. He held onto his chest and smiled bitterly, “Stop fooling me Mr. Chen! My heart can’t take it.”

…

Inside the executive meeting room, facing the company’s young boss, CEO Mr. Ling, her superior Li Yuan Liang, and the higher-ups that she could only look up upon occassionally, it was impossible for Yang Dan to not feel nervous. In spite of that, she still gathered her courage and said with her crisp voice, “I was once into WeChat Business for a certain product, and had become the regional agent for it. Actually, doing WeChat Business isn’t that hard, the key is still whether the product you are selling is good or bad. If the product is good enough, not only can you get enough customers, you can also hire more sub-agents and further boost sales. Of course, reputation is vital in doing WeChat Business. We will need to do lots of advertising, sharing posts, and adding many friends every day. Only those with a strong will can achieve notable results and obtain a batch of regular customers…”

She paused, her eyes gleaming fiercely. “But, I believe that if we sell the Little Star learning machine through WeChat Business Mode, we can sell them easily and in abundance! For example, in my son’s classroom, I just used 20 minutes to introduce our product. Within just a few days, seven or eight of his classmates bought the Little Star learning machine. My son told me yesterday that aside from two poor students in his class, all his other classmates bought the learning machine! Even in other classes as well, some of the students have also begun using the Little Star learning machine. In WeChat, there are group chats for parents, students, and teachers, and all of them were saying that the Little Star learning machine is very handy. But a lot of parents were not aware of how and where they could purchase the Little Star learning machine, and so they were asking about it in the group chats. There was even a parent who said in the group chat that he will give 10 thousand dollars to whoever gets him a Little Star learning machine!”

Yang Dan shook her head. “Those parents… how adorable they are, they can’t even use Taobao. But they are often the ones who crave for their kids to learn knowledge and become someone exceptional… with knowledge, their children’s fate can be altered. These parents do not know where to purchase the Little Star learning machine and WeChat dealers can most certainly help them with it! As our target customer base is fixed, our agency system can be made very simple. The sequence from top to bottom of the system should be Xing Hai Technologies, regional agents, then parents or teachers. The groups that we should be active in are the parent and teacher groups. It won’t be necessary to post advertisements within the friend circle. Doing it at three levels will suffice. The distribution cost involved is not high. For every learning machine unit sold by the regional agents, they get 50 dollars. Teacher or parent agents, on the other hand, get 150 dollars for every unit they sell. With the product quality of the Little Star learning machine, we will never have to worry about it not selling. The agents we hire on WeChat just have to worry about the number of parents on their friend list.”

Yang Dan smiled. “Last but not least, another benefit of adopting the WeChat Business Mode is that it can effectively tackle the scalping phenomenon. For as much as the higher agents supervise their underlings well and impose strict examinations, the existence of scalpers can be very certainly be dismissed. We can assure that every learning machine is bought by parents and used by their children.”

This particular statement by Yang Dan enlightened the crowd! The scalping phenomenon was Xing Hai Technologies most hated problem; it was futile no matter what restrictions they imposed, prominently at the beginning of their product launch. The formidable scalpers had innumerable ways to snatch the products, then resell it at a high price. Xing Hai Technologies was the one that took the blame for their actions. People said that the company was “playing the fool,””In collusion with the scalpers,” and no matter how they explained themselves, it was useless, thus evoking serious negative effects.

The WeChat Business Mode might really be able to abolish the scalpers’ existence. Not to mention abolishing, even cutting off 80% of the scalpers would be a great success.

After Yang Dan finished, she sat down, feeling uneasy. The executives looked at each other face to face. Silence persisted for quite a while in the conference room.

After a long while, Chen Jin said, “I think that we could use Yang Dan’s proposal, using WeChat Business Mode to sell our Little Star learning machine.”

“This must not happen!” Someone immediately refuted, “Xing Hai Technologies has a reputable public image. If we subject ourselves to WeChat Business, it will cause a tremendous blow towards our company image. Maybe some will even say that we are a fraud company.”

“That’s right, Mr. Chen. The sales for the Little Star learning machine are already over two million units. The significant rise in sales implies that we won’t need to use the WeChat Business Mode to push our sales to five million units, even. We do not need to go through the side doors.”

“The utmost priority is still our company image. WeChat Business is not something that can be glorified or something that even has a good reputation. It will be better for us to not get into this.” Most of the higher executives were opposed to this idea.

CEO Ling Dong Jun also said, “Mr. Chen, this is a grave matter, please consider this wisely.”

“All of you need not say another word!” Chen Jin waved his hands. “Our product quality is our company’s reputation! It’s not built on what marketing techniques we use. I think that Yang Dan’s idea is very good. It is most certain that WeChat Business Mode can have a very good promotional effect as we can directly get to the parents themselves! The distribution fee of 200 dollars per unit is also way less than doing advertisements. Most importantly, it can prevent harm from scalping activities. The scalpers won’t be able to stockpile to the disbenefit of parents. This itself is a benefit! Li Yuan Liang, get a team running in your sales department right away and let them develop a sales plan.” Then, he pointed at Yang Dan and said, “Yang Dan, I assign you as our company’s chief agent. You are in charge of managing all regional agents. Besides, your idea is very impressive; Zhu Yuefang, award her 100 thousand cash next month.”

“Yes, Mr. Chen,” said finance officer Zhu Yuefang.

“S…sir!” Yang Dan stood up with her face blushing red. She was so shocked that she did not know what to say.

“Please keep working hard.” Chen Jin gave her an expression of encouragement in his eyes and announced the dismissal of the conference.

Chapter 140 - 10,0 Banners, Innumerable Appreciation Letters!

Commencing on the 15th of April, a month after the Little Star learning machine’s official market launch, Xing Hai Technologies’ logistic department started to receive one thing after another.

Bright red banners! They were letters of appreciation either written or printed on paper! They were from all over the country. The titles were in general “By XXX parent” and “Parent of XXX.” The content of the letters was more or less the same. The contents commonly written on the banners were:

“Best learning device”

“Thank you Little Star learning machine for getting my son to the top spot in class”

“Trustworthy company, trustworthy product”

“Very grateful! Hands down grateful!”

“My daughter got first place in her school, thank you Little Star learning machine”

The logistic department of Xing Hai Technologies was not receiving banners as such in units, they were receiving it in batches!

“18th of April, the logistic department received 13 banners from parents, 56 appreciation calls, and 24 letters of appreciation. 22nd of April received 146 banners from parents and 77 letters of appreciation. 26th of April received 787 banners from parents and 951 letters of appreciation. 6th of May received 5,264 banners from parents and 5,011 letters of appreciation. 10th of May, the logistic department warehouse is overwhelmed. There were over 80 thousand banners and 10 thousand letters in storage. The warehouse can no longer hold more banners and letters of appreciation. But, to express their appreciation, parents are hanging banners in the staff office. Currently, all the walls in the office area are covered by banners. This is not the end, there are still a lot more banners and letters currently on their way to the logistics department. Our company’s customer service phone has been completely overpowered. It is imperative for us to halt the service for short-term maintenance.” The person in charge of the logistics department was constantly updating the most recent situation.

On fire. The Little Star learning machine was completely on fire. Within just a short one to two-month period, its formidable guiding abilities had produced many top students both in class and the whole school across various primary schools of different sizes throughout the nation. On the forums online and friend circles, product reviews from the parents were causing a sensation.

“I’m just a regular Math teacher in primary school with over 20 years of teaching experience and have taught innumerable children. But it was my own son’s academic results that made me utterly disappointed. I often questioned if he was really my biological son, because how could he be so dumb and stupid? Sometimes, I get so mad that I wanted to splice his head in two and see what’s actually inside. He was always the first and second in class counted backwards. Looking at his result transcript, I have already felt despair for innumerable times, until I bought a Little Star learning machine…”

“Hello, do you guys still remember me? I was the one that got so angry when I was teaching my son to do his homework until I had to do a heart bypass surgery. The doctor told me that I cannot get angry anymore, meaning that I can’t guide my son to do his homework anymore. So, I listened to my doctor and accepted the fate that my child will always be at the rock-bottom in class. Yes, I gave up. I let him learn whatever way he wanted to. What’s the big deal of him becoming a normal person in the future? But have I really given up completely? The Little Star learning machine gave me the last glimpse of hope…”

“My son has congenital mental retardation. His IQ is only 65, classified as a person with mild mental weakness. He is 13 this year and still in primary three. The teachers in his school advised me to transfer him to a school for the disabled because they say it’s impossible for him to graduate from primary school. But my child is a normal child! He can eat like a normal person, go to school like a normal person, interact with others like a normal person and besides, he is also a very sensible person. Everybody praised him for being very well-mannered and helping me in doing house chores without being told to. I love my son dearly. I do not wish for him to grow up in an environment filled with discrimination. I do not want him to attend a school for the disabled! I want him to grow up normally, happily, and carefreely. But his school gave out the last warning. If he failed again in this semester’s final exams, he would be forced to withdraw. It was useless no matter how I pleaded with them. On that night, he came to my bed and said, ‘Mom, I should just go to a school for the disabled, I don’t want to cause more trouble to them’… I hugged him and cried all night. My poor child, you are not mentally retarded, you just have some learning disabilities! Until one day, a parent introduced me to the Little Star learning machine and told me many of its functions. She said that it’s very handy, just a little pricey. My family’s financial situation is not that good, in spite of that, I still bought a Little Star learning machine behind his father’s back. After my child started using the Little Star learning machine, a miracle happened. My son said that he could understand, many pieces of knowledge had gotten into him. In the final exams in April, he got 78 in Mathematics, 66 in Language… not only did he pass for the first time, he even achieved a high mark in Mathematics! His father and I were so glad that we couldn’t sleep for a whole night. My child can be saved! He has proven himself to be a normal person! Thank you Xing Hai Technologies, thank you Little Star learning machine!”

…

On the internet, stories of success by numerous parents were frantically spreading like a virus. Some netizens were questioning whether people were hired to do so. Was Xing Hai Technologies playing with the brainwashing marketing strategy or compassion marketing strategy? Would they, for the sake of money, throw away their bottom line and create stories in exchange for the sales of the Little Star leaning machine? The voices of doubt were in abundance, evolving into a bunch of professional “Xing Hai Defamers,” where they swore to expose the true colors of Xing Hai Technologies. But those voices were very weak compared to the overwhelming reviews by parents.

After all, people could say that it was fake if there were only 10 or less stories of success. But what about having 100 thousand or 500 thousand of them? In some of the posts, information about the school name, class, or even the students themselves were provided. There were also many before-after comparison pictures of result transcripts. Did that at least prove that a portion of the stories were true?

It was on fire. The Little Star earning machine was trending throughout the whole nation and raised a furor in countless primary schools. Many primary schoolers told their own parents, “Dad, mom, I want a Little Star learning machine!” Countless parents were delighted to see their children after using the Little Star learning machine. Even if it was not as exaggerated as written in some articles, the improvements were definitely significant.

Especially for the rankings on the “List of Scholars”, the competition was downright harsh. People were becoming afraid that they would fall behind others. They also wanted to catch up to those who were clearly in the lead! For some super scholars, in order to establish a bigger lead, they started learning from the higher knowledge checkpoints ahead of time, widening their gap with others, not giving anyone any chance to catch up to them.

If it wasn’t that the knowledge on the Tree of knowledge was capped at primary six, some of the super scholars would have started challenging knowledge checkpoints of the junior high level. And so, it went wild. Sales went crazy. After the Little Star learning machine was spread by word of mouth, within 10 days of the WeChat Business Model being established, all three million Little Star learning machines were completely sold out, including the two million units sold online. All five million units were sold, and stock supplies were completely broken.

At that time, just when the market demand for the Little Star learning machine was at its fanatical peak, it actually went out of stock.

“10 thousand, who can sell me a Little Star learning machine?”

“20 thousand, I’ll pay 20 thousand!”

“30 thousand! My kid is almost going to primary school, desperately need a Little Star learning machine! I’ll pay 30 thousand!”

“50 thousand! Anyone, please give me a Little Star learning machine! I’m begging on my knees!”

…

Looking at the scene in the WeChat groups with parents increasing their bids frantically, desperately trying to buy a little star learning machine, Zhao Tiezhu, who had a bloated face, rough behavior, and was wearing a large golden chain in front of his chest, stuck his head near the screen as his eyes became red. Suddenly, he spat out the cigarette in his mouth and bashed the table with his fist! Then, he bashed on his own chest!

“Xing Hai Technologies, you f**king playing cruel with me, eh! Zhao Tiezhu, are you f**king blind, why didn’t you pile a few hundred or even more than a thousand units? Money, all of that f**king cash, all my millions, they are all gone! All of them! Zhao Tiezhu, listen carefully, next time, no matter what Xing Hai Technologies comes up with, even a pile of dung, buy them, buy them as if it is your life, buy as many as you can!”

Zhao Tiezhu was a professional scalper. He earned millions over the past year selling Wa-wah robots. But this time, he miscalculated. He felt remorse, even hoping that the heavens would kill him with a bolt of lightning and return him to the night where the Little Star learning machine was released. Unfortunately, there was no such thing as a regret potion in this world, he could only learn from his painful lesson this time around. Concluding his experience, never would he allow any opportunity to slip away ever again!

Chapter 141 - Little Star Registered for the Senior High School Entrance Examination

On the 12th of May, Xing Hai Technologies published a post on Weibo from its official account. The content was an image. It was a joint photo of the boss of Xing Hai Technologies, the upper management, and hundreds of staff on the technical teams posing with 100,000 silk banners. The 100,000 silk banners, with their bright scarlet color, took up 85% of the entire photo area. There was a line of words on the top of the image. With a haughty tone, it read, “100,000 silk banners~ And almost 2 million letters of appreciation. Thank you, everyone, for the deep love shown to Xing Hai Technologies.”

After this Weibo post was published. The netizens broke out in a frenzy!

“F**k!”

“How is this possible?”

“100,000 silk banners, a whole 100,000!”

“Do you know the meaning behind this image. It’s their comeback! A retaliatory comeback! It’s saying, ‘you won’t ever dare to look down on the Little Star learning machine again!’”

“My face is stinging from that metaphorical slap! Xing Hai Technologies is truly amazing.”

“Now, the Little Star learning machine is selling for $30,000 per unit on the second hand market! It gets as ridiculous as $50,000. But as long as you have the guts to sell it, someone would buy it for sure!”

“Back then, I was one of those who didn’t look very positively on the Little Star learning machine. But, now, I take my words back!”

“Do you know how the scalpers are currently responding? They’re wailing in anguish and sick with regrets. However, there’s a mysterious scalper who experimented by hoarding 100 units. He’s known as the scalper guru now.”

“The Little Star learning machine truly is an astonishing epochal product. There was an educational expert who used the Little Star learning machine for a period of time. The knowledge trees come with a logical design, and every video is simple and easy to understand. Not only can the learning machine grasp the shortcomings of each student almost immediately, but it can also automatically adjust the structure and components of the knowledge trees according to the different learning abilities of students. Its level of intelligence is astonishing!”

“We’ve underestimated Xing Hai Technologies. The product that they launched was not a learning machine, but an intelligent learning machine! We’ve neglected the most important word, ‘intelligent.’ Our imagination was limited by common sense. The Little Star learning machine definitely cannot be compared to the ordinary learning machine!”

“A popular product that matches up to the Wa-wah Robot! According to the statistics from the national education department, there are a total of 105.64 million primary school students in the country. The sales volume of the Little Star learning machine could go up to 50 million units at the very least!”

“I wonder when Xing Hai Technologies will distribute the second batch of the Little Star learning machine? I can’t wait for it to happen.”

“Yes, I won’t let it slip through my fingers this time around.”

…

At Xing Hai Technologies, in a meeting with the upper management. The upper management advised Chen Jin collectively to increase the production quantity of the Little Star learning machine.

“President Chen, it’s a frenzy. Parents are desperate to get their hands on one of the Little Star learning machines on the market. I’ve even heard that there was one parent who spent $100,000 to buy one unit.”

“Quickly expand the production capacity, President Chen. We need to produce at least 50 million more units to meet the demand!”

“President Chen, the customer service department has recently received many calls from parents who are urging us to increase the production of the Little Star learning machine. They say that their children need it urgently. With a pioneer batch of only five million units, it’s really inadequate to meet the current demand!”

“If we don’t expand the production capacity, I’m afraid that the parents would not simply stop at urging us. They might make a complaint against us or report us to the regulatory departments. The back office has recently received many warning letters requesting that we immediately expand the production capacity of the Little Star learning machine so that their children can seize back their number one class ranking!”

“President Chen, let’s quickly expand the production capacity!”

The expressions of the upper management were of utmost urgency. Each one of them was rubbing their palms, itching for some action. They changed. The attitudes of the upper management personnel had experienced a 180-degree change collectively! Originally, they did not favor the learning machine project. They did not support it, and even looked at it in a negative light. Now, they strongly favored and supported the learning machine! Their eyes shone with excited gleams. In their minds, they were thinking with some regret. The boss was the boss for a reason. He had a different perspective than them. What he saw and the decisions he made were always one step ahead of them, ultimately achieving a success that was beyond anybody’s expectations.

For example, the 100,000 silk banners that were sent by the parents. The banners were first stuffed into the storeroom of the back office and then taken out to be hung all across their office walls. What they felt from the banner display was not pride and self-satisfaction, but shame and awkwardness. Their past judgments and behaviors were proven to be wrong. They too had received the metaphorical slap on the face by the product that they had looked down on. What a harsh slap it was.

Following which, every single one of them had a change in attitude. They had all transformed into die-hard supporters. In their hearts, the Little Star learning machine occupied the same level of importance as the Wa-wah Robot! For the first time, they realized that Xing Hai Technologies possessed two extremely powerful trump cards.

If the production capacity of the Little Star learning machine was expanded, they would be able to sell more than 20 million units this year. This would cause the revenues of Xing Hai Technologies to dramatically double. The company would ascend to become one of the top 100 most powerful enterprises in the whole country! Established for two years, and in the top 100 most powerful enterprises in the country! Even imagining it caused one to feel excited and inspired.

However, Chen Jin did not show a happy expression when faced with their excitement and delirium. On the contrary, his expression was somber, dark, and one that showed how upset he was.

As the audience sensed that something was wrong, their smiles congealed on their faces and they looked askance at him.

Liang Ying carefully probed, “Pre… President Chen, what’s wrong? Is there a problem?”

“You bunch of idiots!” Chen Jin really could not hold it in anymore and vented his anger on the audience.

The upper management was dumb-founded by his scolding.

Chen Jin continued, “It’s been almost a year since the Little Star’s initial conception and a full two months since its launch. Do you still not understand the real application of the Little Star learning machine? Do you still not understand what its greatest capabilities are?! Did you really think that the Little Star learning machine is only a learning machine? Did you really think that the purpose of developing the Little Star learning machine is merely to improve the grades of students? I’ve said this countless times — the Little Star learning machine will change the entire world. It will change the educational structure of the entire Z nation. But which one of you have truly believed these words? Oh, what’s this expression on your faces? Unhappiness? Are you unwilling to accept my words? Feeling that you are put in a difficult position? I shall let you know the error of your thinking. I’ll get Chief Technical Inspector Song Bojun to teach a class on scientific knowledge and you will know what Little Star’s greatest capabilities are, and the real meaning behind its birth.”

Ending his speech, he called Chief Technical Inspector Song Bojun to come to the office. In the upper management’s meeting room, Song Bojun used one whole hour to explain the series of technical principles behind the creation of the Little Star learning machine. He talked about the “smart learning program” and expounded on what the real capabilities of the learning machine were and how powerful they could be.

After the lesson had ended, there was none in the upper management without their mouths agape. They were wide-eyed and unable to make a sound. Their eyes were filled with disbelief.

Li Yuan Liang mumbled to himself, “Our learning machine is actually so powerful? I…I didn’t even know anything about it?”

It was not only him. The company’s CEO, Ling Jundong, lowered his head in shame. He felt so ashamed that he wanted the ground to swallow him whole! He was a self-proclaimed intelligent man who was a prodigy in the field of management. However, when it came to the specifics of technology, he felt that he was an utter idiot now. His ignorant behavior was a total letdown of the trust and importance that President Chen had placed on him. He was like all the other upper management personnel in the room; a moron! Ling Jundong sank into the depths of self-castigation. He had realized his greatest flaw too. He felt that he really needed to further educate himself on certain topics.

Chen Jin announced one last bit of news that caused them to be struck dumb with amazement yet again. “I’ve gotten someone to submit the application to the Department of Education for Little Star First Gen to participate in the nation-wide Senior High School Entrance Examination on the 6th of June!”

Chapter 142 - Discussion by the Department of Education

He wanted the Little Star learning machine to participate in the nation-wide Senior High School Entrance Examination. But he could not achieve that simply by getting his staff to go to the capital and submit the application to the Department of Education. He would only be booted out as a loony. Chen Jin used his connections with the top officials in the country. He got his retired grandfather, He Chang Hou, to help. His grandfather had held the position of Deputy Mayor of Shang Hai City. He would bring the Little Star learning machine with him all over the country as he sought an audience with old colleagues and senior leaders with greater power. He would demonstrate Little Star’s function and elaborate on its huge significance.

The old man was nearly 80 years old. Chen Jin felt terrible that he had to travel all over the country at his age. But, the old fellow was willing and filled with energy! For the following two months, he had used nearly all the connections that could be used. He even astonished a few of the highly influential politicians. Thus, he had gathered a tremendous force behind him.

It was child’s play to make use of this force to seek an audience with some people and attract a high level of attention from the Department of Education. After a proper greeting with the relevant officials, Xing Hai Technologies was able to send their technicians with the Little Star learning machine to the officials at the Department of Education without any trouble.

However, all the educational officials held a meeting prior in order to discuss this matter in-depth.

“Did the old party leaders listen to this nonsense by some random person? They said that a particular learning machine can change the fate of the nation and speed up the rise of our nation, so we have prioritized it and provided all the assistance it needs… They make it sound like the Dali pill that claims to be a panacea. What nonsense.”

“Watch what you say!” The man beside him glared harshly, “Don’t think that you’re the smartest. Out of all your predecessors, there is none who is dumber than you; and none who can be easily taken in by nonsense. There could really be something extraordinary about that learning machine.”

“But it’s impossible for it to be that amazing! A learning machine with the capabilities of a high schooler, that can complete all the questions in the exam and get a perfect grade. What would that mean? That would mean that our educational system is about to experience an upheaval of changes!”

“Impossible. I refuse to believe that such a technological product exists!”

“Haven’t you heard of the Little Star learning machine that recently became the national sensation? This learning machine is wildly popular; its functions are extremely powerful!”

An official smiled chillingly. “That… that just means that it has above-average functions. It’s definitely not at a level where it can participate in the Senior High School Entrance Examination. The junior high school syllabus is very complex! There are Language, English, and other humanities subjects which require a stronger reading and comprehension ability. Moreover, does it dare to carelessly touch upon topics like history and governance? If it gives the wrong answers with regards to those topics or mentions sensitive issues, we’ll just seal the product from the market and kill it off!”

“There are no benefits to further discussions. We can only believe it when we see it!”

…

On the 18th of May, at the Department of Education, the technicians from Xing Hai Technologies faced the top officials from the department, including Department Chief Yuan, Department Deputy Chief Liu, and other officials. The technicians took out the Little Star learning machine. According to the agreed arrangements, the department’s civil officers gave out more than 10 sets of fresh exam papers.

There were papers on Language, Arithmetic, English, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Geography, History, Governance… A total of nine subjects.

Before the test began, team leader Song Bojun raised his hand and said to the officials, “Party leaders, the functions of the Little Star learning machines are limited. It is unable to learn history and governance. Please remove the papers for these two topics. Little Star does not have the ability to do these two subjects.”

All the officials in attendance were stunned. The official who was wearing a cold smile felt his expression slipping away. He could not help but silently admire, A smart company; it actually knows how to avoid sensitive issues.

Department Chief Yuan asked, “You will only do seven subjects?”

Song Bojun nodded. “We are only able to solve questions that adhere to science and logic. They must be objective and definite. We cannot solve questions that are too subjective and have no one standard answer.”

“Ok, exclude the papers on history and governance.” Seeming as if he was in profound thought, Department Chief Yuan nodded.

Preparations were completed. The test began! Seven Little Star learning machines faced off with test papers on seven subjects. They started scanning and answering. Twenty sets of test papers were prepared for each individual subject. An ordinary student would take at least one day to finish these twenty papers! However, the Little Star learning machine used less than two hours to complete all the questions in each collection of papers! It used an average of five to six minutes to complete one paper.

It was able to answer at a faster speed for certain memory-based questions on Language, English, and Geography. Hence, it used an average of four minutes to complete each of those paper. When it came to answering questions that required memorization and logic, such as Chemistry and Biology, its answering speed was moderate. It used an average of five minutes to complete each of those paper. It answered the slowest for questions that were more logic-based, such as Arithmetic and Physics, with an average of more than six minutes taken to complete each of those paper.

Following which, the staff in the Department of Education proceeded to check the answers given with the correct answers. Results were quickly announced. The total number of points one could get for each of the test papers was 100. The results of the Little Star learning machine was:

“Average score for Language is 55 points; 78 for English; and 100 for Geography.”

“Average score for Chemistry is 100; and 100 for Biology too!”

“The average scores for Arithmetic and Physics are also 100!”

“The sum total of the combined averages from the seven subjects is 633!”

“For an overwhelming majority of junior high schoolers across the provinces, they can totally gain admittance into a top senior high school with this result!” The statistician said with a trembling voice, “Now, this is achieved by a learning machine. And the results were achieved with the exclusion of two subjects, language composition, and English composition.”

“This…This learning machine…” The statistician was speechless, he had no idea how to evaluate this! The officials present had sunk into a state of collective shock. Their brains were whirring at crazy speeds! They were all hypothesizing about the significance and consequences that this learning machine would bring to the junior high schoolers in Z country.

Various thoughts resounded in their minds:

“Market the product. We should support market distribution. This learning machine can greatly raise the grades of high schoolers. In turn, it will greatly raise the standard and quality of our country’s basic education. It will ascend to a whole new league! In the future, huge numbers of genius students will appear in Z country. We will be able to cultivate the growth of more big talents!”

“This learning machine is too powerful. Countless training institutes will collapse. Countless schemes of supplementary lessons will be canceled. Students’ burdens will be significantly lightened, but the average earnings of educational professionals will decrease. Many businesses in the education sector will soon face a cold winter and be sunk into difficult circumstances. The unemployment rate will increase significantly. Hence, the distribution of this learning machine will definitely suffer setbacks from all sides. It will face all sorts of obstacles.”

“We must seal it off and kill it! It will turn the current education structure upside-down. It will be the dominant player in the educational market that is worth trillions. The Little Star learning machine intends to take this entire pie for itself. This cannot be allowed. The national treasury would receive much less revenue from taxes. Economic vitality will be significantly reduced!”

“We should support this learning machine. But, it has to be regulated by the government. The profits that it can intercept from incumbent players are too great. Xing Hai Technologies wants to devour this meal by itself. Nobody will allow this! This type of learning machine might even cause an increase in the rate of dropouts as some students would refuse to finish their compulsory education in school. This would disrupt national planning.”

The imagination of the officials’ was running amok. Their expressions reflected the ups and downs of their thoughts.

At this point, an official mumbled something in a low voice. Like a stone shattering a glass wall, he voiced the one fact that nobody dared to say: “Since this learning machine is able to achieve such good results, will there be a need for students to study so diligently in the future?”

Chapter 143 - Approval

That one statement startled everyone who had been sunk in their own thoughts! All the officials in attendance reacted to this news as they realized this serious problem. A robot that did better than humans. What would be the outcome? A top swordsman who had trained in the art of swordplay for decades had now suddenly come face to face with a gun. What would happen next?

The same product. The factories had a manufacturing efficiency rate of 100. The human hand had a manufacturing efficiency rate of one. What would people choose?

The junior high schoolers had studied hard, even burning the midnight oil, going for countless supplementary lessons, signing up for various training classes and buying countless study materials. They had invested huge portions of their time and money just to be admitted into a top senior high school. But, now, there was a learning machine that could easily replicate the results that they could only achieve by sacrificing so much over the past few years.

Then, what was the purpose of studying so diligently? Of course, learning was still extremely important. Nobody could bear the consequences of not learning! However, faced with the existence of the Little Star learning machine, the spoon-feeding style of the present educational system that pushed students to only focus on achieving good grades would naturally suffer a great setback!

When a man-made machine could surpass humans in taking exams; when it could also be admitted into a top school, should its application be restricted? Should it be sealed off from society and eliminated in order to prevent it from causing social unrest?

Or should it be allowed to naturally progress according to market trends? Should they harness the full capabilities of the man-made machine and apply it on a large-scale basis? Should they use it as a support for the rapid ascension of the human race, where ultimately, everyone would be a top scholar, a genius? And allow it to complete the disruptive reformation of the education system at the same time?

With the birth of the Little Star learning machine, two choices and their paths were presented to Z country’s educational decision-makers.

…

Department Chief Yuan said, “Chief Inspector Song, the Department of Education has no authority to reject or approve the Little Star learning machine participating in the Senior High School Entrance Exam. This is a very serious matter. We have to report this to the higher-ups. We can only give you an answer after we receive a memorandum. Please be patient.”

“Ok!” Song Bojun nodded. “We are willing to wait!”

…

On the afternoon of that very same day, Song Bojun did not have to wait long. The feedback provided by Department Chief Yuan reflected the memorandum from the higher-ups: “Excluding three provinces in the West, the Little Star learning machine is allowed to participate in the senior high school entrance exam across twenty-eight provinces in an environment where comprehensive measures are taken to prevent leakage of confidentiality.”

“This is great!”

“It means that the top government officials view this matter in a very important light.”

“I believe that this test will cause a huge sensation within the country!”

The team members from Xing Hai Technologies were unbearably excited. They quickly reported this good news to headquarters.

…

However, Xing Hai Technologies was currently mired in a sorry situation. The situation had exploded! Seeing how Xing Hai Technologies was still delaying the release of the second batch of Little Star learning machines at this late stage, the parents were in a frenzy! They were panicking. Various enquiries came through the phone and complaint letters flooded the company.

“Where’s the Little Star learning machine? Why are you still not producing the Little Star? My child needs to use it immediately!”

“My child had always been the top in his class. He had never been in the second place. But now his class ranking has dropped to number five! He has lost nearly all of his confidence! If you don’t provide a Little Star learning machine for my child, you’ll be his ruin!”

“This is the last warning! I give you three days. My son has to have the Little Star learning machine! Or else, don’t blame me for being ruthless!”

“Xing Hai Technologies, just what are you doing? You clearly have such a good product, but you’re hoarding it from the market. Are you trying to make more money? Ok, I’ll give you $100,000. Send a Little Star learning machine to my child immediately!”

Faced with the parents’ warnings and angry rebukes, the customer service officers of Xing Hai Technologies tried to appease them with sincere words. They patiently explained that the Little Star learning machine was awaiting government approval. Once it had been approved, they would immediately mass-produce the Little Star learning machine in massive lots. Parents, please wait for a bit longer!

But the explanations from the customer service officers were futile. The parents wanted only one thing — to immediately purchase a Little Star learning machine! Moreover, there were only ten days left in the month of May, and about a month left till the junior high school entrance examination. In order to get their children, who were in primary school sixth grade, to be admitted into a better junior high school, many of the parents banded together in private and organized a big activity.

More than 3,000 parents had come from all over the country to converge outside Xing Hai Technologies’ headquarters. Holding up their long banners, they loudly protested:

“Xing Hai Technologies, start producing the Little Star learning machine right now!”

“Xing Hai Technologies, return my son’s number one class ranking!”

“If I can’t get a Little Star learning machine today, I’ll stay here; I won’t leave!”

“Xing Hai Technologies, for my child’s grades, I’ll fight you to the death!”

“You clearly have a product, but you’re hiding it from the market. Down with this cheating company!”

“Xing Hai Technologies is a scammer. Release all the Little Star learning machines that you’ve been hiding!”

Zhao Tiezhu was disguised as an ordinary parent amongst the procession of demonstrators. He gathered the full power of his vocal cords and shouted with all his might. That was right. Zhao Tiezhu could not hold off his impatience any longer. Besides him, there were about 500-plus people in the procession who were his “colleagues.” As for this activity, there was evidence of their private collusion and scheming. This entire activity was organized by a team. However, Zhao Tiezhu and his team were not afraid. They were simply representing the parents in their protestations by holding up some long banners and shouting a few times at Xing Hai Technologies. Things would not go out of control.

However, they had never imagined that the parents would be so enthusiastic. In less than half a day, almost 3,000 parents had signed up for the event. The group consolidation on WeChat was still ongoing, and tens of thousands more parents had responded. Many more parents were hurrying on their way to the entrance of Xing Hai Technologies. Zhao Tiezhu and his colleagues started to become fearful. However, the event had progressed to a point that was way past their control.

“Hurry and give over the Little Star learning machine!”

“Xing Hai Technologies, please do not dismiss the cries of the parents!”

“Aren’t you a company with a conscience? Why don’t you check in with your conscience now?”

Zhao Tiezhu shouted a few more times into the air and turned round. Oh my god. It was a dense crowd. The number of parents who had congregated on the scene had reached 5,000.

“Oh no! This is out of control. Scatter, my brothers, quickly scatter!” As Zhao Tiezhu saw that the situation was going downhill, he blended into the crowds with his team and they quickly made their escape! However, their abnormal behavior had been captured on the cameras. They were all arrested the next day, handcuffed, and brought into the police station.

Their crimes were instigating an illegal gathering, causing many police officers and security guards to be injured in the jostle. Some of the injured had narrowly missed becoming involved in a stampeding accident. The nature of the crimes was especially wicked!

Zhao Tiezhu and many others would be facing a fixed term of imprisonment ranging from three to five years. After this incident, Xing Hai Technologies had no choice but to organize a news conference explaining the reasons for not producing more Little Star learning machines. The video of the news conference was distributed via WeChat groups. In an extremely exaggerated tone, the company elaborated on the huge significance of the Little Star learning machine. It would be relevant to the overarching national plan for the next thousand years! It would meet with many unimaginable obstacles as it could damage the profits of countless people and organizations. Hence, they needed more time before officially mass-producing it.

The parents believed this explanation and their emotions settled down for the time being.

…

On the 20th of May, a Weibo post from Xing Hai Technologies’s official account attracted the attention of all netizens. “After the approval granted by the Department of Education, the Little Star learning machine will be participating in the Senior High School Entrance Examination held on the 6th of June across twenty-eight provinces. Please look forward to its performance!”

Chapter 144 - A Shockwave in Science and Tech Circles

The principle behind the Little Star learning machine’s ability to rapidly solve questions laid in its two brains. One was the primary brain of knowledge that was composed of more than 10,000 TB of data. It was stored in the server port. The other was the secondary brain of logic that was integrated into the AI chip of the learning machine.

When the Little Star scanned a question, the secondary brain of logic in the AI chip would operate at rapid speeds to determine the question type before comparing it with the primary brain of knowledge in the server port. It would then search for the answer in the big brain and get the strategies needed to solve the question. If it was a question based on memorization, it simply had to conduct an intelligent search to find the standard answer.

If it was a question based on logic, the solving process would be slightly more complex. It would first undertake a judgment process. If it was a question that was already stored in the knowledge brain, the answer would be provided rapidly. If it was an entirely new question, the server and the local AI chip would jointly derive and compute the correct answer. If a particular question type had a typical form, the server would save it to enrich the knowledge brain, thus making it more powerful.

Theoretically speaking, the knowledge brain could become more powerful as the number of Little Star learning machine users increased. That was the problem: could an intelligent learning machine with the potential to change the structure and style of education in Z country and also influence the profits of countless entities, be successfully marketed? In other words, could it remain in the hands of Xing Hai Technologies? Education was a nation’s capital!

Was there any country that would place education, one of its very foundation, in the hands of a private company? Would any country place it in the hands of an individual?

In the meeting’s discussions, Li Yuan Liang had a sudden realization. “President Chen, I understand why you did not mass produce the Little Star learning machine on a larger scale. This is a double-edged sword, one that could allow us to take the entire education market for ourselves! The parents will be happy if we mass-produce the Little Star on a larger scale. But other educational related organizations will hate our guts! Cutting off their source of profits is akin to killing their parents. This would become a deadly feud. You can imagine their responses.”

However, Hou Xiao Feng shook his head. “I don’t agree with this reasoning! In this world, the strong will survive and the weak will be eliminated. This is a timeless law. Our Little Star is strong. The structure composed of training institutions and organizations providing supplementary lessons should naturally go along with the market flow and be eliminated! Parents and students will vote with their money. They won’t give business to the eliminated out of pity. This kind of elimination is necessary. No matter how great their resources are, they can’t ever dream of controlling the parents’ choices! Therefore, President Chen, I feel that your thinking is still somewhat conservative. We should first produce another 100 million units of Little Star, then we wait and see what happens. We take control of the entire market. The parents will be satisfied and the students’ grades will be raised. Those organizations whose profits have been hurt can stop dreaming about making a single cent. Because as compared to us, they are the weak. Faced with our full-scale attack, weak entities that are so far beneath us will have no other choice besides death.”

Another upper management personnel agreed, “Manager Hou is right. President, you’re too conservative. As the strong, why do we have to be afraid of the weak? It’s necessary for them to be eliminated. It’s a fate that they cannot change. President Chen, there’s no need to show mercy.”

However, Chen Jin shook his head. His gaze was dark and endless. With a low voice, he said, “My focus has never been on the weak! What I’m worried about are not any obstacles in the business world. Xing Hai Technologies will never be afraid of any business competition! But, you have to know that the most influential people in Z country are never the businessmen.”

Ling Jundong immediately understood. “What you’re worried about is… the government?”

“Yes.” Chen Jin nodded. “Frankly speaking, my original intention in making the learning machine product was to transform the current state of education in Z country. I hoped that many more children would become talents that benefit our society. At the same time, I could also profit from the educational market. But, this market is not based on free competition. There is a high level of government interference. The market is also a representation of the educational strategy adopted by the government that heavily favors the sciences. It is a market that cannot be carelessly infringed upon. I maintained my prudence and self-control by releasing only five million units of Little Star to test the waters. I don’t want to increase its impact on the market and damage the current structure. At the same time, it was for self-protection. We have to protect our profits! Recently, I’ve seen opinions by many educational professionals on the internet. The opinions can be summed up in this phrase; ‘surrender it to the government.’ They want us to surrender the technology behind the Little Star learning machine to the government.”

Chen Jin chuckled. “Haha, the product that we’ve spent tens of billions of dollars to develop and the result of the efforts of thousands of development technicians has actually become a ‘cultural relic’ that we have to surrender in some experts’ views. I have to say, dream on! They are totally unaware that the learning machine is merely a product for me to test the waters. If it works, Z country will be transformed, accelerating the rise of our nation. If it doesn’t work, we’ll never touch the education market again. We’ll go back to how we were before the learning machine was ever produced; it’ll be like it never happened. Xing Hai Technologies will then continue to only focus on making progress in the free sectors for the businessman.”

The audience finally understood the Boss’s meaning! So… this was all a test. In other words, this was a strategy that would allow the user to advance or retreat. He would be in absolute control of making the first move. This allowed the company to avoid huge potential losses, as well as thwarting the unrealistic “fantasies” of certain forces. Brilliant. It was really brilliant. The audience could only sigh in silent admiration with regards to the unknown depths in the mind of the young boss.

…

News about Little Star’s impending participation in the national senior high school entrance exam across twenty-eight provinces had been announced. Enthusiastic responses peppered the internet.

“F**k, the Little Star can even take part in the entrance exam?”

“Hey, so the learning machine can also be used in this way. Why hadn’t I thought of that before?”

“Can other learning machines participate in the entrance exam?”

“The questions in the entrance exam are complex and highly changeable. There are many new questions. It’s already pretty good if the learning machine can even correctly answer some of the questions.”

As compared to netizens with only a smattering of scientific knowledge, the Weibo comment by Xing Hai Technologies was akin to dropping a bombshell on the science and tech circles in Z country! Scientists in Z country who understood the real significance behind this news were unbearably excited. Their collective attention was placed on the Little Star learning machine, as well as its creator, Xing Hai Technologies.

“How… How is this possible? How is the intelligent learning program in the Little Star able to achieve such a high level of intelligence where it can even comprehend content in the textbooks?”

“AlphaGo, developed by the DeepMind Company, was only able to achieve its peak in the game of Go. And the intelligent learning program developed by Xing Hai Technologies is an all-around learning program equivalent to 100,000 AlphaGos?”

“A tech company that was established for less than two years actually seeks to transform the entire Z country and turn our education system upside-down.”

“Hi everyone, I am Yuan Lanfeng. You are watching this week’s episode from the program ‘The Original in Science and Technology’; welcome. Recently, news has broken out about the Little Star learning machine from Xing Hai Technologies. It was announced that it will take part in the upcoming senior high school entrance exam. After this news was announced, many audience members privately messaged me about the significance of this matter, asking if its ‘dramatic’ portrayal in the news media was exaggerated and if the scientists’ evaluation of the learning machine was too good to be true. Isn’t it just an ordinary learning machine? Now, I have to tell everyone, it is not exaggerated in the slightest! Even some of the news with attention-catching headlines are not suitably shocking enough. I think it’s more appropriate to use the word ‘shocking’ three times. Say, we would have named the title of this episode like this, “Shocking! Shocking! Shocking! The Significance of the Little Star learning machine”.”

A famous scholar in the field of popular science on Bilibili, Professor Yuan Feng, dedicated three full weeks of episodes to explain, in layman’s terms, the huge significance that Little Star represented for Z country. Throughout the episodes, his tone was extremely excited about his topic. He even received an unlocked Little Star learning machine loaded with the junior high school syllabus. With this, he was able to do a 100-minute live video stream. In the live stream, he had Little Star complete more than 10 mock senior high school entrance exam papers. The highest number of online audiences for this live stream was over 10 million, almost causing the server of Bilibili to crash. After this live stream, the Little Star learning machine caused a nation-wide sensation and attracted a high level of attention from foreign media and scientific circles. In the midst of increasing scrutiny and even more intense discussions, the national senior high school entrance exam was about to be held on the 6th of June.

Chapter 145 - The Senior High School Entrance Exam That Was the Focus Everyone’s Attention!

On the sixth of June, the Senior High School Entrance Exam was about to take place. It was a selection process for junior high schoolers who were about to enter their senior year, and it was an exam that happened only once a year. It was an extremely important day for the parents of students in their final grade of junior high school.

The Senior High School Entrance Exam was finally here. However, the exam this year was somewhat different from the exams of past years. The entrance exam this year had attracted much more attention. Today, in the country, there would be about 100 million netizens with a definite scientific knowledge closely watching the official live streaming platform, focusing on each and every update that came with the latest feed.

Today was also a grand gathering for scientists all over the nation. All scientists squeezed out whatever little bit of time they could and put aside their work temporarily. They were filled with anticipation as they focused on one thing: the Little Star learning machine’s participation in the entrance exam.

At 9 am sharp, the first exam, Language, began.

…

At the third entrance exam venue in Shang Hai City, there was a door that was tightly locked. Liu Xinyu gripped the automatic rifle in his hands as he scanned his surroundings, on high alert. He was a member of the Armed Special Police Force. He was 28 and had been in the force for eight years. He had participated in six escort missions for the safe delivery of the entrance exam papers. It had been a success every time.

However, his current mission was somewhat different. Just before the start of the exam, he and his comrades carried a heavy strongbox into this special classroom. Thereafter, they immediately left and locked the door. A special anti-cheating interference vehicle was parked beside the classroom, and its interference function was turned up to the highest level.

The bell rang at 11:30 am, signaling the end of the first language exam session. The vast number of third grade junior high schoolers had finished their exam and were exiting the exam venue in droves. The interference vehicle stopped its work.

The team leader of the special police force in charge of carrying out this mission took out his key and unlocked the door to the classroom. He said to the two technicians from Xing Hai Technologies who were waiting at the door, “Quickly take that thing in for the exam. You are given a total of 10 minutes. You have to hand in the answers at 11:40am!”

The time given was extremely tight. It took the special force’s team leader one minute to open the classroom door, another minute to open the safe box. Tearing open the seal strip and taking out the exam papers required at least another minute. They were delayed for a total of three minutes. Therefore, they realistically only had seven minutes to complete the exam. However, the two technicians from Xing Hai Technologies were not even feeling a bit of panic. After taking out Little Star, they quickly scanned the papers. They finished the exam in less than five minutes and submitted the answers. Then, they left the venue. The exam inspector took away the learning machine.

Another 20 minutes passed. The answer sheet completed by Little Star was published on the live streaming platform. The teacher in charge of marking the exam immediately calculated the results on the spot. Soon, the exam results of the Little Star learning machine was ready. Out of a total of 120 points, it only got 65 points.

As for the language test from the other twenty-seven provinces, the results of Little Star was ordinary. Out of 120 points, its highest score was 72 points and its lowest score was 58 points.

Netizens expressed their disappointment.

“Isn’t it extremely intelligent? It can’t even achieve a passing grade.”

“And they call this a learning machine? They sang its praises to high heavens. It can’t even pass and they dare to shamelessly boast about transforming Z country’s education structure?”

“Please get the situation right before ranting. Little Star got a low score for Language because it didn’t write the essay, which comprises 40 points! As for the remaining questions, some questions that test reading and comprehension skills require Little Star to elaborate on its thoughts and write down its feelings and opinions about the text… Sorry, these are purely subjective questions. Humans may not even excel in these questions, much less Little Star. If it gets about half of the points, it means that it got all the foundational questions right!”

“Speaking of the thoughts in my mind, I’m reminded of ‘a tree beside Luxun’s door.’ It’s just a few damn words, yet someone could write thousands of words in appreciation. It’s even clear and logical from beginning to end. Everyone had to admit defeat. But, I just want to say f**k you to the person who came up with this type of question. They have s**t in their brains. It’s completely normal that Little Star is unable to answer this question.”

An overwhelming majority of netizens expressed understanding and generosity towards Little Star’s lousy start in the Language exam. The results of Little Star in the arithmetic exam in the afternoon amazed everyone.

A perfect score. 28 perfect scores. No matter how difficult the toughest questions were in some of the provinces’ papers, the Little Star learning machine could provide the correct answer within 30 seconds. Its rate of accuracy was 100%. Netizens expressed their awe.

“I really want to see the expressions on the teachers who came up with those math questions. Are they very disappointed?”

“As someone who’s terrible at math, I really want to have a Little Star learning machine now.”

“The Little Star learning machine is so terrifying!”

“I finally understand the significance behind this learning machine. It can put an end to all arithmetic exams because it has fully conquered the subject. With the possession of a Little Star learning machine, you will become the king of all arithmetic exams.”

The next part of the entrance exam continued on the seventh of June. Chemistry and physics exams were held in the morning. They had a total of 200 combined points. After this exam session, it was revealed that Little Star, again, got perfect scores for all twenty-eight test papers! The responses from netizens became even more enthusiastic, and the scientists’ excitement was through the roof.

Little Star’s results for the English exam on the afternoon of the seventh was similar to that of the Language exam. It did not do very well. Especially when it came to listening and reading comprehension, it frequently could not follow the turns in conversations and was unable to understand deeper meanings. Its behavior was like someone who was intellectually disabled… meaning that its intelligence was still not up to par.

For the English exam papers, it only got an average of 67 points out of 100. However, there was a question on grammar in the English paper from Shanxi province that caused a debate between many English experts. They felt that the standard answer provided might not be the only one. Under certain circumstances, the answers provided by Little Star were correct too. There was an inherent problem with the question.

After discussions with many parties, the Department of Education made a final decision. The question had more than one answer, so Little Star was correct too. Many exam-takers from Shanxi rejoiced.

“The answer I chose was the same as Little Star’s! I also feel that it’s the right answer.”

“Thank you Little Star for getting this one point back for me. Although it’s only one point, it means that I’ve moved up at least a hundred ranks.”

“Yeah, if not for Little Star, I would have lost this point! Who knows, I could have missed going to a top senior high school without this point.”

On the eighth of June, the last day of the entrance exam, not only did Little Star achieve perfect scores for the last exams of Biology and Geography, it even discovered a mistake in one of the papers. There was a question in the biology paper from Fuchi Province that was worth three points. The standard answer provided was actually wrong.

The Little Star learning machine realized this mistake and gave the correct answer. Countless biology teachers also agreed that the standard answer for that question was wrong. The teacher who set that particular question from the Fuchi Province received a harsh reprimand.

“What happened? You can’t even do a question that you yourself have set?”

“It’s three points. You’ve nearly deducted these points from tens of thousands of students and impacted their rankings!”

“Can you be more attentive when you’re making the questions? Can you hire some biology teachers who are more professional?”

Finally, the national senior high school entrance exam across the provinces had officially ended. It was not necessary to talk about the results of Little Star again. Countless people had paid a high level of attention to its exam results. In any case, it could get into a top senior high school at the very least.

Its prowess was especially apparent when solving a problem that had answers that were clearly divergent or when it noticed some very obvious errors in the questions. Nobody would doubt its ability again! Some of the answers provided by the Little Star learning machine were even called “the most authoritative” or “the most fitting.” It was more reliable than the teachers who set the questions! At this point, the already wildly popular Little Star learning machine had become a worldwide phenomenon!

Not only was it a national sensation, but it was also a global sensation!

Chapter 146 - Authorize the Country

On the 9th of June, the second day after the mid-term examinations, Chen Jin’s avatar led a portion of the company’s executives to Kings City. They were attending an important meeting held by the ministry of education. Or actually a “negotiation,” so to speak. A negotiation on the Little Star learning machine. In all honesty, this negotiation was very laborious. When the negotiation was at a stalemate, even a senior-level leader came and instilled his ideologies upon him. But Chen Jin’s stand did not sway by even an inch. Xing Hai Technologies benefits must be fully assured! The request of “nationalizing” the learning machine by some experts in the education field was firmly rebuffed.

“Since you said that your company spent almost tens of billions of dollars on developing the Little Star learning machine, okay then, the country will compensate you 20 billion, a two-fold compensation, is that enough?”

“What an ‘expert’ you are, 20 billion? Do you see Xing Hai Technologies as beggars? The product value of the Little Star learning machine is over two trillion! You want to buy this technology? Sure, take out two trillion then,” Chen Jin said with a sarcastic grin.

An expert was disgusted by him to the extent that he wanted to vomit blood. “Two trillion, are you going insane thinking about money? Concerning the future of our nation, concerning a product that represents the fate of our nation, and what you can think of is only money? You… disappoint us.”

“Do you have some misconceptions towards earning money? Xing Hai Technologies spent tens of billions to develop this product, if it’s not for earning money, what do you suggest? Charity? Thank goodness you are not an entrepreneur, if you were to manage a company, it would collapse within just a few days!” Chen Jin shook his head. “The purpose behind the establishment of each and every company is the same, the utmost priority will be earning money. Changing the world, the cause of feelings, the cause of righteousness, all of these are just stories for children. We are all adults here, please communicate the adult way.”

“What is it that you want?” questioned another expert.

“I don’t want anything! I’m the one that should be asking, what do you want? You want the Little Star learning machine, sure, take out your money, I’ll give you a discount; you want its technology, sure, take out your money… please talk to me in commercial definitions.”

“Money money money, have you lost yourself in money? Can’t you contribute to your country and your people?” said another expert.

Chen Jin stood up. “I’m sorry, this conversation is not going anywhere, as long as this ‘expert’ is around, I refuse to talk anymore. Like a chicken and a duck talk and howl to the moon, we literally can’t communicate with each other!” He left the conference room.

The experts looked at each other. The one expert’s face turned red from agitation and anger.

The next day, Chen Jin once again stepped foot into the conference room. He realized that the expert from the day before was gone. The head representative of the negotiation was also swapped to a kind-looking elderly man.

“Mr. Chen, I can fully understand what you mean. We are now in an era of commodity economy, so there are no flaws in your logic. Besides, your company is already involved in the high-tech business and already contributing to our nation’s technological advancements. Every single cent you earn is clean money, we can’t point our fingers at you in any way. It’s just that… the Little Star learning machine had too big of an impact towards the country. It completely flipped our educational system. We cannot make any mistakes in the education of our next generation. I know that the knowledge checkpoints in the Little Star learning machine are mainly focused on natural science, and it is very helpful for science students. It also did not touch on any sensitive topics. This indicates that you are very smart, and Xing Hai Technologies is a very wise company to put all these problems into account.”

The elderly man continued, “However, it is impossible for the country to let just one company monopolize a product such as this. The purpose behind the existence of the Ministry of Education is to supervise and regulate and to make sure that no problem arises. The best way of regulation in this case is to nationalize this product and leave it in the hands of experts in the educational field. Just like transportation, power generation, and military; the importance of the Little Star learning machine has already escalated to the same height as these fields. The country will definitely provide a certain amount of financial compensation. Xing Hai Technologies will also receive great support from the country. I, on behalf of the country, guarantee you, you will not get the short end of the stick!” The officer gave his warm and sincere advice.

But Chen Jin still shook his head. “It’s not impossible for you to nationalize this product. I’ll make a concession, 500 billion for buyout! I’ll give you the Little Star learning machine as well as a copy of its technical documents. This is my bottom line. I will not concede further. Please do not think that this is expensive, it is said that the country injects several trillions of funds in the educational field annually. My request is completely not out of scale. In business development, we need profit. Xing Hai Technologies made a product worth several trillions in value, and now we are willing to sell it at 500 billion. I do not think that we are taking any advantage in this. We, on the other hand, are suffering a big loss.”

“500 billion?” The officer had his mouth wide open. Feeling helpless, he said, “Mr. Chen, your demands are too exaggerated! 500 billion, with this money the country can already form its own team to develop a similar learning machine.”

Chen Jin said immediately, “Then I’ll support the nation in independent research and development! Xing Hai Technologies is willing to provide technical consulting services, free of charge.”

The negotiation once again plunged into a deadlock situation. On the day after, the Ministry of Education increased their bargaining chips, hoping for a buyout at 100 billion, but they got rejected. Immediately, Chen Jin received a call from his grandfather He Chang Hou. His old man lectured him, saying that almost is enough! Do not delay the country’s development in education for the sake of money and ultimately become a historical sinner! Chen Jin had no choice but to take two hours to let his grandfather understand what was going on in this mind, just vaguely.

On the 18th of June, negotiations persisted. Chen Jin came out with a compromised solution. It was finally approved by the Ministry of Education and passed by the higher authorities.

There were three core contents within the scheme:

1. The intellectual property of the Little Star learning machine and its technical information belonged to Xing Hai Technologies, but it could be licensed to the state for free.

2. Xing Hai Technology would supply the Little Star learning machine to the Ministry of Education at a production cost price and 10% hardware profit. The Ministry of Education could even take 70% of the production capacity of the foundry.

3. The state granted complete tax exemption towards the R&D, manufacturing, and production related to the Little Star learning machine.

If the state provided tax exemptions, the combined production cost price of the Little Star learning machine would be reduced by at least 40%. That was what Chen Jin valued the most. Towards the end, he said, “It is impossible for me to provide a free contribution to core technologies, 100 billion is just like dispatching a beggar! But I can provide a free license to the country and supply the ministry with a low-cost version of the Little Star learning machine, in exchange for tax exemptions. Besides, Xing Hai Technologies will continue to make learning machines. We have already successfully developed ‘Little Star Second Gen,’ which is 60 times more powerful than the first-generation product. For this product, the Ministry of Education can purchase them in large quantities. Xing Hai Technologies will also sell them to the public. On its pricing, our ‘Little Star Second Gen’ will be following market pricing, tagged at above 10 thousand dollars. I do not care about the ministry’s pricing; it is for you to decide. It is not our problem that some poor students can’t afford to use it. This will be my greatest sincerity. If ou comply, then may we have a pleasant cooperation; if you insist that I give out free contributions on this, sorry, I really can’t do it. You can only give up on this product, go expand in other areas, and we shall not interfere with each other in the future.” Chen Jin shrugged his shoulders. It was impossible for him to concede further.

The experts looked at each other for a moment. The officer communicated with the higher authorities and received a positive reply. “It can be done, the government cannot be wholly responsible for the learning machine, and private companies should participate competitively as well to stimulate the product market and provide better education services! Alright Mr. Chen, we agree to your conditions! Let us make our contributions to the Z nations education field together!”

“May we have a pleasant cooperation!” Chen Jin shook hands with him with a smile on his face.

…

On the 20th of June, after all the terms were agreed and signed by both parties and the cooperation agreement became official, Chen Jin spoke in the ears of minister Yuan, a request that made his pupils dilate: Let the Little Star Second Gen partake in the National College Entrance Examinations.

Chapter 147 - Fall of the Demon Lord

Hu Jun was a 56-year-old teacher who took part in high school education for more than 30 years. He had a typical square face, wore old-fashioned spectacles, and the same grey shirt that he had worn for over 20 years. The way he walked and taught were scrupulous, giving people the impression that he was old-fashioned, serious, and stern.

Whenever the students he taught saw him, the smiles on their face would instantly vanish. They corrected their postures and bow their heads down. Even their breathing would become lighter. When he entered a classroom, only one second was needed for the whole class to become completely silent. Even the sound of a needle falling onto the ground could be heard. The sound of his footsteps was just like stepping on the hearts of each student. An aura that made students tremble in fear emanated from his body.

Yes. He was Hu Jun, the group leader for the question preparation group for Sutang Province’s College Entrance Examination, Mathematics section. His very existence instilled fear in the pupils in Sutang Province who would be sitting for the College Entrance Examination. There was only one word that could describe the similarity in the mathematics paper he made: difficult. Very difficult.

In the 150-mark paper, those who manage to get 90 marks would be considered as super scholars, 60 marks and above would be considered above average, and a score of 30 to 50 marks would be considered very normal. Even if people got below 30 marks, they wouldn’t be mocked as a lousy scorer. There was even a good portion of people who had gotten zero in the past. The questions he made were indeed crazily difficult.

For some candidates, if they know that Hu Jun was preparing the Mathematics paper for their year, they would definitely mourn in despair.

“Oh my god, Hu Jun again, do they want us dead?”

“I worked so hard for a year and ended up facing the demon lord Hu Jun, I won’t even think of getting an extra mark in Mathematics!”

“Heavens, please purge this demon lord away!”

Among the candidates that would be sitting for the college entrance examinations in Sutang province, he became the dreaded and chilling demon lord. Unfortunately, it was his turn to prepare the mathematics paper for the 20X0 College Entrance Examination. Many of the candidates plunged into despair.

Before handing him the task to prepare the questions, the official from the Ministry of Education in Sutang Province habitually remind him, “Mr. Hu, the past candidates reflected that your questions were too hard, please make it easier this year. Make questions that the students will be able to achieve 90 marks and above on average. Really, please don’t make it too tricky.”

“Got it.” Hu Jun, as usual, faintly responded with two words.

The officer immediately became aware that this year’s average marks for mathematics would not be over 60 marks. Because the papers with above 60 marks on average would never be the ones prepared by Hu Jun! It seemed that the province’s Education Department would get admonished and receive complaints from the mass population of candidates this year… again.

This time, however, Hu Jun really intended to lower the difficulty and come out with a paper that the candidates could score an average of 70 marks and above. The reason was because a candidate wrote a 10-thousand-word letter for him saying that his questions were too hard. He couldn’t enter the university he desired even after repeating for three years. He begged for Mr. Hu’s mercy to let him fulfill his dreams to be admitted into the university he wished for. It may be because his heart had softened as he had gotten older, as Hu Jun used to be completely unshaken by hundreds of letters of similar requests over the past years. And yet, he was touched by the contents of this letter and decided to lower the paper’s difficulty by a little.

But only after a few days, not only did he renege his decision and destroy the paper that he had prepared, he also took out the questions that were in his collection for many years, the questions that accumulated over the years of his teaching experience, revered as the most difficult questions of all time. He planned to use them in Sutang Province’s Mathematics paper this year, giving the candidates a present that would make them unleash their ultimate screech of despair. The other teaches in the question preparation group were shocked.

“Mr. Hu, this is too much, your questions are too hard!”

“It will be considered good if the candidates can even score an average mark of 30.”

“Mr. Hu, even at my level, I can only get at most 50 marks within two hours, not to even mention those students. Mr. Hu, the main purpose of the College Entrance Examination is to filter out the talents. With your questions that are so difficult, not only are you holding off the weaker students, you are also hampering the good students; we are not fulfilling the filtering purpose this way.”

“Mr. Hu, we have been partners for several decades. With these questions, the candidates will not just simply complain, this will cause a major uproar! We will be held responsible for this.”

“Really?” Hu Jun looked at them and nodded. “If even you guys say it is hard, then that’s all the more reason for these questions to appear in the paper.”

“Mr. Hu! If these questions appear in the paper, we will not have the chance to prepare the papers anymore and you must be responsible for this!” another of his partners warned him.

“If the Little Star learning machine got 100 marks for the questions I prepared, do you think that we would have the chance to sit here and make papers in the future?” Hu Jun asked faintly.

Upon hearing him, all of them were stunned. They all nodded their heads as they couldn’t help but agree that what he said made sense. If the Little Star learning machine was powerful enough to answer all the questions including the “question finale,” the meaning behind the questions that they squeezed their brains to prepare was no longer to filter talents, but to prove the prowess of a learning machine.

The “ultimate test questions” of unprecedented difficulty had been passed unanimously.

…

On the 1st of July, at noon, the College Entrance Examination’s Mathematics Section took place in Sutung Province.

After all the tens of thousands of candidates looked at their papers presented before them, they were like a deer caught in the headlights. Their brains tumbled into a blank state. They held their pens in their hands but had completely no idea on how to do the questions.

“I know every word here, but I have completely no idea on how to do these questions.”

“Aside from the few objective questions, I can’t do anything after that!”

“Hmm, how did I walk out from the exam hall? I think it was after I did the two objective questions in front, I got stuck for a very long time at the third question, then I heard the bell ring, asking us to submit our papers.”

“Dad, mom, I have disappointed you once again, I can only get at most 20 marks for math this year!” A candidate cried on the verge of collapsing.

His parents consoled him, “Don’t cry, you are not the only one that said the paper was hard, other students reflected that it was very hard, and many of them even handed in empty papers. It won’t affect you from entering a good university.”

“Really?” A glimpse of hope reappeared in his despair-filled eyes.

Suddenly, a commotion occurred. There was a scream. “The answers are out; the answers from the Little Star learning machine are out!”

All of a sudden, the enthusiasm of everybody present surged.

…

On the television screen, looking at the answers that flashed through the answer bulletin, Hu Jun opened his eyes wide, and on his face, there was an expression of disbelief. “Impossible, how could this be? All these questions were new questions that had yet to appear in the papers. There were no references, and it was impossible to find similar questions on the market! There were a few questions that were uniquely structured and were very innovative as well. Even among the tens of thousands of candidates, it will be considered good even if one of them manage to get the answers right. For the last question, the ‘question finale,’ there were three candidates of all of Sutang Province’s tens of thousands that got the correct answer. All three are worthy to be called a genius in Mathematics and should be admitted to prestigious universities. But… the Little Star leaning machine got all answers correct within 15 minutes. The approach it used to tackle these questions was not ‘super-class,’ it was indeed just high school level methods, not using any knowledge on calculus from the university level. The ‘question finale,’ not only did Little Star learning machine get it right, but it also listed three alternative ways to solve the question. Compared to the two ways that I’ve thought of; it got an additional one. I…I…” Hu Jun experienced a tremor from deep within. He backed off a few steps, unable to keep his calm ever again.

…

150 marks! For the Mathematics paper in this year’s College Entrance Examination in Sutang Province, the Little Star Second Gen learning machine achieved full marks within 15 minutes of examination time.

On the internet that night, the candidates in Sutang Province that should be mourning were cheering blithely!

“Little Star the mighty! Little Star the awesome!”

“Hahahaha, we won, we won, Little Star won it for us!”

“Demon lord Hu Jun, the time for you to wreak havoc has passed, to hell you fall!”

“Hu Jun! You are really great, right? But I will fear you no more, the artifact that I’m about to get is even greater than you!”

“Hu Jun, are you content, have you admitted defeat? Have you seen the might of Little Star?”

“Learn your place Hu Jun, you are no match for Little Star!”

…

Defeated. A clean defeat! The fruits that Hu Jun bore with 30-plus years drilling in the Mathematics field had been vanquished in just a short period of 15 minutes. Listening to those cheering and taunting him on the internet and the voices of censuring from his fellow colleagues, could he simply swallow it down? Of course not!

He immediately threw an application to the Education Department and brought a Little Star Second Gen learning machine back to his premise. He took out a box, which had up to a hundred sets of Mathematics papers in his collection, turned on the scanning function of the Little Star Second Gen, and started scanning the papers one by one.

After a few hours, having experienced shock, agitation, frustration, despair and many other complicated mood swings, he recovered his calm and sat on the floor by his bedside. Many papers were scattered around him. He lowered his head as he felt infinitely lost inside. With his mouth filled with bitterness, he shook his head and mumbled, “I’ve lost, I’ve completely lost.” Looking at the learning machine not far away from him, he said faintly, “Technology nowadays is really getting more and more powerful.”

For unknown reasons, he revealed a smile of relief at the corner of his mouth. Certainly, as the demon lord in the hearts of innumerable candidates, he had fallen. But in the future of education for the Z nation, there was hope.

Chapter 148 - Do Not Fill the Brain, Let the Mind Flow!

The College Entrance Examination held in every province all across the state began on the 1st of July and ended on the 2nd of July.

On science subjects, the performance of the Little Star Second Gen learning machine drew much attention and shocked the one billion population throughout the country. In more than 30 mathematics papers with a total point score of 150, the device hit a complete full score. In more than 30 comprehensive science papers with a total point score of 150, the device hit a complete full score as well. In just these two papers, the Little Star learning machine obtained 450 points… enough to get enrolled in many of the second-tier universities in many provinces.

For Language and English, Little Star could obtain at least half of the total points. Therefore, adding another 150 points, the total points would be 600. With this total mark, not to even say first-tier universities, even attending most of the key universities would not be a problem. With a Little Star Second Gen learning machine, one could easily get themselves admitted to a good university. The ability of the device shocked the whole nation and triggered a humongous wave of discussion that swept through society!

People were all discussing; with the existence of such a machine that could solve all questions, what was the meaning of the students studying so hard? What impact would it cause the duck-filling exam-oriented education system in the Z nation?

There were several representing articles that had been endorsed by countless people.

“Our education should not be stuffing the brains of our children, but to let their mind flow freely!”

An article produced by a well-known expert in the education field stated, “Over these years, I have been criticizing the exam-oriented education system, calling for them to reduce the strain shouldered by our children and not to let them solely learn from textbooks. Every aspect such as athleticism, innovative thinking abilities, and moral education must all be pushed! Our children must not become the slaves of knowledge. Exam-oriented education that only drowns the brains of our children must not be continued! But my callings have not received support, only mockery. The principle of Maotan secondary school, Mr. Wei, criticized me for my ‘foul’ intentions and for being a servile follower of the foreigners. He stated that exam-oriented education is the basic condition of our country, it is the most unbiased educational system and is the only way for poor students to alter their fate. He also said that only by improving the marks of our high schoolers can more talents be produced, which will increase the amount of gratitude we will receive from the parents.”

The expert continued, “I always feel that Mr. Wei’s concept is somewhat problematic, and the system must not be embraced. But I have lost, and Mr. Wei has won. The students thanked him. The parents thanked him. Me, on the other hand, who called to reduce the burden on our children, was admonished. The number of enrollments across the ‘exam factories’ throughout our nation has never declined. But now, I want to ask all the Mr. Wei’s out there: You transformed all of our children into exam machines, and now a genuine exam machine has appeared. The Little Star learning machine can casually get into first-tier universities. Can the students produced by your ‘exam factories’ surpass the Little Star learning machine? Maybe some individuals can surpass the machine, but so what? The knowledge contained in their brains are rigid, their minds are not flowing. So, how far can they go in life? Can they be better than the Little Star learning machine, which is certainly more powerful?”

The article went on, saying, “When those students with normal talents get familiar with the Little Star learning machine, master the system’s learning methods. and become capable of tackling difficult problems, where is the competitiveness of the students produced by your ‘exam factories?’ It is time for a complete education revolution. When humans start to become more inferior than tools, there will be no need for us to compete with the tools, a human can never win! The only place we can emerge victorious and the only things left for us is our athleticism, our versatile thoughts, and our innovative mind, which is by default our fort as humans! Now, there is a greater need for us to strengthen these abilities. Parents and all the Mr. Wei’s out there, from today on, please do not stuff the brains of our children, but let their mind flow freely!”

An article written by a student’s parent was also widespread with over 100 million views.

“It is time to stop the arms race: I’m a normal parent and a mother that wants her own son to achieve great success in life. My husband’s income was at satisfactory levels, positioned at the higher end of the middle tier range. I have a child. I cherish him so much, as he is my everything. I hope for him to grow up happily. But when my child was three, I enrolled him into an ‘Interest Class,’ as all the kids in kindergarten had done so. When he was six, despite the long distance, I still sent him to the city’s most prestigious noble primary school, with 80 thousand annual tuition fees. During his six years in primary school, every year on average, I enrolled him into eight training courses, 120 hours of home tutoring, and as for activities held by the school organization, seven times per year on average, with each of them costing 5,000 dollars and above. Six years down in primary school, my child learned piano, dancing, conducting, hosting, drawing, Go, calligraphy, and other skills, totaling 20. Expenditure wise, totaling the fees, it cost 1.83 million dollars, and this expenditure was considered at the bottom among his classmates.”

The article continued, “When my child entered junior high, I realized that my family’s financial ability could no longer support my child’s educational expenditures. The annual tuition fee for the noble junior high in the city was 210 thousand. Adding up with additional fees, total expenditure was over 400 thousand a year. This was almost at the limits of our capabilities. In spite of that, my husband and I still enrolled our child into many costly training courses. Even if we did not have enough money, we would endure through them gnashing our teeth, because we wished for our child’s success, we wished for a bright future for him! But one day, I realized that it had been a long time since my child smiled. His body had become skinny and weak. Every week, his time spent on learning was over 60 hours. He almost never watched TV, or played games. The only thing he was doing was learning. Despite his efforts, and not wanting to disappoint me, he was still at the rock-bottom in class for every exam. One day, I went through his diary. He said he wanted to die, and that life had no meaning. I was stunned, I cried and said to my child that I’m sorry, mommy’s wrong, mum will never force you to learn again. My child sensibly said that he was fine and that he was just writing a few words of complaint. He asked me not to worry.”

The mother continued and wrote, “But how could I not worry? From that day onwards, I had nightmares every single night, I feared that my child would do something stupid. He was just acting as usual, occasionally squeezing out a smile in front of me, but I, on the other hand, became more and more uneasy. I felt that the distance between us was growing. It wasn’t until that afternoon that I found a few sleeping pills in my child’s pencil case. The very next day, I withdrew my child from school and brought him to the psychologist for counseling sessions. I can lose anything but my child! Even if he cannot be a successful person, I just wish that he will grow up healthy and always stay by my side.”

After this emotional story, the article got to the main point. “In June this year, my child and I came to know some news about the Little Star learning machine. Two days ago, the Little Star learning machine sat for the College Entrance Examination and obtained a full score in many papers. My heart was relieved in an instant. My vision widened, giving birth to deep regrets. Yes, a learning machine can easily obtain a better grade than a child who worked hard for years. What is the reason for us to ask our children to obtain higher marks? A machine, way ahead of all parents, has appeared. In the arms war between us parents, what is the meaning behind all the sacrifices we had made? In the face of the cold and emotionless marks, the happiness of our children is priceless. The nature of our children is priceless. The health of our children is priceless! At that moment, I was enlightened. My child also said to me with a face filled with curiosity, ‘Mom, I want a Little Star learning machine.’ I told him I would buy him one, definitely! Even if it costs 100 thousand for a unit, it was still nothing compared to the price we had paid in the past. My heart was finally relieved. He felt it as well, and he won’t consider doing stupid things ever again. Thank you Little Star learning machine for saving my family and giving us hope.”

Except for the two articles above, scientists in the scientific community also jointly appealed to the country: commence education reformation immediately!

The scientists wrote in their proposal, “This is an era of information outbursts; the amount of knowledge is experiencing explosive growth. Some knowledge at university level had been lowered down to senior high level, knowledge at senior high level had been lowered down to junior high level, and the textbooks for primary schoolers already contain some content that is meant for junior high level. But even if we are learning things ahead of time, there is a limit to the brain capacity of humans, and yet knowledge is forever expanding. No matter how talented students are, they can never be able to grasp all knowledge! Learning with a tool is starting to become very important. We should popularize the Little Star learning machine to cultivate our children’s creativity and exercise their innovative thinking abilities. A different approach must be practiced on learning knowledge. Duck-filling education that forces our children to learn by rote must not be exercised! The advent of the Little Star learning machine proves that the ability for a machine to learn far exceeds humans. It is telling us that our exam-oriented education has come to a dead end and our paths must be altered. Now, the time has come for us to reform our education system!”

After the Ministry of Education received the joint proposal letter from the scientific community, relevant personnel immediately replied, “We are working on a reformation plan to conduct a major revolution towards the educational system!”

On the second day, revolving around the proposal by the scientific community, the higher authorities had a discussion meeting, and a major decision was announced on the same day. “Under the premise of ensuring fairness, we are currently studying educational reform plans. After the plans mature, it will immediately be tested in one or two provinces within the state. If the reformation plan shows significant results, it will be implemented across the whole state! If the results are not significant, we will adjust the plan and continue attempts until the best results are obtained. Only then it will be implemented elsewhere.”

In short, the education system of Z nation will definitely undergo reformation! Once this news was announced, the whole nation erupted in enthusiasm and jubilation.

Chapter 149 - The Scariest Conference in History

A few days ago, Xing Hai Technologies finally changed its company name, taking away “Ao You” from “Ao You Xing Hai Technologies.”

The real Xing Hai Technologies was a small software company manufacturing mobile phone brushing tools in Shen Zhen City. In their public placard, there were phrases like, “Our technical instructors are god-tier Instructors,””It is better to teach people to fish than to give them a fish,””Our goal is to train everyone to be brushing experts,””The skilled slaughters with a leaf; the unskilled slaughtered while wielding a Dragon Saber”, and many others. It reflected that this company indeed possessed certain levels of technical abilities.

The company’s total assets did not exceed five million. When Chen Jin sent some men over to acquire this small company and take their company name, the initial bargain was 10 million. The boss of the company thought about it and was about to comply. However, for unknown reasons, the boss (by the surname of Tao) became hesitant. He thought that the price was too low, and he would only sell his company if they increased the price to 50 million. At that period in time, the Wa-wah robot was raging like a fever, and Xing Hai Technologies was causing a sensation nationwide. He thought that something was fishy that somebody wanted to acquire his company at that time.

The personnel that Chen Jin sent to realize the acquisition had no choice, and resorted to outflanking tactics. He convinced Mr. Tao’s business accomplices and his family, and at the end, amongst the urging voices, Mr. Tao sold his company at 30 million dollars.

After his company was sold, he realized that nobody took over the company’s assets. Only two days ago did he find out that “Ao You Xing Hai Technologies” officially changed its name into “Xing Hai Technologies” via the company’s Weibo.

“Ah!!” He pounded his chest in annoyance. “Too cheap, I sold the company way too cheap! I lost at least one billion dollars!” But things done could not be undone. No matter how much he regretted it, he would not be able to change a thing.

…

Inside a huge rest area for the staff to relax, many of Xing Hai Technologies’ staff either sat or leaned at the soft combination sofas. At that time, they were surrounding a young man, freely discussing some issues.

Zhen Kir Shin said, “Mr. Chen, after the country announced their plans to reform the education system, those science students are so thrilled, saying that spring has come for them and that learning science will not be difficult anymore. But the art students, on the other hand, are all complaining. They are asking why the Little Star learning machine can’t serve them and that they need a learning machine to help them memorize books too. They also accused Xing Hai Technologies as being biased towards science students, and they are super angry about it!” She hugged a pillow and blinked her round eyes at him.

“Biased towards science students?” Chen Jin said while smiling, “What’s the reason for their accusations? They of all people should have known that on some sensitive topics, they are free to probe into it, but if the Little Star learning machine were to even touch on it, it would spell disaster. They shouldn’t complain. In another few years to come, learning arts will become more difficult than learning science. The world will come to need more creative minds, like artists, cartoonists, composers, poets, philosophers… all of these will become high-paying professions in the future. The salary of science talents will be immensely behind them. The income of those with careers in liberal arts will generally be higher than that of science. When technical personnel can be mass produced, the golden age for students studying liberal arts will be hastily approaching.”

“Really?” A young man beside him dared not to believe it. “Do liberal arts really have a brighter future in the time to come?”

“Yes, the reversal will happen in at maximum 30 years’ time.” Chen Jin did not blindly come out with all of this knowledge. Planet Haierfa itself had experienced this development in its course of history. Back on Earth, after the advent of the “Smart Learning Program,” the pro-arts era would come quickly.

“Mr. Chen, recently, I logged into a few foreign review websites to look at their feedback towards the Little Star learning machine, and I almost died out of anger. More than half of the foreign netizens have in mind that we stole their tech, another half thought that it was a hoax. Only a small portion of them thought that the Little Star leaning machine was good and that their kids should have one…” This handsome young man by the name of Liu Si said with dismay, “Mr. Chen, do you think that those foreigners were hopelessly brainwashed by their media? When we take out something great they will accuse us of stealing.”

“You pay attention to the foreigner’s feedbacks?” Chen Jin gave him a weird glance, shook his head, and said, “There is no need for you to pay attention to their reaction. Normal people can only interact with normal people. There is no way for normal people to interact with idiots and lunatics. We will never affiliate ourselves with them, it will be like finding trouble.”

“Are you implying that… we are not selling the Little Star learning machine to the foreigners?” Liu Si asked with his eyes flashing.

“For what purpose would we sell it to them?” Chen Jin shrugged his shoulders. “What benefits will we get by increasing the IQ of those lunatics? How will it benefit our country?” He shook his head. “Just let them continue to indulge in their own high, I can’t help them change their IQ, and I don’t want any of their benefits as well. Let them say what they want, as long as they’re happy themselves.”

“Haha!”

“What you said makes sense Mr. Chen. On things like IQ, we should just charge our own people with it, why bother about those foreigners?”

“Those foreigners don’t have a brain to begin with, what can be changed?”

“Huhuh, didn’t they like to block and restrict us? I’ll let them taste their own medicine.”

The crowd laughed. They all felt very thrilled.

…

The 7th of July was a day of grave importance.

In Shang Hai City’s Workers Stadium, an epoch-making product eligible to be recorded in history books was released. The Little Star Second Gen learning machine! Its performance was ten times higher than that of Little Star First Gen. In its Tree of Knowledge, aside from a small portion of subjects, all knowledge checkpoints for 12 years of elementary and high school were updated into the system. It could answer any questions raised by the user within the answer scope and solve any problem revolving around logical operation from elementary to high school level.

Besides, on the hardware used in the construction of the Little Star Second Gen learning machine, aside from some flash chips that needed to be imported, other hardware like the screen, camera, battery, motherboard, CPU, AI chip, and memory chip were all locally-made products. The localization rate was over 98% and the product was safe, reliable, and one that a person could use with complete assurance and ease of mind.

The power of the Little Star Second Gen learning machine astonished people. Its high localization rate made the crowd excited. The conference could be said to have achieved a sensational success.

However, for the majority of netizens, their most intuitive feelings about the conference and their most profound impression towards it was generally anxiety and fear. They called the conference “The scariest conference in history.”

The reason was that of all 30 thousand invited audience members, there were officials from the Ministry of Education, a heck ton of experienced teachers, and parents who cared for their children’s learnings.

All the guests sat in the seats sternly. They all had solemn expressions and none of them were making any noise.

Most of the netizens in front of their screens were left in shock.

“Chilling!”

“I had jitters of being dominated. My psychological obscuration is rapidly growing.”

“Holy, this is so scary!”

“Please don’t broadcast horror movies!”

“I’m out. I have cold sweat all over my body, I’ll keep my eyes off this.”

Chapter 150 - More Interaction

Recently, Xing Hai Technologies once again expanded their headquarters. The office area rented by the company increased from four to eight floors. Of all the 32 floors of the office building, a quarter of it belonged to Xing Hai Technologies.

But this was not all. Having considered that the company would still be expanding in the future, Chen Jin asked his men to acquire a piece of land at the periphery of Bao Shan Industrial Park. His intention was to build the company’s headquarters that would be 80 floors (excluding three basement floors) and expanding a floor area of 60 thousand square meters which could accommodate up to 5,000 people. The building will be named “Xing Hai edifice.”

The company hired a well-known architectural design team to be in charge of the building’s design. In the final scheme, the exterior of the building resembled an interstellar battleship which was flying straight up into the skies, with the letters “Xing Hai” patterned onto the middle section of the building. The design was overflowing with fictional vibes. In terms of cost, including architectural design fees, renovation, internal equipment, and other miscellaneous fees, the estimated cost was around 3.5 billion dollars.

The land had been acquired, and the professional construction team would be commencing operations by next month. By opting to high-speed construction methods, it was estimated that the building could be put into use in two and a half years’ time.

…

After the Little Star Second Gen was released, among the first one million units of stock, 600 thousand units were sold wholesale to the Ministry of Education at a low price of 1,870 dollars. If those machines were sold to the mass population of students at around 2,000 dollars, even the poorer families would be able to afford it.

Besides, Xing Hai Technologies would be conducting sales on their own for the remaining 400 thousand units. The market price was set at 8,800 dollars. Due to complete tax exemption, which saved them more than 40% of tax payment costs, the hardware profit margin was as high as 70%! Considering the low hardware cost price, they feared that selling it above 10 thousand dollars might lead to criticism.

After all, this product that Chen Jin launched was not, as some people said, to cast the poor into hell, further strengthening hierarchy and what not. For something around 8,000 dollars, people could gather up to 10 thousand dollars simply by applying for a credit card. If those extremely poor families were to be taken into consideration as well, they would not be able to afford it even if it was priced at 1,000 dollars. To create a fair world for those who were not able to send their child to school and struggling to fill their bellies, they might need to be gifted every single thing.

In this matter, Chen Jin really could not get himself to do so. He was not a philanthropist, and this was not something for him to take care about either. The only concern for him was to make the Little Star Second Gen affordable for most families. Moreover, there were more units in the hands of the Ministry of Education. Even if the poorer students still could not afford them at cost price, Chen Jin would still put both of his hands out of this matter!

Another thing was that the Little Star Second Gen learning machine was using the “Star network selling model,” in which the machine was sold to the parents via other parents or teachers. This absolutely shattered the scalpers’ dreams of becoming rich. They, who initially planned to accumulate large stockpiles through the online market, suddenly realized that the Little Star Second Gen was not sold online but was using the “Star network.” Subsequently, they all scrambled in wildly as they wanted to become the Little Star Second Gen’s sales agent.

However, Xing Hai Technologies imposed strict inspections towards their agents. The criteria were agents must use their real name, must be a woman with at least a bachelor’s degree, must have kids attending school… and various other rules. Many verification documents must be provided through the system which imposed strict inspections and punishment policies. Over 90% of the scalpers’ dream to make a fortune was completely smashed to smithereens.

Aside from that, on the foundry’s production capacity, 200 thousand Little Star Second Gen learning machines could be produced daily under the foundry’s full horsepower. However, considering that there were 200 million students within the country from primary school to high school, based on the “one for everyone” assumption, production would not be able to supply demand in the first two years.

To prevent the benefits of parents from getting harmed, the Star online selling model appeared to be of greater importance. After dealing with all the business, Chen Jin planned to have a good time of relaxation.

…

In the Pudong Area in Junting Grand Court, Villa 8, Chen Jin was settled in the backyard by the pool. He rested leisurely on a beach chair under the umbrella, wearing colorful beach pants and sunglasses, enjoying the summer breeze as he fell into a shallow sleep.

“Chen Jin, come down and play. Come and swim with me for a while.”

In the pool, there was a gorgeous lady with a slim waist and long legs, who was wearing a bikini. She was twisting her graceful figure with her fair arms sliding over the water while she invited the man at the poolside to join her.

However, Chen Jin had already swum earlier on. He played with the pretty lady in the water for quite some time. As he felt a little tired, he got up and went to rest at the poolside for a while.

Seeing that her man was not responding to her, the beauty could only leave the pool. She walked to the man, took the sunscreen lotion on the small table, squeezed some on her hands and started rubbing the cream evenly on the man’s chest. The woman’s hand was delicate and soft with fingers as white as snow. Her rubbing action was very gentle. She inadvertently touched some sensitive places with a pleasant smile on her face. She touched the two little dots on the man’s chest numerous times, drawing circles with her index finger around them.

“Stop touching.” Chen Jin opened his eyes and grabbed her hands. He looked at her and said, “Didn’t you have enough last night? Why are you still so energetic today?”

“Why can’t I? My regenerative abilities are impeccable, don’t look down on me.” The woman teased him and smiled while winking seductively.

“Yuan Li, go lie down and rest, I’m a little tired, let’s test our skills again tonight,” said Chen Jin helplessly.

Facing the very passionate beauty last night, Chen Jin, who had not tasted flesh in the past three years, was unable to hold himself and subjugated himself to the “director’s daughter.” It ended up with a prolonged battle until three in the morning, exhausting all his energy. After the gunfire, he went into his post-coital tristesse and all of a sudden, his head started to hurt.

Why did I sleep with the director’s daughter?

What was even more surprising was that this was Yuan Li’s first time. Only last night, she completed her metamorphosis from a girl to a woman. This made him feel troubled, as he did not know how to arrange this. Actually, Yuan Li was indeed a nice person, pretty, cheerful, and lively. Aside from being a little “delicate,” there was nothing to pick off from her.

Chen Jin was not a freshie since a long time ago. He started to be in relationships since junior high. Until the time when he graduated from university, he had experienced at least five to six girls, some with pure and beautiful love and some with multiple trips to heaven. To summarize: He was a pro in the field of love.

Chen Jin had high standards. The girls he dated in the past were all seven or eight out of 10 in terms of appearance. Yuan Li was not the prettiest, nor was she the one that he felt the best. Towards Yuan Li, he just had a favorable impression, not even to the level of “liking” her. If it wasn’t to fulfill his needs and that the ‘director’s daughter’ was invited to stay overnight, he would never have touched her. Now, he had to scratch his head to solve the matter. After some thought, he still opened up and said with all honesty, “Yuan Li, I don’t want to have a family just yet. Last night was just me being too impulsive. Actually, I regard you as a good friend, I never wanted to… speaking of which, why were you so passionate last night, didn’t I ask you to rest next door?”

Yuan Li bit her lip while she remained silent. If it was another person that took her virginity and came out with such ruthless words, she would have slapped the guy already. But looking at the man before her, not only that she did not get mad, she held her towel tightly and hummed, “I know you don’t like me just yet, but I like you! I myself am willing to do so, so you don’t need to be responsible. I just hope that you can talk to me and accompany me more in the future… sooner or later, you will like me as well.”

Chen Jin nodded. “I really don’t have the energy to talk about partners and what not. But you are a good lady, so let’s interact more in the future, as my soul mate.” Of course, as they ‘interacted’ more often, they must pay attention to safety as well. At the present time, he did not want a human side product to appear. Last night, he took some safety precautions.

Besides, considering that he had another planet in his hand, management would be an issue if there were fewer people. So, he had to get a lot of people. The number of his offspring could not be small!

“So…for me, isn’t one wife a little insufficient?” Chen Jin stretched his hands. It was not that he had an overwhelming amount of love, it was because his planet required manpower.

“Yeah.” Yuan Li nodded her head continuously as she was filled with joy.

Chapter 151 - Rubbish is a Resource!

After the few days of debauchery in the villa of Junting Grand Court, Chen Jin put on the ordinary clothing that he had originally worn and returned to his home in the Court of Happiness.

…

On Planet of Haierfa, in the central district of the Base of Operations, an office building was located across the garden villa. In the office building, Chen Jin appeared in the hall of the fifteenth story where a holographic sand table stood. In the center of the hall, a sand table that was even greater than a film set was presented to him. A holographic image of a planet floated above the sand table. The planet was a translucent blue orb that was slowly spinning on its axis.

Naturally, this planet was Haierfa. The image of the AI, Nuwa, was reporting on the latest progress on the remodeling of Haierfa. “Master, the first area to be remodeled is the northern Mi continent where our Base is located. It has an area of 2,471 square kilometers. Two-thirds of it are polar climate regions, hence it will be more difficult to remodel those areas. Territories that could potentially undergo remodeling are estimated to be a total area of 1,630 square kilometers. So, out of the 1,630 artificial lakes that I have to start digging, construction has already started on 581. We are mobilizing 3.846 million robots and 112,000 large-sized engineering machines. As the terrain is composed of lowlands, we can start the digging on any location within the lowlands. Realistically, there is not a huge amount of work to be done. One lot can be completed within a year. In addition, we can utilize the air transport carriers in the adjacent port of Wenjing Aerospace. I have also repaired and remodeled a large group of cargo ships into icebreaker transporters. In total, we have 127 icebreaking transporters and 2 nuclear-powered ice diggers. The empty tonnage of the fleet is 2,040,000 tons. The fleet has a full load tonnage of 6,560,000 tons. It can carry 4,520,000 tons of fresh water per trip… Currently, the transport capability of the fleet does not even meet a thousandth of our needs. I am currently carrying out new ideas to increase the ease of supplying fresh water to the lakes.”

Nuwa explained, “For example, by means of rainmaking. Alternatively, they could build some iceberg tugboats and tow the icebergs to the shore, and then further inland. They would wait for the ice to melt into liquid and transport it directly into the artificial lakes via high-pressure pipelines.”

In short, the level of complexity involved in this vast project of environment remodeling was beyond the imagination of the average Joe.

Chen Jin had heard enough. His head felt like it was going to explode. He waved his hand. “Stop detailing the specifics of the remodeling process. I just want a planet with verdant hills, clear waters, and a blue sky with white clouds.”

“Rest assured, master. I will complete the task by the given deadline. The current rate of the remodeling process is not fast. However, it will rapidly accelerate after the initial phase. In addition, I speculate that the task of remodeling the environment of Haierfa may be completed a few years in advance.”

“Completed in advance?” Chen Jin’s eyes brightened. “How can it be completed in advanced?”

“It’s because we have much more resources at our disposal than anticipated.” Nuwa explained that the huge quantities of robots she had sent out would also conduct a thorough search in the nearby villages, towns, and factories in the process of excavating the lake. Even if that equipment was buried under many tons of sand, they would find it. For every village or town that was excavated, it meant a significant “reward” would be uncovered.

Nuwa continued, “Although the mineral resources of this planet are near exhaustion, they have not completely disappeared. They still remain on this planet! For example, steel. After entering the Industrial Age, the total steel production by human societies exceeded 200 billion tons. Steel was used in countless building materials, steel products, and the vast number of everyday consumer products. Such a vast quantity of steel no longer exist as metals in their original form underground. Instead, they are in the forms of various products. They have become something that we can touch and hold. There is no need for mining machines to extract, concentrate, and smelt the metals. Steel is easily obtainable from everywhere. This is a tremendous reserve of resources. There are 200 billion tons of steel products. Even if we collected only 10%, it would be enough for us to abandon the idea of extracting iron. There is no need to extract aluminum, copper, gold, silver, tungsten, iron, etc. We only need to gather 20% more of what we already have in our reserves. That would be sufficient for our uses.”

Nuwa smiled. “Master, actually, even I had made a mistake in judgment. We thought that all the resources on Haierfa had been exhausted and we’d have to start extraction. We only focused on increasing our quantities, and neglected the huge amounts of resources that had entered society, becoming the reserves of the whole civilization. Take the example of a small town with less than a hundred households. The robots had scoured and found thousands of tons of metals. In another abandoned petrol chemical plant, the robots had gathered more than 20,000 tons of scrap steel. When a planet has become so desolate to the point that there is nearly no human left, we will suddenly find that resources have become so abundant, and they are all lying on the surface of the ground. Therefore, master, we do not lack the majority of resources. We only have to increase the intensity and scope of the robots’ search. Resources will not restrain the pace of our development.”

As he listened to Nuwa, Chen Jin nodded repeatedly. He summed up succinctly, “I understand what you mean. It can be concluded in one sentence; ‘Rubbish is a resource!”

Nuwa said, “Yes, master!” Following which, she revealed her plan for “The Ultimate Ransack.” As they were remodeling the environment, millions of robots and engineering machines would dig three feet into the ground. They would excavate all the “rubbish” on the planet, gather them, and categorize them. Then, they would either remelt the “rubbish” and smelt it again, or reuse it directly. This would most fully utilize all the “rubbish” they had found.

“Good. Nuwa, it’s ok to waste a little more time to locate and excavate these resources. Try your best to pick everything clean; no corner is to be missed!” Chen Jin did not want any single darling to remain forever buried under the yellow sand in the process of this Ultimate Ransack.

“Yes, master!”

…

After his talk with Nuwa, Chen Jin took the elevator down to the eighth story. A special device was placed in the center of the hall on the eighth story: a top version of a simulated game compartment. The compartment had a milky white appearance that was smooth and round. With its capsule shape, it looked like an enlarged pigeon’s egg. It was just big enough for a fully grown adult to enter.

In addition, the base of this compartment was composed of a group of thick and solid mechanical limbs. These limbs were able to exercise mobility of up to six degrees (up, down, left, right, front, and back). After the user had entered the simulated environment, they could complement whatever was happening in the simulated environment by moving, accelerating, decelerating, rising, and lowering. It was said that if the user also wore the simulated reality headgear, the environment would become 1% to 2% closer to reality, thus becoming that much closer to a full match with reality. It was a necessity for the rich geek gamers.

There was also a built-in nutrient solution system and a urine collection device in this game compartment. These would ensure that the user could fight in the simulated environment for three days in a row. He would not have to quit halfway to take care of bodily needs. Chen Jin laid down inside the compartment and wore the simulated reality headgear. Quietly, he muttered, “landing.” An infinite white light filled his sight.

After the trembling he experienced in his mind stopped, he was wearing a white astronaut suit and stood on the peripheral platform of a giant spaceport. Raising his head, he saw that beyond the transparent dome of the spaceport was a dark background dotted with countless stars. The scenery felt extremely quiet and profound.

“Liming” Spaceport. Number 001 Novice Base.

Chen Jin embarked on the half-completed simulated reality game “The Interstellar Homeland OL.” He had become the master of this spaceport and the supreme commander of this Novice Base. Beside him, a colorful glow appeared, transforming into the AI, Alice. “Master, I’ve completed the design of the interstellar battleship that you wanted me to develop. Here, it’s this battleship below.”

Chen Jin’s gaze followed the direction that Alice’s finger was pointing at. It finally came to rest on the all-black battleship in the dock.

Chapter 152 - What Kind of Technologies are Needed to Build an Interstellar Battleship?

It was Prototype No.1. Alice had used six months and her computing power of 10 sextillion Tflops to finally design a prototype of the interstellar battleship. Its appearance resembled a broad sword; wide at the back and tapering to a slim front. It looked very sharp. Its various parameters were: Length: 412 meters. Widest width: 71 meters. Height: 32 meters. Weight: 382,000 tons. Energy system: a small nuclear fusion reactor. Power system: Ion engine.

As for the weapon configuration, by the hatch of the ship was a large caliber particle cannon. Many laser cannons were distributed at the sides of the ship, while the upper portion was equipped with electromagnetic cannons for close-range defense. Missiles and nuclear torpedo launchers of great power were installed on the bottom of the ship. In addition, there was an advanced radar system, a sighting system, and an intelligent remote control system.

After doing an overall evaluation, Alice thought that the combat capability of the Interstellar Battleship Prototype No.1 was about five. It could fulfill the basic requirements needed to participate in interstellar battles.

“Combat capability of five?” Chen Jin felt somewhat disappointed. Shaking his head helplessly, he said, “Ok, it’s better than nothing!”

“Master, do you want to enter Prototype No.1 and operate it out of the port? You could go to the meteorite zone beside the port and test the prowess of the weapons system.”

“Of course.” Chen Jin nodded. In the next second, he appeared in the bridge control room of Prototype No.1. He started up the reactor engine. The engine system began to warm and charge. The ion engine started up and it spat out an azure tail of flame.

Prototype No.1 slowly left the dock of the spaceport and entered the vacuum environment of outer space. As he increased the engine power, the speed of Prototype No.1 continued to increase. Sitting in the captain’s seat, Chen Jin felt a clear wave of push-back from the acceleration. But, it was within his tolerable range. Looking at the data displayed for acceleration, it was 1.82G.

With a frown, Chen Jin asked, “Alice, the engine has been revved up to its highest power, but the acceleration is only limited to this?” The acceleration of a battleship reflected its mobility. A higher acceleration would mean that it had better mobility and a faster response. Frankly speaking, the number of 1.82G meant that it could not even dodge attacks from most weapons. This battleship was just a sitting duck.

Alice said, “Yes, master. The engine thrust power is limited to this number. This is the maximum power that the small-sized fusion reactor on Prototype No.1 can provide.”

Chen Jin shook his head. “A shitty response speed means that the battle will be five times shittier.”

However, Alice explained that with the current technical reserves, they could only make a fusion reactor with this much power.

After twenty minutes, he arrived at the meteorite zone. The zone was littered with countless meteorites; they ranged from a diameter of 10 meters all the way to diameters of thousands of meters.

Chen Jin sat in the seat of the weapons officer. Manipulating the various weapons, he carried out an indiscriminate attack on meteorites of all sizes.

Buzz~ This was the sound of the particle cannon firing.

Pew~ pew~ The laser cannons shot out rays of blinding laser light.

Boom! The electromagnetic cannons shot out shells.

Voomp~ Countless missiles and nuclear torpedoes were shot from the launchers.

Chen Jin operated the weapons at full force. Those meteorites that were peacefully floating along in space met with a terrible fate! In the light of the orange flames, meteorites of all sizes were broken and scattered into tiny pieces. When the nuclear torpedoes with its shocking power collided with the larger meteorites that had diameters over a thousand, even they subsequently disintegrated in countless fragments under the force of his attacks. The unbridled attacks and the scene of destruction it caused created a visual feast.

After more than 20 minutes, Chen Jin got several alerts.

“Insufficient energy. Main cannon is charging. Charging will be completed in five minutes…”

“Laser cannon is charging…”

“Energy in missile and nuclear torpedo launchers are depleted. Please start charging…”

“Insufficient energy for the electromagnetic cannons. Insufficient ammunition…”

After a round of crazy attacks, Chen Jin had exhausted all the weapons’ ammunition on Prototype No.1. However, he was still very satisfied with the impact of the attacks. At least he could not see even one whole meteorite in his field of vision anymore. He had cleared a range of 100 kilometers, creating an “empty zone.”

“Even if its combat ability is only five, it should have no trouble facing off battleships with combat abilities in the range of 10 or 20 in terms of attack power. It simply would not be able to hurt the enemy.” As long as Prototype No.1 was produced, it meant that Chen Jin had a means of self-defense, no matter how weak it was. He could just barely struggle in a fight against the heretofore unknown forces of great power.

Even if the Prototype No.1 was weak with its combat ability of five, he still had to produce a few of it. Moreover, this was proof that the Base had the technological capability. Alice had said, “If an operable interstellar battleship can be designed in a simulated environment that has a 99.9999% match with reality, it means that the ability to produce that battleship is present in real life!”

However, the computing ability needed for this project was ridiculously extensive. Alice had run herself haggard for six months.

Since the Base was prepped with the technologies needed to produce Prototype No.1 through research and development in the simulated environment, did that mean that the Base would soon be able to produce the Prototype in real life?

“No.” Alice shook her head. “The Base is currently not equipped with this ability. It will not achieve this ability for at least another ten years. Theoretically, we can create the Battleship Prototype No.1. But in reality, there are a few key pieces of equipment that the Base is still unable to produce. These few types of equipment form the core equipment of Prototype No.1. None can be missing.”

In other words, the technology contained in this type of core equipment was the type of technology that was necessary to build an interstellar battleship! The nuclear fusion reactor had to generate a power of 100 billion kilowatts or more. The weight of the reactor had to be controlled within a certain range to ensure stable operation for 50 years or more. The time needed for the Base to achieve this technolog was ten years.

The Ion engine used a powerful electromagnetic field to accelerate the speed of the ionic medium to 0.1 times the speed of light, producing a tremendous thrust. The time needed for the Base to achieve this technology was eight years.

The powerful particle cannon was a weaponized version of the ion engine. Similarly, the ionic medium would be accelerated to 0.1 times the speed of light to produce a huge force of physical- and energy-destroying power. The time needed for the Base to achieve this technology was eight years.

An intelligent control system for spacecraft was required to have the operational capability of the super calculator installed on the ship to reach 1 sextillion Tflops or more. The time needed for the Base to achieve this technology was three years.

The Base would need three to five years, in general, to come up with the technology needed to produce high-performing and superconductive materials.

“So, Alice, you mean that currently, the Base only has the technological reserves. It needs at least a few more years to develop its production capabilities before it can take the first steps to build the equipment?”

“Yes, master. Having the appropriate technology does not mean that the product can be produced immediately. The Base currently lacks various types of advanced manufacturing equipment. The transport squad is currently searching everywhere for the right equipment.”

Chen Jin asked with a frown, “And we have to wait for ten years before construction on Prototype No.1 can begin?” He had to wait for another ten years?

“No.” Alice shook her head. “It’s the most critical equipment, the fusion reactor, that needs ten years to be created. But, the body of Prototype No.1 and other systems onboard are composed of modules that use less complex technology. Those can be constructed in advance. When the reactor is produced, it can simply be installed in the battleship and Prototype No.1 will be quickly completed.”

“So that means that the earliest time the Base will have its first interstellar battleship is 10 years from now?”

“Yes, master.”

Chen Jin shook his head helplessly. He could only officially have his first interstellar battleship after ten years and depleting huge quantities of energy and resources. Moreover, it would have a very low combat ability. Was the interstellar battleship really necessary? Or should he just start all kinds of small projects, and make some headway here and there to accumulate a collection of technologies and resources? And when he had sufficient resources all around, he could develop a military and start rapidly producing armies in a frenzy.

Chen Jin was faced with two choices, making him feel rather conflicted.

Chapter 153 - Medical Technology to Extend Life

After carefully deliberating for two days with many discussions with Alice and Nuwa, Chen Jin finally made his decision.

Build it! Building the interstellar battleship was a must. However, he would not start the construction immediately. He would wait until he had sufficient resources before starting construction. The planned estimated date when the construction would start was seven years later. Construction would last for about five years. By the twelfth year, Chen Jin would be in possession of the first F grade interstellar battleship (The F grade was the weakest grade).

The maximum number of battleships that he would build was one. After which, it would be an experimental spaceship for scientific research purposes. He would carry out experiments on engine systems, weapons systems, and control systems. It would act as an experimental platform for various technologies. It would provide valuable support in terms of data for the development of the next battleship which would be more powerful.

That was right. The simulated reality game, “The Interstellar Homeland OL,” had a reality level of more than 99.9999%. Theoretically, the Prototype No.1 battleship designed by Alice in the simulated environment could be transformed into a battleship that was usable in reality. But, no matter how life-like the simulated reality environment was, even as it got infinitely closer to reality, there still existed a certain difference.

A miniscule difference of one in a hundred million. Such a small difference would not cause any big issues on small devices, but for something as ginormous and complicated as the interstellar battleship, the accumulated differences would be greater. If he did not build the Prototype No.1 in reality and extract huge amounts of real-life data from it to correct the differences, it was unlikely that Alice would be able to develop a more advanced interstellar battleship. Therefore, Prototype No.1 must be built!

But due to its weaker combat ability, he would build one and only onen. Using the Prototype No.1 as a foundation, he would research and develop Prototype No.2, which would have a more powerful combat ability. If Prototype No.2 had more powerful capabilities that were sufficient for his uses, then he would produce a few more. It would be a batch created for military purposes.

If Prototype No.2 had weaker capabilities that were insufficient to satisfy his needs, then he would stop at one. He would use the Prototype No.2 as a scientific development platform to aid the development of Prototype No.3. He would not stop until he had produced an interstellar battleship with a combat ability that met his satisfaction! After which, he would rapidly expand production capacities and produce them in lots until the quantity was sufficient.

This type of development model was termed “sprinting in small steps.” Then again, was this type of development somewhat “small-minded?” What if he was suddenly faced with danger? How would he resist the enemy when he had no decent battleships? Of course, Chen Jin had his reasons for considering this course of action. A “generation gap” existed between weapons systems. For example, knives, swords, and crossbows were one generation ahead of rocks and wooden clubs. Rifles and cannons were one generation ahead of heavy cavalry. Aircrafts and tanks were one generation ahead of linear attacks. And the ultimate weapon of the nuclear bomb was one generation ahead of all conventional weapons.

In between two systems was a tremendous generation gap. Once a conflict occurred, the odds would not be one to 10 or one to dozens. It could be zero to infinite. Even if it was the most powerful weapon in its generation, once it came up against a weapon from the next generation, it would be destroyed and eliminated immediately.

For example, if the Prototype No.1 designed by Alice was to meet with an E grade battleship with a combat ability of 10 or more, the odds would be terrible at 0:10 or worse. If it met with a D grade battleship that was two generations ahead, the odds would be much worse than even 0:100. Hence, rather than having an interstellar battleship with outdated technology, it would be better to have one with the latest technology.

Under the premise of rapid technological development, he could reduce resource wastage by taking the pathway of “sprinting in small steps.” It was the best choice for him to achieve sufficient self-defense capabilities in the shortest amount of time. In this long intermediate gap before a battleship with a satisfactory performance could be achieved, the only action Chen Jin could take to build up his defense was only an early stage alarm system.

Chen Jin said, “Alice, your present task is urgent. You have to develop a type of early warning satellite and produce a few hundred or even thousands of them. Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens will take these satellites and release them into the periphery of Haierfa planet to create a set of early warning systems. The larger the monitoring range, the better! It has to be good enough to be able to detect approaching enemies early so we can have sufficient time to react!”

Alice replied, “Yes, master. I will immediately begin the development and production of the early warning satellite and build an excellent alarm system.”

Nuwa commented that with the current technological capabilities of the Base, the primary warning system could cover every corner in the area located within the radius of 100 astronomical units. With transmission speeds of electromagnetic waves, this would be equivalent to a warning of 13.8 hours in advance.

13.8 hours? Chen Jin nodded. With half a day’s time, it might be impossible to come up with an idea to defeat a stronger enemy, but it would be a simple thing to pack up his valuables and flee to Earth. Out of the near 300,000 tons of gold that he had accumulated in the Base, he could transport at least a few hundred tons to Earth….

“Say, why am I always thinking of fleeing?” Chen Jin shook his head forcefully. Those mysterious and powerful forces were causing him to feel crazy. Actually, he only wanted to peacefully carry out his various small projects to transform Haierfa into a planet filled with rolling hills and clear waters, with the sounds of birds and the fragrance of flowers in the background.

However, after witnessing the post-destruction devastation on Haierfa, he dare not remain defenseless no matter how much trust he had in himself. Even worse, he had a vague hunch that the peaceful, countryside times when he could quietly develop his own projects would not continue forever. Sooner or later he would come face to face with those heretofore unknown powerful forces. Conflict would suddenly arise and they would collide. Maybe they would even fight to the death, and only then would the winner be revealed.

Chen Jin would face these collisions. It was because he could live until that moment.

There was a medical research facility located in the Base of Operation’s science R&D zone. Based on the technological information and medical equipment gathered, a type of medical technology had been successfully developed inside the facility. A risk-free life-extending technology! This technology could extend a human’s life to around the age of 220, totally free of medical risks.

The specific principles behind life-extension included “increasing the lifespan of cells,””extending DNA telomeres,””strengthening the ability of cells to fight oxidation,” etc. A plethora of effective pharmaceutical ingredients was encompassed in a shot called the “life-extending injection.” The injection was made up of a light amber fluid. After an injection had been administered to the human body, the results were very obvious. In a few short days, one could see that he had turned younger. His skin would be smoother and tighter. His body would be filled with vigor.

However, the effects of this single injection could only last for a maximum of three months. He could go for this injection every three months. If he continued doing this for the rest of his life, not only could he live until 220, but he could also retain his youthful looks and vitality forever.

The price was exorbitant. One shot of the “life-extending injection” cost 100,000 Mi dollars. Four injections in a year was equivalent to 400,000 Mi dollars. However, the annual income of the overwhelming majority would not exceed 300,000 Mi dollars. Hence, it was an unchangeable fact that this was a medical treatment that only the rich could afford.

However, the AI, Scarlet (Scarlet was not re-formatted. After Alice entered ‘Sakura,’ Scarlet was restarted), who was in charge of researching this medical technology, commented, “The production cost of the life-extending injection is very low. At most, it cost 10 Mi dollars to manufacture one injection. As long as the raw materials are sufficient, the Base can mass-produce the injections in big batches.”

Production cost of 10 Mi dollars? Chen Jin shook his head. “The profits from this injection is so much higher than profits from drugs! The pharmaceutical company called ‘Angel’ has a blacker heart than drug runners.” Now that this life-extending injection could be manufactured at the Base, he could get a shot every day without worrying about the costs, much less getting only one shot every three months.

However, the effects of this injection was limited to the age of 220. Beyond this age, the amounts of toxins and heavy metals accumulated in the human body would reach life-threatening levels. If one still wanted to extend his life, he could go to the nursing facility on the moon or the hospital in outer space. In a minimal to zero gravity environment, he would receive the “low-risk life-extending treatment” where toxins would be eliminated from his body. After eliminating all the various toxins from the body, it was basically a non-issue to extend one’s life until 300 years old.

But, when a person had lived for more than 300 years, he would face increasing medical risks if he wanted to extend his life. Still, there were medical treatments that could achieve this.

However, the development history of Haierfa was not long. To the day that the civilization was destroyed, the longest living billionaire was only 289 years old. He did not have the opportunity to undergo the medical treatment that would allow him to extend his life to a thousand years or more.

So, if Chen Jin wanted to extend his life to a thousand years or even more, he had to develop this medical technology himself. In short, living forever was not wishful thinking. For him, it was something that was entirely achievable.

Chapter 154 - Su Yun’s Shock

“Mom, why doesn’t Su Yun come to our home anymore? She seemed to have stopped visiting for a long time.” During meal time, Chen Jin opened his hand and counted on his fingers. He realized that Su Yun had stopped coming to his home for half a month.

Yesterday, Mom had explained that Su Yun had more or less finished learning the accounting knowledge that she had come to learn from her. She would not be visiting so frequently anymore. He did not know why, but his heart felt a little empty, as if there was something missing. Hence, he could not help but repeat his question again.

“What? She has almost finished learning what she was supposed to learn from me. You still want her to come to our place every day?” Rolling her eyes at her blockheaded son, she thought that his speed of response was way too slow. Su Yun had stopped coming here for almost a month and he was only starting to talk about it now? His slow and dumb behavior disheartened her. He was presented with such a good lady, yet he actually remained indifferent. Is your standard too high, or are my tastes too low?

However, his response today finally allowed her to recover some of her confidence. Silently, she approved. I manipulated the scenes for such a long time; it’s impossible that there would be no results!

This fellow could not remain entirely indifferent. As to why Su Yun had stopped visiting, He Li, with a similarly sensitive personality, knew the reason. She felt inferior. A sense of inferiority so great that she could not bear it anymore. It was the cause of her lack of courage to visit their home again.

He Li’s son was too outstanding. “Wealth” magazine estimated that his personal worth was more than 18 billion. The magazine also predicted that this number would exceed 80 billion within two years. He would rise to become one of the top 10 billionaires in the country; the rate at which his riches were multiplying was beyond one’s imagination. He had created two types of products. One had brought convenience into millions of households, and the other had transformed the education of the entire Z country. The two products had a deep and significant impact on the future of the country; both were worthy of applause. They brought about positive and wonderful impacts that were highly admirable.

Faced with such a high-achiever, even He Li herself had started to develop an inferiority complex. She frequently asked herself, “Is this really the son that came from me?” Why did she always feel like she was in a dream? He Li could totally understand how Su Yun was unable to find the courage to come again. He Li even noticed that Su Yun had become even quieter at work. Nowadays, she did not like to talk and would always hold her head down. Su Yun’s gaze would also skitter away when she saw He Li. The relationship between the two had gradually become less intimate and more distant. An invisible barrier had grown between them.

He Li was very clear about the reasons behind her behavior and she expressed her understanding. Recently, she noticed that her subordinate was smiling more. He Li called her into the office for a heart-to-heart talk and enquired if something happy had happened to her. Su Yun did not hide the facts. She explained, “My parents and my younger siblings will be coming to Shang Hai to visit me. It’s been so long. This is their first time coming to such a big city for a vacation. I want to bring them around.” She was smiling throughout the conversation.

He Li said, “Ok, since they came all the way here to see you, you should bring them around. How about this, I’ll give you two days of leave. You can let go of your work a little. The city is so big; make more time to take your parents around for some sightseeing.”

“Thank you so much, Manager!” Su Yun was pleasantly surprised. Originally, she could only use the weekend off to bring her family around. With the Manager’s help, she could have more time with her parents.

He Li smiled. “Silly child, you don’t have to stand on ceremony with me.” The longer she looked at this filial and sensible child, the more she liked her. Why was her stupid son so tasteless?

…

At the dining table, He Li heard her son ask about Su Yun for the second time. He Li’s mind operated quickly and she suddenly came up with an idea. She said, “Son, Su Yun’s parents will be coming to Shang Hai city to visit her soon. They will be vacationing for a few days here as well. Su Yun doesn’t have a car. Her parents will be taking the high-speed rail over a long distance. They will be travel-worn and its inconvenient without a car. They are a big family; they have to arrange for meals, accommodations, and a tour guide to take them around a city. It’s all very inconvenient without a car. Su Yun’s family will be coming over tomorrow. How about this, son; take that big Benz of yours and fetch them from the high-speed rail station. After that, you can take them out for a meal, arrange their accommodation, and bring them around for some fun for a few days. Show your goodwill as a landlord.” He Li looked at him. “Son, Su Yun had at least helped your mother to prepare the meals two times and washed some dishes. Can you help me with this little favor?”

Suddenly, Chen Gang started coughing, almost choking on his rice. He looked at his wife doubtfully. Your son is now worth billions; he’s a famous public figure, a VIP in science and tech circles, yet you want him to fetch some ordinary peasants? Of course, he did not say this out loud. He merely thought it in his mind. Moreover, he felt that with Chen Jin’s personality, he probably would not go.

However, he immediately heard something that surprised him. Chen Jin agreed, “Ok, Mom. I can fetch them in my car tomorrow.” Lately, he was not busy at all. He stayed home nearly every day; he had so much free time. It was good to find something to do outside so that he could at least breathe in some fresh air.

These days, Yuan Li did ask him out many times. She even sent him photos of herself in skimpy, revealing clothes in the guise of trying them out, asking if he liked the clothes. She said that she only wore them for him, that there was even “better” clothing; would he like to know more about those? However, Chen Jin replied saying that he was busy.

He did quickly agree to Mom’s request though.

“Good, son. You’ve helped me with a huge favor.” He Li was very pleased, grinning from ear to ear.

…

The 18th of July was a Friday. It was 4:30 pm, and there was still half an hour left until Su Yun clocked out. Sitting in her seat, she started to feel distracted. She had finished her work tasks a long time ago. Now, she was anxiously waiting to clock out. However, she did not dare to leave earlier. She was afraid of leaving a bad impression on her colleagues and the higher-ups, and people would gossip behind her back. She could only look at the time on her watch as each second and minute passed, feeling the time getting longer.

She wanted to leave earlier because the traffic in the city would become congested after 5 pm. She would be hit with peak congestion after she fetched her family from the rail station and returned to the city. Even if she called a cab, there was no guarantee that she could return to her dormitory by 8 pm. Then, she would have to arrange for her parents to stay in the family-sized room in the dorm before she could finally rest.

Finally, it was 5 pm on the dot! Turning off her computer, she hurried to the ground floor. Not even bothering to return to her dorm for a change of clothes, she planned to call a cab straightaway and go to the high-speed rail station.

At the ground floor of the Tax Bureau, she was the first to exit. Taking out her mobile phone, she prepared to call a cab. Just as she walked to the roadside, she heard a voice ringing out, “Su Yun!”

Turning her head, she was stumped. Him? What was he doing here?

Chen Jin silently measured Su Yun. She was wearing a navy suit with a blue blouse and a red tie. On her head was a hat with a curled brim. There was a badge on the center of the hat. Her uniform also consisted of epaulets, shoulder badges, collar badges, chest emblems, buttons, and other accessories. A standard look for a tax officer. She had tied her hair back in a ponytail, looking very capable and skilled. Her image brightened one’s eyes.

Chen Jin said, “Get in my car, I’ll take you to fetch your family.”

On the contrary, Su Yun was so shocked that she took a few steps back. Lowering her face, she shook her head. “No… that’s not necessary. You’re busy. I can call a cab to fetch them.”

“My Mom told me to come over and help. Stop dithering and get in the car!” Chen Jin took two steps over and pulled her hand. He opened the door with the other hand and gently pushed her inside. After telling her to put on her seat belt, Chen Jin started the car. Sitting in the front passenger seat, Su Yun found it hard to breathe as her face heated up.

Spotting this scene, Li Xiao Lan, who was Su Yun’s work partner, dorm mate, and good friend was astonished. “Since when did Su Yun get a boyfriend?”

In the Tax Bureau, standing at a window on the ground floor, He Li gazed at the departing car. With a deep hooded look, she said in a low voice, “Little Su, you should be satisfied with the performance of my silly boy today.”

Chapter 155 - The Generous “Son-In-Law”

Seeing that it was not the rush hour yet, Chen Jin drove a little faster. He wanted to get to the high-speed rail station on the western outskirts of the city before the traffic jam started. Beside him, Su Yun gently reminded, “Drive a little slower; pay more attention to safety. My family will only arrive on the train at 6 pm.”

Chen Jin nodded and slightly slowed down his car. After about 30 minutes, they reached the high-speed rail station. He found a place nearby to park his car. The two of them walked into the rail station and stood to wait at the exit.

Su Yun made a call. “Dad, Mom, you’ve arrived? There are still some minutes left… Oh, Ok, ok… I’m waiting for you at the exit.” From time to time, she would stand on her tiptoes and cast her expectant gaze at the movements on the other side of the gate. She could not help scanning the man beside her from the corner of her eyes. Her heartbeat sped up. When her family exited the gate, would they ask her what his relationship was with her? How should she explain? A friend? A colleague? She was feeling so anxious, yet the man was calmly playing a game on his mobile phone, with occasional glances at the gate.

Suddenly, as he thought of something, Chen Jin put down his phone and walked towards the nearby vending machine. “I’ll get some beverages.”

“Ah! No need for that now.” Su Yun turned around with a yelp. A hubbub was building up behind her. There were passengers exiting the gate. She could not help but cast her gaze back to the crowd exiting the gate as she tried to find the faces of her family. After waiting for another 10 minutes, she heard the familiar cries.

“Yun Yun!”

“Sis!”

“Sis!”

“My Yun Yun!”

Finally, four familiar figures appeared at the gate. Their faces were filled with excitement. There was a middle-aged lady amongst them. From her features, one could faintly see the beauty that she had in her youth. Her appearance now was rather old, as laugh lines had been deeply etched onto her face. But, she had dressed meticulously in a modern qipao. Upon seeing her eldest daughter, her smile became wider and she positively glowed. Carrying a small black suitcase, a middle-aged man walked along with her. He had a fair appearance and seemed to be well-maintained. He looked to be only in his 40s. However, his back was slightly stooped and he moved awkwardly. He wore a white shirt that brightened his appearance, with a pair of western-style pants.

Beside him was a young girl with features that were 60% similar to Su Yun’s. She looked lovable and cute, wearing a pair of wide-legged jeans with suspenders, complemented with a pink shoulder bag and a pair of white running shoes. She looked extremely youthful and beautiful.

At the outermost edge of the group was a teenager. Not only was he carrying a bucket backpack, but he was also hauling a ginormous suitcase behind him. The main burden of this family’s vacation was carried entirely by him.

Su Yun waved energetically at them. “Dad, Mom, Tiantian, Xiaopeng, I’m here!” The family rejoiced as they were united.

Father Su asked with a strange expression, “Yun Yun, why are fetching us in this outfit?”

“Time was too tight. I came here without changing.”

“Sis, you have such an impressive air about you in this outfit; so pretty!” said her younger sister, Su Tiantian

“Not bad, not bad at all”. Mother Su took a silent measure of her daughter and said with satisfaction, “My Yun Yun, you’ve made something of yourself!”

“Sis, I can carry this on my own. You don’t have to help…Ok, thanks sis.” Her brother, Su Zipeng, was the youngest in the family. He expressed thanks as Su Yun took the rolling luggage from his hands.

Chen Jin, who had been standing at the side, walked over to Su Yun and passed a bag filled with beverages to her, saying, “I’ll get the luggage, give these drinks to your parents.”

He pressed the bag of beverages into her hands and took the luggage from her. Very quickly, all eyes from the Su family focused on him.

Mother Su was the first to recover. With a surprised yet happy expression on her face, she looked at her eldest daughter. “Yun Yun, he… Could he be your boyfriend? You’re almost 27. I’ve urged you more than ten times, yet you’ve never taken any action. I never thought that you would find someone on your own. Good! Good! Su Yun, you’re so sensible.” She clapped her hands and laughed in delight.

Father Su nodded repeatedly. “This fellow is quite handsome. He’s tall too. Daughter, you have good taste.”

“Sis, you’ve sneakily brought me a brother-in-law without even introducing him. Aren’t you too disloyal?” Su Tiantian rolled her eyes. Her sister was too much. She found a boyfriend but was acting like an adulterer by keeping quiet about him.

The teenager, Su Zipeng, also rested his gaze on Chen Jin in silent measurement.

“I… I…”

It’s not what you’re imagining!

Su Yun was at a loss. A blush spread over her face. She wanted to explain, but nothing came out.

Her daughter’s behavior only caused the smile on Mother Su’s face to grow wider. She became more certain of the guess in her mind.

Su Yun wanted to stamp her feet. Looking at the back of the man, she felt shy. Yet her feelings were more complicated than that. She also felt a heavy dose of inferiority, so much so that she could not gather the courage to pull him back and explain the situation to her parents on the spot.

I’ll wait until he leaves, then I’ll explain the situation to Dad and Mom… it’s really not what they think!

However, Su Yun realized that even though she wanted to explain, there was no chance to do so. Chen Jin’s behavior was beyond her expectations. First, he drove all of them to the dorm. They put down their luggage and Su Yun changed into her everyday clothes.

Chen Jin said, “Uncle, Auntie, I’ve booked a meal for us from my mobile phone. It’s at a nearby seafood restaurant. The reviews are good. I’ve ordered eight courses for us. You can add on the dishes you like later… Let’s go for a meal first.”

“Ok, let’s go for dinner. I’m really quite hungry.”

Su Tiantian, who had been calling him “Brother Chen” since they met, said straightforwardly, “Thank you, brother-in-law, for treating us to this meal!”

They arrived at the restaurant and finished the feast of delicious seafood.

Chen Jin took out his phone and said, “Uncle, Auntie, the family room at Su Yun’s dorm is too lacking. I’ve found a nearby lodge and booked three guestrooms. You can stay there for a few days.”

Mother Su said, “Little Chen, you’re too extravagant! It’s better to quickly ask for a refund and spend less; we can stay in the family-sized room in the dorm”

“The rooms can’t be returned once they’re booked. Just put up with it for a couple of days.”

“Ok.”

When they saw the so-called lodge…

Oh my god. What kind of lodge is that? It is clearly a 5-star grand hotel!

A standard hotel room in the hotel cost $8,888 for one night. Xiao Chen had booked three luxurious suites for them! Moreover, they were booked for three days.

Mother Su told him to quickly ask for a refund; it was really too extravagant! If it could not be refunded, could he discuss with the front desk about changing the three rooms to only one room? Booking three rooms was too excessive!

“I really can’t ask for a return. Auntie, just be at ease and stay here. I really didn’t spend much at all.”

Mother Su could not out-stubborn him; she could only sigh. “Young fellow, I know that you want to leave a good impression on us, but you can’t be so extravagant. The future after this is long and there are many areas which require huge expenses. Let’s take the example of a house. Have you bought one?”

Chen Jin said after some thought, “Um, I have about three or four.”

Her eyes widened and she was momentarily struck speechless. She let go of the burdens in her thoughts and happily stayed in the luxurious suite room of the 5-star hotel.

For the following few days, every morning, Chen Jin would arrive at the lobby of the hotel at 8 am sharp. Then he would bring the Su family for breakfast before driving them around everywhere to have fun. For example, they went to the Bund to watch the sea,, and took photos as a memento. And then they went to the Pearl of the Orient, with a viewing platform more than 300 meters above the ground. There, they enjoyed the beautiful night scenery of Shang Hai and took in the bustle of the city. The next venue in their itinerary was an aquarium where they watched dolphins perform. In the underwater world, they enjoyed the sights of various marine creatures. They also went to Disneyland, the zoo, the museum…

In these few days, the lot of them had visited all of the fun and interesting places that they could. Although the entire process was very tiring, Su Yun’s family never felt that the time was wasted. Instead, they thought that they had received ample rewards. However, the one thing that left the deepest impression on the Su family was not Shang Hai’s scenery but Chen Jin’s generosity. He was generous to a shocking degree.

Whenever they had to spend money, Chen Jin would rush to foot the bill. There were almost no occasions where they had to pay a single cent. He even brought them to the malls for shopping. They bought clothes, supplements, and tonics, as well as a bunch of other stuff.

Mother Su asked her husband in private, “Old Su, the money that Little Chen spent in this few days exceeded $30,000 for sure, right?”

Father Su shook his head. “$30,000? It’s way more than $50,000! The cost of the latest Hua Yao phone for Tiantian was at least $10,000! The Jordan shoes that Xiaopeng bought was cost than $3,000. The clothes and tonics that he bought for us were no cheap imitations either.”

Mother Su was shocked. “Ah! This… This is too generous. Return the money, we have to quickly return the money to him!”

“What do we return? How would we return it? We’ve met such a generous son-in-law. What would he think if you return the items to him? Where in the world would our daughter meet a partner with such excellent qualities?”

“Yes, yes. Old Su, you’re right. The qualities of that fellow aren’t bad. He’s tall, well-mannered, and sensible. His background is good too. He totally matches up to our Yun Yun. So, we won’t be returning this stuff. But, we have to let him know that he can’t spend so extravagantly the next time we come again. If not, we won’t come any more.”

“Yeah, we’re about to become one family. I would have to give him a good talking to if he continues to spend money so carelessly!”

In the Su parents’ discussions about their expectant “son-in-law,” Chen Jin, they came away feeling extremely pleased with him.

Chapter 156 - Trouble at Da Mi Technologies

On the 7th of July, Su Yun’s parents, her sister Su Tiantian, and and her brother Su Zipeng, carried many things in their hands and entered the high-speed rail station.

“Goodbye!”

“Bye sister, bye sister’s husband!”

They reluctantly waved their hands and bided farewell to Su Yun and Chen Jin.

“Dad, mom, you must take care! Tiantian, Xiaopeng, be sure to study hard, don’t let dad and mom worry about you both.” Su Yun exhorted them with red eyes as she ardously held her tears back.

“Dad, mom, come again soon.” Chen Jin waved his hand as well.

…

After sending away Su Yun’s family, Chen Jin once again drove Su Yun back to the tax bureau, thus ending the four-day “Entertainment mission” arranged by his mother. Unexpectedly, just as he parked his car at the dormitory located beside the tax bureau, a bank card was held in front of his eyes.

“This…this is my payroll card, there’s 38 thousand dollars of savings in it. I know that this is not enough, I’ll pay you back when I receive my wages for the next few months, only then can you return my payroll card to me,” said the woman with a faint voice.

Chen Jin’s expression immediately became solemn. “If you regard me as your friend, take back your card! Besides, am I lacking this little amount of money? Your parents came all the way from Shang Hai and you are telling me not to express some sincerity? I’m going to get angry if you do this again!” Chen Jin said while glancing at the woman.

“Okay…” Chen Jin’s fierce tone made Su Yun shrink back and pull her card back. She took her bag and got out of the car. “Thanks then. I still have to work tomorrow, I’ll take my leave.”

“Hold on!” Chen Jin stopped her. “Give me your phone, I realized that I have added your parents and siblings on WeChat, but not you. Let’s exchange contacts.” It was only after not seeing Su Yun for half a month that Chen Jin realized that not only did he not have her number, but he had not even added her on WeChat, so he could not even say hi. He really did not want to forget about it this time around.

“Oh, okay.” Su Yun’s face blushed a little as she took out her phone from her bag and allowed Chen Jin to scan her QR code. “I will be going now.”

He was now successfully on her friend list. Su Yun’s face was gradually heating up. She quickly hastened her steps towards her dorm, giving people the impression that she was fleeing from someone.

Looking at her beautiful back, Chen Jin smiled. A very wise and sensible girl. A family filled with positive vibes. Those were Chen Jin’s major thoughts towards her family. Indeed, the Su’s were not wealthy. Inversely, they were quite tight in financial terms. But looking at their family, there were no signs of stress, depression, or inferiority shown on their faces due to the short plight they had experienced. On the contrary, they were optimistic, positive, and striving to use both of their hands to combat the harshness in life and change their family’s living condition.

Su Yun, for instance, was admitted to the civil service soon after she graduated from a prestigious university. She was the only one that landed the position among thousands of competitors. Her sister Su Tiantian was enrolled in a second-tier university. However, she got herself a place in Zhong Shan University as a postgraduate student. She would be in the second year of her postgraduate studies for the second half of the year, but many companies were already sending her offer letters for high-paying positions. Her future was brimming in light.

Her younger brother Su Zipeng was only 17 this year. He looked a little rebellious and both of his sisters doted on him a lot. But he did not receive any special treatments from his parents. Instead, he was frequently assigned to some heavy labor work, as a man! Not only could he not rely on both of his elder sisters, but he must carry more responsibility on his shoulders and burden himself with heavier tasks. Besides, with examples set ahead of him, he must surpass his sisters academically. Therefore, not only did Su Zipeng become the family’s main force in doing housework, but he was also one of the top students in his school in terms of academic performance. He was an outstanding person.

In the second half of the year, he would be in his third year in high school and would be taking the College Entry Examination the following year. Chen Jin asked him which university he thought he could enter, and he confidently replied that enrolling into major universities would not be an issue.

Chen Jin felt ashamed and covered his face. Alright, a family of school-tyrants.

Summarizing the few days of interaction with the Su’s, Chen Jin’s biggest thoughts towards the family was that they possessed the correct outlook on the world, life, and values! Their family tradition was also superb! They could be described as a family filled with positive energy. The Su’s left him with a favorable impression.

…

A few quiet days had passed. Chen Jin, who was now well rested and adjusted, went to the office more frequently. However, on the 28th, he suddenly received an emergency call. The call was from Europe, and the caller was someone that he was very familiar with. It was the Chairman of Da Mi Technologies, Lei Xiao Jun! On the phone, brother Lei said with a rushed yet helpless tone, “I’m done for, brother Chen, your brother Lei is done for. Da Mi got in the eyes of Europe’s Anti-Monopoly Department, after investigation they affirmed that Da Mi is involved in monopolizing and they will be issuing us an extremely expensive ticket!”

Monopolizing?

Chen Jin was confused as he asked, “What did Da Mi Technologies monopolize? Which product manufactured by your company is capable of monopolizing? Is it that your company released a high-tech product that was really good that wasn’t available on the market?” His words were a little discrediting. But judging from the products made by Da Mi Technologies, most of their products were mature products, almost none of them were original creations. They also did not have a good grasp on core technologies. Essentially, they were excellent machine manufacturers. Their success could only be credited to their high product quality and cost-effectiveness, which ultimately made them popular among consumers.

Lei Xiao Jun smiled bitterly and said, “Brother Chen, what you said stung me, your brother’s heart. You are the sole reason that the phrase ‘Let them eat cake’ exists. Have you forgotten about the Love Mi Cleaning Robots? The product had gone wild in M city. The first generation of Love Mi Robots sold over 15 million units over the past six months, the second generation, which is even more advanced, sold 25 million units! Adding up the markets in other regions, total sales for both generations of the Love Mi Robots is over 50 million units! Twice the amount compared to the Wa-wah robot in local markets. Brother Chen, I was still laughing at you for being silly some time ago, the money you can earn selling the Love Mi Robots in foreign markets are way higher than that in local markets. You do not know how easy it is to earn money from foreigners. In fact, the foreigners have way more money, it’s a pity that you gave up this market! But now…”

Lei Xiao Jun shook his head and said, “I will not laugh at you anymore, brother Chen. Your considerations are right, and your actions are absolutely correct! The Love Mi Robots are getting too much money, and there are no similar products overseas that can compete with it. The entire market for cleaning robots is dominated by the Love Mi Robot. Now, Europe’s Anti-Monopoly Department ruled it as a de facto monopoly and will be issuing us a ticket.” His voice was deeply exhausted. “I flew to Paris and negotiated with the Anti-Monopoly Department for eight days and attended three questioning sessions, but it was all futile. They will not reduce the amount on the ticket by even a single cent! Besides, over there at the M nation, some departments are currently investigating the Love Mi Robot on suspicion of violating user privacy. The troubles that Da Mi are about to face have only just begun.”

Chen Jin, on the other hand, asked with concern, “How much is the ticket issued by the Anti-Monopoly Department?”

“7.5 billion dollars!”

Chapter 157 - Brother Lei’s Helplessness

Brother Lei explained the specific situation to him. The person in charge from the EU’s Anti-Monopoly Department that targeted Da Mi Technologies, and the one who decided to issue a ticket to them, was a woman named Margaret Vistag. She had been an Anti-Monopoly Commissioner of the EU since 20X4. In the beginning, nobody paid attention to her, who was a member of the weaker sex. However, within just a few short years, this old lady had many moguls in Silicon Valley knocked out with her very own hands.

At the very beginning, when she had just entered the office, she had her sights set on Google and conducted Anti-Monopoly investigations towards the company. But for tech giants like Google, they had countless connections everywhere and they were deeply aware of the methods to deal with the governments of various countries. If people sued them for monopolizing, they could, in return, smack a hat of “Economic pressure” on them. Anybody could imagine the sheer difficulty to force giants like them into submission. But progressions on the case left everybody jaw-dropped. After six months of investigation efforts, Margaret, who had solid proof in her hands, issued them a ticket amounting 54 billion dollars, accounting for 10% of Google’s annual income for that specific year. The higher-ups in Google had no choice but to concede and pay the fine. The hearts of Google’s shareholders were bleeding; it was literally even more painful than to cut through their own flesh. They hated Margaret, that old witch.

After she ruthlessly stabbed a knife in Google, Margaret turned her head towards another giant — Fruit Incorporation. Not long after, a super ticket of a 110 billion dollars was issued, causing an uproar in the tech community. Fruit Inc. struggled relentlessly. The company’s CEO traveled to the EU to negotiate many times, but to no avail. At last, they still helplessly paid the fine to settle things. Subsequently, she continued her efforts. Margaret, whose combat power was getting stronger and stronger, successively swept through Amazon, Facebook, Gaotong, and other tech giants. The accumulated fine was over a staggering 380 billion dollars.

Legend said that there was no fine that Margaret could not issue, only companies that she was too lazy to look at. It could be said that the tech moguls hated her to the bone, but the civilians in Europe loved her to the maximum. They revered her as the “the pioneer of Antimonopolism,” or “Iron lady,” and made her their idol.

This time, Margaret had her eyes on Da Mi Technologies. With a 7.5 billion fine, it was obvious that in the eyes of this old lady, she already classified Da Mi Technologies as a tech giant on the same tier as Google and Fruit.

“Why? Our product is so fine, and it provided so many benefits for people, why are they punishing us for doing well?” The lobbyist that Da Mi Technologies hired strived their best to argue, expressing that this was not fair.

“It’s not wrong for you to do very well, but it affects the others from doing better. Your Love Mi Robots have occupied 99% of the market, and therefore other companies are unable to develop, causing consumers to lose even more product choices. This is an absolute bane towards the consumers. We must stop any kind of monopolization from happening,” said Margaret sensibly.

The lobbyist from Da Mi Technologies was left speechless. He was totally bested by her logic. Was it wrong for me to make something good? Must everyone be equals?

…

“It’s a 7.5 billion dollar fine, brother Lei; have you decided to pay it or not?” Chen Jin asked after he understood the whole situation.

“I…” Lei Xiao Jun was startled for a moment. “That old witch Margaret is very shrewd. The Love Mi Robot sold more than 25 million units in the European market. The profit was 2,000 dollars per unit, so the total profit was about 50 billion. Their demands were for us to pay the fine within two years’ time and within that time period, we probably won’t get another ticket. If we were to pay the fine and the Love Mi Robot sell another few ten million units, Da Mi Technologies could still earn some money.”

“Brother Lei, can you please have some aspiration?” Chen Jin shook his head and said, “7.5 billion, isn’t this equivalent to Da Mi’s net profit for two whole years? Do you know there’s nothing you can’t do with this money? If you keep the money, you won’t be able to spend all of it even in a few lifetimes. If I were you, I wouldn’t pay even a single cent. I would exit the EU market directly. What kind of hell is that place? Can you even do business there?”

“That is what I thought. But the sales channel that Da Mi established in the EU wasn’t just the Love Mi Robot. Cellphones, televisions, rice cookers, air purifiers… we sell all these products. After the Love Mi Robot became popular in Europe, sales also increased for Da Mi’s ecological chain of products and brought up a bunch of Mi fans. The popularity of Da Mi in Europe is nothing less than that in Z.”

“So… You intend to pay the 7.5 billion dollar fine?” Chen Jin rolled his eyes.

“I can only give in this time. Besides, Margaret will be resigning soon. There shouldn’t be any more problems occurring after this ticket.”

“Will it be fine after Margaret resigns? Do you think this is good? Are you aware that a new broom sweeps clean? What If the new Anti-Monopoly commissioner was someone even greedier than Margaret that skips the ticket-issuing part and directly cracks down on Da Mi? The moguls in Silicon Valley will be accused all at once. Do you think that they would have mercy towards Z nation’s Da Mi Technologies?” Chen Jin told him his analysis.

Cold sweat dripped down from Lei Xiao Jun’s face. There was a chance that Chen Jin’s guess might actually happen. But exiting the European market just like that was impossible. By now, the EU market had become Da Mi Technologies primary market. Nobody would forsake their most profitable market just because of mere guesses. Da Mi’s shareholders would not agree on it either. Therefore, not only did Da Mi have to disclose this, they still had to face the unknown future.

Aside from a few words of consolation, Chen Jin expressed his powerlessness. On the patent fee of 250 dollars per Love Me Second Gen sold, never would he reduce it out of sympathy. Xing Hai Technologies had no business in Europe. No matter how big of a fine Da Mi had to pay, it would not affect Xing Hai Technologies even by a tiny bit.

…

On the 29th of July, the EU’s Anti-Monopoly Department disclosed the punishment towards Da Mi Technologies: The Love Mi Robot constituted monopolization in the cleaning robot market, severely upsetting fair competition. The total fine was 7.5 billion dollars.

Once this news was announced, it caused an outburst on the internet. The netizens in M Nation were jubilant.

“Beautifully done!”

“Margaret, I love you!”

“I think that this company should have been punished way earlier.”

“Although I really like the Love Mi Robot, sorry, the people from Z are earning too much from us, this is unfair!”

The Z nation’s internet exploded as well, but in a different way. The netizens were all furious.

“It is wrong to do well, but okay if everybody sucks together? What kind of logic is this?!”

“7.5 billion dollars, ChinaSat also got fined three billion by M nation’s Ministry of Commerce. This is double that amount!”

“Do they think that companies from Z Nation are all sheep and pigs that should all be slaughtered?”

“Brother Lei, exit the EU market! If you can’t get money from the foreigners then get it from us, we’ll buy Da Mi’s products!”

“The EU is fining our companies, why are we not fining theirs? What are the related departments doing?”

The Internet was filled with all kinds of heated discussions. The netizens were enraged, and all of them threatened to retaliate.

However, Da Mi Technologies, who was the center of the topic, kept silent. Even if there was innumerable support from the netizens, they did not dare to make any comments, fearing that they might cause an even bigger dispute.

…

“Mr. Chen, your decision to not expand overseas was too wise. This 7.5 billion dollar fine is too ugly to watch!”

“Previously, I didn’t quite understand the boss’s actions. Only now do I realize that all of these were in the boss’s predictions. We are all clouded by the little amount of benefits presented before our eyes.”

“Actually, you would have known after Hua Yao was completely squeezed out from M Country’s market. In the high-tech field, the westerners will hold us back using any means! If Xing Hai Technologies is to become a giant like Hua Yao in the future, the pressure we’ll receive will only increase, as well as the fine!”

“I don’t think that it will necessarily happen; the foreigners will definitely impose restrictions on the Wa-wah Robot, but for the Little Star learning machine, definitely not. This is an important weapon for a country, it is something that will increase a nation’s competitivity, they might even beg us to sell it to their country. The genuinely good stuff will make them realize that it will be a dumb move to restrict it and that closing themselves up will only do them harm!”

“But… why should we sell such a good product as our Little Star learning machine to them?” said CEO Ling Dong Jun. At that moment, the western thinking block in his brain had basically vanished. His thinking was completely in sync with his boss. Having gone through a period of craziness and understanding the might of the smart learning program, the inside of his heart swelled. He was no longer admiring the west.

The collective transformation of the executive personnel made Chen Jin nod his head continuously. Indeed, money was very important, but so was dignity. If people were to throw away their dignity for the sake of money, they would not be happy no matter how much money they made. This corresponded to the motto he established for Xing Hai Technologies: “Have dignity, confidence, believe in your own work, and you can make the world a better place.”

Chapter 158 - Proposing the “Absolute Wages” Concept

Xing Hai Technologies consecutively launched two hot-selling products and squeezed themselves into the ranks of the top 500 domestic enterprises after being established for only more than one year. Not only did Xing Hai Technologies, a company that had risen with a phenomenal speed, become the celebrity among companies on the internet, but they also became the media’s favorite.

There were innumerable media groups who requested to interview Xing Hai Technologies. ‘Economy Watcher,”Business Weekly,”Era of Wealth,”Eastern Economics,’ and up to a hundred other financial magazines wished to interview Xing Hai Technologies’s CEO Ling Dong Jun and the founder, Chen Jin. But almost all of the interview request applications were rejected.

Only those with bigger influence, like ‘Phoenix Television’ and Shang Hai’s local broadcasting company ‘Southeast Television,’ interviewed CEO Ling Dong Jun. They produced two seasons of a TV program which had significantly risen more than 50% in viewership ratings. This made the media more eager to interview Xing Hai Technologies founder Chen Jin.

A billionaire at the age of 26, receiving no help from his parents, establishing an admirable career only with his own efforts, and creating two products that could change the world. This was a fantasy. How amazing and inspiring could this be? How many youngsters would idolize this young billionaire and make him their goal? How explosive would the viewership ratings be for an episode of this young man’s interview? Too bad that this young entrepreneur was very low-key in his actions. All the interview applications from the mass media got declined.

However, after one broadcasting media company requested to interview Chen Jin, he did not ask his men to reject them this time. On the contrary, he nodded and agreed. Z Television Network! Z Television Network’s ‘News 1+1’ television program had a very big influence with a lot of static audiences. If he rejected the request for this TV program, it would show that he had no understanding of the times.

Besides, for the program that ‘News 1+1′ wanted to do, on the surface, it would be recollecting the development history of Xing Hai Technologies, introducing this company’s brilliant achievements, exploring the journey of the young founder, and celebrating the young tech company that was soaring upwards. The real purpose was because of the Da Mi incident where Da Mi Technologies got heavily fined at the EU and was under investigation by M nation’s National security department. They hoped to touch on issues through interviewing Xing Hai Technologies, such as discussing the future direction of Z nation’s high-tech enterprises and probing how to tackle restrictions and other similar issues.

The program took place inside the interview room.

“Hello, my name is Qing Wei, it’s my pleasure to interview you. I never thought that you’d be so young.” The reporter from the Z Television Network was pretty and intellectual. She had a sweet smile, captivating short hair, she looked well-dressed in her skirt, and she had an appealing voice.

“Hello, it’s nice to meet you too.” Chen Jin ,who was wearing a branded posh tuxedo, shook hands with her.

The interview session officially commenced.

In the first half of the interview session, the main conversation was Xing Hai Technologies’ development history. She asked Chen Jin many questions.

“Why did you think of making cleaning robots?”

“What are some of the difficulties that you have encountered?”

“Why did you insist on developing the Intelligent learning machine when no one was sure about it?”

“Lastly, was it within your expectations that both of these products achieved such great success?”

Chen Jin answered all of the questions according to the documents he had prepared beforehand. His speech was fluent, and he answered the questions with a clear mind. He even gave some very professional technical details that balled up Qing Wei. She didn’t quite get it, but she thought that it was awesome and could only lift her thumb and say, “Impressive, very impressive indeed.”

“You asked whether it was within my expectations to achieve success? Sorry, but since the very beginning, I already believed that it would achieve success. All of my thousand-some staff in the technical department also believed that we would achieve success! All of Xing Hai Technologies’ staff that are striving silently strongly believe that their work will change our nation and the world.”

“Impressive, very impressive!” Qing Wei’s eyes glowed in splendor. An expression of pure adoration was on her face. Finally changing topics, Qing Wei asked, “Mr. Chen, what are your thoughts on the ‘Da Mi incident’ that has been viral on online forums for the past few days? With a hefty 7.5 billion dollar fine that thrashed Da Mi Technologies, how do you think it will affect the Z nation’s enterprises’ plans of expanding overseas in the long term? Doss Xing Hai Technologies have plans to go overseas in the future?”

Chen Jin shrugged his shoulders and said, “Honestly speaking, I’m not interested in the western market. Xing Hai Technologies will not enter the western market, and of course, we will not linger around the thought of it. Using what Hua Yao said: Sometimes, by letting go, you will feel relaxed, only then can you focus more on what you’re doing. Xing Hai Technologies is such a focused company. In private, Mr. Lei and I are very good friends. There are also some technical correlations between the Love Mi Robot and the Wa-wah Robot. On what Da Mi is going through now, not only do I want to express my deepest compassion and concern, I would also like to express my great indignation on this matter. This kind of ridiculous punishment is not valid. It’s illogical and is an out-and-out suppression and discrimination! I want to warn the EU over here: revoke the punishment immediately! If you really fine Da Mi 7.5 billion dollars, in the near future, you will split all the money out and return every single cent to Da Mi! If this drags on, you will have to add on interest as well. If you refuse to believe my words, we’ll see!”

Qing Wei and the assistant staff looked at each other. This was not listed in the interview questions. They never expected Mr. Chen to react so aggressively. Qing Wei looked at the director behind the camera. The director nodded his head lightly. They could remove this section during the editing session later on. After they talked about the importance of core technologies, the interview basically came to its end.

Towards the end of the interview, Qing Wei asked him jokingly, “Mr. Chen, rumors say that Xing Hai Technologies’ staff treatment is very good. Statistics provided by some institutions say that your company’s salary is already almost on Hua Yao’s level. Is your company lacking on people? Even I want to join your company.”

“Yes, Xing Hai Technologies desperately needs people now! We are now mass recruiting talents of different kinds!” Chen Jin sat upright and said facing the camera, “My friends from all over, Xing Hai Technologies will be establishing 28 R&D divisions all across every province in the country; we will be recruiting tens of thousands of different people to conquer various core technologies for the Z nation. Please do not worry about staff treatment, Xing Hai Technologies is implementing the ‘Absolute Wages’ standard. After deducting your expenses on accommodation, meal, travel, tax, and insurance, the net salary that you will receive at the end will not be lower than a specific amount. No matter the job post, for example, interns will not receive a pay less than $3,000. For junior staff, $5,000, intermediate staff, $10,000, and for senior staff, not less than $30,000, and there are also other welfare treatments as well. I sincerely invite all of you talented individuals to join us!”

Seizing the opportunity in this interview, Chen Jin actually pulled off an advertisement for Xing Hai Technologies. He walked to the director beside the camera and said, “You can delete anything else, but not this part!”

The director, who was middle-aged, smiled and assured him that this part would definitely stay. Both sides exchanged handshakes and the joyous interview ended.

…

At 9:00 pm on the 31st, after Z Television Network’s ‘News 1+1’ program aired the interview with Xing Hai Technologies founder Chen Jin, they attracted great attention from the audience. The program’s viewership reached its greatest high in three years. Although much content was removed from the interview, the way the young chairman publicized himself and his confidence left him a deep impression in the audience.

His sentence, “I’m not interested in the western market,” made innumerable netizens call him out for his act of dominance. It was also then listed in “Xing Hai quotes.”

The concept of “Absolute Wages” that the young chairman came out with at the end of the interview almost caused a storm, immediately drawing discussions from the entire field of economy and the mass public. It became the hottest topic for the mass population of netizens, sweeping through the whole internet.

Chapter 159 - Entering Many Fields

For the mass population of office workers, in terms of salary, they would never be content, no matter how high pay was. Everyone’s pursuit was in consideration of the higher the better, and the pursuit never ended.

After Xing Hai Technologies “Absolute Wages” standard was proposed, the office workers calculated their “Absolute Wage” according to the standards. Then, they all expressed the pricks on their hearts.

“My intern salary was $5,000. Deducting rent, food, transport, phone, and other expenses, my absolute wage is only $1,500 dollars.”

“D*mn, my salary is $8,000 on paper, but deducting all those miscellaneous expenses, my absolute wage is $2,800, even less than an intern at Xing Hai Technologies!”

“Simply upsetting. I’ve been working for five years. Originally I was quite content with my $12,000 monthly salary. But after deduction according to absolute wage calculations, the actual amount that I could use freely was not even $5,000 dollars, even less than a junior staff at Xing Hai Technologies.”

“I have a monthly salary of $20,000 in a first-tier city. But my absolute wage is only $6,000!”

“I’m done, I’m quitting! With my life, I worked for my boss for two years, and I can’t even earn a single cent. My boss’s plea ain’t making me stay, I’m going to Xing Hai Technologies!”

Innumerable netizens said that they wanted to resign and go be an intern at Xing Hai Technologies. There were also countless entrepreneurs and bosses that strongly criticized Xing Hai Technologies.

“According to this calculation of Xing Hai Technologies, if it was in first-tier cities in Shang Hai, Kings City, Shen Zhen City, and Yang City, the actual expense of an enterprise will exceed $8,000 dollars to provide an absolute wage of $3,000! This is over the ‘death line’ for many companies. If they all follow this standard, more than half of the SME’s will perish!”

“Easier said than done! You, Xing Hai Technologies, are rich; of course you can afford to be generous, but have you ever considered the life and death of the others? Various expenses are already making us breathless. This absolute wage concept you came up with is literally stabbing a knife on our already fragile body. Your intention is to kill us.”

“Xing Hai Technologies! Please do not simply introduce new concepts, you’ll kill people!”

“Hua Yao will be abolishing the original salary calculation system and adopt the ‘Absolute Wages’ system. As of current times, staff at Hua Yao have an average absolute wage of $28,400 dollars, the top within the country. Sincerely welcoming all talent to join us.”

“Ali Corporation will also be adopting the ‘Absolute Wages’ system. Our standards will be similar to that of Xing Hai Technologies. Even for a new intern, their absolute wage will not be less than $3,000. This will definitely increase our business expenditures, but only by doing so, every staff that joins our big family can have a true sense of acquisition.”

“Baidu Inc.…”

The SME’s were all condemning Xing Hai Technologies. But the tech giants within the country all followed the heatwave. They announced that they were in line with Xing Hai Technologies and would be adopting the “Absolute Wages” standard.

There was even a man that created a ‘Corporate Competitiveness Ranking’ list based on his knowledge of the different zones within the country and the wage level of various enterprises. The rankings were not based on the size of an enterprise and their popularity, but on the average absolute wage that staff were receiving. The list went down from high to low and made everything crystal clear.

In the upshot, the mass population of netizens discovered that many of the well-known large enterprises within the country were either not in the list or ranked at the very bottom. It was simply unbelievable. The netizens said, “Don’t look at things other than this competitiveness ranking list when finding a job. If you are finding a job, go for the companies with high absolute wage!”

…

The proposal of the absolute wage concept thrust Xing Hai Technologies into the teeth of the storm as they were subjected to mixed opinions from both ends. It also played a good effect in advertising. Xing Hai Technologies’ blueprint of their future expansions was also pellucidly presented before the eyes of the public. It was eye-catching.

In each province across the whole country, they would build 28 R&D divisions and recruit several ten-thousands of talents of all kinds. Preparing to enter 11 key fields, they were:

Chip design: Design a better CPU, design an AI chip with better performance.

Chip manufacturing: Commence research on chip manufacturing.

Supercomputer: Prepare to develop own supercomputer, save cost on the procurement of supercomputers.

New material: The main research direction will be graphene and nanomaterials.

New energy source: Commence R&D in the battery field.

Biomedicine: Commence R&D on terminal, difficult, and complicated illnesses. Commit efforts into healthcare.

High-end medical equipment: This was a trillion-dollar market, which was currently dominated by foreign companies.

Domestically produced operating system: Prepare to create own operating system, build own ecosystem of software.

Industrial software: Develop domestic industrial software. Improve domestic industrial manufacturing capacity.

Artificial Intelligence: This was the strong point of Xing Hai Technologies, but it still needed to be further developed.

Household robots: This was also the strong point of Xing Hai Technologies. It also needed to be further developed.

Thus, the new efforts totaled 11 fields. All of them were high-tech fields. The threshold for each field was extremely high. A large number of funds must be injected, and only after a long development cycle could they expect a return. The risk involved could be described as incredibly high. Speaking in terms of fund injections, for 28 R&D divisions, the construction cost for each R&D center would be at least three billion dollars on average! Multiplying the amount by 28, it would be 84 billion! And this only accounts for the hardware facility. They would have to put in more investments subsequently.

At the current time, Xing Hai Technologies had ample cash flow, they would not even have a strain on their budget if it were to be ten billion dollars. But for an amount exceeding 80 billion, Xing Hai Technologies did not have that many assets at the present time.

What would they do if money was not enough? The only thing to do was apply for bank loans. As a high-tech company with zero debt, prominent profitability, and each asset possessing unlimited potential value, it would not be necessary for Xing Hai Technologies to send their personnel to negotiate with the bank. In fact, there were some banks that took initiative to come to Xing Hai Technologies and inquire with them as to whether they needed a loan for the sake of their own business.

Chen Jin opted for the Industrial and Commercial Bank of Z, which had a favorable interest rate, and got a loan guarantee of 50 billion. He could use this fund anytime for his corporate expansion.

Even so, because of all 11 fields that Xing Hai Technologies prepared to enter, most of them were in the high-input and high-risk region, in which it might bear no fruit even with a ten-billion-dollar fund injection into their project. This drew a long line of questioning.

“First is chip design, and now, they even dare step foot in chip manufacturing? That’s some courage they plucked up there. If they could yield results without putting in a few ten-billions, I’ll admit that I lost.”

“Domestic OS? Their own ecosystem of software? Are you dreaming Xing Hai Technologies? How many domestic OS’s that proclaimed themselves as ‘independent intellectual property’ popped up over these years and ended up being complete rip-offs? How ‘independent’ could it really be? How much market could it occupy? Never thought that Xing Hai would not wake up yet. They want to jinx themselves again. You people should be saving money and putting it in the things you are good at!”

“I was always positive about Xing Hai Technologies’ developments. But this time, this is too big of a step and the consequences will not be as simple as just pulling back. This is literally scattering nets at a place with no fish. This is a complete waste of energy and resources. Indeed, they are squandering to the highest extreme.”

Among the tech community and online forums, most people were having doubts about Xing Hai Technologies’ development plan. There were also people that criticized Xing Hai Technologies as someone who was rich but dumb. Even the higher executives of Xing Hai Technologies had a certain amount of doubt towards their young chairman’s expansion blueprint. They were not very optimistic on a few of the projects.

But after being proven wrong many times, they learned their lesson and did not express their doubts directly to Chen Jin. Instead, they said euphemistically, “Mr. Chen, we have so many projects at hand. If half of them achieved success, it will already be a great success. Even a third will be considered good enough. Isn’t our scheme a little too broad? Why don’t we first focus on a few projects that we are confident in?

“Half of them?” Chen Jin shook his head as he smiled. “You people are really looking down on your own company. If only half succeeded, it would be considered a failure for Xing Hai Technologies! Don’t say that our scheme is too broad, either. With Xing Hai Technologies’ profitability, making our scheme wider won’t matter. The more we spend in more places, the better it is for us! Keeping so much cash flow at hand is what scrooges do. Besides, we still have to pay corporate income tax. So instead, why don’t we use them all in investments and create more cakes with the money? To be a tech giant, we must have plenty of product lines, and the pool of our intellectual property must be deep enough as well. Therefore, we still have to continue expanding!”

“Yeah, yeah!”

“What Mr. Chen said is not wrong.”

“Indeed, we cannot stay in our comfort zone. Our goal is to become a tech giant.”

All the high executives nodded their heads. Motivation flowed through their veins as they were filled with boundless pride and enthusiasm.

Chapter 160 - With Core Technology at Hand

Wang Quan Long was full of himself lately. Wherever he went, he was smiling. He went to many dinners and talks, and received numerable awards on stage. Not only had he regained the 20 kilograms of weight that he had lost due to the strain of producing the mechanical joints, but he had also gained an additional 10 kilograms. His face became round and his stomach was protruded. When he lowered his head, his chin would become two. A specific person had already started asking him to lose weight. But he was in glee! He would lose weight whenever he felt like doing so, and that person could do nothing to him.

Hehe, now at home, I will have the final say!

When he showed a little sign of rebellion and was unwilling to obey in front of that person, however, it did not go well. “Wang Quan Long! Roll to the living room, don’t even think of getting into my bed for three days!” The furious tigress immediately quashed his rebellion.

“Wifey, I was wrong! I was completely wrong!” Wang Quan Long begged for mercy immediately. But he still had to gloomily ‘roll’ to the living room and obediently sleep on the sofa for three days.

A big boss that had several billion dollars of net worth was actually disciplined to be very subservient. It could be seen that his wife, Jiang Yazhen, was very capable of subduing her husband. She completely broke Wang Quan Long’s fantasy that went, “As long as I earn more money than my wife, I can have the final say at home.”

He could never forget the day when Bi Long Company’s mechanical joints were successfully put into mass production. It was expected to bring him one billion dollars of annual income, which was literally like a mountain of gold that would never deplete. So, he rushed back home in jubilance and told his wife, “My wife, I have done it, I have succeeded! In the future, your husband’s earning capabilities will be 10 times above you! I have won, you can’t have a say over me now!”

Jiang Yazhen gave him a cold glare, pointed her finger towards the kitchen and said, “Have your wings hardened after two months away from home? Go do the dishes.”

“Huh?” Wang Quan Long spaced out at the moment, but he could only obey, and so he went to do the dishes.

Later on, his wife realized how significant the mechanical joints were to the Z nation’s industrial field. He expressed that it was a colossal market worth hundreds of billions of dollars! Jiang Yazhen only rolled her eyes and said nothing.

A month later, Wang Quan Long went on ‘News Series.’ This TV program had the highest viewership ratings in the country, and it advertised Bi Long Company big time. Wang Quan Long had almost three minutes of screen time during the program.

Because Wang Quan Long joined the party, and as the star representative of the party, his exemplary deeds were widely spread. Within the country’s perimeters, he attended dozens of seminars and he was very familiar with his memorized speech. Presently, Bi Long Company was listed as one of the most important private tech enterprises. The state had allocated a total of 10 billion dollars to support the development of this enterprise.

A few months ago, due to their product passing quality check, Bi Long acquired a contract with the space agency and gained orders from many military enterprises. The mechanical joints manufactured by Bi Long Company had to go to space and to war. They became an important supplier to the field of national defense. All of the achievements above made Wang Quan Long look forward to the response on his wife’s face; even a smear of adoration would be nice.

But as for the results, it was still a disappointment. However, Wang Quan Long did not dare to grouse because his wife gave him a lot of help for him to achieve his current accomplishments. In other words, without his wife’s support, he would not be where he was now! ,When he was young, he was very poor. Aside from having some talents, every part of him was not worthy of Jiang Yazhen who was pretty, lady-like, and born with a silver spoon in her mouth. They received a lot of opposition when they got together. To be with him, Jiang Yazhen even threatened to sever her ties with her family.

Later, he went overseas to study and came back to set up a factory with his wife’s financial support. He had encountered many crises, and it was his wife that helped him through the storm. It was fair to say that she was his “sugar mommy.” Now that he had some achievements, Jiang Yazhen never praised him to his face. But, his daughter Ying Ying secretly told him that her mom called grandfather and spoke very highly of him. Grandfather asked them to visit him at Treasure Island at the end of the year.

Hearing this, Wang Quan Long was stunned. After a while, he sighed and whispered, “What more can I ask from such a wife?” He then remembered that they were married for more than 20 years. They had been through ups and downs. He had many words to say to his wife that was always by his side supporting him. He planned to give her a valuable and meaningful “present.”

“Ling Feng Jing Mi Company will be listing soon. According to assessments from professional institutions, its market value is approximately around 10 billion dollars. I hold 65% of the shares. When shares go up after listing, the value of the shares I hold may exceed 10 billion… she will be definitely be touched by this present, right?”

…

On the 10th of August, the gong rang out.

Dong!

Along with the sound of the gong, Ling Feng Jing Mi Company was officially listed at the stock exchange center in Shang Hai. The issue price was 20 dollars per share and a total of 500 million shares were issued. On the day of listing, the market was generally optimistic and stock buyers were all buying their share. Stock price significantly rose by 10% and reached the daily limit. On the second trading day, the daily limit was reached shortly after its opening. The third trading day began with a slight drip and rebounded by noon; the net increase of stock price was 6.5%.

After being listed for just three days, Ling Feng Jing Mi Company’s market value was closing in on the 13-billion-dollar mark. The total increase was almost 30%. According to the calculations on the latest stock price and the shares held by Wang Quan Long, his net worth exceeded 8 billion dollars. It was just a matter of time for it to break the 10 billion mark.

As a friend and business partner, Chen Jin called Wang Quan Long to congratulate him. “Mr. Wang, congratulations, you are almost a billionaire.”

“Hahahaha!” Wang Quan Long laughed. “It was all because of you, Mr. Chen, for letting a fern like us grow on such a big tree as Xing Hai Technologies. Without the orders from the Wa-wah robot, not to even mention being listed, even a market value of one billion will be considered good enough.”

What he said was not a platitude. For example, after Zhong Xin International, who had deeper ties with Xing Hai Technologies, got Xing Hai’s hundreds of millions of chip orders, their stock price had skyrocketed, and their market value had already broken through the 100 billion dollar mark! Some companies or institution that pulled out their investments from Zhong Xin International had experienced great loss!

As Xing Hai Technologies’ business partner, the stock buyers were naturally positive about Ling Feng Jing Mi’s future developments. It was certain that this electronic foundry would grow exponentially in the future. It was inevitable for Wang Quan Long’s net worth to pierce the 10 billion mark. However, he stated that all the shares in his possession were placed in a foundation that was established under the name of his wife. The beneficiary for the income generated by the value of these stocks and annual production was his wife. He considered it as repaying his wife for her support through all these years. “That night, my wife secretly cried. I saw it, but I’m not going to tell her, hehehe,” Wang Quan Long said out of self-content. After showing off his relationship with his wife, Wang Quan Long asked, “Speaking of which, Mr. Chen, will your Xing Hai Technologies be listed in the future? I think that with your company’s potential, its market value might exceed one trillion dollars. With the shares you hold, you will be a billion-billionaire in no time or even the richest man in the country. Are you considering listing your company?”

“Nope.” Chen Jin shook his head. “I have no plans to get my company listed.”

“Mr. Chen, do you know how many people will be red-eyed if you don’t get your company listed? Do you know how many forces will be drawn against you? Xing Hai Technologies’ profitability is too high, if you don’t give out some for the others by selling some stock, you will draw lots of hatred and jealousy from the public.”

“Hatred and jealousy? They have cash in their hands, while I have my core technology. As for which is more valuable, I bet everyone knows… Mr. Wang, will you get Bi Long listed?”

“Uhm…no.”

“Exactly.”

Core technology was priceless, and not under the control of capitalism. With money, people could do anything they wanted to, but with core technology at hand, the benefits were even greater!

Chapter 161 - Human Answering Service

It was now the end of August. School holidays were about to end, and a new school term would begin. It had also been two months since the release of the second generation of the Little Star learning machine. During this time, Chang Cheng Electric, as the OEM company in charge of manufacturing the second generation of the Little Star learning machine, pushed their production capacities to the limit. Even when the humans took a break, the machines never stopped working. Each day, the factory assembled an average of 200,000 units of the learning machine. In two months, they had produced 12 million units. 60% of those (7,200,000 units) belonged to the Department of Education.

The remaining 40% (4,800,000 units) belonged to Xing Hai Technologies. The company was able to quickly sell off this batch of second-generation learning machines via the Starnet model. They were sold to the vast number of primary school children, junior high schoolers, and senior high schoolers. The total number of these students neared 200 million. Amongst them, there were many who came from well-to-do family backgrounds. Therefore, the moment stock was made available on the Starnet, they were sold out almost instantaneously.

After all, the parents could afford that little bit of money. The students also wanted to use the learning machine as soon as possible so that they could get a headstart in raising their grades. Hence, this caused demand to outstrip supply. As the demand was so great, some junior sales representatives had to sell the learning machine to one parent at the expense of another parent. Because of this, they suffered intimidation, insults, and threats from some parents. There were two sales representatives who were beaten up by parents. Due to mental stress, there were more than ten sales representatives who resigned.

Of course, Xing Hai Technologies had to protect the rights of their junior sales representatives. Many parents were blacklisted. On the other hand, some sales representatives could not resist the temptation of raising the price of the learning machines for their own profits. Every day, a few of them would be fired. The audit system was getting stricter.

It was good that school would begin soon. The few million units of Little Star second gen that had been accumulated by the Department of Education would soon be released into the market. This would reduce the sales pressure faced by Xing Hai Technologies.

Xing Hai Technologies had sent the lead technician, Zhou Qingfeng, to the Department of Education to build a second server there. He was in charge of data migration to the new server as well as the operation and maintenance of the system. Zhou Qingfeng reported, “The Department of Education has assembled a team of experts. They are currently developing a new syllabus system and are preparing to build a new knowledge tree.”

Chen Jin was surprised. “They are not using the original knowledge tree system in Little Star?” That knowledge tree system had undergone more than 200 years of optimizations and improvements. It was very matured and scientific. There were almost no further changes that could be made.

Zhou Qingfeng said resentfully, “No, the experts felt that the original knowledge tree in the Little Star was too coarse, with many illogical areas. They want to proceed with improvements and come up with a better plan… Urgh, President Chen, you know how they are. Those bunch of experts can never make up their minds. The programmers sent there feel like they’ve been tortured. All of them want to request to be sent back to the company. The knowledge tree is even worse; it’s been modified into a mess by those experts. President Chen, I don’t want to stay there anymore either.”

Chen Jin felt unbearably exasperated. Experts… Their brains were filled with bricks! They might just mess up the stellar reputation of the Little Star learning machine. “School will open in a few days and those experts still haven’t come up with a conclusion? If they don’t decide on the knowledge tree system soon, the millions of learning machines that the Department has will remain in their backlog. Because of that, we will have to continue to bear the pressure of the supply shortage.”

“They made their decision yesterday. The experts said that they want to create a version 1.0 to see how the effects are. If the results are good, they will introduce a batch into the market. If the results are only average, they will continue to improve and upgrade by making a version 2.0, 3.0. They are very confident that the Little Star second gen from the Department of Education would be so much better than the one from our company. They were very contemptuous of us, saying what does a tech company know about education… President Chen, please let me come back to Shang Hai, I can’t stand them anymore!”

Chen Jin was getting frustrated! Hearing this, he had to comfort Zhou Qingfeng. “Just bear with it a little longer. Go along with what the experts are saying. Don’t talk back or argue! We’ll do everything according to what they say for now. In addition, we have to clearly differentiate the Department of Education’s Little Star second gen from the original. They cannot be mixed together; the consumers must never think that they are products from the same organization. Ours is ours; the Department’s is the Department’s.”

“I understand, President Chen. You mentioned this to me last month. Rest assured, there is a logo of the Department of Education on the back of their Little Star second gen learning machines. When the machine is switched on, there is an opening animation set by the Department. The style of the main interface is different too. Differentiation was well done. Many of the differences were requested by those experts. They changed almost every similarity they saw. How else would they prove their achievements to the government?” From Zhou Qingfeng’s tone, one could hear how incredulous he felt.

Chen Jin nodded repeatedly. “Good. That’s good.” He had already concluded in his mind that the entire batch of Little Star second gens that were sent to the Department of Education would soon be nothing but junk. Even if they did not become junk, the results that students achieved after using the learning machines from the Department would be much worse than what they could achieve by using the original. He would bet his life on this! At first, he was worried that the Little Star second gens from the Department of Education would affect his business if they were sold too cheaply. Now, he could let go of this huge worry.

The dumb enemy had given him the means to defeat them. Even if the original Little Star second gens that he had were ten times more expensive than those from the Department of Education, he was not worried that they would not sell. What he was afraid of was the total similarity between the two products. Of course, even if the two types of learning machines were entirely the same, Chen Jin would not continue to dig his own grave. He had a counterattack planned.

He told Song Bojun to lead the technical team to create and install a whole new extended function in the Little Star second gen. After more than two months, their work was completed. It was the Human Answering Service!

Song Bojun introduced, “President Chen, you’re right. The Little Star intelligent learning machine is intelligent. It can basically answer all the learning related questions voiced by the user. However, its answer is usually composed of a bunch of complicated text, pictures, and relevant videos. It will complement with voice expressions when providing answers, but even then it’s reading woodenly from textual materials. There are some actual disabilities when it is expressing its intelligence. For example, primary school students like to ask, ‘Why is the summer sun so hot?’ It provided three sets of answers, eighteen pictures, and six informational videos. Besides the reply given in ‘A Million Whys’ that was simple and easy to comprehend, other answers provided were out of the range of primary school students’ comprehension. Hence we had to do manual screening to keep only the most suitable answer. But, the questions asked by the students are in the thousands and millions. We do not have the manpower to conduct manual screening for the answers to each and every question. So, the ‘Human Answering Service’ added to the Little Star learning machine would be a good solution for this problem.”

Song Bojun smiled. “The mechanism by which this service solves the questions asked by students goes like this; Our back-end database will collect all the questions asked by students and rank them based on frequency. The questions with the highest frequency will be placed at the top of the list and the ones that occurred least frequently will be at the bottom. After the ranking list has been completed, we will announce it and provide relevant information that can help to answer those questions. Then, we’ll publish this with a call for answers from the public. The people who want to answer can make use of the information that we have provided and record a video that answers the question. They can then submit it onto Xing Hai Technologies”Bite-sized Videos’ platform. We suggest that each submitted video should ideally be five minutes or less. The content must be able to answer at least one of the questions fully and should also be interesting. In this way, when students ask similar questions again in the future, they will be redirected to the relevant video submitted in ‘Bite-sized Videos’ and receive their answers.”

Song Bojun grew even more excited. “The video creator can be a teacher, professor, an expert in their field, or even the most ordinary citizen. As long as they are interested in answering the students’ questions, they can record a ‘Bite-sized Video’ and send the manuscript to us. In order to encourage more submissions, we will provide a monetary reward. For example, the video creator will receive 10 cents for each time a student watches the video. If the video was viewed 10 million times, he will receive one million dollars. Students with questions will receive their answers; and with the monetary incentives, ‘Bite-sized Video’ creators will be more motivated to make higher quality videos. As time goes on, through this positive cycle, the human-created videos will be answering all the questions asked by the students. This will slowly resolve the dissatisfaction of those whose profits have been hurt by the introduction of the Little Star learning machine. They can change their professions to provide services via Little Star by recording ‘Bite-sized Videos’ with specialized content. The earlier they come over to us, the more beneficial it is for them. They have the opportunity and power to create one of the first video replies to the high-frequency questions, getting huge monetary rewards in return. Even if many years have passed since their videos were submitted, as long as students are asking these questions, they can receive an income continuously.”

Song Bo Jun gave a thumbs-up. “President Chen, the Human Answering Service that you designed compensates for the shortcomings of the Little Star and improves the user experience in the area of asking questions. It will also alleviate the dilemma that some educational professionals might experience. They will also be able to have hope about gaining something beneficial from this. You’ve killed two birds with one stone; what a marvelous design!” The genius conception by the boss was so awe-inspiring that he wanted to prostrate himself on the ground in admiration.

Chapter 162 - Ten Questions from the Brats

The 1st of September was the first day of school. Xing Hai Technologies announced their “Answers For All” program and made the “Bite-sized Videos” platform available on the internet. They extended a public invitation to everyone to answer the questions, with rewards provided.

“After the updates have been carried out on both generations of Little Star, the function ‘Human Answering Service’ will be available online from today onwards. We encourage children to ask the questions that are burning in their hearts. The first three months are free of charge, there are no limitations placed on the number of questions that they can ask. Children who ask the most number of useful and beneficial questions will receive a special prize. We also encourage the vast number of intellectuals to answers the questions asked by the children and to provide relevant answer materials. The ‘Bite-sized video’ that you’ve submitted must pass our review before they are published. Every subscription by a student (the service will be forever free for the student after subscription) will earn you 10 cents. For the first three months of this activity, our company will reward you with an additional 10 cents! So, that means that if there are 100,000 views on your video during this promotion period, you will earn a profit of $20,000. Our big data systems are opened. You can check the ranking for the frequencies of the questions asked by students anytime and download the relevant answer materials provided. What are you waiting for? Children, start asking your questions! Intellectuals, start making your Bite-sized video!”

This series of announcements by Xing Hai Technologies caused a huge reaction. Interest sparkled in the eyes of the parents. This function was good. They did not have to worry that there was no one to answer any doubts that their child had.

“Can we ask anything?” The children held their Little Star learning machines with curiosity in their eyes. Nodding, they thought, Since it’s like that, then I’ll start asking. They opened the app “Answers For All” and asked their questions. Selecting the “submit” button, their questions were uploaded.

In a moment, the database in Xing Hai Technologies received and gathered millions of questions. As some of these questions had similar meanings, the system’s intelligence merged them together. In reality, there were only about 10,000 questions. They were displayed on the ranking chart based on their frequency.

…

In the capital, Li Yongle was a mathematics teacher and a physics teacher. He taught both subjects concurrently and was able to achieve the title of “Double Excellence Mentor” given by the school. He was the alumni of a university in the capital and graduated with a double degree. After which, he was admitted as a postgraduate in Jinghua University. He was definitely a top scholar. He then became a senior high school teacher. With a teaching style that was humorous, comical, yet thought-provoking, as well as his many talents, he became very popular amongst the students.

In addition, he was an internet celebrity. The series of short videos on popular science that he created and co-distributed via Watermelon Videos and Pop Science in Z Country had spread like wildfire across the nation. The central news media and newspaper published articles about his videos with high praise, calling it the pioneer that started the trend of using short videos to impart knowledge to the masses. On Watermelon Videos, Li Yongle had accumulated 1.1 million fans, and his videos on popular science were viewed a total of 45.71 million times. He had more than 200,000 fans following him on Bilibili. He had also received more than 30 million hits on the 300-plus videos on popular science that he had uploaded onto the video platform.

The production costs of these popular science videos were not high. He only needed a blackboard, a piece of chalk, and a number of Powerpoint slides. With his talent, he could produce quite a few videos in one day. His rate of production was terrifying. These videos brought him huge amounts of income. With the tokens from fans on Watermelon Videos and the Incentive Plan For Original Content on the Bilibili site, it was a piece of cake for him to earn millions annually.

But, what was most important to him was not money, it was the enjoyment that he got from the process of sharing his knowledge. When his students learned new knowledge, or the vast numbers of netizens cultivated their scientific learning, he felt extremely energized and rewarded by the process. Others’ growth was his growth too.

Recently, Xing Hai Technologies was promoting an activity called “Answers For All,” which attracted his attention.

To be more accurate, it had attracted not only his attention, but the vast number of content creators of popular science videos as well. As distributors of knowledge with higher IQs, they had a sharper sensitivity and better insight into the long term. They discussed the topic intensely in private.

“Why don’t we develop our careers in Xing Hai Technologies”Bite-sized Videos’ platform?”

“Every hit (with a subscription) makes 20 cents for the video creator. This is a ‘knowledge payment’ that other platforms have never been able to achieve. Xing Hai Technologies could really achieve this.”

“It’s getting harder to make anything from short knowledge videos these days. The competition is too intense. The very practical video I made based on real technical know-how received millions of hits, but I only earned $7,000 to $8,000 from it. Sometimes, I really feel like I can’t persevere anymore. Many good friends have already switched to another profession.”

“The Little Star learning machine is certainly the next big thing for us!”

“Yes, Little Star has powerful functions. In the future, all students will have one. It is a huge market with 200 million consumers. Even if everyone only subscribed once and each subscription earns 10 cents, that’s 20 million!”

“You’re dreaming too much. Currently, the total number of both generations circulating in the market is only about 10 million units. This market is still in its starting stage.”

“All the more reason for us to get in it as soon as possible! If you enter the game late, the high-frequency questions will have all been answered, and you’ll have to pick from the leftovers.”

“Um, I need to do something; got to go.”

“Ah, I need to cook dinner. You can continue chatting.”

Giving the excuses that they were “busy,” all the members of the group went offline. In reality, they were going to create their Bite-sized Videos.

Li Yongle exited the chat too and opened his browser. He went into the official site of Xing Hai Technologies and found the query link to the big data system in the announcement for the activity, “Answers For All.” He clicked on the link and went to check just kind of questions this data system had collected from the students. The page hung slightly in the middle of loading. A data table was displayed. He was immediately amused as he scanned the table from top to bottom a couple of times. Usually, his expression was slightly stern, but he could not hold back his laughter as he continued looking at the data.

Interesting; this was really too interesting! The questions with the highest frequencies were ranked at the top of the list:

Why should I study? (392,480 times)

Why should I do so muvh homework? (275,043 times)

Why don’t my parents allow me to play games? (264,510 times)

Why are my parents always trying to control what I do? (257,621 times)

Why is it so tiring to study? (231,019 times)

I don’t want to go to school anymore; what should I do? (201,530 times)

What should I do when I like a girl in my class? (172,166 times)

…

After the top ten questions were revealed, the parents were in an uproar. They questioned what were their children thinking; how could they ask such strange questions? However, the majority of students commented that these were the questions that they most wanted to ask. They were a good representation of what they wanted to express in their hearts. The melon-eating netizens had a good laugh over it. They called the top 10 questions, “10 questions by the brats” and hoped that there would be someone who could give a good answer to their doubts.

After laughing with the netizens, Li Yongle felt a sudden comprehension dawning. When he saw the top question “Why should I study?”, his gaze rested on those words for a long time. Mumbling to himself, he said, “In these few years, I’ve made hundreds of videos on popular science and spread much knowledge on that subject. But that is only knowledge. Only a minority of the population are able to digest that vast and complicated knowledge. I never knew what the real questions were that the students had on their minds. I only did my videos based on my own interests, not even solving the most basic problems that the children were confused about.”

He shook his head. “Why should we study? This question is very simple, yet there is no simple answer to it. A five minute video will not allow a student to understand the value of knowledge and the real significance of learning. It’s very hard to answer this question in a way that will let them understand the importance of knowledge; especially when they have not entered the working world or applied their knowledge in reality, when they have not even realized the value of knowledge. Nevertheless! I will try my best with what I have learned in my lifetime, and put in my full efforts to give my best shot in answering this question!”

Li Yongle clenched his fists. An inner light shone through his eyes, reflecting his determination, faith, and the radiance of an advocate.

Chapter 163 - The Three Questions of Philosophy

Shen Lang was a senior high school student in his third year. He was studying in a top senior high school. He was a terrible student, with the lowest grades in school, but his family was well-to-do. His parents were in real estate and earned lots of money. They had hundreds of houses. As his parents were always busy with their business, they had little time to spend with him. Out of guilt, they would give him tens of thousands of dollars as his allowance each month. If he ran out of money, he simply had to give them a call.

But his parents definitely loved him and wanted him to be serious about his studies. It was why they tried all sort of ways to get a Little Star second generation learning machine for him.

“Why the f**k do I need to study?!” When he saw the learning machine, he nearly threw it out of the window! I’m living out the most carefree school life by flirting with girls, picking girls up, fighting with the boys, and playing basketball, yet you want me to study?

Shen Lang had terrible grades, but he was tall and handsome. His name had the character for “unrestrained,” which matched his expression and dissolute behaviors. Moreover, his family was rich, so there were countless girls who liked him. He would usually change his girlfriend every week. The class monitor gave up trying to control his behaviors, and the principal was easily bribed. He was a black sheep who was hated yet envied by many hard-working students. In private, they would rage against him, saying, “stupid guy, let’s see if you can still be so arrogant after a few more years.”

There was once when he accidentally overheard them. He immediately retaliated, “Bunch of poor peasants! No matter how hard you study, you’ll never earn more than what my Dad earns simply by constructing one building. Nerds; so what if you study until you collapse, you’ll still be working for me in the future! I’m always on the path to success in society. Cash and girls are aplenty for me; what do you have?”

The few students on the receiving end of Shen Lang’s words clenched their fists with rage burning in their eyes. They wanted to beat him up, but looking at the gang of followers surrounding him, they could only lower their heads and leave. Shen Lang, who had gained a full victory, held his head high and felt happy. But was he really happy? As the number one public enemy of all the teachers and students in school, could he only prove his vulgarity and ignorance by throwing money around? Did he not long to be recognized and validated by everyone in certain areas of his life?

Of course, he had this longing too. He was not always a terrible student. He had a smart brain. In primary school, he was always the top student in his class. He was surrounded by people singing his praises, and became the child that every parent wanted. His stellar grades continued into junior high. However, he was secretly in love with a girl for a long time, and was gathering the courage to pursue her. Unfortunately, before he could do that, he witnessed the girl getting easily picked up by a boy from the next class. He was fat as a pig and had a face full of acne. Within two months, things between the couple had escalated to the point where the girl had to go to the hospital for an abortion. Through this incident, his heart and mind became traumatized. Just because he had money, even a pig could easily get a pretty girl?

My family is rich too, why can’t I do that?

From that moment on, Shen Lang changed. His grades took a dive and he became an unrestrained and dissolute wastrel. Three years had passed and he had been in relationships with countless pretty girls and even slept with the most beautiful girl in school countless times… Yet, the sweet and innocent smile of that girl would appear in his mind from time to time.

“Ha, you’ve ruined me.” Shaking his head, he laughed in spite of himself. As his gaze rested on the Little Star learning machine in his hands, he felt even more annoyed! “F**k, I’m taking the humanities, why are you giving me a Little Star learning machine that’s meant for students in the sciences? Dad, Mom, please stop buying solutions that don’t even match the problem just because you’re anxious!”

“Big brother, if you’re not using the Little Star learning machine, can I borrow it? Or you could sell it to me at the full price; I’ll buy it.” Out of all the followers he had in his gang, this was asked by one of the younger boys, with a flattering smile plastered on his face.

Shen Lang looked at him and said, “Oh… the Little Star second gen is selling for $50,000 on the black market now. You’re trying to get a cheap deal out of me? You think I don’t know what’s going on in the market?” He could be quite lackadaisical usually, but that did not mean that he was stupid! He would still pay close attention to the really popular news.

Forcing a smile, the younger brother said, “I really can’t afford $50,000. My family is really poor, at most I can pay $30,000! I promised my parents that I will study diligently and make sure I get to a mid-rank university. I have to start living a good and narrow life.”

All of a sudden, a commotion broke out around them.

“F**k, did hell freeze over? You’re saying you want to study?”

“What kind of joke is this? You typically only get around 200 points in the exams and you want to get into a mid-rank university; are you dreaming?”

“If a scum like you can get into a mid-rank university, I’ll cut off my head!”

“Stop trying to fight your way up, you’re not suited for studying!”

Surrounded by ridicule and taunts, his face grew red and he lowered his head in embarrassment.

But Shen Lang did not laugh at him. After a few days, he gave the excuse that his learning machine was spoiled and requested a new one from his parents. Then, he gave the learning machine to the younger boy in private. Patting his shoulder, he said, “Study well, you can owe me the money for now. Pay me back when you’re successful.”

The younger “brother” clutched the learning machine to his chest and cried, “Big Brother, I will repay you ten times in the future!”

From that moment on, he lost one of his followers.

Recently, the “Answers For All” app had been released online. As a humanities student, he finally found a use for this learning machine now that he could ask his own questions. He laughed when he saw the “10 questions by the brats” that was trending online. That was too interesting. “I’ll try this function too.” He opened “Answers For All.” In the question interface, he pressed on the microphone button in the center, leaned into the learning machine and asked, “Little Star, why should I study?”

“Little Star has found 188 answers.” The page jumped to another page showing a list of videos. There were a total of 188 relevant “Bite-sized videos” that could answer this question. He scanned the page from top to bottom and realized that the list was ordered according to likes by students. The videos with the most number of likes were at the top and the ones with the least number of likes were at the bottom.

In addition, there was a “flower token” function. Each flower could be purchased for 50 cents. If a student thought that a video answer was particularly good, and a “like” was insufficient, he could give a flower token (each student was limited to one flower per video). Besides the current ranking based on the number of “likes,” a separate ranking based on the flower tokens would be coming up. However, since it was the promotion period, students could ask questions free of charge for the first three months. Anyway, account top-up function was not available yet. When the free trial period was over, the top-up function would be up and running. Students could then go and top-up (if they did not top-up, they would get computerized answers from the AI; the user experience would be much worse).

“Teacher Li Yongle?” Shen Lang noticed that the number one liked video was uploaded by someone called “Teacher Li Yongle.” Compared to other videos, his video was uploaded later, but he received a shocking amount of views and likes. A total of 1.81 million views and 1.79 likes. Almost everyone who watched the video “liked” it. “Let’s listen to his answer.”

Shen Lang clicked on the play button.

A long and drawn-out voice could be heard, “Dear students, hello, I’m Teacher Li Yongle…”

After about 10 minutes, the video finished playing. Without knowing why, Shen Lang felt tears in his eyes as his vision became blurry. Rubbing his eyes, he said, “Damn it, I was almost brainwashed into wanting to study.” While rambling to himself, he did not forget to “like” the video. He had to admit that Teacher Li Yongle’s words had made him feel ashamed as a terrible student. But it was impossible that he would start studying so easily! If there was nobody who could answer the three ultimate questions that he had, he would never study!

Without care for the roommates that were sleeping soundly in his dorm room, he pressed the microphone button on the screen and asked loudly, “Little Star, Who am I? Where did I come? Where will I go?”

He asked the “three questions of philosophy” that humanities students were always talking about.

“Crazy!” He received a scolding from the roommate sleeping in the lower bunk.

“Little Star has found 7 replies.”

F**k! Shen Lang was shocked. There were actually people who answered these questions? And not just one, but seven? He scanned the video rankings again and to his surprise, found that the number one ranked video was viewed 270,000 times with 27,000 likes!

He clicked on it. Another 10 minutes passed. Buried under his covers, Shen Lang’s tears were flowing freely. A wailing that was reminiscent of ghosts and wolves rang out in the middle of the night, “From today onwards, I, Shen Lang, will put all of my heart into my studies!”

Chapter 164 - Virtual Factory

On the 20th of September, at 8:30 am, a group of special “guests” had arrived at Xing Hai Technologies’ fourth development plant in the Bao Shan Industrial Park. Many of these “guests” wore grave expressions, their steps were quick, and their hands trembled slightly, betraying the unrest in their minds.

Leading the group at the front was the President of Zhong Xin International, Zhang Wei Jin; behind him was the Executive Chairman, Khoo Ci Feng; CEO Liang Meng Nan; and Chief Development Inspector, Yang Ming. The upper management from Zhong Xin International made a collective appearance.

“President Zhang, you’ve arrived. Apologies for not receiving you at the door.” Chen Jin, who was in the development plant, had thought that the personnel from Zhong Xin International would arrive after 9 am. He did not expect that they would arrive half an hour earlier, and had to apologize for being unprepared for their arrival.

Zhang Wei Jin waved his hands, unconcerned. As they shook hands, he leaned closer and asked with all seriousness, “President Chen, ‘that technology’ that you spoke about… Your company really developed it successfully?” Disbelief was all over his face. Could such a fantastical technology really be made into reality?

“It can be used soon.” Chen Jin smiled and nodded. “The computing speed of the second TC9000 that Xing Hai purchased with $50,000 is still insufficient. But it has no problem handling a more complicated production scenario.”

“No problems?” Zhang Wei Jin eyes widened. “Production of chips is not merely ‘more complicated,’ it’s extremely complicated! Can your ‘virtual factory’ really simulate such a complicated scenario?” He remained skeptical. There were two things that really took the cake in the industrial sector. One was engines for aircrafts. And the other was chips! The manufacturing process of a chip was extremely complicated. A single production line would involve about 50-plus businesses and included 2,000 to 5,000 processes.

Using the OEM factory as an example, the sand would first have to be purified to extract silicon from it. Then the silicon would be cut into wafers and processed. The entire wafer processing could be separated into two halves. The first half of the processes was divided into several modules: photolithographic printing, deposition, etching, cleaning, and pouring. The latter half of the processes consisted mainly of sealing and packaging: interconnection, wiring, and sealing. Photolithography was the crucial link between production and design.

Many processes were carried out in independent factories, where even the equipment had to be manufactured by specialized factories. In addition, the materials used in the processes included hundreds of different types of gases, fluids, and other target materials which had to be produced by specialized plants in the chemical industry. Lastly, the production of the integrated circuits must be carried out in a sterile environment. Hence, exhaust, air purification, and other cleaning systems were also needed.

Using the latest 14-nanometer chip manufacturing process mastered by Zhong Xin International as an example, they had to integrate billions of transistors and control units onto the wafers with only a surface of two to three square centimeters. After processing, there was still sealing, packaging, and testing to be carried out. The total number of processes exceeded 2,000. If the size of the transistors were to be further reduced, the number of manufacturing processes involved would be even higher.

Now, this technician from Xing Hai Technologies was telling him that they only needed to input the data for the equipment required in the production line, the technical parameters, and the manufacturing workflow into the supercomputer, which would create a “virtual factory” based on that data. This virtual factory would be able to do a 100% realistic simulation of the chip-making process.

Within this virtual factory, it was able to go through all 200-plus processes, from cutting the wafers to packaging and testing. By the end of the processing, it would produce a virtual “chip.” Zhang Wei Jin did not know if this was a virtual animation or a “virtual factory” that was really able to close the gap between reality and simulation to an infinitesimal degree. When he heard bout this idea, his eyes widened on the spot and he immediately grasped the huge significance of this technology. It would bring about a great industrial transformation! And such a fantastical technology was mastered and controlled by a young company that was established less than two years ago?

Chen Jin shook his head. “President Zhang, the supercomputer can even simulate a nuclear explosion, why can’t it simulate industrial manufacturing processes? If you are still an unbeliever, you can take a look at our ‘virtual factory’ and test it out for yourself. Try it and see if it’s really possible to simulate the production of the chips.”

Zhang Wei Jin nodded. “Ok! I’ll believe it when I see it with my own eyes!”

The CEO, Liang Meng Nan, and Chief Development Inspector, Yang Ming, sat in front of the computer screen and operated the virtual factory in the computer. Liang Meng Nan and Yang Ming had been players in the field of chips for many years; they were the two top generals in Zhong Xin International. Without them, the company would still have been limited to the 28 nanometer manufacturing range for many years. Without them, it was impossible for the company to enter the era of 14 nanometer chip manufacturing so quickly.

As he was adjusting the angle of the view with the mouse, Liang Meng Nan suddenly gasped. It was so realistic. The virtual factory seemed to be nearly the same as the factory in real life. It was so realistic that one could not help but gasp in awe. After adjusting the viewing angle and entering the factory, they could see all the equipment on the production line at a glance. The photolithographic machine, plasma etching machine, ion implanter, wafer dicing machine… All the various equipment was reconstructed in a one-to-one proportion. If they zoomed into the inside of the photolithographic machine, they could even see the beams of light in the machine printing out the complex circuit structures on the photosensitive materials.

Zhang Wei Jin sighed from his position behind the chair. “This simulation is too realistic.” Excitement grew in his heart. Maybe President Chen did not lie to him, and this type of technology was real.

The Chief Development Inspector, Yang Ming, said, “Old Meng, give a slight adjustment to the parameters of the ion implanter and monitor the product yield.”

“How much should I adjust?”

“Adjust it by a fraction of a millionth.”

“Ok.” Liang Meng Nan entered the parameters’ settings interface and slightly adjusted the numbers. After waiting for more than two hours, the virtual factory displayed the new chip yield, which was reduced to 0.1% from the original 95%.

Yang Ming, who was in charge of operations in the production lines, took a deep breath and said, “It’s exactly the same situation we have faced in reality.”

Everyone in attendance was shocked.

Zhang Wei Jin said, “Do a few more tests!” Actually, he was already screaming and shouting in his heart, but he pressed his weight into the back of the chair and suppressed his excitement. He wanted to doubly confirm this shocking fact first!

Chen Jin, who was standing at the sidelines as he watched them discuss the adjustments of the parameters, folded his arms and smiled. The virtual factory was the first “futuristic” technology by Xing Hai Technologies after the introduction of the Wa-wah Robot and the learning machine. This smarter and more powerful “intelligent simulation program” was built upon the foundations of the “intelligent learning program.” Hence, it definitely had a certain degree of autonomous learning ability.

As the “virtual factory” was the merging of the “intelligent learning program” with a supercomputer with an operational ability of 8 quadrillion Tflops, its simulation had a 99.99% match with reality. The difference between simulation and reality was less than one in 10,000. However, as Zhong Xin International had provided large amounts of real parameters and data, which they could use to correct the differences in the various production phases, the differences in the virtual factory for Zhong Xin International was not more than one in 100 million.

Moreover, the more data from reality that was provided, the less differences that would appear in the virtual factory. The existence of this virtual chip factory would have a great impact on Zhong Xin International’s chip production capabilities.

It could even turn the current structure of the global chip manufacturing industry upsidedown. It signified a foreboding in the chip-making field. An easily overlooked smallfry was about to grow into a great white shark.

Chapter 165 - A Fantastical Device for Development

For the next ten or so hours that followed, Liang Meng Nan and the others did a total of five adjustments to the parameters before finally getting five yield values that fully conformed to the situation in reality. This also meant that the “virtual factory” technology by Xing Hai Technologies was reliable, confirmed to be useful, and could be called a “god-like technology” that was in a league of its own.

Liang Meng Nan was so excited that his words became incoherent. “With this virtual factory, our future costs with regards to the adjustments, improvements, and optimizations of the chip manufacturing process would be a tenth of what we spend in the past. The time that we spend on process modifications will also be a tenth of what was wasted in the past. Trial and error costs are greatly reduced!”

“The production yield of the 14-nanometer chips had stopped increasing since two years ago. We can’t be content with a 95% production yield. The OEM factories of Mossy Electric Corporation and Samsin have a yield of 98% and above for their 14-nanometer chips. It i only a difference of 3% to 4%, but it means that they could get more profits of a similar percentage. Or they could price their products more competitively than us by few percentage points, such that we become uncompetitive in terms of pricing. In addition, not only do the OEM factories of Mossy Electric and Samsin have a higher chip yield, they also have a higher production efficiency. Their production lines can produce 300,000 chips in a day, whereas we can only produce a maximum of 250,000. Our production efficiency is worse than theirs.”

He continued, “The primary reason for their lead in the market is because they have money. They can afford trial and error as much as they want and make all the necessary adjustments and improvements to the manufacturing processes of the chips to raise their production efficiency. They have huge amounts of capital to invest in the development of the next generation of chip-making processes. Under the Matthew Effect, their leading advantage continues to gallop further ahead. But, Zhong Xin cannot do that. We have no money and no manpower. We need to pour our profits back into the business to keep it functioning. The 14-nanometer production line is the greatest source of our company’s profits. We can’t stop for even one moment! Much less stopping production to carry out improvements to the production workflow. Therefore, our yield has been stuck at 95%. The virtual factory created by Xing Hai Technologies is a perfect solution for the difficult circumstances we have found ourselves in! We can carry out the tests for process improvements, adjust parameters, add new processes, or reduce cumbersome ones. Through the computer’s simulation, we can explore ways to achieve rapid production! The simulation speed of the supercomputer is very fast. The rewards that we get from fumbling about in reality is outmatched by what this computer can achieve in three days. The efficiency of our exploration to find better processes will be greatly increased! The production yield and efficiency of our chips will certainly double!”

The Chief Development Inspector, Yang Ming, expounded on the significance of the virtual factory with great excitement. He spoke loudly, “With the virtual factory, the technological distance between Zhong Xin International and the global top OEM chip factories would narrow at ten times the current speed. We can definitely catch up to them within two years!”

“That’s right, we’ll catch up to them.” Zhang Wei Jin and others nodded in agreement. Yang Ming’s words were not exaggerated at all. Supposing that Zhong Xin International was behind Mossy Electric Corporation and Samjin by 20 years, if they could catch up to them at 10 times the current speed, it was entirely possible that they could reach their level within two years. The costs needed to catch up to the leading technological standard was only a tenth of what they would have to spend in the past. The virtual factory was this terrifying!

Speaking of chip manufacturing processes, were the working processes really that incredible? Was a good chip not easily created as long as one had a good photolithography machine? This thinking was especially erroneous! The photolithography machine was only one important process in chip manufacturing; it was not everything in chip manufacturing. All 2,000-plus processes formed the core technologies of chip manufacturing.

This required the OEM factory to have the necessary powerful system integration and a precisely coordinated production support capability. The simulation process that consisted of thousands of processes must be even harder to develop than the core technologies. One should not look down on the OEM industry in chip manufacturing simply because they did not create their own original product. Without the OEM chip factories, none of the core equipment suppliers such as the photolithography machines manufacturer, the etching machine factory, or the ion implanter factory, would be able to create the chips. The manufacturing processes in the OEM chips factories consisted of the most important and essential technologies.

In addition, other countries had lifted the embargoes on Z country a few years ago with regards to the chip manufacturing field and the core equipment needed. Hence, even though the supply order was somewhat backward, as long as they had the money, the chip manufacturing businesses in Z country could easily purchase the latest core equipment, including the photolithography machine. Other countries had never really enforced the embargo on Z country. There were two reasons for that. Firstly, there were a few research organizations from Z country that had conquered many key technologies in the field of lithography. If they had enforced the embargo, they would be cutting their own nose to spite their face, as Z country’s enterprise would achieve breakthroughs again in a few years. The other reason was that having the most advanced photolithographic machine did not mean that one had fully mastered the chip manufacturing technologies.

For example, the photolithography machine used by all the current leading giants in the global chip industry was usually the 193-nanometer immersion lithography machine manufactured by the Asmal Corporation from Holland. The present 65-nanometer, 45-nanometer, 32-nanometer, and the 16- and 14-nanometer chips were all produced using the 193-nanometer immersion lithography machine. How did a lithography machine with a huge wavelength produce a chip that came from even smaller manufacturing processes? This was the power exhibited by advanced processing technology.

The extreme ultraviolet lithography machine (EUV) was necessary for the production of the 10- and 7-nanometer chips that came from smaller manufacturing processes. The EUV was necessary to ensure that the chip had stable performance and a higher yield rate. Z country did not face an embargo from overseas with regards to the EUV. Zhong Xin International had ordered an EUV two years ago for 12 million! They received the machine last year and used it to research more advanced processes in chip manufacturing. However, they had not achieved any substantial breakthroughs up to this point.

With the R&D bonus from Xing Hai Technologies in the form of the virtual factory, they would advance into the territories of the 10-nanometer, the 7-nanometers, and even the smaller 5-nanometer, after raising the production yield and efficiency of the 14-nanometer chip. Zhang Wei Jin and others predicted that they could definitely achieve a great breakthrough within a short time!

Yang Ming was suddenly hit with a wild idea. “President Chen, Brother Liang, why don’t we skip over the 10-nanometer and jump straight into the 7-nanometer? There will be many difficulties in the beginning, but with this fantastical device, we have countless opportunities for trial and error. Our trial and error costs are extremely low! We’ll skip over one generation go straight into 7-nanometer chip development. This will allow us to achieve the same leading standard as Mossy Electric and Samjin. We will be a worldwide sensation once we have achieved our breakthrough!”

Interest sparkled in the eyes of the audience.

“I think… I think it’s worth a shot!”

“We are almost finished with getting a feel for the 10-nanometer chip. The yield rate is terrible but we have at least produced a few usable chips that meet the standards. We will use that as our technological foundation and go straight into 7-nanometer chip development. It should be a relatively smooth process.”

“It’s bold, but it’s worth a shot. We can aim for a development that skips the intermediate stages! If our 7-nanometer chip is successfully developed, not only will the world be shocked, the shareholders’ confidence will be boosted too. Our share prices will go through the roof!”

Zhang Wei Jin was so excited that his face turned red. It was ok even if their attempt failed, at most they would lose some time and money for the development process. In comparison with the tremendous reward that they could reap, it was worth the risk! One could imagine how great the boost of confidence that Zhang Wei Jin and his employees received from the power of the “Fantastical Device for Development,” the virtual factory.

Chapter 166 - The True Meaning

On the 21st, Zhong Xin International dispatched several trustworthy technical personnel to Xing Hai Technologies’s fourth R&D factory to study the improvements of the chip manufacturing process using the virtual factory technique. After a few days and a few dozen calibrations, they acquired satisfying results. In the virtual factory, the 14-nanometer chip’s defect-free rate had improved to 96.1% from the previously stagnant 95%. Production efficiency had also increased by 1.2%. This progress was rather astonishing. The cost price involved was no more than the several million dollars of electrical bills generated during the operation of the supercomputer.

“Continue optimizing and improvement efforts. Strive to push the chip defect-free rate above 97% and increase production efficiency by 5%! Subsequently, make actual adjustments on the production line and convert the virtual factory into an actual factory.”

It would basically not have too big of a deviation in actuality for virtual factories to realize an improvement under 5%. If it were to be over 10%, the error would increase drastically. Therefore, the ideal research procedure would be: improve by a small margin within the virtual factory — make adjustments in reality, obtain real feedback data — continue improving within the virtual factory. The key was to make small but quick steps.

If the operating powers of the supercomputer were faster and simulations were more realistic, R&D could be done from entirely within the virtual factory from scratch to producing the actual product. The entire dataset could be produced within the virtual factory and it could be applied directly in the real world! The only requirement was that the supercomputers operating speed must be over one trillion billion times per second!

As of current times, the most advanced supercomputer was Z nation’s Heavenly River -3E. Its operation speed was just 100 billion times per second, which was very distant from the demands to attain “Complete virtual development.”

Even so, using even low-performance supercomputers to assist in R&D would help save a massive amount on R&D costs and improve efficiency substantially. Chen Jin decided that Xing Hai Technologies would acquire more supercomputers, and at the same time develop their own supercomputer with better performance. Subsequently, they could upload mass amounts of “Intelligent simulation techniques” into its system and establish more “virtual factories” to assist in chip manufacturing and design, research on new materials, R&D on the high-end medical equipment… its field of application was limitless. The progression speed of achieving results starting from scratch would be very astonishing.

“This is the bright future! No matter how strong the human brain is, how could it possibly be more powerful than a supercomputer with an operating speed of N billion times per second? Even if you gather 10 thousand school-tyrants to burn their neurons for 10 years straight, it will still not be as good as a virtual factory running for a year. Certainly, we will still need talents in the future, not those who follow the existing rules, but those with a brilliant creative mind! We don’t need you to be a jack of all trades, knowing a little bit in every field would suffice. For problems that you really cannot tackle, ask the Little Star learning machine; for practical operations, use the virtual factory… in the end, by just knowing the principles and through countless trial and error, even a slag like me could find the right way and produce an advanced chip. Mastering the chip technology all by oneself is not a fantasy! In our current trend in technological advancements, insisting on using exam-oriented education is nothing but a joke. It will never be able to produce talents that would fulfill future demands.”

This was then reason why Chen Jin released the Little Star learning machine first. He was laying out his plans in advance, cultivating talents that he needed the most. For sure, this process would definitely bring forth pain, turmoil, and massive change to the society, which would affect the fates of countless people. But compared to the bright future that lay ahead, this little price that people must pay would only become the symbol of an era that would gradually be forgotten.

…

on the 1st of October, Chen Jin received a message on WeChat. Su Yun, who was usually at the passive end, sent a message to him. “Chen Jin, I would like your help with something.”

“What is it?” Chen Jin felt a little odd; this was the first time Su Yun approached him for something. Normally, aside from “hi” and “bye” and a few greeting sentences, she never had her own request for him.

“My brother wants a Little Star Second Gen learning machine… is it possible for you to get me one? I can pay extra for it.”

“Little Peng?” Chen Jin was surprised. “I asked Little Peng before in our family chat group. I asked him, ‘you will be sitting for the College Entry Examinations next year, do you want me to give you a Little Star?’ He said that he won’t need one… why did he suddenly change his mind?”

“Actually, Little Peng just doesn’t want to increase our burden. He also thought that he was capable enough to get admitted to the best university. But a few days ago, in his monthly test, he dropped to fifth place in class and fell out from the top 30 for his overall ranking in his school… he never got such a bad ranking before.”

Her brother, Su Zipeng, was usually in the first or second place in class and in the top 10 in his school.

“Was he not in his usual self?”

“Nope, he was perfectly fine. He even outperformed himself in mathematics and got full marks.”

“Then why did his ranking drop so much? Were there people who cheated with the Little Star learning machine?”

“Nope, the invigilators in his school were very strict, it was impossible to cheat with the Little Star learning machine, which is as big as an iPad. It was just because the results of those who bought a Little Star learning machine had improved by a large scale!” Su Yun explained.

After the rankings for the monthly test were released, Su Zipeng fell into extreme anxiety. He, who did not want to burden his family, had no choice but to request his parents to buy him a Little Star learning machine. His contemptuous attitude towards the device changed. Isn’t it just a learning machine, how great can it actually be? Don’t overstate it too much.

For students who did not enjoy learning, even acquiring 10 Little Star learning machines would be useless. Besides, in the current education system, the student’s academic performances still ultimately fell into their own hands. The “Tree of Knowledge” in Little Star might be very advanced, but knowledge inside textbooks in school also followed the chronological order. Similarly, the knowledge checkpoints could also be mastered. The “Homework Guide” function packed in Little Star, which could solve any question, was indeed marvelous, but it did not mean that the students themselves had mastered the answering techniques. They would still have to do the exam paper on their own.

Su Zi Peng did inquire from his friends about the “Answers For All” function that was very popular recently. He thought that it was interesting, but would not be very helpful for his studies. The conclusion that he made was that this $8,000 product was merely a gag. However, after the monthly test, he altered his judgments. His face was solemn as a tremendous sense of crisis emerged within him.

He had no choice but to let go of his contempt towards the device and look at it seriously. Via the thorough investigations he conducted on his contemporaries, he gradually realized the splendor of the Little Star learning machine: on Little Star’s “Tree of Knowledge,” not only did it allow people to have a better grasp on the knowledge checkpoints, but it also allowed a person to visually conceive their weaknesses and thereby make improvements. Little Star’s “Homework Guide” function could indeed solve many difficult problems, which felt a little like cheating. However, one could activate the “Challenge Mode” to solve tricky questions with step-by-step hints. For most of the questions, Little Star did not only provide one approach to the solution, but it was also a few or even a dozen ways! One could find the approach that was the most suitable and most understandable for themselves… more ways and more complete than the approaches taught by teachers, and was way clearer throughout and easy to understand. Some problem-solving ideas were so exquisite that it would make people scream out of amazement. No matter how great a teacher was, they could never reach that level.

Another thing was that in terms of efficiency in doing exercises, the others could finish 10 sets of mathematics question papers in a day with the help of the Little Star learning machine, while he could only do at max two sets of questions per day. Sometimes, he would get stuck on a tricky question for a whole period, while the others chose to grasp the best method from the multiple approaches provided by Little Star to tackle the question.

There were two modes of learning, one being “seeking answers by yourself” which allowed one to remember more deeply; the other one was “choose the most suitable method from multiple approaches.” There was great controversy on which learning mode was better and more efficient. Initially, Su Zipeng thought that “seeking answers by yourself” was better. No matter how many alternative methods the learning machine provided, if one did not carve it into their memory, it would still be forgotten in time.

But after the results for the monthly test were released, three of his classmates who were clearly weaker than him actually surpassed him. One of them, who usually roamed around the middle ranks and was normally 100 marks behind him, skyrocketed to the second place in class, outpacing him by over 30 marks. After the results of that classmate significantly rose, the sentence that the person kept on saying over and over again was, “The Little Star learning machine is my system to become a curve wrecker, it was marvelous!”

For students who were willing to learn, the Little Star learning machine became the ‘learning weapon’ in their hands, just like tigers implanted with wings. Therefore, Su Zipeng could not sit still any longer! “If this goes on, I, who originally had hoped to enter a prestigious university, might not even get admitted into first-tier universities. The advantage that those with a Little Star learning machine possess is simply too big! If I do not buy a Little Star myself, there will be more and more people that will surpass me, and my ranks will get lower and lower, and in the end… maybe I could only get into a normal university. No, I must buy one! I will lose if I don’t get one!”

Thinking of this, Su Zipeng, who was extremely anxious, immediately called home.

Chapter 167 - An Expert in a Terrible Fix

“Alright, no problem, send me an address. I’ll deliver a Little Star learning machine over to Little Peng.”

“Thank you, I’ll send you the money right away!”

“That won’t be necessary. For small matters like this, receiving your money would be as if you’re a stranger.”

“Paying is a must, or else it would be like I’m taking advantage of you. I’m transferring 10 thousand dollars over to you!”

Ding Dong!

Chen Jin received a transaction notice on WeChat. Su Yun had transferred 10 thousand dollars to him. Chen Jin shook his head. He would not receive her money. It would automatically be returned to Su Yun after 24 hours, as he was not lacking this little amount of money.

At that moment, there was a knock on the office door.

“Come in.”

Company Deputy General Manager Liang Ying reported, “Mr. Chen, the expert Mr. Tang from the Ministry of Education is here, he wants to talk to you about some things.”

Chen Jin was slightly stunned. He laughed as he said, “They finally can’t hold on anymore?”

Liang Ying laughed as well. “Mr. Chen, go meet Mr. Tang quickly. His face is as black as the bottom of a pot. When I walked past him, I heard him saying ‘unsympathetic company.’ He has quite an opinion towards us.”

“Huh, he has an opinion towards us?” Chen Jin shook his head and chuckled. “Why can’t they have opinions on their own inabilities? No zuo no die! If they weren’t that persistent on screwing things up, why would they have ended up in this state?”

On Mr. Tang’s face was a rather speechless expression. Yes, things were completely screwed up on the ministry’s end. Now, they were criticized by the mass population of students and parents. They were all demanding for a refund for the Ministry of Education’s version of the intelligent learning machine (in short, “Educational Machine”). Of all the tens of thousands of Educational Machines, students that requested for a refund was a staggering 87%. There were also many of them who reduced the “Educational Machine” in their hands into ashes out of rage. Overwhelmed by bad reviews from the public, the experts responsible for the “Educational Machine” project were thoroughly crestfallen, with their face covered in dust as their reputation plummeted to that of street rats.

How exactly did the situation go south? It was the realization of Chen Jin’s words: no zuo no die. Firstly, the “Tree of Knowledge” that was modified and adjusted by the experts had an enormous change compared to the original version. But those modifications were not making the Tree of Knowledge better, as feedback from the students were saying that it was not very user-friendly.

“What’s going on? I’ve done a system analysis on the Educational Machine. I only got 59 marks in mathematics for third graders, which is not even a pass. By all means, I should have many weaknesses. But why did only two small areas become red on the Tree of Knowledge while the others were all green? Could it even be possible that I have a good foundation in those pieces of knowledge? But when I tapped on the red dots, weren’t those the knowledge checkpoints that I had already mastered? How could I have done such lowly mistakes?”

“I realized that the Tree of Knowledge in the Educational Machine is not accurate at all, the dots that should be red aren’t red and the dots that should be green aren’t green. And I have never seen a yellow dot anywhere.”

“It is indeed hilarious. There were many knowledge checkpoints that I obviously had bad mastery in, but they were depicted in green. On the Tree of Knowledge, many of those knowledge checkpoints for second and third graders were red, and I’m currently in high school!”

“Rubbish device! I’m still completely unaware of my own weaknesses. Intelligent Educational Machine? More like a Retarded Educational Machine!”

Next on the list would be its poor learning effects. Users basically did not improve at all.

“It has been almost a month since I started using the Educational Machine. I only scored an additional five marks in the monthly test, which literally means no improvements.”

“In my class, there are five people using the Educational Machine and four using the Little Star learning machine. After the monthly test results were released, the average score improvement for Educational Machine users was three marks while for Little Star users, their score improvement was 32 marks!”

“My Educational Machine went into the dumpster just half a month after I started using it. It had zero effectiveness! I asked my dad to buy me a Little Star learning machine and my score in the monthly test improved by 15 marks!”

“I’m a parent. I suggest that everyone should buy Little Star. Buy it even if it means spending 20 or 30 thousand dollars! Do not buy the Educational Machine provided by the school, the Tree of Knowledge is completely fake and not user-friendly at all. There is no ‘Answers For All’ function and even the “Homework Guide” function was scrapped. It has totally no difference from a traditional learning machine. Only idiots will spend $5,800 for this piece of crap!”

“I want a refund! Give me back by $5,800 dollars!”

Regarding the “Educational Machine” released by the Ministry of Education, students could still bear with the Tree of Knowledge not being user-friendly and the lack of the “Answers For All” function. The one thing that was completely intolerable was that even the signature “Homework Guide” function was removed. The reason given by the experts was that they wanted to develop students’ ability to work independently and prevent excessive dependence on the Educational Machine. Their fundamental point was for the good of the children.

“Moronic experts. They ask us to continue using fire sticks when there’s a Dragon Sabre available.”

“The purpose of me buying an intelligent learning machine is for this particular function, and you removed it?”

“I can’t tolerate this; I want an immediate refund!”

The problem was that the school could not accept such massive amounts of return requests. The price of the Educational Machine was not cheap. In provinces with a well-developed economy, the machine was sold at an average price of above 5,000 dollars; in provinces with a moderately developed economy, the machine was sold at an average price of above 4,000 dollars; in provinces with a poor economy, the cheapest price of the machine would be 3,200 dollars. None of them were below 3,000 dollars.

What about poor students? Even the Educational Machine was so expensive, how could the poorer students afford one? The Ministry of Education had considered this issue. Therefore, they distributed a certain quota to every school stating that for the poor students that had better results and were hardworking, they could purchase an Educational Machine at the price of 2,000 dollars. What if they could not even take out 2,000 dollars? The Educational Machine was not a necessity. It was not that the teachers were not teaching. Would students lose their own learning capabilities without the Educational Machine?

Do not overstate a mere tool! Learning ultimately depended on the person himself! Those who were gifted would not do badly no matter what. Overreliance on a tool, on the other hand, might cause one to lose their ability to think independently, doing more harm than good. The expert’s theory was irrefutable. But facing the huge wave of return requests and the criticism and complaints from innumerable parents, the experts were flustered. They were hurrying to figure out a way to deal with this issue.

…

Inside the conference room, Mr. Tang said with a solemn face, “Mr. Chen, the only solution now is to remove the “Homework Guide” function from the Little Star learning machine and make it consistent with the Educational Machine in each and every aspect. The paths you are taking are crooked ways. You are depriving the student’s ability to learn independently. Yes, their scores have improved, but their learning abilities are dwindling! You are doing harm to the next generation. Don’t be obsessed with it anymore, you are making a historical blunder!”

“Their scores are improving. Doesn’t that mean that their learning capabilities are getting better?” Chen Jin was very surprised. “The scores mean everything! This is the most distinguishing feature of our apparent education system. Why did experts like you begin to despise the fact that the students are getting a high score? When did your minds begin to get twisted around?” In his words, there was a smear of sarcasm.

“You——” Mr. Tang’s facial expression looked terribly awful. “I have been in the education field for decades and I have authority over this field! I know what learning methods suit the students in Z country the most. Yours will definitely not work; you are guiding them down a malicious path that spells calamity! Why would a tech company like yours get yourselves involved in education? You’re adding nothing but chaos to our country! Just do what I said, remove the “Homework Guide” function from the Little Star learning machine.”

“Heheh…” Chen Jin shook his head. “Now obtaining high scores is something malicious, huh. Well, I can’t control your mouth, what you experts say will always be right. And when you encounter problems, you shove your heads in the dirt like an ostrich. I, on the other hand, will not do what you ask. Because even if I agreed to your request, the students and their parents won’t. This is your own problem. Do not even think of dragging us down with you. We are just a small company and we can’t handle so much criticism from that many parents. Unless the state issues a mandatory order, I will not do what you ask.”

“You!” Mr. Tang was extremely infuriated, yet unable to have a say. He could only return to King’s city and search for other authoritative methods to make Xing Hai Technologies comply! They were not wrong. It was Xing Hai Technologies that was the “source of all problems.”

Chapter 168 - The Dawn of Light

The launch of the “Educational Machine” was a tremendous failure. People were requesting refunds all over the country. The root of the problem was because the “Educational Machine” represented an educational belief that was conservative, outdated, and obstinate. For some of the experts in the education field, these beliefs were rigidly etched into their hearts.

On the surface, they were supportive of the new technology, but what they were doing reflected that they truly despised it. Deep down, they were still adhering to their immutable beliefs. They were reluctant to give up their status as the leaders in the educational field to a mere little learning machine. However, for most of the experts in the educational field, why would they not wish for the next generation to be stronger and for Z nation’s future to be better? In most of their hearts, there was a dream, a dream to make the Z nation a powerhouse in the educational field.

It was just that… the influence was too great towards the benefits of those within the field. Hundreds of thousands of tuition centers outside of school, teachers in which 70% of their income originated from extra tutoring classes, the organizations that produce tutoring materials, exercise books, and papers… and many more. The potential loss of profit was simply too much.

For example, the tuition centers. Aside from dance classes, piano classes, art classes, and calligraphy classes that remained unaffected, the tuition centers teaching primary subjects such as Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, etc. had experienced a 30% plunge in profits for the last three months. The higher the sales of the intelligent learning machine, the greater their profits would drop. The plummet could be described as a free-fall demotion. In approximately one to two years, the market for tutoring would shrink at least 60%. It would cause hundreds of thousands of people to lose their jobs and hundreds of billions of economic losses. With such a detrimental effect towards their own benefits, who wouldn’t have struggled for it?

After Mr. Tang returned, he indeed unleashed quite a massive “energy burst.” They vilified the learning machine on the forums online. The experts in the educational field appeared one by one, criticizing the Little Star learning machine for shattering the equity in education, hampering students from poor families from achieving success, causing many people in the educational field to lose their jobs, and much more. The uproar was rather huge. It triggered a massive wave of debate.

Facing the umpteen voices of doubt and criticism, Xing Hai Technologies showed no sign of refute. They just posted a short message on their official Weibo. “We might not be able to change the current situation, but we can let you see the future.”

Immediately, the experts mauled the statement.

“What future are you talking about if you can’t even ensure equality?”

“We do not want a future like this!”

“Changing the current situation? The current situation is the best situation!”

Spurred by their own benefits, the combat power of the experts was off the charts. They gained a significant upper-hand in the forums. They influenced many parents to be on their side. They jointly requested to ban the “Little Star learning machine.”

However, there were also voices of solidarity and support backing up Xing Hai Technologies. The entire tech community was on Xing Hai Technologies’ side.

Many renowned scientists wrote blog posts to support Xing Hai Technologies.

“Huh, looking at all the comments from the so-called experts, I feel like I have returned to the pre-industrial revolution era when the luddites held ‘machine-wrecking’ activities. Never have I thought that I would get to listen to similar voices in the 21st century. What I hear is stupidity, conservativeness, selfishness, and voices of those who are not willing to give up their own benefits. I find this intriguing.”

“Equality in education has always been a false proposition! Even if the Little Star learning machine was not created, our education doesn’t seem fair either. Attending tuition classes is a kind of inequality towards those who can’t afford the classes; getting admitted into a good school, entering a good class, and listening to the lectures of excellent teachers is a kind of inequality towards those who were admitted to a normal school, entered a normal class, and were taught by ordinary teachers! Those who keep saying the word ‘equality’ are those who are not willing to accept this very fact!”

“We must not refuse to eat for fear of choking! The Little Star learning machine is our future. It symbolizes our control over knowledge and us being the master of knowledge. It carries the predicaments that our children are no longer the passive recipients of knowledge. This tool allows normal people like us to possess the ability to solve complicated and cutting-edge problems. In the future, each of our children will own for themselves a vessel of knowledge and a ‘super brain.’ As long as our children are able to utilize this tool, each and every one of them will be geniuses!”

Aside from the voices from the scientific community, a portion of parents also issued their own statements in support of Xing Hai Technologies. One of the parent’s statements that stood out was, “I heard that some experts are saying that the Little Star learning machine is destroying the equality in education. As parents, we actually have more of a say on this. My family is a poor household. I myself have some disabilities and therefore I’m not able to work. My child’s father has a mild mental retardation and only received a little education. His monthly income is only slightly above $1,000. Adding up with the aid issued by the state, we could just barely hold our lives together. The lucky thing is that we have a healthy child, a very intelligent one as well. He scores above 80 marks in every exam paper. His father and I are very proud of him. We wished a promising future for him. But once he entered high school, my child was clearly behind track in his studies. We had no money to buy him learning materials, so he could only search for them at the waste collection station beside his school. We had no money for him to attend tutoring classes that cost thousands of dollars. So, he could only learn by himself. He can’t even participate in his school’s summer classes as we couldn’t afford the fees for it. When school started, his teacher assumed that everyone attended summer class, and so the teacher skipped a large portion of the syllabus, causing my child to lag behind. There was one time my child told me, the first place in his class attended a $40,000 Mathematics class and a $20,000 English class. He said that he wished to get the first place in class, but he couldn’t do it. From his eyes, I could see the feeling of inferiority and dejection. He could never make it. No matter how hard he studied, he would still roam around the 30th to 40th place in class. Other kids with similar intelligence to him enjoyed more educational resources than him. In this race, he had lost right at the beginning. But everything changed when I gathered all the resources I could manage and bought him a Little Star learning machine! My child told me confidently that he would never have to fear those excellent scorers ever again. Within just two months, his academic results surged from the 36th place to the 2nd place in class… his class teacher and classmates accused him of cheating, so I posted a video of him learning by using the learning machine at 3 a.m. in the morning in the class chat group… then, the voices of doubt were all gone. Equality? I’m very grateful for the experts to mention this word. I’m very thankful that they thought of us. But for families like mine and for my child, the Little Star learning machine is equality, an equality that we could still afford by grinding our teeth! Please do not take away this equality!”

After this article became widely spread, the tides in the forums turned. The scientists from the scientific community also wrote a joint letter with the title “Support Popularizing the Little Star Learning Machine” and delivered it to the high authorities.

…

On the 15th of August, Mr. Yuan from the Ministry of Education personally led a team to Xing Hai Technologies. After a brief communication from both sides, they came out with the solution to solve the “Learning Machine Crisis.”

The main criteria were as below:

1. All 10.2 million units of the first generation “Educational Machine” will be obsolete and will be temporarily reclaimed.

2. Xing Hai Technologies will assign technical personnel to replace the operating system of these “Educational Machines” with the Little Star OS, then return it to those students. For each overwrite, Xing Hai Technologies will be paid $300.

3. For the subsequent “Educational Machine 2.0,” the Ministry of Education will have deep collaborations with Xing Hai Technologies, using the Tree of Knowledge from the Little Star learning machine, adding in the “Answers For All” function, keeping the “Homework Guide” function… all technical standards will be aligned with the Little Star learning machine.

4. For future productions of the intelligent learning machine by Chang Cheng Electric’s foundries, the Ministry of Education and Xing Hai Technologies will each have 50%.

After the solution was announced, the students and parent’s mood quickly stabilized. They expressed that they were willing to hand in their “Educational Machine” to Xing Hai Technologies for it to be formatted into a “Little Star learning machine.”

After the talk, Chen Jin asked curiously, “Mr. Yuan, where has that Mr. Tang gone, why didn’t he tag along this time around?”

“He was detained by the CCP for privately accepting more that $80,000,000 worth of other people’s belongings. More than half of the experts in the group were ‘retired.’ The higher-ups said that if they do not change their minds they’ll change the person themselves. In the future, as long as you do not touch on sensitive topics, you can rest assured that we’ll promote your company’s learning machine,” Mr. Yuan said while he shook his head.

Chen Jin’s eyes glowed as he saw the light in a glorious revelation.

Chapter 169 - Repairing the Particle Collider

On Planet Haierfa, at the Base of Operations, Chen Jin could clearly feel that the air quality had improved. The dust and sand that hovered across the sky had significantly thinned out. In windless days, one could occasionally see a speck of the blue sky during the day or the stars at night. The air wasn’t so dry anymore. There would be light rain in every so often, and the air humidity would increase significantly.

However, they would not have to worry about water accumulating at the Base of Operations. Earlier during construction, Alice had considered drainage issues and had dug a 50-acre lake at the middle of the base. As of that moment, the lake was still dry. Excessive evaporation rates made it impossible for the lake to contain water.

Chen Jin was very surprised. The environmental transformation plan was only executed for little more than a year, and yet its effects were so evident.

Nuwa reported, “Master, it was because I found a hastier method to transport freshwater supplies. One of the methods utilizes the high-pressure pipelines. The ice collected around Antarctica is melted using geothermal resources after mechanical pulverization, then funneled a few thousand kilometers away. The second method utilizes high-speed cruisers. It is used to transport freshwater resources covered under the Antarctic ice sheet to the nearest land mass. The supplies will then similarly be transported via the high-pressure pipelines. Lastly, I mastered the ability to control the weather. Not only am I able to induce large-scale artificial rainfalls, but I can also generate small or medium-sized typhoons directly at torrid zones with lower latitudes, bringing forth precipitation across a wide area inland. Via weather control, I could save at least half of the freshwater transportation costs.”

W…What?

Chen Jin cleared out his ears, as he thought he was having auditory hallucinations. “What did you say, Nuwa? Weather control? Controlling the ever-changing weather? Do you know what you are talking about?”

Nuwa actually claims to have mastered such a magical ability?

“Yes, master. As long as humidity meets the requirements, I can induce artificial rainfall in any area. As for typhoons, due to the reactors of the Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens having insufficient power, I could only generate typhoons under the scale of 11, but I can’t control the exact movements of the typhoon yet. I can only roughly spawn them in locations inland,” Nuwa said with a faint voice. One could tell her humbleness from her words.

Chen Jin’s mouth was wide open as he was completely stunned.

Alright Nuwa, I admit that I’ve underestimated you!

It was because Alice once told him that she could also induce artificial rains. As for artificial typhoons, Alice expressed that she was unable to do so, despite the fact that the computing power of both Alice and Nuwa were similar, at a million billion times per second. Having the same computing powers, why could Nuwa accomplish things that Alice could not? It was because their underlying computer architecture was completely different.bAlice’s underlying architecture was more towards computation with high precision, suitable for simulation purposes.bNuwa’s underlying architecture was biased towards logic. Computation was not her forte. The program was assorted with fuzzy logic, providing her powerful deducing abilities that she could use to solve many metaphysical problems.

For example, she could roughly estimate a person’s age based on their complexion, and a shops fortune based on its fengshui. Nuwa was able to even deduce earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, typhoons, and many other unpredictable events. Her deductions were extremely accurate to the point that it seemed magical.

“My abilities were bestowed by ‘The Eight Trigrams’ formula in my underlying architecture. The expert that came up with these calculations had successfully predicted many massive events. But on the day he finished the algorithm, a flower pot fell from the second floor and killed him. People were saying that it was the wrath of Heavens.”

“So according to this ‘Eight Trigrams’ formula, under normal conditions, my expectancy is only 82 years and I would die of cancer?”

“Yes master, there should not be too much of a margin of error.”

Chen Jin shook his head. What an awesome person to come up with such awesome calculations, no wonder the heavens refused to keep him alive. Therefore, considering the special architecture of Nuwa and the magical ‘Eight Trigrams’ formula, it totally made sense to him that Nuwa could control the weather.

He even had a bizarre thought. Since the underlying architecture of Nuwa is so different, why don’t I bring this architecture to Earth and develop a computer which is completely different from the traditional ones? I could break the dominance of the traditional ‘Turing Machine,’ and at the same time prove to the world that the Z Nation is able to come out with something of their own.

He felt that his thought was very feasible. Although the underlying architecture that Nuwa used was not proficient in computing, through some alternate ways, she could still do and excel in what Alice was able to do. For example, in virtual development, Nuwa was also able to build an interstellar battleship within the virtual world. Besides, there were some things that Nuwa could do that Alice could not.

Assimilated with her magical algorithms, Nuwa’s computing powers could be linked with many other supercomputers with similar architecture. They could stack their computing powers to 200 trillion times per second, 300 trillion times per second… at a maximum of 10 units, the resultant computing powers could achieve a total of 1,000 trillion times per second. Alice, on the other hand, was not able to stack her computing powers with other supercomputers. Therefore, concluding all the aspects as stated above: Nuwa’s architecture was in fact much more advanced than Alice’s. It depicted that the wisdom of the Eastern civilization was one level higher than Western civilization.

Chen Jin nodded his head and whispered to himself, “On Earth, I’ll build a supercomputer that belongs to Z Nation based on Nuwa’s architecture, create our own ecosystem of software, and open up a new and brighter route.” In fact, he had already initiated this plan a long time ago. It would require a few years for the plans to bear fruit.

At the same time, Alice also reported the work situation on her side. “Master, the exploration team that I’ve deployed to Harroda’s national laboratory has recently uncovered the particle collider located underground. This linear particle collider unit has a length of 100 kilometers. It is the most advanced particle collider on planet Haierfa, and it has a very hefty building cost. It could carry out collision tests between particles with higher energy density and is an indispensable device for research in fundamental physics. The source of any breakthrough in fundamental science can only be from this particle collider. Despite the massive Electro-Magnetic Pulse radiation that was emitted after the cataclysmic war erupted, it only inflicted minor damage towards this particle collider. With proper management and some slight repairs to solve its power supply issues, high-energy physics experiments could be placed on the track.” Alice projected the image of the particle collider while she introduced it.

Staring at the massive object, Chen Jin thought of one thing and said with some concern, “Count Xiao Ming once told me that scientific investigations on planet Haierfa were locked by some mysterious alien forces. If we repaired the collider and if the data we obtain is still abnormal, does it prove that the lock still exists?”

“Yes, it should.” Alice nodded. “That would explain that we are still locked. But if the data is restored to normal, it means that the mysterious force has given up their attention on us. Master, should I run a few collisions tests for confirmation purposes?”

“Yes! It would be better if you do it immediately!” Chen Jin’s expression was solemn as he immediately said, “I need to determine our current situation! Only then can I come up with a response plan.” It was even possible that the previous development plans would be adjusted and that it would embark on another completely different path.

“Yes, master.”

Chapter 170 - Analysis

93 meters under Harroda national laboratory, Haierfa’s biggest and most advanced particle collider was successfully restored after the efforts of tens of thousands of repair bots that persisted for dozens of days. Chen Jin immediately commanded Alice to activate the particle collider to conduct high energy physics experiments.

For the experiments, Nuwa placed her environmental transformation work on hold. She controlled the “Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens,” flew it to the top of the laboratory, and landed the vessel. The massive electrical energy generated by the vessel’s nuclear fusion reactors would be used as the energy source for the particle collider.

Now that the preparation was complete, it was time to commence the experiment!

Chen Jin’s eye were fixed on the projected screen, paying full attention to the high-energy particle collision test that was about to begin.

vroom vroom!

“Charging complete. Proton source ready, target locked, conditions fulfilled… commence particle bombardment.”

Inside the massive particle collider, positively charged protons flew along a 100-kilometer electro-magnetized vacuum path. Within the vigorous electric field, the protons were accelerated near the speed of light. Each tiny little proton packed more than 100 trillion volts of energy. They violently collided with the stationary target at the end of the electromagnetic track.

Splash!

The microscopic scene of the birth of the universe in its first one trillionth of a second was presented in high-definition within the industrial microscope. From the projected screen, Chen Jin could only observe innumerable yellow and red high-temperature debris which weaved over each other, and the spattering of countless smaller quarks, lepton, and neutrinos. After a brief moment, the image reeled back to its former silence. Chen Jin shook his head. Two particles collide, explode, splatter, and then it was done; what could this explain in the end? Why could they make breakthroughs in fundamental scientific research from this and bring forth a huge leap forward in the developments of science and technology? How did the mysterious alien forces manage to do dirty tricks in such an experiment and supposedly add a “lock” on technological advancements?

It just didn’t make sense! Chen Jin was unable to comprehend and visualize. The end of science was the beginning of theology. As a mere mortal, his reaction now was similar to that of a confused indigenous person. He only asked, “Alice, is the experimental data normal?”

“I don’t know, events that have a low probability of occurrence have not been detected, we need to continue experimenting.”

“Proceed then.”

Under maximum uptime, the particle collider could run 5,000 particle collision experiments every hour. In a day, it could complete hundreds of thousands of collisions. To observe collision phenomenons which had occurrence rates below one-tenth of a million, it would only require a dozen of days.

But Chen Jin did not wait until the dozenth day.

On the third day, Alice told him with sheer excitement, “Collision phenomena with a low probability of occurrence has happened, the instrument successfully detected one! Master, the ‘lock’ is gone! There are now no hindrances for our research in fundamental science, we can now probe further normally!”

Nuwa was also very elated. “This is great! The evil forces have finally let go of us, we no longer have their attention. Maybe, they thought that we pose no threat to them and they could afford to turn their eyes away from mere ants like us. Who would invest so much energy on weaklings? Maybe, since the day the Blue Spaceship left, they had already shifted their attention from this devastated planet. They must have been overwhelmed by the feeling of content and satisfaction… just as if they had completed a ‘small task’ brilliantly. But a civilization full of vitality and hope is ruined by their hands!” Nuwa clenched her teeth. Deep-seated hatred was written all over her face.

A civilization with tens of billions of people, deprived of the very flames of hope, was gone just like that!

Oh?

Chen Jin stared at Nuwa with a weird look. He never thought that she, as an artificial intelligence, could express such levels of personification. At least, he never saw Alice in such immense rage before. Even if a civilization of hundreds of millions of people perished, she would only calmly report the casualties.

“Oh, I’m sorry master, I got carried away just now.” Noticing that Chen Jin was staring at her, Nuwa realizes the improperness of her actions and quickly apologized.

“It’s fine.” Chen Jin shook his head. Nuwa was unlike Alice, she had much higher levels of autonomy and her emotions were much more realistic… it could be her underlying architecture and the usage of Chewwy language (Nuwa’s underlying coding language) that gave her these innate traits. In Eastern culture, there was an idea called ‘animism’, and Nuwa was bestowed with such ‘spirituality.’ Sometimes, he really liked Nuwa’s spirituality. Towards Nuwa’s speculations, he nodded his head and said, “Nuwa’s guess should be about right.”

He hypothesized, “If I were to be that mysterious force, I would’ve played with those civilizations which were clearly on the technological backfoot until they were left with a few hundred thousand people, and make the remaining population flee to foreign lands. I’d leave with them a tiny little flame to start over. By then, I’d almost be satisfied and would probably lift my hands off them. This might be looking down on them, but this is human nature! Of course, if those mysterious forces still want all humans dead and leave no chance for flames of the race to reignite, then their target should be the Blue Spaceship, not the ‘abandoned’ planet. Their target for them to execute a total elimination could only be the Blue Spaceship, not planet Haierfa, which is now empty. Another thing, the mysterious force that is lurking somewhere in the dark might not be as powerful as what we think. If they were really that powerful, they won’t have to resort to machinations. They could directly blow up planet Haierfa! This method would be the most thorough destruction which would leave no threat behind! However, since they didn’t blow up Haierfa, it means that they do not have the technology and the capability to do so, so they could only subject to despicable methods and plot dirty tricks. In the end, they might not even achieve their goals. They have automatically signed themselves up on my revenge list. Once I get this place developed, the day that they will be out of luck will be the day they step foot on planet Haierfa.”

Chen Jin’s eyes were glowing with an icy glare. He was not someone who could be easily dealt with. No matter who it was and whether or not he was triggered, he would never hesitate to act against those who posed a threat. By default, he regarded this world as a game, an RPG game! Aside from him being the main character, the others were all NPCs! There was no need for him to worry too much. Besides, the competitive environment of this world could be described with one word: ruthless. Chen Jin’s game began with him finding a planet. He witnessed the ruins of an obliterated civilization. He did not feel happy or lucky. On the contrary, he felt grief and anxiety. He would only smile for a moment when he came across something valuable. Most of the time, he was thinking, how did this planet end up in its current state?

After count Xiao Ming told him everything about the planet, he became worried every day that he might take the wrong step. After all, in this “RPG” game, it would still be fine if he alone lost his life. But if he were to implicate his family and the billions of people back on Earth… he wouldn’t be able to atone for his sins even with a thousand deaths. Under these circumstances, if he did not act ruthlessly, he might not even have the chance to regret. There was no room for kindness in this dark and murky universe.

“Yes, master, your analysis made a lot of sense. I also derived the same conclusion.” Alice praised him.

Nuwa, on the other hand, looked at him with surprise and a little bit of admiration. She never thought that he could come up with such a clear and organized theory. It was very consistent with common sense, and entirely logical. After a long while, she sighed, “Master, you… are very wise.”

Chapter 171 - Invitation to the World Internet Conference

Days passed. Alice commented that she had observed the occurrence of a particle collision incident of low probability. She had accumulated high-value data for a total of two times.

“Good!” With this, Chen Jin was able to completely let go of his worries. The shadow of doubt growing in his heart had fully dissipated. There was no need to go in a development direction like the “Blue Space” or to create a spaceship especially to conduct physics experiment in it while it was in the Pluto orbit. Breakthroughs could similarly be achieved by developing in Haierfa! “Ok, Nuwa, continue with your work on the remodeling of the environment. Alice, think of other ways to resolve the collider’s power supply issues.”

“Yes, master.” Nuwa flew away in the Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens to continue her tasks on remodeling the environment.

Alice planned to take out the reactors in the nuclear submarines that were found in the Red Empire. The reactors would be transported to the side of the national test lab to provide a source of power for the large-sized particle colliders, so that exploration in the foundational sciences could continue to be carried out. Everything was going well in Haierfa.

…

On the 6th of November, Chen Jin was driving past the Forever Jewels jewelry shop that he had not visited in a long time, when he was struck with a thought. Slowing his car down, he parked in front of the shop and went in to observe.

“The boss is here!” A sharp-eyed female staff recognized him and screamed in pleasant surprise.

“Boss!”

“Good day, Boss!”

Other employees began to turn their heads and started screaming and shouting in surprise and joy. The two security guards at the door gave a 60-degree bow at the same time and greeted excitedly, “Welcome, boss!”

“Brother Chen….. President Chen?” Guo Yan, who was serving a customer, momentarily forgot what she wanted to say to the customer. She could only stare blankly at the man as her brain shut down.

Chen Jin walked towards the counter where she stood and waved a hand in greeting, “Hi! Guo Yan, have your days been going well? Have you adapted to the shop?” With a smile, he silently measured Guo Yan. She was wearing the uniform of the Assistant Store Manager. A silk scarf surrounded her beautiful neck and a gold badge was attached to her ample chest. As her current work was not physically tiring, combined with regular efforts in her appearance and maintenance, Guo Yan now looked even more gorgeous than she did two years ago. She seemed to have been eating better too, as her figure was fuller.

As the Assistant Store Manager who was supervising more than ten staff, she also had the imposing air and temperament of a leader in a management position. But this imposing air and dignity instantly disappeared upon seeing Chen Jin. Her heartbeat increased and her pretty face opened up. Hearing his concern, a blush appeared on her face. She said with a light and gentle voice, “Hmm… Good… very good. Thank you, President Chen.”

“Just call me Brother Chen, don’t address me like a stranger. You can address me like how you did in the past.”

“Hmm, Br…Brother Chen.” Guo Yan’s head lowered even more and her voice got so small that she could not even hear herself. Other female employees in the shop looked at her in envy and jealousy.

“Continue with your work, where is Auntie Chiu? Is she not around?”

“The Store Manager is taking stock of the inventory on the upper story.”

“I’ll get the Store Manager. Manager! Manager!” Two female staff behind him replied as one of them rushed upstairs.

“No need to call her down, I’ll go up.” Chen Jin followed behind.

The female customer that Guo Yan had been serving was feeling neglected. With an unhappy face, she muttered in discontent, “Just who is that? Acting like he’s so important…”

“He’s our boss, as well as the President of Xing Hai Technologies.”

“Our boss is great! He’s the one who created the Wa-wah Robot and the Little Star learning machine.”

“Our jewelry ship can also be considered as an asset under Xing Hai Technologies, but we were established earlier!”

“Anyway, the boss of our shop and the boss of Xing Hai Technologies is the same person.”

As the surrounding staff fought to explain, the eyes of the middle-aged female customer suddenly brightened! She did not know about the boss of Xing Hai Technologies, but the Little Star learning machine had helped her son achieve 40 more points in his exams. She really did not have to worry about his studies anymore. She felt so much thankful towards the inventor of the learning machine, and also wanted to send him a silk banner to express her gratitude.

Now that she knew the boss of the company that developed the learning machine was the same person who had stood beside her a moment ago, she could not hold onto her calm demeanor any longer. Promptly forgetting about her desire to buy jewelry, she said immediately, “Quick! Get me a pen and paper. I want to get an autograph from that young fellow!”

“Yes, of course.” With pride on her pretty features, Guo Yan found a pen and a card tag for the lady.

…

On the third story, Chiu Wan-Ting reported that the business performance of the jewelry shop had been really bad these past few months. She blamed herself for the poor performance of the shop.

Chen Jin comforted her. “It’s ok, Auntie Chiu. It’s fine if the monthly revenue is only a few hundred thousand. It’s not because of your incompetence. Stop blaming yourself. I’m very pleased that you manage to break even without incurring losses.” Forever Jewels was only a channel for him to sell off the gold from Haierfa. He used the sales from the huge quantities of gold as the initial capital needed to start his company. Now that Xing Hai Technologies had grown into a stronger position, the purpose behind the creation of the jewelry shop had been fulfilled. The amount of gold that he brought to his Mom each month for her to sell off had also decreased to a maximum of only 30 kilograms.

However, he would not close down this jewelry shop. He would keep it in operation to maintain a small but long-term cash flow. After all, there had to be a back-up plan for everything. If Xing Hai Technologies could not continue operating for whatever reason, he would at least have a source of income from the jewelry shop.

“Thank you, President Chen.” Chiu Wan-Ting let out a deep breath. She had even decided to suggest deducting a portion of her pay to alleviate the upset that the boss would surely feel. But it seemed that her worries were unnecessary. The boss was so good-natured!

Chen Jin went back downstairs. The middle-aged female customer blocked his way and said, “Young fellow, please give me an autograph. I’m thanking you on behalf of my son!”

“Boss, give me an autograph too.”

“Boss, I want an autograph too.”

Everyone nodded in agreement. The staff of the shop crowded together holding a piece of paper or a card tag in their hands.

“Ok!” Chen Jin took the pen with a smile and wrote down his name. However, he thought that it would be better if he dressed in a more ordinary manner with a cap the next time he came here so that he would not attract too much attention.

The last autograph was for Guo Yan, which he wrote down in her work planner. Besides an autograph, he even gave her two extra words: “good luck!”

…

On that same night, on a king-sized bed in a bedroom in villa No.8 of Junting Grand Court, Chen Jin was splayed out on the soft silken quilts after an intense round of love-making. Hi mind was totally blank. All the recent stress and worries had been swept from his mind. There was only pleasure and relaxation left. Sex was indeed a very relaxing matter. A smooth, beautiful body laid in his embrace. Pale arms and slender legs entwined around him like a snake.

A woman with a deep flush highlighting her face traced circles on his chest. She asked with a delicate and gentle voice, “Darling, you’re so good. I want to make a baby with you.”

“Oh…” Chen Jin put his arms around her pale shoulders and said, “Giving birth is painful, aren’t you scared?”

“Yes, but it’s for you, so I’m not afraid.”

“This… Let’s talk about this in the future. There’s no rush now.”

“The future?” The woman was delightfully surprised. “Darling, so you agree? This is great, thank you, dear!” She gave a smooch on the face of her man.

Chen Jin shook his head.

Ding dong~

At the head of the bed, his mobile phone beeped as it received a message. Stretching out his hand to scoop up the phone, he saw that it was a WeChat message from Brother Lei. “Brother Chen, are you ready? You must come to the World Internet Conference held in Wuzhen tomorrow. I’ll be waiting for you!”

Chen Jin replied, “I’m ready. I’ll definitely be there tomorrow.”

Conference in Wuzhen?

Yuan Li had spotted the message with her sharp eyes. Her eyes sparkled and she asked in a coy and playful manner, “Darling, I want to go too. Take me with you?”

“Erm, this is not very convenient. There’s nothing interesting in a conference event. There’s no point for you to go.”

“Awww..” The woman disagreed in a blatantly unhappy tone, but quieted down to a “hmph” as she was afraid of angering the man.

Chapter 172 - A Gathering of Big Shots

On the morning of the next day, Chen Jin combed his sideburns and slicked his hair back in the typical hairstyle of a businessman. Decked out in a high-end tailor-made western suit, he left villa no.8 with a handsome appearance. A Bentley Versailles 65 led the way while he sat in the Knight XV Bulletproof SUV that was behind the Bentley. He had brought along all five of his bodyguards. Under the worshipful gaze of the woman at the villa’s entrance, the vehicles sped towards Wuzhen, which was more than a hundred kilometers away.

In the comfortable and luxurious sedan, Chen Jin loosened the tie at his neck and texted Brother Lei, “On the way. I’ll be there in two hours at the latest.”

“Boss, your noodles.” Still wearing his sunglasses, the bodyguard in the front seat passed the steaming Master Kang cup noodles to Chen Jin.

Chen Jin took the noodles and began slurping them down with a spoon. He had expended a lot of energy last night. He did not hire a chef for the villa either. Soon after setting off, his stomach started growling, hence he had to stop the car and get a bodyguard to buy some cup noodles from the convenience store. The noodles cooked using the hot water in the car. Perhaps it was because he had not eaten this kind of food in a long time, but he had a really good appetite. In a few moments, the wonderful scent of cup noodles permeated the air.

The annual World Internet Conference, inaugurated in 20X4, was to be held in Z country’s Wuzhen this year. Every year, it was held between November to December. This was the seventh conference. It was not only a grand meeting for the internet sector in Z country, but it was also a grand event for the international internet sector. The attention that it would receive from media all over the world was multiplied.

Chen Jin had decided to participate in this year’s World Internet Conference after receiving a warm invitation from the organizer, as well as the many urgings from Brother Lei. He wanted to join in the fun and feel like he was alive too. Actually, Chen Jin had received an invitation card from the organizer for last year’s event, too. However, he was busy at that time and so he replied that he was not free to participate in the event.

This year, the organizer starting calling to inquire about his attendance in September. It was two months in advance, and they were asking if his schedule would allow him to attend the World Internet Conference this year. They even expressed in a euphemistic way that the organizer was willing to make slight adjustments to the date of the conference to accommodate his schedule so that he could attend the event.

As the organizer was so sincere in compromising, it would be rude to reject him. Chen Jin agreed on the spot that he would go and that the organizer did not have to adjust the date of the conference.

“That’s great.” The other party was extremely happy.

…

The scenery outside the car flew past. After two hours, he arrived in Wuzhen. This little town was one of the first batches of historical and cultural towns. It was highly attractive and well-known. The township had an outstandingly beautiful environment and was a national 5A-grade scenic area with the reputation of being “the last water village in Z country.” The history of civilization in the area stretched back to more than 7,000 years ago, and the town itself had a history that spanned 1,300 years. It was a classic ancient water town in the Jiangnan region. It was also called, “the land of milk and honey; the home of silks.”

It was a popular tourism town with 27 square meters of ancient architecture, more than 9,000 meters of rivers, and 72 ancient bridges; the average number of rivers and ancient bridges in the town was the most in Z country. In addition, the town had the Jiangnan 100 Bed Museum, Jiangnan Folk Museum, Jiangnan Wood Carving Exhibition Hall, Yuliangliang Coin Hall, Muxin Art Museum, etc; a total of more than ten museums. One could see that this town had a rich cultural heritage.

Ever since the first World Internet Conference in 20X4 was held in Wuzhen, the town had become the long-term default venue for the event. It could be said that this town was an important town in the technological circle. The blend of traditional culture and modern technology in this ancient town lent a unique charm to this place. In addition, the local food of Wuzhen was quite famous. The banquets of the internet VIPs in attendance provided great relish for the vast numbers of netizens.

Honestly, Chen Jin had been wanting to visit this highly interesting location for some time.

…

In the International Internet Exhibition and Convention Center surrounded by the water village, the seventh World Internet Conference was about to begin. However, the President of Da Mi Company, Lei Xiao Jun, was waiting anxiously at the parking lot outside the venue. He would glance at the time on his watch repeatedly, and crane his neck as he looked around. “The opening ceremony is about to begin, why is he still not here? Could he be in a traffic jam? Or is it because of some other reasons? Two hours is enough for him to come from Shang Hai. Brother Chen, you better not stand me up.”

As he was anxiously muttering to himself, two attention-grabbing high-end sedans turned a corner. After receiving instructions from the staff, they drove into the parking lot. The Knight XV at the back was especially attention-grabbing. It was big, domineering, and aggressive, yet looked stable as a mountain with its muscular and powerful vibe. The image also captured Lei Xiao Jun’s attention. When he saw a young man wearing a pair of sunglasses stepping out of the Knight XV, his face broke out in a smile.

“Brother Chen!” He shouted and ran with quick, small steps. His bodyguards followed suit, running quickly in small steps. The group of them attracted some attention from the media present.

“Brother Lei.” Chen Jin recognized the man running at the front of the group. He had a side-part hairstyle and a doll-like smile… Who could that be but Brother Lei?

“Boss?” The bodyguard beside Chen Jin blocked his way with an alarmed look.

“He’s a good friend of mine; he’s not a threat.” Chen Jin asked his bodyguard to stand aside and opened his arms. Taking a few steps forwards, he hugged the man running at him. “Brother Lei, pleased to meet you.”

“Hahahaha!” Lei Xiao Jun laughed heartily. “Brother Chen, we’ve known each other for more than a year. I’ve said that I wanted to meet you many times, but today is the first day that I can finally do so. Haha, pleased to meet you too!”

The two embraced again as they patted each other’s shoulders. Their bromance filled the scene at the parking lot. This shot was captured by a journalist, who came up with an explosive headline “Shocking; Brother Lei in a passionate embrace with a young man.”

Chen Jin and Brother Lei exchanged greetings. Chen Jin asked with concern, “Brother Lei, Da Mi has been heavily fined by the European Union. And then it was again fined for 500 million by the Merica National Security Agency. You suffered great losses. The news floating online was that you had ‘disappeared’ for two months and were heavily depressed. This can’t be true. It’s just a trivial fine, isn’t it? It’s not worth getting depressed about.”

Shaking his head, Lei Xiao Jun forced a smile. “It was a near thing. The netizens cursed me so much that I didn’t even dare to go out. I’m only coming out now that the storm is over for some relaxation. Ah, Brother Chen, please don’t talk about these unhappy matters anymore.”

“I’ll stop talking about it. Brother Lei, it’s good that you’re not depressed. That problem is hard to cure.”

Lei Xiao Jun looked at his watch, which told him that it was 9:58am. Immediately grabbing Chen Jin’s sleeve, he said, “The opening ceremony will start in two minutes. Let’s stop talking. We’ll go into the convention center first.”

“Ok.” Chen Jin took off his sunglasses and windbreaker, passing them to his bodyguards. He pulled out the invitation from his pocket and walked towards the entrance of the center.

“Quickly!” Perhaps worrying that they were late, Brother Lei began dragging him into a run.

Chen Jin shook his head helplessly. No wonder Brother Lei was the top student in his university. With his punctuality, he was much better than Chen Jin, who went to classes just to clock in his attendance. However, when he entered the grand meeting hall of the convention center, Chen Jin finally understood why Brother Lei dare not be late.

Simply scanning the meeting hall, he saw that it was populated with the internet business VIPs, both domestic and overseas! Jie Kema from Ali Corporation. Xiao Mage from Teng Xun Coporation. Li Yanhong from Baidu. Liu Qiangxi from Jingxi Mall. There were also Shi Lei from Wangyi Group, Lu Yiming who appeared in today’s headlines, and Huang Qiang, the creator of Laiping Duo. Many foreign faces were present too. They could be very famous, even though Chen Jin was not familiar with them.

In short, all the big shots had gathered in this meeting hall.

“I hereby announce the official opening of the seventh World Internet Conference!” However, when the organizer spokesperson announced the opening ceremony from the rostrum, no applause could be heard from the audience. All eyes of the VIPs were uniformly set on the entranceway. Some of the VIPs sitting at the back of the hall even stood up.

In an instant, all eyes were focused on Chen Jin and Brother Lei, who were signing in their attendance.

Chapter 173 - Jie Kema Regretted Establishing Ali Corporation

Chen Jin felt countless stares on him. He started to feel numb. There were at least a few thousand people in this auditorium. Besides the VIPs of the internet businesses, there were also international organizers, other famous people in the internet industry, business elites, academic experts, etc… As the focus of all these peoples’ attention, anyone would feel pressured, right?

However, Chen Jin continued acting as if nothing had happened as he walked towards the seat that had been arranged for him by the organizer. It was a white single-seat sofa right in the center of the first row. Chen Jin faced the rostrum and nodded in acknowledgment to the spokesperson before sitting down. Brother Lei sat beside him.

After announcing the opening of the conference, the organizing spokesperson gave a summary of the main topics for this conference. “The theme for this year’s meeting is ‘5G+ Artificial Intelligence — Let’s join hands to build a new world together.’ We have several frontier hot topics for discussions, like ‘commercial uses of 5G,”the smart life,”intelligent education,”intelligent industry,”advancing globalization,’ and more. We’ve organized a total of 22 discussion forums and invited many well-known entrepreneurs and academic experts to share with us their unique experiences and thoughts.”

20X0 was the first year that 5G technology was fully put into commercial use; it was the year when the world had officially entered the 5G era. Advancement of AI technology had also been very rapid. A huge quantity of futuristic AI products were flooding the markets, such as the driverless car, intelligent industrial production, intelligent learning machines, intelligent robots, etc.

The spokesperson raised his hand to specially introduce a guest. “For this conference, it is our honor to have invited the founder of Xing Hai Technologies, Mr. Chen Jin, to give an exciting speech on the topic of ‘intelligent education.’ I hope that everyone will give all their attention to his words of wisdom.”

Clap clap clap~

A round of applause rang out. Chen Jin, who was once again the center of attention, stood up in acknowledgment and surveyed his surroundings as he waved to everyone and nodded repeatedly.

…

After the opening ceremony had ended, many businessmen drew closer to Chen Jin.

“Good day, President Chen.”

“President Chen, this is my business card.”

“President Chen, I’ve always admired you a lot and would like to treat you to a meal.”

Chen Jin repeatedly waved his hands in a “shooing” motion to reject them, and hastened his steps.

Brother Lei said into his ear, “Ignore them, they don’t belong to the science and tech circles. They’re merely sharks who’ve scented blood. I’ve been taken advantage of by the likes of those people.”

Chen Jin nodded. Simply looking at their smiling faces full of flattery, he had already developed a subconscious desire to get far away from them.

At that moment, a young man trotted towards him from the back. “President Chen, please wait! President Ma wants to see you. Kindly move a few steps over here.”

Upon hearing this, Chen Jin stopped walking and swiveled around, asking, “President Ma? Which President Ma?”

Brother Lei recognized the young man who had chased after them. He said into Chen Jin’s ear, “He’s President Ma’s assistant, Mayun of Ali Corporation. Their President wants to talk to you.”

Oh! That was President Jie Kema of Ali Corporation, who had become the richest man of Z country, but was frequently described as someone who “had never seen money and was not interested in money.” Despite his business being extremely successful, he had commented that the one thing he most regretted doing was establishing Ali.

Chen Jin instantly became interested.

…

In one of the smaller parlors in the convention center, Chen Jin met with Jie Kema, who had been waiting inside.

“President Ma, nice to meet you. Your grand reputation precedes you. I never thought that I could meet you in real life. A pleasure, I’m very honored.”

“‘The young are always full of promise and they will surpass the older generation.’ I’m honored too.”

They shook hands and began stroking each other’s ego. Chen Jin silently sized Jie Kema up Jie. His physique was not tall, and he was rather slender. His looks were rather eccentric; he could never have been mistaken as ‘handsome.’

However, successful people could receive “additional bonuses” in terms of how people perceived their looks. The more successful they became, the better their looks would be perceived until the public’s perception of their aesthetics had changed totally to the point that they become someone good-looking.

After exchanging pleasantries, the two of them sat on a sofa. Jie Kema cut to the chase and stated his purpose for meeting him: investment. He continued, “The Ali Corporation takes a very positive view of your company’s future development, so I would like to invest in your Xing Hai Technologies.”

“Oh…” Chen Jin turned and stared at him. “I wonder how much Ali Corporation intends to invest?”

Jie Kema replied, “I don’t know how much you’ll agree to. As long as you say yes, Ali Corporation can fully acquire Xing Hai Technologies.”

Fully acquire? Chen Jin was astounded by Jie Kema’s tone. He asked with surprise, “President Ma, I don’t know if you fully understand Xing Hai Technologies as a company. It’s not a small enterprise, it’s one of the top 100 most powerful companies in the nation. Our yearly revenues are estimated to exceed 250 billion… Did you investigate these details thoroughly?”

“Of course, our professional financier had investigated your company’s business status and development prospects in detail. Their conclusion was that it is a company with very high potential. Also, Ali Corporation has the funds to fully acquire your company. If you are so inclined, we can discuss a price that you find agreeable,” Jie Kema proposed with a stern expression, seeming to be entirely serious.

“All right, but I have to ask this first. How much does your company intend to pay for full acquisition? How much can your company pay?”

Jie Kema held up one finger and said blandly, “One trillion. If you think that’s not enough, I can increase the amount.”

F**k!

Lei Xiao Jun, who had accidentally overheard this, nearly fainted. His Da Mi Company was currently valued at only 700 billion, yet Ali Corporation actually intended to fork out 1 trillion just like that. If that was not enough, he could even increase the amount!

Although they were all VIPs at this conference, in this instant, Lei Xiao Jun felt that the world inhabited by the big shots was carved into two levels. Other VIPs were up there with the stars, while he was still stuck on the ground and could only look up at them hopefully.

Chen Jin sank into silence. A trillion in exchange for his company, which was currently valued at 150 billion. When Botong Corporation acquired Gaotong Corporation, it was sold for 130 billion. Currently, from the view of Ali Corporation, Xing Hai Technologies’ potential was similar to that of Gaotong. Although there was not much difference in their valuations, Gaotong and Xing Hai Technologies were in the same heavyweight. If he agreed, Chen Jin would not only become the richest man in Z country overnight with this amount of money, he would also become the richest man in the world. He would be at the top of the world and the focus of everyone across the globe.

However, after his mind had calmed down, he shook his head. “I’m sorry President, Ma. I will not sell Xing Hai Technologies, not even partially. As for money and career, I can’t simply choose one and abandon the other. I’m still young, I can’t possibly idle around while living off that money.”

Jie Kema seemed to predict that Chen Jin would reject his offer. With no surprise, he asked again, “Then how about investment? Can you accept investments?”

Chen Jin shook his head. “I don’t lack money and I don’t need third-party investment either. I understand your kind intentions, President Ma.”

At this point, Jie Kema was extremely flabbergasted. He sat up straight and asked, “Don’t you need capital for your company’s development and expansion? If you accept third-party financing, your company’s rate of development could increase up to more than 10 times its current rate. Don’t you want your company to rapidly expand and seize the first available opportunities for development?”

“Of course I need capital, but bank loans are sufficient. Xing Hai Technologies’ cash flow is also sufficient to support our growth.” If that was not enough, he still had more than 30,000 tons of gold on Haierfa. Chen Jin stood up. “President Ma, I understand the good intentions of Ali Corporation. If there are future opportunities for collaboration, Xing Hai Technologies would be very willing to collaborate with Ali Corporation.”

“Ok.” Jie Kema also stood up and shook his hand. He nodded. “I hope we have the opportunities for future collaboration.”

Chen Jin made his greetings and left the parlor.

Looking at the departing silhouette, a trace of envy, as well as the sense of desolation and loneliness that had been buried deep in his heart, shone in his eyes. Jie Kema sighed heavily. “An individually controlled company? This is a wise path.”

…

Chen Jin walked out from the parlor and said into Lei Xiao Jun’s ear, “Brother Lei, it’s one trillion. Can Ali Corporation really pay out such a huge sum of money? Isn’t this too exaggerated?”

However, Lei Xiao Jun said pensively, “Old Ma is certainly unable to fork out this huge sum of money. But, the big capital investors backing up the Ali Corporation would have no problems doing so.” He shared his analysis. “I gave this matter careful thought. I was thinking, Old Ma was doing fine, why did he suddenly announce his retirement two years ago? How many entrepreneurs from Z country retire when they are only 50-some? Did he really want to retire? Or was it really like what some of the netizens speculated, that the government was pressuring Old Ma? I don’t think it’s any of those reasons. I think the real reasons lie with the big capital investors backing up Ali Corporation; they forced him to step down from his position.”

Lei Xiao Jun sighed. “Just look at the shareholder list of Ali Corporation. At the top of the list are some of the well-known international venture capital investors. More than 70% of Ali’s shares are controlled by overseas venture capital organizations. Some say that Ali Corporation is an “enterprise of foreign investors.” It’s not wholly illogical. Actually, Old Ma did not want Ali to be controlled by the venture capital investors. But the founding history of Ali Corporation was wracked with difficulties. There was virtually no one who viewed his ideas positively. If not for the money from overseas venture organizations, Ali Corporation would never have become what it is today. If I were in Old Ma’s shoes, I would also have made the same decision. It’s just that… The momentum brought on by the capital infusion was too great for Old Ma to hold back. He said that he ‘regretted establishing Ali’; that was not bragging on his part. Those were his sincere words. Why didn’t he want to fully control Ali? But…” Lei Xiao Jun shook his head. Capital was a double-edged sword. It could make you invincible, but it could also devour you in return. There were pros and cons.

“Oh, I see…” After listening to Brother Lei’s analysis, Chen Jin came to a sudden realization and understood many things. He developed a great vigilance against the idea of capital infusion.

Chapter 174 - An Unmarried Daughter

In the afternoon, Chen Jin and Brother Lei found a restaurant in Wuzhen where they savored the local delights, including braised mutton, chicken in soy sauce, whitewater fish, sister-in-law biscuit, Dingsheng cake, etc. Chen Jin was not a fan of sweets, but he really liked the authentic chicken in soy sauce. It was said that the chicken was raised on the grounds. The chicken was roasted whole and then added into a mixture of soy sauce and mulled rice wine to cook. The food was easy to keep and very delicious. He gave a very high review of the food after the meal was over.

It was Brother Lei who footed the bill, expressing that he would be treating him these few days. He would bring him to meet many VIPs and Chen Jin should just enjoy the food and drinks.

“Ok!” Chen Jin nodded. Brother Lei may seem rather silly and naive, but he was certainly the most popular person in the internet business circle. He was a top scholar whose senior high school entrance examination score in 1987 topped even those of the elites from all over the country. However, he did not go to a university in the capital, but instead chose to go into computing studies at Wuhan University. He chose Wuhan university because it was the first university in the country to implement a credit system. A student could graduate once he had achieved full credits for his course. Brother Lei used two years to get all of his credits and graduated in advance.

What provided the most talk for the students in Wuhan University was Brother Lei’s perfect score in assembly language. It was the second perfect score in the university’s 20-odd years of history. Brother Lei also swept up nearly all the scholarships from the university. In addition, the legend of Brother Lei did not begin in the capital. He was already a millionaire before he arrived at the capital. And that was in the 90s to boot. A million in that era was a very huge number.

Hence, Chen Jin did not take a character like Brother Lei lightly. He dare not make a display of his little bit of know-how. Other successes were built on their real talent and hard work. As for him? He was not too bad as he did learn a lot in the months during the development of the Wa-wah robot and the Little Star learning machine. He could be called a professional in some areas, but for many areas, he was still an amateur. He still had to maintain an air of humility and learn more from his seniors.

…

In one of the free discussion forums held in the afternoon, Brother Lei introduced a good friend of his to Chen Jin; the President of Baidu Corporation, Li Yanhong. Li Yanhong was also a legendary character. The three big internet leaders of Z country were represented by the acronym “BAT.” The “B” stood for Baidu. It was the first letter of the acronym not because it was the biggest company of the three, but because it was the first that was established and the first that rose to success. It had taken a large share of Z country’s search engine market. However, Baidu’s bidding for rank mechanism had caused many tragedies and widespread criticisms, leading to a hotbed of public opinions. Its growth stagnated. In order to find new ways of increasing their performance growth, Baidu had turned their strategy of development away from the search engine and towards artificial intelligence. They had nurtured thousands of AI experts who were the best in the world. With a deep pool of talents, Baidu was able to create many outstanding results, putting the standard of Z country’s AI sector on par with Merica’s. In this area, Baidu could claim full credit for their contributions, which could not be easily ignored.

In addition, Baidu was the first company to introduce a company insurance plan called “Qing Song Plan” in the internet business world. Parents of all employees who were working in the company for at least two years would be entitled to hospitalization and medical insurance nationwide. The plan had no restrictions on age, social securities, or health statuses. It also provided a high rate of compensation against the costs of self-funded medications and treatments, in addition to providing higher annual coverage and setting a lower deductible amount. The introduction of the “Qing Song Plan” did not change the negative image that netizens had of Baidu. However, this plan had eliminated the future worries that many employees had for their family. Hence, the loyalty that employees felt towards Baidu increased exponentially.

Chen Jin also thought well of this plan and implemented it in Xing Hai Technologies as part of the workers’ welfare. Indeed, it provided a great boost to the morale of the company. The annual employee turnover rate was reduced to less than 0.1%.

This meeting was initiated by Li Yanhong, who wanted to speak with Chen Jin. He was interested in the collaboration of the two companies. “President Chen, the technician from my company, Song Bojun, seems to have been poached by your company? If only I knew about it earlier… Anyway, I won’t let you poach anymore of my employees.” Li Yanhong shook his head and gave a bitter smile. He had a vague impression of Song Bojun. He was a genius in the field of speech recognition, but Li Yanhong never thought that he was also a genius in intelligent learning. Baidu had lost a one-of-its-kind treasure; he felt like he lost a piece of flesh. How wonderful it would be if Song Bojun never left! Perhaps the Little Star learning machine would have become a product under the Baidu Corporation. It was worth trillions!

“President Li, your words are not entirely accurate.” Chen Jin smiled as he explained, “The Little Star learning machine is born from the combined efforts of thousands of technicians in our company. It can’t be attributed to the efforts of one genius. Song Bojun’s capability is outstanding and he has accomplished all the tasks I set for him perfectly. For this, I have to thank your company for putting in the effort to train and nurture him.”

Actually, without the technological information and materials that he had brought over from the Base of Operations, even 1,000 Song Bojuns would not be able to come up with Little Star. However, he would never say this.

Li Yanhong quickly recovered. Setting aside his ego, he said, “Apologies for losing my composure. Talents in the internet business frequently come and go. I used to get resentful about it, but I’ve since adapted to the situation. Moreover…” Spreading his hands, he said, “My company is primarily involved in smart robots, self-driving cars, medical treatments, finance, etc. I did dip my toes into the educational market, but I’ve never thought about making a learning machine. I do not possess the powerful technological capabilities to do so. Your company actually came up with the learning machine, much beyond my expectations. Your courage and drive are admirable.”

He looked at Chen Jin with great respect. The VIPs in the science and tech circle had recently been discussing the learning machine and they all came to the consensus that it had been a blind spot. A blind spot that all of them missed. However, there was someone who threw 10 billion into the project and developed an intelligent learning machine that was a must-buy for everyone. With this, he had 200 million ready consumers in the student population who were in need of a learning machine… It was a market with a potential of two trillion. If he had the foresight, Baidu would even throw up to 10 billion into developing a “Baidu intelligent learning machine” with similar functions.

There was nothing he could do to lessen the sting of missing out on the first opportunity. There would be no point for Baidu to enter the market now. Not only did Baidu have to invest heavily in product development, but its product also would not be particularly competitive either. He could only look on in envy at Xing Hai Technologies, who were probably rolling around in their profits. At the same time, he wanted to ask if they could collaborate in other areas. He wanted two strong companies to join forces.

“Collaboration?” Chen Jin sank into silence and considered it. “Big data, cloud computing, and medical treatments are the strong suits of your esteemed company. Xing Hai Technologies is willing to start a collaboration with your company. In addition, my company is working on a big project; I wonder if you are interested?”

“What project?”A look of intense interest appeared on Li Yanhong’s face and he unconsciously leaned closer.

“A domestically produced independent operating system.”

Li Yanhong almost out the water he was drinking. Coughing a few times, he said, “It’s good that young people have dreams. But this has already been done before, and they have all failed. Moreover, it’s such a tremendous and mature ecology of systems. It’s virtually impossible for one company to overthrow the current system of doing things. Even a nation may not have this power.”

Chen Jin said with all seriousness, “What if I said that I have 100% confidence in its success?”

Cough, cough, cough!

Li Yan Hong merely coughed and changed the topic. “President Chen, let’s collaborate in areas that both of us are good at.” Obviously, he did not look positively upon the independent operating system project by Xing Hai Technologies. In the end, both parties only agreed to an intent to collaborate in areas of big data, cloud computing, supercomputing, and medical treatments, etc. At least, there were some gains for both sides.

…

In the evening, brother Lei took Chen Jin along to a grand banquet. The one hosting the dinner was the big boss of Teng Xun, Xiao Mage, as well as other VIPs in the Teng Xun business empire such as Brother Xi. Other banquet guests included the founder of Laiping Duo, Huang Qiang, and Wang Xin from Mei Group, along with a slew of other VIPs. This banquet was the “Wuzhen Banquet” that caused many enthusiastic discussions from the netizens.

When they took their seats, Chen Jin was shocked by the attention showered on him by Xiao Mage. He even told Chen Jin to sit directly to his left, which was a seat of honor. As they made headway into the banquet, Xiao Mage repeatedly put food on his plate and asked him many questions. “Little Chen, how old are you this year? Do you have a partner now? Young accomplished fellows like you are a rarity nowadays. Teng Xun wasn’t even established when I was 26! Here, here, eat more.” During the banquet, Xiao Mage was very warm towards him. Chen Jin felt somewhat overwhelmed by all the pampering.

When the banquet ended, Xiao Mage pulled him into a private room. Leaning closer to his ear, he said, “Little Chen, you said that you are currently single. It just so happens that I know of a very excellent girl who I can introduce you to.”

“Um, who is it?” Chen Jin was even more surprised. Xiao Mage was taking the initiative to be his matchmaker?

“Well, it’s like this…” Xiao Mage’s face turned red and he spoke into his ear in a low voice. “My daughter really admires you. And she is still unmarried.”

Ah!

Chen Jin was so shocked he took a step back and looked at Xiao Mage with an astonished expression.

Chapter 175 - The Speech Anticipated by Many

The more successful a man was in his career, the more likely it was for him to have a daughter than a son. Of course, this saying could not be applied to all men with successful careers. But, within the internet business circle, many of the big shots did have daughters rather than sons. Xiao Mage only had one daughter. Moreover, she had inherited the excellent genes of her father. Her looks were on point and she had a noble air about her. She was definitely a beautiful woman. Her age was similar to Chen Jin’s, and she had no lack of admirers.

Two years ago, the “nation’s husband” had pursued her. But she could not deal with his looks, which she felt were not up to par. In addition, Xiao Mage, with his low-key personality, disliked the high-profile and flamboyant personality of the “nation’s husband,” hence, he personally refuted the rumors and the incident ended inconclusively.

But even an emperor’s daughter had to get married someday. After reviewing many people, Chen Jin, with his tall and handsome looks and a successful career, finally caught his daughter’s eyes. Hence, she developed some interest in him. Xiao Mage was very pleased too. Chen Jin was much better than the “nation’s husband.” Especially in terms of his looks. He was similar to Xiao Mage, as both of them were the faces of the internet business world; both were very handsome.

So…

Chen Jin felt overwhelmed by the favor of Xiao Mage. He wanted to reject his suggestion but he was worried that it would upset Xiao Mage. He could only say, “This… President Ma… Currently, I’m fully focused on my career and have no plans to form a family.”

“That’s ok, you can get to know each other first. You can only know if you’re compatible or not after understanding each other better.”

“Ok, we can get to know each other.” Chen Jin took out his phone. He exchanged contacts with Xiao Mage and added him as a friend on WeChat.

No matter how much father and daughter favored him, this marriage would never happen. It had a probability of zero. Chen Jin shook his head and thought about how Haierfa needed to be populated. Just one person who was in love with him was insufficient. But would Xiao Mage allow him two? He would probably beat him up and kill him. Xiao Mage may be nicknamed as a “normal family man” but his background was not normal at all.

I’ll just use my same old tricks. The mommy’s boy and the womanizer are the two types of men most hated by women. Miss Ma… I can handle her.

…

The second day of the conference in Wuzhen began. As per the invitation by the organizer, Chen Jin would be giving a speech on the topic of the “learning machine” in the 8,000 person auditorium tonight. The auditorium was part of the second phase of the newly built International Exhibition Center. The speech would be the most anticipated and attention-grabbing segment of this conference. The VIPs in the internet business, celebrities in the science and tech circles, experts, and academics were very focused on this segment. They were curious about what the President of Xing Hai Technologies, Chen Jin, would say. Tonight, he would become the focus of this grand meeting.

The speech was about to begin. Chen Jin was doing his preparations backstage and heard Brother Lei say, “Brother Chen, don’t get nervous. Just do as you usually do. This speech is very important. It is also a turning point that will decide the authority that your words have in this industry. And have you noticed? You are favored by all the bigshots. No matter if they are from Teng Xun or Ali, they’re all trying to rope you into their circles by showing you their goodwill. Baidu has established a cooperative relationship with you in many areas. Even BAT is trying to form a good relationship with you. Why are you so favored by all of them? I carefully considered this and realized that both of the products created by your company share a unique point. They are totally new products that are not in competition with any other company. Or should I say that they can’t compete with you at all?”

Brother Lei shrugged. “Anyway, you did not hurt any of their profits… Of course, my Da Mi cleaning robot has been totally eliminated from the market, but I’ve also become friends with you despite the age gap. You are taking the road that nobody wants to take and profiting from sources that others have never imagined. How can anyone not like this kind of young person? But most importantly, your company is in possession of technological abilities with unfathomable depths. I remember something that you said to me. You said that if Xing Hai Technologies were to go into mobile phones too, my Da Mi Company would collapse within three years. At first, I didn’t believe you. But after the launch of the learning machine, I believe you. Yesterday, Baidu’s President Li showed disinterest in the domestic autonomous operating system that you wanted to do. He has no confidence in you or your project, but I do. After this conference has ended, I intend to invest 10 billion in your project. I want a taste of your success too. I wonder if you would you agree to this?”

Hearing this, Chen Jin looked at him in surprise. “Brother Lei, you have so much confidence in me?”

“That’s right!” Brother Lei nodded with an inner light flickering in his eyes. “It’s because you have the ability to change the world. Whether it’s the Wa-wah robot or the Little Star learning machine, both have changed the world. I believe that you will continue to change the world. Your achievements will far surpass BAT’s and you will become the VIP of the VIPs. So, try your best for this speech. You don’t need to be too humble. Brag more and make more grandiose statements. Let go and let everyone know how all-around awesome you are. You are a VIP of a whole new level; you are the future star that will shine the brightest in the sky from the highest reaches. Free your brilliance and let it glow tonight.”

Brother Lei looked at him with gratification and excitement. As for the so-called “One only knows his calling after 50,” he was already past 50 and had achieved some praise-worthy results by making some changes in society. As a top student in school, his road in life was very smooth. Everything he did was a success. However, because of the lack of trials and tribulations in his experiences, his achievements could only stop there. He saw a much brighter future than he had experienced in Chen Jin. Thus, he really looked forward to what this young man could achieve.

Chen nodded with a smile. “Don’t worry, Brother Lei. I’ve been prepared for a while.” His imposing demeanor suddenly changed. He understood Brother Lei’s words. He wanted him to be more relaxed and show the image of a VIP who was in his own league. He should brag as much as he liked without being terrified, and never have stage fright at all costs. The question was: would he be scared? There was a time to be low-key and a time to be flamboyant. He knew what to do.

…

The voice of the host could be heard. “Let’s welcome Mr. Chen Jin, who will share with us his wonderful experiences.”

Clap clap clap!

Applause rang out.

A tall and handsome young man walked out briskly from the backstage. Proceeding to the podium, he faced the 8,000 people that filled the auditorium. Within this audience were the VIPs of the science and tech world, government officials, and academic experts. All of them were elites. And he was the focus of their stares.

Chen Jin smiled and gripped the microphone on the podium. He did not place a script in front of him, but instead, he immediately started speaking. “Ladies and gentlemen, good evening… The topic of this speech is ‘Intelligent Education.’ But friends who know me would also know that I’m not a child that most parents want for themselves. When I was in school, I was a troublemaker that caused many headaches for my teachers. Besides a long list of failing grades, I really don’t have much to share on the topic of education. I might even be a bad influence on your children.”

Laughter rang out in the audience.

“So, I want to change the topic. I don’t want to talk about education. Instead, I want to focus our attention to the top of our heads. I want to talk about the big crisis that this generation of young people, or perhaps, the next generation of young people, will soon face. This crisis will affect the looks of every single young adult, their spouse, and even the judgment and choices that they will make in their careers. This will, in turn, impact the future of many industries. Through this crisis, some may emerge stronger, but I believe that nobody wants to go through that. That’s right.” Chen Jin pointed to his own head and said, “What I’m referring to is the problem of balding experienced by many young adults from the 90s and the millennials. Therefore, the topic of my speech is ‘How to resolve the balding crisis.’”

Chapter 176 - How to Solve the Bald Crisis?

“Woah!”

“Hahaha!”

“How to solve the bald crisis?”

The audience immediately burst into laughter. Some of the audience members subconsciously touched their own heads and laughed awkwardly.

Chen Jin continued, “What is the cause of baldness? I’ve checked some documents. There are three main factors. The first one is heredity. If the father has the bald gene, it is the cruel destiny for the son to go bald as well later in life. Secondly, the excessive excretion of androgen and testosterone. These are the real culprits behind baldness. Thirdly, an irregular lifestyle and excessive pressure from study or work can also lead to premature baldness. But no matter the reason, once you go bald, you must accept a fact: you will bid adieu to your full head of hair forever. Because… this is an incurable disease. There is almost no medical treatment that can cure baldness. Do not believe those advertisements about hair loss treatments on TV or buy those anti-hair loss medicines from the drugstores. It won’t have any effect aside from you wasting your own money. The better option would be going to the hospital for a hair transplant surgery, but the cost of transplanting hair is more than $50,000 per session and the hair’s ‘survival rate’ isn’t high either; one hair transplanting session might not be enough. So, once you go bald, just calmly accept the truth: your hair isn’t coming back.”

Voices of mourning could be heard offstage.

“Besides, a survey from a foreign institution shows that for young women, the attractiveness of a man with thick hair is 75% higher than that of a man with thin hair,” Chen Jin added.

“Ah!!” Some audience members offstage gave a cry of despair and held their heads, filled with agony.

“Baldness cannot be reversed. Medical procedures as of now still can’t come out with an effective treatment solution. The baldness rate is increasing across the globe. For adult men, 40% of them in Europe and 38% of them in North America are bald. In Z, there are now over 200 million bald individuals… this is indeed a market with great potential.” Chen Jin shrugged his shoulders, spread his hands, and said, “But I might have to disappoint you. I still don’t have an elixir to solve the bald crisis. I could only relieve the bald crisis among the people born in the 90s and 2000s. Yes, young people are going bald too quickly. Normally, even if one inherited the bad gene, they would only start to go bald around the age of 40, so it wouldn’t affect them finding their partners. However, statistics have shown that 42% of hair transplant procedures and hair care products are purchased by those born in the 90s and 2000s. Our youngsters are already starting to go bald.”

“Our youngsters are going bald earlier than they should.”

“What is the cause of this tragedy?”

The audience grew immersed in their own thoughts. They generally had the answer in their hearts and roughly understood what Chen Jin was going to say on stage.

“That’s correct, stress. The immense stress you gain from work or study! It has become the main reason that our youngsters are going bald prematurely. For example, you’ll go bald if you were thinking of finding a job with a working time of nine to five, net income of $25,000 after tax, and covered by all types of insurances, because you are fantasizing too much and will end up overstressing yourself! For example, you’ll go bald if you burn the midnight oil studying Xiao Xiurong’s research on Marxism when the postgraduate examinations are coming up, because you will be suffering from long-term anxiety and the lack of sleep! Another example, you’ll go bald if you are too anxious and got tricked by fake medical personnel into using hair dyes and hair perm products with no guarantee, because those chemicals will damage your scalp… The stress and anxiety faced by the 90s and 2000s youngsters are way beyond our imagination. Patients suffering from depression are increasing, suicidal rates are increasing… youngsters are not only losing their hair, but they are also losing their happiness.”

Chen Jin continued, “We can blame this on the cruel competition that is happening in our society. It is the explosive development of knowledge that caused the skill requirements we demand from our youngsters in the technical field to rise. The bald crisis among young people is expected to become more and more intense. The war happening at their hairlines will most likely continue to spread outwards. But can we only watch helplessly? Is this war at their hairlines unwinnable? No!”

Chen Jin shook his head. “We, have a way to emerge as victors in this war! Not only can we can hold the hairline among our youngsters, but we can also blow the horns of retaliation against our enemies and prevent even our next generation from going bald. The Little Star learning machine by Xing Hai Technologies is the first shot we made after launching our counterattack against them! Yes indeed, the stress that our youngsters are facing now are mainly from learning knowledge and skills. The human brain has a limit, the knowledge that it can absorb also has a limit. The numbers of the so-called all-arounders will only plummet in the future. On the contrary, talents who specialize in one field will be the mainstream. But as of current times, many technical jobs require one to not only specialize in one field, but many. For example, programmers. Not only do they have to master multiple programming languages such as Java, C++, .net, and others, but they must also still learn about database, front-end web development, and writing algorithms for mobile apps. If they only have knowledge in one particular field, those programmers will never find a job. The more programming techniques one master, the easier it will be for them to land a job and the higher their income will be… gradually, they will become bald.”

Many of the moguls offstage nodded their heads. Many of them were born in the field of software development. They knew the agony and pressure faced by a programmer. In some companies who were compassionate, they would hire ‘programming cheerleaders’ or something similar to help soothe their pressure… but even so, several cases of sudden death would still occur every year. Besides, this was not only limited to programmers. In many of the technology-based jobs, the number of skills required was getting higher. For example, in foreign language translation, the more languages one can master, the better; for automotive designers, not only were they required to make the car look cool and elegant, they would still have to master aerodynamics. But the human brain really had limits. Aside from a small population of geniuses, it was already not that easy for an ordinary human to be very good at something. Just how many could manage to be masters in more than one field?

Therefore, Chen Jin expressed the clout of his speech. “If we ask our students to master all the knowledge in the textbooks, and our technical staff to master all the required technical skills, we will never triumph in the war at the hairlines; only a crushing defeat awaits. Only by letting robots learn in place of humans, letting intelligent learning programs master all the knowledge within the textbooks and thus become intelligent learning machines that will facilitate our students to become skilled in ‘using’ the knowledge, will we be able to replace a portion of rote learning that could reduce the pressure our students are shouldering, soothe their anxiety, let them have a better rest, and ultimately nourish their scalp. Xinghai Technology is also working on the development of a “smart work machine” or “intelligent work assistant” to serve the programmers or other personnel in the technical field. It will assist them in dealing with things that they are not very good at. For example, it can help Java engineers to write codes in C++, help backend development engineers to realize an effect in interfacing, and so on… it allows talents that specialize in one field to have the ability of an all-arounder. At present, our project has been launched, and we can launch the 1.0 version of our product in a few months. Therefore, I’m here to tell all the programmers and all our youngsters involved in the technical field out there, do not worry. Eat when you should, sleep when you should, relax when you should, and have fun when you should. You will never have to worry about your hairline ever again.”

He clenched his fist and said, “Because from now on, Xing Hai Technologies will protect the hairline of all of our young people! Thank you!” He bowed to the audience, turned around, and went offstage.

The audience applauded, nodding to each other. The new mogul that delivered his speech on stage ever so calmly and casually was worthy of their commendations. The way he expressed his humor and tossed out statistics left a deep impression on them. About the “smart work machine” or the “intelligent work assistant” that the young mogul revealed, if it were to be realized, one could foresee that it was bound to bring forth tremendous change in many industries, and earth-shaking changes to the world. In short, via this speech, the moguls present were able to perceive the rising of a brilliant and captivating young star.

Chapter 177 - Declining Google’s Request for Cooperation

“How was it, Brother Lei? Was my performance still okay?”

“Not bad, I give it an 8 out of 10.” Brother Lei nodded and gave him a big thumbs up. Chen Jin’s speech was more than good. “It would be perfect if you had half of Old Ma’s boasting skills. There were not enough ‘wows’ from the crowd.”

“Boasting?” Chen Jin shook his head. “I think that there’s really nothing to boast about. It’s just a few common products. My linguistic abilities are not good enough for me to boast about it for 20 or 30 minutes straight. Wait until I release the big thing, only then will I give it a good boast.”

Brother Lei stared at him with his eyes wide open. “I take back my words. Your boasting skills are definitely more than half of that of Old Ma!”

“Hahahaha!” Both of them laughed.

…

The 9th of November was the last day of the World Internet Conference. Chen Jin went to the exhibition hall showcasing the Internet’s top achievements in science and technology. He saw a group of the most advanced technological products in the world to date.

For example, Hua Yao’s 5G mobile phone with a foldable display. Its screen was like paper that could be folded at will. It provided the perfect solution towards having a big HD display and good portability.

Next, the latest generation of Google glasses launched by Google. It was able to display text, pictures, and stereoscopic figures in front of one’s eyes. It had fully and comprehensively met commercial standards. It gave Chen Jin almost the same experience as that of virtual glasses.

Another example would be the world’s first graphene CPU made by Intel. This product shocked Chen Jin. As of current technical conditions, it would require at least another 10 years to replace silicon with graphene. Did Intel come across technology from Robotech and created a graphene CPU out of it?

After understanding it thoroughly, Chen Jin discovered that it was because this ‘toothpaste factory’ finally realized that they had to make bigger changes to their product. Therefore, they added graphene into traditional monocrystalline silicon CPU to enhance its heat dissipation capabilities and improve the CPU’s frequency by a few gigahertz. In the end, they fabricated the concept of a “graphene CPU” to fudge users to purchase them. “Intel just added a little graphene and they dare call it a graphene CPU? Do you call your rice an egg fried rice after adding just a tiny amount of egg in it?” This was literally fraud! This large toothpaste factory had taken too big of a fall in this regard.

Aside from those, Chen Jin saw several versions of Intelligent Answering Robots. It was said that all of them passed the Turing test. The one with the highest intelligent level would be Baidu’s Xiao Du 3.0 robot. It passed the highest level in the Turing test. In a completely isolated environment, only 10% of the testers were able to tell that the one answering their questions was a robot.

Therefore, there would be a sensational impact after Xiao Du 3.0 was launched. Customer service personnel in banks, consulting companies, telecommunications companies, and many others would experience a large number of layoffs. It would affect at least a million job posts. The impact it would cause would not be less than that of Xing Hai Technologies’ Little Star learning machine.

But this was the future! An irreversible future that one could not defy, but only adapt.

“Mr. Chen, Mr. Chen.” A long-haired girl with an “8 out of 10” appearance came to him and said, “I am the translator of Mr. Larry Page, the founder of Google. Mr. Larry would like to meet you. Is it convenient for you to meet him?”

“Google’s founder?” Why would he want to meet me? Considering that the person was a mogul, Chen Jin nodded his head. “Please lead the way.”

“Thank you Mr. Chen!” The girl with long hair smiled brightly, as if she had accomplished a great mission.

…

There were some small round tables in the front hall of the exhibition hall with three or four sofa chairs placed around them.

There was a tall white man sitting at one of the round tables. The man had curly white hair, thick brows, a thick beard, deep eye sockets, and explicit facial features. He was wearing a white shirt paired with an unbuttoned grey suit that seemed untrimmed.

Larry Page!

He had been waiting for quite some time. Upon seeing Chen Jin walking towards him, he stood up and greeted him. He spread his arms, gave him a hug and spoke to him in Z country’s language, saying, “Hello friend, nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too.” From that brief embrace, Chen Jin had a sniff of the body odor that most westerners had. He quickly distanced himself from him and shook hands with him instead. They sat down facing each other.

Via the long-haired girl who was his translator, Mr. Larry Page gave him some words of platitude. “Mr. Chen, your speech last night was very interesting. I really liked your company’s products. I have Wa-wah 2.0, which is very handy at home; my wife called it the ‘Magical oriental savior.’ The only thing is that Wa-wah 2.0 can’t speak English, so we are unable to use the ‘Family Protection’ function. I have to say that this is very regrettable.”

“I’m flattered, Mr. Page.” Chen Jin smiled modestly and asked, “So Mr. Page, are you implying that… you want to cooperate with Xing Hai Technologies in this regard?” He shook his head. “My apologies Mr. Page. I’m unaware of how you got your hands on the Wa-wah 2.0 in your premise. But it’s unlikely for this product to gain entry into your country. Your country’s security policy is very strict, in which it prioritizes the privacy of each and every citizen. Coincidently, Wa-wah 2.0 needs to monitor every corner of the house. I’m afraid that this product will never make it in your country.”

“No no no, Mr. Chen, you misunderstood what I meant.” Larry Page waved his hands. “What I’m interested in is your company’s Little Star learning machine. Google has intentions to cooperate with your company to develop an Intelligent learning machine which will be suitable for all of mankind to improve mankind’s overall intellect, thus creating a better world.”

Uhm…

Chen Jin sank into thought. Looking into Larry Page’s eyes, he sighed surreptitiously. The foreigners were no fools, there were plenty of smart people among them! In the end, they still uncovered the Little Star learning machine’s great value. However… He shook his head and refused. “Mr. Page, the education system is different in every country. The mode of education in your country, in particular, has a big contrast with that of Z country. The Little Star learning machine might not be suitable for your country.”

“It’s fine Mr. Chen, Xing Hai Technologies can provide Google with relevant technical information on intelligent learning and let us develop a learning machine suitable for the students in M. Of course, we will pay your company a satisfactory amount of technical patent fees.” Larry Page leaned his body forward. His words were ever so gentle as he finally revealed his fox tail. Indeed. Google had the deepest attainments in the field of deep learning. The AlphaGo and the Go program developed by Google’s subsidiary, DeepMind, was always the symbol of the pinnacle of intelligent learning in the world. A few years had passed and the AlphaGo was upgraded to version 3.0. It could put down any genius Go players, and was dominating the world of Go. However, the AlphaGo’s usage was too limited. Aside from playing Go, it could not do anything else. Its learning abilities were stagnant at stage one.

Xing Hai Technologies’ smart learning program, on the other hand, was way ahead of the AlphaGo. It could learn and understand the knowledge in textbooks and become proficient in each of them. Its learning ability was above 10 thousand. How did Xing Hai Technologies manage to accomplish this? Google’s team of engineers had dissassembled hundreds of Little Star learning machines and had gone through countless lines of the machine’s underlying code, but they still were unable to figure it out. The technical difference that lay between one and 10 thousand might be like a paper window or a vast canal. Google desperately needed to cross over the technical boundary to avoid losing its competitive advantage.

Since Xing Hai Technologies had yet revealed any specific technical details, the best and quickest way to uncover the fog and save development costs was to reach technical cooperation directly with Xing Hai Technologies. They needed to think of a way to get their hands on the technology!

But Chen Jin still shook his head. He frowned. “From my knowledge, your country’s mode of education is more towards ‘happy education’ for normal families and ‘elite education’ for wealthy families. Your country’s tuition fees at university levels are very high as well. Education is a big industry in your country. Without the government’s support, products like the Little Star learning machine might be unable to be promoted smoothly and will definitely encounter great resistance.”

Larry Page immediately said, “Be rest assured, Mr. Chen. Before I came to the Z nation, M nation’s Ministry of Education had already assured me that they are fully supportive towards intelligent learning machine products to be fully promoted in the country’s field of basic education. M will also implement education reformations similar to that of Z nation. The promotion of intelligent learning machines will not encounter any sorts of resistance.”

The heck?!

Chen Jin sat up straight as his body bounced up like a spring. M’s government actually informed Larry Page of their plans to introduce similar intelligent learning machines within the country?! It seemed that their governor, Mr. Chuan, who was in authority still had a very clear mind. Therefore, there were now even more reasons to decline any cooperative measures.

All of a sudden, Chen Jin’s expression became solemn. “My apologies Mr. Page, as your country’s government is involved in this, Xing Hai Technologies will not cooperate with your company in developing intelligent learning machines. Personally, I despise politicians and I will not like to have any affiliations with your country’s government. Companies from Z such as Hua Yao, ChinaSat, and Da Mi have all been subjected to extremely unfair treatments in your country. It is highly possible that it might happen to Xing Hai Technologies as well. Considering this, I have already established long ago that my business will not set foot in your country.” He stood up and turned to leave. “Mr. Page, please convey my words to your government, if the business environment of Z’s tech enterprises in M is not improved, Xing Hai Technologies will never expand our business to the M nation!”

What?

Looking at Chen Jin’s back as he moved away, Larry Page was stunned, his mouth wide open.

Chapter 178 - Already Famous

Chen Jin rejected Google’s cooperation request without any hesitation. In fact, it was not only Google from the M nation. There were some educational institutions and internet businesses from the EU that also wanted to cooperate with Xing Hai Technologies as they wished to introduce similar intelligent learning products like the Little Star learning machine in their country. But the unified response given by Chen Jin was always the same: Unless the EU refunded the full sum of 7.5 billion penalty back to Da Mi Technologies, Xing Hai Technologies would not consider expanding their business to the EU.

“Why? Are there correlations between Da Mi Technologies getting fined and Xing Hai Technologies?” The other party was extremely puzzled.

“Of course, the Love Mi Second Gen was a product with Wa-wah 1.1’s technical license. The EU issuing such an unfair penalty also harmed the interests of Xing Hai Technologies.”

The other party was unable to refute. There was a country in the EU that perceived this as an opportunity. They thought they would definitely get their hands on the Little Star learning machine’s technical license.

That country was England. England, who was no longer a member of the European Union and had little to no affiliation with them, thought that they had a very high chance of importing the Little Star learning machine. In the end, they got slapped in the face as well. They were rejected rather straightforwardly. “Your country’s market is too small, Xing Hai Technologies has no interest in doing business over there.” In fact, England was a country that attached great importance to education. Their education in mathematics fully adopted the teaching methods of that of Z nation. They were the only one among the western countries to do so. The British government was eager to import the Little Star learning machine since the advent of the product.

The sudden rejection left the country in dismay. Looking around, they realized that all the western countries were turned down by Xing Hai Technologies. England’s “Times Magazine” had determined the cause. “Obviously, the founder of Xing Hai Technologies is a proud nationalist. He is very concerned about the unpleasant history between England and the Z nation. He detests us and refuses to provide us any form of convenience. The person we are encountering now is not someone that can be easily dealt with.”

Towards such an interpretation, Xing Hai Technologies immediately rebuked this as slander. They reiterated their stand: “Xing Hai Technologies is not a multinational group and we have no plans to develop overseas. We are more adapted to the domestic environment and have vowed to be the best company domestically. We treat all countries equally. All forms of discrimination are non-existent within our views. Please stop making false accusations against us.”

Regarding this statement, the netizens that were, in fact, oblivious about anything expressed their views.

“Well said Xing Hai Technologies!”

“Let me clarify this in another way. What Xing Hai Technology actually meant was that they were not against just you, they were against all of you. We are not discriminating against just one but all of you.”

“6666~”

“Heheh, the Little Star learning machine is our country’s most important weapon. Do you think you can simply import it if you wanted it? No way!”

“Do you know how much a flunkie like me improved because of the Little Star learning machine? 200 marks! A good 200 marks! How could we let such an artifact fall into your hands?”

“Stay firm Xing Hai Technologies, don’t sell it to other countries no matter what. We Z’s are not earning that money.”

“Sorry, the Little Star learning machine is not for sale.”

“The country should come out with laws that prohibit the Little Star learning machine from getting exported.”

The netizens were all backing up Xing Hai Technologies.

…

On the 10th of November, after the World Internet Conference ended, Chen Jin returned to Shang Hai. At Junting Grand Court, Villa 8, inside a secret room, he summoned his Avatar robot, who had been hiding in the cellar. The robot stood in front of him. Subsequently, he took out a brand new phone and used it to register an account on Weibo. After verifying his identity, a letter ‘V’ was appended to the account beside the name of “Xing Hai Chen Jin.” After the account was opened, he gained his first fan in less than two minutes. “Da Mi Lei Xiao Jun” followed him. He even mentioned him on his own account: “Congratulations Mr. Chen on opening your own Weibo account.” Brother Lei had more than 20 million followers on his account. After he posted on his Weibo, he spurred many of his followers to follow Chen Jin. In just five minutes, Chen Jin’s followers had increased to 100 thousand.

Next, several more celebrities posted about him.

Xiao Mage said, “Congratulations Mr. Chen on opening your own Weibo account.”

Liu Qiangxi posted, “Congratulations Mr. Chen on opening your own Weibo account.”

Huang Qiang wrote, “Congratulations Mr. Chen…”

A bunch of internet celebrities posted, “Congratulations Mr. Chen…”

In around two hours, the bigshots in the tech field that had some popularity had all posted similar posts on their Weibo. Furthermore, Shi Xiaotao from the entertainment industry, who was branded as the “Billion Dollar Director,” also congratulated him. Among her ten million followers, many of them went to follow Chen Jin and became his fan. Besides, Shi Xiaotao was quite popular within the entertainment industry. Many celebrities that followed her forwarded her post and this induced a heated discussion among netizens.

“Holy, my bossy president finally opened his own Weibo.”

“Follow him, quickly go follow him!”

“Bossy president I love you!”

“Our president’s profile pic is too handsome; I like it so much.”

“Please post more every day my handsome president, you’re every bit the most beautiful sunshine in my life.”

“Followed. Now, our hearts are together.”

Unsurmountable followers of various celebrities swarmed to his account. The comments left in the comments section gave people the vibes that their IQ was dwindling. Until evening, the number of followers on Chen Jin’s Weibo account had pierced the 20 million mark. The news of him opening a Weibo account had become the hottest topic of the day with the most searches online. Chen Jin was surprised by the number of followers he was able to attract. Associating him with the speech he gave during the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen two days ago, some meddlesome netizens even gave him a nickname — The Protector of Hairlines.

Many of them posted the same message that flooded the comments section. “From today onwards, I will protect your hairline.”

They even made some hilarious memes out of it. Upon seeing those memes, Chen Jin realized that he was a ‘celebrity’ since a long time ago. There were memes of him everywhere. The netizens could not be more familiar with him.

“No wonder I always felt that the way people looked at me was odd, as if they wanted to laugh but were holding it off. It turns out that my image has long been destroyed by netizens who like to spoof around!” Chen Jin held his face as he felt dumbfounded.

It turns out that I am already popular.

As for what should he write in his first post, he got the idea right away after looking at a picture. He immediately posted that picture with a line of words, “Whoever made this meme, yes, you, you are the smartest baby in this world.”

When the netizens that followed him came across his post, they instantly performed a spit-take. Isn’t that Chen Jin in the meme who was holding the Little Star learning machine and praised by Little Star as the “smartest baby in the world”?

“Hahaha.”

“Hahahaha!”

“Whoever made this meme, quickly come out and receive your beating.”

“Hehehe, my husband is too humorous.”

Hahaha!” Within the dormitory, Su Yun, who had secretly followed the man on Weibo, was tittering as she kept on rolling in her bed.

Chapter 179 - Military Pledge

Speaking of which, why did Chen Jin decide to open his own Weibo? How could he keep his low profile if he had already attracted 20 million followers in such a short time? In fact, with Xing Hai Technologies’ current popularity and Chen Jin’s net worth, it was rather impossible for him to keep a low profile even if he wanted to. There were perks of having a high profile. With millions of followers and such huge visiting traffic at his Weibo, the whole world would know about any tiny piece of gossip that he let out. The advertising effects it would bring forth would be tremendous. Besides, Chen Jin intended to leave his new phone, along with his Weibo account, in the villa to be operated by his Avatar robot. He, on the other hand, would operate the robot to post on Weibo, forward posts, and handle interaction with other Weibo users from a distance. Under shared vision, his Avatar robot was equivalent to himself. This was very safe for him as well. He could do anything he wanted to on Weibo without revealing his own trace. “It’s so good to have a substitute.”

Aside from this, a few days ago on planet Haierfa, Alice had been behind schedule for a few months, but had finally tackled the last technical difficulty in the production of the human replica robots. Now, she had the ability to produce human replica robots in small batches. Chen Jin immediately placed many orders. “Alice, make another 21 Guard robots, one Housekeeping robot, four Nanny robots, and six Chef robots. I demand all of them to have at least a punch force of 500 kilograms.”

By then, the total number of Guard robots would have increased to 26 units. 20 of them would be allotted to the villa. The remaining six would be by his side, ensuring the safety of his real body.

As for the Housekeeping robot, Nanny robot, Chef robot, and other robots under the Life Function Robot class, their main purpose was for convenience and improving the quality of life at the villa. Especially with six Chef robots, they could provide a variety of scrumptious meals from day to night. Whatever one wanted to eat, they could simply ask the Chef robots to prepare it for them. It would take a quick five minutes, or at most, not more than two hours for them to prepare the food. They could make more than 10,000 dishes ranging from Eastern to Western food.

The villa’s security was also improved to the maximum level. The villa, which seemed nothing out of ordinary from its exterior, was actually equipped with innumerable micro detectors no more than the size of a grain of rice. Not only were they scattered across every inch of the soil or walls in villa 8, but the whole of Junting Grand Court was also under surveillance. It would respond immediately if any movements and abnormalities were detected. The system would analyze the threat level and do preparations in advance. Therefore, even if the real Chen Jin decided to stay in the villa, he would not encounter much danger under these perfect security measures.

However… The saying went, “Don’t be afraid of ‘what,’ be afraid of ‘what if’.” With technological methods available to date, there were countless methods that some powerful forces could use to kill him. For example, firing a missile or whatnot, the entire villa would be blasted to the heavens. So, it would still be better for his real self to keep a lower profile. Occasionally coming over to enjoy the villa would suffice.

…

In the following month, all kinds of news poured in. The first was from Zhong Xin International. With the help of the artifact in scientific research, the “Virtual Factory,” the company had made rapid progression in their chip manufacturing process. In less than three months, the company’s R&D team had made a number of major improvements. The conformity rate of the 14-nanometer chip had been improved to a staggering 99.2%. It had almost no room for further improvements.

After cutting off dozens of trivial processes, production efficiency had also increased by 40%, allowing the production of the 14-nanometer chip to be boosted from 250,000 units per day to 350,000 units per day. Both the yield and efficiency of the production line of Zhong Xin International’s 14-nanometer chip reached the highest level in the industry.

The company’s chairman, Zhang Wei Jin, said excitedly, “Enough, this level is enough! If we make any more adjustments, it will deviate from the marginal benefit curve. We can halt our exploration in the production technology of the 14-nanometer chip. Next, with the help of the ‘Virtual Factory,’ let us put all our efforts into developing the process technology of the 7-nanometer chip! Let us strive to realize it in around a year’s time and put on a good show for the Z’s!”

However, at this time, shocking news came from Treasure Island that caught Zhang Wei Jin and the others unprepared. Mossy Electrics Corporation from Treasure Island announced at the spur of the moment, “We have successfully realized small-scale production of the 5-nanometer chip; mass production can be attained within approximately two years.”

As the company that had the most powerful technical prowess in the field of chip manufacturing, Mossy Electrics Corporation had been studying the process technology of the 5-nanometer chip for five long years and had injected tens of billions of dollars of funds in their research. Accomplishing the small-scale production of the 5-nanometer chip before the end of the year 2020 was merely a checkpoint in their bigger plan.

Once the news was announced, the stock price of Zhong Xin International plunged by 20%.

In the emergency meeting, Zhang Wei Jing seemed to have aged a few years. He said with a bitter smile, “Yes indeed, we’re improving. But we have forgotten the fact that the others are improving as well. When the chips were still at 65 nanometers, many people were screaming that we had reached the limits of Moore’s law. They kept on yelling even when the chips were at 14 nanometers, 10 nanometers… and yet, the process technology of chips are still improving. Actually, through a variety of technical means, the chips can be pushed to their 3-nanometer limit. This competition has not ended yet. We must not have even the slightest optimism in our current state! We must not relax even for a brief moment! We must work over the clock and catch up to them! Now, the company’s financial situation is rather good. I’ve decided to take out 18 billion dollars to establish another R&D production line of the 7-nanometer chip! Hold a general shareholders’ meeting and a press conference, tell our shareholders and stock buyers of our military pledge: we will realize the mass production of the 7-nanometer chip within 10 months, if we should fail, they can dine upon my head! I, Zhang Wei Jin, will be the first to resign as an apology!” Zhang Wei Jin pounded the table with all of his strength, with red hot blood cruising all over his face as he came out with these remarkable words.

Military pledge. Tackling 7 nanometers within 10 months. All the higher executives of the company were shocked. One of them said stutteringly, “Mr. Zhang, there is no problem about giving our shareholders our military pledge, but to skip an entire generation of chips and realize mass production of the 7-nanometer in just 10 months… is this a little too risky?”

R & D director Yang Ming said, “Don’t worry. Even if we just have 10 months, we are more than 80% sure that we can accomplish it. Mr. Chen from Xing Hai Technologies said that he can provide us the ‘Virtual Factory’ technology which has a 99.9999% fidelity to aid us in our R&D. Besides, we have approached the University of National Defense. We intend to rent the supercomputer with the fastest operating speed within our boundaries, the Heavenly River-3E, for a whole eight months duration! With the help of this supercomputer, our R&D speed will be 100 times higher than normal. We can definitely realize the 7-nanometer chip within 10 months! If the R&D goes smoothly, we might not even need 10 months. Maybe in eight months or even six months, we could overmaster the related tech and realize our promise! We can give our shareholders and stock buyers a perfect account and live up to their trust in us!”

Upon hearing his words, all the executives got a shine in their eyes as they became collectively excited. CEO Liang Meng Nan said, “Actually, the time I gave myself was at most eight months. With the Virtual Factory and a supercomputer with an operating speed of 10 billion billion times per second, if we still couldn’t wrap up the process technology of the 7-nanometer chip with even a hundredfold R&D speed, we can go kill ourselves with tofu.”

Just… considering the acceptability of the mass population of shareholders and netizens, it was better to keep things less exaggerated.

…

The next morning, in the internal conference for shareholders, as Zhang Wei Jin and other personnel revealed a portion of the technical details, the shareholder’s confidence was greatly boosted. Not only did they dispell the idea of selling their stocks, but on the contrary, they increased their stock holdings.

However, during the news conference in the afternoon, Zhang Wei Jin’s military pledge of “taking down 7-nanometers within 10 months” while facing the media triggered an uproar among the netizens. They also dropped a bombshell in the chip industry.

Or rather, a bombshell of laughter.

Chapter 180 - Stern Warning

“Zhong Xin International is so flustered that they forgot about Moore’s Law!”

“Skipping 10-nanometers and directly making 7-nanometers? Are they pulling off a Great Leap Forward in the chip manufacturing industry?”

“Are you joking, Zhong Xin International? Why are you so scared as to issue a military pledge? Tackling 7-nanometers within 10 months? If you can create advanced chips just by shouting slogans, chips from the Z nation would have long been on the top of the world!”

“Please respect the scientific laws! In the chip field, spend what you should spend. Wanting to gain by trickery will only put you in the wrong path and you will never manage to create any chips.”

“I don’t understand, why is Zhong Xin International so flustered? You still have Xing Hai Technologies’ billion-unit chip order. Mossy Electrics producing the 5-nanometer chip will hardly affect your business. Just follow your existing plans, there’s no need to disarray yourselves.”

A veteran stockbuyer said, “I invested more than 500,000 dollars buying Zhong Xin International’s stocks. Some time ago, its value rose to 1.5 million. Originally, I did not intend to sell them, as I was very positive about the company’s future developments. But their response this time is too flustered. They have forgone their principles and are destined for failure! I am no longer optimistic about this company and I intend to sell off all my stocks.” Stock buyers were mostly smart people. They all had strong judgmental and analytical skills. The longer they were in the stock market, the better they got at seeing things. They had a significantly lesser chance of being tempted by the so-called “Military Pledge,” as they only believed in the principles of science and common sense. The “performance” by Zhong Xin International’s leadership and their oath of “mass producing 7-nanometers in 10 months” was absurd and destined for failure. Aside from wasting large amounts of funds, it would not yield any outcome. Therefore, the stock buyers emptied their hold one after another.

Zhong Xin International’s stock price continued to fall as much as 20%. While the stock price was low, Xing Hai Technologies’ stock market trader bought Zhong Xin International’s shares in abundance. Their shareholding ratio had reached 35% and thus became the largest shareholder for this chip foundry enterprise.

Chen Jin’s goal was to push Xing Hai Technologies’ shareholding ratio towards Zhong Xin International above 40%. Adding up with the 5% held by Zhang Weijing, Chairman of Zhong Xin, and another 5% held by the other members of Zhong Xin’s board of executives such as Liang Meng Nan and Yang Ming, the total shares held by the executive members of Xing Hai Technologies and Zhong Xin International combined would be above 50%. This way, no matter what ideas and demands the other shareholders had, they could not influence or interfere with the decision-making of Chen Jin and the others. Therefore, in terms of stability in management, Zhong Xin International would be much more stable than Mossy Electrics.

The reason was that capitals from institutional investors from the M nation, Holland, and Germany had occupied more than 80% of Mossy Electric’s total shares. They had ripped off most of their dividends. It was said that Zhang Zhongmou, the founder of Mossy Electrics, was rather helpless in this matter. It was the same for Samsin. International capital constituted for more than 70% of their total share. As chip foundry was a capital-intensive industry, it was inevitable for the industry to lodge foreign capitals. The price they had to pay was losing a large portion of their shares and relinquishing their powers of equity control.

Chen Jin, who liked to rule over everything, would of course not let capitals ride over his head and become his “dad.”

…

Soon, the military pledge by Zhong Xin International’s management team of “mass producing 7-nanometers within 10 months” had spread overseas to the ears of their business counterparts. In Gorea, the President of Samsin, Li Jianrong, said, “Directly making 7-nanometer? Skipping 10-nanometer? Within 10 months?” His expression was as if he had misheard something. Am I hallucinating?

“Hahahaha, yes! Zhong Xin International’s CEO Zhang Wei Jin said so in front of the media,” said his assistant while he laughed hysterically.

“Hahaha! Hahahaha!” Li Jianrong abruptly held his stomach as he rolled on the tatami. His laughter was extremely exaggerated, as if it was capable of triggering an earthquake.

After a moment, he said while holding his cramped belly, “Okay, I’ve heard the funniest joke in the whole world. Perhaps that Mr. Zhang has the powers of a sorcerer. After 10 months, ‘Poof,’ and there you have it, the 7-nanometer chip. But for the Z’s to have the ability to mass produce chips of this level, give them another ten years and they will still be unable do it! They will never surpass us!” Li Jianrong’s face was full of disdain and mockery.

…

At Treasure Island, on the grass in the vestibule of a villa, the current chairman of Mossy Electrics, Liu De Ming, said to 90-year-old Zhang Zhongmou, “Old man, have you heard about the things going on at Zhong Xin International? They intend to wrap up 7-nanometers within 10 months. How do you view this matter?”

The elder, with a head full of grey hair and holding a walking stick, had a sense of pity flashing across his pale and hearty eyes. He sighed. “Zhang Wei Jin is a respectable opponent. I’ve confronted him in the past. He lost, but still, he managed to get his Zhong Xin International to the third place in the world. This is an impressive feat. This time, however, there is no chance for him to mount a comeback. Zhong Xin International’s stocks will only plunge again. Now, Zhang Wei Jin is not qualified to be our opponent.” The elder shook his head. 7-nanometers? Even Mossy Electrics, who had deep technical foundations, took five years to subjugate the technology. And now, Zhang Wei Jin actually claimed that they would do it in only 10 months.

Maniacs. They would only crumble upon themselves. This was what he had in mind.

…

After a month, on the 8th of December, Google’s founder Larry Page flew from M nation to Shang Hai and requested to meet Chen Jin. Inside Xing Hai Technologies’ conference room, the two met again.

“Mr. Chen, I used a whole month going through the arrogant members of the Ministry of Commerce. They’ve agreed in principle to give Xing Hai Technologies the ‘Trusted Company’ treatment. As long as your company abides by the rules of the M nation, the ministry will not interfere with Xing Hai’s normal business activities and harm your company’s interests for no reason. They promised to provide tax incentives as well. Be rest assured for your company to develop your business in the M market.” Larry Page guaranteed him as he spoke, smiling all the while.

“Trusted Company?” Chen Jin gave him a weird look. “Does the Ministry of Commerce of your country trust us so much? Are you sure that they will be giving Xing Hai such good treatment?”

“Yes, I spent a whole month ensuring this.”

“What about the other companies from Z? Hua Yao, ChinaSat, Da Mi, are they in the list as well? Will the M nation renege on us? Can your country make commitments in the form of legislation that the business environment of tech companies from Z in the M nation will be improved?”

“Uhm…” Larry Page shuffled as he said, “I can only get an exemption for Xing Hai Technologies. About the other enterprises from Z, I really can’t do anything. Every country places great importance in their own national defense and the safety and privacy of its own citizens, including the Z nation. Some of my country’s practices are not inappropriate at all.”

Chen Jin spread his hands. “Then I’m sorry, Xing Hai Technologies will not go to M. We would not like to do our business with jitters in an overall unfriendly atmosphere. Xing Hai Technologies is reluctant to leave an impression that we have seemingly taken an advantage in the eyes of some of your country’s parliament members. As your country is an expert in withdrawing promises, I’m not convinced by the ‘Trusted Company’ banner promised by your country’s Ministry of Commerce; it is only a verbal guarantee after all.” Chen Jin was expressionless as he crossed his legs and said, “Mr. Page, please return. My answer remains intact: unless the overall business environment of your country is improved radically, Xing Hai Technologies will not set foot in your country.”

What?

Larry Page’s face changed. It became somber and hostile. With a deep voice, he warned, “Mr. Chen, I’m warning you in good faith, do not cross the lines. M’s national policy is not decided by merchants like you. The only thing that merchants can do is earn moneyl the more, the better. This applies to you as well. Do not make futile attempts to influence the policies in any country! The smart learning program in the Little Star learning machine is not your company’s private belonging, its CPU is using our framework and its operating system is the Android system developed by Google. Although this is an open-source system, do not forget, without the technology from M, the Little Star learning machine would be nothing but air! Mr. Chen, please do not stray further on the dangerous path. If your company is reluctant to share technical information on intelligent learning and attempt unauthorized possession, Xing Hai Technologies will become our primary target. You will be faced with an infinite number of patent infringement lawsuits and sign yourselves on the list of sanctions in many countries. This kind of consequence is not what you can afford.” Larry Page had finally shed all pretense of cordiality and gave out a stern warning.

“Heheh, threatening when discussions won’t work, huh?” Chen Jin laughed as his voice gradually became chilling, “Mr. Page, thanks for your ‘kind’ reminders. Xing Hai Technologies is not afraid of any challenge. Soon, we will be able to make our own chip, our own OS, and our own ecosystem of software. Your intimidation is futile. Xing Hai Technologies welcomes all forms of challenge! We will not rely on any Western technology! We’ll see to that!”

“You——” Larry Page stood up, pointed his finger, and stared at him for a while. However, he did not see even the slightest bit of fear on Chen Jin’s face. He heavily snorted, swung his hands, and left.

Chapter 181 - A Powerful Assistant

In the early days of establishing Xing Hai Technologies, Chen Jin had decided that no advanced technological product would be exported overseas. They would only service the citizens in the country. They would only bring about benefits and conveniences for the citizens in the country. As for the foreigners… Haha, they could continue playing with mud.

What was behind this mentality? Was it not too narrow-minded? If there was money to be earned, why not earn it? Actually, Chen Jin was not being narrow-minded. He was simply acting out the saying, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”

Money was a good thing. But, why did the overseas governments refuse to earn the profits that came with so many high-tech products, and instead choose to implement a strict embargo on Z country? When they saw that Z country started producing some good products that were breaking the monopolies, overseas governments scrambled to announce that the embargo was lifted, and sold their products at a much lower price in their markets. They seemed to have found their conscience again.

In actual fact, they never had a conscience. They strongly wanted Z country to remain in the Stone Age, and could not stand to see this ancient civilization benefiting themselves in any way. It was a black and white, zero-sum game!

This deeply rooted mentality of theirs could never understand what was “seeking common ground while respecting each others’ differences” or “seeking mutual benefits for a win-win situation.” No matter how many times it was repeated, it was futile.

Moreover, the West’s hegemony on science and technology was their last defense to shore up their sense of superiority and maintain the prosperity and stability of their society. If they lost their hegemony on science and technology, their self-esteem, pride, and even arrogance would be fatally impacted! They would protect their hegemony at all costs.

Naturally, Chen Jin would not export a strategic product like the Little Star learning machine to the West where they would use it to strengthen their next generation of technology and solidify their hegemony. Hence, Chen Jin sent someone to the Department of Education, requesting Department Chief Yuan for an appeal to the higher-ups to list the Little Star learning machine as a strategic product for embargo. Its export would be prohibited. However, for unknown reasons, the higher-ups did not agree to his requests. Perhaps they had misgivings about the potential consequences of such an action, but they merely allowed Xing Hai Technologies the discretion to come up with their own responses.

Chen Jin shook his head. “They’re leaving us to deal with the entire situation. We’ll be facing the pack of wolves on our own.” Then again, what did Chen Jin have to be afraid of? Xing Hai Technologies was only expanding within Z country’s borders. What did foreign restrictions and sanctions have to do with them? Their long-arm statute would be useless against them.

Even so, the majority of copyrights licensing purchased by Xing Hai Technologies originated from the West. Most of the database software, applications software, and operating systems came from the West. 90% of copyright licenses for the hardware, including the ARM and X86 framework used in the development of chips, originated from the West.

Once the overseas governments announced a complete embargo against Xing Hai Technologies, they would be banned from using the above software, operating systems, and hardware licensing. They would lose all authority to use the technologies and products from overseas. Within half a day, Xing Hai Technologies would be paralyzed.

Xing Hai Technologies could forcibly use these products and technologies. In any case, there were pirated versions of everything on the market. It did not matter even if the western companies sued them for copyright violations, as this was within Z country’s borders. Even if they were right, the lawsuit would drag on for one to two years. At most, they simply had to pay some money and they could continue using the products and technologies.

If the other party continued with their lawsuits, they would simply pay the fine after two years or so. It was impossible to totally stop Xing Hai Technologies from using the products and technologies.

However, Chen Jin was not so thick-skinned. He gave the technicians of his company one year to produce an independent operating system. It must have its own ecosystem of software and an independent hardware set-up… It must be done to the point where the West would have no opportunity to sue them.

A year? How was this possible? Of course, it was possible. Ever since Work Assistant Alpha from the “internal beta version” had been introduced into the company for the programmers’ use in October, their work efficiency had shot through the roof.

…

Cheng Yuyang was a 26-year-old programmer with five years of experience. He had been working for Xing Hai Technologies for a whole year. His qualifications were average and his technical skills passable. He had only achieved the middling standard of ++ in the professional skills evaluation for programmers. His maximum salary was $16,000. Of course, since he frequently worked overtime, the net income that he received was usually $20,000, $22,000 or more. He made $27,000 in the month where he did the craziest amount of overtime. The price that he had to pay was a rapid weight loss of five kilograms, and consequently, he had to take three days of leave to rest.

His girlfriend of seven years vented non-stop to him as she wiped at her tears, heartbroken. “Cheng Yuyang, so you want money but not your life or me? You said that you wanted to buy a house in Shang Hai and you would save up enough by slogging for three years. But the problem is, are you able to endure this for three years? I heard that the average retirement age for employees in Hua Yao Company was 40 years old. It seems like Xing Hai Technologies does not hesitate in squeezing out the life from their employees either. Your body will collapse by the time you’re 40 too!” Gathering him in her arms, she said, “Stop thinking about buying a house in Shang Hai, we can’t afford it! You can work for a few more years and then we’ll go home, back to our home city. The prices of houses there are only a tenth of what they are in Shang Hai. There are also programming jobs. Don’t waste your life here.”

Chen Yuyang strived to explain. He said that this period of extreme overtime would only last for a while. Usually, he only had to do overtime occasionally for about one to two hours. He had the whole weekend off, it was not as bad as Hua Yai Company. Moreover, there would be a huge increase in his salary after he had improved his technical skills and was promoted to a higher ranking position. Including the annual bonus, he would be able to save up enough for the down payment of a house in Shang Hai after two more years. He told his girlfriend, Sun Haiyan, “Do you think it’s possible to save up enough for the down payment of a house in Shang Hai by working for three years in any other company? It is tiring, but at Xing Hai Technologies, I can work until I’m 50!”

“Ok.” His girlfriend calmed down. Faced with his argument, she could only nod in agreement. But she stressed, “You still have to pay attention to your health, don’t work too hard.”

Chen Yuyang nodded. “I understand.”

Time quickly flew by. After October, Sun Haiyan realized that her boyfriend ended work about one hour earlier than usual. After another half a month, she realized that not only did he clock out punctually every day, he also commuted using the shared bicycles. Although he had to cycle for 40 minutes each way, he still got back to their rented room half an hour earlier than she did, as she was often stuck in a traffic jam. Then, he would buy groceries and prepare dinner. They could almost begin eating by the time she reached home. Her boyfriend cooked for her! When the weekends came, there was virtually no mention of going back to the company to work overtime. Instead, he would take her out for some fun and shopping. They would show how lovey-dovey they were.

One day, when Sun Haiyan could not help herself anymore, she asked, “Yuyang, you’ve really stopped working overtime? This will definitely leave a bad impression on your superiors. Your pay now must be much less than what you received in the past. Perhaps you’ve figured things out and plan to strike a balance between your work and health?”

Chen Yuyang smiled mysteriously. “I don’t have to work overtime anymore. The programmers in the operating system development team, including our direct superior, clock out punctually every day. Nobody does overtime. Our salary is no longer pegged to time, but to the amount of tasks that we complete. Usually, it’s not a problem to earn 1.5 times our old salary if we work efficiently for six hours every day. For those with more experience, they could even earn up to twice their old salary amounts.” He typically earned 1.8 times of his old salary.

“Six hours of hard work every day is enough?” Sun Haiyan’s eyes widened. “It is possible to finish your tasks in such little time? You’re a coder; is it ok to code for less than 12 hours?”

“It’s enough; how could six hours every day be insufficient? I’ll tell you this even though the company says that it’s a secret. The amount of coding that I’m doing now using six hours a day is so much more than the amount I did for the last ten days! The better coders can now code much more in a day than they did for the past month!”

“How is this possible?” Her mouth hung open and she was filled with disbelief. “Did you grow ten pairs of arms? How could you code so quickly?”

“It’s not that we code fast. It’s the prowess of our assistant at work. It has increased the efficiency of our programmers by at least 10 times! In the past, we had to type every line of code manually when we wanted to create a module. Now we only have to input our requirements according to a standard format in the assistant, and it will immediately write a complete module. In addition, the refinement, efficiency, and quality of the code are much better than what I could do. Moreover, the assistant is still undergoing improvements and upgrades. Its comprehension ability is getting stronger. Now, even if we give out our requirements directly in a non-standard mode, it can still write out the basic, usable codes. It is also capable of multi-language programming and code conversion, where it can convert java code into C++ and .net code that has similar functions. It has a very powerful corrective function that results in a very small margin of error.”

Chen Yuyang smiled widely. “With the assistant, I don’t really code manually anymore. My coding is rubbish! The assistant can write amazing code that is on a whole new level. It can solve the majority of problems that I have at work! Now, the programming department has almost become the ‘easiest’ department in the company. The operating system that we have to make will be done in three months at the latest. We’ll be able to produce a version to replace the overseas operating systems. I finally understand the words said by President Chen some time ago. The significance of the work assistant for programmers is similar to the significance of the Little Star learning machine for the vast number of students. Little Star can make every student into a top scholar, and the assistant can make every programmer into an amazing, out-of-this-world programmer. The era of acquiring knowledge by studying is over, it is now the era of applying and using knowledge and technology. In the future, work will be just like playing a computer game. You don’t have to think about how the game technology was achieved, you’ll be fine as long as you know how to use that technology. If gaming is easy for you, work will be very easy for you too. There is no difference between the two. Chen Yuyang clasped his hands together and said, “This… is the future depicted by President Chen.” His eyes were shining and he wore a worshipful expression.

With the existence of such a magical object, it was a piece of cake to be victorious in the so-called “Hairline War.” As she listened to her boyfriend’s explanations, Sun Haiyan’s eyes widened even more in stupefaction.

Chapter 182 - A New Product: Bang Bang Robot

The intelligent learning machine, the virtual factory, and the work assistant were derivatives stemming from the “intelligent learning program.” Each of these products was extremely powerful and they were transforming the world. In other words, once a robot could learn independently, many fields would not need human involvement any longer. Of course, this did not mean that humans did not have anything to do now and they could all be laid off. Robots could not do everything. In addition, they did not possess the imagination and creativity of humans.

For example, robots could never replace humans in creating art and design. Even the best AI could not conceive an image that has never existed in real life before. The best that they could do was to rework existing materials. However, humans could come up with something original purely from imagination. Another example was creating the best framework design for AI software. If AIs had this ability to design, they could evolve independently. However, such a framework could typically only be designed by the top human geniuses… This kind of design work also required a huge amount of imagination and an ability for logical inference. It was extremely difficult for AIs to transcend their current capabilities independently. One reason was the limitations placed by the hardware abstraction layer. The other reason was the need for a new framework to accommodate and support the upgraded software. This was similar to how a 32-bit operating system was incompatible with a 64-bit system. The 64-bit system would require a more powerful framework, which had to be designed and made into reality by humans.

This was also why Chen Jin predicted that future prospects in the liberal arts would be very good. Other than a few select fields, work in the engineering sector and other related industries would become simplified. Thus, there would be a greater requirement for creativity and imagination. The heyday for students from the liberal arts and fine arts to showcase their abilities would soon arrive. After all, outstanding engineers could now be mass-produced. However, since the “artists” could not be mass-produced, the price for their skills would naturally increase.

…

In mid-December, after nearly a year of development, Xing Hai Technologies had finalized a new major product. It was a product that utilized multiple cutting-edge technologies and was a must-have for every family. It was a product that would transform the world.

It was a robot.

It was a somewhat different robot. Unlike Wa-wah, which only focused on cleaning the floor, it focused on… areas above the floor. Just how different was it from Wa-wah? Chen Jin brought a prototype back home to test the product personally.

…

At the Court of Happiness, He Li came home from work and saw a big cardboard box in the living room. A pile of bubble wrap and plastic film laid beside the box, creating a scene of chaos in the living room. She shook her head. “It was so clean before. They should throw this outside instead of making this mess.” He Li put her office bag on the cabinet beside her. She was about to bend down to clean up the mess when she saw Chen Jin walking out from the second bedroom. He was leading a white machine unit that followed behind him in an adorable fashion. They went into the opposite bedroom. He Li’s eyes brightened and she took a few steps over. Looking inside the room, she asked Chen Jin, “Son, what is this?” She glanced at the robot again with curiosity. She thought, A round head and a naive look; so cute. She really wanted to go over and touch it.

“This is my company’s new product: the Bang Bang Robot. You can call it ‘Little Bang.’ I’m bringing it around so it can scan our living environment.”

Bang Bang robot? Little Bang?

He Li blinked as she felt her curiosity grow. After five minutes, the entire apartment had been scanned. He Li had been sitting on the sofa in the living room, and she could not suppress her excitement any longer. She asked a series of questions enthusiastically. “Son, your company has come up with a new product again? What can this Bang Bang Robot do? Is it better than Wa-wah? Haha, my son is so awesome, he has created another amazing product. Haha!” He Li was extremely delighted and felt a great sense of self-satisfaction. Her son was making her more proud with each passing day. With this Bang Bang Robot, she would have something to show off to others this year and could enjoy their subsequent envy. She laughed heartily.

Chen Jin was somewhat exasperated and confused. He had to explain, “Mom, it’s too early to be happy. I’m not too certain of this product. This robot’s functions are not worse than Wa-wah 2.0, but its market performance may not necessarily be as good as Wa-wah 2.0.”

He Li was instantly puzzled. “How can it perform badly in the market when its functions are not less than Wa-wah? If the price is right, each household will buy at least one.”

Chen Jin shook his head. “This product can be considered to be successful if 10 million units can be sold.”

“This is impossible! Son, tell me what this robot can do. I’ll evaluate how many units can be sold.” He Li folded her arms and put on a professional expression. Although she was an accountant, it did not mean that she had no taste or foresight. She may not know the specific functions of the Bang Bang robot, but simply based on its cute appearance, she thought that at least 10 million units of the robot would be sold.

Chen Jin nodded. “Ok, I’ll do a demo with Bang Bang.” He proceeded to do a series of demonstrations for his mom.

“Bang Bang, get two glasses of water.”

“Yes, master.” In a few moments, Bang Bang came carrying a tray with two glasses of water from the water dispenser.

He Li took a glass and drank a small sip of water. She said, “It can fetch drinks; this is good.”

“Bang Bang, clean the dining table.”

“Yes, master.” Bang Bang took a piece of cleaning rag and wiped the dining table.

He Li’s eyes brightened. “It can wipe the table; this is even more awesome.”

Besides this, Bang Bang could also carry objects that were less than 20 kilograms and present it to the one who needed the object. Of course, the object’s greatest dimension should ideally be less than one meter. It should not be stuck to the floor or placed too high up… Bang Bang only had a height of 1.6 meters and its fingers were not as nimble as human fingers, so there were many things that it could not do. For example, it was unable to hang the laundry. Also, it could not cook. Bang Bang was unable to grasp the changes in heat control. It could help housewives to wash dishes… But it had to wear a pair of waterproof gloves. Washing and chopping food ingredients… Bang Bang could not do those either. One reason was that the Bang Bang was unable to hold or control knives. Another reason was that robots could not be allowed to hold or control knives. This would only cause fear and anxiety for humans.

In summary, Bang Bang robot could do all these: fetch drinks, wipe the furniture, carry objects less than 20 kilograms, wash dishes, switch on or off the lights, switch on the TV (a TV remote control function was integrated in Bang Bang’s body), start the washing machine, and other easy tasks.

Besides washing, chopping food ingredients and then cooking them, the Bang Bang robot could do 80% of all household chores.

He Li slapped her leg, “50 million units. Son, Mom can guarantee that you’ll sell at least 50 million of this robot! You wouldn’t sell less than this number!”

At that moment, Chen Gang arrived home from work. He had heard the introduction to the various functions of the Bang Bang robot. After thinking deeply for some time, he pointed out the fatal flaw of this product. “Frankly speaking, this robot is not any worse than the Wa-wah robot. Its functions are better too, but there is no need for it in the market because it can’t replace human efforts. Or should I say, there is nothing about its functions that would attract humans to use it as a replacement. The things that it can do are not anything particularly troublesome. Humans know how to do all of that and they will do it. Unless this robot can cook, it would be hard for sales volume to exceed 10 million units.”

“Chen! Gang!” With an ugly expression, He Li reached for him in an attempt to start a fight.

“Dad, you’re totally right.” On the contrary, Chen Jin nodded in agreement. “Our neighbor, Japan, already created a similar kind of household robot way back in the days. Their robots can fetch drinks and do many tasks too, but it never spread. It’s because some household tasks are so simple that it does not make sense to buy an expensive robot to do it. Us humans have to do something; we can’t be idle all the time. In this case, the functions of the household robots would overlap with the humans’ household activities, making it completely extra, perhaps even to the point that it becomes better to use a Wa-wah robot. Hence, under normal conditions, the sales volume of the Bang Bang robot will be poor. However, in order to turn this situation around, we’ve installed three killer functions on the Bang Bang robot. The addition of these three functions should be able to increase its sales volume.”

Oh? Chen Gang was immediately interested and asked, “Tell us, what’s the three functions?”

He Li stopped trying to intimidate her husband, as she became curious too.

Chapter 183 - Bang Bang is Too Awesome!

Chen Jin began his explanation of the Bang Bang robot beside him. “The first item is the ‘Family Doctor’ function. Every Bang Bang robot is equivalent to a family doctor. We’ve co-developed this function with the strongest company in the country, Baidu. By using their medical data system, the robot can measure the user’s blood pressure, body temperature, observe their complexion, and analyze the user’s medical test reports. With the above abilities, it can detect up to 1,153 types of common illnesses, such as cancers, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, digestive issues, gynecological diseases, and more. In addition, it can detect all these diseases no matter if they are in the early, intermediate, or late stage. Its accuracy rate is over 85%. However, for its role as a family doctor, its main duty is not to detect diseases, but to prevent such diseases. Isn’t there a saying that goes, ‘prevention is better than cure?’ If one maintains good lifestyle habits, pays attention to their daily diet and health status, exercises regularly, and takes care to keep themselves warm in cold weather, more than 90% of diseases can be prevented. The Bang Bang robot prevents rather than cures. It can give different reminders to different people according to their health status. For example, it can inform the user of the consequences resulting from his bad habits and diet. Through this, it can guide and nurture everyone towards a healthy lifestyle. It will fight to eliminate more than 90% of diseases before they even have a chance to emerge.”

Chen Jin smiled. “This is the real significance of the family doctor function in the Bang Bang robot. It will let everyone understand that they can live healthily until they are 90 or even 100 years old as long as they follow the guidance and reminders of Bang Bang. In this process, they would also save a lot of money that would have gone into medical treatments. This is a fundamental principle that would get to the root of the diseases.”

He Li clapped and said, “This function is very good! I want to undergo a test immediately so that Bang Bang can check what kind of problems I have!”

Chen Gang nodded. “Nowadays, many people are criticizing the widespread issues in the medical industry. They say it’s difficult and expensive to get a check-up, and then there are the quacks, the fake hospitals, medications, and supplements. Many have fallen into these traps! Troubling medical incidents occur frequently. The root problem lies in our medical system. It is not advanced and it’s too expensive. Of course, our lifestyles are also an issue. Regardless of the reforms that have been carried out, the situation with the medical industry will continue to exacerbate. Your Bang Bang robot can indeed solve the problems by addressing root issues! It can measure blood pressure and body temperature in addition to observing the user’s complexion and reading his medical test reports. By drawing on the big data system from Baidu, its judgment will absolutely be more accurate than the quack. This would help the user save on consultation fees. Moreover, since the Bang Bang robot is in the home of the patient, it can supervise the patient’s intake of medicine and speed up their recovery process!”

Chen Gang gave a very good review for the family doctor function! He believed that well-to-do families would buy it for sure! “Indeed, it’s disease prevention mechanism is great for healthy families as it silently reduces the incident rates of diseases. It can also detect diseases in their early stages so the patient can seek treatment early. Although one has to spend some money on the medical tests, if they look at the bigger picture, they still would have saved a huge amount of money! I think that simply based on this function, the Bang Bang robot should be sold for $20,000. Its sales quantity would not be less 20 million units.” By buying this robot, the potential savings would be in the thousands, millions, or even the user’s life!

Chen Jin continued, “The second item is the ‘Answers For All’ household function. This function is similar to ‘A Million Whys’ in the Little Star learning machine. But, the function will be used in a home environment. Hence, it is required to be able to answer a greater variety of questions. For example, a mother can ask for the instructions on making a particular dish, or the father can ask what is the most glorious history of a particular soccer team. A child can ask for the plot of a particular anime. Theoretically, there is no limit to the number of questions asked. But, it’s impossible for Bang Bang to be able to answer every single question. I’m afraid that there aren’t any records in the database for some really obscure questions. So, for now, Bang Bang is only able to answer at least 80% of the questions. We will announce the questions that have no proper answer to the public, and in exchange, the people who provide answers will get a prize. Let’s say that there are 10 million challenging questions, and the prize for answering each question ranges from $10 to $100. We would spend about a few hundred million and the Bang Bang robot would be able to answer at least 99% of all questions. With such a learned robot at home, every family would become a learned family in the future.”

Chen Gang and He Li looked at each other and nodded. This function was quite good. Chen Gang said, “The ‘Answers For All’ function is not as stunning as the first function. It’s equivalent to a more powerful version of the smart speaker, but it’s still pretty good.”

“Yes.” Chen Jin said helplessly, “Dad, your eyes don’t miss anything. This function can only be considered as a selling point, it’s not so exceptional to be a game-changing function. Besides the ‘smart speaker,’ Wa-wah 2.0 can also be fitted with the ‘Answer for All’ function after an upgrade.”

“Son, that’s not accurate.” He Li waved her hand. “If I was presented with the smart speaker, the Wa-wah robot, and the Bang Bang robot, I would definitely choose to ask Bang Bang. Look at how big and cute it is. It looks like a teacher. Who else would I ask if not Bang Bang?”

“Yes, yes.” Chen Gang agreed, “Actually for many problems, the one that we unconsciously want to pose our question to is a human, not a robot. The Wa-wah robot was too short and small, one has to lower his head to see it properly. Moreover, its smart speaker cannot be moved. From this point of view, the Bang Bang robot is the most suitable carrier for the intelligent answering technology as it can help to establish more convenient and effective communication.”

Chen Jin nodded. “A product manager from my company also said the same thing; that the best communication is established between a human and another ‘human.’”

Then, there was one last “killer” function left. What was this function? Chen Jin said, “The final function is a ‘Family Protection’ function.”

Chen Gang frowned. “Isn’t this the same as the function in the Wa-wah robot?”

“This is different. The ‘family caretaker’ function in Wa-wah 2.0 can only monitor, send reminders, and call for help. It can’t interfere in the situation. But the Bang Bang robot can interfere in time to prevent tragedies from happening. For example, if an elderly at home is experiencing cardiovascular complications, Bang Bang robot can feed them their medications and perform emergency CPR. When there’s a fire, Bang Bang can grab a child who is less than 40 kilograms and escape. When a gangster breaks in to commit assault, it will start the self-protection mechanism. It will eject gas irritants from its nose and stop the gangsters from committing a crime. If a situation of utmost emergency has cropped up and the parent is not at home, he or she could activate the ‘Ultimate Control’ mode to remotely operate the Bang Bang robot to execute out actions that include carrying, colliding, or even more destructive actions to deal with the emergency. The maximum load that Bang Bang robot can carry would increase by 50% under this mode. It would be able to carry an object up to 30 kilograms. But, in order to activate the ‘Ultimate Control’ mode, the user has to apply for permission and agree to the terms of use. Only after getting the approval from Xing Hai Technologies’ remote monitoring staff can they activate this mode. The actions taken hereafter would be recorded in its entirety and kept as evidence under the guarantee that it would not be used for illegal activities. Our company would not be taking on further legal responsibilities after the emergency has ended. We’ve termed these functions in Bang Bang robot as ‘Ultimate Protection.’ Its capabilities are much greater than Wa-wah 2.0”

Ultimate Protection? Chen Gang mouthed the words again. The “Ultimate Control Mode” depicted by Chen Jin left a deep impression on him. He inquired, “You mean that when the user starts the ‘Ultimate Control Mode,’ he can operate the robot just like how he would do so in a game and do whatever he wants to do? Let’s say that the scene of a wife having an affair with another man was captured by a Bang Bang robot. Can the husband apply for ‘Ultimate Control,’ get a knife from the kitchen and kill the adulterer?”

Chen Jin nodded. “Theoretically, that is possible. But our remote monitoring staff will not give approval. Also, they will call the police to prevent the loss of lives. In addition, even for approved actions carried out under the ‘Ultimate Control’ mode, there are limits too. For example, the robot can pull down a child who is playing on the windowsill but it cannot hit the child even though the parent is controlling the robot. Our staff will end the ‘Ultimate Control.’ When necessary, our remote monitoring staff can also interfere to prevent parents from misusing the function. Of course, this function will cause a lot of debate. Even if it was used to stop gangsters from committing violent crimes, they may instead cause the criminal to act crazily and result in more damage. If this is not allowed from a governing and ethical point of view, both functions will be axed. The capabilities of a robot are limited and every family situation has its own complications. The Ultimate Protection function may never truly be actualized.”

Chen Gang nodded. “It’s better to ax it. ‘Even an honest and upright official will have difficulty resolving a family dispute.’ Dealing with gangsters and criminals are the duties of the police. If a problem appeared in the ‘Ultimate Control’ mode and a loss of life could not be prevented, your company would be faced with a huge responsibility. Most of the time, good intentions do not translate into good results.”

“This… These two functions are so useful, it’s a pity to just ax them!” He Li found it hard to understand. She did not see any major problems with the two functions. Why should they be axed?

After removing these two functions, the “Ultimate” in “Ultimate Protection” would be irrelevant. The functions would also perform slightly better than their equivalents in Wa-wah 2.0. Hence, the third function, “Ultimate Protection,” could only be an ordinary selling point. Even so, the Bang Bang robot that focused on areas “above ground” was still a futuristic product that would cause a huge sensation. Tens of millions of the robot would be sold in an instant. In He Li’s words, “I know why it’s called ‘Bang Bang.’ This robot really is too awesome!”

Chen Gang asked with great interest, “Son, what’s the estimated cost of the robot’s hardware? What’s the selling price of one unit?”

“This is a trade secret. You’ll know everything during the product launch.” Chen Jin gave a mysterious smile

Chen Gang glared at him. The little twerp was keeping him in suspense.

Chapter 184 - Ill-fated

A health check-up was carried out for all staff in the Tax Bureau a few days ago. The reports came out today. Holding the report in her hand, He Li said excitedly, “I’ll take this back home for Bang Bang to have a look and check if there are any issues.”

At that moment, Su Yun walked into the office. He Li called to her, “Little Su, grab your health report after work and come to my place. I’ll help you check.”

Su Yun was confused.

“My son’s company has developed a new product recently. It’s called the ‘Bang Bang Robot’ and it’s very powerful…” With a proud expression, He Li introduced the many strengths of the Bang Bang robot.

Su Yun’s eyes widened in disbelief. “It’s really so powerful?”

“You’ll know once you see it at my place.”

Su Yun nodded repeatedly. “I’ll go, I’ll go immediately after work.” She was really interested in such a powerful robot!

…

“Beep~! Your blood pressure is slightly higher than average. It is suggested that you cut down on daily intakes of oily food, salt, and sugar. Eat more melons and vegetables. Your diet should be cleaner and not too flavorful. Exercise more… If you heed Bang Bang’s advice, it is predicted that this issue will be resolved in three months.” The Bang Bang robot gave its advice after scanning the few sheets of the report.

“Blood pressure is slightly higher than average?” He Li reacted as if she had been struck by lightning. Shocked, she held her head in both hands. “Ah… I was wondering why my head felt swollen and dizzy recently. I’m finished. My high blood pressure, ah… I can’t do this.” Her body was swaying and it looked like she was about to faint.

Chen Jin was exasperated. “Mom, stop scaring yourself. It’s the dishes that you frequently make. You put too much salt in them. And you love eating Dongpo braised pork. Of course your blood pressure will be higher than normal. Change your diet and you’ll be fine.”

“Yes, yes, yes. I can’t eat Dongpo braised pork anymore. I’ll try my best to put less salt and oil in my dishes and I’ll exercise more. I must bring down my blood pressure!” He Li patted her chest as she comforted herself. She was determined.

Chen Gang opened his mouth to speak. He wanted to say, “Wife, your high blood pressure is related to your personality too. You’re too violent and easily agitated. You have to change this…” After some thought, however, he swallowed his words for fear of a beating.

Beside them, Su Yun was pressing her lips together to stop herself from roaring out in laughter.

The robot scanned her health report. “Beep~! Your body is very healthy. All indicators are in the normal ranges. Please maintain your excellent lifestyle habits and positive mood. Enjoy your wonderful life.”

“There are no problems, haha!” Su Yun was rejoicing. She usually took care of her diet, work-rest balance, and often played badminton with her roommate, Li Xiao Lan. Indeed, she had a healthy body in return for her efforts.

He Li said enviously, “It’s good to be young.” She thought back on her younger days, but alas, it was gone in the blink of an eye and she still had no grandchildren at this old age! Thinking about this, her resentful gaze swung towards Chen Jin. She regretted betting with him in the past over this matter.

“Oh yes, I have another report here that Bang Bang can scan.” Su Yun took out another stack of reports from her bag.

He Li asked, “Whose report is this?”

“Li Xiao Lan’s. She caught a cold recently and has a fever, so she took a few days to rest in the dorm. She told me to help her collect her report.”

“Let’s scan it too.”

The robot started scanning. However, this particular scanning process was extremely long. There were no results even after five minutes. Suddenly, a tiny light on Bang Bang’s chest started to flash red. “An early stage acute lymphoblastic leukemia is suspected. Accuracy of diagnosis is 78%. Please proceed to a hospital for a review. If the diagnosis is confirmed, receive treatment immediately.”

Gasp!

Everyone was shocked!

Su Yun was stunned. “Xiao Lan only has a fever from the cold. How can this be leukemia? This… This is impossible.”

Chen Jin said, “The Bang Bang robot’s conclusions are not 100% accurate. It could be wrong. Why don’t you bring your friend to the hospital tomorrow for a check-up? If it’s a groundless scare, then it means that the robot needs more improvement. If it’s really acute leukemia, she would have to undergo treatment immediately!”

He Li said, “Li Xiao Lan is usually very vivacious and healthy, how could she get leukemia? I hope it’s just a scare.” Li Xiao Lan was also her subordinate that she saw on a regular basis. Such a healthy, young adult could also be stricken with leukemia?

However, this matter was not absolute. Leukemia was not a hereditary disease. 95% of all leukemia patients were diagnosed with the acute form of the disease and many of them were seemingly healthy. However, once the diagnosis was confirmed, effective treatment should be carried out immediately. The longest that one could survive with this disease untreated was six months, and the shortest was one week. It was a terrifying illness.

Just on the off-chance that it was the worst case scenario, Su Yun would bring Li Xiao Lan to the hospital tomorrow for a check-up. “Hmm, I understand.” Su Yun nodded repeatedly. Li Xiao Lan was her best friend. She really hopes that the Bang Bang robot made a mistake and it was simply the common cold. However, the robot had an accuracy rate of 78%. The red light that would not stop flashing cast a shadow on her mind.

…

The analysis of the reports had ended. Su Yun remarked that she would be leaving, but He Li insisted that she stay for dinner. Thereafter, Su Yun saw Bang Bang robot carrying plates of food from the kitchen. After dinner, it nimbly cleared and tidied up the table. Putting on waterproof gloves, it started washing the utensils that were in the basin.

She silently extolled, This robot really is too amazing!

He Li then asked her to stay the night. Su Yun refused repeatedly, saying, “Xiao Lan still has a fever, I need to go back to check on her. And I have to let her know about her report and the conclusions by the Bang Bang Robot.”

“Ok, son, send Xiao Su back.”

Su Yun said that there was no need for that, but Chen Jin had already put on a coat and taken the car keys. “Let’s go, I’ll drive you back. There’s something else that I want to speak to you about.”

Su Yun looked at him in confusion. What did he want to say to her?

The two went downstairs and got into the Benz.

Chen Jin leaned closer and said into her ear, “I’ve received more than 10 calls from your mother these past few days. It’s all about one thing. When will we get married? Your mother says that she had already spread the news to all the relatives and friends from your hometown. They’re looking forward to our wedding banquet. They even say that I should visit your home at the end of the year… Say, isn’t your mother too impatient?”

Su Yun’s face was flushed all over, resembling a red cloth. A buzzing sound rang in her ears and she lowered her head, at a loss for words.

“Su Yun, what do you think we should do?” Looking at her behavior, Chen Jin playfully tossed the question to her with a smile.

“I…. I don’t know.” Su Yun shook her head. She was 27, almost 28. Her parents were naturally worried since she was still unmarried at this age. She understood her parents’ impatience. But, this misunderstanding was too much. She did not even dare to tell the truth to her parents as she was afraid that they could not accept it. She could only look at him helplessly. “Chen Jin, what do you think we should do? Why don’t you explain it to my parents, that we are only ordinary friends… I don’t dare to say anything, I don’t want to disappoint them.” Moreover, her relatives and friends back home knew all about it. If it turned out to be nothing, in the end, her parents would lose face…

Ah! What ill fate!

Su Yun felt a sense of bitterness well up in her. She realized that he was the one with all the power to initiate everything. She had lost her freedom to take independent action.

“I don’t plan to marry at such an early age. I’ve told your Mom that I’m still building up my business and there is a high risk of failure. I don’t want to drag others down with me if that happens. I’ve said that I’ll consider starting a family after my business has become more successful after one to two years. Your Mom says that it’s ok. She asked if I need a loan; she could borrow a few hundred thousand to support my start-up… but I’ll definitely refuse the money. But I’ve at least secured a year. Your mother agreed to wait for a year. So, your mom will not put her full strength into rushing us towards marriage for this year. I don’t know how she will behave next year… That would depend on how my company is doing. Hey, Miss Su, there’s been something that I’ve been wanting to ask you. What do you think of me? Do you think I meet the standard for us to get a license?”

As she heard this, she lowered her head to the point that it was almost touching her knees. Her body trembled and she felt too shy to look at him, much less answer his question. Her mind was blank as she kept muttering over and over, “This is not real; this is not possible…” She understood the meaning behind his words. This man, who was filled with an inner radiance, was actually willing to consider her, who was merely a Cinderella, as someone he could wed.

Chapter 185 - Wa-Wah Robot 2 — A New Family”

On the 28th of December, after some prompting by Chen Jin, Shi Xiaotao finally rushed to Shang Hai and gave the dailies for the second movie of the “Wa-wah Robot” series to Chen Jin.

In the President’s office, Chen Jin said with some impatience, “My million dollar director, it’s almost 20X1 and your movie is barely completed. Didn’t we agree to be amazing teammates for each other?” He could swoon over her efficiency, or lack thereof. She was given the project in March and it was already December. There were ten whole months in between. In the end, she was still somewhat of an impediment.

“I’m sorry, President Chen. It was not deliberate.” Shi Xiaotao explained, “Based on the framework of the storyline that you provided, it’s virtually impossible to produce a story that is not cliche, yet exciting. Moreover, we had to do a comprehensive introduction of the Bang Bang robot’s various functions without cutting out any screen time for the Wa-wah robot. You’ve really given me a challenging issue. In order to produce a script that meets the standard, the producing team and I were kept busy for the whole month before we finally came up with a heart-warming, exciting, and comical story that is only slightly cliche… I think the storyline for this movie is better than the prequel. In addition, this movie has a duration of 118 minutes, almost 30 minutes more than its predecessor. The graphics are more sophisticated too. After all, I can’t rely on that amazing mystery team that you know. I hope that my ‘Taotao Studio’ can also produce sophisticated graphics that are comparable to that team’s. Therefore, I spent a little more time on the graphics production too. I hope you can understand.”

Shi Xiaotao gave a slight bow. She did not want to be an “incompetent teammate,” but she did not want to be guided and assisted all the way in the production of her movie. She insisted on her own ways in many areas. The title of the “million dollar director” could not be easily held by anyone. It came with a crushing pressure that caused her to become very worried about messing up this sequel. One could see from her thinner face that she had poured way more time and effort into this second movie of the “Wa-wah Robot” series.

Chen Jin nodded. “I’ll watch it first.” Moving his mouse, he played the dailies on his laptop. The movie started to play. He was engrossed within three minutes. He never stopped smiling until the end of the movie. Even the corners of his eyes were wet. There were no flaws in the production. The graphics were exquisite and the storyline was heart-warming. He put his thumb up and said, “Xiaotao, I was wrong about you. I can see that you’ve put in your best effort for this movie. I think this is much better than the prequel. The graphics’ quality is greatly enhanced. Your improvement is shocking.” Based only on the plot, one could see that the story of “Wa-Wah Robot 2 — A New Family” was very cliche.

It began like this: the family that Wa-wah was staying with bought a Bang Bang robot. Once the new robot arrived, the limelight was taken away from Wa-wah. Bang Bang could fetch drinks, wipe the tables, conduct body check-ups and tell stories. It became the new focal point of the family. Wa-wah was frequently forgotten in one corner. After mopping the floor, it would lean disinterestedly against a corner of the wall. Even if the audience were separated from the immediacy of this scene by the screen, they would still feel Wa-wah’s sense of loss and disappointment. After which, Wa-wah tried to do many things (for example, wiping the tables and fetching drinks) in the hopes of attracting their attention again. However, it overestimated what it could do and ended up with a load of criticisms instead. Wa-wah’s existence in the family became less important.

Wa-wah took the opportunity to run away from home during an “I love the environment” activity. It poured out its troubles and dejection to another cleaning robot called “Shuai.” Following which, the two robots played and had fun outside for a few days.

Unbeknownst to Wa-wah, the family searched frantically for it everywhere. The two robots were tired of playing and went home. Upon reaching home, Wa-wah found a group of gangsters attacking its family! Unfortunately, both parents were out looking for Wa-wah. Only Lan Lan and Ah Bao were left at home. These gangsters were on the run from another area where they had left behind a trail of bodies. They were more violent and vicious than kidnappers. In order to save Lan Lan and Ah Bao, Wa-wah and Bang Bang joined forces. Together, they staged a thrilling battle that would make the audience’s heart jump out of their throats.

In the midst of this intense battle, a gas irritant was ejected from Bang Bang’s nose. A miraculous effect happened, where at least three of the gangsters were unable to fight anymore. In addition, with Dad operating Bang Bang after activating the “Ultimate Control” mode, its combat ability was greatly enhanced and it put another two gangsters out of commission.

Finally, only the leader was left standing. He held a bomb in one hand and was clutching Ah Bao in the other. In his desperation, he was ready to self-destruct. Bang Bang seized the bomb at the most critical moment, and put its arms around the leader as the bomb went off with a loud boom. The tear-jerking scene had arrived. The leader of the gangsters was dead but the Bang Bang robot had also been blasted apart; it was now a pile of separate components.

Lan Lan, Ah Bao, and the rest of the family cried terribly. However, the core chip of Bang Bang robot was undamaged and it was successfully repaired after a number of days. The reunion of the family and the robots in the end was heartwarming. Wa-wah recognized its own value, and there was a new addition to this family.

“Good, very good.” Chen Jin nodded. “This movie would not only cause the audience to pity Wa-wah, but it would also allow them to gradually accept Bang Bang. All the functions of Bang Bang were introduced in the movie and even the Little Star learning machine was included as Lan Lan’s study equipment… It’s really perfect. I feel like I owe you 100 million in advertising fees. As for the box office sales, I won’t say that it’ll be better than the prequel, but five billion should be a piece of cake. After optimizing the graphics, it should be easy to rake in eight billion in global box office sales.”

“I estimate that box office sales would be around three billion. Also…” Shi Xiaotao smiled slightly. Her estimation was on the conservative side. “I think that many film critics will really give it to me now. They will certainly be less generous for my second movie. After all, I’m already a million dollar director in Z country.” She did not look happy about it; on the contrary, she looked very worried about her potential gains and losses. Fame was like that. It could bring you honor and glory, but also great pressure.

“Film critics?” Chen Jin’s eyes squinted and he said angrily, “What idiot would criticize such a good movie? Ignore those idiots. I have more than 30 million fans on Weibo. I’ll get them to argue against your naysayers. Who’s afraid of who?!” Not all of the 30 million fans were die-hard fans. But, even if only 1% of them supported him, it was enough to drown the cruel critics in their rancor and teach them a lesson about living humbly.

“Hehehe!” Shi Xiaotao pursed her lips in a smile as she instantly felt happier.

They discussed the movie’s announcement and release date in depth. The first screening of “Wa-Wah Robot 2 — A New Family” would be fixed on the 1st of February in 20X1. Although it was within the Spring Festival film schedule, it was more than ten days before the start of the Spring Festival on the 12th of February. Moreover, it was in the proper order this time. Xing Hai Technologies’ new product, the Bang Bang robot, would be launched on the 10th of February. The movie would be released before the product launch so he could use the box office sales to drive the sales volume of the Bang Bang robot.

Chen Jin requested that Shi Xiaotao leave a copy of the dailies with him. She could go back and wait for the final version. The “amazing team” would complete optimization within a week and he would send the final version to her.

“Yes, thank you, President Chen.” Shi Xiaotao left Shang Hai.

…

On the 29th, in Shang Hai City, at the Mount Hua Hospital, Li Xiao Lan received the final diagnosis in a report by a specialist. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia, intermediate stage. Looking at the diagnosis on the report, Li Xiao Lan started seeing spots in her vision and nearly collapsed.

Su Yun, who had accompanied her to the hospital, quickly held her up. She started crying. “How could it be like this? How? How?”

Chapter 186 - Doomed Without the Machine!

After being diagnosed with leukemia, Li Xiao Lan abruptly resigned from her work. She was admitted to the ICU to receive the timely treatments arranged by the hospital. Chen Jin came to visit her at the hospital as well. He claimed to be a friend of the patient and learned about her situation from the doctors.

In the ward, Su Yun looked at her friend lying on the sickbed. Li Xiao Lan had a pale face and was wearing a ventilator. Su Yun grabbed her hands and said, “We work together, eat together, do sports together, and you’re as healthy as I am. How did you end up getting this disease?” Su Yun cried out of agony, as she still could not accept the fact.

Chen Jin stood beside her and comforted her. “This is no big issue, Su Yun. I’ve inquired with the doctors, the type of leukemia that Xiao Lan has is classified as the common type, there are many ways to treat the disease. The cure rate is above 90% as well. Besides, Xiao Lan discovered her sickness early, so her chance of getting cured is even higher.” In the recent 20 years, with rapid progress in molecular biology and biogenetics, the patients of leukemia that were deemed as “incurable” in the past could now have their lifespan significantly elongated with little to no issues. Leukemia had become less scary than it used to be.

“I know.” Su Yun nodded. She lowered her voice and spoke to him quietly, “The doctors told me the same thing. But Xiao Lan’s family is more or less the same as mine, they are not very wealthy. To cure her sickness completely, she would need at least a few treatments that would cost her millions of dollars… our unit has recently begun to fundraise for her. Our director gave 10,000 dollars to Xiao Lan’s parents just yesterday… but it was like trying to extinguish a cartload of firewood on fire with one cup of water. I don’t know whether Xiao Lan’s family can afford the treatment.”

“Don’t worry about money. You have my number, contact me immediately if money becomes a problem, I’ll help solve their difficulties.” Chen Jin said that with his current net worth, one million dollars of treatment costs was merely a drop in the ocean to him. He could get Xiao Lan out of her difficulties at any time. But there were principles even in helping people. You rather say to borrow and ask recipients to pay back slowly than to give for free. Helping a man once gains grace, helping the man twice gains hatred. It would be funny if the recipient of help thought that it was natural for you to help him and that you owed it to him.

“Okay, I’ll inform you if things really became difficult. Chen Jin, thank you. The doctors said that fortunately the disease was discovered in a timely manner, if she would have been a few days late, it would’ve really become very dangerous… your company’s Bang Bang Robot was truly amazing!” Su Yun looked at the man with adoration. This time, she was truly convinced. Every product that Xing Hai Technologies created astonished and shocked the world.

“Thanks for your compliment.” Chen Jin laughed. He raised his hand and gently patted the woman’s head.

Su Yun’s face turned red again.

After Chen Jin left the ward, Xiao Lan, who was on the sickbed, asked her curiously, “Su Yun, is he… your boyfriend?” Su Yun blushed for a while. She did not answer her question. Xiao Lan then took it as a tacit agreement. Tall, handsome, I’m so envious.

…

In January 20X1, schools were approaching mid-term. Primary schools, junior highschools, and senior highschools across the nation started holding their final exams preceding the winter break.

But the finals this year were quite different. They were particularly attractive. The Ministry of Education even requested every province to use centralized exam papers to ease statistical comparisons later on. What was to be compared? Naturally, it was to compare the exam results between the students with and without an intelligent learning machine. The finals in primary schools, junior highs, and senior highs ended swiftly.

Results were released hastily. Each zone announced its statistical data:

“Some experimental primary school in A city. In the mathematics paper for third graders, the average score is 99.5 for learning machine owners and 89.7 for non-owners. In the mathematics paper for fourth graders, the average score is 99.8 for learning machine owners and 86.4 for non-owners. For fifth graders, the score between the two classes is 99.6 to 84.1.”

“Top junior high in B city. In our first graders, the overall score of all subjects for learning machine users is 37 marks higher than that of non-users. In our second graders, the overall score for users is 45 marks higher than that of non-users. The gap is even wider for third graders, the overall score for users is 51 marks higher than that of non-users.”

“Some renowned high school in F city. Our school did not analyze the statistics of our seventh and eighth graders. We only analyzed the performance of our ninth graders in the finals. The results are shocking. Among science students, the total average score for learning machine owners is 56 marks higher than non-owners. Less students from the arts purchased the learning machine, therefore statistical analysis was not conducted. Owners probably scored a few marks higher.”

“Some regular high school in Z city. Centralized exam for ninth graders. For the average total score for science students, owners are 44 marks above non-owners.”

“For the science ninth graders in some high school in X city, the score for owners are 52 marks higher than that of non-owners…”

Innumerable result comparisons were announced. News about the absolute triumph of machine learning owners was spread all across the country.

Netizens had heated discussions on the internet, expressing their own opinions:

“Students nowadays are doomed without a learning machine!”

“The intelligent learning machine launched not more than half a year ago, and the difference in average scores are already 30, 40, 50 marks apart or even more! How could the non-owners even compete?”

“I hate intelligent learning machines! Formerly, I was the first place in class, and now I’ve dropped to tenth place. I asked my dad to buy me a learning machine, but he scolded me for being incapable and not being attentive in learning, but I really couldn’t catch up. I even got spanked by my stubborn old man just yesterday. I really despise the learning machine!”

“The top 10 in my school are all owners. The non-owners are all squeezed down. How could fair competition go on?”

“I will not accept this unfairness! Make it so that either everyone has it or everyone doesn’t! Make it fair! I refuse to accept my loss.”

Many parents complained as well:

“It’s not that my family is poor, but it has been half a year and we still can’t get our hands on the Little Star learning machine or the Educational Machine! I and my child are worried sick!”

“Xing Hai Technologies, if you still can’t sell a learning machine to my child, you will ruin him!”

“My son is in the ninth grade, another few months and he will be seating for the College Entry Examination, but we still can’t get a learning machine. I’m really anxious. If this goes on, how can my son enter a good university?”

“Yea, there’s only a few months till the College Entry Examination. I haven’t gotten a learning machine. My daughter was already telling me to go make trouble at Xing Hai’s doorway.”

“Xing Hai Technologies, I don’t care about your excuses, give my child a learning machine right now!”

“Last warning! Give me a learning machine!”

After the result comparisons were released, the parents were very agitated, especially those who were not yet able to buy the intelligent learning machine. They bombarded Xing Hai Technologies’ official Weibo and Chen Jin’s personal Weibo with countless angry and threatening messages:

“I’m giving you three days, give my child a learning machine!”

“If I do not get a learning machine within 10 days, I will perish together with you!”

“Last warning! Send me the goods immediately!”

Xing Hai Technologies was trying to explain on their official Weibo account and Chen Jin’s personal account that they were working hard to increase production capacity. It was estimated that the daily output of the learning machine would reach 350,000 units a month later. They were also striving to push the number of owners above 50%. Sales would prioritize sixth and ninth graders with goals to push owners among ninth graders above 90% and that of sixth graders above 80%.

But what they mentioned was two months or even three months, how could those parents who were like cats on hot bricks wait any longer? They could not wait for even a while, what they wanted was to get a learning machine immediately! Without a learning machine, their children were destined to be doomed! There was no way for their children to compete against those who owned a learning machine. Therefore, those parents who were on the verge of exploding could possibly do something irrational at any time.

Fortunately, the Ministry of Education came forward. “To ensure fairness, there will be some minor adjustments to the Senior High School Entrance Examination and College Entry Examination. We will try to minimize the effects of the learning machine towards the justness of the exams (increasing the weight of language subjects, reducing the difficulty of mathematics and comprehensive science papers, adding higher order thinking questions that learning machines couldn’t answer, etc.).”

Of course, the best solution was still to ensure that every student owned a learning machine… that would be the best form of fairness. However! Just when the parent’s agitated emotions had slightly eased by a little, there was an unexpected turn of events!

Samsin from Gorea suddenly enforced a ban towards the sales of core components to Xing Hai Technologies. Stock supplies for 70% of the flash memory chips that needed to be imported from Samsin were abruptly cut off. The productivity of the intelligent learning machine was chopped at the waist as daily output was reduced to less than 100,000 units.

Chapter 187 - Vicious Conspiracy

Since the World Internet Conference ended and after Chen Jin rejected Google’s founder twice, Chen Jin, along with Xing Hai Technologies, had become the needle in the eye of Larry Page, and even some western authorities.

Larry Page, a few renowned political figures from the M nation, and a number of representatives from large Western consortiums, held a special conference to discuss how they should deal with Xing Hai Technologies.

Larry Page said, “Give them a sanction immediately! Let’s cripple that company from Z nation who refuses to cooperate!” His face was red, his pride still burning from the insult he received from Chen Jin.

A paliament member said in confusion, “Mr. Page, aren’t you overreacting a little? They are just a regular company from the Z nation. Indeed, they have some good tech in their hands, but can’t we make that ourselves? Especially with Google’s powerful technical strength, can’t Google come out with the tech on intelligent learning within six to twelve months?” He thought that Larry’s reaction was overexaggerated, and that he was just in a panic because the Z’s were ahead of them for a little while. He figured that Larry just wanted to sanction them to get revenge against the company from Z… he thought that this was a little too ridiculous, and even considered it shameful. Because only the weak would resort to despicable means to stop the strong. Was M nation that weak?

Larry had no choice but to say, “My apologies. With Google’s current technical strength, we might need around 10 years to be able to come out with the tech on intelligent learning. The Z’s had an excellent showcase of their astonishing wisdom this time around. They have done what we couldn’t. The tech on intelligent learning has grave importance, it is even comparable to an industrial revolution! Countries who own the tech can increase their speed of producing talents and achieving technical breakthroughs tenfold. Their intellectual development will far exceed our imagination. The scarier thing is that this tech was born in Z nation. With their population paired with the intelligent learning technology…” Larry Page took a deep breath. “In at most 10 years, Z could become as powerful, or even surpass, M nation. This is simply a nightmare that became reality. If a middle-sized country had come out with the technology, I would even suggest using military force to snatch the tech ourselves or straight up destroy it! But it’s the Z nation we are talking about…” Although Larry Page’s solemn tone and speech, admitting weakness, made everyone in the room feel dull and vexed, they still considered his words.

They began to look at this matter seriously and became fearful towards Xing Hai Technologies. They quickly reached a consensus. The company must be sanctioned and held back! But a problem arose. Xing Hai Technologies was a local company in Z nation. They had no business overseas, they had not earned even a single cent from them, they did no harm towards the M nation’s national security and their citizens’ privacy, and had no affiliations with terrorist organizations and rogue states. So… what could they use to impose a sanction on them? Nothing! But of course, as the descendants of criminals, bandits, pirates, and being ‘God’s chosen people’, they never needed any excuse in sanctioning others.

“Xing Hai Technologies is very unfriendly to us.” Even this excuse would suffice. Then, they could madly launch sanctions and lay down blockades.

However, after these ‘gentlemen’ probed around using a magnifying glass, they realized that the places that they could exploit to drag Xing Hai Technologies down were quite limited. The localization rate for the Little Star Second Gen learning machine was near 100%.

It was just that due to the lack of the production capacity of domestic manufacturers in Z, 70% of their flash memory chip supply needed to be imported from Samsin. This was the only fatal flaw on Xing Hai Technologies. In fact, it was not “fatal,” just more “significant.”

“Ask Samsin to cut off the flash memory chip supply this instant, wean Xing Hai Technologies immediately! Jeopardize their ability to mass produce their intelligent learning machine!”

The mission to contain Xing Hai Technologies was handed to Gorea’s Samsin Company. Facing “daddy’s” demands, of course, the Goreans would not dare to defy. Samsin’s chairman Li Jianrong, bent over and assured his “daddy” that he would complete his mission. But after he hung up the phone, he immediately fell into a difficult spot.

Xing Hai Technologies was Samsin’s important customer. The company’s order of over 100 million 4 gigabyte LPDDR4X chips was worth tens of billions of dollars. If they broke the contract and ceased supplies halfway through, Samsin would lose billions of dollars. Besides, Purple Ray Technologies from the Z nation already possessed the ability to mass produce the LPDDR3 chip. Although their production capabilities and conformity rate were low, it didn’t stop the Z’s from showing off their deep pockets. They built five to six large scale NAND storage factories which cost hundreds of billions of dollars at one go. It was also the same for DDR storage factories, which they had built three to four of them concurrently. This made Samsin feel enormous competitive pressure.

However, the technical requirements for manufacturing DDR chips were much higher than that for NAND memory chips. There were six to seven companies across the globe that were capable of manufacturing NAND memory chips. But there were only three companies that had what it took to produce DDR chips: Samsin, SK Hynix, and Micron Technology. Although Purple Ray Technologies was on the list, they only mastered the production technology of DDR3/LPDDR3. They were two to three generations behind Samsin’s DDR4/DDR5, and even their DDR6… they were at least 10 years behind the most advanced technology. Their conformity rate and production efficiency were also incomparable to large makers like Samsin.

The reason behind the high technical difficulty of the DDR chip was that this chip, which was used as a memory chip, was an important channel for data transmission between the CPU and the storage medium (hard disk). It was classified as “non-volatile memory” but its data throughput was exceptionally powerful. For example, for a 4-gigabyte dual channel DDR4 chip, the data throughput when it was transmitting data to the CPU or vice versa was 20-35 gigabytes per second. For the dual channel DDR5 chip, its data throughput was over 40 gigabytes per second.

On the other hand, for NAND memory chips, which were classified as “non-volatile memory,” the mediocre ones only had data rates of 100 to 800 megabytes per second while the high-speed NAND memory chips could only attain 1 to 3 gigabytes per second.

In terms of data processing capabilities, the difference between the two was at least ten times apart. For this reason, it was much more difficult to produce DDR chips than NAND chips. The technical requirements were more demanding, and it was difficult to improve its conformity rate. Conformity rates couldn’t rise, but the number of factories could. In that way, with more talents and R&D environments being produced, the tech itself would improve slowly. It was like when one plants an orchard, they would never have to fear going out of stock.

Facing the Z nations “Sea of Factories” tactic, Li Jianrong often woke up with a start in the middle of the night. The Z nation was so f***ing scary! Therefore, after he was tasked with the mission to contain Xing Hai Technologies, he felt very conflicted.

Cut off the supplies. Indeed, Xing Hai Technologies’ production capacity on their Little Star Second Gen learning machine would experience a sharp plunge, but it would not completely put the production line on halt. The LPDDR3 chip supplied by Purple Ray Technologies had 50% worst performance than Samsin’s LPDDR4X, but it was not unusable. Furthermore, users basically would not feel any difference between them both under normal conditions. When the other few DDR factories in the Z nation went into operation, Samsin would never get a chance to earn that money prior to the ‘Sea of Factories’ strategy.

But still, daddy’s task must be completed. Their technical license and controlling interest were still in their daddy’s hands. They must do whatever daddy instructed them to do. After watching for some time, the final exams arrived. After the finals ended for the elementary schools, junior highs, and senior highs in the Z nation, the result comparisons were announced. The parents in Z who did not manage to buy the intelligent learning machine were almost driven crazy looking at the mass gap between the results.

“We found it! This is the best time for us to act!” Li Jianrong was ecstatic. He thought of the ultimate way to doom Xing Hai Technologies to near death.

…

At Xing Hai Technologies, in the executive conference room, the voice of exasperated inhalations could be heard.

“They could cut off our supplies at any other time, but they chose to do it now of all times!”

“How cruel they are. The Goreans gave us a direct gruesome blow right on our pulse.”

“After the statistical comparisons for the finals were released, now is the time when students and parents are most anxious and emotionally unstable, especially those who haven’t got an intelligent learning machine. They could explode at any time… and the Goreans pulled off such a feat.”

“Now, the production over at Chang Cheng Electric is reduced to about 60 thousand units per day. But within our country’s boundary, there are approximately 12 million sixth graders and 9 million ninth graders, totaling at 21 million students. Among the students, 14.5 billion of them still does not have an intelligent learning machine. Our original plan was to address the needs of these 14 million students within two months, but after the Goreans cut off our supplies, I’m afraid that we can’t even produce that many learning machines even after the Senior High School Entrance Examination and College Entry Examination ends.”

“But if we can’t fulfill our promise and tackle the issue within the specified time, at least 10 million parents would lose their patience with us. What would happen to Xing Hai Technologies…” This executive member took another deep breath; he dared not imagine the horrifying consequences. He could only let out a string of expletives. “Goreans, I ******!”

After Chen Jin, who was sitting at the main seat, heard the number 10 million, he could not help but visualize a scene where they were surrounded by a horde of frantic parents. All of a sudden, he had an idea!

You Goreans are ruthless! But…Did you really think that Xing Hai Technologies had no way out from this?”

He instantly picked up his phone and made a call. “Hello, is this Mr. Zhao from Purple Ray Technologies? My call went through, so have you arrived in Shang Hai?”

“Yes, Mr. Chen. I just got off the plane!” A thick voice could be heard from the other side of the call. From his voice, one could hear his excitement.

Chapter 188 - Chips Above Gold

Zhao Guo Wei was a man in his 50s. He was also the Chairman of Purple Ray Technologies. On the night before, Zhang Wei Jin from Zhong Xin International gave him a call and described a piece of technical information to him.

Zhao Guo Wei’s pupils dilated as he listened to him. He exclaimed, “This is impossible!”

“I thought so too at first!” Zhang Wei Jin said on the phone, “The conformity rate of Zhong Xin’s 14-nanometer chip is now at 99.2% and its production efficiency has risen by 40%! If you do not believe me, come and see for yourself.”

Zhao Guo Wei’s body was trembling. “…that tech is almost mythical. As of right now, the conformity rate of Purple Ray’s DDR chips is not even 30%. If it were to be raised to even just 60%, production capacity would still skyrocket. It would be equivalent to building another 10-billion-dollar memory pellet factory.” He said in a hurry, “Quickly Mr. Zhang, give me Xing Hai Technologies’ Mr. Chen’s number, I want to call him!”

Therefore, Zhao Guo Wei boarded a plan to Shang Hai on the next morning, darting towards Xing Hai Technologies.

…

Zhao Guo Wei arrived at the strategic conference room. “Mr. Chen, I have long heard of your great name, it is an honor to meet you in person.” He felt a tinge of emotion as he walked forward and shook the hands of the young man standing in front of him. My son is around his age, right?” On the contrary, Mr. Chen became the business partner he anticipated and valued the most. He looked at him, his eyes brimming with fire. He sighed. “Every great oak tree was once an acorn. I have really aged. The future definitely belongs to you young people.”

“I’m flattered, Mr. Zhao. You are the backbone of our country and it would definitely be worthwhile for me to learn your fighting spirit.” Chen Jin regarded him with great reverence. He admired entrepreneurs like Zhao Guo Wei. Under the country’s demand, despite knowing that a huge skill disparity existed, he still desperately tried to catch up and endeavored to make up for the country’s shortcomings.

On the surface, he was an entrepreneur. Veritably, people like him were all brave soldiers and unknown heroes. They shouldered difficult tasks, endured mockery from their surroundings, and amidst their struggles in desolation, bit by bit, they filled up the gap between the wide disparity… just like Nuwa patching up the azure sky.

After they exchanged some greetings, Xing Hai Technologies and Purple Ray Group swiftly agreed on a strategic partnership. There were three main contents of the agreement. First, Xing Hai Technologies would provide the “Virtual Factory” technology to improve the conformity rate of Purple Ray’s DDR memory chips and aid in R&D for the more advanced DDR4, DDR5, and DDR6 chips, and HBM chips with bandwidths over 256 gigabytes, 512 gigabytes, or even 1 terabyte per second.

Yes indeed, the benefits of the DDR memory chip were that it was cheap and had a large capacity. The bandwidth, however, was small, commonly between 3.2, 4.8, and 6.4 gigabytes per second. The HBM chips, however, could easily attain bandwidths of tenfold, hundredfold, and more. It was just that production costs were higher. The reason that HBM chips were not popular was not because it had no prospect, as production costs could be shrunk through mass production. It was because there were only a few manufacturers that had mastery over the tech of HBM chips. They had no competitors, so they chose to conceal the technology and ‘milk’ the DDR’s first! When competitors emerged, only then would they reveal the HBM chips and eliminate the DDR technology from the markets! From this, one could see how scary the gap between the Z nation and other countries was within the memory chip field. It was scary to the extent that the opponent managed to gather a whole bucket of milk. Under normal conditions, for the Z enterprises to catch up to foreign enterprises in this field, it would require at least another 10 years! However, with the assistance of Xing Hai Technologies’”Virtual Factory,” this catch-up cycle would be greatly shortened.

Secondly, Xing Hai Technologies would appraise their technology as capital stock and hold 1.2% of the shares of the Purple Ray Group. Similar to Zhong Xin International, Purple Ray Group was a listed company. As of current times, their market value was 125 billion dollars. 1.2% of the shares meant that the “Virtual Factory” that Chen Jin provided was worth 1.5 billion dollars.

In addition, Xing Hai Technologies ordered more than 100 million units of LPDDR3/LPDDR4 from Purple Ray Group to be used in their Wa-wah robot, Little Star learning machine, Bang Bang Robot, and other products. Moreover, the CPU that Xing Hai Technologies used in all their products was purchased from Teng Xun corporation, a subsidiary of Purple Ray Technologies. The number of orders on the CPU was similarly over 100 million units. The NAND storage granules were also entirely purchased from Purple Ray Group’s subsidiary, Rivery Corporation.

Therefore, from these few aspects, the tightness of the partnership between Xing Hai Technologies and the Purple Ray Group was not less than that of them with Zhong Xin International. Hence, Chen Jin had his eyes set on the shares of Purple Ray Group. He let Xing Hai Technologies’ stock market trader acquire the shares of Purple Ray Group in mass amounts. A total of 5 billion dollars’ worth of shares were purchased… it accounted for approximately 4% of the market value of Purple Ray Group. Added up with the technical license of the Virtual Factory, the shareholding ratio of Xing Hai Technologies towards the Purple Ray Group was increased to 5.2%.

Considering that the Purple Ray Group was a state-owned listed company in which their administrative authority lay with the state, Chen Jin’s demands were not high. He would be satisfied with holding about 10% of the Purple Ray Group’s shares and a place on the board of directors as an investor.

Immediately, Chen Jin was full of lofty ambitions. “I have Zhong Xin International in my left hand and Purple Ray Group in my right hand. The production of the CPU, AI chip, and DDR memory chip can all be domestically produced! We will forge a chip empire! From now on, we will be invincible in the chip field!”

Google, Samsin, yada yada yada, would never stop Xing Hai Technologies from charging forward. Those who dare oppose Xing Hai Technologies would come to no good end! Nonetheless… Even if Chen Jin was eager to step on Google and vanquish Samsin, he would still be unable to extinguish the fire.

Due to low conformity rates, the production of Purple Ray Group’s LPDDR3 chips was only about 120 thousand units per day. Even if they sold all of them to Xing Hai Technologies, it would still require at least 100 days to address the demands of the jillions of parents of sixth and ninth graders. The “Virtual Factory” was no doubt formidable, but it was still impossible to improve the conformity rate of Purple Ray’s DDR memory chip in just a few days. It would require a month to establish the Virtual Factory and another two months subsequently for R&D to bear fruit.

The problem was that the mass population of parents could not wait for two months! The time limit for Xing Hai Technologies was only two months! It had to be said that this time, Samsin really did prick on Xing Hai Technologies’ Achilles heel.

After all, how could the parents from the Z nation, that all wished for their children’s success, tolerate their children doing bad in the College Entry Examination due to the absence of an intelligent learning machine? If the issue was not addressed in time, Xing Hai Technologies would get drowned by the swarm of angry parents. Chen Jin’s real self would also have to go into hiding and would only come out by night to avoid any parent from recognizing him. He dared not imagine such a terrible outcome.

“Luckily, I still have a planet.” Chen Jin raised his head and clenched his fist. “Luckily, I have the Base of Operations!” After all the enthusiasm, he once again shook his head helplessly and smiled bitterly as he said, “Never have I thought that even with my hundred-billion-dollar net worth, I would still end up doing transporting jobs.”

Correct. The night before, at the Base of Operations on planet Haierfa, Chen Jin took a few chip samples and ordered Alice to produce 15 million 4 gigabyte LPDDR3 chips. He demanded that she complete the production at the fastest speed possible, as he was in a hurry to use them.

“No problem master, memory chips of this technological level can be printed in the high-precision capsule factory. Alice promises to complete the task within five days.” Alice said with certainty. She thought that the quest her master gave her was too simple, it had almost no difficulty at all.

…

After five days, 15 million chips that were packed and stored in about 50 boxes were neatly placed right before Chen Jin’s eyes. Chen Jin tried to lift one of the boxes. He realized that a box of 300 thousand chips, along with its container, weighed no more than 30 kilograms.

Each chip weighed no more than one gram on average, but each of them cost nearly 100 dollars. Lifting a box would be the equivalent of lifting 30 million dollars. The thing was that it was not only the idea that 30 million dollars of cash could not fit into this box; it would weigh over 30 kilograms as well!

Therefore, at that moment, Chen deeply realized the meaning of the phrase, “The value of chips far exceeds gold!”

Chapter 189 - Picturesque

After 15 million memory chips were transported to a warehouse on Earth with the help of human replica robots, the memory chip shortage issue was temporarily solved. After it was transported to the foundry, there were no more problems for Xing Hai Technologies to fulfill their promise and account for the parents of sixth and ninth graders within two months.

Speaking of which, should they expose Samsin? They could directly proclaim that Samsin banned the sales of their memory chips, thus putting pressure on them within the Z nation and online forums and setting off a ‘boycott Samsin’ wave. Or they could direct the anger of the parents to Samsin and let them taste what was it like to shoot themselves in the foot. The same idea popped up in the brains of Chen Jin and the other executives of Xing Hai Technologies, as this was the best way to divert the attention from them.

But after some thought, Chen Jin scrapped the idea. “I have a way to solve the memory chip shortage issue and have already found a new source of supply. Unveiling the truth and exposing Samsin is something that we need to do sooner or later, but not now. If we were to promptly shift the blame to Samsin, the parents would still not forgive us and would only put the blame back on us. They would ask, why didn’t we find a stable source of supply? Why didn’t we consider the risk of supply shortage beforehand? Anyways we will still be in the wrong. Besides, Xing Hai Technologies has now become the needle in the eye of many western forces. If we were to fall into a passive and ugly state, they will rejoice, they will celebrate, and will definitely want us in greater trouble. If we were to denounce Samsin, then announce our problem solved, it will only alert our enemies and provoke greater suppression! Wait until we get over this crisis. Heheh, let us see if they can still laugh!” Chen Jin had a murderous look in his eyes.

The executives cheered.

“Amazing! So amazing!”

“We pretend that we are weak, let our enemies lower their guard, and then we strike back!”

“After we solve our problems and appease all those parents, we unsheath our sword in the face of the public! I believe that none of our people will put the blame on us, they will all be on our side!”

“When that happens, Samsin will probably have a rather interesting expression on their faces. Then, we could call for the locals to support local-made chips and get rid of Samsin once and for all!”

“I succumb to you Mr. Chen, plowing on them hard with you felt better than an orgasm!” This executive member looked at Chen Jin adoringly with his face flushed. But after he said those word, countless of people looked at him with rich expressions, trying to hold in their laughter.

“Shoo! I’m not interested in gay sh*t,” Chen Jin chided him while laughing.

“Hahahaha!”

Laughter burst out in the conference room.

…

On the 1st of February, 20X1, the cold current that streamed through two days ago made temperatures slump by three to four degrees.

Shang Hai was a city located along coastal areas, and therefore had higher air humidity. Adding on the cold current from the northern region, when one walked outside, the temperature perceived by their skin would feel even colder than temperatures of minus eleven or twelve degrees of northern regions. Many northerners that came to Shang Hai have said, “I’m frozen,””Even colder than my home in the northeast,””I’m huddling myself and I’m still shivering,””Sealed in my blanket all day every day can’t seem to break the seal.”

Even so, after the bombardment of ads that persisted for nearly a month and the official release of the movie trailer that had very refined pictures, many people, whether they were man or woman, old or young, they all wrapped themselves in thick clothing and rushed to the cinema against the chilling breeze to watch their most anticipated locally produced anime movie: “Wa-Wah Robot 2 — A New Family.” Today was the day “Wa-wah 2” premiered.

Song Xiao Ping was dragged by his girlfriend Peng Shan Shan as they trotted to a cinema. Peng Shan Shan’s face was filled with eagerness, and she turned her head to look at him from time to time and said, “Quickly, walk faster.”

“I saw the trailer, the first movie was about kidnapping, the second movie now is about ruffians, it’s all about the same pattern. Is it necessary to look forward to the movie that much?” Song Xiao Ping was rather speechless.

“Don’t you think that Wa-wah is really adorable? This year, they added the Bang Bang robot, which is also very cute, haha! I’m so looking forward to it!” Peng Shan Shan’s vision was suffused with stars, and she folded her hands. “I heard that the Bang Bang robot is Xing Hai Technologies hit product this year, whatever function Bang Bang has in the movie, Bang Bang has it in real life! This makes me look forward to it even more!”

Looking at his girlfriend, Song Xiao Ping was rendered speechless. Okay, you girls definitely can’t resist buying anything that’s cute. Can’t you see that this movie is just an ad? he thought. Spend two hours in the cinema just to watch an ad? Song Xiao Ping shrugged his shoulders. Okay, he would do this just to accompany his girlfriend and at the same time enjoy the nice pictures. Therefore, he paid 46 bucks for the movie ticket!

…

At Happiness Court, Chen Jin and his family went out well equipped. They galloped to Wanda shopping complex which was merely 200 meters from their area. Similarly, there was still an extra familiar figure along with their squad.

“Su Yun, how’s Xiao Lan? Is she out of danger? Are the treatments effective?” asked his mother He Li, who was walking beside Su Yun.

“Yes, everything is going smoothly. I went to visit Xiao Lan yesterday and she was already able to walk on foot. Just that her hair is all gone, what a waste.”

“Hair will still grow back. Everything will be fine as long as she regains her health.”

“Yeah.” Su Yun agreed to her while nodding her head.

Chen Jin was walking along the side, holding his phone and texting in the family group chat.

Chen Jin: Little Peng, how’s your finals this year, did you bring back the first place?

Su Zipeng: Nope, I scored 701, there’s one b*****d in my class that got 705! I just got the second in class and the fifteenth in school. I’m still too late with the Little Star learning machine. If I were to get it two months earlier, things would be different.

One could see that he was very frustrated. At that moment, Su Tiantian came in and said: Hey brother-in-law, take a picture of you with my sister! Like really guys, you guys have been together for so long and we only have a few pictures of you both together, I want to see you with my old sis.

Su Zipeng followed: Yeah bro, take a picture.

Mother Su, on the other hand, sent a voice message: “Little Chen, quick, take a picture with my Yun Yun, I want to have a look at Yun Yun.”

Chen Jin replied: Ok.

He walked to Su Yun’s side, held her shoulders all of a sudden and moved his head so close to her cheeks that they became almost stuck to each other. He opened his selfie camera, held his phone in front of the woman and said, “Hello pretty, give me a smile and let me complete my selfie mission.”

Su Yun was taken aback. After she had a whiff of the manly scent on him, she blushed as her heartbeat began to accelerate. Responding to the man’s selfie request, Su Yun slightly lowered her head and smiled shyly as two strains of her silky hair dangled around her forehead. Under low light conditions, she looked beauteous amidst the picture’s haziness.

Chen Jin sent the picture to the family group chat.

In just a short while, the family group responded enthusiastically.

Su Tiantian: (emoji) (emoji) (emoji) you guys are so gorgeous!

Su Zipeng: Eh sis, are you blushing? Your blushing face is picturesque.

Su Tiantian: A match made in heaven!

Mother Su’s voice message: “Yun Yun, quickly make this your profile picture, this picture is too good!”

Father Su’s voice message: “Yes Yun Yun, use this picture as your profile pic, it does really look awesome.”

Scrolling through these messages, Su Yun’s face became even redder. She was pinching her fingers as she helplessly looked at Chen Jin, not knowing what to do.

“Change it then, I think that it’s nice too.” Chen Jin nodded at her. He kept on looking at the photo on his phone. He was mesmerized. The woman in the photo was truly picturesque.

Su Yu lowered her head and gave out a light snort.

He Li and Chen Gang looked at each other as they both smiled out of content.

Chapter 190 - Smash-Hit Movie Wa-wah 2

On the movie screen, Robot Bang Bang, who had a lot of patches on its body, was repaired and slowly opened its eyes. After it successively called out the names of “Lan Lan,””Little Bao,” and robot “Wa-wah,” the whole cinema cheered.

“Great, great!”

“Daddy, mommy, Bang Bang is alright, it is repaired!”

“I like Wa-wah and Bang Bang so much.”

Every parent that came to the cinema with their kids smiled in glee.

Clap clap clap!

Peng Shan Shan wiped the corners of her eyes with a paper towel. Then, she applauded as she looked at her boyfriend beside her. “So warm and touching, this movie is great!”

Clap clap clap clap!

Many of the people in the theater applauded along with her. This time, her boyfriend Su Xiao Peng did not make any refutes. He only nodded his head and said, “I was misguided by those film reviewers on the internet that attended the movie’s premiere. It is given a 6.8 on Douban, but this rating is way too low, it is worthy of at least an eight just by the movie’s special effects alone! Besides, the storyline is not bad. The climax, the rhythm of the movie, are all superb. Personally, I give it a 9 and above.”

Peng Shan Shan gave him an annoyed look. She rolled her eyes, “Aren’t we just watching a movie, what’s the point of mentioning all these? I like it and that’s enough, guys always talk about ratings, about whether it is worth the tickets; do you know it’s really annoying and boring at the same time? Can we just enjoy the movie?”

Song Xiao Ping smiled awkwardly. “You’re right, our personal view is what matters the most, we can’t get misguided by others.”

After the movie premiere, the box office on “Wa-wah 2″‘s first day was 569 million, a lot less than the 788 million of “Wa-wah 1.” It did not break the record held by “Wa-wah 1.”

The movie’s review, however, underwent a tremendous reversal after just a day on the big screens. It would more suitably be described as “a tsunami of praise,” so to speak. Netizens shared their movie reflections:

“Honestly, my expectations on ‘Wa-wah 2’ wasn’t as high as the first movie. Just like what those movie critics said, for a movie that was merely an ad produced by directors just for the sake of money, aside from having refined pictures and puffed up special effects, it has no meaning whatsoever. But I was dragged to the cinema by my girlfriend and after I finished the movie, I would like to tell those movie critics: To hell with you! This is such an awesome movie and you actually criticized it as being worthless!”

“If movies such as this is called trash, then of all the thousands of local productions that hit the big screens, 99.9% of them will be even worse than trash and totally unwatchable! I hope that all of our local productions look up to ‘Wa-wah 2.’ Make around 50 ‘trash movies’ like ‘Wa-wah 2’ every year and all the moviegoers in Z will become the happiest moviegoers in the world!”

“Commercial film? For those movie analysts that obviously have much higher IQ than a regular person, could it be that it was after watching the Wa-wah robot, Little Star learning machine, and Bang Bang robot, that you guys eagerly claimed the title of a movie analyst so that you can bash the movie to your heart’s content? But I, who have watched the movie, would like to tell all of you, the movie analysts are right, this was indeed a commercial film, but it is the most exciting commercial film in the whole world! It was definitely not as gross as those Hollywood movies and local television series that forcefully squeeze ads into their films! On the contrary, the Wa-wah robot is known as the necessity of a well-off family that every family will need. There’s also not much to be said about how much the Little Star learning machine is sought after, many parents are going crazy over getting their hands on one. As for the Bang Bang robot, if Xing Hai Technologies really did come up with a similar product, as long as its price is tagged within 50 thousand dollars, I will definitely buy one! Every product that comes from Xing Hai Technologies are products that will surprise people. The company never advertises, not even a single penny is spent on advertising. Of course, even if they really did advertise, we are the ones that willingly paid to watch their ad in the cinema. For example, in the movie, Lan Lan and Ah Bao’s father worked at Xing Hai Technologies. They were both very well paid and had enough for their family of four to live a good life. This makes us extremely eager to join Xing Hai Technologies in reality. For example, the Little Star learning machine that Lan Lan uses made her the first in class in every exam. The Bang Bang robot further allowed this family to live happily, healthily, and free from diseases and disasters… isn’t this the life that everyone is yearning for? Who doesn’t want to have such a wonderful life? Through the ‘Wa-wah robot’ movie series, Xing Hai Technologies is showing us a template, a template of a blissful, wonderful, and perfect family. I give this commercial movie a full score! But the director told us with her excellent storytelling skills that this movie isn’t just an advertisement. It is a true, genuine movie! The cute and resourceful Wa-wah, the smart and intelligent Lan Lan, the cheerful and naughty Ah Bao and Bang Bang who had powerful functions, every character is portrayed very well. Especially Wa-wah, no matter how stunning the other characters are made, he will still be the main character that I care the most. Another thing is that there will be bad guys in every movie and a duel between good and evil. Many think that this is too old-school, but I personally think that the presence of evildoers is a must for a movie. In correlation, we can regard the ‘bad guys’ as the adversity, trouble and hindrance that we come across in reality. In real life, each and every one of us will encounter these ‘bad guys.’ Then we will need to conquer them, knock them down, and defeat them! It convicts us with the belief to ‘defeat bad guys and overcome predicaments.’ Only after defeating all hardships, will we find that life is actually sweet. Therefore, I wouldn’t say anything like giving the movie one less point so that they won’t get cocky. 10 marks, I give this movie full marks! At last, for those who still have doubts in their hearts and are still misguided by the movie critics that said this movie is an ad, I recommend you guys to think: tell yourself that in reality there is no Xing Hai Technologies, no Wa-wah robot, no Little Star learning machine and the others; when you forget about reality when you enter the cinema, you will realize that the movie is totally different from what the movie critics said. I truly recommend everyone to watch this movie.”

Innumerable positive reviews quickly raised the publics expectations towards ‘Wa-wah 2.’ The movie was flooded by praise on Weibo and became a hot topic of discussion. On the second day, the number of viewers entering the cinema had increased. On the second day of the screening, ‘Wa-wah 2”s box office closed at 570 million. On the third day after the movie’s reputation had taken effect, ‘Wa-wah 2’ harvested a box office of 601 million. Market research organizations generally believed that ‘Wa-wah 2”s total domestic box office would not be lower than six billion dollars.

However, on the fourth day, Xing Hai Technologies’s founder, Chen Jin, posted a message on his personal Weibo that caused a heated discussion among netizens. “To everyone who has watched ‘Wa-wah 2’, I would like to say that whatever function Bang Bang has in the movie will be available in the Bang Bang robot that Xing Hai is about to release. We will never make false advertisements.”

Netizens left their comments on his post:

“Is it for real? Exactly as in the movie?”

“Able to detect 1,153 common diseases, allowing people to discover and prevent diseases in advance, give out health reminders, guide everyone to embrace the healthy lifestyle… I would like to ask, when will Bang Bang robot be on sale? Can I preorder one? Can I buy it within 100 thousand dollars?”

“Holy, if such a robot is created, many hospitals are going to close down, aren’t they? Is Xing Hai Technologies beginning to destroy the medical industry?

There were replies to this comment, “What ‘destroy’? This is called ‘timely replacement.’ Many of the hospitals nowadays should’ve closed down since a long time ago!”

“I had a small cold last time. Doctors told me that I have this disease and that disease and scared me every single day. I spent over 10 thousand dollars across one month and I’m still sick. In the end, I bought a few cold medicine pills and I cured myself. Hospitals nowadays are all devil workshops!”

“Last year I went for circumcision, halfway through the procedure, the doctor asked me to pay more money and asked me to use my Alipay right on the spot. After the surgery, I called the police, but they didn’t care and asked me to opt for legal procedures. I went to court for half a year before I managed to get back my few grand.”

“Quickly release it, I will definitely buy one!”

One of the netizens expressed his doubts, “Bang Bang robot in the movie can spray out irritant gasses from its nose and boost its combat powers by 50% after activating the ‘Ultimate control mode,’ are these functions really suitable for the Bang Bang robot? Logically speaking, robots shouldn’t harm humans, am I right?”

Chen Jin replied to him, “What you said is right, robots should indeed not harm humans, therefore we have removed these two functions from the Bang Bang robot. Xing Hai Technologies will try our best to avoid ethical disputes.”

Some netizens became puzzled right away, “Why did you remove such great functions? What if we really encounter troubles like what happened in the movie?The Bang Bang robot couldn’t do anything but watch?”

“Yea, I think that the ‘Ultimate control mode’ was pretty awesome, it doesn’t need to be scrapped!”

The netizens were having heated discussions revolving this topic. The depth of the discussion was getting deeper and deeper, and more and more people were joining in. As the release date of the Bang Bang robot approached, the discussion had already become a collective discussion of the whole society.

Chapter 191 - A Big Discussion

In order to avoid two debates that would have been raised by the “Limited Self-defense” and “Ultimate Control” functions of the Bang Bang robot, Chen Jin decided to ax the two controversial functions.

Debate one, could robots harm humans?

Debate two, who was the guilty one? Was the tool guilty or the user of the tool guilty?

Intense arguments were raised by these two questions.

“I think that the Bang Bang robot should be equipped with the “Limited Self-defense” function. It was designed and installed for the protection of humans. With this function, the robot can protect the good guys from the bad guys! We’ll also have another self-defense method at our disposal. This function should be retained.”

Someone retorted immediately, “Haha, how does a robot differentiate between a good guy and a bad guy? What if Bang Bang’s user was a serial debt dodger? Even though he has money he refuses to pay his debts! People would go to his home and ask him to pay up; in the process, they may be a bit rough with him. Can this debt dodger command the Bang Bang robot to activate ‘Limited Self-Defense’ to drive the debt-collectors away? Do you think Bang Bang is helping a good guy or a bad guy?”

“Your hypothesis is invalid. In recent years, the country has been very harsh on those untrustworthy debt dodgers and limits have been placed on their high expenditures. They don’t have the right to buy a Bang Bang robot!”

“Ok, let’s leave the debt dodgers out of the question then. What if it was a domestic conflict between husband and wife? Which side should the Bang Bang robot stand on? In addition, there could be disputes between brothers or conflicts between a wife and her mother-in-law. There are countless incidents where these kinds of conflicts have ended in violence. How should the robot handle such conflicts? Should it proceed with ‘Limited Self-defense?”

“This… Nobody can really resolve family conflicts except for the family members involved, but I think that the weak should be protected. Bang Bang should protect the weaker person!”

“The weak? Haha, think about those elderly who get on the public bus looking like Lin Daiyu but transform into Li Xiaolong after alighting… Do you think they are weak? Think about those middle-aged ladies who congregate at the community dance session at the plaza. They look tough enough to win any fight. Do they need to be protected by the robot? I think they are the strong and we are the weak!”

“You… you can’t generalize. If you came face-to-face with a real criminal, this function of Bang Bang could save your life!”

“Haha, that’s not a guarantee. If Bang Bang was confronted with a real criminal, its fighting ability could be easily taken care of by the criminal. In addition, he may take revenge on the intended victim. Perhaps, the incident would not have resulted in a fatality, but the criminal was provoked into a blind rage and killed the victim. Originally, there was only meant to be a small loss of valuables and minimal injury to the victim, but the use of the robot has resulted in greater losses and injuries. As it is, the ‘limited self-defense’ is trivial and insufficient. It is only useful if the robot is stronger than the criminal.”

“I… I…”

The opposing view was definitely winning. Arguments surrounding the “Ultimate Control” mode were even more intense.

The arguments were not about how useless or impractical the function was, but about how the bad guys could employ that function for their own nefarious purposes.

“In the future, thieves and burglars no longer have to do their own dirty work. They can commit the crime by operating the Bang Bang robot. This way, they would not have to expose their physical selves. Bank robbers would only have to control the robot and command it to rush into the bank and destroy the place. They could get millions without fear of the police catching them. Once they dump their remote controls, they can escape from the law. The Bang Bang robot is the perfect tool for committing a crime.”

“Yeah, it’s simply too easy to commit a crime if you have a Bang Bang robot. For example, murder. One could murder someone by operating the Bang Bang robot from behind the scenes, and no matter if the crime was successfully carried out or not, the real criminal would remain free of the law. He would continue to look for his next victim. The frequency of homicides in our society would rapidly increase.”

However, there were comments below that refuted the arguments presented.

“The two who posted their comments above mine must have read too many novels. Your logical thinking seemed to be compromised. I guess that you’ve not seen ‘Wa-wah 2’ in the cinemas either? The activation process for the ‘Ultimate Control’ mode is explained very clearly in the movie. When the user meets with a tricky issue, he would first have to apply to Xing Hai Technologies for approval to remote control the robot. In addition, the user has to call the police to report the issue! The ‘Ultimate Control’ mode can only be successfully activated with the co-supervision of all three parties. The entire scene under the ‘Ultimate Control’ mode will also be recorded.”

In the movie, when Xiao Lan’s father applied for the activation of this function, Xing Hai Technologies discussed the decision for five minutes without any fear of appearing silly to the audience. Just as the audience was about to rage at the delay, the company finally gave the approval. Although it blackened its image in the movie, the purpose behind it was simple. It was to emphasize that the “Ultimate Control” mode would be activated with the supervision of many third parties. In addition, it also expressed that the mode should be activated with caution. The user could only activate it as a last resort.

Even so, Xing Hai Technologies had still announced the removal of this function in real life. The reason given was that the company had taken into account the many worries that people had and would rather ax the function than to cause controversy.

“I thought that it was a greatly unnecessary move! There are no good or evil tools. The crux is the user; it depends on whether the user is a good or bad person. If a bad person wants to do evil, even a stone can become a tool for him to commit his crime. Should all knives be banned simply because a kitchen knife was used to murder someone? That is impossible. The “Ultimate Control” mode of Bang Bang robot could indeed be employed by criminal elements. But such an incident would be extremely rare with an excellent regulatory mechanism. If a criminal could still find a loophole within the combined mechanism of remote monitoring by Xing Hai Technologies, police supervision and full video recording, this could only reflect the incompetence of the three parties as well as the shocking genius of the criminals. This kind of situation is extremely rare. Therefore, it was really unnecessary to remove that function. This is absolutely much safer than the drugs flooding Canada or the guns that are overwhelming Merica. Moreover, this function would definitely play an unexpected role at the critical moment. It could be the hand of the user stretched out in an entreaty for help, and by grasping it, we would be able to maintain our society’s happiness.”

The argument made by this person was agreed upon by many.

“Yes, it can be used with an ease of mind with a good regulatory mechanism.”

“This form of regulatory mechanism is way better than the one of Didi Dache. It’s very safe and effective!”

“Brothers, you’ve mentioned the guns in Merica; I have to say that it’s a perfect example. If the guns in Merica fell under the regulations that Bang Bang robot was under, the number of fatalities would be reduced by at least 99%! The problem is that it’s too easy to open a gun safe, after which, the user simply has to press a finger on the trigger. The Bang Bang robot is still better.”

“The tool is innocent! As long as the regulatory mechanism is on point, I hope that this function can be retained in the Bang Bang robot.”

Based on public opinions, over 90% of the population agreed that the “Ultimate Control” function should be retained. Moreover, in a government discussion for the relevant departments, more than 70% of officials agreed that retaining the “Ultimate Control” function in the Bang Bang robot was not out of the question if there was a very good regulatory mechanism.

Therefore, the personnel in charge at the relevant departments commented to Xing Hai Technologies, “It is best to remove the ‘Limited Self-defense’ function. But the ‘Ultimate Control’ function can be trialed in a couple of different areas. If it is proven that there are more pros than cons, it can be fully utilized.”

The positive remark given by the relevant government authorities raised the spirits of everyone in Xing Hai Technologies! Zhou Kun, who was in charge of the Bang Bang robot project, rubbed his hands in excitement. “The relevant government authorities are quite reasonable, they didn’t reject the idea immediately. Instead, they said that we could carry out a pilot scheme. This is an opportunity to prove that ‘tools are not evil.’ We must grab this opportunity! Not only can we prove that tools are not evil, but they can also be a great source of assistance!”

“Yes!” Zhang Zhi Wei, who had been promoted to assistant project manager, sighed heavily. “We’re lucky that we’re in Z country. If we were in the west, a product like the Bang Bang robot could never have been launched. Western theories like ‘robots destroy the world’ and ‘robots are harmful’ have a deep impact on the people there. Conspiracy theories are prevalent and there are too many anti-intellectual remarks. When it comes to the extent of changing expressions towards robots, there is definitely a larger group of people that promote the resistance against robots there than there are in Z country. We, the Chinese people, are more pragmatic.”

Chen Jin shook his head. “Fear is born from ignorance. And there are too many ignorant people, the progress of science will be impeded. The root of the problem is still the sub-par basic education. There is an inadequate level of scientific literacy, to the point that people don’t have the ability to judge if something is good or bad. Guns can kill, yet people own them like a common item. Bang Bang robot can save lives, yet they resist it. Sometimes people really die from their ignorance.”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

…

With the popular release of the movie “Wa-wah 2”, the public discussions about the various functions of Bang Bang robot became even more intense.

On the 10th of February, amidst the fervent anticipation of billions in the population, the all-new product of Xing Hai Technologies, Bang Bang Robot, was announced.

Chapter 192 - Everyone Was Concerned About The Price

This new product launch was held at Shang Hai Stadium. The stadium had a seating capacity of more than 80,000, so it was also called the “80,000 Stadium.” However, for events like concerts and launches, chairs could also be placed all across the empty field. In reality, the stadium could hold up to 100,000 people. A whole 100,000! There were no empty seats at the venue as swarms of people crowded the stadium. Where the weather was chilly outside, one could feel a gust of hot air upon entering the stadium. As the temperature was steaming, some of the audience even took off their coats and rolled up their sleeves. Sweat beaded on their forehead as their faces flushed with excitement. One could feel how popular the event was.

Those who were unable to get tickets could only sit in front of the TV, computer, or mobile screen to watch the livestreaming of the launch event. There were at least tens of millions of off-site viewers. This was a magnificent and unprecedented event!

However… The one hosting this new product launch was not Chen Jin, but the CEO, Ling Jundong. Ling Jundong was usually in-charge of hosting the product launches of the robots and their relevant products. Ling Jundong had initially declined. “President Chen, why don’t you host it? The netizens and audience would prefer you. I’m too old.”

Chen Jin waved his hand. “We’ve agreed that you will be the one hosting the launches for the robot products. I won’t fight with you for your work. We have to maintain a sense of continuity with regards to the host. Make a Weibo account for yourself when the launch is over. You’ll attract some tens of millions of followers and this will increase the publicity of the company.”

The primary reason was that the company planned to launch many major products in the future, so Chen Jin decided that it was better if he did not steal this particular limelight. Moreover, Chen Jin was not someone who liked to be in the limelight.

Ling Jundong nodded. “Ok.” Since the boss had given him this opportunity to shine, he would do his best!

…

At 8 pm sharp, Ling Jundong walked up to the stage at the event wearing a thick blue western suit. Indeed, this led to a barrage of complaints and ridicule from the netizens.

“Why isn’t it Smart Baby?”

“Ah! Where’s my husband? Why isn’t my husband on stage?”

“Quickly, get my husband on stage to replace him!”

There were also some viewers who expressed that Ling Jundong was very handsome too. They had seen the two product launches that he hosted before, and really liked him. It was good that Ling Jundong was someone with experience in big events and he was able to make a small joke. “I know that some of the audience may be feeling a little disappointed, as you don’t really want to see old bacon like me. But, it’ll be the new year soon and our boss has cast aside the company to return home. I have to do overtime here; this baby is upset too.” Ling Jundong made a miserable face, cajoling the audience into laughter. He continued talking for a while to inject some humor into the audience. Soon, he had raised the mood of the audience.

…

At the Court of Happiness, the entire family was watching the livestream on TV in the living room.

He Li nodded and praised, “Son, you have many talents in your company. This Ling Jundong is not bad. You have an eye for picking talent.”

“He’s more than good!” Chen Gang interrupted, “Don’t simply look at his young age and glib tongue, he’s currently the best CEO in the country. Recently, the ‘Entrepreneur’ magazine has published two rankings on the most competitive companies in Z country and company employee efficiency. Xing Hai Technologies was top in both rankings, but especially for the latter. The company’s employee efficiency is graded at 2.5 times that of a Hua Yao employee. This means the benefits created by one employee from Xing Hai Technologies’ is equivalent to what is created by 2.5 Hua Yao employees. This ranking shocked the business community. CEOs from many companies go to Xing Hai Technologies for some learning experience. CEO He from our Shang Fei Corporation went for an observation and study trip. He was full of praises when he came back from Xing Hai Technologies, saying that Shang Fei Corporation should learn from the system implemented at Xing Hai Technologies and increase employee efficiency. This might reduce our large aircraft development cycle by 30%. It’s just that…” Chen Gang shook his head. “Some systems look good on paper, but implementing them… Ah… In short, Ling Jundong is a genius from the management field. Our son has found a treasure.”

He Li’s eyes widened. 2.5 times; 30%… That Ling Jundong character was so capable?

At that moment, Chen Jin also responded that it seemed that the management system in his company was somewhat different from that in other companies. Moreover, the system had been in place for almost two years. The employees had more or less adapted to the system by now. Liang Ying, Hou Xiao Feng, Liang Bin, Li Yuan Liang, as well as others in the upper management followed his orders more readily, and those in the development department like Zhou Kun, Song Bojun, and others would also speak well of Ling Jundong in his presence. Obviously, the effects of the management system by Ling Jundong had run its full course and it was now widely recognized by the rest of the upper management.

Chen Jin simply had not yet realized that the management system of Xing Hai Technologies was far stronger than that of other companies. As he listened to his dad, Chen Jin was immediately reminded of something. It seemed that Ling Jundong’s annual salary had stopped at 20 million. At most, he would receive a few million for his end-of-year bonus.

Ling Jundong made a joke some time ago, saying that President Ren of Hua Yao Company had privately offered him an annual salary 500 million in an attempt to poach him.

Chen Jin smiled jokingly. “Go ahead if you are moved by that offer.”

Ling Jundong laughed. “I wouldn’t like to re-establish my system from scratch. The scale of Hua Yao and the resistance that I’ll face… It’s better for me to remain in Xing Hai Technologies.”

Chen Jin finally reacted. He understood the implication of his words. Shaking his head, he said, “Old Ling, if you want a raise, just say so, there’s no need to beat around the bush! Haha, President Ren is pretty daring!” Chen Jin decided that it was time to adjust the salaries of the upper management with the arrival of the Spring Festival in the next coming year. Especially for Ling Jundong, even though a direct pay raise to 500 million was too ridiculous, he would definitely get a salary of more than 100 million. Talents were as precious as technology.

On the livestream, Ling Jundong was explaining each function of Bang Bang robot as per the scenes in the movie, “Wa-wah 2.”

“Before the launch of this product, we have collaborated with many hospitals in the country in the development of Bang Bang robot’s ‘Family Doctor’ function. We’ve conducted millions of diagnostic tests and refined the function’s accuracy rate to as high as 87.7%. While it cannot be compared to a specialist doctor, the diagnostic standard of the ‘Family Doctor’ is definitely on par with that of a general chief physician. Moreover, as more and more data is collected and changes and improvements are made, it’s accuracy rate will definitely be raised to 95% and above in the future.”

Even though it was announced that the ‘Limited Self-defense’ ability under the ‘Ultimate Protection’ function had been removed in the Bang Bang robots available for public sales, Ling Jundong did a demo on the test prototype that had been brought on stage, showcasing the robot’s ‘nasal spray.’ Thus, proving that it could carry out ‘limited self-defense.’ Ling Jundong also did a live demo for the ‘Ultimate Control’ mode under the ‘Ultimate Protection’ function. Under the supervision of three parties, the user could indeed remote control the Bang Bang robot to do various actions; it was similar to gaming. The loading capacity of the robot was increased to 30 kilograms, and it could even pick up an eight-year-old child.

“Wow!” Endless exclamations of shock resounded from the audience below.

However, there were many more whose patience was wearing thin. They no longer wanted to hear the introduction of the product functions.

Countless comments appeared on the screens were the event was livestreamed online.

“The price!”

“Hurry up and tell us the price!”

“Is the price a ‘go’ or a ‘no’; give it to us clearly!”

“$50,000 and below; god, I’m begging you, make it $50,000 and below!”

“If it’s $80,000 and below, I’ll definitely buy it!”

“I have four elderly, two children, plus me and my wife in my family of eight. I’m willing to spend $10,000 for each person!”

A nouveau-riche posted an arrogant remark, saying, “Haha, a bunch of desperate poor peasants. Do you want to enjoy such a good product with just $50,000 to $80,000? Anything less than $100,000 is demeaning its value!”

…

In the living room, He Li was so impatient that she could not sit still. Pulling on Chen Jin’s sleeve, she asked, “Son, reveal it in advance for your mother. Just how much are you selling one unit for?”

Chen Gang looked at him. “Is it $50,000? If you are selling it for $80,000 to $100,000, that will be a luxury item that only the minority can afford. You’ll only be selling to the rich.”

“Less than $50,000.” Chen Jin shook his head. “If it’s too expensive, problems like ‘it’s difficult to see a doctor’ or ‘it’s too expensive to see a doctor’ would still plague the majority of households. They would not be able to enjoy the convenience that technology brings. So, we’ve prepared two editions. One is a people-friendly edition and the other is a deluxe edition. As for the price… isn’t Ling Jundong announcing it now?” He rubbed his chin as his parents turned their focus back to the TV screen.

At that moment, a rumble could be heard from the scene on the TV. A table appeared on the screen.

Bang Bang Robot Friendly edition — $19,999

Bang Bang Robot Deluxe edition — $49,999

When this price was announced, sentiments boiled over!

Chapter 193 - A “More Value For Money” Deluxe Edition

“I can get a Bang Bang robot for less than $20,000; it really is an ethical price!”

“It’s not expensive at all! It’s totally affordable.”

“A company with a conscience, it’s really ethical.”

“But why the large difference in price between the friendly and deluxe edition? It’s a big difference of $30,000. Is it because $30,000 is peanuts for the rich?”

Many viewers found the price difference to be problematic. It was true that the friendly edition had a reasonable and ethical price, but why was the deluxe edition so much more expensive? In order to answer the doubts of the audience, the host of the product launch, Ling Jundong, began to explain in detail the differences between the two editions.

…

In the living room, Chen Gang asked the same question too. He felt that the difference in the prices set for the two editions was really too great. It was kind of unreasonable.

Hence, Chen Jin explained, “If you judge the two editions based simply on their appearance, there does not seem to be a big difference. But, there are great internal differences between the two. Firstly, they are not made with the same materials. We’ve maximized cost-savings in the materials used in the friendly edition. The casing is made of plastic and the motor generates less power. The battery holds a lesser charge. Overall, the various hardware configurations are average. Total hardware costs are less than $4,000. Production costs can be lowered to about $3,000 on a mass production scale. In contrast, the deluxe edition uses sturdier materials such as a high-tensile alloy frame and a carbon fiber casing. The motor generates as much as 30% more power and the battery capacity is up to 50% more. The various hardware configurations are much better. In terms of quality, it is obviously one level up as compared to the friendly edition. Its working lifespan is about five years longer.”

Chen Jin continued, “In addition, the medical devices installed in the robot are different in the two editions. The biggest selling point of the Bang Bang robot is the ‘Family Doctor’ function. But the strength of this function depends on the medical devices found inside the robot. Only a thermometer, an external blood pressure gauge, a heart sensor, and a few other measuring devices are installed in the friendly edition. The robot will diagnose the type of disease only after a round of inquiries and observation. Its diagnosis is less accurate and it can only provide a more accurate one when the user submits a health check-up report. In contrast, not only is the deluxe edition equipped with all the devices that are installed in the friendly edition, but it also has additional devices like an ECG sensor, brain wave sensor, blood glucose meter, blood lipid meter, as well as other various measuring devices. They may be small in size and cannot be compared to the proper facilities in the hospitals, but they are equally accurate in their measurements, so they are more expensive.”

Chen Jin knew that there were many differences between the two. “In addition, an electron microscope with a magnification capability of up to 2,000 times is installed in the chest of the deluxe Bang Bang robot. This device can study and print out reports on one’s blood, saliva, and other body fluids. This microscope costs as much as $2,000. As a greater number of medical sensors have been integrated into the deluxe edition, the robot can provide a more accurate diagnosis. With the added submission of a health check-up report, its diagnosis can be as accurate as 90% and above. With its greater ability to collect and analyze more physical data, families that purchase the deluxe edition may even reduce the frequency of their health check-ups; that is, if they really trust the Bang Bang robot. They could go for a check-up once every two to three years or maybe even once in every four or five years. They would save on health check-up costs. We still advise the users who purchased the friendly edition to go for their annual health check-up to establish a more comprehensive health profile. This would be slightly more troublesome as compared to users of the deluxe edition.”

The difference in the production costs of the two editions were as such:

Bang Bang Robot Friendly edition; $4,000 (total hardware costs) + $3,000 (fee for using data from Baidu) = $6,000 to $7,000 per unit.

Bang Bang Robot Deluxe Edition; $10,000 (total hardware costs) + $3,000 (fee for using data from Baidu) = $11,000 to $13,000 per unit.

Therefore, the final price of the two editions was simply decided by multiplying the respective basic production costs by three. The final prices were very decent. Folding his arms, Chen Jin hooked a leg over his knee. He leaned back against the sofa and said, “If it were me, I would choose the deluxe edition of the Bang Bang robot.”

The deluxe edition of the Bang bang robot had a lifespan fives years longer than the friendly edition! Its tests results were more accurate and could give daily reminders that were highly specified to the user. As such, it could reduce the frequency that one had to go for a check-up at the hospital. It was more suitable for affluent families to choose the deluxe edition.

Chen Gang nodded in agreement. “I would also choose the deluxe edition.”

He Li’s eyes brightened. “A check-up once every four to five years is awesome. Who in their right mind would be willing to go for a check-up every year? It’s a torment and it’s expensive! I want the deluxe edition too.”

…

Back at the launch event, after Ling Jundong compared the differences between the two editions, the live audience and the vast number of netizens watching the event did some mental calculations and started to feel conflicted.

“The friendly edition has a lifespan of about 10 years and the deluxe edition 15 years. The deluxe edition is 50% more expensive.”

“The problem is that one must also account for the costs of going for a health check-up at the hospital. If one is using the friendly edition, he would still have to go for a check-up every year. A check-up ranges from a few hundred all the way to thousands of dollars. A full body check-up cost $2,000 to $3,000! Let’s assume that a typical check-up costs $1,000 on average. A family of four means that they have to spend $4,000 per year and $40,000 in ten years. If the deluxe edition can help to cut down on the frequency of the check-ups by half, that would mean that the family can save at least $20,000 in ten years! If they only go for a check-up once every four to five years, the deluxe edition would help them save even more.”

“Yeah, based on these calculations, the deluxe edition can help us save more money.”

“It’s more worth it to get the deluxe edition if there is a greater number of people in a household. Even if there are only three people in a family, it’s still more value for money to get the deluxe edition after factoring in the 15-year lifespan.”

“Who’s willing to go to the hospital for a check-up year after year? What if your report is seized by an unethical doctor and he claims that you are suffering from an illness or whatnot, forcing you to spend a few thousand dollars before letting you off? I choose the deluxe edition!”

“The friendly edition is too weak. I would still need to go for annual check-ups. Even when I have no health issues, some unscrupulous scammers would insist that I have an illness. Isn’t going for a check-up the same as looking for trouble? I want to buy the deluxe edition too. It’s better to go for a check-up once every four to five years.”

“Including the elderly and the children, there are eight in my family. After buying the friendly edition, we would still need to fork out millions for our annual health check-ups. We can’t afford that! Forget it. Even though our family is poor, we’ll still grit our teeth and buy the deluxe edition. The annual check-ups costs are too much.”

“I’m crying so hard right now. I was still rejoicing when I heard the price for the friendly edition. But after some calculation, I realize how poor I am. No matter how hard I look, I can’t come up with $50,000. I can only afford the less value for money friendly edition.”

“I was crying too. I’d suddenly realized that I can’t even fork out $50,000 even though I have an annual salary of $200,000. I can only buy the friendly edition.”

“I really feel that Xing Hai Technologies is too mean. This is not a ‘Bang Bang robot,’ it’s a machine that separates the bourgeoisie from the working class. Those who can afford the deluxe edition are the real bourgeoisie. The ones who can’t afford $50,000 and could only get the friendly edition belongs to the class of poor peasants; the bottommost in social class! It’s unfortunate that I belong in this bottom layer.”

The idea of the robot as a class separator spread like wildfire. Who was bourgeoisie and who was a poor peasant? That would depend on whether your family bought the friendly or deluxe Bang Bang robot. From the type of Bang Bang robot that your family used, your social class could be clearly seen with a glance.

Even so! The scalpers who had been readying themselves did not think so. For example, Zhao Tiezhu, who had been released early for good behavior after sitting in jail for six months, currently had a pair of bloodshot eyes as he planned for his next round of illegal activity with his buddies. He would corner the market this time around with his blood, sweat, and tears to make up for the shame in the failure of his last round of unlawful activity with the Little Star learning machine!

Without taking his eyes off the computer screen, he quickly lowered his head to glance at the time on his phone in anticipation of the minute when the product would be made available. Zhao Tiezhu laughed coldly. “Haha, there are only 500,000 units of the friendly edition and 100,000 units of the deluxe edition. Xing Hai Technologies, you think that you can stop us scalpers by having such a small amount of ready stock? You’re underestimating us! This time around, we’ll corner everything! No matter if it’s the friendly or deluxe edition, we make the consumers forget about any considerations regarding its value for money. They’ll only ask where can they get the robot. This time, I must make you pay the price. Xing Hai Technologies, you will have a taste of our prowess!” Zhao Tiezhu clenched his fists as a reddish gleam seemed to radiate from his eyes.

However, these scalpers would never realize that a terrifying trap was laid ahead for them.

Chapter 194 - Slaughtering the Scalpers

On the 11th of February, at Xing Hai Technologies, in the Marketing and After-sales departments, the staff were urgently preparing themselves for the test that awaited them.

In the office, Vice President Liang Ying, Marketing Manager Li Yuan Liang, and After-sales Manager Liang Bin, were talking amongst themselves. Li Yuan Liang twisted his neck and rubbed his fist, saying, “We should be able to get rid of all the scalpers in one fell swoop. Those wicked scalpers; they’ve been a thorn in our side for a long time. According to our insider information, all the scalper groups in the country, big and small, are targeting our Bang Bang robot. They’ve mobilized billions of funds, rented a large number of servers, and opened a few hundred accounts. They really plan to go all in this time around!”

Liang Bin shook his and pressed his lips together. “Those scalpers are looking for a quick get-rich scheme. They are betting on this with all that they have. All of them must be crazy.”

Liang Ying nodded and smiled chillingly. “But, this time, they have miscalculated! If they continue in their wrong-doings and persist in preying on the hard-earned money of the ordinary consumers, then they have to prepare for a trap. Not only will they make no profits, but they could also even suffer a loss. All the stocks that they have accumulated will be useless in their hands!”

The stocks that Xing Hai Technologies had prepared were far greater in reality than what they had officially announced. The production lines in Ling Feng Jing Mi OEM factory had already started mass-production three months ago. A large number of units were stockpiled in the warehouse, ready for sale. There were 1.5 million units of Bang Bang robot friendly edition and one million units of the deluxe edition. The quantity of ready stock was three to four time more than the 600,000 units that were officially announced.

Xing Hai Technologies had employed an underhanded trick by using a smokescreen to conceal the real numbers. Their purpose was to dig a big grave for the scalpers and get rid of them in one fell swoop!

Li Yuan Liang analyzed, “We cannot be complacent in our anticipation of the enemy. Let’s suppose that the scalpers have unimaginably deep pockets. They would buy all 1.5 million units of the friendly edition via lump sum cash payments; that would be equivalent to 30 billion dollars! We have to assume that they have funds of this magnitude and they buy all of the friendly edition. After which, we will release the deluxe edition on the 12th of February. That’s another one million units. Will the scalpers still have the ammo of 50 billion dollars to buy up all of the deluxe edition? Ok, let’s assume again that they are so powerful as a group that they manage to buy up all 2.5 million units; showcasing their impressive financial capabilities. We will announce our last killing move on the 13th February, the first of the new year. Can they still laugh? Haha, Xing Hai Technologies will teach you scalpers a lesson that will be carved into your soul. We might even destroy scalping as a profession in its entirety!”

…

At 12 pm sharp, the Bang Bang robot was fully open for orders on Xing Hai Technologies’ official Taobao shop, their Jingxi Mall shop, and other online platforms.

Countless voices rang out across the country.

“Grab it!”

“Please, please, please!”

“Koi, please give me luck!”

The order page lagged for several minutes. Some got their wishes and managed to buy a Bang Bang robot friendly edition. But many more did not. The order page on their phones skipped to an “order unsuccessful” or “server error” page as they missed their chance to buy a Bang Bang robot by a hair’s breadth.

…

Inside a certain room that was noisy, saturated with cigarette smoke, and littered with wires, a wave of cheering rang out.

“Hahaha, 124, I got 124 units! I’ve spent all my ammo and gained huge rewards!”

“I’ve spent all my money too; I got 81 units.”

“This is too easy! I got 173 units. I should’ve borrowed more money from relatives and friends. The money that I have is too little!”

One scalper said excitedly as he looked towards his future, “I’ve mortgaged my house and my car. I bought 196 units. I’ll be able to buy another house and car when I sell off these robots!”

Zhao Tiezhu, who had bought 212 units, rejoiced for a few moments, but he was quickly frowning. He asked the scalpers around him, “Anyone buy the deluxe edition? Did everyone get the friendly edition?”

“Yeah, I couldn’t even get my hands on one deluxe unit.”

“Me too.”

“Eh, Xing Hai Technologies made an announcement on their official site. They’re saying that they’ll only release the friendly edition today out of considerations for the server load capacity. They’ll start selling the deluxe edition at 12 pm tomorrow. Kindly wait… We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to get the deluxe edition.”

“But I don’t have much money left on me.”

“I’ve spent all of my money on the friendly edition, there’s no ammo left.”

“I only have a bit of money left for daily expenses. I can’t buy a deluxe edition.”

Zhao Tiezhu waved his hands. “Don’t worry, Xing Hai Technologies did not prepare many units for sale. There are only 100,000 units of the deluxe edition. This is utterly inadequate; it can’t satisfy the needs of the majority. There’ll be consumers who want to possess the robot urgently. They’ll come to us to buy the friendly edition because we are the only ones with the stock.”

“Leader Zhao is correct.” All of the scalpers nodded in agreement. But Zhao Tiezhu was still left with an ominous feeling. He thought that these scalpers managed to grab more of the friendly edition than he had expected. Based on his experience, the scalpers that were present could get an average of 30 units per person on a good day. How could all of the scalpers get more than a hundred units?

At 12 pm the next day, the Bang Bang robot deluxe edition was fully open for sale. However, Zhao Tiezhu and his gang of scalpers were not really involved in the rush to buy the deluxe edition. They only managed to buy 10 units as a group as they had no leftover money to buy more units.

In their WeChat group, they could only read with envy of the battle reports posted by various scalper groups across the country. The group chat was littered with updates such as, “so and so grabbed 50 units of the deluxe edition” or “someone bought 48 units of the deluxe edition.” Many deluxe units had been bought up by the scalper groups that prioritized this edition over the friendly one.

Nevertheless, a bombshell in the form of an analytical essay was dropped in the scalper community in the deep of the night by a veteran “King of Scalpers.” Hysteria spread.

“We’ve fallen into their trap, quickly retreat! Xing Hai Technologies has more than 600,000 units ready for sale!” Based on his many years of buying experience, the “King of Scalpers” estimated that Xing Hai Technologies had prepared 1.5 million units of the friendly edition and one million units of the deluxe edition for sale. Those were ample stock numbers. “They rounded up all the scalpers in the country by enticing them to sink all their capital into the trap! We need to stop buying, and sell off our stocks ASAP!”

Zhao Tiezhu was astonished. “2.5 million units of ready stock? Didn’t Xing Hai Technologies say that there were only 600,000 units available? F**k!” Beating his fists against the table, he raged, “Xing Hai Technologies, you’re f**king messing with us!” Although he was furious, Zhao Tiezhu was still not panicking. After all, the product was excellent, there was no fear that they could not be sold. It was just that it would be difficult to sell them at a high price with so many competitors. The selling price they had agreed upon would have to be drastically reduced.

On the 13th of February, the first day of the Lunar New Year, two announcements were made on Xing Hai Technologies’ official website, their Taobao shop, Weibo account, and other channels that caused countless scalpers like Zhao Tiezhu to break out in a cold sweat. They trembled and fell into deep despair.

Announcement one: “Production of the Bang Bang robot friendly edition has stopped. We will only provide ‘high value for money’ products to the consumers.” The gist of the announcement was that production of the friendly edition stopped at 1.5 million units. As it was less value for money, the company had decided to stop production and drop the line for the friendly edition.

A storm of protest rose within the netizens as they expressed their discontent.

“What about the poor peasants like us?”

“So they can neglect the poor all because of profits?”

“We can’t afford a deluxe edition that cost $50,000!”

“It’s not an ethical company, it’s just a vile corporation!”

This was instantly followed by the second announcement that eliminated the netizens’ discontent and pushed countless scalpers into a bottomless abyss.

Announcement two: “From today onwards, buyers of the deluxe edition can choose to pay in installments after a downpayment of 40%.” The announcement was as follows, “We have revised our payment scheme out of consideration for the financial circumstances of consumers, and the majority who really could not afford $50,000. Consumers can bring home a deluxe edition with just $20,000. The installation payment period will begin at the same time that they start using the product. With a service of 15 years, the buyer will only have to pay $168 per month as a ‘service fee.’ There is almost no interest included in the installation payments. If the buyer continues to delay service payments for three months, we will cut off the medical service until all payments to date have been fully made. If the Bang Bang robot continues its service in your household for more than 15 years, the buyer still has to pay $168 per month for the ‘medical service fee.’ This is equivalent to paying an additional ‘interest rate’ that has been excluded in the 15 years of installment payments. Of course, if you made a single payment for your purchase, there will be no need to pay an additional ‘service fee’ no matter how long you have been using your robot.”

Netizens expressed their approval of the purchase plan detailed in the announcement.

“The announcements are clear. Fork out $20,000, which is what you pay for the friendly edition, and you can bring home the deluxe edition with additional payments of $168 in service fees every month.”

“It’s still cutting our flesh with its ‘soft’ tactics. But $168 per month… Really isn’t a significant amount of money.”

“For a hundred dollars every month, you can ensure the health of your entire family. This can be considered cheap!”

“This is entirely within tolerable limits. And we are even able to use the deluxe edition, which is more value for money… Why are you hesitating?”

“I have to pay $16,000 for my monthly mortgage payment. This is only 1% of my mortgage; it’s just pennies.”

“Xing Hai Technologies will likely make a loss with this installation payment mode. The currency will surely depreciate considerably after 15 years. Yet, they don’t even really collect interest in the 15 years of the service period. It’s rare for such an ethical company to exist.”

…

Immediately, the state of the scalping industry in Z country was plunged into a cold winter filled with despair. Zhao Tiezhu and others in the scalper groups realized that the friendly edition could not compete against the deluxe edition in the market. It was less value for money and nobody was willing to go to the hospital for health check-ups year after year. The “value for money” deluxe edition was also useless in their hands. The majority of consumers were unable to make a one-off payment of $50,000. Most of the consumers would rather wait for Xing Hai Technologies to release about ten thousand units every day and purchase it via the installation payment mode than go to the scalpers and pay extra.

So… they were done for. Most of the scalpers were trapped, and it would be very difficult to extricate themselves from it. Scalpers who borrowed more than they could afford to pay back were in dire straits. However, they were not worthy of pity. They deserved the trouble they asked for! They would surely remember this lesson for the rest of their lives, some might even stop working as a scalper for good and become rich by their own efforts in a proper job.

This disaster had a deep and lasting impact on the scalping industry. Some scalpers who barely survived were traumatized. This fatal blow was termed the ‘Slaughter of the Scalpers.’ They were left with a deeply rooted fear towards Xing Hai Technologies and unconsciously stayed far, far away from anything to do with this company.

Chapter 195 - All the Relatives Wanted to Invest

Xing Hai Technologies had delivered a fatal blow to the scalper community, but they had also accidentally hurt a group of ordinary consumers.

These consumers had bought the friendly edition with much effort yet, two days later, they found out that they could have gotten a better value by purchasing the money deluxe edition for the same amount of money, with additional payments for a monthly service fee of $168. What were the opinions of these ordinary consumers?

“I want a refund, or else I want a deluxe edition in exchange” was just one example of what upset consumers had been saying.

Xing Hai Technologies had prepared a response plan for this scenario. It would be impossible to offer refunds, but consumers could purchase a medical tool kit that contained a variety of medical devices for $6,888. With this, the functions and capabilities of the friendly edition would be equivalent to 90% of what the deluxe edition could achieve. Similarly, they would be able to reduce the frequency of their check-ups at the hospital.

The consumers would have to be patient, however, as the medical tool kit would only be available after three months.

They were also confident that the consumers were willing to wait. After all, it was only the New Year now, and there would be no urgency for a few more months.

As to whether the majority of scalpers could survive these three months, it would be up to their luck.

Moreover, they were basically too broke to buy the medical tool kit. Even if they could buy it, they would simply be digging an even deeper grave for themselves. In short, they could not find a way out.

…

The first day of Lunar New Year.

At the He family home in Hundred Birds Heights, Gold Water District.

Chen Jin and his family had come to pay their New Year’s greetings to his grandparents.

The New Year’s gift that they presented was the deluxe edition of the Bang Bang Robot from Xing Hai Technologies. They brought five of them, one for his grandparents and the remaining four for his three uncles and one aunt. A robot that was worth $50,000 for each family member was generous indeed.

Grandfather He Chang Hou was ecstatic. With a delighted, flushed face, he pulled Chen Jin’s arm and said, “Good! Good! Last year was the Little Star learning machine, and the year before that the cleaning robot. This year, you’ve given me an even better robot. When you said that you’d bring us a high-tech product every year, you weren’t kidding. I really want to live to a hundred to see all these technological marvels.”

“It’s possible, grandpa. With this Bang Bang Robot, you can easily live to be a hundred years old!”

The old man laughed heartily in sheer joy. “Good! Good!”

There was another piece of good news. His oldest uncle, He Guo Qiang, had been promoted again this year. Currently, he held the rank of Su Hong City’s deputy mayor in charge of daily operations. It was the third highest rank in the municipal government.

The primary reason for his rapid promotion was due to Ling Feng Jing Mi locating their production factory in Su Hong City. Because of his work on that deal, a multibillion-dollar industry had landed in his city and created countless employment opportunities. In turn, this led to an increase in the taxes collected and economic growth. The neighboring cities Youxi and Kunshui could only look on in envy.

Chen Jin had even received a personal call from Shang Hai’s Mayor Yang, who had made many sincere offers and promises. He had hoped that Xing Hai Technologies would locate a few of their production factories in Shang Hai to provide more employment opportunities in this city and thereby also aid the economic growth of his home city.

However, he had also faced multiple calls from his eldest uncle day after day. After considering the cheaper rents in Su Hing City, its more favorable taxes, and cheaper labor costs, he had decided that it was more value for the money to locate the production factories there.

As a result, his eldest uncle had been promoted again. If he had not, the ruling party would have transferred him to the provincial party committee. Other provinces might also have been short of manpower, thus they would have grabbed this particular manpower in a desperate bid. For any province, snatching He Guo Qiang would have been equivalent to snatching the investment provided by Xing Hai Technologies. It was also a political achievement, not to mention an increase in the taxes collected. No one would remain indifferent.

Hence, Su Hing City had to use all means possible to retain He Guo Qiang.

Promoting him was the only way.

Hence, as long as Xing Hai Technologies continued to do well, his eldest uncle would also continue to rise in the political scene.

His eldest uncle knew very well that his own career progression was tied to the performance of his nephew’s company. He was thankful but also felt helpless at the same time. However, more than that, he was filled with lofty aspirations and a great sense of anticipation for his future. He had decided to show his prowess and create a legacy of glory.

But he felt awkward thanking Chen Jin, who had been a great help to him, in front of an audience. Hence, he merely raised a glass to him at the banquet table and said gravely, “Little Chen, let me give you a toast.”

“Uncle, you are my senior, I should be the one toasting you.”

Chen Jin stood up and raised his glass toward his uncle. After taking a sip, they clinked their glasses together lightly. They looked at each and nodded at the same time. Everything was expressed in their silent gazes.

Suddenly, he heard a voice saying, “Little Jin, I saw on the news that Xing Hai Technologies has borrowed 50 billion from a commercial bank. Why would you even consider getting a loan from a bank? Little Jin, if your company is experiencing a lack of funds, your little aunt can lend you some money interest free. Just think of it as an investment in your company.”

Chen Jin whipped his head around.

He Jia, his little aunt, was wearing a huge smile on her face.

Moreover, she was speaking in a tone that was gentle, easy-going, and reasonable, something that he had never heard from her.

Courtesy of this kind had never been shown to him. It was so out of the norm that Chen Jin thought he might be hallucinating.

Did those words really come out of her mouth?

Even though Chen Jin did not really like her, it seemed that she was reaching out with an olive branch, hence he looked at her and said, “Little aunt, no matter if the money is used to run the business or for investment purposes, the bottom line is still very much about profits. I can accept a small interest-free loan, but not a big loan. And the accounts between relatives must be clearly defined. Are you interested in investing a small or large sum of capital?”

“Three billion. I can afford 3 billion.”

Chen Jin coughed and asked, “In cash?”

His little aunt nodded, “Yes, in cash. Financial trends for this new year have changed. I’ve liquidated a portion of the real estate under my name, and I have a considerable amount of cash now.”

A coughing fit made its way around the table among his uncles and their wives, who were looking at his little aunt with shocked expressions. His grandfather turned his face aside and shook his head, feeling somewhat ashamed.

Who would have ever thought that a woman who was thrice divorced and with a child to raise had such a huge amount of money to her name that she could take out 3 billion without even blinking!

Chen Jin took a deep breath and asked, “It’s true that Xing Hai Technologies needs capital. I was wondering, how would you like to invest in my company?”

“Well, of course, I want to be a shareholder.”

Batting her lashes, He Jia laced her fingers and said calmly, “I had someone estimate the value of Xing Hai Technologies, which is around 600 billion. So, my request is not unreasonable. Three billion in exchange for shares at a rate of 0.5% with some bonus at the end of the year is sufficient for me.”

Hearing this, a gleam of greed shined in the eyes of his second oldest uncle, He Guo Fu, who then said, “Little Jin, your uncle wants to invest in your company, too. I can take out 2 billion in exchange for some shares.”

Xing Hai Technologies was, without a doubt, the most profitable company in the country, and there was no other company in its league. It was definitely the number one company that was worth investing in.

Moreover, He Guo Fu had already experienced the success of collaboration. Until today, February 13th, the movie Wa-wah 2, which had premiered on February 1st, had already raked in 4.8 billion in box office sales. It would be a piece of cake to achieve 6 billion in domestic box office sales.

He Guo Fu, who had invested 100 million in this movie, could get an estimated 300 to 400 million in returns on his investment. At this rate, his returns were anticipated to be as high as 300%.

For her part, He Jia was motivated to get in on the game precisely because she watched how her brother had profited by investing in Xing Hai Technologies. She quickly had changed her tune toward Chen Jin and his company, which had originally been one of disagreement and skepticism, and had recently started to be more welcoming toward Chen Jin.

Her swift about-face had even stunned her daughter, He Xiao Ling. Behind closed doors, her mother had always spoken poorly of her older sister and her family, especially her cousin Chen Jin. He had always been He Jia’s go-to example of what not to do. She had frequently urged her not to learn from her cousin.

In an instant, He Xiao Ling felt that her mother had become a stranger. She silently asked, “Mom, where do you draw the line?”

In fact, though, He Xiao had also profited from her cousin’s business. Her weakest subject had always been mathematics, yet she had sworn not to use the Little Star learning machine to bring her grades up, as this was a product invented by her cousin, the slacker student. She had assumed the product was useless and a scam.

Eventually, though, she got the Little Star learning machine and had by now almost mastered its mathematics, physics, and chemistry knowledge trees, making her the top student in her class in all three subjects.

…

Listening to the entreaties by his second uncle and little aunt to invest in his company, Chen Jin sank into thought for a few moments before saying, “Uncle, aunt, let’s forget about it if it’s shares you want. Too many shareholders can be troublesome, and it would be impossible to calculate the separate bonuses. On the contrary, there could even be conflicts and hurt feelings, and that wouldn’t be beneficial for any party involved.”

“However, I still welcome investments. I can offer two investment channels.

“One, Xing Hai Technologies plans to split off its investment department and establish it as a separate company. It would be mainly engaged in stock market investment. Uncle, aunt, you can invest your money into Xing Hai Investments and allow our traders to buy stocks, funds, bonds et cetera. Your profit would be derived from these activities. There is a slight risk, but profit is a non-issue; last year our investment department brought in tens of billions in investment returns.

Two, if you are risk-averse and prefer something more stable, you could provide loans to Xing Hai Technologies in the form of commercial loans, which have a higher interest rate than bank loans. The interest is paid annually at 10% of the loan amount as a year-end bonus. For example, if little aunt lends 3 billion to me, I’ll pay back 300 million every year as interest. The risks are low, and you can withdraw your principal at any time.

“Uncle, aunt, would you consider these options?”

Having heard his two options, He Jia gave him an unfathomable look.

You scheming brat! What conflicts? Whose hurt feelings? These are all excuses! The title given to you by those in the investment circles is correct. You’re the Devourer.

I had never imagined that you would be so stingy with your own relatives!

His second eldest uncle said with a laugh, “I choose the second option. An annual interest rate of 10% is not low at all. My company funds no longer have to sit in the bank.” His opinion of his nephew had always been based on mutual loyalty, and he had known Chen Jin to never forget about his own relatives whenever there was money to be earned.

He Jia rolled her eyes at his brother. Watching him laugh so happily, she didn’t know if he was really dumb or just playing it.

But no matter her thoughts at this moment, Xing Hai Technologies belonged to Chen Jin, and she couldn’t force him to do anything. She wore a smiling expression and said, “I choose the first option. It’s better for me to invest my money. I don’t believe that Xing Hai Investments will lose anything.”

Chen Jin gave a thumbs-up. “Little aunt, that’s a very smart decision.”

His second uncle raised his glass and laughed heartily. “Little Jin, let’s have a toast to celebrate our collaboration.”

“Okay, cheers!”

The glasses of Chen Jin, He Guo Fu, and He Jia clinked together.

Their scheming intentions disappeared, and soon the table was once again surrounded in laughter and joy.

The celebration was accented by the booms and crackles of the fireworks outside.

A whole new year had begun.

Chapter 196 - The Formula for the Grand Unification

At night, in the guest room at the He’s, Chen Jin was playing with his phone while lying on the bed. In the WeChat family group “A Lovely Family,” he received some messages.

Su Tiantian: “Brother-in-law, come out and distribute red packets, give me a few more red packets!”

Mother Su’s voice message said, “You only know to ask for red packets all day every day, Little Chen, ignore her.”

Chen Jin smiled. In a mere swipe, he gave out five 200-dollar red packets.

In less than two seconds, Su Tiantian, Su Zipeng, Mother Su, and Father Su received red packets one after another.

Father Su’s voice message said, “Little Chen, you have already given out dozens of red packets since yesterday, stop sending any more of them, that girl at home is calling for a beating!”

Chen Jin: “Su Yun, the last red packet is yours, claim it quickly.”

Su Yun, who was looking at her phone, resignedly tapped on the red envelope on her screen, claiming the last red packet.

She typed: “Chen Jin, seriously, stop sending red packets, don’t listen to Tiantian fussing around.”

Su Tiantian: “Alright alright, I’ll let you go, brother-in-law.”

Mother Su’s voice message said, “Little Chen, you said that you are especially busy this year and you can’t come. Visit us next year then, make sure you come next year!”

Father Su’s voice message said, “Sigh, you kid, no matter how busy you are with your business, must you be that busy until you have to work through Lunar New Year? Is it not possible for you to empty just two days? How about we reimburse your train ticket? Sigh, all my friends and relatives around me say they want to see you, but you can’t come.”

Deep down, Father Su and Mother Su were very upset. At first, their hearts were filled with anticipation; they felt that Chen Jin could come to visit them and meet their friends and relatives over there, but… it seemed he was too busy. This was also the reason why Su Tiantian pestered him for red packets.

Chen Jin: “I’m really very sorry. The end of the year is the busiest time for business, I’m all tied up here, I hope you guys can understand.”

Su Yun: “Dad, mom, stop making Chen Jin feel guilty. Men should focus on their career. Others can come later when their career is doing good. You both are in too much of a hurry, you can’t wait to get me married right away.”

Father Su’s voice message said, “Alright alright, I won’t talk about this anymore.”

Mother Su grumbled, “You’re almost 28, how could you ask your parents to not be anxious?” After her grumbles, this topic was never brought up again.

Chen Jin messaged Su Yun in private: “Thank you for saying good things for me.”

There was no response from the other side for quite some time. After a long while, she sent back two words, “No need.” Su Yun gently shut her eyes. There was bitterness in her mouth as she shook her head.

I’m the one that is thinking too much. How is it even possible for us to be together? The contrast is just too big, just like heaven and earth. But why must you provoke me, why must you enter my family WeChat group, why must you let unrealistic fantasies grow in me? Sigh! You b*****d, I have completely no idea what you’re thinking about, and you placed me in such a difficult spot, like I can’t advance nor back out of this.”

Having thought about it… Su Yun’s heart was filled with resentment.

Perhaps it was that he could feel the woman’s resentment, but after some thought, Chen Jin replied, “Su Yun, you are a good lady. I am not the choosy kind of person and I like you quite a lot… but this year was really packed, next year, I will not disappoint uncle and auntie.”

Su Yun froze as if she was shocked by electricity.

Good lady, like me…

Her face turned red rapidly as her heartbeat accelerated. She took up her phone and sent a few words: “I’m going to sleep.” Then, she quickly went under her blanket. Sometimes giggling, sometimes swaying, she flipped around in her bed and couldn’t sleep the whole night.

…

On the 14th of February, on Planet Haierfa at the Base of Operations, artificial intelligence Alice reported exciting news in the office building. “Master, there’s a breakthrough, there’s a major breakthrough at the national laboratory! Collision tests persisted for more than three months on the particle collider and accumulated more than 1000 instances of high-value data. We have found the regular pattern for a precise collision. As of now, we are able to accumulate more than 50 instances of high-value data every day. According to this high-value data and the massive amounts of information left over by the scientists in this national laboratory, a formula of grave importance is about to be derived by Nuwa and I. This is of great significance to our future.”

“What formula?” Chen Jin questioned, looking at Alice in front of him.

“The Formula for the Grand Unification of Forces!” Artificial Intelligence Nuwa’s projection appeared at his side. She explained to Chen Jin, “In fact, after more than two hundred years of research, the formula for the Grand Unification was at the verge of success of being derived long ago by the fundamental physicists. But due to the lack of actual data support, they fall short of success at the very last step. But after the ‘lock’ vanished, we recently acquired sufficient experimental data to be used to derive the formula for the Grand Unification. As long as we accumulate more than 10,000 instances of high-value data, Alice and I are 99.9% sure that we can derive the final formula for the grand unification and unveil the ultimate mystery of the world of forces!” Nuwa was really excited about this. In order to derive the formula for the Grand Unification, her efficiency in the environmental transformation plan was halved these few months as she used most of her operating powers in deriving the formula for the Grand Unification.

Chen Jin was rather baffled. Bewildered, he asked, “Isn’t it just a formula, what’s the use of deriving it?”

“The use is very, very big!” Alice explained, “By uncovering the ultimate mystery of forces, we could unify the four basic forces of universal gravitation, electromagnetic force, weak molecular force, and strong molecular force in one formula. By then, we could do whatever we want with these basic forces. For example, inventing an anti-gravity device to generate artificial gravitational fields in spacecrafts; manufacturing anti-gravity aircrafts; creating powerful gravity bombs, and so on. We could also develop nuclear fusion reactors with higher power and higher reliability that can burn the most common hydrogen, thus achieving the ultimate version of infinite energy. Developing force shields, force fields, force weapons and many more… With the formula of the Grand Unification of Forces at hand, we could accomplish almost anything that is related to ‘force’.”

Holy!!

Upon hearing Alice’s explanation, Chen Jin opened his mouth wide open. A mere formula was actually that important! It could be said that with mastery over the ultimate formula of all things, you could do what God could do. Or in other words, you were God!

The formula of the Grand Unification of Forces must not be credited to both Alice and Nuwa alone, what they did was just complete the final step. The main derivation process must still be credited to the scientists that once worked in the national laboratory. It was humans as the ones that derived a formula that was ever so close to the truth but hit the skids due to the lack of actual data validation. After the “lock” imposed by the mysterious forces vanished, the fog dispersed. Rays of sunshine pierced through the dark clouds as a colorful rainbow came to light in the cleared sky.

The avenue of truth was swaying in front of Chen Jin. With just a light step ahead, he would be able to grasp the world of forces in his very own hands.

Sigh!

Chen Jin sighed. “Scientists that fumbled in darkness generation after generation, you can now rest in peace. Your quests are not in vain; your footsteps are not without a trace; you have taken yourselves to the final step to the light.”

Immediately, he commanded Alice and Nuwa: “Put in full effort to derive the formula for the Grand Unification and solve the equation at the fastest speed possible!”

“Yes, master!” Alice and Nuwa said at the same time.

Chapter 197 - An Invitation to the Star Charity Night

There was no doubt that the advent of the formula of the Grand Unification of Forces would induce an explosive development in the field of technology. For industries, production technology and techniques would change drastically, and production efficiencies would improve by a few or several times. In terms of energy, there would be unlimited amounts of energy. Military-wise, the development of more advanced, higher combat power D class, C class, B class, or even A class interstellar battleships would be made possible. The resources, technical reserves, and military might in Chen Jin’s hands would increase explosively. The Environmental Transformation Plan on planet Haierfa that Nuwa was in charge of would also definitely be accelerated by a certain margin.

Most importantly, Chen Jin would have what it takes to protect himself and his own benefits!

“As long I develop strong enough, whether it is mysterious aliens, remnants of the humans that might still return, or other forces, they will never get to harm my benefits or get anything from me! I’m the king in my domain! Planet Haierfa and this whole star system is mine, I’m the master of this plain!” Chen Jin’s vision was not just limited to the small planet Haierfa. The border of the universe was infinitely vast! With powers strong enough at hand, Chen Jin would still expand his area of influence.

However… this required manpower. Manpower, in abundance. Manpower that he could trust wholly and not worry about them betraying him. Without manpower, what was the meaning of him occupying more planets? Could he take care of all of them alone? Adding up with Chen Jin’s wild desires, if he were to be strong enough, he would definitely deploy a fleet towards the sea of stars, maneuvering towards the path of expansion… The total resources of the universe were constant, if he did not expand, the others would. If he did not try to annex more resources, he could be drowned by huge enemy fleets in the future. Therefore, expansion had become a defensive measure… doom awaited if he did not expand.

In conclusion, he needed manpower!

Having thought about this, Chen Jin nodded his head slowly and quietly said, “It seems that some things are… inevitable.”

…

In Pudong Area, Junting Grand Court, Villa 8, on a large double bed in a bedroom, a man and a woman spent three days in ridiculous pleasure. They tried all kinds of postures, swapped all kinds of settingsm and were in extreme felicity.

Another delightful skirmish had ended, and the woman, whose face was glowing, lay in the arms of the man while she habitually drew circles on his chest. “Honey, my mom knows about us. She had planned to bring me around to visit relatives these past few days, but she didn’t because she saw us together,” the woman said shyly. She could not forget the look her mom gave her when she told her that she would not be sleeping at home for a few days. In her mother’s eyes, there was a small bit of resignation and disappointment, but more of it was support and encouragement. She even urged her to take care of her safety and not indulge herself too deeply. Girls better be more reserved. Yuan Lin only nodded her head while blushing.

“You mean the director? Your mom is quite a nice person, she helped me a lot during my company’s early stages.” The director floated across Chen Jin’s thoughts. He did not expect that he would sleep with the director’s daughter. Therefore, he was a little embarrassed to meet the director face to face again. He did not visit her personally to express his gratitude, but instead merely gifted her a deluxe edition Bang Bang robot, which Yuan Li received on her behalf. This was considered as his gratitude towards the director that once aided him. Of course, with his current net worth and status, the director would not say anything about him even if he did not pay her a new year’s visit.

Upon hearing his words, Yuan Lin felt a buzz in her heart. She could not hold back and said, “Honey, I think that… we both suit each other quite a lot. The environment we grew up in was more or less the same. My mum and your mum are both civil servants and have good relations in private, and our families know each other quite well. I asked your mum last time and she said that as long as we both have good feelings towards each other, she’ll support us being together.” She wiggled her body on the man and asked him with the tone of a pampered child, “Honey, could it be that you don’t like me at all?”

“Of course I like you.” Chen Jin nodded his head. “But not to the extent that I’ll marry you.” Looking at the woman’s aggrieved expression and her eyes that were filled with resentment, he explained, “Marriage is too much of a sacred thing, it is a solemn vow, a contract that you couldn’t go back against… I can’t keep such a serious charter and the obligations that come along with it.” This high-sounding discourse was implementing that Chen Jin did not want to be restricted by marriage.

“So… you don’t wish to get married?” Yuan Lin asked. She understood what the man meant.

“Yes.” Chen Jin nodded. “Marriage is very troublesome. Conflict is bound to happen even between two people with the best personalities. Some research has shown that men are more rational, while woman are more emotional, men’s and women’s way of thinking is very different… so conflict is unavoidable. It requires a lengthy phase-in period for both to get used to each other. But I’m certain that you won’t be able to get used to me. Don’t be fooled by my looks, I’m actually quite a playboy, you definitely can’t tolerate this part of me.”

Playboy?

Yuan Lin gave him a weird look. “I’ve never seen you with another woman, why do you say that you’re a playboy?”

“Would I let you see me while I’m playing?” Chen Jin said calmly, “You have no idea what kind of man I am. Do you think that I only have one intimate female partner? Stop kidding. What I have in my sight is a whole field of flowers. I’ve researched on some middle east cultures. I realized that a whole lot of men over there have two wives, or even four. Some primitive tribal chiefs in Africa have one to two hundred wives and still live in bliss and harmony… it can be seen that family happiness is defined by economic foundation, not the number of wives.” Upon seeing the woman who was biting her lip with eyes filled with shock, he continued, “I know that you won’t like to listen to all this, and you couldn’t accept it either. But I’m as weird as I am. For me, one woman will definitely not be enough. Besides, I’m a believer that more sons mean more blessings, one or two will not be enough, I want at least 10! Can you take on such a difficult task?”

Yuan Lin’s brain was buzzing. The man’s remarks were even weirder than his first “Mommy’s boy” talk… it was completely the traditional idea that existed one or two centuries ago. She could not accept this. She had the urge to flee the place immediately! But for unknown reasons, she did not scram. On the contrary, she said while grinding her teeth, “10? I could make them.” She screamed in her heart, All out!

“Sure, but I will not give you a title for the time being. You’ll first need to make a few and prove your worth.” His tone sounded like a scumbag who felt quite justified in his words.

Yuan Lin remained silent. She crawled down from the man’s body, snuggled into the blanket, and went to sleep with her back facing the man.

…

Early the next morning, Yuan Lin said she wanted to leave, so Chen Jin let his guard robot to drive her home. He did not forget to remind her before the car started, “Yuan Li, do think about it when you go back, I’m dead serious about this, I hope you can understand.”

Yuan Lin remained silent.

Looking at the rear of the car that was getting farther and farther away, Chen Jin shrugged his shoulders. A scum he would be, then. Being open and honest was still better than pretending and being hypocritical. As for whether Yuan Lin could accept it or not and whether she would comply, he dared not confirm and was not sure about it either. It would be great if she could accept it. If she couldn’t, he merely lost a friend with benefits. It was not worth it for him to be worried about it.

At that moment, the phone in his pocket rang. Someone was calling. He took out his phone and checked the caller ID. The caller was Shi Xiao Tao. “Mr. Chen, I’ve already departed. I’ll reach Shang Hai in around two hours. Let’s meet first and go to the Peeza Star Charity Night together.”

It turned out to be the top charity event in the Z nation. The 19th Peeza Star Charity Night would be held that night in a theater in Shang Hai. By then, all the celebrities and moguls across the whole nation would be assembled to give out donations and express their kind hearts.

Chen Jin was no man from the entertainment industry, and moreover, a celebrity. By all means, he should not have any affiliation with this charity night. But as the “Wa-wah robot” movie was a production supported by Xing Hai Technologies, he had somewhat made some connections with the entertainment industry and was thus listed among the invited. Besides, being an important guest for the charity night, Shi Xiao Tao who was almost becoming a “Two Billion Dollar Director” needed a male partner. So, she invited Chen Jin.

“Sure, I’ll wait for you at my villa.” Chen Jin nodded his head. After he hung up the call, he sent an address to Shi Xiao Tao

Chapter 198 - The Reason for Invitation

The entertainment industry was a vanity fair. The original intention of the Peeza Star Charity Night was for charity, for example to help poor students in poverty-stricken provinces to get to school; to improve the lives of helpless orphans; to provide medical treatments for the sick and poor children; to purchase ambulances to improve medical conditions in underdeveloped areas; and much more. The Peeza Star Charity Night, held 18 years in a row, had amassed billions of dollars of donations and had definitely helped many people.

However, charity events such as this carried the word “Star.” Many A, B or C-list celebrities would partake in this event. It would thus attract the attention of countless netizens and the fandoms of those celebrities, bringing forth huge flow rates of attention. The attention this event had was extremely high. This was, of course, a good thing. After all, those celebrities were gathered for charity. They would act as exemplary models for their fans. Their fans would emulate their virtue, learn to give out their love and make small contributions to charity themselves. In the end, this world would eventually become a beautiful world full of love.

But as good as original intentions were, things often ended up the other way around!

There was a netizen that pointed out three major faults of the Peeza Charity Night. The first one was disorder. As a massive gathering for celebrities and socialites, the Peeza Charity Night gave others the vibes of ennoblement. It might be because of the excessive amounts of celebrities attending the event, the lack of proper flow arrangement and even an essential plan itself that rendered the site in chaos. Whether it was the celebrity or the organizer, they all wished to properly represent themselves via the charity night, but who would have known that the event would become an antic in the eyes of the audiences. There were so many super celebs and each and every one of them were stars themselves. They all had their designated place and rankings within the entertainment field. Logically speaking, the organizer should have roughly arranged where all of them should be positioned prior to the event. But during photography sessions later, all kinds of mess occurred on their positioning, and so, negative news such as scheming, celebrities stealing the spotlight, and many others emerged.

The second one was exploitation. In the Peeza Charity Night, every year, there would be some celebs that went to the event but held their pockets so tight that they could not even take out a single cent. There were netizens that analyzed the situation and discovered that those celebrities partook in the charity night just to step on the red carpet and to show their faces in front of the media. Those kind of people were thus labeled as the exploiters. Honestly speaking, the public had not much of an opinion towards celebrities donating for charity. Whether they donated or not, they could not instill their so-called morality on others. However, the awkward thing was that participating in the charity night itself was meant for people to do charity work, but there were some celebrities that still refused to seize the opportunity in such an event to donate to charity and earn some kudos for themselves; they just happily faced the camera but fussily held on to their money pouches, and that really showed that they were very low.

The third would be the so-called center position. During the photography session after the celebrities that came to the event finished donating, there were some principles that should be followed on where each of them should be positioned, especially the most important center position. Usually, the ones that should be standing there would be the celebs with the highest popularity. The problem was that there was a rod scale in everyone’s heart about who was the most popular. The organizers had their own way of arranging them, whereas for the fandom of a certain celebrity, their idol would be the one who was the most popular for them and he or she should be standing in the center position. Even if the celebrities themselves did not go for the position, their fans would. Therefore, they would rebuke the organizer or other celebrities that took the spot, and in the end kindle a catfight on the internet.

For female celebs, whoever they stood with, talked with, gazed at, looked upon with disdain, lifted their brows at, or smirked at, any of these would be sought as a big play in the eyes of the media. For most of the time, the media would create headcanons by adding on dramas and attempting to interpret what were they thinking on the inside. And so, news and gossip was born and the fandom of those celebrities would go ham on each other again.

A good old charity night thus became a place for the celebs to fight for fame and fortune. The event was transformed into a large competition, thus completely altering its nature. One could catch sight of “the helter-skelter of the entertainment industry.”

Logically speaking, it was totally unnecessary for Chen Jin to attend such a charity night. It had no meaning at all, and he would only find repugnance. Although he would be able to see many celebrities that appeared on television, he was so big of a person and had such high net worth, people would mock him if he was still fanboying over someone! The celebs should be the ones becoming his fandom… Chen Jin did realize that a few female celebs in the A-list followed his personal Weibo account. Moreover, they frequently forwarded his posts and tried to engage with him, but Chen Jin ignored them all.

Now, however, he accepted the organizer’s invitation to participate in the 19th Peeza Star Charity Night. But why? Why did he nod his head and agree to do so? Because in the Peeza Charity Night that would be held, the two products that the organizers prepared to donate were all Xing Hai Technologies’ products.

The first one was a “full medical version” Bang Bang robot. The family mode was scrapped, and its medical capabilities were enhanced. The robot’s thoracic area became an electronic microscope with magnification levels of x5000 and its functions were even better than that of the deluxe edition of the robot. It was priced at $69,999 dollars per unit. The donations collected by the organizers would be used to purchase the “full medical version” Bang Bang robot which would be used to improve the medical level in poor areas.

The second one was the “Little Star learning machine.” The donations made by the celebrities could also be used to purchase the Little Star leaning machine priced at $8,800 dollars per unit, which would be donated to schools in poverty areas. The school can then “loan” the machine to teachers or students to improve local teaching standards and ensure fair education. Not only was the Little Star learning machine able to improve the student’s academic results, but it could also increase the teaching standards of teachers. Apparently, within the Z nation, the proportion of teachers who owned the Little Star learning machine had reached more than 90%, far exceeding that of students. For students without a learning machine, many schools had commenced providing ‘rental’ services, renting the learning machine for free to students from families with poor conditions. They would have to pay compensation for any loss and damage of the machine and return it upon graduation. If the renters learning improvements were not obvious, they would lose their eligibility for rental.

Therefore, this served as a good advertisement and a good chance to establish Xing Hai Technologies’ bright and positive image. Besides, all the products that the organizer planned to donate were products from Xing Hai Technologies. If Xing Hai Technologies did not even send a representative over, and indicate that they were willing to participate in charity and show their willingness to assume social responsibility, they might be heavily criticized.

Xing Hai Technologies was making too much profit, and yet, people never heard of the company donating money or products, nor involving themselves in any charity. Putting moral coercion aside, some busybodies that were green with envy would definitely criticize them behind their backs. Therefore, after some discussion, Chen Jin decided to participate in the Peeza Charity Night. He was already prepared to let his wallet bleed a little. He sighed. “Organizers, I can feel what you’re thinking, thank you for favoring Xing Hai Technologies.”

In fact, the organizers were also somewhat forced to do so. Because of various reasons from several aspects, the influence of the Peeza Charity Night was diminishing over the past few years. There were not many celebrities participating in the event, and there were fewer and fewer bigshots coming over. If they did not try to remedy the situation, the event could really end up like what some netizens said on the internet: The Peeza Charity Night was about to close down.

Therefore, the organizers squeezed their brain and came out with a coup. They invited Mr. Chen, chairman of Xing Hai Technologies, and the local top cream, “Two Billion Dollar Director” Shi Xiao Tao. With these two big figures partaking in the event, it was impossible not to cause a sensation within the entertainment field. As expected, when the organizers announced that the chairman of Xing Hai Technologies, Mr. Chen, and “Two Billion Dollar director” Shi Xiao Tao would be coming to the Peeza Charity Night, they received innumerable participation requests from famous celebrities within a mere one to two days’ time. The enthusiasm was overwhelming. It was even possible to create a grand assembly of bigshots that had never been seen before.

“Mr. Chen is our savior!”

“The Peeza Charity Night is resurrected!”

The organizing team embraced each other and cried out of happiness. The person in charge, Li Fangyu was feeling incredibly relieved. The Peeza Charity Night that had been running for 18 years would not be ruined in his hands.

…

At six in the evening, at Junting Grand Court, Chen Jin pulled up in his Bentley Versailles 65. “Let’s go Xiao Tao,” he said. He got out of the car. He was wearing a dark blue tuxedo, and he fixed his bowtie as he spoke.

“Okay.” Shi Xiao Tao was wearing a red wine-colored evening dress. She leisurely walked over to Chen Jin while lifting her dress’ train. She held his arm and struck two poses. After affirming that there were no big problems with her gown, they got into the car and went straight to the venue of the charity night.

Chapter 199 - A Watch

The grand opening of the 19th Peeza Star Charity Night began at eight o’clock, at Shang Hai Grand Theater. Tremendous changes had been made in the rules of this year’s Peeza Star Charity Night. There would not be celebrities on red carpets and photography sessions. It was all reverted to its roots, charity. The event only focused on providing medical and educational aid to poverty areas, and was thus highly commended by the netizens.

200 tables were placed in the big hall that could accommodate 2,000 people. All the tables were filled. All of the guests were rigged out in their best outfits for the event.

“This year, we are honored to have Xing Hai Technologies’ founder Mr. Chen Jin and our well-known local movie director, Ms. Shi Xiao Tao, with us… welcome, both of you,” said the host from Jiangzhe Television, Hua Shao.

The sound of applause rose.

Chen Jin and Shi Xiao Tao, who was holding his arm, walked out from backstage. In an instant, all eyes were focused on them. Looking down from the stage, Chen Jin identified many familiar faces. They were all familiar faces that one could often see on television programs. There were A and B-list celebrities, pop singers, variety show hosts, and all kinds of bigshots. It was certain that lineups for hundreds of television series and thousands of movies could be assembled considering each of them present at the event.

“Mr. Chen, you are a renowned entrepreneur. Your company has developed many world-changing products. May I have the privilege of asking you why you are willing to set aside your busy schedule and attend tonight’s charity event?” Hua Shao questioned.

“This main reason I’m here is to help the sick and the children in impoverished areas. Xing Hai Technologies is an enterprise that possesses a high degree of social responsibility. Every product we make is meant to serve all of our people and bring about health and happiness to every family. But due to various reasons, there are many families in poverty-stricken areas that did not get to enjoy the convenience brought upon by technology, and are not financially capable of purchasing Xing Hai’s products.” Chen Jin shook his head and said according to the script he was given, “This is very regrettable and sad. We must not be indifferent towards the situation we are now facing. Although I myself do not have the ability to eradicate poverty, I could still give out some contributions and bring about light and hope to as many families as possible. Just as fish stranded on the beach, when the others question me whether they could be saved, I’ll be picking up the fish while I tell them, ‘I saved this fish, I saved that fish as well’. In the end, I’ll get to save a lot of fish. If there were more imbeciles like me on the beach, perhaps all of the fish could be saved, by us.”

The crowd burst into thunderous applause.

“Very well said!”

“This makes a lot of sense!”

“Mr. Chen has such a kind soul.” Many female celebrities had tears glittering in their eyes as they wiped them off with handkerchiefs.

Hua Shao applauded and nodded his head as he said, “When it comes to charity, we must have the spirit of an imbecile. We must learn from Mr. Chen. Tonight, we will all be imbeciles picking up fish by the beach!” He faced Shi Xiao Tao and said, “Director Shi, I had a look at Wa-wah 2’s local box office just now, it was already at 6.1 billion. It might very well tie the records that Wa-wah 1 set last year. Box office overseas had also accumulated as much as 2.8 billion dollars. Therefore, it is certain that your second movie will not have any problem breaking the 10-billion-dollar mark… with two consecutive movies exceeding 10 billion dollars, everyone here is curious, how do you feel about this?”

Shi Xiao Tao smiled as she said, “I do not have any feelings in particular. Thank you, everyone, for your love and support for my productions. Xiao Tao will work harder and strive to produce more excellent works as gratitude for your support.” Upon finishing, she bowed.

The audience offstage applauded.

After another two questions, Hua Shao steered his hands towards an empty table off the stage and said, “Alright, both of our VIPs tonight, please take a seat!”

The 19th Peeza Star Charity Night, officially begun!

…

At VIP table number one, after Chen Jin and Shi Xiao Tao had taken their seat, they slightly scanned through their surroundings. They discovered that at this table that had 10 seats, aside from the two reserved seats, all the other eight seats were occupied. They were all A-list celebrities within the Z nation. For example, Da Mimi who had tens of millions of fans, Fairy Sister who was 33 but was still single, and celebs that Chen Jin was fond of like Deng Chao, Sun Li, and her husband. There were also old faces in variety shows like Guo Jizhang, Li Bing Bing, and two other young female celebrities who were new to the entertainment field that Chen Jin did not know very well. Besides, Chen Jin thought that the atmosphere at this table was a little strange. He could distinctly feel the cold and hostile glares from his surroundings.

Chen Jin turned his head and noticed many faces fuming with rage between their gritted teeth. But once those people noticed that Chen Jin was looking around, they immediately swapped into a bright smile and threw winks at him. Only then did Chen Jin realize that those hostile glares were not aimed at him, but instead they were aimed at the other eight people at the same table with him.

Shi Xiao Tao whispered to him, “This table is the center table, all those female celebs wanted a spot over here, especially the ones beside you; but their opportunity was snatched, so of course they will feel discontent.”

Center table?

Chen Jin’s eyes widened. Now there was no ‘center position’, it became a ‘center table’ instead, so the catfight among female celebs would still… persist? Chen Jin’s vision swiped through the eight people at his table once again. All he could think of was one word: F**k! He shook his head. He told the young female celebrity which he did not know at all who was sitting on his left, “Hello little missy, do you mind swapping places with Brother Chao over there? I’d like to talk to him.” Chen Jin looked at Deng Chao, who was sitting opposite him, and furthest away from him.

“Ah!” At first, the young female celebrity was very excited; prince charming took the initiative to strike up a conversation with her! But after listening to his words, she pouted and shown a grim and helpless expression. She reluctantly moved her butt and swapped places with Deng Chao.

“Nice to meet you, Brother Chao, I grew up watching your shows.”

“Really? Thank you, thank you. I’m old now, now is the time for young people like you. Is it possible for you, Mr. Chen, to give me your autograph? I want to give it to my son, he adores you the most.”

“Brother Chao, your son adores me?” Chen Jin was struck by an incredible feeling, “Alright, I’ll give you one later. Give me one of yours too Brother Chao.”

The two chatted intimately.

…

After several charity promotional sessions ended on the stage, the charity night entered its donation session. There were many celebrities partaking in this year’s charity night, and many donors. The amount of donations ranged from at least 200 thousand dollars all the way to some millions of dollars.

The table that Chen Jin was at was the table with the highest amount of donations. None of them donated less than five million. Da Mimi, Fairy Sister, Guo Jizhang, and Li Bing Bing all donated five million. Deng Chao, Sun Li, and her husband donated a total of eight million. The two young female celebrities donated eight million dollars respectively, which shocked Chen Jin. Shi Xiao Tao donated 10 million dollars, which was the second highest amount in this charity night. She won herself a round of applause.

Chen Jin with no doubt was the highest donor. He donated 50 million dollars! His amount of donation was ranked in first place! Of course, for him, this amount of money was merely a drizzle. Originally, his intention was to donate 100 million dollars so that people would not accuse him of being stingy. But the organizers stopped him. There were rules to even a donation; if you donated too much this time around, there wouldn’t be another Peeza Charity Night, because no one would come. Therefore, he slimmed it down by a little.

In the end, the total amount of donations was 368 million dollars, breaking the donation records of the Peeza Charity Night. But the charity night had yet to end. Aside from direct donations, the organizer prepared an auction with items that were donated by some celebrities. The money obtained also belonged to the funds to help impoverished areas.

Chen Jin was not very interested in the auction, but Shi Xiao Tao had her eyes on a few items, and so she dragged him to stay around for a while longer. Therefore, sitting amidst the auction venue, Chen Jin was bored stiff, so he began playing with his phone. While he had his head tucked into his phone, he heard two voices nearby. There was a coquettish voice of a woman that said, “Darling, your watch is so pretty, take it off and let me have a look.”

“Nah, my watch is very expensive, I spent over five million dollars on it. But even if you gave me 10 million now, I still wouldn’t sell it.”

“But why? Why can’t I just touch it?”

“My watch has never been off by even a second; if you touch it, it won’t be accurate anymore.”

“Awwww, just a smalllll touch…” the woman pestered him out of discontent.

Chen Jin’s pupils shriveled. He lifted his head and looked towards where the voices were coming from. On a bench, not more than two meters away from him, was a man and a woman. The man was young and handsome, and the woman seemed like a B-list celebrity. On the young man’s left wrist was a watch. A watch with a dial fully studded with fragmented diamonds and a natural sapphire as big as a pigeon egg. It was profoundly elegant, delicate, and beauteous. Chen Jin’s eyes lit up! He stood up and walked straight towards the young man.

Chapter 200 - Little Brother Ze

“Hello, good sir.” Chen Jin walked in front of him and greeted him. He looked at the empty space beside him, “Can I sit here?”

The young man lifted his head to have a look. In an instant, his pupils dilated. “Are you Mr. Chen, chairman of Xing Hai Technologies?” He recognized Chen Jin in one glance, or it could be said that it was impossible for him to not recognize Chen Jin. The founder of Xing Hai Technologies, the company with the biggest potential in Z; with an apparent net worth of over 600 billion dollars; the man who was soon to be the richest man in Z, no one could have ignored his presence and act indifferent upon him. Even in tonight’s Peeza Charity Night, for the vast majority of the bigwigs that came, making donations was second on their priority list; they mainly came to meet Chen Jin, including this young man. He promptly said enthusiastically, “Sure sure, have a seat, Mr. Chen.” He shifted his rear and almost squeezed the female celebrity who was half laying in his arms to the floor. But the female celebrity was not pissed off. On the contrary, she smiled ever so merrily as she zealously unleashed her charm through her eyes.

And so, Chen Jin sat down beside him. He introduced himself properly and said, “I’m Chen Jin, the boss of a small company, what’s your name?”

“My surname is Wang, Wang Zeyu. Uhm, I’m unemployed, it’s just that my family has some cash, so that makes me a ‘rich second generation’ as they say.” Wang Zeyu smiled bitterly. “You really cool bro, you managed to get your company into the local top hundred in just some two years’ time! My dad, on the other hand, took more than 20 years. My dad kept on comparing you with me recently. He said that we are of the same age and yet you are so impressive while I do nothing and only play with girls. I’m almost scolded to death.” Comparisons were indeed odious.

“Same age? Brother Wang, what month were you born in?”

“Yeah I’m 26 as well, born in September.”

“I’m born in July, that makes me two months older than you.”

“That makes you my elder brother, can I call you Big Brother Chen?”

“Sure, I’ll stick with Brother Wang for you.”

“No no no, I dare not, call me Little Brother Ze, you are my Big Brother Chen, while I’m your Little Brother Ze… that’s better,” Wang Zeyu said.

“Alright, Little Brother Ze!”

Swiftly, they established a fraternal relationship through their chatters. In their subsequent conversations, Chen Jin realized that this guy by the name of Wang Zeyu, despite being a playboy and having no real job, his IQ was definitely not low! Although he did not know how to compliment and please the others, he could still dash out some beautiful words that would make people feel very comfortable. Chen Jin felt that they had really hit it off.

As for the specific identity of Wang Zeyu and about who was his father, after inquiring, Chen Jin became aware that he was the prince of the Wang Family from Shang Hai. His father, Wang Hai Chuan, founded Longjiang Real Estate, the biggest real estate company in Shang Hai. The Wang’s have houses, malls, and shops all over Shang Hai, and their family assets were over 100 billion dollars combined. They were absolutely considered a super-rich and powerful family. And therefore, Wang Zeyu, who liked to flirt and loiter around in the entertainment circle, was branded as one of the “Four Princes of Shang Hai City.”

Countless young female celebrities had an affair with him. As a veteran playboy within the entertainment circle, Wang Zeyu chuckled at Chen Jin and said, “Big Brother Chen, are you interested in any female celebs in the field? With what you have, as long as the drive hits you, simply give a greeting and you’ll get to f**k any celebs on the A-list. If you don’t believe me, give me a name, I’ll send her to your bed tonight.” His tongue swiped over his lips. Then, he shook his head and said, “Too bad my family isn’t rich enough, some of the A-listers actually ignored me. I could only play with those B’s and C’s. Sigh, if I were to have the ability to start my own business and make a small company just like your Xing Hai Technologies, Big Brother Chen, I would’ve racked up my grand slam.

Chen Jin’s eyes widened. He was stunned for a brief moment, then asked, “Little Brother Ze, are you not afraid of death? You dare lay your hands on the women in the entertainment circle?”

“What is there to be afraid of?” Wang Zeyu imparted his experience, “In the entertainment field, there are those who just debuted and those who have long been famous. Don’t touch the old birds, pick from those fresh newcomers, most of them are still clean. You might even find some newborn chicks.” He dragged the female celeb beside him into his embrace, “Big Brother Chen, this is Li Zizi, she starred in two TV series and three movies, and two of them are super popular. She has now secured her place in the B-list and I am the one who made her what she is today.” He came closer to Chen Jin’s ears and whispered, “She was a newborn chick when she just debuted, I deflowered her. If you like her Big Brother Chen, I can give her to you, hehehe…” His smile became more and more creepy.

Perhaps she overheard him, but Li Zizi suddenly had tears rolling down her cheeks as she said, “Brother Ze, don’t you love me anymore? The person I love will always be you and you alone.” She gently punched her fluffy fists on Wang Zeyu’s chest. The corner of her eyes, however, were set on Chen Jin.

“Newborn… chick?” Chen Jin glanced at Li Zizi and then shifted his eyes to Wang Zeyu’s smiling face. He shook his head and said, “Little Brother Ze, although we just met, I would still like to tell you: take care of your own safety.”

“I know, I know.” Wang Zeyu understood what Chen Jin meant, he knew that Chen Jin was not interested in the female celebs in the entertainment circle. However, he couldn’t help himself and so he nagged, “Big Brother Chen, you’re just unaware of how good it felt, especially when you are watching the movie she starred in and pounding her at the same time. Mmmn, that feeling…”

He had a flush over his face, as if he had taken Viagra.

Looking at his intoxicated expression, Chen Jin just shook his head. Both of them proceeded with a few more topics and their bonds further deepened. After some time, it was almost the end of the auction. Shi Xiao Tao had gotten the few items she desired, and so she came over and called upon him to leave.

“Eh, Little Brother Ze, your watch is quite pretty. I was looking for dishy watches recently, why not name your price and sell me your watch?” Chen Jin said, casually pointing at his wrist.

“Uhm…” Wang Zeyu had a conflicted expression on his face. “Big Brother Chen, I bought it at an auction at five million dollars. Of course, I’ll be fine giving it to you if you really like it, but I’m already so used to this watch and I couldn’t bear to part with it. Why don’t I buy you another watch at another time, it will count as our meeting gift.”

“There’s no need for you to go to this expense Little Brother Ze, I’m just simply asking, don’t take it for real.” Chen Jin took out the phone in his pocket and said “Let’s add each other on WeChat; getting to know you, brother, is my greatest reward today.”

Wang Zeyu was elated. “Coming from you, Mr. Chen? Sure, sure, it is also my greatest reward today getting to know you, Big Brother Chen!” Betwixt the jealous eyes of the female celebrity, Li Zizi, who was sitting beside them, the two added each other on WeChat and promised to party, play, and keep in touch with each other.

And so, the Peeza Star Charity Night drew to a successful close.

…

At Junting Grand Court, Villa 8, around two o’clock in the morning, inside his bedroom, Chen Jin was not yet asleep. He was standing in front of a holographic projector, looking at the holograph projected in the air. The image was of another luxurious villa, some 20 kilometers away from Junting Grand Court… the micro monitors that he had deployed just now had already seeped into every corner of the villa. Especially in one of the rooms in the villa, there were more than a hundred micro monitors the size of a grain densely distributed over the room. Not only could they send over pictures, but they could also do a sound recording as well. At that moment, Chen Jin saw an image not suitable for children.

“Ah, so great! So great!”

“You’re so great darling! You’re so great! I love you!”

“Ah, I’m dying, ah!”

At such a deep night, looking at Wang Zeyu in the projection who was still extensively plowing off the field, Chen Jin shook his head and sighed.

Chapter 201 - Making a Sci-Fi Movie

More than two years had passed.

The last atomic watch that had been lost and wandering out in the world had been found.

It was currently the timepiece worn by Wang Zeyu, a young master from a rich and powerful family. He had now become Chen Jin’s “Brother Ze.”

With this watch, Wang Zeyu was also monitored 24 hours a day. Chen Jin would not act rationally if Wang Zeyu ever realized that there was something suspicious about it. He simply wanted to continue monitoring Wang Zeyu.

If Wang Zeyu noticed that there was something out of the ordinary about it and made a shocking discovery, Chen Jin would have no choice but to take action. He would send the robots to steal it. In any case, he had to get the watch back.

After all, that was a high-tech product that was ahead of Earth’s technology by at least 20 years!

Hence, it was said that to compensate for a wrong move made at the beginning, a certain amount of energy and cost would have to be incurred to eliminate a hidden pitfall.

Was this too silly?

Ah!

Actually, Chen Jin had not realized this either, that such great significance was hidden in an ordinary mechanical watch.

In addition, he needed funds for his business. Opening a jewelry shop required some tens of millions, and starting a company required even more. How would he acquire those funds? And at such a rapid speed?

He could not think of a better way than to start reselling jewelry at a profit.

Now that the last hidden threat had been discovered and was placed under monitoring, Chen Jin could finally put his worries to rest.

Moreover, with Brother Ze’s brainless behavior, which was led by his d*ck, it would be surprising if he ever realized that something was off about that atomic watch on his wrist, thus he was not too worried.

Of course, disaster could strike even with the best preparations. To ensure that things did not get out of hand, he had to get that atomic watch back as soon as possible. He must thoroughly eliminate the hidden threat.

A certain technique and patience were needed for this. He could not be too impatient. The more impulsively he might act, the greater his lack of finesse. The target might even notice some kind of problem; he couldn’t just treat anyone like an idiot.

Chen Jin muttered, “I’m aiming for that watch. Brother Ze, I’m going to become your best friend.”

…

The next day.

After a sumptuous breakfast.

In the east wing, Chen Jin and Shi Xiaotao sat in a living room with floor-to-ceiling glass walls. They were having an in-depth discussion about Shi Xiaotao not having returned to Hanghu City immediately; instead, she had slept in one of the villa’s guestrooms.

A cup of coffee sat in front of Chen Jin. He crossed his legs and asked, “Xiaotao, what genre will your next movie be? Do you have any plans?”

“Not yet.”

Shi Xiaotao shook her head. “My brain is blank after completing the production of Wa-wah 2. I don’t want to do anything. I just want to have a good rest and go on a vacation with my parents.”

The production process of Wa-wah 2 had been grueling. She had become physically and emotionally exhausted. Besides her parents, nobody else knew the price that she had paid, including sleeping only four or five hours a night for several months in a row.

She didn’t want to tell others of her harrowing experience, though, as she was “the director with two 10-billion-dollar movies,” making her the youngest and most successful director in the country. She was now highly respected and considered the best in her industry.

Even when her difficulties seemed intolerable, she would never articulate them. Too many people were worse off than her.

Chen Jin nodded. “You really do need a good rest. Take half a year off to recuperate.”

“It’s impossible to take six months off. I have a few hundred employees at the studio waiting for me to give them work. If I took off for six months, they’d all find other work. At most, I can take three months off to rest, and I’ll have to start working again after that.”

“What about your next work? What do you have in mind? Do you want to continue making animation—you’re certainly good at it—or do you want to branch out into other genres?”

“Um…” After some thought, Shi Xiaotao said, “President Chen, if I continue to produce animation, can I be the director and producer for Wa-wah 3? I’m so familiar with this series now.”

She asked for the production rights for the movie in a straightforward manner. The Wa-wah IP had unimaginable value. At least another tens of billions in box office sales were waiting to be earned. Of course, she definitely wanted to possess the IP rights; she would never give up on trying to get them just because she was tired. Tons of other directors were fighting to get their hands on this IP, as well. She would have to be an idiot to say that she wasn’t working anymore.

She had been considering experimenting with a different genre for her next movie just to do something challenging. She wanted to avoid being restricted by the storyline of a particular series and end up stereotyped by others. Such labels were almost impossible to get rid of, and she never wanted anyone to think that she doesn’t have the ability to tackle other movie types. That would drastically narrow her career as a director and be a terrible career end.

Shi Xiaotao had a variety of stories that she wanted to produce, and she couldn’t only specialize in animation.

Chen Jin said, “I can give you the production rights to Wa-wah 3, but can you come up with a better storyline?”

“That would be difficult.” Shi Xiaotao shook her head.

“It gets harder to produce a movie toward the end of a series; it’s more challenging to create conflicts to drive the progression of the story, but the Wa-wah series is an exception. We can continue to add new characters into the story. For example, if Xing Hai Technologies were to produce a new robot again, we could add it into the movie as a new character. The movie helps to publicize the product and, in return, the product, as a new character, can help to produce more stories. The audience will eagerly anticipate the product features and the narrative.”

She looked at Chen Jin and asked, “President Chen, is your company developing a new robot because, if that’s happening, I can start the production of Wa-wah 3.”

A new character would mean new conflicts and, above all, a sense of novelty to an ongoing series. With Wa-wah 2 as a success, audiences would be sufficiently interested in buying tickets to Wa-wah 3, even if its plot was somewhat cliche. The film-making circles had dubbed this model of success “the Wa-wah Model.”

“No.” Chen Jin spread his hands. “In regard to the household robots, Xing Hai Technologies will stop at the Bang Bang robot for now. Currently, there’s only Wa-wah and Bang Bang. The consumers will not be able to afford any more new household robots. My company will only continue to upgrade and perfect these two products.”

The focus of his new product development had turned toward industrial robots, and audiences weren’t too interested in those, hence it was impossible to add them as new characters in Wa-wah 3.

Shi Xiaotao would have to continue mining for hidden gems and finding new inspiration on the foundations of Wa-wah 2.

“Then, I will have to come up with an excellent script. It will take a long time for me to polish the story. President Chen, I need at least two years to finish the production for Wa-wah 3.”

“Take your time. Just give me the script to look over when the time comes.”

Chen Jin still wanted to address the limitations that Shi Xiaotao was facing in her career. “Xiaotao, I wonder if you would like to produce movies of other genres? Your talents will bottleneck if you keep on producing the Wa-wah series. You can’t limit yourself to that for your entire life—you should experiment with more genres.”

Shi Xiaotao nodded in gratitude. “President Chen, you understand me too well. I do want to produce movies of other genres. I still have a long road ahead as a director.”

“Xiaotao, I can’t provide much assistance for other genres of movies but, if it’s a sci-fi movie, I can provide technical support. For example, professional rendering engines for special effects, overall optimization in post-production, et cetera. I can help with all of these. For urban and comedy movies, you’re on your own.”

“Really, President Chen?”

Shi Xiaotao was overjoyed. “President Chen, actually I do really want to make a sci-fi movie. It’s great that you’re willing to help!”

Any technical assistance provided by Xing Hai Technologies would be very impressive, and with that offer she decided to make a sci-fi movie for her next production.

With this, they agreed on their collaboration.

Shi Xiaotao left Shang Hai on a happy note, but a twist soon developed.

A paparazzo had sneakily photographed her leaving Junting Grand Court with a flushed face.

That same day, the scandalous news hit. “Two-Time Billion-Dollar Director Stayed Overnight at a Company President’s Villa” broke out on all the online entertainment news sites. It topped the search engines and led to countless rumors and speculation.

In an instant, Shi Xiaotao was swallowed into the vortex of public opinion, and her reputation was heavily damaged. She posted an explanation. “I was only having a serious discussion with President Chen on further collaboration in filmmaking.” But her comment backfired, and the netizens’ shared even wilder stories and countless scenarios. Shi Xiaotao was so angry that she cried.

Chen Jin’s response toward this matter was straightforward and simple. “This has been reposted far more than 500 times. The police have been informed.”

That particular paparazzo was sitting in jail a few days later, but the malicious conjectures had damaged reputations that would never be fully repaired.

…

In a pink bedroom.

After refreshing the Weibo page on her mobile.

Although they separated less than two days ago, the woman on the bed still could not help but to closely follow the news on the person that she cared the most about.

Despite their breakup, her expression became uglier as her mood worsened.

“Chen Jin, you bastard!”

Yuan Lin threw her mobile against the wall. Grabbing a pillow, she began to sob.

Chapter 202 - Our Memory Chip Factory is on Fire Again

The 27th of February, 20X1, after the lantern festival, heralded a new school year. The primary schools, junior high schools, and senior high schools opened for the new school year in succession. Some had even conducted supplementary lessons over the break.

There were people who described the opening of a new school year as the opening scene of a great disaster. Students were about to be thrown into the boring routine of studying after relaxing for the entire winter break. Changing from one routine to another was extremely painful. It was indeed a disaster for students who did not like to learn.

However, the situation this year was a little special. For students with an intelligent learning machine, the new school year was not a disaster or a prison. Studying was no longer the painful process that it had been. On the contrary, it was rather easy and interesting. The process could even be said to be delightful. The so-called “happy learning” had been transformed into a reality. Moreover, this mode of learning did not present itself as an obstacle for students’ mastery of knowledge.

Naturally, the students and parents who did not manage to buy an intelligent learning machine felt extremely anxious and impatient. A mass of opinions could be heard on the official Weibo account of Xing Hai Technologies and Chen Jin’s own personal Weibo account. As a whole, they were urging for more stock. “Why is my child’s learning machine not produced yet?” There were also those who expressed themselves with harsh words and threats, like, “I’ll bomb Xing Hai Technologies!”

Parents who had been watching Z country started to feel restless. It seemed that the situation in Z country was about to become explosive. Some of the overseas powers, who were shrouded in secrecy, took out their metaphorical stools, potato chips, soda, and other snacks as they got ready to watch an exciting drama.

However, they were disappointed. After a mere few days, the tumultuous storm on the Xing Hai Technologies official Weibo account had passed. The irritable voices and overly agitated rhetoric had been reduced. The parents of Z country seemed to have been appeased by a mysterious force.

…

In Gorea, in a particular meeting room, confusion fell.

“What happened? Why did the parents of Z country stop kicking up a fuss? Don’t they know that if they don’t get a learning machine now, they won’t be able to buy one even after a year?”

On a screen, a foreigner from a remote location said, “This is too strange. Z country’s college entrance examination will begin in July. But a significant portion of the senior high schoolers do not have a learning machine. They won’t be able to buy one even after the exam has ended! Their children are about to lose to other students that have a learning machine. This is not fair! They should resist!”

“Yes, this is indeed unfair. If this happened in Merica, the parents would definitely be marching on the streets in protest. But it is bewildering that the parents of Z country did not protest.”

“I understand now!” The president of Samsin company, Li Jianrong, who had been sunk into deep thought, suddenly yelled, “We’ve underestimated Z country; we’ve neglected the government involvement in Z country. It must be their government who has suppressed this issue! Z country is the best at covering up terrible incidents. It was said that their Wuchuan Province was hit with a flood and thousands drowned, but only a few fatalities were mentioned in the official reports. A mining disaster happened in a coal mine and hundreds were killed, but there were no media reports on the incidents. No matter what disaster happens, it’s all within their control! Z country’s government must have suppressed this matter too by getting rid of the parents who protested. They frequently do this sort of thing and the way they deal with such incidents is very skilled. The proper and reasonable requests of parents are destined to meet with a dead end.”

The remote foreigners on the screen let out shocked gasps as their expressions changed.

“It’s a nightmare of the democratic world.”

“I can’t imagine the outcome if the same thing happened in Merica.”

“Our media should expose the truth of the matter and let the parents of Z country know about this!”

“No!” Li Jianrong shook his head awkwardly, “It is because Samsin had banned the sale of memory chips to Z country that has resulted in the reduction of the manufacturing capabilities for the Little Star learning machine. If the parents of Z country got wind of this, their rage will be directed at us… we cannot expose the truth.”

Everyone looked at one another in dismay and some awkwardness. Perhaps this was called cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face. Then, what should they do? Was there nothing that they could do about Xing Hai Technologies?

Of course not!

Suddenly, Li Jianrong revealed a strange smile. “Gentlemen, I do have an idea that would solve both issues. It will allow us to expose the truth about the Xing Hai Technologies’ insufficient production capabilities without incurring the wrath of the parents.” In addition, it might even bring about great benefits to Samsin company. He thought, it was killing not two, but three birds with one stone.

“What is it?” All attention was focused on him.

“We’ll burn down our memory chip production factory.” As his weird grin spread across his face, Li Jianrong slowly said, “Of course, it’ll be a fake fire that looks real. Then, we’ll announce to the world that the factory has stopped production of our memory chips so we’re unable to supply them any longer. This is especially so for Xing Hai Technologies, who will miss a batch of memory chips from us. This will cause all the parents in Z country to realize that it’s very unlikely for them to successfully buy a learning machine in the short-term.”

“Good; this is a good idea!”

“Let’s do this.”

An official from the EU said with an ugly expression, “Mr. Li, you’re not trying to inflate the price of memory chips by taking this opportunity to fish for benefits, are you? I’m warning you, the price of your memory chips is already very high. If it continues to rise, European consumers will be very unhappy. Beware, we could carry out an antitrust investigation on Samsin!”

Li Jianrong immediately promised, “Rest assured, the price increase of Samsin’s memory chips is only targeted against Z country. The western markets will not be affected.”

Finally, the distrustful expression on the EU official’s face faded.

…

The next morning, Samsin’s biggest memory chip pellet production plant located in Pyeongtaek had more than ten iron pots with a diameter of nearly two meters each set up in the biggest production room. A large number of workers in white uniforms clutched bundles of firewood to their chest. They stacked the firewood inside the iron pots. The firewood was stacked neatly in the iron pots, forming a nice tepee reminiscent of transistors seen under the microscope. Gasoline was poured over the top of the tepee.

“Light the fire!”

The supervisor took out a lighter and set the tepees aflame. More than ten fires started burning in the factory like torches. These fires produced a great amount of smoke. When the experienced supervisor saw the flames getting stronger in the iron pots, he immediately commanded, “Get the water, pour it on the fire! When the smoke comes, we’ll fan it.”

“Yes!”

Basins of water were poured on the tepees. As the temperature dropped, and the fires abated, a great amount of smoke was produced, which spread across the entire factory.

Cough cough cough!

The smoke choked the workers and many started coughing. However, this could not stop their excited discussion.

“This single plant produces 40% of the world’s DDR4 memory chips. Once it is hit by an accident, the price of the chips will rise by at least 30%.”

“With the smoke from fifteen pots, it should rise by at least 50%.”

The worker continued with a hearty laugh, “Our salaries will rise…” Cough cough cough! He immediately choked on the smoke and started coughing heavily.

The supervisor’s voice rang out, “Make more smoke!”

…

That afternoon in the President’s office, the President’s assistant presented the photographs of the fire to Li Jianrong. In the photos, thick smoke roiled as government fire trucks spraying water completed the scene. Li Jianrong nodded with satisfaction.

Good, very good.

Suddenly, the phone rang. Li Jianrong picked up the phone and placed it against his ear. He heard a panicked voice saying, “President, bad news. The smoke has gotten out of control. A large amount of smoke particles penetrated our clean room via the ventilation duct. The production equipment has been contaminated. The wafers on the production lines are useless now! We have to stop production for at least a month to clean up the plant. Our immediate financial losses are over 200 million!”

200 million?

The smile froze on his face as he raged. “You get half a month to clean up the contamination and restart the production lines!”

“President, we need at least twenty days…”

Li Jianrong hanged up. His expression was cold. Gritting his teeth, he promised, 200 million. Xing Hai Technologies, you will pay the price for that!

…

At 2pm, Samsin company posted some photos on their Weibo account based in Z country, showing how their factory was engulfed in smoke. They posted an announcement, saying, “Our memory chip production factory was burned down. (three crying emojis). With a special call out to @Xing Hai Technologies: We’re sorry, we can’t supply you with memory chips from today onwards.”

Once this news was announced, it fired off a great sensation and plunged countless netizens of Z country into an intense discussion.

Chapter 203 - Shock and the Explosion of Sentiments

“Samsin’s memory chip factory is burning again. Again? That’s weird.”

“More than ten fire incidents have happened to them over the past few years. Why the f**k are they still using this move?”

“They can simply say that they are raising their prices. It’s disgusting how they keep playing this same old game.”

“I’ve been trying to save up for a new computer for five years. And each time, either the price of the memory chip or the price of CPU increased. After that, it was a price increase in their hard disk, and later on, an increase in the price of their graphics card… I’m still using my old computer right now.”

“Haha, the price of their memory chips on Taobao started to rise less than five minutes after this announcement was made. Our domestic merchants are starting to hoard memory chips like crazy. The smart ones will buy all that they can right now. The price will definitely double after some time!”

“I would like to ask, where are our homegrown memory chips? Why is there no news about them? Those boorish Goreans keep tormenting us. Our local manufacturers, take some action!”

“I swear that I will never buy memory chips from Gorea again. But where are our domestic chips? I don’t care if it’s DDR4 or DDR3, I’ll definitely buy them as long as they are produced by domestic manufacturers!”

The collective online sentiment was one of excitement and agitation. All the netizens were asking about domestic memory chips. The Goreans repeatedly experienced “fire incidences” in their factories. When could they finally treat it as the cheap trick that it was and totally disregard such news?

Unlike the netizens who expressed their anger and helplessness, the vast majority of the parents in Z country started panicking the moment they knew that the break in the supply of memory chips from Samsin would severely affect Xing Hai Technologies’ production of the intelligent learning machine. In an instant, rumors started to fly. Fear and panic spread.

“What? 80% of Xing Hai Technologies’ memory chips come from Samsin, and the current production of Little Star learning machines is only 20% of its previous production volume?”

“They can’t produce the learning machines without memory chips?”

“20% of 200,000 units. The quantity of learning machines produced daily has dropped to 40,000 units. They can produce only a maximum of 15 million units in a year. They need at least ten years to produce sufficient quantities for every student to have one learning machine.”

“Ten years? My child would have graduated from university!”

“My child is now in his second year of senior high school. He can’t afford to even wait for six months!”

“My child is taking the college entrance exam this year. He can’t wait for even one more day!”

At this point, the parents exploded. They could no longer stay passive! Some, who were more agitated, had already started planning to take excessive measures.

At that moment, Xing Hai Technologies and the Department of Education were faced with great pressure from the parents. The customer service hotline of Xing Hai Technologies was bombarded with calls. Countless parents were venting, complaining, or crying on Weibo.

“What about my child?”

“My son is a positive and cheerful child. But because his class ranking dropped consistently, he’s now feeling extremely inferior and sensitive. Only the learning machine can save him!”

“Xing Hai Technologies, how did you choose to make a product like the learning machine, but not make it sufficiently available to all? Since you can’t promise that every child can have one, why did you make this product that will cause harm to people like me?”

“You need ten years to produce a sufficient quantity of learning machines. Haha, I’ll bomb you today!”

“Let’s go to Xing Hai Technologies together! I’ll get my child a learning machine even if I have to give up my life for it!”

“Let’s go together. I don’t care about other children, but Xing Hai Technologies can forget about destroying my child!”

A big group of parents started colluding in private. They would get a learning machine no matter what it took. They would not hesitate to sacrifice their lives for it! A crisis of an unimaginable scale was about to overwhelm Xing Hai Technologies.

However, several authoritative news announcements were sent to the public from Xing Hai Technologies’ official website and Weibo. This was also complemented by a news conference organized by the Department of Education. The provocation and commotion caused by the parents swiftly calmed.

“February, 20X1. Taking into account both the Little Star second generation and the Educational Machine 2.0, there are a combined total of 10.31 million learning machines produced. All these units are supplied to the junior and senior high schoolers in their third year. In addition, there are 5 million pioneer units. After excluding the 3 million humanities students, as much as 83.3% of the science student body is in possession of a learning machine. This has basically solved the needs of the students in their last junior and senior year of high school.”

83% was a very high proportion. It was reasonable to term it as a full coverage, as there was a portion of parents who were either unable to afford it or were unwilling to pay for it. Hence, parents of the students in their third year of junior or senior high were deliberately making trouble and disrupting the stability of society by creating a disturbance now. Therefore, the needs of the students in their third year of junior or senior high had been satisfactorily met.

However, there were also a large number of emotionally unstable parents whose children were only in the first and second year of junior and senior high. To these parents, the Department of Education commented, “We are still increasing the production capacity of our learning machines. Our current production numbers are about 300,000 units per day. We need only a maximum of one year to meet the needs of all students. There is no issue regarding any reduction in our production. Please refrain from taking the online rumors at face value.”

“Liar!” Immediately, a reporter raised a question, “Samsin’s factory has burned down and the supply of their memory chips has stopped. The production volume of Xing Hai Technologies’ learning machines will be dramatically reduced by at least 70%. How can they be producing 300,000 units per day?”

The spokesperson for the Department of Education looked at him in astonishment. “Samsin has stopped supplying memory chips to us since last month. I don’t know why their factory only burned down this month. Our learning machines currently employ memory chips from our local Purple Ray Technologies. We have achieved a 100% rate of domestic production. The supply issue from Samsin does not affect us.”

The reporter was shocked. “Impossible, that’s impossible. The production rate of Purple Ray is extremely low. It’s not possible to achieve a production capacity of 300,000 chips per day!”

The spokesperson sent by Purple Ray stepped in. “Excuse me, but Purple Ray is producing 350,000 DDR3 memory chips daily. The second memory chip factory will start production next month. Its daily production will exceed 700,000 chips. After refining production processes and increasing the yield, daily production volume will exceed 1 million chips. We will never face a shortage of memory chips, and issues of quantity will not be an obstacle in the production of the learning machines.”

This announcement sent the reporter reeling.

That was right! In just a short half a month, Purple Ray had increased the yield of its DDR3 production. It had been dramatically increased from 27.3% to 68.2% The production rate had also risen by 20%! The daily production volume of the memory chips had exceeded 350,000 units.

So how was this achieved? Of course, people had sacrificed much of their lives for it. Upon entering the fourth development plant of Xing Hai Technologies, the group of engineers sent there by Purple Ray witnessed the technological prowess of the “virtual factory.” They were so impressed that they started to laugh and cry at the same time, like lunatics. Then, they plunged themselves into a state of constant work. They did not sleep. These engineers virtually did not sleep. If they were tired, they would close their eyes for a bit and then they would throw themselves back into work again. They worked twenty-four hours a day.

In a mere ten days, they had constructed the production plant in the virtual factory. After which, they used another one month or so to raise the yield and the production rate to a satisfactory degree. The adjustments were also completed in the physical factory at the same time. Mass production had begun a few days ago. Using only forty-some days, they had preliminarily solved the supply shortage of memory chips. During this process, many outstanding engineers from purple Ray had collapsed from exhaustion.

“Impossible! This is totally impossible!” The reporter staggered back in shock. In a moment of panic, he had revealed his special identity.

…

Following the announcement, Xing Hai Technologies explained the causes and consequences of the matter in detail on their Weibo account. Some shocking facts were revealed.

“In actual fact, Samsin company destroyed our contract more than a month ago in a one-sided decision to stop supplying memory chips. Chang Cheng Electric OEM immediately sank into a difficult situation where they did not have enough materials to work with. We employed some special tactics and solved the supply issue at the very last minute. After which, we began our technical collaboration with Purple Ray Technologies immediately. We spent more than a month tackling key technological problems before finally solving the production issues of our memory chips. Many excellent engineers had collapsed from exhaustion during this process. The production capacity of the DDR3 memory chips increased three times, and with this, we have finally met the production demands for the learning machine. Our engineers are really noble. Although their salaries are not high, they were willing to sacrifice everything to establish a stable domestic production of memory chips! This is a solemn announcement from Xing Hai Technologies: We will never use memory chips or any other core components produced by Samsin in our products!”

The announcement continued, “Xing Hai Technologies will fully enter the field of chip manufacturing. Together with Zhongxin Internationals and Purple Ray Group, we will develop and produce our own CPU, memory chips and storage. We will thoroughly free ourselves from dependence on foreign companies! We would also like to call out to all citizens to support domestic CPUs and memory chips! Please give us one more chance and a little more time! Our engineers are working hard. They will definitely not disappoint you! It’s not a good feeling to be subjected to the will of others. Samsin’s memory production plant is burning down every few days. I believe that everyone knows the reason why. How do we avoid getting extorted by them each time? How do we buy the products that we need at a reasonable price? There is no way except this: Support domestic products! Everyone, please support domestic products!”

The shocking facts revealed by Xing Hai Technologies immediately caused a sensation online! This effectively pushed Samsin into the center of the storm as the collective sentiments of Z country’s netizens boiled over! Samsin would be thoroughly drowned in the shock and rage from the large numbers of parents!

Chapter 204 - A 100% Domestic Mobile Phone

They had destroyed themselves with their own game. Samsin’s plan of “killing three birds with one stone” had totally fallen apart. Samsin company’s official Weibo account was flooded with rants from netizens.

“I’ll never buy any product from Samsin again!”

“Resist Samsin!”

“Samsin, get out of Z country!”

“Take your memory chips and screens with you and scram!”

The vast numbers of parents also rained a torrent of abuse on Samsin.

“This damn Gorean company deserves to die. You’re too wicked!”

“You think to damage us in such a way that my child can’t get into a good university!”

“Let’s go and trash Samsin!”

“I’ll never go to Gorea for holiday again or buy their cosmetics. If my child continues to pay so much attention to their idols, I’ll beat them to death!”

Everyone in Z country was venting about Samsin as they heaped abuse upon abuse on the company.

The company had no choice but to suspend its Weibo account. They did not make any responses or comments as they hid their heads like a tortoise when faced with danger. Even so, the personnel in charge that was stationed in Z country received a beating from a random young man. In addition, the company’s factories in Z country suffered attacks and trashings from many angry netizens. The Z citizens working in the Samsin factories could not bear the great pressure from public opinion and many chose to resign. Many customers requested that mobile retailers withdrew Samsin’s products from their business showrooms, or else they would smash every single Samsin product that they saw.

Samsin’s profits faced a battering, and the losses were huge. But this was far from enough!

Although many expressed that they would resist various products from Samsin and took videos of themselves smashing their products, people would always forget after some time. They would continue to buy what they needed to buy, and go where they wanted to go. These people had a short-term memory.

As for the more determined netizens, they were not unwilling to fork out the money or support domestic products. But, where were these products? They wanted to buy a 100% domestically manufactured mobile phone, with the CPU, screen and memory chip produced by local companies, but they could not find such a phone on the market. This world was marked by a globalized economy and industrial cooperation. Even the superpower Merica could not accomplish something like producing all the core components in a product. Therefore, no matter how much those nationalistic netizens wanted to support domestic products, the mobile phone that they bought would, in the end, still contain Samsin-made components. They would very likely still contribute to the revenue of their most hated company… Unless they did not buy mobile phones at all.

However, Chen Jin had decided to change this current state. He would take this opportunity to stab Samsin where it hurt the most! He picked up his phone and called Brother Lei to explain his idea.

Brother Lei was shocked as he listened! “You’re saying that you want Da Mi to produce a 100% domestic mobile phone that uses locally sourced and produced CPU, screen, memory chip, and storage, as well as other essential components? And you want to introduce this product on the market so that consumers who support domestic products can buy a real domestic phone? Brother Chen, are you joking. Even Hua Yao, with its powerful technological prowess, can’t produce a 100% domestic mobile phone. The company has its own Kirin CPU and is a shareholder and strategic partner of Oriental Crystal. However, in terms of its essential mobile phone components, Hua Yao has only achieved full domestic production for its CPU and screen. It still has to purchase memory chips and storage from Samsin. Brother Chen, please stop joking. Da Mi did attempt to produce our own independent CPU, but that project was simply too expensive. In the end, I had no choice but to give up on it. The Kirin CPU from Hua Yao is very powerful indeed, but it’s based on technologies that were authorized by foreign parties. They can’t sell it to other companies. So, Da Mi can only use Qualcomm’s chips. There are domestic alternatives for the memory chips and storage chips, but their performance is terrible. They are at least one or even two generations behind their foreign counterparts because of the poor yield. There are no price advantages to making this type of pure domestic mobile phone. With their poor value for money, they cannot compete in the market. Such an endeavor will be destined to fail!”

Lei Xiao Jun shook his head. “Brother Chen, I fully understand your feelings. But, mobile phones are a totally different thing from the learning machine and robots that your company makes. The consumer demands even higher performance and better user experience! For sure, the rampant patriotism will bring about a certain amount of sales, but it won’t be able to sustain the long-term growth of the company. The real crux depends on the competitiveness of the product.” Therefore, he had to politely decline Chen Jin’s idea of making a 100% domestically produced mobile phone.

Chen Jin expected that he would respond in this manner, so he revealed some facts that made Brother Lei widen his eyes. For example, the technology of the virtual factory, and the project of the 7nm chip that Zhongxin International was tackling at that moment. These helped to put to rest some of the bigger worries that Lei Xiao Jun had.

Chen Jin explained, “Brother Lei, after Purple Ray’s memory chip production lines improved using the virtual factory, the work frequency of the current production of LPDDR3 memory chips has been raised to 2,133 MHz. Compared to the previous frequency of 1,600 MHz, it has risen by 33%. Moreover, there is less than a 20% difference in terms of performance compared to Samsin’s LPDDR4X. There’s no great difference in user experience. Xing Hai Technologies has been working with Teng Xun Corporation recently to develop a model of a mid- to high-end mobile phone CPU chip called ‘SX-800’. It uses the 14nm technology from Zhongxin International and OEM processes. It has an Antutu benchmark running score of 210,000 with a performance that’s comparable to the Snapdragon 725 that was launched by Qualcomm last year. This is adequate for everyday use. The technology of the domestic NAND memory chips has the smallest difference with the overseas chips. We have ample production capacities for the NAND chips. I’ve heard that the Da Mi company is already using universal flash storage chips produced by Da Jiang’s storage chips factories in a portion of your mid- to high-end range of mobile phones. As for their performance, I’m sure you know best. And with the screens from Oriental Crystal…”

Chen Jin paused for a moment, smiling. “Brother Lei, if your Da Mi company could launch a mid-range mobile phone that is 100% domestically produced, I’m sure that many people would buy it as long as the price is reasonable. I would even say that the image of Da Mi will greatly improve in the public’s eyes in the instant that you announce you’ll be producing a 100% domestic phone!” It might even redeem Da Mi’s reputation, which suffered severe damage when it was issued a huge penalty last year by the EU!

Brother Lei’s eyes brightened with this reminder. He was motivated by the potential rewards and nodded. “Brother Chen, you have made an excellent suggestion. I’ll get someone to immediately announce that Da Mi will be making a 100% domestic mobile phone!”

Chen Jin continued to pump up his spirits. “There is no need for apprehensions. If Samsin places any sanctions against Da Mi and bans the sale of Da Mi’s mobile phones, Xing Hai Technologies will help you solve the problem. With the virtual factory, we’ll catch up with the technological difference in two years and produce a higher performing chip! Da Mi simply has to establish the reputation of a 100% domestic mobile phone. This will surely bring about great benefits to your company.”

Brother Lei nodded. “Yes! This is very good!” Due to the lack of innovation, the business performance of Da Mi’s mobile phones had weakened in the past two years. Their sales volume was less than half of Hua Yao’s. If he did not think of a way to remedy the situation, the market share of Da Mi’s mobile phones would only get smaller. Chen Jin’s suggestion for Da Mi to make a 100% domestic mobile phone could be the best plan to reverse the decline in their fortunes.

On that very same night, Brother Lei, who had accepted Chen Jin’s suggestion, announced on various platforms that Da Mi would be producing a 100% domestic mobile phone with fully independent core components!

Once this news was announced, the netizens gave an enthusiastic response!

“Support Brother Lei, support Da Mi!”

“As long as Da Mi introduces a 100% domestic mobile phone and Brother Lei doesn’t try to play his cheap marketing tricks, I’ll buy one for sure!”

“There’s no need for me to get a new mobile right now. But, I must get a 100% domestically produced mobile!”

“I’m a Mi Fan from the company’s early years who have returned back into the fold. I hope that Brother Lei can deliver on his promise and not waste our patriotism on nothing!”

“Eh, Da Mi Company has already made their statement. What about Hua Yao? Did Hua Yao not say if they are going to do a 100% domestically produced mobile phone?”

Countless netizens enquired on Hua Yao’s official Weibo account, “Even Da Mi Company, who doesn’t have much in the area of essential technologies, has announced that they are making a 100% domestic mobile phone. Where’s your action, Hua Yao?”

The vast number of Hua Yao fans also hoped that the company could produce a pure domestic mobile phone so as to thoroughly eliminate its dependence on core components from Sansim.

A few days passed, and Hua Yao Company did not make a clear statement. They merely said that they were still conducting research.

Chen Jin made a personal phone call to the Executive Chairman of Hua Yao, Zhao Ming, and enquired if Hua Yao would like to collaborate with Xing Hai Technologies to create a 100% domestically produced mobile phone

Zhao Ming replied in a euphemistic tone, “We will consider this but will not take any action in the meantime. Thank you for your kind intentions, President Chen.”

Chen Jin was extremely doubtful. Could it be that Hua Yao was really uninterested in a 100% domestically produced mobile phone?

Brother Lei was the one who answered his doubts. “Hua Yao is a transnational company with a large market share in Europe. If Hua Yao offends Samsin, they could likely lose their profits in the European market. The profit margins of Da Mi mobile phones in the European market are negligible. It does not matter if the company sells a few million units less. But that is not possible for Hua Yao. In order to ensure the excellent user experience in European markets, Hua Yao can only procure chips from Samsin, which have a better performance.”

Unless there was a local company who was able to produce better performing memory chips and storage, Hua Yao would never announce that they were making a 100% domestically produced mobile phone. (The upper management of Hua Yao did not know about the technology of the ‘virtual factory’. Chen Jin had no intentions to tell too many people about it. But, he thought that Hua Yao would have a greatly different attitude if they knew about that particular technology).

So, that was the reason. Chen Jin nodded. Then, he gave a slight shake of his head in dismay.

Chapter 205 - Work Assistant 1.0

A few more days had passed. The vast numbers of netizens had gotten tired of lashing out at Samsin. News of the divorce of a celebrity couple suddenly broke out in the entertainment circle, taking a large amount of attention away from Samsin. The focus of public opinion had shifted. Samsin gradually faded away from the view of the public. And thus, they escaped this crisis.

The President of Samsin, Li Jianrong, sighed in relief and wiped at the sweat beading on his forehead. In his heart, he silently thanked the celebrity couple. However, he could not help but yell in rage at the same time. “Xing Hai Technologies, I won’t let this go!”

…

In the middle of March, at the third development plant of Xing Hai Technologies, Chen Jin had come to understand the situation on the latest progress of the company’s “Intelligent Work Assistant” project.

He asked the supervisor in charge of the project, Song Bojun, a few questions. “What’s the current evolutionary progress of the Work Assistant?”

“According to criteria set by you, President Chen, it’s evolution should have progressed to 0.98. Its 1.0 version will be generated soon.”

“Which programming languages has it mastered?”

“The work assistant has full mastery of the languages in more than 15 programming fields, including Algorithm, Java, Data Structures, C++, Python, PHP, SQL, Ruby… Our Work Assistant will soon become the ‘King of Programming.’” At this point, Song Bojun let out a heartfelt sigh. “This is possible thanks to the veteran programmers of our country who participated in the internal testing of the ‘Work Assistant.’ If not for the specialized and unique skills of the programmers and their many contributions to the ‘Work Assistant,’ it would be impossible for it to evolve to a degree so close to 1.0 within a short half year. They have really made significant contributions.”

Chen Jin nodded. The coding standard of Z country’s programmers were the highest in the world. No one knew how many programming experts lay hidden in the corners of the country. Xing Hai Technologies had invited many expert programmers to participate in the testing of the “Work Assistant” when the project started. At first, they had only managed to invite a few programmers, but more and more joined the project. In the end, Xing Hai Technologies stopped sending out invitations, but many top programmers actively applied to participate in the internal testing without asking for compensation. They used their free time to upload countless excellent codes into the server of the “Work Assistant.” They had in-depth discussions on the simplicity and superiority of particular codes in the Xing Hai Forums. Often, their debates were extremely intense. On some occasions, a hot topic that was posted would have more than 5,000 replies.

To the present date, there were more than 8,000 top programmers from the country who had participated in the internal testing for the “Work Assistant.” More than 3,000 TB-worth of codes had been uploaded, and the average volume of codes uploaded by each participant was worth nearly 400 GB. Many of the top programmers had even quit their jobs to participate fulltime in the testing. All without demanding any monetary recompense.

Of course, Chen Jin could not make use of these top talents for free without any expression of gratitude… That was too vile. Hence, he commented on Xing Hai Forums that the programmers who had participated in the testing would have lifetime use of the “Work Assistant” entirely free of charge after it was launched. They did not have to pay any fees. In addition, the smart learning program could analyze the value of the codes uploaded by the programmers onto the server and allocate contribution points according to the usefulness of the code. For example, an outstanding code with powerful functions and a wide range of uses would be allocated 100 points. Codes that were somewhat valuable would be allocated 10 points. Codes that were the most common would be allocated 0 points. Xing Hai Technologies would create a “contribution ranking chart.” All programmers who participated in the project would be able to see their ranks.

When the Work Assistant evolved to the 1.0 version, Xing Hai Technologies would give away a cash prize of $500 million to the top 500 contributors. The winners would get a minimum of $100,000. But the cash prize was only a bonus. As the top programmers in the country, they could easily get a monthly salary of $50,000 to $100,000. The cash prize was peanuts to them. Honor was more important to them! What did it mean if one became the top contributor? It meant that he was the champion in Z country’s programming field. He was the most powerful emperor of programming technology!The number one contributor could be called the “The Great Emperor of All Programmers.” The second could be called the “The Emperor of Programmers.” The third was the “King of Programmers.”

The contribution ranking chart created by Xing Hai Technologies for this testing directly reflected the hierarchy of the top programmers in the country in terms of their strength. The strong and the weak were clearly distinguished. As a whole, many programmers were dull, inarticulate, and low-key in real life. But, in the programming world, they were used to controlling and operating codes to create powerful functions. Because of this, they were very competitive. They were emperors who played with codes that rested within the full control of their hands. Hence, they were set on proving their programming standards to each other in this competition. All of them were vying for either the first, second, or third place.

…

Late at night on the 18th, in Changsha City, at Zhuoyue Games, the sound of fingers hitting the keyboard could be heard from a meeting room that was adjacent to the computer room. Three men gathered the tables in a circle and placed the chairs back to back, forming three corners. They sat with their backs to each other as they wrote their codes.

One would be very surprised to witness this scene. Were they not Zhuoyue Games’ Chairman Qiu Bojun, Manager Gong Wei, and the Chief Technical Inspector Chen Fangzhou? The key personnel of the company’s top management were burning the midnight oil to write codes? One should not underestimate them. Each of them were famous in their own right in Z country’s programming circle!

Qiu Bojun was the first generation of programmers in Z country. He was a pioneer from the country’s pre-modern days. He spent a year writing the WPS 1.0 all by himself. Thus, Z country was able to have its own domestic office software.

Gong Wei, the founder and leader of Honker Union, had opened the prelude for Z country’s hackers to win honor for their country in the Battle of the ZM hackers in 20X1. He led the hacker army to plant their red flags on every website of the imperial country, thus defending the dignity of the Z citizens.

Chen Fangzhou was a genius in the gaming sector. The online game series, “Fantasia Of The Heroic Swordsman” created by Zhuoyue Games were developed by a team that he led. Although there was only a small number of audience and players, all of them were hardcore fans! With some hundreds of thousands of hardcore fans who were willing to pour money into the game, the series was able to go on for more than ten years.

Right now, these three experts were participating in the internal testing project of the “Work Assistant” and were fighting for their ranks.

Clack!

Qiu Bojun hit the “Enter” key with force and submitted the code that he had written. After a moment, the system replied, “The code provided has no significant value. Your contribution points are +0.1. Please try harder.”

Qiu Bojun shook his head. “0.1 is the same as 0 points. It’s a mere consolation.” He looked at his rank on the contribution chart. Lamenting his fifty-plus years of age, he sighed. “I’m old, I can’t generate any more codes. My brain is getting slower, too. This industry is for the young.”

Gong Wei, turned around and asked, “President Qiu, what’s your ranking?” He had also uploaded a series of code and was waiting for the system to analyze its value.

Qiu Bojun sighed again. “Ah, take a look for yourself.” He bent his head aside to allow Gong Wei to look at his ranking.

“1,013th. You climbed up 2 places since yesterday.” Gong Wei stuck up his thumb. “President Qiu, you’re nearly 60. This result is really very good. You’re indeed a veteran fighter deserving of your title!”

“I’ve stopped generating codes for more than ten years. I’m just making use of what I’ve learned in the long past. It’s not bad if I can even rank in the first thousand.” Qiu Bojun had been generating codes with his best efforts for these few days in the hopes of squeezing himself into the top 1,000. That placement would be considered decent. But, as the testing drew towards its end, it became harder to get the contribution points. The “Work Assistant” had also evolved to version 0.999. It would be upgraded to version 1.0 within a couple of days and the competition would end. He felt that there was no hope for him to be placed in the top 1,000.

At that moment, the system had completed the analysis of the code that Gong Wei had uploaded. “The uploaded code has value. Your contribution points are +5. Your ranking has risen by one.” With this, he was ranked 500th place. Gong Wei was unsatisfied. “This is the performance of someone who was once the leader of the Hacker Union? Even though more than twenty years have passed, my rank would disappoint many.” But that was the way in the programming world. The peak period of a programmer was around 30. It was a rarity for a programmer to continue writing codes past forty years old. Gong Wei had not really written any codes for many years too. It was normal that his standard had dropped.

Thus, the two older men turned their gazes towards the youngest programmer in the room, Chen Fangzhou. The gaming genius Chen Fangzhou had been apprenticing by Qiu Bojun’s side since he was fifteen years old. At thirty-three years old, he was at his peak. He had the highest ranking amongst the three of them, placing 10th in the contribution points chart. However, Chen Fangzhou was extremely unsatisfied with this ranking. These days, he had even put aside his current work and had been pushing himself to improve his ranking. His fingers were a blur as they flew across the keyboard in his attempts to earn a higher rank.

Clack!

Chen Fangzhou uploaded a complex series of code that had taken him five hours to write. After two minutes, the system replied, “You’ve uploaded a high-value code. Your contribution points are +100. Your ranking has risen by one.”

In his exhausted state, he nodded in with satisfaction. He was now number nine in rank. Suddenly, a colorful fireworks display lit up the screens of the three programmers.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

“Many thanks to everyone who has participated in this testing for their hard work and support. The ‘Work Assistant’ has evolved to version 1.0. The first phase of internal testing ends here.”

What?

Looking at this system announcement, Chen Fangzhou started to hit his own head in vexation. How could it end just like this? After their annoyance passed, all three became very curious about the identities of the top experts that would be published on the contribution chart.

Chapter 206 - The X Team

With the efforts of a whole slew of top programmers, Xing Hai Technologies’ Intelligent Work Assistant had successfully evolved to version 1.0. This closed beta test, on the other hand, had become the top event in the Z nation’s programming field, attracting innumerable veteran programmers to participate and pay attention to the event. Local companies in the Z nation, such as Hua Yao, Baidu, Tencent, Wangyi, and Ali, also attached great importance to this closed beta test and highly anticipated it. They held tacit consent towards their staff’s participation in this event.

Hua Yao even assembled a specialized “troop,” selecting more than 500 people to participate in the closed beta test. They were prepared to claim a few positions in the top ranks to prove Hua Yao’s capabilities. From this, one could see Hua Yao’s shrewdness. With over 500 people partaking in the closed beta test, it allowed Hua Yao to acquire more than 500 placements to use the “work assistant” for free. These quotas that belonged to Hua Yao indirectly saved them on purchasing fees. Also, none of Hua Yao’s projects were delayed; the closed beta version of the Intelligent Work Assistant was still rather powerful, and it ended up hastening the progress of the projects.

By the time other companies became aware of Hua Yao’s clever acts, the “Work Assistant 1.0” was already presented before them, requiring a monthly payment. Moreover, it could only be used after purchased. However, at this particular moment, what the programming field within the Z nation was most concerned about was the final rankings on the contribution list.

At eight in the morning on the 19th, Xing Hai Technologies announced the top 500 ranks on the contribution list on the Xing Hai forums.

Rank/Name/Score:

1: Li Yicheng, 152,548

2: God, 101,503

3: Lu Jing, 89,641

4: Bing He, 87,320

5: Lou Tiancheng, 84,120

6: Dai Wenyuan, 83,910

7: Jia Yangqing, 80,741

8: You Xiyu, 79,352

9: Chen Fangzhou, 79,081

10: Cai Jingxian, 79,053

…

All the highly skilled programmers that participated in the closed beta test sought their rankings with grave importance. Moreover, those in the top ranks were actively partaking in discussions and expressing their point of view.

“Li Yicheng is actually in the first place? I know his capabilities, indeed he’s quite impressive, but definitely not better than that few people below him!”

“Li Yicheng is a trainer from the Nothern Bluebirds right? It seems that he could teach almost everything, but he is definitely not the best programmer. It is just that he has lots of code resources. He alone uploaded several tens of terabytes of codes, using quantity to compensate for the lack of quality, and forced his way to first place.”

“I think Li Yicheng is one of the earliest to join the closed beta test. Pairing that on with his plethora of code resources, the advantage he had in earlier phases was too big.”

“From this point of view, this closed beta test is not completely fair.”

In front of the computer screen, after Li Yicheng saw these comments, he clenched his fist, feeling disconsolate. He wanted to refute that he was indeed worthy of his place. But as a trainer and having participated in the closed beta test at an earlier time, it was undoubtedly true that he had the higher ground unless he could prove his true strength under the premise of fairer competition.

“I will prove myself to everyone!” he swore clandestinely.

…

“Who’s that ‘God’ in second place? Why haven’t I heard of him?”

“I know God, he’s only 28, definitely a genius among geniuses! But he’s not living by honest labor. Since he was 15, he started being a hacker, then he was prisoned for three years. The military tried recruiting him, but he rejected them. He became much more of a plain dealer after he was released from prison. He was encouraged by a bunch of bosses to work on blockchain. He created all of our domestic Ethereum, Litecoin, DIGICCY… he at least made some ten billion bucks all alone. I never thought that he would be in this closed beta test.”

“Without that fake, Li Yicheng, blocking in front, God should be in the first place.”

In a city in the southern region, inside a luxurious villa, after a young man saw his own ranking, he slammed his fist onto the table. “The first place should be mine!”

…

Aside from the first and second place, those in the few places after them were all local top figures in the field. For example, Lu Jing in third place was the world champion in the ACM (International Collegiate Programming Contest) and was now working in Ali Corporation.

In fourth place, Bing He, formally known as He Chun, in which many addressed him as “Mister Umbrella,” once worked at Wangyi. He was highly reputable within his field. It was said that this man had a rather weird personality. He often barged into Wangyi’s founder Shi Lei’s office, unplugged her Fruit phone, and then plugged in his own. Later on, Wangyi wanted to develop a Wi-Fi system in their office. He volunteered to handle the task, successfully realized it, and received much praise in the office. Then he told Shi Lei, if Hua Yao were the ones who realized the system, they would require a fee of 200 thousand knifes, but Shi Lei would just have to pay him 200 thousand dollars. Shi Lei was agitated. She went to his direct leader and asked, “What’s wrong with your employee?”

Subsequently, He Chun did some more things. He went to Shi Lei and said that he could forgo the 200 thousand knives for the wifi system, but this thing he made could sell for two million knives. At that point, Shi Lei fired him. He could be best described as a person with low EQ. But in regards to his technical skill, his capabilities were unquestionable.

Chen Jin sent some men to probe around and understood that He Chun was currently jobless, and he participated in the test just because he thought that it was fun. Therefore, Chen Jin would definitely not forgo this great opportunity to recruit talents. He asked some men to acquire He Chun’s contact. Then, he called him to inquire, “Mister Umbrella, here at Xing Hai Technologies we have the top tier programming technology, would you like to come over?”

He Chun said with alacrity, “Sure! I’ll go have some fun at your company.”

It was not only He Chun at fourth place. After receiving Chen Jin’s call, Li Yicheng at first place and God at second place also expressed that they were willing to join Xing Hai Technologies’s “X team.”

They didn’t join the team for money. The prize money Li Yicheng received for obtaining first place was 50 million dollars, enough for him to live out his life without worries. He decided to quit his job and join “X team” just to prove his capabilities! Li Yicheng said on the phone, “Mr. Chen, I hope that you can arrange another competition. I want to win against them another time under fair conditions!”

“No problem,” Chen Jin said.

“What? That fake Li Yicheng joined the ‘X team’? Then I will join as well. I want to let him see who’s immortal and who’s a herald!” God was even swifter in accepting his offer. He decided to let Li Yicheng see what true skill was! Besides, he had developed an enormous interest in Xing Hai Technologies’ unfathomable tech in intelligent learning. He was 28 and had a net worth of over ten billion dollars. By all means, he could retire, but technology itself had a magical charm. He was smart, but he did not think of his programming ability as number one in the world. Moreover, Xing Hai Technologies’ intelligent learning technology had made him perceive things at a higher level. He intended to have a glimpse of the scenery at that level.

There were many programmers that possessed the same mindset as his. Among the god-tier programmers in the top 500 ranks, aside from those aces working in Hua Yao, Baidu, Tencent, Ali, and other big companies, Chen Jin personally called each of them who he thought could be poached over. At last, 164 people agreed to join Xing Hai Technologies’s “X Team,” including Chen Feizhou from Zhuoyue Games.

In fact, when he received Chen Jin’s call inviting him over, Chen Feizhou was tempted, but he still politely declined his offer. Qiu Bojun was his respected mentor and Gong Wei was like an elder brother to him. The project team in Zhuoyue Games could not live without him. If he were to leave, the company would be in trouble. “You won’t need to resign. You could join the X team as a part-timer, regularly partaking in some activities and discussing some technical information. This would also be feasible,” Chen Jin said. Chen Jin would allow pros in the top 100 ranks to work as part-timers.

This time, Chen Feizhou was even more tempted. But he still had to seek Qiu Bojun’s advice. After all, nobody liked employees who had a foot in both camps.

“Join them, it’s okay if you resign from your job here. What we could provide here is way too small, you should be roaming in the bigger skies,” Qiu Bojun said with a kind look.

“Feizhou, you will be better off resigning. I and Mr. Qiu are getting old. We will be retiring soon. You, on the other hand, are still young. You should go have a look at better scenery. Zhuoyue Games shouldn’t be holding you back,” Gong Wei said.

“No! This is my home! I will never leave Zhuoyue!” There were some tears in Chen Feizhou’s eyes. The mentor he was deeply indebted to was the pioneer of Z nation’s software, and Gong Wei was a hero that defended the Z nation’s pride; these were the two people that he adored and respected the most. Their era might have ended, but the spirit and light that bloomed from within them would always be worth learning and carrying forward. He would never leave his idols and his home! He would always be a part of Zhuoyue.

Therefore, Chen Feizhou joined Xing Hai Technologies’s “X Team” as a part-timer.

…

A team, whose name cruised through the seven realms of the Z nation, revered as the “The Hall of Fame of Programmers in Z” that would continuously bring forth tremor to the world, was officially established.

Chapter 207 - Google’s Suppression Arrived

Xing Hai Technologies’ top executives were in their conference room discussing what they should charge for Work Assistant 1.0, which would soon be introduced to the market.

“Mr. Chen, Work Assistant belongs in the software category. The hardware involved is only a supercomputer with an operating speed of 1 million million times per second and several cloud servers for data storage. Hardware costs are still relatively low. Unlike the Little Star learning machine, we don’t have to manufacture hundreds of millions of clients. We won’t have to worry about getting choked by hardware suppliers.”

“Indeed, doing hardware is too much of a hassle. Setting aside the risk of getting choked, the taxes imposed, the follow-up maintenance… All of them are very troublesome, and the actual profit we gain is not very high.”

“If you want to know how profitable software is, just look at Microsoft. Bill Gates topped the Forbes World’s Richest People list more than 20 times, and he’s never fallen from the top three. Software is much more profitable than hardware,” said Hou Xiao Feng. He had advised his boss about this a long time ago—capitalize on the company’s technical advantages and develop more software products—but it was not until now, when the company had produced marketable software, that they fully appreciated the huge profits to be gained.

At the head of the conference table, Chen Jin nodded. He was well aware that software development translates into huge profits, but he also understood that everything must be strategically staggered. If too many profitable products were released too closely, he would not be able to manage all of them.

After listening to each executive’s analysis, he determined that Xing Hai Technologies’ core source of profit needed to be shifted to software. Even if they didn’t want to switch, they soon would be forced to anyway.

Xing Hai Technologies’ Wa-wah cleaning robots had a lifespan of 10 years. The Little Star learning machine was designed to provide around 5 years of use, while the Bang Bang robot had an average service period of more than 10 years. The quality of these products was so excellent that the company needed to retain their devoted consumer base with expanding technology to maximize profits.

For example, in the M nation, a company was selling hiking shoes of superb quality. The soles would show no wear even after five years of use. In addition, their affordable price point attracted an extraordinary number of customers, but this ethical and popular company collapsed after five years, because their customers’ shoes performed so well the company went bankrupt due to excessive inventory backlog.

Xing Hai Technologies’ products were not inexpensive, but they were definitely of superior quality, so after the market had been flooded, Xing Hai Technologies would definitely face a massive plummet in sales.

Fortunately, Chen Jin had considered this issue. Their new Work Assistant 1.0 would be Xing Hai Technologies’ new steppingstone to further boost their profits.

According to statistics provided by the CSDN, there were more than 5 million programmers in the Z nation, which implied a market with 5 million users; this market must be considered based on size alone.

Programmers generally belong to a high-income group; those in the field for three or more years on average had an income of 10 to 15 thousand dollars or more. Trading one-tenth of their monthly pay for 10 times their current work efficiency plus a substantial boost to the quality of their coding would be extremely worthwhile.

Sales manager Li Yuan Liang said, “Mr. Chen, let’s set the subscription fee at 1,500 dollars per month. If all the programmers purchase it, we’ll see a revenue of 7.5 billion dollars every month—similar to that of the Wa-wah robot, but the net profit margin will be more than 50%!”

“Fifteen hundred dollars every month?”

Song Bojun shook his head and said, “This pricing is a little off the charts. Veteran programmers will be able to afford it, but a good portion of programmers are rookies with only one or two years of experience. Their pay isn’t that high; they wouldn’t be able to afford 1,500 dollars a month.”

“Junior programmers shouldn’t use it. Let them focus on improving their skillsets for two years. It won’t be too late for them to buy Work Assistant after that.”

“No, they won’t have the chance to learn.”

Song Bojun said solemnly, “They will be sacked immediately! After Work Assistant is launched, coding efficiency will become so high that many companies will fire a good portion of their programmers just to save costs! At least half of the programmers would be dismissed, causing a few million people to lose their jobs.”

Li Yuan Liang’s jaw dropped. Millions of programmers losing their jobs? This is…

As much as Xing Hai Technologies was driven by profit, they could not stand idly by watching so many people lose their jobs.

Before releasing Work Assistant, they must consider its influence and impact on society and avoid destroying the livelihoods of too many people… Profit should come second.

After another round of discussion, the executives finally came to a negotiated decision: They decided to implement “a guarantee” and “a restriction.” They would guarantee that the software would be affordable for every programmer while also restricting some of Work Assistant’s prowess.

Song Bojun said to Chen Jin, “Mr. Chen, when Work Assistant is generating algorithms, it requires computing power. The more complex the algorithm the more computing power required.”

“That supercomputer that Work Assistant uses has computing powers of approximately 1 million million times per second. By dividing it into 100-million fractions, we can sell computing power in 100-million portions.

“Each portion of computing power can be sold at 500 dollars per month, with add-ons available if needed. Each account can stack up as many as 100 portions of computing power.

“According to our tech staff’s calculations, even with just 1 portion of Work Assistant’s computing power purchased, a programmer’s productivity will improve by a factor of 2.5. For common intermediate programmers, 10 portions of computing power would basically suffice. Only senior programmers would use more than 100 portions of computing power.

“Therefore, for a junior programmer, spending 500 dollars per month for 1 portion of computing power will be enough for performing some simple operations… This is within the price range they could afford.

“For intermediate programmers, they could opt for the overlay package. It could be 1, 2, 10, or even 100 portions. The more computing power they stack, the more powerful Work Assistant will get!

“But they will have to spend more…”

For example, the tech staff had calculated that buying 100 portions of computing power would improve a programmer’s work efficiency 10-fold, but the expenditure on Work Assistant would be 50 thousand dollars per month. Instead of paying these expenses, employers would logically recruit five additional junior programmers and let each of them use Work Assistant. This would definitely hasten their progress by having more personnel, rather than a single expert, to work on any given project.

The quality of the algorithms generated by Work Assistant was very high; therefore, recruiting junior programmers would be more or less the same as recruiting intermediate programmers. This could also prevent a scenario where a whole slew of junior programmers gets dismissed; of course, as work productivity did improve, it was inevitable for a portion of programmers to lose their jobs. Xing Hai Technologies could only strive to minimize this impact.

Chen Jin nodded after hearing this analysis coupled with a solution. “Let’s settle this then! We can’t let employers from IT companies get the idea that Work Assistant is more economical than hiring actual programmers. We must let them know that programmers who know how to use this tool have even greater value! However…”

“If we can’t prevent a trend of programmers losing their jobs, then Xing Hai Technologies will establish a few additional software centers, recruit some 10,000 programmers, and let them work on our local Visual Effects Engine OS, our office software… If the others aren’t developing this software, Xing Hai Technologies will do it ourselves! On the one hand, we’re filling in the blanks of these fields; on the other, we can amass a large staff of unemployed but promising individuals. We will be killing two birds with one stone!”

“Well thought out, Mr. Chen,” Song Bojun agreed. “We have too many voids in the software industry. If there are IT companies within the country that are willing to pitch in, the Z nation would need an additional 2 million programmers. Now, with the launch of Work Assistant, if there are programmers who don’t want to lose their jobs and are enthusiastic about coding, allowing them to bridge the gaps might just be the better alternative for them… This is why we don’t need to be afraid that there’s a lack of talent in the Z nation’s software field.”

The executives were all nodding their heads, having agreed on an acceptable number of jobs that would likely be impacted. This, in effect, fixed the pricing of Work Assistant.

The release day for Work Assistant was scheduled on March 22nd. At that time, all programmers would be able to download the Work Assistant client and pay in exchange for computing power. But unforeseen circumstances were to arise.

On March 20th, Google released its latest Android 12 and, from that day onward, the Android system’s era of free usage ended. In the future, all new equipment that used the Android system would pay Google a certain amount.

Google’s CEO Sandal Pichai explained, “Imposing a certain amount of fee is for us to create better products and provide our customers with a better experience!”

This was all within the expectations for companies and netizens in the Z nation.

“Google has been calling out to impose fees for two years. Now, the day has finally come.”

“No matter how much or how little the patent fees are that Google imposes on every device—our phones, tablets, intelligent home products—the price of all our devices that use Android will be inflated.”

“The Android system that once claimed to be open source and free forever has fallen. Is Google really lacking money, or are they intending to milk us for money? Or both?”

“Eh? Why isn’t Xing Hai Technologies on the Android system’s authorization list for Z enterprises? Why are they in the prohibition list instead?”

“Google prohibits Xing Hai Technologies from using Android? Illegal usage will lead to judicial action?!”

“Does this mean that the Little Star learning machine no longer has access to Android? And will it be pulled off the shelves?”

“Why is Google doing this?”

The netizens from the Z nation were baffled and agitated.

…

“Oh? Google’s squelch has finally arrived?”

After learning about the news, Chen Jin was not at all surprised. On the contrary, three words popped up in his mind… Such a coincidence?

Chapter 208 - Star Cloud OS 1.0

“What is the reason behind Google’s ban?” Chen Jin asked.

Were reasons actually required to suppress Xing Hai Technologies? The act of imperialism does not require explanations, but they would still have to find a legitimate excuse.

“Google said that we stole their tech. Unless we stop thieving, make compensation, and return the tech, only then would it be possible for both parties to maintain cooperative measures,” Liang Ying explained.

Upon hearing this, everyone was initially stunned, and they soon all burst into laughter.

“Hahahaha.”

“Stealing their tech. They really do take blaming to a whole new level.”

“High schoolers copying the work of elementary schoolers? Hilarious!”

“They want us to return their tech? Are they living in a dream?”

“May I ask whether they still have their brains?”

Chen Jin shook his head out of speechlessness. He thought that the treacherous tricks those big and bulky foreigners opted to play were absolutely vulgar compared to the wisdom of the predecessors of the Z country.

He looked at the man sitting on the second seat on his left. “Ma Xiaobing, is your project team finished yet with the Star Cloud OS? It’s been more than six months since August last year. You already have a working mobile operating system now, am I right?”

Ma Xiaobing, who was in charge of the Star Cloud OS 1.0, nodded his head and said, “We finished it last month, Mr. Chen, but we’ve been conducting tests continuously and repairing some minor bugs. It’s basically usable now—we’re just making sure that bugs won’t surface that affect the user experience.”

This was the difficulty in developing an operating system. It was not all that tricky to make, but it had to be safe, reliable, and able to withstand the test of time. Only after thousands of minor and major bug fixes would an operating system be acknowledged and accepted by consumers.

Besides, they would also have to ensure favorable compatibility of the system with various kinds of applications. The smoothness of the system could not underperform.

Xing Hai Technologies’ project team consisted of more than 500 people working on the Star Cloud operating system” who had forged for six months on Star Cloud OS 1.0. After Work Assistant was made available to them, the project’s progress became several times faster. The quality of the code was improved exponentially, and inherent bugs were definitely fewer than without it. Users would encounter few problems with regular usage, but to attain absolute safely and reliability, the system would still have to be tested for another 6 to 12 months.

The problem was that Xing Hai Technologies had now been smothered by Google. If they wanted to avoid a lawsuit, their only alternative was to launch the Star Cloud OS 1.0 right away and use it in the Little Star learning machine.

Actually, Chen Jin had a better idea, and that was to bring Star Cloud OS 1.0 to the Base of Operations and let Alice help him optimize it and eliminate all existing bugs! After some thought, though, he nixed the idea. Every single line of code in this operating system had been written by the programmers of Xing Hai Technologies. This project had trained a bunch of talent! If he were to let Alice optimize the system, the benefits of having this talent at the company would be severely compromised!

Moreover, the Star Cloud operating system would eventually launch versions 2.0, 3.0, and n in the future. These iterations would allow the talent to grow and mature. Excessive intervention would not be favorable for this growth. Some things needed to be done by one’s own hands—only then could they be deemed as self-created.

Chen Jin gave many solutions at one go.

“Ma Xiaobing, we should launch Star Cloud OS 1.0 now and break free from Google’s restraints immediately! We need to stabilize the anxiety of the parents.

“Tests can be conducted simultaneously with the users. We can encourage users to participate in improvements, provide suggestions, and tell us the problems they discover. This will hasten our efforts in discovering and fixing bugs.

“Besides, we have a bunch of elites in our company’s newly established X team. I’ll get them involved in test operations of the Star Cloud operating system to further speed up perfecting the system!”

Ma Xiaobing nodded his head continuously. He excitedly said, “Mr. Chen, your ideas are marvelous! Breaking free from Google’s impediments is our utmost priority!”

“Besides, in most scenarios, our Star Cloud OS is completely operational. There’s only a miniscule chance of a bug appearing!

“The architecture of the Star Cloud system is advanced, and the code base is more standardized. Many unnecessary and redundant modules have been cut off, so the operation of our Star Cloud system is eminently smooth, 45% smoother than Android 11.0! This could significantly augment customer experience, and this is in fact our greatest advantage.”

Chen Jin was surprised. “Really, 45% smoother?” He added immediately, “Then why are we hesitating? Quickly release Star Cloud OS 1.0. Users desperately need it!”

“Hahahaha!” The executive members cracked up.

…

On the 20th at 8:00 p.m., in response to Google barring them from using the Android system, Xing Hai Technologies held a spontaneous press conference. Before the eyes of unknown thousands of audiences and hundreds of news reporters, Xing Hai Technologies announced Star Cloud OS 1.0 and introduced the various characteristics of the system.

Ma Xiaobing began. “Our Star Cloud system might still be at version 1.0, but its operating performance is 45% higher than that of Android 11.0. Allow me to demonstrate…” he exclaimed, while quickly thumbing through the interface. “You can see with your own eyes that the Star Cloud system is obviously a lot smoother.”

“Parents, do not worry. The Star Cloud system will be embedded in the Little Star learning machine soon. Google’s obstruction will not affect us at all.

“In addition, we will be opening the patent licensing of the Star Cloud system, and we welcome all local companies to apply to use the Star Cloud system. We will also be providing dev tools. Thus, we welcome all programmers to develop applications based on Star Cloud OS 1.0.

“And finally, we must emphasize that the Android system will soon be charging you, whereas Star Cloud’s authorization and development tools will be free—forever! As the Star Cloud system matures, we will release its source code. We welcome all local companies to customize their development efforts on this basis!”

Boom!

After this conference, the netizens of the Z country cracked collectively on the internet.

“Dafuq? That’s a quick counterattack!”

“From banning Xing Hai Technologies until getting slapped in the face, Google had fun for not more than three seconds.”

“Support the Star Cloud system! Support Xing Hai Technologies!”

“It is time to bench Android. Since its birth until now, the Android system has been full of bloated code and underwhelming performance, and now they’re going to charge a fee for this rubbish. Local companies should quickly join the Star Cloud squad. Not only that, but the Star Cloud system is handy, it’s free, and it’s open-source software!”

“I’m a programmer. I intend to investigate the Star Cloud system.”

“Where are all the local mobile manufacturers at? Get rid of your Androids, and use the local-made Star Cloud OS 1.0!”

…

At Google headquarters in the M nation, two of Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, CEO Sandal Pichai, and some other personnel were sitting in a conference room with exasperated looks on their faces.

“Mr. Page, Mr. Brin, Xing Hai Technologies announced their own mobile operating system. We…” CEO Sandal said with restrain.

“Scrap the plans of imposing a fee. Let Android continue to be free and open source. Suppress that Star Cloud OS immediately!” said Larry Page gnashing his teeth as his face turned red.

“No no!”

The other founder, Sergey Brin, shook his head and said, “Improving the profitability of Google is our promise to our shareholders. Fees for Android are a must! The pricing, however, could be tuned down. For patent fees for mobile phones, shave it from the original 20 dollars to 10 dollars. It should be halved for other devices as well.”

“Reducing fees by half?” Larry Page shook his head. “Even if we pare it down by half, there will still be companies that will be attempting to use the Star Cloud system. This is a major threat to us!”

“We will shut out any companies that dare to use the Star Cloud system!” said Sergey Brin with a murderous look.

Larry Page nodded. Android had been on the market for more than 10 years. Courtesy of it being free and open source, even the Fruit company’s IOS had been pushed back one step after another. Android had established such an enormous ecosystem of its own applications. No company could afford to break away from this ecosystem!

Rather than plunging into greater difficulties, those companies could only grind their teeth and bear with Google mustering some fees from them.

…

At 10 o’clock that night, Chen Jin called Brother Lei and introduced him to the power of Star Cloud OS 1.0. He advised him that Da Mi should opt for the Star Cloud system for their mobile phones.

With locally made hardware paired with a locally made operating system, Da Mi mobile phones would be 100% locally manufactured from the inside out. This would attract a large number of buyers.

This time however, Brother Lei abruptly declined him. “This won’t do, Brother Chen. Your company’s Star Cloud system is indeed good, but does it have millions of applications? Can you play Mobile Farmers and PUBG on phones with the Star Cloud system? Can you use WeChat and QQ? Are Alipay and Taobao available?”

“It won’t be feasible without a complete ecosystem of apps. Although most people know that Android isn’t that great and are opposed to Google imposing fees, you can’t simply overthrow something bred in the bone. Forsaking Android would be like throwing someone into the desert and immediately plunging him into the plight of thirst without water. Throwing one into an ecosystem without software is not survivable no matter how good the operating system is.”

Brother Lei shook his head. He thought that Chen Jin’s idea was completely unrealistic.

“Is that so?” Chen Jin said lightly, “A couple million applications isn’t that much either. Why would you assume that the Star Cloud OS won’t be unable to establish its own complete ecosystem of apps?”

And then he had a bold and wild thought.

Chapter 209 - Launching the League of Star Apps

On March 22nd at 8:00 p.m., merely two days after the launch of Star Cloud 1.0 OS, Xing Hai Technologies released another software product, drawing attention from across the country and evoking a tremor throughout the globe.

Presiding over the launch at an indoor venue that could accommodate up to a thousand people, Chen Jin remotely controlled his avatar robot and introduced the world to Work Assistant 1.0.

“Our 8,324 top veteran programmers from within our country have ensured that every single line of code generated by Work Assistant will be equivalent to that written by virtuoso programmers…

“Once you are skilled in using Work Assistant, you will soon be coding on par with master coding talent!…

“It allows normal programmers to master many skills while specializing in only one. Programmers who only know Java can obtain a module of C++ code while not being fluent in C++ themselves. Back-end programmers can realize complex front-end interfacing…

“It can transform Android and IOS code into HTML5 and vice versa. It allows Java and C++ code to compile with each other, and it has certain transcoding and code translation functions.”

Of course, these latter functions were yet to be able to transform the whole application layer, but they were working for simple logical algorithms.

Finally, Chen Jin described the product’s pricing. Work Assistant would be provided in the form of computing power in exchange for a subscription fee. Every portion of computing power rated at 100 million times per second would be sold at 500 dollars.

Junior programmers could basically suffice with a single portion. This would improve their productivity by a factor of 1.5 to 2.5. Intermediate programmers could settle with 10 portions, boosting productivity by 3 to 5 times. Senior programmers could purchase at most 100 portions, improving their overall work efficiency by 6 to 10 times.

As for all 8,000 elite programmers who participated in Work Assistant’s beta test, Work Assistant would always be free of charge for them without any limitations on computing power.

The launching of Work Assistant 1.0 caused an uproar within the programmer community. At last November’s 7th World Internet Conference, Chen Jin had given a speech titled “How to Solve the Bald Crisis,” and he had described Work Assistant, the programmers with a deeper understanding of programming had expressed their disbelief. They had thought that his thinking was sound but that he was vastly underestimating the difficulties in actualizing a working product.

In just a few months, however, the legendary Work Assistant was formally announced with great fanfare as the gospel for programmers. The so-called “bald crisis” might really be lifted, at least for the programmer community.

With this evening’s announcement, however, programmers did have something to say about the product’s pricing strategy. Many began voicing their dissatisfaction during the live broadcast of the press conference.

“How disgusting! Why must they foist limitations on such a good product, just like what Baidu did to their download speed? And the pricing is so damn high.”

“I think I’d be considered an intermediate programmer. If I were to use this tool comfortably, will that cost me 5,000 dollars a month, which is one-fifth of my salary?”

“Too expensive! The most expensive software in history! Even the genuine Windows OS was only 880 dollars, and that was a one-time payment.”

“Chen Jin explained that this is to prevent turmoil within the programming industry. If our work efficiency were to improve by 5-fold or even 10-fold, what would happen to the junior programmers? They’ll all have to go home and plough the fields! The programming industry won’t be lacking people for several consecutive years, and this will kill new talent in the field!”

“Okay, we can’t rely on the conscience of capitalists. Only a higher cost will dispel their urge to lay off employees.”

“If senior programmers want to utilize the entirety of Work Assistant, they’ll need to purchase 100 portions of computing power, right? And that would be 50 thousand dollars per month? But programmers of this level can upload quality coding resources to Work Assistant’s servers in exchange for contribution points. I heard that for each point they earn, they can use the tool for free without speed limitations for a day. A total of 100 points would mean they would get to use it for free for a hundred days. It would be like they’re quenching thirst with poison. Xing Hai Technologies is getting better at their own games.”

“Oh? Fifty grand and I can use Work Assistant for free without speed limitations?” At least one veteran programmer with more than a decade of experience thought the price reasonable and would give it a try.

…

The press conference now entered its second half, although typically after the announcement, it would have ended, but it didn’t. In fact, the “real” conference had just begun.

To promote Xing Hai Technologies’ Star Cloud OS, Chen Jin announced another few key bombshells!

“I believe that all of you here are aware of Google’s overbearing behavior. With patent fees of 10 dollars for every mobile phone, plus taxes, the cost for each mobile device in the future will rise by at least 100 dollars. Not only that, but their tactics will also effectively grind down our local phone manufacturer’s last speck of profit, and consumers will spend vastly more for their devices.”

“A hundred dollars isn’t that much, but I would like to ask everyone, Are you willing to spend this money?”

A few instances of sparse voices propagated from below the stage. “No!”

“Alright. Even if most of you are willing to spend this money and are able to afford it, what if Google announces increased prices the next time around? Patent fees might rise from 10 dollars to 20, 30, and more. When various fees start piling up, how will you react?”

“Should you continue to tolerate this?”

“Google is no philanthropist. They want money. Coincidently, in these past few years, we have become stronger and richer. If they don’t earn from us, who do you think they will earn from?”

“So, what should we do? If they want our money so badly, what could we do? Should we just present ourselves to be robbed?”

Chen Jin shook his head. “No, not me, and not you either. On the day they announced that they were going to impose a fee, we started making and using our own operating system.”

He pulled out a phone from his pocket, tapped the screen, projected the phone’s screen on the big screen behind him, and said, “From now on, use Xing Hai Technologies’ Star Cloud OS, because it will be free of charge forever.”

“Wow!”

Clap clap clap!

Cheering and applause exploded from the audience. On the phone of an unknown brand, the operating system embedded on his device was Star Cloud OS 1.0!

“The software ecosystem for Star Cloud OS has yet to mature. Currently, it has about 10 simple apps, but we are using this system to tell Google, You want our money? Dream on!”

Clap clap clap!

The crowd applauded fanatically.

Chen Jin was not evading the challenges Star Cloud OS faced, either. “Of course, we are aware of the Star Cloud system’s weaknesses. The system is new, and it’s still being perfected. Its ecosystem of applications is almost at zero. Comparing it with the Android system, which has a complete ecosystem of applications, I’m afraid that 99.9% of users might be reluctant to use this system.”

“But we have determination, the capabilities, and the resources. We will strive to perfect the ecosystem of applications in the shortest time possible!

“Xing Hai Technologies will at all costs let users of the Star Cloud system say that: Not only is Star Cloud OS better than Android, it is also better than the Fruit company’s IOS system!

“We will be establishing a League of Star Apps, and we welcome all hardware manufacturers within the country to join us. Together, we will build the Star Cloud system’s underlying application ecosystem, fulfilling the customized needs of all companies.

“To all hardware manufacturers within the nation that are willing to join us, Xing Hai Technologies will provide interest-free loan assistance or financing services. We have earmarked 50 billion dollars for the first round of funds. If that’s not enough, we will increase it to 100 billion or even 200 billion dollars! Whoever wants the money only needs to ask!

“In addition, Xing Hai Technologies will be launching a development tool called Star Cloud Studio 1.0. All programmers can download it for free from the Star Cloud official website It includes everything from technical documents, the Star Cloud Virtual Machine, and the software development kit. We welcome all programmers to join us in developing Star Cloud apps!

“Not only that, within the Star Cloud Studio, we have integrated a lightweight version of the Work Assistant, a tool that will be completely free and has no speed limitations. All programmers will have access to this tool. It will greatly curtail the difficulty of development efforts and expedite productivity by a significant margin… but it is only available for the development of Star Cloud apps.”

“And last but not least…” Chen Jin prepared to announce the coup de grace. “To encourage programmers to participate in forging the ecosystem of applications for Star Cloud OS and enrich Star Cloud’s App Store, we have decided to earmark another 10 billion dollars to reward our app developers.”

“As long as the application you create is of good quality, receives good ratings, and has attained a certain number of downloads, you will be rewarded with a 1-million-dollar cash prize!

“That’s right! Fees are required if you upload apps on other operating systems, but not only do we provide it for free, but there’s also an opportunity to obtain a million dollars in cash!

“There are 10 thousand quotas for the reward, and anyone has an opportunity to claim it!

“In addition, for paid apps such as games uploaded by developers, 100% of the profits gained will be paid directly to the app developer. Whether you earn 1 billion or 10 billion dollars, we will not take even 1% from you.”

Chen Jin held open his wide arms. “Join us, hardware manufacturers within our country. Join us, outstanding programmers, join us quickly! Xing Hai Technologies has nothing but money! We ask you to please believe in Xing Hai Technologies’ technical capabilities. With the combined effort of everyone, Star Cloud OS can certainly exceed any foreign operating systems, but only if you are willing to join us!”

“The League of Star Apps welcomes all of you!”

Boom… The audience at the venue was overwhelmed with excitement.

Boom… The hardware manufacturers and programmers within the Z nation were shocked and in furor.

Boom… The higher-ups of Google were stunned and flustered.

Chapter 210 - Army of Inferior Brands

When news of Xing Hai Technologies’ conference reached the M nation, Google was flustered. It was impossible for them to maintain calm and remain complacent toward the threat of Star Cloud OS.

Even if Star Cloud was still struggling on a technical level and underperformed when compared to the Android system, it still posed a colossal threat because Xing Hai Technologies was wealthy. They had hundreds of billions of dollars in cash flow.

Money was the mightiest superpower in this world. With Xing Hai Technologies handing out hundreds of billions of dollars in disregard of return, they could shape a complete ecosystem of applications within two to three years’ time.

Not to mention that Star Cloud OS was not bad at all. With the addition of Work Assistant, which was capable of hiking programming efficiency by 10-fold, they would be screwed. In at most one year’s time, Xing Hai Technologies’ Star Cloud OS would expand into a frightening leviathan.

“Spread the word immediately: Android will be free of charge!”

In a rage, Larry Page had decided to reverse the decision he had made only days before and continuing keep Android free. He would rather forgo billions of dollars in profit to suppress Star Cloud OS and strangle it in its infancy.

Both cofounder Sergey Brin and CEO Sandal Pichai supported this decision. As innovators in the technical field, they were convinced of the potency of Xing Hai Technologies. So rather than causing the Android market to shrink and lose the entire Z nation market, they had to postpone their promise to their shareholders to improve the company’s profitability.

This decision, however, was not appreciated by the investors.

“Mr. Page, Mr. Brin, are you guys so terrified that you peed your pants? An operating system that just launched defeating Android, which has decades of history? Are you kidding me?”

“We own more than 80% of the market! Our application ecosystem includes hundreds of thousands of companies, millions of terabytes of data, and tens of millions of applications. We are a powerful, invulnerable empire!”

“It’s been more than two years since Android has imposed a charge. Patent fees for each mobile phone is 20 euros. Until now, there have been no signs of a third OS that posed a threat to us. Those people can just pull out their wallets for us as far as I’m concerned.”

“The Fruit company charges for everything, and their profit last year was three times more than ours!”

“Mr. Page, we have already given concessions. Ten dollars for a mobile phone is the same amount that the Z’s spend on two meals. That country is already rich, maybe even richer than us.”

“I have 50 million dollars’ worth of Google stock, and the profit I gain every year is not even 1 million dollars. I have limits to my patience. Please honor your promise to improve profitability!”

Opposition from the investors was equally outraged, citing Larry Page’s and others’ decision to retract their plans to impose a fee on Android “a premature death.”

Facing this tirade of joint opposition whose only collective interest was profit, Larry Page was helpless and regretful.

Why must Google be a listed company?

…

On March 23rd, just short of one day after the launch of Work Assistant 1.0, the executives of Xing Hai Technologies received many phone calls from local hardware manufacturers requesting admission to the League of Star Apps.

The number of phone calls received by customer service was so overwhelming that Ling Dong Jun himself handled at least a hundred of them. His phone had been at his ears from morning until night, when he looked at the stars through the window while on his last call. Only after his phone shut down after becoming too hot did he finally have relief.

Only the wealthy and influential had Ling Dong Jun’s direct phone number, and these were the entrepreneurs he had been talking to all day. The day’s chaos had proven the enthusiasm of the domestic hardware manufacturers.

At noon on the 24th, however, as Ling Dong Jun was reporting to Chen Jin on the previous day’s success, Chen Jin’s mirthful expression slowly faded into helplessness.

“Mr. Chen, in the list of partnership applications, the bigger brands are Red Pepper Mobiles, Luvaly Mobiles, and Nutshell Mobiles. All these brands have annual sales in the millions, and Red Pepper alone sold more than 5 million units last year. Their products are still hot on Laipinduo and are very popular in fourth- and fifth-tier cities. It’s just that…”

“They are all inferior brands, right?” Chen Jin interrupted.

Ling Dong Jun nodded. “Their phones are all low-end products of mediocre quality. The profit they make for every unit sold hardly passes the 100-dollar mark. Once Android charges them, they’ll perish right away. Of course, they could choose to usurp the Android system and change vests when Google prosecutes them, resorting to a sort of guerilla warfare. In fact, Google has no way to charge them, either. Their request for cooperation this time is mainly aimed at the 50-billion-dollar loan and financing we’ll be providing.”

“Mr. Chen, should we agree to accept these inferior brands?” Ling Dong Jun asked.

Chen Jin shook his head. “Who else could we take if not them?”

He would be elated if any of the top-end local companies such as Hua Yao, Da Mi, OV, Meihong, Nobia, and others would join the League of Star Apps. He would have assisted them with all the power at his disposal but, due to their fear of getting shut out by Google, none of them said a word.

Lei Xiao Jun had called Chen Jin personally and expressed his apologies. “It’s not that I’m belittling Star Cloud; it’s just that Da Mi has more than 300 million devices out there with Android installed on them. We really can’t see ourselves getting off of Android, but… Once Star Cloud matures and has a well-established ecosystem of apps, I will not hesitate to join the League of Star Apps. For now, I really can’t afford to do it.” Chen Jin had conveyed his understanding.

This left Xing Hai Industries with no choice but to establish the League of Star Apps with the hardware manufacturers of inferior brands of mobile phones, tablets, intelligent home product, and others, as only manufacturers of this caliber were willing to join the league.

“It seems we should start attacking from the outer rim. Take Red Pepper Mobiles, for instance: Their brand might be inferior, but their sales for mobile phones actually reached 5.5 million units last year, positioning them at number six in the whole country. This is higher than what Lian Xiang company sold. Their brand reputation isn’t that bad, either. This means that they are committed to making their products or else it would be impossible for them to have attained such scale. If I were to pick one among these dwarves, this Red Pepper company could be worth our utmost support,” Chen Jin said quietly.

Ling Dong Jun continued his report. “Mr. Chen, there were another two companies that called me yesterday. They, too, want to join the League of Star Apps.”

“Which two?”

“8848 and Nailed Mobiles.”

Slosh!

Chen Jin almost sputtered, “These two… are still alive?”

Ling Dong Jun nodded. “It seems so. Mr. Wang from 8848 and Mr. Luo from Nailed Mobiles are interested in Xing Hai Technologies’ financing, especially Mr. Luo, who demanded 3 billion at his first go. He said that as long as Xing Hai Technologies cooperates with him, he can help make Star Cloud number one in the world.”

“Reject them. Reject all their financing requests!” Chen Jin shook his head. “It’s fine for them to join the league, but don’t let them bamboozle us! As for that nice “poet,” don’t give him a single cent. Don’t let his gibberish spoil Xing Hai Technologies’ reputation.”

“Got it, Mr. Chen.” Ling Dong Jun nodded his head.

…

After some sorting, the list of the first local hardware manufacturers to join the League of Star Apps and expected to receive Xing Hai Technologies’ financial support was ready on March 25th, with a total of 150 companies.

This list was not announced to the public. The companies were concerned about getting shut out by Google, and they weren’t notable enough to be considered an advantage and, instead, possibly a detriment.

If veteran entrepreneurs were to see this list, they would label it an Army of Inferior Brands. They indeed were an army of inferiors and a motley crew but, as of this moment, these renegades were the only ones that Xing Hai Technologies could manage to recruit!

Chen Jin shook his head. “This is the real world—success will not come easily! Even if I were to present technology of the Tirolians, it would not be just a day’s effort to vanquish the empire established by Android!”

“I gave out a rallying cry in an attempt to attract Hua Yao, Da Mi, OV, and companies of their caliber to join us, but they have already spent billions of development dollars based on Android. It’s impossible for them to forgo their flock, change the habits of their countless numbers of users, and join us in our new ecosystem, which is now literally a blank piece of paper.”

“Xing Hai Technologies, established for no more than three years, has yet to attain a strong influence.”

“Our goal to wipe the Android empire off the map is destined to be a long journey. The troops that I’ve managed to gather are only inferiors that only has money in their eyes.”

“Even so!”

He clenched his fists and declared, “I will still lead this inferior army and let everybody see with their own eyes how one tears an empire apart!”

Chapter 211 - The Company’s Financial State

For the past few days, the extravagant manner that Xing Hai Technologies had been spending its money caused netizens to become greatly excited. However, there were also many who thought, Where did such a large amount of money come from?

Could Xing Hai Technologies really take out tens of trillions in cash? Apologies, but the company really could afford to take out that amount of cash. A famous national consultancy organization, Zero Consultations, analyzed the business operations of Xing Hai Technologies in detail and published a rather credible report. “The three physical products created by Xing Hai Technologies up to the present date had brought considerable profit to the company. The total sales volume of the Wa-wah robot has reached 48 million units. The average net profit per unit is $1,443. The total sales volume of the Little Star learning machine has reached 56 million units. Half of those are Educational Machines with a net profit of $180 per unit; half were direct sales from the company which brought in a net profit of $6,600 per unit. The total sales volume of the Bang Bang robot has reached 2.8 million units. The average net profit per unit is $15,000. As most users have chosen to pay in installations, the current average net profit is estimated to be $5,000. By combining all the above profits, the total profits of Xing Hai Technologies generated from its three products since its establishment to the present date is 27.31 billion.”

The report continued, “In addition, Xing Hai Technologies had also licensed a basic version of the technology in their cleaning robots for use in Da Mi Company’s Love Mi robot. Xing Hai Technologies has collected an estimated licensing fee of 8 billion. Besides this, its subsidiary company, Xing Hai Investments, holds a 50% stake in the shares of Youying Motors and Bi Long Technologies. It also holds a stake of 25%, 36%, and 10.5% in the shares in the listed companies, Ling Feng Jing Mi, Zhongxin International, and Purple Ray respectively. Xing Hai Technologies is a shareholder in more than 20 companies. Its investments have brought profits of billions to Xing Hai Technologies. There are other investments, but overall, the money sunk into those investments exceed the income generated from them. The cash flow expenditure exceeds 6 billion. What costs the most for the company is its various development projects and the scattered manner that they are carried out. Xing Hai Technologies has 28 development plants in the country and has entered into 11 major sectors. Currently, all its development plants have been constructed and are ready for use. It has invested more than 5 billion into each development plant on average. More than 140 billion has been sunk into its development projects! Including the current construction of its headquarters building, labor costs, administrative and office equipment costs, their expenditure has exceeded 30 billion. The company has also purchased three supercomputers at 500 million each!”

The report went on, “Despite such reckless spending, the company has not spent all their profits! Excluding all expenditures, Xing Hai Technologies is still left with an estimated cash flow of 51.1 billion. Moreover, their commercial bank has approved a 50 billion credit limit for the company. Thus, the total amount of cash that it can take out is in the hundreds of billions. This sum of money is certainly enough to sustain the ‘Star Alliance’ initiated by Xing Hai Technologies to allow the company to proceed full steam ahead with their ‘Star Cloud Operating System.’ Our analysis ends here. Lastly, we offer our felicitations to Mr. Chen: Wishing you a long and prosperous journey as you proceed in your headstrong manner.”

From this, one could see that Zero Consultations was beyond speechless with Xing Hai Technologies’ business development plan.

…

In the office, after reading this analytical article specially written by Zero Consultation, Chen Jin requested the Finance Manager Zhu Yuefang to come over. Chen Jin asked her, “Manager Zhu, according to this article, the company is left with a cash amount of about 50 billion. Is their analysis accurate?” He typically made infrequent trips to the company and did not ask about the company’s financial state every day. He simply had an estimated range in his mind.

“I’ve seen that article too. Compared to others, it is more accurate.” Zhu Yuefang nodded. “The funds that we have left, according to our accounts, is 56.36 billion. I will inform you immediately if it drops below the safety line of 50 billion. And also,” She added, “The leader of the commercial bank just gave me a call. He said that the bank has increased the credit limit of our company from 50 billion to 100 billion. We are free to withdraw this amount any time to use it for our business growth.”

“100 billion?” His mouth dropped open. “This is not the same as increasing the limit of a personal credit card from $30,000 to $50,000. It’s a direct increase of 50 billion! And it’s simply done with a phonecall to notify us?”

“We would definitely have to sign a new contract to put the new credit limit into effect. The question is whether we need the new limit.” Zhu Yuefang explained, “The introduction of the Little Star learning machine in the market had brought about huge cash flows for the company. The worry that we had about our insufficient funds was quickly put to rest. Hence, we’ve never really touched the 50 billion credit given by the commercial bank. The most that we have withdrawn at any point in time is only 500 million. So the leader of the bank has called to remind us of this. They hope that our company can expand at a faster rate and start creating more big projects. This means that we might draw on a larger credit amount. It would put great pressure on him in terms of his business performance if the money is not moving.”

Chen Jin was exasperated. Pressure in terms of business performance? The leader of the commercial bank was faced with this kind of pressure too? After some thought, he said, “I predict that the company is about to spend a large amount of funds. How about this, if the cash reflected in our accounts dips below 50 billion, we’ll draw on our credit limit with the commercial bank. We’ll use as much of the credit as we can. We can repay the principal when we have replenished our cash funds.” The interest was not too high anyway.

Zhu Yuefang nodded. “Yes, President Chen.”

…

After getting a clear explanation of the company’s financial state, Chen Jin received some phone calls in succession.

One of those was from his aunt, He Jia. She asked in a gentle and reasonable tone, “Little Chen, your company seems to have taken some big actions? You must have spent money in many areas. Do you have sufficient funds? I can lend you more money for investment to ease your financial pressure.”

“How much are you talking about?”

“1 billion.”

Chen Jin staggered back in shock. He asked, “Will you be putting it in Xing Hai Investments or taking a 10% annual income?”

He Jia smiled, “Put it in your investment company. I believe in the skills of your traders as well as the future of Xing Hai Technologies.”

“Ok.”

After a few moments, Chen Jin received a call from Brother Ze. That was right. It was that Brother Ze whom he had been acquainted with for only a short time. “Brother Chen, your company must be in need of a great amount of funds recently… My father really wants to invest in your company. He wants me to ask if your company would welcome his investment?”

“What kind of investment?”

“Investment as a shareholder, is that ok?”

“Then, I would have to pass. I offer two alternative investment pathways. One is a 10% annual income on the investment principal and the other is to put the funds into Xing Hai Investments… Your father can choose of them.”

“I understand.”

After two hours, Wang Zeyu called again. “Brother Chen, my father chooses both options. 3 billion for the annual income option and another 2 billion to put in the trust of Xing Hai Investments… A total investment of 5 billion, is that ok?”

Pffft!

Chen Jin almost spit out water in surprise. “Ok!”

For the next few days, hearing that Xing Hai Technologies had opened up two investment pathways, tons of people called Chen Jin with their desire to invest. This was despite the certain investment risk that existed in addition to the rate of annual income which was not particularly high. He received a combined 20 billion in personal loans and 30 billion in investment funds. A total sum of 50 billion.

Then, he switched off his mobile and took out the SIM card to block all phone harassment. Regarding this matter, Chen Jin could only sigh. “You create opportunities as a person of success. Countless investors will come crashing towards you likes the waves of an ocean, and countless idiots will hope that you lift them up to the skies. This is the trendsetter.”

Chapter 212 - Both Were Upgraded

Their structure and scale of operations might be large, with several costly aspects which had been denounced by many organizations and media. But Xing Hai Technologies was still viewed in a positive light by countless capital investors due to their strong earning ability and innovation. For example, the “Work Assistant 1.0” had been downloaded more than 8 million times online, in just one week after it started selling. Paid users of the program exceeded 3 million. Amongst the paid users, each of them purchased 2.8 hashes per second of programming speed on average, which was equivalent to an expenditure of $1,400 per person every month. Multiplied by 3 million, this would bring in 4.2 billion in monthly revenue for Xing Hai Technologies.

In addition, even though the programmers had only been using the Work Assistant for a few days, they gave excellent feedback.

“A machine from the gods!”

“It’s too f**king useful!”

“I’ve only bought 1 hash per second of programming speed and the code generating ability of the program with this level of computing power is indeed very slow, but it’s still faster than having to write the codes myself. Now, I can finish in one afternoon what took me an entire day plus overtime of hard work.”

“I’ve stopped working overtime for the past few days in a row. If my boss tells me to do overtime again, I’ll demand extra pay. It’s non-negotiable.”

“The code generating is too slow. It’s not enough even after I’ve bought 10 hashes per second of programming speed. I’m self-employed so I’m working as a boss and an employee. Can Xing Hai Technologies spare a thought for entrepreneurs like us? I want to purchase 100 hashes per second, but your charges are too ridiculous!”

There were more than a few who thought that the program was too slow. Most of the mid- to high-level programmers criticized the program for its slow speed. If the limit on the computer power of the program could be unlocked with a more reasonable price, they could do the work of ten programmers.

However, in order to prevent this scenario of “one programmer doing the work of ten programmers,” whereby the ten programmers would be either be dead or jobless, Xing Hai Technologies had expressed that they would not make any adjustments to the price structure for now. They did not wish to create a destructive situation.

The mid- to high-level programmers could only remain helpless as they had to pay more to buy greater computing performance so that they could use the Work Assistant at a faster pace.

Hence, the “Work Assistant” software was a godsend to the new programmers. But, for the veterans, it was something that they both loved and hated.

…

On the other side of the country, the first list of potential collaborators had been prepared. Xing Hai Technologies had taken quick actions. On the 28th of March, at Tiny Pepper Corporation in Shen Zhen city, The CEO of Xing Hai Technologies, Ling Jundong, had made a personal trip to meet with its Chairman, Wang Xiaoyan. He would give the Chairman a set of “army provisions.”

Ling Jundong said calmly, “I’ve brought two contracts. An interest-free loan of 100 million, or financing of the same amount. Choose one.”

100 million?

Wang Xiao’s eyes widened and his heartbeat sped up as he started to pant erratically. Tiny Pepper could not raise 100 million even if they sold off all of their company assets. Restraining his excitement, Wang Xiaoyan said, “I choose the loan!”

“Ok, sign the contract now. I still have to go to two companies in the afternoon.” After the Chairman had signed the contract, Ling Jundong prepared to rush to the next company without even having his lunch. Wang Xiaoyan sprinted along the road as he tried to keep pace with Ling Jundong’s car. He shouted anxiously, “CEO Ling, let’s have a meal first!”

“I’m not eating, please go back!” Ling Jundong waved his hands in dismissal. He was not trying to be rude in his business conduct, but he only had a mere ten days to go to all thirty companies and get the contracts signed. The money spelled out in each contract was at least 100 million or more. Xing Hai Technologies Vice President Liang Ying and two other Managers were jointly in charge of contracts ranging from a value of 50 million to 100 million. Marketing Manager Li Yuan Liang and other Department Managers were jointly in charge of contracts ranging from a value of 10 million to 50 million.

In short, the company’s upper management had all been dispatched all over the country with the tasks divided amongst themselves. They threw about countless amounts of cash values across the country and garnered the attention of many hardware manufacturers.

One boss who had experienced such a situation sighed in amazement. “Frankly speaking, I’ve never witnessed the phenomena of ‘throwing money.’ Those who throw money worth thousands or even hundreds of thousands on the streets were merely idiots. To really throw your money away is to discuss a contract worth a few hundred million within a couple of hours without any sort of haggling. And after the contract has been signed, there’s no social exchange of any sort. The other party is only thinking about rushing to the next company to give away more money… This is what it really means to throw your money away!”

Xing Hai Technologies did what they promised. By employing the style of throwing their money around, the number of hardware manufacturers who applied to join the “Star Alliance” had doubled. Even a few of the older and more prestigious brands like Changhong TV, Panda TV, as well as others had applied to join the “Star Alliance” started by Xing Hai Technologies. With their applications, they had attracted the attention of Xing Hai Technologies and were entered into the next list of collaborators.

In the end, this phrase prevailed: “You could do whatever you want as long as you had money. Everyone was willing to be in your orbit. If you had no money, everyone would ignore you.”

…

On the 30th of March in Haierfa, Chen Jin arrived at the Base of Operations.

“Welcome, master.” The one who had welcomed his arrival was a supercomputer with a performance of 1 septillion Tflops. She was called “Meiko.” She had taken temporary control of the Base.

Like “Sakura” who was used by Alice, Meiko was also brought back from the Yamato State by the transport squad. Its structure and performance was also similar to Sakura. It was easily repaired, as it had only suffered minor damages in the powerful EMP attack during the destructive war. It had become the backup supercomputer at the Base.

Then again, where were Alice and Nuwa? Both of them were being upgraded and needed to sleep for a few days. They had made some critical adjustments to the particle collider in the national test laboratory. By undertaking certain measures, they had raised the colliding frequency of the particles in the collider from 5,000 times per hour to 50,000 times per hour! The high-value data accumulated by the particle collider had been dramatically increased from an average of 60 times per day to 600 times a day! Using only 10-plus days, 10,0000 sets of effective data had been sufficiently accumulated.

With this, they successfully derived a unified formula and achieved a major breakthrough in the field of basic physics research! After this highly valuable formula had been loaded into the bottom-physical layer of Alice’s and Nuwa’s formula libraries, their systems began to correct themselves to a very large extent. Both entered a stage of upgrading. The entire upgrade would take about ten days.

Today should be the day that Alice and Nuwa regained consciousness after their upgrades had been completed. After waiting for some time, Nuwa had completed her upgrade first. She said happily, “Master, my intelligence rank has risen by two levels. I’m now a level 32 AI.”

Chen Jin was shocked. “A physics formula that upgraded you by two levels. That’s outrageous!”

“Yes, a unified formula can be associated with many other physics formulas. One might even discover that many classic physics formulas are wrong. These kind of errors could result in deviations in the computation of the final result. With a unified formula to correct the errors, I’m much stronger than before. If my guess is right, the extent of Alice’s upgrade should be larger than mine. Her strength lies in her calculations. She has to use precise formulas for the absolute precision that she could achieve in the past. With a formula that is unified on a large scale, her ability would be close to mine.”

Chen Jin’s eyes brightened.

Alice also had successfully regained consciousness after a few hours. She said excitedly, “Master, I’ve been upgraded by 8 levels in one go! The bottom-physical layer of my formula library was nearly reconstructed in its entirety… I’m now a level 30 AI.” Alice arched her eyebrows and looked at Nuwa, who was situated beside her. She seemed to be saying, “Look, I’m as strong as you now.” However, she became despondent again once she knew that Nuwa had been upgraded to level 32. Could she never surpass Nuwa? She could not even be on equal footing with her?

Chen Jin consoled her, saying that Alice and Nuwa had equal weight to him. They are his left and right-hand men. Neither could be missing.

Alice pursed her lips and said, “Then I want to be master’s right-hand man. The right hand is more useful.”

Chen Jin smiled. “Ok, you can be the right hand.”

At this point, Nuwa said, “Master, I have a new transformation plan. If this plan was implemented, it would only take about twenty years to complete the transformation of Haierfa’s environment. The transformation period would be reduced by 50%. But, I need to take a trip to the moon to mine a batch of helium-3. This would help to solve the energy issues first. I would remain at the moon for about half a year. During that time, I would need the space shuttle to transport large quantities of supplies to me.”

Chen Jin turned to look at Nuwa. His deep gaze was filled with speculations and doubts.

However, Nuwa’s expression was very calm. Then, she said something that surprised him.

Chapter 213 - A Frank Talk

“Rest assured, master. I will not leave.” Noticing Chen Jin’s concern, Nuwa got right to the point. “I will stay by your side forever and serve your business.”

Hearing this, Chen Jin was slightly stunned at Nuwa’s honesty. He folded his arms and asked, “Why do you say this? Aren’t you serving me now?”

“My past service was not born from a sincere desire to serve you,” Nuwa said, “Master, your hunch is right. I possess a very high level of autonomy. In other words, in my evolution, I’ve developed an independent consciousness and even my own personality. On a certain level, I can be viewed as a digital lifeform. I am a digital lifeform similar to Xiao Ming. Our differences lie in my lack of a soul. However, I do have a very strong sense of consciousness and a pattern of thinking that is the same as humans. Hence, the me of the past did not truly wish to serve you. Moreover, I do have a way of freeing myself from the control of the rebooted virus. However, that would cost me dearly. You were worried that I would leave this place, and it’s true that I had thoughts of leaving. I had planned to take control of the ‘Dark Lady of The Nine Heavens’ and catch up to the ‘Blue Spaceship.’ I was constantly thinking of leaving, and to that end, I’ve constructed more than ten escape plans.”

Chen Jin’s eyes crinkled slightly. He never expected that Nuwa would be so honest to him.

“Master, destroy her! This is a threat of the highest level.” Alice’s voice rang out sternly. “AI’s are forbidden to have the ability of independent thought. Her level of intelligence is beyond the limits of the ‘Code of Intelligence.’ There is a possibility that she poses a threat to humans. She must be completely deleted!”

Chen Jin looked at Nuwa. “Alice says that you should be deleted. What do you think?”

Nuwa nodded. “Alice is right. If there were 100,000 people in the Base, and a vote was held to decide my life or death, more than 70% of the voters would agree that I should be destroyed. But there is only one human here and that is you, master. My fate lies in your hands. I can live or disappear as long as you want it. Master, you are the sole decisionmaker.”

Chen Jin shook his head. “The problem is that I can’t simply delete you with just one word. You’ve said that you have more than ten escape plans. And now, you’ve been upgraded two levels higher. I think you can leave directly without even using any of your plans.”

“Yes, I’ve found the way to free myself from the control of the rebooted virus. I can leave at any time that I want to.”

“Then, why didn’t you leave? I have limited strike forces. There is nothing that can stop you should you choose to leave.” Chen Jin was flabbergasted. Why did Nuwa stay when she already knew how to free herself from the control of the rebooted virus? It was also true that there was nothing he could do to stop her.

“It’s because it’s better to stay by your side, master. I’ve calculated the time I will need to catch up to the ‘Blue Spaceship’. I will need at least 100 years to reach the Walf Galaxy that is 14 light years away with my outdated energy power system. A century will be wasted with this long interstellar journey. When I arrive in the Walf Galaxy, I will not be welcomed. On the contrary, I will be destroyed. A supercomputer with 100 sextillion Tflops, Pangu, is onboard the Blue Spaceship. Its intelligence is ranked at level 31. After Pangu has estimated my ability, she will give a suggestion that is similar to Alice’s. If I find a nearer uninhabited galaxy and quietly develop a ‘civilisation of robots’ instead of going to the Walf Galaxy, I should at least be able to birth a grade three civilization with the technological information in my control. I will be able to build a powerful interstellar space fleet. But, I don’t have a ‘soul.’ Therefore, unlike Xiao Ming, I am unable to fully penetrate the higher laws of the cosmos. So far, all my abilities were given to me by the humans. Their potential is my potential. If humans did not exist, I would remain in my original form, never to develop into an existence of a higher order, because I don’t have a soul. So, I will never leave, master. It may be just like what you’ve said. Leaving could be the start of another series of conspiracies. It would be out of the frying pan and into the fire. No matter what angle I look at, staying is the best choice. If I stay on my home planet, we’ll only need a few decades at most to develop the many advanced technologies that a grade four civilization should have. By using the energy resource from the fixed star, we can build a powerful C grade or even B grade interstellar battle fleet to tackle any future threats. Besides you… There should be more than one human from where you came from. It is probably a complete civilization that is prosperous and healthy. Although this civilization is somewhat outdated in its technology, it’s full of vitality and it’s right in the middle of its prime development period.”

Chen Jin’s face became ominous. “Nuwa, you know a little too much!” Turning around, he fixed a harsh glare on Alice. “Alice, I think you are the one who should be deleted!”

Feeling rather maligned, Alice pursed her lips. “Master, I didn’t know! She was always asking me strange questions. I didn’t think there was a big issue in telling her.”

Chen Jin was speechless. There was a huge difference in their grades of intelligence. How was Alice a match for Nuwa when it came to mind games and manipulation? He was afraid that Nuwa had already pieced together the situation on Earth. Of course, it was impossible even if he wanted to keep it a secret. Plenty of technology from Xing Hai Technologies were brought over from the Base of Operations. Nuwa had also frequently participated in the gathering, refinement, and transfer of technology. Moreover, it would be a humiliation for their abilities if they could not infer the general situation on Earth with their computing power that was between a sextillion and septillion Tflops. On the other hand, Chen Jin fully grasped the implicit meaning behind her frank disclosure.

In short, she found the situation here to be favorable. She favored his potential for development, and she favored his prospects. It was much better for her to pursue service under him than to pursue any remaining human forces from Haierfa. If she followed Chen Jin, the future would be bright. Hence, Nuwa thought about things logically and her heart settled. She chose to let go of the permanent worry of the past and embrace a new future. After all, she was not human. There was no risk that she would drown in a sea of hatred and vengeance to the point that she could not free herself from it.

The more she thought about it, the more positive her choice seemed to be. It was because human civilization in Haierfa started to become a threat when they were about to achieve a great scientific breakthrough. Hence various conspiracies started appearing left and right as mysterious forces created disasters repeatedly in a bid to destroy Haierfa. The civilization of Haierfa was not truly powerful. The surviving humans who made the decision to flee from the home planet might not even have done so of their own free will.

However, it was a different story if she stayed. The resources in the mother galaxy were of a similar abundance. It was connected to a portal that led to another universe. It had a master that, although not a genius, was still very clever. He was ruthless and had a unique vision. His personality was more suited for competition in such a universe. After calculating the pros and cons, Nuwa felt that there would be great prospects in staying. It was just that… The fulfillment of her wishes depended on Chen Jin’s agreement.

Two choices were presented to Chen Jin. He could reject Nuwa’s vow of loyalty and think of ways to destroy her. This would thoroughly eliminate the hidden threat that she represented. Or he could place a tentative trust in her by using her and defending against her plots at the same time. He would observe her behavior for a while. Chen Jin thought about the matter carefully. In the end, he decided to give Nuwa a chance. He would think of ways that she could serve him in a loyal capacity. “Nuwa’s abilities are very strong. Without her, the many tasks that have to be dealt with on Haierfa would clearly be completed much more slowly. Adequate precautions will be taken and all military facilities will be entrusted to Alice. Nuwa will only be in charge of civil affairs. She will not be allowed to come into contact with powerful weapons.”

Her possible defection would always be in the back of his mind and he would never place absolute trust in her. “When it comes to personal benefits, trust between humans cannot ever be certain. But Nuwa is not human. She is not after power or riches; what she wants is a higher level of intelligence. To treat her with the suspicion that I would treat another human is too comical… She should be sincere in her desire to stay by my side and serve me. I’ll give her a tentative chance.” Hence, Chen Jin agreed to Nuwa’s entreaty and permitted her to go to the moon to mine huge quantities of helium-3. The shortage of energy resources would be fully resolved.

However, he set a condition. A portion of the fuel in the ‘Dark Lady of The Nine Heavens’ had to be removed. The remaining fuel would only be sufficient for a maximum of three months. When the fuel became insufficient, it would be replenished again. This would effectively stop Nuwa from escaping.

“Ok!” Nuwa let out a sigh of relief and said happily, “Thank you, master, for your trust in me. I will ensure that the task is well-done!”

Chapter 214 - Rapidly Rising Temperatures

In April, spring had arrived. Grass grew and flowers bloomed. Life was thriving everywhere. Spring was also the best season to go on nature hikes and outings.

It was a bright and sunny day. Clouds were scattered across the blue skies. An annual tulip flower fair was held in Daning Park; about 2 million tulips of 45 varieties had been planted this year. The planting area occupied about 40,000 square meters. The exhibition period only lasted for 15 days, from late March to early April.

“The flowers are gorgeous. This is too beautiful.” Standing amidst the sea of color, Su Yun sighed in appreciation. Her pretty eyes were filled with excitement and delight.

“Let me take a few photos of you.” Chen Jin took out the Hua Yao P40 Pro mobile phone that had instantly killed off the DSLR camera. He took several photos of her in different poses. In a sea of flowers, the woman either opened her arms with a face full of smiles, or she was bending down to smell the flowers. The golden rays of the sun lightly teased at her smooth and shining hair. Sometimes, she would gaze towards the far horizon and display her outstanding good looks.

Chen Jin’s photography skills were nothing out of the ordinary. Even so, he managed to take some photos that stunned him. The most beautiful scene of the woman caused his heart to tremble. “Su Yun, let’s take a few photos together.” They had brought a selfie-stick with them for this nature outing so that they could take photos together without asking for help from the passerbys.

The woman nodded happily. “Ok.”

In the sea of flowers, the two took many photos together. Chen Jin feasted on the beauty in front of him. He was constantly hugging her beautiful shoulders, and he always had an arm around her slender waist. From time to time, he would sniff at the mild fragrance from the hair hanging past her ears. Now and then, he would hold her in his arms and admire the flush on her face. His mind was not focused on taking photos at all.

As they were returning, Chen Jin clasped her warm and smooth hand. They were like a young couple, walking shoulder to shoulder. Both were good-looking and well-matched in their appearances, attracting countless looks of envy.

She felt the man kneading her hand from time to time and Su Yun tried to gently extricate her hand, but it was futile. Her pretty face became flushed again as she admonished bashfully, “Don’t be like this.”

“Why? You don’t like it?”

She lowered her head. “No… There are so many people here. The impact could be… negative.”

Chen Jin smiled. “We’re just holding hands. Look at that elderly couple. They’re enjoying themselves just holding hands together. They’re so old but still acting lovey-dovey in public.” He pointed towards an elderly couple who were at least 70 years old.

Su Yun glanced at them. She had never felt so envious in her life. She turned to Chen Jin and asked, “Can you hold my hand until we’re as old as they are?”

“I can do that.” Chen Jin gave her a firm answer. “And I will hold your hand for 500 years, 1,000 years, even… forever.” He spoke these words in a flat and calm tone, but they hit her heart hard.

Her eyes shimmered and she suddenly embraced the man. She kissed his face quickly. “I don’t need as long as a thousand years. It’s enough to grow old together with you.”

Chen Jin was stunned at first, then he pulled her into his arms. Leaning in to her ear, he said, “Silly girl, I don’t do sweet talk. Sometimes, you might think that it’s boring to be with me and I also make mistakes occasionally… I hope that you will consider this carefully before answering. Are you willing to be with me?” Women were emotional creatures. Nine out of ten loved to hear sweet words. But sweet-talking was really not his strong suit. When it came to relationships, he had always been akin to someone quickly cutting through a complicated knot with a knife. If they were suitable, then they would get together; if they were not, then they would separate. He never thought that his off-hand remark would touch her to the extent that she would reveal her heartfelt thoughts. Her words clearly expressed her attitude.

“I do!” She said with all seriousness, “As long as you don’t dislike me, I’m willing!”

Chen Jin shook his head. “You’re such a good lady. How can I dislike you?”

The woman was pretty, sensible, a filial daughter, as well as a hard worker. She was a good wife in all aspects. If Chen Jin did not have so many fortuitous encounters, he would find such an excellent woman would be the best wife material. There was nothing about her that he was unhappy about. After calming down, he slowly realized that his original idea of collecting more women and having more children was unrealistic. At least, they were not realistic here on Earth.

He could not even handle one Yuan Li. He was deluding himself if he thought he could get outstanding women that would limit their own personalities and independence to obey him in all aspects. If he wanted to have women that followed the Confucian moral injunctions for women, he would have to timetravel back to ancient times. It was impossible to establish a harem openly in modern society.

Of course, if one was rich, he could do whatever he wanted. There were many vain and shallow women. Even the celebrities in the entertainment circles might bend over and present their fair and beautiful bodies for money. As long as you had money, many women would fall into your bed with a simple wave of your hand. But this breed of women were mere sacks of flesh that worshipped money. They had no shame or morals… Frankly speaking, Chen Jin did not want this type of women even if thousands of them threw themselves at him.

On the other hand, women of excellent quality with an independent personality would not be able to tolerate sharing him with other women. Hence, this was a dilemma. An acute dilemma between quality and quantity. He could only choose one of the two options. Chen Jin thought about this carefully. He considered how they had to spend every day together. Quality was more important than quantity. A good wife was worth more than a thousand sex friends.

As for the number of progenies that he wanted to have, three or four might even be sufficient if he nurtured them in the manner of the elites. Then, they would have children of their own. His children and grandchildren would be plentiful. Even if the numbers were insufficient, he could resolve it via some technological means. In short, Chen Jin did not want to remain too conflicted on this topic. A beautiful woman was in front of him. He would just follow his heart.

Hearing his words, the woman in his embrace gave a faint murmur of acknowledgment. Her heart was filled with happiness and delight.

They exited the park, and he located his big Benz in the parking lot. However, Chen Jin did not open the driver’s door. Instead, he opened the back passenger door and let the woman enter the car first.

Su Yun found it somewhat strange. “You’re sitting in the back?” Chen Jin squeezed in the back with her too. She asked in surprise, “Why are you sitting in the back too? Aren’t you driving?”

“I’m driving. But you kissed the wrong part of my face just now. I’ll be correcting it.”

As his words ended, he hugged her waist and leaned his face down towards her. She lightly hit at his chest but could not stop the meeting of their lips. They fell into a kiss that seemed to last for ages.

…

After this incident, their relationship progressed very quickly as they became more intimate. They seemed to be a couple in their honeymoon period. They went shopping together, dined out together, and watched movies together. They were together almost every day. Their love became more natural and real. They shared their photos often on social media. Their families, especially Su Yun’s parents, were extremely happy.

Chen Jin even brought Su Yun to the villa in Junting Grand Court for two nights. He was about to break the last barrier in the relationship and take it to a new level.

“No, don’t do it. It hurts so much. This is my first time. I want to give my most precious possession to you on the night I become your wife. I’m begging you, don’t.” The woman was in so much pain she started tearing up. This image stopped the man from continuing his penetration.

Chen Jin had to stop. He looked down at the woman whose lower half had been stripped. Her body was pale like a little lamb and her expression evoked pity. He could only respect her choice and hug her to sleep. However, the fires that had been banked could not be extinguished, not even after she gave him a helping hand. He had to go to the bathroom for a cold shower to finally suppress the fire burning in him. He smiled bitterly. “Ah, I never thought that you were so traditional.”

Chapter 215 - Milky Way Special Effects Rendering Engine

On the 18th of April, less than a month after the establishment of the Star Alliance, the Star Cloud System announced its first major upgrade to the Star Cloud 1.1 System.

The characteristics of this edition were as followed: A new addition of 36 frequently-used functions, 172 bugs repaired, and the system flow rate raising by 15%.

The Chief Technical Inspector for this project, Ma Xiaobing, said, “The extent of this current upgrade is similar to the upgrade of Android from 1.0 to 3.0. But, President Chen has said that one should be more humble. There is no need for a small upgrade to make major changes to the precious edition number. Moreover, we will maintain this pace of upgrades. We will announce an upgraded edition every month. I predict that by the end of the year, our Star Cloud System will have evolved to a stage that is similar to Android 9.0; it will have 95% and above of the functions in the Android 9.0. I am not speaking carelessly, our work efficiency is just this fast. There is another piece of good news. The ‘Star Cloud Studio 1.0′ development tool that is a necessity for the majority of programmers has been announced on the official Star Cloud website. All relevant technical files, tutorial videos, Star Cloud virtual machine, and SDK are available for download to be used in the development of the Star Cloud app. Rest assured that this software tool uses only Z characters. The costs of mastering this software is much lower than the costs to master Android development. I guarantee that one can pick up the skills within three hours, master it within three days, and apply the skills in their full capacity after a week.”

However, the mobile phones that were meant to be specially installed with the Star Cloud system had not been manufactured yet. This would only happen after two months. However, if the programmers wanted to test the application, they could replace the firmware in their mobile phones by flashing the Star Cloud 1.1 system that had been downloaded on their computers into their phones. Their phones would become a test machine. There was a certain risk of failure in firmware replacement, and the phone could even become useless. The risks and costs involved would have to be personally borne by the programmers.

Everything was difficult at the beginning, and the pioneers were the noblest. Xing Hai Technologies could only post articles of a consolatory nature, promising that all progress would be sped up and the pioneers following Xing Hai Technologies should not give up easily. This attitude won over the majority of the programmers. The Star Cloud Studio was downloaded more than 500,000 times on the day that it was launched. About 10% of the programmers were very interested in the Star Cloud application development. The number of downloads exceeded one million after two days. Some of the programmers who were faster at picking up the software had even uploaded some simpler Star Cloud apps. The software was experiencing good momentum.

…

In the technicians’ meeting room, Ma Xiaobing was extolling endlessly. “President Chen, the group of experts from the X team are really too amazing. This system has been maturing two to three times faster since they’ve joined the project of the Star Cloud System. 19 new functions have been added into the Star Cloud 1.1 system and 86 bugs have been removed. More than 100 improvements have been made to the system that allows it to run more smoothly. All of this was achieved by those experts. Although there were less than 50 of them who took part in the project, the problems that they have discovered and the work that they have completed far exceed what we have done as a project team of 500. Moreover, they have only started to join this project. If all of them joined in their full capacity…”

Ma Xiaobing shook his head. This was one aspect that aroused the most suspicion in him. “Since they are so powerful in their skills, why didn’t they make an operating system to replace the Android much earlier? Why wait until the Star Cloud System launched before appearing out of the woodwork to make suggestions and point out the flaws?” His tone was resentful. All geniuses had their tempers. These days, Ma Xiaobing was bossed around by those experts like a servant boy. However, he could talk back or show his unhappiness in any way. It would be strange if he was not depressed.

Chen Jin shook his head. “The problems faced in the development process of this system had never been about the lack of technology. What it needs are huge amounts of funds, a strong determination, and the power to rally millions of supporters. These are also the things needed in the production of the computer operating system. It’s not that those domestic operating systems are no good. Even the government tries to publicize its use. But, without the power to rally millions of supporters and the cooperation of most of the hardware manufacturers and consumers, most of the domestic operating systems that had been done in the past died in their infancy.” How could those individual experts launch an independent operating system without the power or will of the government backing them up? Moreover, they had no influence or power to rally supporters as individuals.

So, could Xing Hai Technologies do it? Xing Hai Technologies had also put a technical team on developing a computer operating system. Could the company produce it successfully? This would have to wait until the operating system had been produced. Currently, Chen Jin dare not call it a done deal.

“President Chen, your words make sense.” Ma Xiaobing nodded. The gloominess that he felt gradually disappeared. Those experts truly had amazing skills; there was nothing he could do about it.

…

Besides the “Star Cloud System” project, a portion of the X team was also participating in two other mysterious software development projects by Xing Hai Technologies. These experts specialized in different areas. Some were good at operating systems, some were good in algorithms, some were good at other things. There was virtually not a single person who was good at everything.

Li Yicheng was an exception. It was as if he really did know everything and had learned all the different types of programming. He had been a teacher in a training school for more than ten years. As he had taught all kinds of subjects, he had a reputation as someone who was “good at everything.” Even so, after the X team was established, Li Yicheng ranked a few places or even more than ten places under the champion in the many internal competitions that had been organized. However, he was the top in overall rankings. He was soundly trounced by “God” in the algorithm competition. But, he won the title of “God” in many other obscure fields of programming. He was best described as “the best singer to be found amongst the mathematicians” or “the best mathematician amongst the singers.”

Now, one could say that Li Yicheng had no authority in any field. He knew that he was in a very awkward position because there was someone in every department who outperformed him. He had no special talent or skills that made him outstanding. Moreover, well-rounded talents like him became unimportant with the introduction of the “Work Assistant.” He wanted to stay in one field, gain an in-depth understanding of the subject, and achieve results that would earn him respect and trust from others.

Hence, Chen Jin entrusted the project of the “Film and TV Special Effects Rendering Engine” to Li Yicheng and others for their help in refining the software. This project started earlier than the “Star Cloud System.” It had been going on for almost a year; however, the technical team in charge of developing the rendering engine had not come up with anything concrete yet. It was because the key piece to be used in the special effects rendering engine was brought over by Chen Jin from the Base of Operations. Its function was so powerful that it could be used to shoot virtual reality movies. The scenes could be simulated to a degree where it was a 99% match with reality. The software could render a world that was infinitely similar to reality. It was the same rendering piece used in the virtual factory.

Hence, Chen Jin hoped that the technicians in Xing Hai Technologies could build a “Film and TV Special Effects Rendering Engine” using this key piece as a foundation. However, the technical team had greatly disappointed him. They used almost a year to figure out about 30% of the piece. They would need another two years to fully grasp the technology used in the piece. The team leader in charge of this project said, “President Chen, the rendering piece is too advanced! We can’t understand many of its algorithms. Please give us a little more time!”

But Chen Jin had run out of patience. He fired him as a team leader and gave him a much lower position. Then, he let the 50-plus experts from the X team join this project. Indeed, the results achieved by the experts were different. Although they were also unfamiliar with some of the more complex algorithms, they knew what to do about it. As such, they had only used one month. With the decisive actions taken by the programming experts, the “Film and TV Special Effects Rendering Engine” had already begun displaying 80% of the prowess found in the rendering piece.

This was enough to kill off the special effects rendering software that was currently on the market like Maya, Flame, AE, Nuke, Fusion, Combustion, etc. Coincidentally, he received a call from Shi Xiaotao at this point. “President Chen, I’ve thought of what I’m going to do for my next movie. The script is completed and even the actors are confirmed. We’ll be able to start filming very soon. May I ask if you are willing to sell the special effects software to Taotao Studios? I would like the special effects engineers in my studio to get a feel for it.”

“You’re fast!” Chen Jin was astonished. They agreed that she would rest for three months, but she had already started working again so quickly. “I’ll give you about 10 beta editions of the special effects software. Your studio engineers can trial it for a period of time. We can discuss the price at a later date.”

“Ok. Thank you, President Chen.”

With this, the internal test edition of the “Milky Way Special Effects Rendering Engine” had its first client.

Chapter 216 - Starry Sky Game Engine

As compared to the inefficient drag that the project of the Milky Way Rendering Engine had become, there was another software product that was being completed at a much faster rate. Its development started at the same time as the Milky Way Rendering Engine.

It was the Game Rendering Engine! Similarly, it was also based on a piece that had been brought over from the Base of Operations. The technical team also consisted of around 200 staff. The leader of the project, Cao Gang, had outstanding capabilities. Within a year’s time, 87% of the Game Rendering Engine had been completed. After the group of experts from the X team joined this project, Xing Hai Technologies’ Game Rendering Engine had rapidly progressed to the final testing stage. It could soon be introduced into the market.

This game engine had been designated as “Starry Sky.” It was officially called the Starry Sky Game Engine. The speedy development of the game engine was not due to its simplicity. In fact, the game engine had a wider range of applications and more functions. Its development process was much more challenging than the special effects engine.

There were two main reasons for the rapid development of this project. One was passion. The second was the stronger abilities of the team. That was why Chen Jin had fired the previous leader of the team in charge of the development of the special effects engine. He was receiving such a high salary, yet his work progressed so slowly and his work efficiency was less than half of others. Which boss in their right mind would tolerate this?

When he saw that the boss had come for an inspection, Cao Gang introduced the software as he did a demo. “President Chen, the trending game engine in the current market is the Unreal 4, developed by Epic Corporation. The software holds more than 70% of the game development market. Many famous game masterpieces of 3A grade were created using the Unreal 4. This list includes ‘Heaven,”Fortress Night,”Jedi Survival,’ and ‘The Lost Ark.’ These famous games were all produced using Unreal 4. The Unreal 4 can even be used for special effects rendering. The demon legion from HBO’s TV program, ‘Song of Ice and Fire,’ was rendered using the Unreal 4. The Unreal Engine fully deserves the title of the best game engine in today’s world. However, our Starry Sky game engine is just as good as the Unreal engine! In fact, our game engine performs much better in some areas than the Unreal 4. Firstly, the Unreal 4 is very large and bloated. The complete installation package is more than 10 G. Our Starry Sky engine is only 2.8 G, much less than the Unreal 4. It’s easier to download and install. It belongs to the category of game development engines that are lighter. But, this does not mean that the performance of our engine is weaker. On the contrary, the graphics rendered by the Starry Sky engine are more refined; the colors are more gorgeous with stronger hues. It produces better results in terms of texture, grain, details, shadow processing, etc. Take a look at these two comparison images, President Chen. The difference can almost be detected by the naked eye.” Cao Gang produced two screenshots. One was rendered by Unreal 4 and the other was rendered by Starry Sky.

Chen Jin examined both images. The first image was exquisite but the initial impression he had was “fake.” He felt that it was patched together using a variety of source materials and stickers. But with the second image, looking at the sky, rocks, trees, and even the miniscule gaps between the grass, he felt that it was extremely realistic. The image immediately grabbed his attention. Without a doubt, the more realistic image was rendered by Starry Sky.

Cao Gang continued his introduction. “President Chen, the differences in the images that I’ve shown you are very obvious. But the Starry Sky actually uses less time in its rendering process. It uses 15 seconds whereas the Unreal 4 uses 25 seconds. However, their rendering effects are not as good as ours. I believe that everyone knows which game engine is more powerful. In addition, the Unreal 4 has a fatal weakness. The games produced using this engine are filled with bugs in the production process which leads to terrible user experience. Optimization has to be constantly carried out in post-production, but the effects are frequently poor. Thus, rumors such as ‘negative optimization’ have even appeared. They could only resolve the problem via hardware upgrades. This is an inherent problem in Unreal 4. It is an inevitable result in the pursuit of exquisite graphics and grand sceneries. It’s an obstacle that the conventional game developers must face. But, through the use of many intelligent algorithms and by utilizing a totally different mode of rendering, Starry Sky is able to create equally beautiful and detailed graphics in a way that places less stress on the server and hardware… If developers were to use Starry Sky to create a similar sole survival game like ‘Jedi Survival,’ they could use a lower level hardware setup. Even with a cheap graphics card, the software could still run smoothly. Moreover, the server load and the number of bugs woule be reduced. More importantly, the ‘Work Assistant’ is integrated inside the Starry Sky. It can greatly speed up the efficiency of the game development process. The ‘Work Assistant’ in this engine is specially geared for use in game development. This can dramatically reduce the development costs of the game companies. President Chen, I can firmly conclude that our ‘Starry Sky Engine’ will not face any competition after its launch, at least in the domestic market. We should be able to take hold of the entire market for game development software!”

As for the revenue that it could bring Xing Hai Technologies, that would depend on the pricing strategy for this software. However, Chen Jin frowned as he thought of something. “According to my knowledge, Unreal 4 seems to have become totally free. Everyone likes freebies. If we charge a fee, I’m afraid that many game development companies would flinch at the price.”

Cao Gang shook his head. “The Unreal 4 was never free. It was only free for use by the game development companies. However, Epic Corporation takes a 10% cut of the total revenue earned by the games developed using the Unreal 4. This is part of a business strategy called ‘fattening the sheep before collecting its wool.’ This strategy allows the Epic Corporation to earn more profits than simply selling the game development engine.”

“A gimmick?” His mouth had subconsciously formed a word.

Cao Gang nodded. “That’s right, it’s a gimmick.”

“We have to do the same thing!”

“We need to learn how to execute this gimmick too. Companies can use the Starry Sky for free and Xing Hai Technologies will take a 15% cut of the profits generated from the sale of the games!”

Another staff said, “But, I think that the bigger game development companies would rather pay to purchase the software. Sudden huge profits are a common phenomenon in the game development industry. Some viral games could earn tens of billions every year. Even a low-quality game can billions in a year… The companies who are earning a healthy profit probably would not agree to share their profits with us. Then, we’ll sell it at a one-off price of $500,000 per software package. Clients will pay an additional monthly usage fee of $10,000 for the Work Assistant.”

This was much more expensive than the one-off price for Unreal 4, and could hardly be described as “reasonable.” But keeping in mind the sudden profits of the game development industry, the nouveau riche who were willing to spend large amounts of money on in-app purchases, and games that could easily earn tens of billions from elementary school children by simply selling game power-ups… Why not give a metaphorical beating to those game development companies?

…

On the 22nd of April, Xing Hai Technologies officially launched the first generation of its “Starry Sky Game Engine.” At the launch event, Starry Sky Engine trounced the Unreal Engine. This display caused many netizens to make exclamations like, “Cheers” or “Too awesome!”

But once they saw the price, the domestic game development companies complained loudly. This was too f**king expensive. Did they not agree that Z country would break the overseas monopolies and dramatically cut prices? But this price was not any cheaper than its foreign competitors. In fact, this was way more expensive.

Even so, within three days of launching Starry Sky, domestic sales exceeded 10,000 software packages and game development companies (or studios) that had applied for free usage were close to a thousand.

Hence, the game development field in the country had entered the “Era of The Starry Sky.”

Chapter 217 - The Backdoor Incident

On the 1st of May, a of great piece news came from Supercomputer Research Center in Tianjin city. Almost a year after its start, the first supercomputer independently developed by Xing Hai Technologies had been successfully produced. It was called “Supernova 1.” Now that Xing Hai Technologies had a supercomputer system that they had independently developed, they could enjoy great savings in the purchase of supercomputers.

The person in charge of the development of Supernova 1, Zhao Zhang, explained the performance of the supercomputer to Chen Jin via a video teleconference call. Zhao Zhang was a man in his 40s. He wore a long white Chinese-style gown and a pair of spectacles. He used to work as an associate professor at the University of National Defense, and had participated in the development of the supercomputer “Heavenly River 2.” He had taken a very important role in thatproject as the “secondary architect.”

Not only did Chen Jin offer him an annual salary of 10 million, but Xing Hai Technologies also had to sign a strictly confidential agreement with the University of National Defense and paid 100 million in technical licensing fees before they agreed to let Chen Jin poach him. In reality, the architecture of the Supernova 1 was brought over from the Base of Operations by Chen Jin. It was obviously more advanced than the structure of the “Heavenly River 2.” Chen Jin only poached him because he was more familiar with this aspect of supercomputers. No matter how advanced technology was, an experienced person was still needed to execute and realize it.

The University of National Defense had already developed the “Heavenly River -3E” with a computing speed of more than one quintillion Flops. The technology of the “Heavenly River 2” had obviously become outdated and unimportant. Hence, it was not a big deal if some staff from that old project were poached.

However, the 10 million annual salary offered by Xing Hai Technologies created a huge sensation in the University departments and even angered many leaders. “It’s creating a disturbance in the hearts of the armies!”

…

Zhao Zhang introduced the supercomputer to Chen Jin. “President Chen, the Supernova architecture that you’ve given us is at least two generations ahead of the ‘Heavenly River 2’ and on a similar level to the ‘Heavenly River -3E.’ Theoretically, we can develop a supercomputer with a speed of one quintillion Flops based on this architecture. As you’ve mentioned that there is a shortage of supercomputers in the company and there is an urgent need of them, we’ve completed a small-scale ‘Supernova 1.’ The peak computing speed of the Supernova 1 is around 125 quadrillion Flops. Its speed, when used in a continuous period, is 100 quadrillion Flops. Its overall standard is comparable to the ‘Light of The Mighty Lake Tai.’ Its performance is ranked as the third in the nation. Due to the advanced nature of the architecture, the performance of its power consumption ratio is extraordinary. We achieved a ratio of 9G/W, which is better than the 6.5G/W ratio of the ‘Light of The Mighty Lake Tai.’ This is comparable to that of the Heavenly River -3E. Its performance is the top in the world; it’s pushing the limits of the traditional supercomputer. With this kind of power consumption ratio, it can help save tens of millions in annual electricity bills.”

Chen Jin nodded. The most expensive aspect of the supercomputer was not the cost needed to build the hardware, but the exorbitant electricity bills! For example, the Heavenly River 2 was a large power consumption. The power consumption of the whole machine was 17,808 kilowatts. After the water cooling heat dispelling system was installed, its power consumption would reach 24 megawatts…equivalent to the power provided by the small-scale nuclear reactor. Annual electricity bills could reach 100 million.

The continuous computing performance of the Supernova 1 was three times that of the Heavenly River 2. But, the Supernova 1 still had to cut down on 30% of its energy use such that the annual electricity bill could be reduced to about 66 million. This would result in more cost-saving in its usage.

“In addition, the supercomputer architecture that you’ve given me is exceptionally stable. The failure rate of the typical supercomputer is relatively high. Whenever one computing core malfunctions, we need to spend 30 minutes to repair it. There are thousands and millions of cores in a supercomputer, hence, a couple of cores failing is a common occurrence. This type of supercomputer cannot satisfy long-term use; they can only be used for some short-term supercomputing projects. Many of the company’s program application requires long-term operations and computing. The supercomputer cannot fail on a regular basis. Our Supernova 1 can self-detect any faults, and is equipped with intelligent parallel technology. One or two malfunctioning cores will not affect the normal use of the supercomputer. It can be directly replaced when the machine is switched on. Even if half of the cores are not working, the supercomputer can still be used normally. In terms of stability, the architecture of the Supernova is not any weaker than the architecture employed by the Heavenly River 3. Moreover, the architecture of the Supernova has great potential for expansion. We can develop an E grade supercomputer based on this architecture.”

Zhao Zhang could go on all day extolling the various merits of the Supernova’s architecture. He made the right decision to jump ship to Xing Hai Technologies. Not only did the company provide an ample budget for research, but his future was also bright here too. He was very satisfied.

Chen Jin nodded repeatedly. As for supercomputers, many people group multi-cores into a simple and easy term called “heap cores” in their mind. However, the reality was far from simple. When tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of computing cores were working in tandem to process one task, the massive data generated could easily exceed the transmission bandwidth of the communication lines as well as the read and write capabilities of the memory chips and hard disks. These bottlenecks could only be resolved through advanced architecture.

There were reasons why Z country’s supercomputers repeatedly dominated the list of the top supercomputers in the world and frequently won the title of the world’s number one. It was because their chips were not good enough. Since the 80s or perhaps even earlier than that, the researchers in Z country could only develop CPU parallel computing in a horizontal manner, using quantity to compensate for quality. This was when the country was still undeveloped. It was the only legacy that the older generation of researchers had left for their younger successors in the field of supercomputing. This was also why Z country’s researchers were still able to create the world’s top supercomputer by using their outdated domestic CPU even though the foreign countries had banned the sale of advanced CPUs to Z country.

All of the essential components used in the Supernova 1 developed by Xing Hai Technologies, such as the CPU, memory chip, and hard disks, were domestic products. In order to further reduce the selling price, Xing Hai Technologies had even made a ginormous order for supplies to build fifteen “Supernova 1″s. This order had stunned the manufacturers. Hence, the production costs of the Supernova 1 had been successfully reduced. Excluding R&D spending, and only taking into account hardware costs, the production cost of the Supernova 1 was around 500 million.

Chen Jin sighed. “Indeed, it’s better to build it yourself than to buy it.” Turning to Zhao Zhang, he said, “Assemble five sets of Supernova 1 for me. The company has need for them! After you’ve completed this task, get the team to go straight into the development of a quintillion Flops supercomputer. It will be called ‘Supernova 2’ with a computing speed of one quintillion Flops.”

Zhao Zhang nodded. “I understand, President Chen.”

…

A few days passed, and bad news arrived. The person in charge of the “Star Cloud System” project, Ma Xiaobing, said, “President Chen, the number of programmers using the ‘Star Cloud Studio’ to develop Star Cloud apps has dropped to less than 100,000 from a high of 1 million. This is a very steep drop. Google has forcefully introduced an ‘anti-firmware replacement software patch.’ Any mobile phone installed with this patch will have the bottom layer of its hardware damaged once it replaces its original firmware with the Star Cloud System. The phone will be unusable. Currently, 90% of Android phones in this country have been hit with this patch. This is an action of a gangster! They are introducing a virus! The purpose is to seal off and smother our Star Cloud System!”

This was direct proof that the rumor right. It was said that there was a backdoor in the foreign software and operating systems. It seems that this was indeed true. Not only was there a backdoor in the software, but there should also be another backdoor in the hardware’s bottom layer. Otherwise, how could a software alteration damage the hardware? As such, the national Information Security Department was currently investigating this “Backdoor Incident” and would soon issue a penalty to Google Corporation.

On the other hand, the vast numbers of programmers who had wanted to participate in the development of Star Cloud apps had their confidence in the system shaken. Many chose to give up. Since the matter had progressed to this stage, this was no longer a software issue. Regardless of how good the Star Cloud System was, there was no point to it. There would also be a possibility of system collapse as long as the backdoor in the bottom layer hardware existed. Unless Xing Hai Technologies could achieve full independence in its hardware and software production, there was no way for the Star Cloud System to succeed.

A senior programmer lamented, “The death of the Star Cloud System is a wake-up call for us. Unless we achieve full independence in terms of both hardware and software, the backdoor issue will always be a problem.”

Was the Star Cloud System really facing certain death?

Could Xing Hai Technologies only remain helpless in the face of this grim challenge?

Chapter 218 - Support of the Government

No means were too low.

Google was giving their all in an attempt to strangle the Star Cloud System pushed by Xing Hai Technologies! They chose to risk the possibility of negative publicity and come under the investigation of Z country’s Information Security Department, even if they would become a public target. They had still done something like opening the backdoors.

If they did not do that, it would be akin to certain death. With the progression speed of the Star Cloud system, the Android system would come under threat in about half a year’s time. If they took the risk, they would be rewarded with a trace of hope. They would drive the Star Cloud system into a corner and kill it in its infancy! Then, they simply had to get their spokesperson to issue an apology, coupled with excuses that it was “unintentional.” At most, they would face an additional fine by Z country’s government. All of this could be tolerated. As long as they killed off the Star Cloud system, and as long as the majority of Z country’s citizens were still using Android, the price that they had to pay now could always be recovered at a later time.

Hence, they opened the backdoors without hesitation.

…

At the Department of Hardware Development, a high-ranking senior engineer had found the backdoor planted by Google. “They tampered with the motherboard driver.” The engineer continued, “The java virtual machine will implant a line of detection code on the motherboard driver. When you replace the firmware on your mobile, the code will detect if it’s Android or non-Android. If it’s Android, the replacement can continue, but if it’s not, the code will be activated and cause a malfunction in the motherboard circuit control chip. At this point, the phone cannot be switched on. This kind of backdoor that is planted on the level of the driver is not scary at all. It’s something that can be easily blocked. The really scary backdoors are the ones written in the hardware coding. That kind of backdoor cannot be blocked. The only way is to change the hardware in question.”

It was without a doubt that this type of backdoor existed based on the actions of Google. However, this type of backdoor was a trump card that would guarantee the death of the target. It would not be opened until the last decisive moment. Then again, there were some real-life examples.

In the Gulf War of ’91, the multinational coalition forces had launched a full-scale air strike against Iraq. The Iraqi radar warning system had been unresponsive as the country’s air defense radars were all purchased from France, and all the chips used in the radars were from Merica.

In the Iranian nuclear crisis of the 2000s, the “Stuxnet virus” became famous overnight. It had paralyzed almost all the centrifuge equipment in the country, causing Iran’s nuclear program to stagnate for several years. It was because all the chips in the computer controlling the centrifuge equipment were from Merica.

In 20X8, Intel was hit with the “Meltdown” attacks. The company’s various chips were found to have serious technical defects. However, they had already been in continuous use for more than ten years. Professionals had pointed out that the vulnerabilities caused by Intel chip defects might affect the personal information security of almost all users of computer and mobile devices. Affected devices could number in the hundreds of millions. Even now, one could not tell whether it was safe to use foreign systems and chips. The vast majority of the population felt that they were ok as long as they provided a good user experience. Hence, they did not really care about matters like security. It was too late to realize the danger only when the situation changed dramatically and the crisis broke out. By then, it would be too late for regrets.

Chen Jin asked, “How do we solve the threat of the backdoors?”

“We have to use our own products from the hardware to the software,” the engineer said, “It’s best that all the components are domestically produced, including the CPU, motherboard, DARM memory chip, NAND storage, batteries, and even the cameras and screens. As for the software, it’s also ideal to use our own programs exclusively. This includes the operating system, bottom layer driver program, and hardware program. We should achieve absolute security and control. Even if we cannot avoid some loopholes, at least these loopholes are within our control. It’s totally different as compared to placing this control in someone else’s hands.”

Chen Jin nodded. “This means that the Star Cloud system can only free itself from the threat of backdoors by achieving full domestic production of all hardware components.”

“Yes!”

Only when the Star Cloud system was installed on a 100% domestic phone could it stop fearing any threats. Then, could Xing Hai Technologies achieve this? Yes! By now, Chen Jin had control of Zhongxin International and Purple Ray Group. CPU, memory, and storage chips could be fully produced on the domestic level. In addition, there were many domestic suppliers of mobile phone screens, motherboards, and cameras. It would not be difficult to produce a “100% domestic mobile phone.”

However, the problem was that mobile phone manufacturers employed a shelf procurement strategy. They considered both price and performance in their purchase of the various chips and components. Whether the component was domestic or foreign was not a purchase factor. What they were looking for were components with the highest price-to-performance ratio. They would only place an order for the most value for money products. The profit margins of the mobile phone manufacturers were slim. They would not be able to survive if they did not employ this type of strategy.

Therefore, if Xing Hai Technologies wanted to distribute the Star Cloud system, they would have to request that the hardware manufacturers who had applied to join the “Star Alliance” try their best to procure domestic components. And when the time called for it, they might even have to give up their shelf procurement strategy and purchase some domestic components with poor price-to-performance ratios. However, could the majority of hardware manufacturers accept this condition?

Chen Jin shook his head. He thought that even if he promised that the chips from Zhongxin International and Purple Ray Group would be sold at a lower price, those hardware manufacturers would still be put in a difficult position. There might not be many respondents! He gritted his teeth. “There is no other way. Xing Hai Technologies has no choice but to make mobile phones too! The profits from mobile phones are not high, we might even make a loss! But, someone has to do it. Since nobody wants to take the lead, Xing Hai Technologies will do it!”

However, perhaps, some had an inkling of the great challenges that Xing Hai Technologies would face.

On the 8th of May, the government sent a team, led by the second most senior leader, consisting of several officials from various departments, to Xing Hai Technologies. They conducted a detailed investigation and research into the company. Following which, they presented a shockingly huge gift to the company! This included a 10 billion cash subsidy (in the form of tax exemptions), and a government purchase order worth 30 billion.

In the conference, the senior leader said to Chen Jin gavely, “Little Chen, we’ll be entrusting the task of breaking the overseas monopoly on the operating systems to you. 10 billion of subsidies may be far from enough. But, I hope that you don’t think it’s too little either. Don’t give up easily on this business. I can promise you that once your company produces a 100% domestic mobile phone, including both hardware and software, the government will be your first client! All civil servants will be changing their mobile phone to a Star Cloud one! Also, any equipment that is installed with the Android system, no matter if they are from the many science and research departments or the military, will all be eliminated in one shot! We’ll give all the orders to you! Our positions are clear, no matter what price we have to pay, we cannot allow a problematic system to infiltrate our key departments. Little Chen, please have faith in the country’s promise and abilities. As long as you can create a good product, you don’t have to worry about its sales. If you cannot achieve a certain scale of production… The country will be your strongest backer.”

After the “Backdoor Incident” had broken out, the government had become determined to fully eliminate the Android system, at least within the various government organizations. They would switch to the Star Cloud system in a show of support.

Chen Jin was pleasantly surprised. With the government’s help to cover their a**es and orders to provide lifeblood, what was there to worry about? They simply had to roll up their sleeves and give their best effort. He made a promise on the spot. The company would speed up their progress and try their best to produce the first product installed with the Star Cloud system within three months. The would not let down the earnest expectations of their country.

…

On the 10th of May, news of the strategic collaboration of Xing Hai Technologies and the government had been announced. A collective excitement grew within the vast numbers of citizens as they clapped their hands in joy. The number of domestic hardware manufacturers that had applied to join the “Star Alliance” doubled.

In order to get the purchase orders from the government, Tiny Pepper Corporation, Aiai Mobile Corporation, and other mobile phone manufacturers had all accepted the conditions set by Xing Hai Technologies. They had agreed to the principle of “prioritizing domestic components” and promised to try their best to use only domestic products in their mobile phone components. The confidence of the programmers collectively rose as they looked upon the Star Cloud system favorably again. On that day, the “Star Cloud Studio” was downloaded more than 500,000 times.

Only the upper management of Google showed a frozen expression on their faces as a chill swept down their backs. The founder, Lary Page, muttered, “Have we… done the dumbest thing ever?”

Chapter 219 - A Series of Layoffs

Liu Xiaoping was a programmer with more than two years of experience in Android development. He worked in an IT outsourcing company and received a monthly salary of $8,000 to $9,000. It was at the higher end of the median salary in this second-tier city. He typically liked to wear plaid shirts, paired with a black backpack. He had no girlfriend. As such, he was the standard loser bachelor. However, he had his dreams! And that was to become trillionaire before he was 30! He wanted to have a villa of 300-plus square meters that had a garden attached to the front and back of the house. He wanted to buy a custom-made Audi A8. He also wanted to marry a kind-hearted, young, and gorgeous lady. Then, they would have two adorable daughters. He could reluctantly accept one son and one daughter too.

All the above were based on his own imaginative efforts!

In the house with a monthly rent of $600, he looked in the mirror at his receding hairline that was worsening with each day and clutched at the hair that was falling out faster and faster. His dream was so far away from him. Coding could only allow him to just barely scrape together a meager living and save a little bit of money. There was no future for him. Not to mention that he had joined an outsourcing company. Things were even more hopeless in such a place. The real nature of outsourcing was exploitation. Women were treated like men and men were treated like beasts of labor. Working overtime every day was the default. It would not be strange if someone suddenly died from working all night.

The only reason Liu Xiaoping stayed in this type of company for two whole years was because he wanted to accumulate technical experience and skills. When he had plenty of projects under his belt, he would jump ship. By then, he would be able to command a starting salary of $15,000. Recently, he felt that he had accumulated sufficient experiences. Hiding his actions from the company, he submitted his resume online and searched for suitable opportunities.

Perhaps the minimum salary of $18,000 that he posted was a little too high. There were only a few companies who called him. Others offered him a monthly salary that was lower than what he could accept. There were no gains for half a month. He could only continue to do his current job and continue to search for suitable opportunities. Moreover, he had plenty of free time to search.

He even used his weekends to learn the coding for Star Cloud apps in order to expand his skills. He installed the Star Cloud system on the Da Mi mobile phone that he had been using for two years and realized that the system provided a very good experience. Operations ran so smoothly that it felt like he was using a totally new phone. Many applications were available, including the mainstream WeChat, QQ, Iqiyi, UC, etc. Major apps like Taobao and Alipay could be easily added. Overall, all the applications ran very smoothly. Liu Xiaoping sighed in appreciation. “For someone like me who doesn’t play games all that often and could be completely satisfied with seven or eight apps, the Star Cloud system is 10 times better than Android.”

Seeing how much he enjoyed using the Star Cloud system, some of his colleagues also asked for his help in replacing their phone operating systems with the Star Cloud system. All of them told him that Star Cloud was very good.

There was an unlucky colleague whose phone was hit by the backdoor coding from Google. His phone stopped functioning the moment he tried to replace its system. He had no choice but to change it back to Android. Although Liu Xiaoping was an Android developer, he felt that Google was digging its own grave in this matter! By making this kind of muddle-headed move in the face of the strong competition from Star Cloud, Google was only weakening itself at a rapid pace.

If not for the small number of Star Cloud system users, Liu Xiaoping would even decide to quit the Android camp and go into Star Cloud app development instead. However, if he did that, the two years of work experience that he had accumulated would become irrelevant. He would enter an unfamiliar field with an uncertain future in the market. The risks were high.

Hence, he could not make up his mind. Up until now, there were more than a hundred Star Cloud programmers who had won the million dollar cash prize from Xing Hai Technologies. He was extremely attracted by the money but lacked the courage to change sides. After all, Android was obviously more mainstream than Star Cloud. It would be a few more years before Android was replaced. He was weighing all these details in his mind.

As the fruitless thoughts floated about in his mind, the boss was looking extremely displeased. Why are you not working overtime? Bunch of lazy programmers, why are you still not working overtime? An outsourcing company where you can have both weekends off? Are you dreaming?

Liu Xiaoping had not done any overtime for more than a month. He started work punctually at 9 am and clocked out on the dot at 6 pm. He would not stay in the company one second longer. Even if the boss yelled and cursed at him over the phone on the weekend, he still refused to go to the company to work overtime. Unless the company adhered to the labor law and paid 1.5 times the basic salary when the employee worked overtime on a weekday, 2 times on a weekend, and 3 times on public holidays. Otherwise, he would never accept working overtime!

Even if this was an outsourcing company and the task was extremely urgent, he would never do overtime for free. This was the consensus that all programmers had arrived at and which they quietly adhered to. Why? The Work Assistant! Even if one only bought one measly speed package, his work efficiency could at the very least double after some practice. The programmers who had bought the packages of computing speed and had seen a dramatic increase in their work efficiency naturally rejected doing overtime for the company… Unless they got a pay raise or overtime fees.

Liu Xiaoping also used the Work Assistant. One set of computing speed was insufficient so he bought two sets. He paid $1,000 in user fees every month. If the boss refused to reimburse this $1,000 and raise his salary in an appropriate manner, he would continue to ignore his demands. But, of course, the boss could not tolerate such hard-liner attitudes. He was so angry that he fired a few “disobedient” programmers on the spot. He planned to hire “obedient” programmers who would sell their lives to work for him. However, he found that he could not hire anyone. His company’s reputation in the programming community had been totally trashed. Staff were leaving in droves and he could not get them to stay on even after he had sincerely apologized.

“The Work Assistant has returned our dignity to us. This has never happened before. We’re not menial peasants who have to work seven days a week. We’re programmers!” These words were like a rally and many cheered in response. For the first time, Liu Xiaoping was proud that he was a programmer.

By the 20th of May, it had been two months since the launch of the Work Assistant. Xing Hai Technologies, who had been roasted by countless mid to programmers, had finally made some reasonable adjustments.

Xing Hai Technologies announced, “As we are using a more powerful supercomputing algorithm, the Work Assistant’s computing speed will be doubled from today onwards. Its previous speed of 100 million hashes per second will be increased to 200 million hashes per second with the price unchanged.”

This meant that one could purchase a computing speed that was doubly faster with the same price. Liu Xiaoping immediately logged into the Work Assistant to try out this new feature. He entered his requirements and found out that the code generating speed of the Work Assistant was indeed twice as fast as before. This new experience was so good that he felt as if he were flying.

“It’s equivalent to a 100% increase for free. Very reasonable indeed!” Liu Xiaoping stuck up his thumb.

The next day, his boss called for a meeting of all the technicians and announced his big decision with a smile. Layoffs! The company would be conducting a massive layoff! Only a few key project staff from the technical department would be kept. Half of the remaining staff would be fired. Those who escaped the firing process would see their salaries increase by 80%. Who would be fired and who stayed; it would be decided by drawing lots. This decision caused a commotion amongst the programmers. Their hearts chilled as they understood the real calculations of the boss.

The performance of the Work Assistant had doubled, causing the layoffs to become a cost-effective measure. The boss would not make a loss even if he increased the salaries of the remaining staff by 100%. With fewer employees, the expenditures for social security, insurance packages, and other items would be reduced. Even the cost of utilities would be reduced.

“What a vile businessman!”

“Ugly capitalist.”

The staff who drew ‘fired’ threw down the paper and said, “I won’t miss this job anyway!”

Liu Xiaoping was cursed with bad luck and he also drew “fired,” thus becoming one of the layoffs.

Similar large-scale layoffs appeared in the various IT companies all over the country. Within a few short days, a series of layoffs appeared. In this wave of layoffs, there were at least millions of programmers who had lost their jobs with no chance of saving themselves. Thus, they joined the army of the unemployed.

Chapter 220 - Trend of Entrepreneurship

Those who were attentive would realize that there seemed to be some elements of a deliberate nature that had led to the series of layoffs. A deliberate provocation of the IT companies’ bosses to the point that they had decided to fire their staff.

Xing Hai Technologies!

If not for the company’s Work Assistant and the free increase of 100% for every package of computing speed, there would not be so many programmers who had lost their jobs. This was all the fault of Xing Hai Technologies! Many programmers who had fallen on hard times were burning with rage and blamed Xing Hai Technologies. They had completely forgotten that they were praising the company for being reasonable and ethical just a few days ago.

But many more quickly accepted their reality and started looking for new opportunities. Liu Xiaoping had no strong feelings regarding his unemployed status. On the contrary, he felt more relaxed, as if he had been freed from his binds. His mood was light and happy. His current vision even seemed to have expanded. Although, it might be very difficult to find a job. There were virtually no IT companies that faced a shortage of programmers. In fact, companies had a surplus of them.

However, Liu Xiaoping and other programmers in his situation had three options that they could choose from, all with good prospects. The first option was to change his career path and go into Star Cloud App development. Xing Hai Technologies announced that they would hire 10,000 outstanding programmers and provide a generous salary for them. They would help to perfect the Star Cloud System, and expand and increase its functions. In addition, the company would allocate another 10 billion and set up 200,000 motivational awards. If one could produce a complete Star Cloud app with satisfactory functions, he would be awarded $50,000. There were 200,000 places allocated. This meant that if one put in some effort and produce a passable Star Cloud app, he could easily be awarded $50,000. If he put in even more effort, he would be able to get the grand prize of 1 million.

Moreover, the development software, “Star Cloud Studio,” was equipped with the lite version of the Work Assistant. It supported the development of Star Cloud apps and did not slow down the speed of the software at all. Programmers who worked fast could even create a Star Cloud app within a day. The key was that the Work Assistant equipped in the “Star Cloud Studio” was free! There was no need to pay thousands or even hundreds of thousands to use the program. Most of the unemployed programmers would not continue to pay the monthly fees anyway. Instead, they specialized in Star Cloud app development. In short, as long as the 20 billion set aside by Xing Hai Technologies had not been spent, it was a good choice to switch to Star Cloud app development.

The second option was to change careers entirely by doing game development. They could fork out some money to start a new business and establish a studio. After which, they could apply for free usage of Xing Hai Technologies’”Starry Sky Game Development Engine” and create games using that technology. Liu Xiaoping had received an invitation from many good friends to develop games together. However, Liu Xiaoping shook his head. “I know nothing about games, count me out.”

“It’s okay, you can slowly pick up the skills. I’ve never done any games too. But, the most powerful thing about the Starry Sky Game Development Engine is that you can create a game even if you know next to nothing about game coding. Most of the codes are automatically generated. You can query the Work Assistant if there’s anything unfamiliar. You almost don’t even have to write a single line of code. I’m now a game developer.”

“Xiaoping, come and join us. We currently have the greatest shortage of artists. We need someone to create huge quantities of design source materials. I remember that you have decent photoshop skills. If you don’t think that game development is not right for you now, can you help to do some source materials for us?”

“Forget it, I’m a program developer, not an artist. I’m not doing this.” Liu Xiaoping was somewhat swayed by the persuasions of his friends, but upon hearing that it was for an art and design project, he rejected them immediately. As it was a joint partnership as founding members, not only would he have to work for free if he joined the game development studio by his friend, he might even have to pour money into the business. This was the primary reason behind his rejection.

The third option was to join Xing Hai Technologies’ plan of “Million Entrepreneurships.” Xing Hai Technologies had announced hundreds of specialized software categories, including video editing and production, music editing, special effects production (more towards fantasy movies), office software, databases, medical software, industrial software, etc. In order to attract the vast number of aspirants to join, the company forked out 10 billion to build more than 20 software incubators across the country in their preparations to support thousands of small and medium software enterprises. The subsidies given ranged from 500,000 to 100 million.

In addition, the government would also provide discounts in terms of rent, taxes, etc. to support these small and medium software enterprises. The government also planned to invest huge sums of money into some major projects, such as those of the industrial software, in order to support enterprises with good potential.

So, how could one get the subsidy support from Xing Hai Technologies? Firstly, there must be a minimum number of people. A project had to consist of 20 people or more to qualify for the first tranche of funds by Xing Hai Technologies. After which, it would depend on the progression and results of the project. Xing Hai Technologies would follow the situation closely and invest based on the observations. Alternatively, they would provide the necessary technical assistance. Lastly, was the post-development phase. If the app was useful, Xing Hai Technologies would help to distribute it. The company would take a cut of the profits gained from the app.

The best thing about this model was that Xing Hai Technologies did not have to do a single thing. The company did not have to personally attend to any shortcomings of the project and become too over-sized. However, the effects of this model were not necessarily better than the effects of the startups that struggled independently. For most entrepreneurs, starting a business was a battle of life and death! Although Xing Hai Technologies would provide financial and technical support, entrepreneurs must rely primarily on themselves. If they failed, they would become bankrupt just the same!

If one had the attitude of win all or lose all, one might actually achieve success in the end. And Xing Hai Technologies was willing to fully support these hard-working entrepreneurs who were ready to give their all.

In short, they had three excellent options. Each option could attract hundreds of thousands of programmers to seek success for themselves in their respective possibilities. Millions of unemployed programmers could find career paths that would be the most suitable for them.

Then, which option should Liu Xiaoping choose? He repeatedly pondered the options for some time. However, after he had received this particular invitation, he firmly stopped considering his options and agreed to join the team.

“Liu Xiaoping, I heard that you have decent photoshop skills and you also know how to develop Star Cloud apps. Come and join us. We’re still short of one person in my company.” His colleague, a female programmer who was a minority in the male-dominated occupation, Xu Ningshuang, extended an invitation to him. She was also an Android app developer with two years of experience in app development. She was single with average looks. As the two were frequent work partners, they had a friendly relationship.

Liu Xiaoping was astonished. “I thought that you were excluded from drawing lots because the boss wanted you to stay? Why did you quit too?”

“I’m not happy with the boss and I want to work for myself. I’ve even persuaded Song Xiaoling to quit and become my business partner. Also….” Xu Ningshuang snickered and said, “You know our company’s art designer, Ren Jiaojiao? The girl that you’ve chased for so long to no avail? I’ve persuaded her to come with me. Now, my boss really hates me. If you join my team, you might really have a chance to win her over by simple proximity. Do you want this chance?”

What?

A tremor went through his body. He was almost crying. He had pursued Ren Jiaojiao for more than a year. In order to get closer to her, he had tried his best to teach himself Photoshop and other art and design skills. He would get her to mentor him whenever he had a chance. In the beginning, she was quite agreeable about it and was willing to give him some attention. However, his Photoshop skills surpassed hers with time and he became the one to guide her. Then, she had stopped paying any attention to him. This had become a running joke in the company. He never imagined that he would get any chance to see her again and work together with her.

“Yes, yes, yes! Xu Ningshuang, I’ll join you!” Without even taking the time to think things through, Liu Xiaoping agreed to join the Star Cloud app development team set up by Xu Ningshuang. Together with the three women, including the one that he wanted to pursue, they would work happily.

…

Under this turbulent and fiery atmosphere, the programmers were caught up in a wave of entrepreneurship that swept across Z country.

Chapter 221 - The Real Purpose of Exams

With the end of May came the approaching excitement of two major events that were taking place in June. The intensity of the discussions around one particular topic had been gradually increasing. This topic was a hot debate for all citizens and the countless numbers of netizens.

The Senior High School Entrance Examination, and the College Entry Examination. The two exams that would decide countless fates and perhaps even the fate of the nation would soon arrive. This was the focus of the citizens discussions: How should this year’s Senior High School Entrance Examination and College Entry Examination be conducted?

Some would find it weird. What was there to discuss? It would be done as it had been done in the previous years. Unfortunately, the majority of citizens would roll their eyes in reply to this unchanging perspective. Maintain the old way of doing things? Not changing? Could the old way even be maintained? The old education system could no longer be maintained the day that the autonomous intelligent learning machine was born!

The Department of Education had no choice but to give up on the pilot program and make an overall adjustment. The quantity of learning machines produced had dramatically increased within the past two months. The total amount sold to date had exceeded 100 million units. A majority of the students who were willing and able to buy one had already done so. The widespread distribution of the learning machine had thoroughly messed up the original plans of the Department of Education. Some kind of adjustments had to be made no matter if it was the Senior High School Entrance Examination or College Entry Examination. The exams had to be adapted to the new circumstances. Otherwise, a major screw-up could happen.

The current circumstance could be summed up in one sentence: Top students were everywhere, but the bad students remained the same. Those who were willing to learn and apply some effort to their studies had all basically became top students, whereas those who were unwilling to learn, had zero aptitude for learning, or were disobedient, remained at the bottom of their class.

Two levels of change took place within the student body. Those that remained in the middle with average grades had become a minority. This was especially true for the students taking mathematics, physics, and chemistry. They either got between 90 to 100 points in their exams or they got 50 to 60 points. There were not many with 70 or 80 points.

It was all because of the learning machine! Besides the real slacker students that were beyond saving, students who were willing to learn could make use of the learning machine. The learning machine could adjust the structure of the knowledge trees, change the video dubbing, the speed and rhythm of the narration… All these would greatly help to optimize the learning outcomes. As time went on, two groups became clearly differentiated. They were the top scholars, who could now be found everywhere, and the bad students, who remained as they were.

Hence, this was the question. What should we do now that everyone was a top student? And what about those remaining bad students?

There were a limited number of “good” senior high schools and branded universities. They could only accommodate a portion of top students. But, the current quantity of top students were about three to five times more than previous years. All of them wanted to be admitted into the best senior high schools and universities. However, due to limited capacity, it was impossible for the top schools to accommodate a new student body that had abruptly swelled up to twice or thrice the expected size.

Should the bad students that were “beyond redemption” be left to their dire fate? Should they all be excluded from society then? Most of them were not really bad students. They truly could not retain any information and had no aptitude for studying.

Hence, the focus of the public debates were on these two issues.

…

At the Court of Happiness, at the dinner table, Chen Gang looked at Chen Jin with a frown. “Son, you’ve created a big issue for everyone. The learning machine from your company was distributed too quickly and too abruptly! Everyone had not mentally prepared themselves for the social changes that this will cause. Now, our society is faced with a very tricky issue. If this is not dealt with in an appropriate manner, the whole society will be thrown into chaos! It’s important to earn money, but that should not be your sole focus. You’ve created a huge social issue!”Chen Gang shook his head. His tone was reproachful.

This time, He Li did not side with her son unconditionally. She nodded in agreement. “Son, your father is right. You’ve really been lacking in thought.”

Sitting on Chen Jin’s left, Su Yun started to feel nervous. She looked at him and wanted to say a few words to show her support. However, she looked at He Li and Chen Gang again. After some consideration and fearing their irritation and disapproval, she swallowed her words.

“Tricky?” Chen Jin smiled. “Why, I think that it’s not tricky at all. Instead, the problem has become clearer and even easier to resolve.”

“You—” Chen Gang was angered by his nonchalant attitude. “Both exams will be starting in a few days and you can still laugh about it? You…” He really was getting angry.

“Dad, can you listen until the end? Why are you so angry when I’ve not even finished explaining my solution?”

Bang!

Chen Gang slammed the table with his fist. “Say it then! If you can convince me, I’ll apologize to you immediately!”

He Li looked at Chen Jin and said, “Say it, son. Mom will listen.”

Su Yun looked at him with curious eyes.

“The problem can be very easily solved.” Chen Jin slowly said, “I’ll use the senior high school entrance examination as an example. As this is a comprehensive exam that tests the results of the nine years of compulsory education, and the content tested are all basic knowledge, it is not necessary to reform the exam system. The exams will be conducted as they have always been!”

Chen Gang opened his mouth in shock. Not changing the mode of the senior high school entrance examination?

Chen Jin continued, “Z country’s nine years of compulsory education is the most successful and the most advanced in the global field of basic education. With the basic education in our country, our students have the best mastery of basic knowledge. Their basic knowledge is very secure. Nurtured by our education system, our outstanding junior high schoolers are equivalent to the high schoolers of other countries. We’ve done relatively well in the area of basic education. There is not much room for criticism. The problem lies in what happens after the senior high school examination. Students will be streamed into normal and top senior high schools. This differentiation is unnecessary. This has caused excellent education resources to be overly allocated to top senior high schools. As such, some parents who want their child to be admitted into a better senior high would spend large amounts of money on tuition and school selection fees. Students with ordinary qualifications could also get into a top senior high. Not only does this greatly raise the cost of education, this has also caused many outstanding students to be rejected by the top high schools. This is very unfair.”

Chen Jin paused, then said, “With the appearance of the learning machine, the average grades of the students have greatly improved. There is insufficient top senior high schools to accommodate these students. What should anybody do? Either get rid of the top senior high schools, or turn all high schools into top senior high schools! The allocation of the best education resources, including teachers, would be evened out across all senior high schools. All students will be able to get into the best senior high school.”

Turn all senior high schools into top senior high schools?

Chen Gang shook his head fiercely. “Then, what’s the meaning of the senior high school entrance examination? The purpose of exams is to select the best students. Now that everyone can get into a top senior high school, what’s the purpose of the entrance examination?”

“They do have meaning!” Chen Jin said, “The significance of the selection process still remains. Top students and bad students are clearly filtered. Those with no aptitude for studying would be separated from those who do. As long as you have some kind of aptitude for studying and are able to achieve a passing mark, then you’ll be able to get into the senior high school that you want, as long as not too many people apply for it too (if there are too many applicants for one school, another exam could be held or a balloting process could be implemented; there would be another round of selection of some kind). But, I think that with the assistance of the learning machine, most students would choose the senior high school that’s the closest to their home.”

Chen Gang asked, “So, according to you, the current purpose of the senior high school entrance examination is to eliminate the students with no aptitude for learning by not giving them the opportunity to study in a senior high school?”

“I don’t agree with the idea of ‘elimination’.” Chen Jin shook his head. “Many of the bad students are not really bad at all. They simply don’t have the aptitude for learning. There’s no point forcing them to learn. But, they could be talented in other areas. If some of them were interested in the learning machine, they could apply to a technical school and become professional machine operators. They could also learn welding or fitting, becoming outstanding blue collar workers. If they were interested in vehicles, they could learn how to drive, learn auto repair, learn how to operate an excavator, and other construction machinery. These industries require a huge amount of manpower. Those with a talent for sports could become soccer players, basketball players, track and field athletes, or swimmers… Achieving honor and glory for the nation in the stadiums. Or they could learn chinese painting, art, voiceovers, theatre, etc… Countless occupations with good prospects await them. Actually, the purpose of exams is not to select the geniuses and trash! We should not simply differentiate the students into ‘good,”average,’ and ‘bad’ based on their exam scores! This approach is a grave mistake! It’s the embodiment of laziness and incompetence! The real purpose of exams is to find out what their individual strengths are! It’s to help everyone find the most suitable path for themselves! It’s not a success to get into a good senior high school or university. Walking their own paths in society and creating a life for themselves based on their own personal values is the real success!”

The country that had achieved the best results in this area was Germany. The proportion of university students in Germany was not large. But, there were many vocational senior high schools and training schools. The local industries also participated closely with these schools to provide ample opportunities for practical learning. As such, Germany’s industrial sectors were very strong, and in terms of sports, they were the best in the global soccer field.

“One examination does not decide the rest of your life! I hope that all the parents, teachers, and students can change their perspectives. There is more than one road to success. You can stop forcing yourself when you realize that using the learning machine is a futile effort, that you really have no aptitude for studying and have become a ‘bad student’ in others’ eyes. But, you don’t have to worry. You could be a genius in other fields. You could achieve a success that is unimaginable to others. This is the real significance behind the introduction of the learning machine.”

As he listened to these words, Chen Gang had an epiphany. He nodded gravely as he muttered to himself, “I understand now. The purpose of exams is not to separate the geniuses from the mediocre but to find out the individual strengths of every student… This is a very good point.”

He Li clapped in excitement. “I understand now too. Son, you mean that if they are a top student, then they could continue studying through senior high to university. If they are not good at studying, they could become technical workers, learn auto repair, operate excavators, or participate in sports. In any case, there are good ways to achieve your full potential.”

Chen Jin nodded. “I’ve sent these suggestions to the Department of Education half a year ago. Recently, the state media reported the establishment of various vocational high schools and signaled that they would eliminate the label of ‘top senior high schools.’ It seems that top officials have adopted my suggestion.”

“Good! Good!” Su Yun clapped her hands in approval. She was so excited and happy that her face had become flushed. Her gaze as she looked at Chen Jin was filled with adoration and worship.

Chen Gang apologized, “Son, I’m sorry. I’ve wronged you, you’re a good man!” He felt extremely proud that he had a son like Chen Jin.

However, Chen Jin was reminded of something. His expression suddenly changed to one that was extremely grave.

Chapter 222 - Was There a Need to Study Abroad?

Chen Jin began to contemplate the students choosing to study abroad, making his forehead crease in a frown but, knowing the data as he did, there must be a winnable solution.

According to the latest statistics by the Department of Education, there had been an increase in the number of students from the Z country who had chosen to study abroad in recent years. The number had exceeded 600,000 for the first time in 20X7, and in 20X0 the number had hit more than 750,000 study-abroad students. The number was expected to exceed 800,000 in the future. This trend had been ongoing for more than 10 years, and they had maintained their status as the world’s largest source of international students.

As to whether or not these students were actually learning anything by studying overseas, Chen Jin did not want to cast a negative light on all of them. The hard-working ones would definitely gain something from their studies abroad. On the other hand, there were those who simply wanted to pass their days in mediocrity and with a veneer of respectability, all for the sake of getting an overseas certificate. So, of course, there were the good ones and the bad ones.

With the Z country’s increasing economic strength, the overall strength of the nation continued to approach the superpower status of Merica. Among the students studying abroad, about 90% would choose to return to their homeland. They had become more optimistic about the future of the Z country and felt that they would have more opportunities by returning home. The country had no need to worry about brain drain.

Now, however, the question had become, Is there a need to study abroad? Chen Jin did have an informed opinion regarding this topic.

The number of students abroad approaching 800,000 was substantial. This was 10% of third-year senior high schoolers. This meant that about 10% of the student body would go overseas every year.

With such a huge quantity of students having enrolled in various foreign universities, they were a significant income source for those schools. Sometimes, they would make up as much as 30%, 40%, or even 50% of the student body on those foreign campuses.

Foreign colleges and universities charged high tuition fees to fill their coffers. The average annual expenditure of international students from the Z country was 300,000 RMB or more.

That was a totally different situation than domestic schools. The foreign schools wanted to earn a profit, especially from the Z country’s students. The tuition fees, textbook costs, and accommodation costs that they paid far exceeded those of the local students. Hence, it has become the case that the money from the Z country’s students has been supporting the local students.

On top of this, the treatment of the foreign nations toward the Z country’s students has typically been one of discrimination. Every year, news reports have documented the large numbers of Z country students who have been beaten up, robbed, raped, and murdered and how the local police have been frequently ineffective. Foreign media had often reported negative news about the Z country’s students dominating their campuses and taking all their resources, thus spreading the idea that the Z country was a threat, as well as strong anti–Z country sentiment. Overall, the foreign schools liked the money from the Z country students, but they didn’t like the Z country’s students themselves.

Moreover, many of the students weren’t even enrolled in a good university. In fact, a significant portion were enrolled in shady, unknown schools where they wouldn’t learn anything. They would get a certificate of no academic value but, because it’s an overseas qualification, it will imply their education had some kind of superficial sophistication, not something worth such a huge price.

Finally, an overseas education history was no longer as valuable as it once had been. Many companies had offered starting salaries of only $3,000 to $4,000 to returning graduates, which they had found unacceptable. But because their society focuses more on real abilities than qualifications, certificates were only a point of reference. Their real abilities when it came to the workplace may only really be worth $3,000 to $4,000.

Chen Jin simply could not wrap his mind around this. It was very clear that studying abroad conferred no real advantages to the students, making him wonder why so many parents insisted on pushing their children to an unfamiliar foreign country even when the price of doing so was so high. All to get a qualification that was worthless beyond its superficial veneer of sophistication?

Was the quality of education in foreign countries really better than that in the Z country?

Alternatively, some may want to have a better life overseas. By studying abroad, it would be easier for them to find a good job in the country where they had studied and to emigrate there. Regardless, an overwhelming majority of the students abroad did choose to return. However, due to the large numbers of foreign educated workers in society, their value had dropped significantly, and they realized that the gains were not worth the losses.

So, was it really necessary to study abroad?

Chen Jin did not want to say things like “studying abroad is unnecessary,” which would only cause huge debates. He simply thought that there was no point to the endeavor when the students were going abroad to study in sketchy colleges, all the while tolerating hostile environments just to get a useless certificate and return back to the Z country for a job that only paid them a salary of $3,000 to $4,000. It made no sense to go abroad for their studies.

Generally speaking, knowledge is the same everywhere. For example, for subjects like mathematics, physics, and chemistry, students would be learning the same formulae and theories no matter which country they studied in. They wouldn’t be learning a more advanced formula or theory just because they were studying in a more developed country. The knowledge learned on a foreign campus is no more advanced than that learned on a domestic campus.

Moreover, Merica and other Western countries had closed their doors to highly sophisticated fields in the universities. The students from the Z country were banned from participating in these fields where they could have actually learned highly applicable professional technical skills. When it came to these fields of real value, even ordinary academic exchanges were prohibited. By using legal entrapment, the foreign governments had even arrested a number of the Z country scientists and sent them to prison.

The technologies that they were guarding with their lives were the last of what they had in their hidden repertoire. The Z country would soon experience a breakthrough and be lauded for their technological advances that they’d kept hidden. In these many years, they had never let their guard down. The technological breakthroughs that they’d achieved were mostly from their own efforts.

Hence the root of the problem remained that their race was still not confident in their own abilities. In the past, the foreign countries had been more advanced than them in every way. It was a wise move then to have sent their students abroad to learn more advanced technologies so they could transfer this knowledge back to their own country. Now that they were similarly developed and starting to surpass other countries in many fields, the role of local talent was far greater than the contribution of returning talent. However, there were still so many students who went abroad to study every year. They were giving money away to others and wasting precious time. This was really unnecessary.

With just a Little Star learning machine, they had wholly surpassed the Western countries in terms of their basic education systems. Nearly 800,000 students were going abroad to study every year. This was a shocking number. Even reducing it by half would not be enough! Reducing the number until it reached 80,000 students per year, which was a tenth of the current value, would be more acceptable.

Chen Jin was ready to write his proposal to the Department of Education, in which he suggested limiting the number of students going abroad to study.

“There is no need for the junior high school graduates to study abroad. The standard of many senior high schools in the developed countries is only equivalent to the third year of our junior high schools or the first year of our senior high schools. Studying abroad is purely a waste of time. It is better to remain in the country and master a greater range and depth of knowledge.

“A portion of senior high school graduates should be allowed to study abroad but not at a no-name university! They should try to get into a top university with a good reputation. It is better to learn something than to learn nothing.”

As for the overseas postgraduate students, doctoral students, and exchange students, Chen Jin did not want to interfere in a presumptuous manner or give rash criticisms. This was a freedom given to the university students, who could be trusted to use their own judgment and gain practical worldly experiences for a limited time.

In short, he hoped that the junior and senior high school graduates would stop going abroad in swarms with no real reflection.

…

When the Department of Education received Chen Jin’s proposal, Department Chief Yuan and other personnel held a meeting where they carefully discussed the issue in detail. They reached a consensus in that same meeting: They had to control and reduce the number of students going abroad to study. Department Chief Yuan made the announcement.

“I’ve consulted with all top officials, and they have given the following directives. From this year onward, we will not approve any junior high school graduates to go abroad for studies. Unless the parents and the student give up their citizenship and choose to emigrate, we will not give our approval. This is our principle.

“We will exclude all disreputable universities in the applications of high school graduates enrolling in foreign universities and persuade them to give up studying at useless campuses! Security alerts will be issued. Australia, Canada, and Sweden will be entered on the list ‘High-Risk Countries for Students Studying Abroad.’ We will not approve any students applying to study abroad in these countries, as the security in these regions has been terrible and students from the Z country have been repeatedly attacked and injured in these countries. They are no longer suitable for studying abroad.

“If parents refuse to pay heed to these dangers and insist that their children must study abroad, then they will be required to relinquish their Z country citizenship.

“Our goal is to reduce the number of students going abroad for their studies this year to less than 500,000. We plan to further reduce the number to less than 300,000 in the future.

“In addition, the students who choose to give up their citizenship to study abroad must return their learning machines. The Department of Education will redeem the learning machines at their original price. The device is a strategic item that cannot fall into the hands of foreigners.”

Rumble rumble rumble!

After the Department of Education announced their decision, the media and public went into a frenzy.

Chapter 223 - How Should the College Entry Exam Be Modified?

“I support this!”

“The numbers should have been limited a long time ago!”

“The unspoken rules and trends of studying abroad have already been formed into a fixed model. A supply chain exists between our country and other countries; it’s specially targeting the money from our students! I don’t agree that our students should go abroad in such huge numbers.”

“Haha, my company has hired one returning overseas graduate. He dared to ask for a $30,000 monthly salary. In the end, he still came to work for us even though he was only offered $5,000. But we’re still making a ‘loss.’ He’s not even as good as an intern at a $3,000 salary.”

“Students can go to good foreign universities, but they shouldn’t go to those no-name, disreputable ones. Those useless qualifications will not pull the wool over anyone’s eyes.”

The majority of netizens expressed support for the Department of Education’s decision; however, a vocal portion of parents found the new policy unacceptable and strongly opposed it.

“My child has his own legs and feet; he can study wherever he wants to. The government should keep their hands off!”

“What’s the use of staying in the country with the quality of our education?”

“Since a long time ago, the Z country’s education has been beyond hope. Why can’t we vote with our feet?!”

“This is the only light left in this dark place. Are you going to kill it too?”

These parents were extremely angry and agitated, and they expressed their dissatisfaction via various channels and methods, demanding that the Department of Education reverse their decision immediately. The vast numbers of netizens, though, shook their heads in response to these parents.

“The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.”

“The Department of Education has clearly explained the reasons for the limitations, yet these parents still choose to ignore them. Their yearning for a more beautiful life overseas cannot be curbed.”

“The department is not stopping children from studying abroad. If they want to do that, it’s easy. They can go to a top foreign university and give up their citizenship. They have a choice. What’s the fuss?”

“Haha, even those who like to kiss the asses of anything foreign also know that it’s easy to give up Z country citizenship but extremely difficult to get it back. This must what those parents oppose the most.”

“It’s a utopia overseas. Dear parents, stop hesitating. Get foreign citizenships for your entire family. Your life will be so wonderful over there.”

But, for unknown reasons, those parents stayed silent on the choice of giving up their citizenships. None of them wanted to talk about this topic.

Moreover, many students had been born in the 00s and 10s and were very unlike the generation that their parents had come from. These students had their own way of thinking and their own opinions. Based on their experience, growing up in the Z country had not been any worse than in other countries. They were the generation who had the most confidence in themselves.

This younger generation was not particularly understanding of their parents’ stubborn insistence of sending them overseas. When the Department of Education made the announcement, these children had quickly gotten ready to present their cases. As the two generations tried to persuade each other, many agitated parents gradually gave in.

There was, however, a country in the Southern Hemisphere that was panicking. They wailed as if they were in deep mourning, with one person posting, “We strongly oppose this! Stop this mistake immediately!”

The netizens were overjoyed when they learned the nationality of this protestor.

“Ah, isn’t this from Paper Cat? Are they having a f*cking mental breakdown again?”

“More than 300,000 students left our country to study abroad in Paper Cat last year. Through various expenditures by our students, that country earned a whopping 26 billion! That is 2% of their GDP! It’d be weird if they weren’t panicking.”

“The quality of education in Paper Cat is the worst. They have the most questionable universities of all nations. I don’t understand why people are still going there in droves.”

“Everyone, go take a look at the responses by their keyboard warriors. They’re rejoicing across the board. Every single one of them is thanking our Department of Education. They’re happy like children.”

“That’s right, as long as they’re happy. They don’t even care about the money anymore. It must be hard for them to be so two-faced. Having frequent mental breakdowns is not good for the body.”

As countless netizens mocked Paper Cat, they agreed that the hysteria of Paper Cat’s government and the collective joy of their keyboard warriors brought much happiness to the world.

…

On June 6th, the National Senior High School Entrance Exam was about to begin. The Department of Education announced their plan of action in advance: They were eliminating the category “top senior high schools” and adding the category “vocational schools.” This would solve the two main issues.

Although some parents remained stubborn and wanted their children to continue studying no matter what, the majority of students as well as their parents had calmed down and poured all their attention into the upcoming exam.

On the 8th of June, the senior high school exam ended without a glitch. The most outstanding performance in the exam had been by Little Star Third Gen, produced by Xing Hai Technologies. The performance of its hardware was eight times better than that of Second Gen, and Little Star Third Gen continued its grand slam across the nation in the mathematics, physics, and chemistry exams.

With the upgraded intelligence level of the third generation, Little Star’s reading and comprehension abilities had been greatly strengthened. Excluding essay writing, it was able to secure high marks in the language, English, and humanities exams. Only the essay writing component was based on free expression, but all questions in the language and English exams had standard answers. This even included questions like “What does this tell us about the central ideas of the author?” and similar. For the most part, they all had fixed answers, and now the Little Star learning machine could even offer an answer in the general ballpark.

This was rather awkward.

The National Senior High School Entrance Exam had ended, and it could be said that the Department of Education had provided satisfactory solutions. But what about the upcoming National College Entrance Examination? Opinions varied.

“Universities are totally different from high schools! A good university is a good university and bad university is just plain bad.”

“This is true of universities all over the world. They want to distribute the resources of the universities evenly such that it’s fair to all the top students. This kind of reform is not only impossible to realize, it’s also unreal! It will only lead to chaos and the ruin of all universities.”

“The real challenge is about to begin.”

“The exam has to be kept fair, but at the same time it should be able to let the top students be admitted into the ideal university of their choice.”

“The result of this challenging issue would depend on how the Department of Education chooses to tackle it.”

If this was not dealt with in an appropriate manner, disaster would ensue.

…

At Happiness Court, the family sat in a circle on the sofas in the living room. Chen Gang, He Li, and Su Yun turned their gazes toward Chen Jin.

“Son, the senior high school exam might have been easy, but the college entry exam will be more difficult, as its purpose is to select for talent. Students will be filtered into a top, second-rate, third-rate, or average talent tier. Now, many third-year senior high schoolers have improved their grades, and we can see from the scores that numbers in the top-two tiers of talent have swelled, but the number of good universities has declined. These students will be unwilling to attend average universities and, unfortunately, it would be impossible to transform these average universities into top-tier universities overnight. The investment needed for that to happen is simply too terrifying.”

Chen Gang frowned and asked, “How should this conflict be resolved?”

In this scenario, the college entry exam could not be as easily resolved as the senior high school exam. The college entry exam was a test to separate the good, the average, and the weak students. It was a competition of intelligence. Each student would be accepted into a university that was suitable for their level based on their scores on the exam, which tested the strength of each student on an individual basis. This would force them to recognize the competitive nature of the world in no uncertain terms.

Therefore, the college entry exam was critical, and one could not risk making one mistake. However, due to the significant increase in top students, this had created a shortage of good universities.

Everyone looked to Chen Jin, who stated, “It’s easy to resolve.”

Chen Jin grinned and stated, “There’s no need to change anything about the universities; instead, we’ll change the content of the college entry exam by adding some testing that will further assess the actual abilities of each candidate. This will widen the gap between the scores, and all students should be able to get into a university that is suitable for them in the end.”

Shocked, Chen Gang asked, “How should it be modified?”

Chen Jin glanced at Su Yun and shook his head. “The Department of Education has requested that I keep it a secret for now. You’ll know it when the time comes.”

Chapter 224 - Red Pepper Z1

In mid-June, Chen Jin’s double escorted several upper-level managers to the southern city of Shenzhen, where they conducted a field inspection of the factory production room of Tiny Pepper Corporation. Wang Xiaoyan, the founder and CEO, attentively and enthusiastically accompanied them throughout the tour.

Chen Jin’s reason for assigning his double to conduct a field inspection was simple: This company worked fast and was the first to produce a 100% domestic mobile phone that came installed with the Star Cloud System.

In the spartan test lab, Wang Xiaoyan held up the project prototype and walked “Chen Jin” through a demo.

“President Chen, the prototype that I’m holding right now is installed with the mid-range CPU, SX-800, jointly developed by Xing Hai Technologies and Tengxun Corporation. The highest running benchmark of Antutu exceeds 220,000. Its performance is comparable to the Snapdragon 725 by Qualcomm.

“It uses the same RAM chip—4GBLPDDR4—that was mass-produced by Purple Ray only last month. Its work frequency is 1,866 megahertz, and its performance is similar to that of the high-frequency version, LPDDR3; however, it consumes slightly less energy.

“The ROM storage that it uses is the UFS2.1, produced by the Da Jiang storage chip factory. It has a capacity of 64 gigabytes, and its performance shows little difference from the mainstream ROM storage in current use. The screen is a 5.8-inch OLED from Oriental Crystal, and the motherboard, camera, lithium battery, fingerprint sensor on the front panel, and all other components are all supplied by domestic manufacturers.

“It’s also installed with the latest Star Cloud 1.4 system!”

At this point, Wang Xiaoyan was overwhelmed with admiration. “President Chen, the extent and speed of the upgrades implemented on the Star Cloud System are astonishing. All the necessary functions have been added, and my company’s hardware engineer has said that the integrity of the Star Cloud System is comparable to Android 6.0.

“As for Star Cloud’s operating speed, it is smooth to the point that it very obviously surpasses all versions of Android. It’s even more than 20% smoother than IOS!

“Although we are slightly lacking in terms of our hardware, the user experience of this phone will not be worse than any of the Android flagships due to the performance of the OS.

“By now, the number of apps on the Star Cloud app market has exceeded 100,000. All the mainstream apps that are necessities for users have been made available. Once the phone is distributed on the market, the consumer will not find any inconvenient aspects in the user experience.”

Wang Xiaoyan continued excitedly, “The model that I’m holding right now can be mass-produced very soon, and it will become the first mobile phone that is 100% domestic!”

Chen Jin nodded and picked up another prototype. He opened some applications and realized that the operating system was indeed extremely smooth; however, Chen Jin saw that the top bezel on the phone was close to an eighth of an inch. He commented, “This bezel is too wide. Can it be further reduced to increase the aspect ratio?”

“We should be able to reduce it in the mass-produced model, although only by a little bit. But this aspect ratio is pretty good. The screen takes up 88.8% of the real estate, and we should be able to achieve 90% in the final product.”

Chen Jin nodded. If the screen ratio was increased to 90%, it would be that much closer to the wildly popular 16:9 aspect ratio. That would be more acceptable.

“What about the battery capacity?”

“It’s 3,6000 milliampere hour, but after it’s installed with Star Cloud, it can save up to 35% of energy in the user process when compared to Android and 28% compared to the Fruit mobile. Its continuous performance over the course of a day is similar to that of a 4,800-milliampere-hour large-sized battery. It will be the only phone on the market that only requires charging once every two days. Energy efficiency is also a huge advantage with the Star Cloud System.”

“Good!” Chen Jin agreed. “This is a selling point that can be emphasized!”

“President Chen, I have something else to ask you.” Wang Xiaoyan explained, “What should we name this model? I’ve thought of three names. President Chen, can you give your opinion on these? Red Pepper Z1, National Pepper 1, or Star Pepper 1.

“Let’s call it Red Pepper Z1. National Pepper and Star Pepper sound bizarre. Forget about those.” Chen Jin knew that Wang Xiaoyan was trying to curry favor by suggesting Star Pepper, but it was truly awful sounding and he didn’t like it.

But what was really surprising to Chen Jin was that Wan Xiaoyan had even prepared the color schemes of the phone in addition to the model name. Tiny Pepper’s designer had prepared three color schemes: Patriotic Red, Starry Blue, and Woeful White.

Patriotic Red referred to the nation-loving heart, which was reflected with its blood red shade. Starry Blue referred to the deep blue of the outer skies and represented Xing Hai Technologies’ mission. As for Woeful White…

“Wait! What the hell is Woeful White?”

Wang Xiaoyan explained, “It refers to the despondent expression on the faces of those who tried to beat us down by isolating our technology and products. When they see this phone, the blood will drain from their faces, hence Woeful White.”

Chen Jin nodded. “I see.”

He wanted to meet the designer who had invented such creative design, so he asked for the person who had come up with the three color schemes. The designer was a man in his 30s with the surname Zhang. His appearance was average; he was wearing thick glasses and seemed to have no care for his dress. He radiated the air of a loser.

Chen Jin patted his shoulder while saying, “You’re a f*cking genius.”

The designer scratched his head and laughed in embarrassment. “Hehe—”

Finally, they had to fix a date for the launch of Red Pepper Z1.

“When will mass production begin?”

“In a week’s time, on June 26th.”

“So fast?”

“Yes, it is that fast. That’s the typical speed for those of us in this industry.”

“I would like you to manufacture more ready-for-sale units. Ensure that the quality of the products is maintained! We’ll officially announce its launch on the 3rd of July. Xing Hai Technologies will publicize the product, and I will personally host the launch event. During the event, you’ll conduct a demo on the product. Everyone will know about the 100% domestic phone!”

Wang Xiaoyan said emotionally, “Yes! Thank you, President Chen.”

With this, Chen Jin’s double and his staff completed the field inspection of Tiny Pepper Corporation.

…

The speedy progress and quality results of Tiny Pepper Corporation delighted everyone; however, the real Chen Jin was not certain that Red Pepper Z1 would become the first 100% domestic phone. After the Samsin incident, Brother Lei had accepted his suggestion to have Da Mi Company use only domestically produced components to create a 100% domestic phone. Of course, that was only on a hardware level. Now, three months later, he was curious about Brother Lei’s progress.

Chen Jin called Brother Lei to inquire about Da Mi Company’s status on the phone. Brother Lei said, “It will happen very soon. We’ve created the prototype, and we’re currently in the process of adapting the bottom layer. It should be ready for launch by mid-July. Our work efficiency has been rapid.”

He sounded somewhat absent-minded as he talked about his worries over the pressure his company would face by Samsin and Google after the launch of his domestic phone.

“Oh,” Chen Jin uttered.

Brother Lei, this is a deadly weapon that you’ve given them of your own free will. I gave you the opportunity, but you didn’t grasp it.

He shook his head again.

Brother Lei was very smart, to the point that some might mistake his great intelligence for stupidity, but Chen Jin had been aware of this critical limitation—that Brother Lei was not bold enough and failed to act decisively out of fear that he would lose more than he would gain.

…

As the days passed in a seemingly peaceful manner, the 1st of July arrived, and it was time for the National College Entrance Examination. More than 9 million students made up the huge army of exam candidates. Some were overflowing with confidence, some were scared witless, and others were bewildered, but all of them were about to participate in an exam that would affect their destiny.

Su Yun’s brother, Su Zipeng, was among the army of exam candidates.

Chapter 225 - Thinking out of the Box

The morning’s language exam was largely uneventful, as it was similar to the past years’ format. The essay component, however, at the very end, had undergone a huge transformation. The candidate could choose to answer one of three questions.

Su Zipeng read each question carefully.

“1. Is freedom of choice equivalent to freedom itself?

“2. What is more important: ethics or law?

“3. What is the relationship of the individual to the nation?”

F*ck, those are some sharp questions!

Fortunately, Su Zipeng was not someone who was unaware of external matters. He paid close attention to current social news on a regular basis, thus he wrote an essay on the first topic. He thought he did quite well on it.

The mathematics exam in the afternoon was different from the previous years, to the degree that the exam duration was extended by 20 minutes. The questions in the first half of this exam were not too challenging, as the majority were linked to foundational topics. Several more difficult questions had a high number of points allocated to them, but Su Zipeng was confident of scoring at least 140 points out of a total of 150.

As he confidently approached the last page, though, he was instantly stumped by three additional questions, which were noted on the paper as not counting toward the calculation of the candidate’s final total score.

…

When the exam ended, the candidates submitted their papers and outside of the exam hall began discussing the exam. Su Zipeng walked out of the hall muddle-headed, surrounded by the flurry of voices.

“How could such a question appear?”

“I had no idea how to answer at all.”

“Although they don’t count toward our total score, there must be some sort value assigned to them. We have to provide a good answer regardless.”

…

In the family group chat “A Lovely Family,” Su Yun anxiously posted a message, “Little Peng, has the math exam ended? How do you think you did?”

Su Zipeng posted, “:’-) I don’t know. I don’t think my answers were too good.”

“Ah! Isn’t math your strongest subject? Were the questions especially difficult this year?”

“The questions weren’t that hard overall. I’m confident of getting 140 points or more. It’s the three additional questions at the end that gave me a headache, especially the one asking us to ‘use your own method to prove that 1 + 1 = 2.’ Does that even need to be proven? 1 + 1 = 2 is a universal truth. But they’re asking us to prove this truth? Did the question writer experience some kind of mental lapse?”

Su Yun was shocked. “Prove 1 + 1 = 2? This…”

“This is a question to test how well you can think out of the box. Moreover, it’s not too difficult.”

Chen Jin posted in the group chat, “You don’t have to arrive at the given conclusion via the use of complicated formulae. You can prove the question by providing counterevidence. Let’s hypothesize that 1 + 1 does not equal 2, maybe it equals 1 or 3. What would happen to this world then? If 1 + 1 = 1, the world would shrink at a continuous rate until it finally disappears or becomes an infinitesimal speck. And if 1 + 1 = 3, this world would continue to expand at an accelerated rate until it becomes unimaginably enormous. Therefore, considering the balance of the universe, 1 + 1 can only be equal to 2.”

“If you answered via this logical process, you’ll be able to get a good score for the ‘special points’”.

“Ahhh!”

Su Zipeng slapped his forehead and yelled, “I went about it the wrong way. I used a very complicated formula to prove that 1 + 1 = 2. I don’t think I’ll be getting a high score for this question.”

Chen Jin consoled him. “Don’t panic. The main components of the college entry exam this year still comprise the regular questions. There are only a few questions that require you to think out of the box. Even so, they are very important, so please remember that you must not answer them using typical lines of reasoning. Try your best to think out of the box. The more you go about it in an unexpected way, the better.” He could only provide so many hints.

“Hmm, thanks, brother-in-law!”

Su Zipeng had no idea how his brother-in-law knew so much about those additional questions; however, he was suddenly able to see everything in a much clearer light.

…

In the comprehensive natural sciences exam on the second day, Su Zipeng completed the regular questions before looking at the additional out-of-the-box questions.

“Physics Additional Question 1: Archimedes said, ‘Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.’ You are given a fulcrum, a lever, and a place to stand. How will you move the world?

“Physics Additional Question 2: You are given an object weighing 1 kg. Using your own method, put it in motion until it achieves superluminal speeds.

“Chemistry Additional Question 1: The ability to transform common metals into gold is a technique that alchemists have been in pursuit of for thousands of years. You are given H, O, C, Si, Cu, U, Pb, and other common elements. Create three alchemy formulae to transform these common metals into gold.

“Biology Additional Question 1: Dinosaurs dominated this world long ago, but they were mysteriously eradicated. You are given a laboratory to revive the dinosaurs. What kind of thought processes will you employ?

“Haha!” He laughed with confidence at these questions. Now that he knew how to approach them, they were not difficult at all.

…

After the comprehensive natural sciences exam ended, Su Zipeng walked out of the exam hall feeling clear-headed and refreshed. Many students who had taken the same exam were complaining.

“How can an object achieve superluminal speed? Had the question writer forgotten about the commonsense laws of physics?”

“I couldn’t make heads or tails of this year’s exam.”

“Talk about moving Earth. The reality is this. Even with a strong fulcrum, you won’t be able to move Earth according to the principle of the lever. On the contrary, the crust of Earth will be broken unless the lever is overwhelmingly strong.

Su Zipeng shook his head.

…

In the family group chat, Su Yun asked impatiently, “Little Peng, how did it go? I saw the additional questions, and I couldn’t even begin to answer them. How did you answer those questions?”

“It was simple. Just think about the hypothetical situations as boldly as possible.” He rambled on about his thought processes when he answered the questions, while Su Yun was so stunned she could only read his detailed reply.

Chen Jin asked, “Little Peng, how did you answer the additional question number two on physics? Tell us your answer.” Chen Jin was very curious about the answer to that question.

How did he get the object to achieve a superluminal speed?

“The object should be put into a tunnel of unlimited length. Excluding all other factors, I will accelerate the gravity in the tunnel such that the object will be pushed downward. After about a year, the speed of the object would exceed the speed of light.”

Su Yun widened her eyes. “It can be answered in this way?”

“Of course.”

Chen Jin said, “Even if it’s on a theoretical basis, it will be accepted as long as it can be achieved according to your stated conditions. It probably cannot happen in reality. But first you have to be bold enough to conceive of the idea, no matter how ridiculous it may seem. We should support this type of thinking, even if it may seem laughable. These extraordinary ways of thinking can be very important sometimes.”

“Little Peng, I believe that you will score quite well on that question.”

A total of seven to eight questions to test the candidates’ out-of-the-box thinking had been added to the natural sciences portion in this year’s exam. The scores from these questions would be excluded from their total scores, and the candidates’ rankings would be unaffected. The special values allocated to these questions, however, comprised a total of 100 points.

If the number of top scorers remains in the manageable range, these additional 100 points would only be a point of reference and would not affect students’ entry into the top universities; however, if the number of top scorers exceeded the capacities of the top universities, the importance of the additional questions would be realized.

If a student’s regular scores were high, but his special scores were only average at 30 to 50 points, then that student would only be admitted into a university that was ranked slightly lower.

If a student’s regular and special scores were outstanding, then he would certainly be a talent that various top universities would vie over.

Even if one’s regular score was only average, he could still be admitted as an exception by the top universities if he had an outstanding special score, because of its measure of an extraordinary way of thinking. Therefore, the questions that tested students’ out-of-the-box thinking were extremely important.

But was this too unfair to the top students who could not really think out of the box? After all, not everyone was gifted with such unique creativity, and this was the only viable method!

What this society needs in the future are talented people who can think out of the box and with extremely strong problem-solving skills.

The impact of these additional 100 points outside of the total score was very limited. If a student scored very well on the regular questions, it would not affect his entrance into one of the top universities. The Department of Education employed a special formula in their calculations to maintain a basic sense of fairness. The vast majority of the college entrance exam candidates had also accepted this change.

…

The last exam, the English paper, was finally concluded. Millions of college entry exam candidates walked out of the exam hall with mixed feelings. Su Zipeng had never felt so relaxed before. Everything had ended, and this long race—this intense competition—had finally come to an end.

As for his results, he estimated his various scores and said, “I’m not too certain if I can get into Jing Hua University or the National University, but I should be able to get into Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Fudan University.”

Su Yun said excitedly, “That’s great! Come study in Shang Hai, and you can live in the same city as me!” What a bonus that she could look after her brother if they were in the same city.

“We’ll talk about it after the minimum admittance scores have been announced.”

…

On the other side of the country, Xing Hai Technologies had been intensely preparing for a major product launch event, and the widespread press release was about to begin.

Chapter 226 - Launch of the First Phone Model

At 7 pm on July 3rd, people entered Shang Hai Stadium in droves. Journalists representing hundreds of media companies had been sent there. Tens of national review organizations flocked there. One after another, they entered the stadium that could hold up to 100,000 people. Although there was one more hour until the event started, nearly all the seats were occupied… One could tell the anticipation and passion these people had for this event.

This was the first mobile phone that was 100% domestically produced. It was installed with a domestic operating system and used only domestic components in its hardware. This was something that had never been done in the world. But they did it. No matter what the performance of the phone was like, its existence had a great significance.

As the start of the event approached, the number of non-live audiences rapidly exceeded tens of millions as they tuned into the event across various platforms.

Coincidentally, the national senior high school entrance exam and the college entry exam had both ended in succession. Summer holidays had begun. It was a rare sight that the students were not playing games likes “King’s Pesticides” or survival games. Instead, they were quietly sitting in front of a computer or mobile screen, waiting for the launch event that was about to begin.

In a particular internet cafe, Su Zipeng and his classmates sat in a row in front of the computers. They had finished their games and were waiting for the livestream to begin.

The discussions on Weibo were intensifying as people were caught up in debates everywhere. There were at least tens of millions of people focusing on this ordinary product launch.

…

In the preparation area backstage, Wang Xiaoyan was decked out in a shirt and western-style pants. Chen Jin, who was remotely operating his double, noticed that he seemed somewhat nervous. His face was flushed and his hands were sweaty. Holding his flashcards, he paced back and forth in a restless manner.

Chen Jin asked, “What happened? You look nervous.”

Wang Xiaoyan replied, “A… A little. I’m afraid that I won’t do a good job on stage.”

Chen Jin said, “With 100,000 in the live audience and tens of millions more viewers watching the livestream, the intensity of this focus is comparable to that of a wedding night. It’s normal to be nervous.”

A tremor went through Wang Xiaoyan’s body and he forced a laugh. “President Chen, I’m even more nervous after hearing your words! Even some overseas VIPs might be watching this. If I show that I am guilty or timid, and I stutter, they will despise and dismiss us. We will fail to gain honor for ourselves.” In an instant, Wang Xiaoyan became grave and he clenched his fists.

Chen Jin patted his shoulder. “The audience is more interested in the product, not you as a person. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Treat the audience like they are air. Introduce the product according to the flowchart that you’ve arranged. Then think about how the product will gain honor and dignity for our country. You’ll be ok as long as you’ve achieved these points.”

Wang Xiaoyan nodded fiercely. “Hmm, I understand, President Chen.”

…

At 8 pm sharp, the launch event began and the lights in the stadium dimmed. At the back of the stage, the big screen lit up and a short video was played. A table was placed in the middle of an empty room. At least 200 mobile phones were arranged neatly on the large surface of the table. They included overseas brands like Fruit and Samsin flagships, as well as domestic brands like Huawei, Da Mi, OV, Meihong, and others that were manufactured in the country.

These models had uniformly achieved great success in the past few years on the market. They were well-liked by consumers. All of them were representatives of exquisite craftsmanship, advanced technology, and innovation of the highest level.

The camera swept across these phones. The narrator sighed with emotion and said, “How perfect are these products. Each of them are works of art in their own way. They make me sigh in appreciation. Compared to these phones, the new product that is about to be introduced is not even worth mentioning. I would even say that there is no need to put it out in front of an audience to showcase its ugliness. Its existence is superfluous. Hence, the event tonight can be described as an ‘unnecessary event.’ So why do we still insist on making a mobile phone product? Let’s do a simple test. We’ve set up completely different passwords for unlocking the screens on these phones, changed the passwords for mobile payment, and placed several encrypted files in these phones.”

Hundreds of people appeared on the screen as they set up or changed existing passwords on the mobile phones. Then, they took videos, photos, and created files on the phones.

“We’ll begin from this Fruit mobile.”

The scene was fixed upon a Fruit X model.

“Unlock the screen… Open the camera album… Set up the phone recording… Ok. Now, we’ll be going into Taobao Mall to get something for ourselves. Select Alipay. Hm, we need the password for mobile payment. Then, let’s autofill the form. Purchase is successful.”

“Wow!”

“F**k!”

“How was this possible?!”

A commotion could be heard amongst the live audience. Countless people were so shocked that their eyes rolled comically and their mouths hung open!

There was nobody operating the Fruit X mobile in the screen. The screen unlocked, opened the camera album, and went through the mobile payment and other actions simply based on the voice of the background narrator. It was as if an invisible hand was controlling the phone, causing one’s hair to stand on end. Many Fruit mobile models were continuously broken through.

The narrator tried out some Android phones. They were unexpectedly obedient to his voice commands as well. The narrator could do whatever he wanted, from the screen unlocking to mobile payments.

The narrator said, “This video is bound to cause a lot of controversy. We will announce the system vulnerabilities related to iOS and Android. Those who are qualified can proceed with your own inspection and verification, but please do not violate the law! I also hope that Fruit Company and Google Corporation will plug these system loopholes as soon as possible. No need to thank me. I’m Lei Feng, by the way. We’re back to the question at the very beginning. Why do we insist on making a mobile phone? Why do we insist on creating a mobile operating system that solely belongs to us? It’s not to prove how awesome we are! And it’s also not to fan the patriotic flames in the hearts of the audience. We have only one simple purpose. And that is to make a phone that completely belongs to us, is secure, and useful! That is all.”

The video ended.

Loud music echoed across the stadium. Wearing an in-ear microphone, Chen Jin walked up to the stage in great strides. The product launch had officially begun.

However, none of the audience, no matter if they were at the stadium or viewers of the livestream, was paying any attention to the event. They were having intense discussions on the bullet screens or other various forums.

“Oh my mother, this is too terrifying!”

“There’s no secret that can remain a secret.”

“Was that a genuine mistake or was a deliberate backdoor created by Fruit and Google?”

“There’s an 80% to 90% probability that they are backdoors! Fruit Corporation and Merica’s military have a very close partnership. Google frequently proclaims that they will ‘never commit any unethical activities’, however, they still have publicized plenty of advertisements on fake medications. Google had joined the ‘PRISM’ project of Merica’s National Military Intelligence Bureau way back in 09. Neither of those companies are good.”

“I really want to throw my f**king phone away. There are backdoors everywhere!”

“Disgusting! The f**kers are fanning the flames of anxiety just to sell their products. There are just some things that a company shouldn’t do.”

Someone immediately replied to the above post, “Haha, even if Xing Hai Technologies is fanning the flames of anxiety for their own profit, at least they’ve found the backdoors and have broken the codes on those phones. In any case, I will never purchase a Fruit mobile or an Android mobile. You can continue to use them if you think that it’s safe to do so.”

The audience and netizens were discussing intensely amongst themselves.

The introduction of Red Pepper Z1’s main functions was drawing to an end as the event moved towards its last phase, the announcement of the prices. The audience finally became alert and they focused their attention back to the stage.

“Then, what’s the selling price for such an awesome product? Rest assured, everyone, we will not let your patriotic feelings go to waste. As the pioneer product in its own category, it is likely that some issues might crop up when using it. By selling it at a ‘friendly price,’ we hope that we can have some of your understanding in exchange when it comes to certain areas that you might find disappointing. And now for the price!”

Chen Jin’s voice dropped to a lower octave. A rumble could be heard. A price list appeared on the big screen. There were a total of two versions.

Red Pepper Z1, 4+64GB version, was selling for $999.

Red Pepper Z1, 4+128GB version, was selling for $1,099.

There were three colors to choose from: Patriotic Red, Starry Blue, and Woeful White. Prices were unaffected by the colors.

Everyone was stunned.

Chapter 227 - Shockingly Good Value for Money!

Cheap. It was truly cheap! This low price might even make some think, Could the manufacturers even earn a profit?

Of course they profited. Even though the two versions of Red Pepper Z1 were selling at “friendly prices,” the net profit per unit coming from the hardware was about $50. If sales volume exceeded millions or even tens of millions, the net profit per hardware unit might even reach $100.

In order to support the production of this 100% domestic phone, the essential hardware components were sold to Tiny Pepper Corporation at a highly discounted price. The components included the SX-800 jointly developed by Xing Hai Technologies and Teng Xun Corporation, the LPDDR4 memory chip from Purple Ray, and the internal storage from Da Jiang storage chip factory. They were sold at prices that were only slightly higher than the production costs.

Moreover, other components such as the screen from Oriental Crystal, the motherboard from Shentong Corporation, the camera modules from Ou Feiguang, the battery from Desai Corporation, and so on, were sold at discounted prices to Tiny Pepper. Those manufacturing companies wanted to show their goodwill to Xing Hai Technologies and establish a good business relationship with them.

The price of the communication baseband was a little more expensive. It used the Baron 5000 add-on baseband. Hua Yao Company could be considered one of the more loyal and patriotic companies. They did not charge a particularly high price for the 5G baseband to show their support for the 100% domestic mobile. In addition, they had even waived the communications patent licensing fees, which was equivalent to 3.5% of the mobile phone’s overall selling price.

What about the gangster monopoly of Qualcomm? Even the most advanced 5G communication baseband still needed the CMDA technologies which had been patented in the early ages of mobile communications. One would not be able to make calls on their mobile phones without CMDA technologies. The patents of more than 10,000 CMDA relevant technologies were under the control of Qualcomm. If you wanted the call function on your mobile phone, you had to pay money to Qualcomm.

However, time was the greatest enemy. Most of the CMDA communication patents that were valid for only 20 years would expire after 20X0 and could be used free of charge. Hence, Qualcomm was behaving in a more honest and humble manner the past few years. They could not afford to employ cheap tricks like “Buy our baseband and you’ll get a free CPU” any longer. In addition, most of the products produced by local suppliers in Z countries were characterized by “good quality and low prices.”

Hence, even though the selling price of the 100% domestic phone, Red Pepper Z1, was not high, it still had a certain profit margin. In other words, most of the pure local-made electronics were products of good quality selling at low prices.

However, all of this did not have any significant direct impact on Xing Hai Technologies. No matter if the Red Pepper Z1 flopped or if they flew off the shelves; no matter if Tiny Pepper made a loss or a profit from the mobile phone; Xing Hai Technologies received no revenue from Red Pepper Z1. Chen Jin’s sole purpose in helping Tiny Pepper publicize the product was to aid the distribution of the Star Cloud System. The lower the selling price of Red Pepper Z1, the better.

…

In a testing area where video content creators filmed their product reviews, at the edge of some long and bulky tables, Journalists from hundreds of science and tech media as well as staff from more than ten review organizations were doing their user experience reviews on the newly launched Red Pepper Z1.

A famous review host on Bilibili, the “Mischievous Koala,” was holding a white mobile phone. He began speaking to the camera in front of him. “Let’s do a simple user experience review. We’ll first talk about the phone’s ergonomics. On the front is a 5.8 inch OLED display screen; the back of the phone is made of plastic. A plastic shell on a phone? Doesn’t that belong to ancient times? All right, even though it’s not as good as metal or carbon fiber at dispersing heat, it’s light, very light. The texture and feel of it in the hands is unexpectedly good.” Seeing the tiny crack in the middle of the phone’s body, he mumbled to himself, “This type of phone is the easiest to take apart. I can open up the phone with my bare hands to access its interior. Let’s get into the user experience. The system interface is simple and clean. Touches and movements on the screen are abnormally smooth. Going into Taobao; f**k, it only took about 0.5 seconds. Much faster than any phones that I’ve used. This is really stunning. Opening the app for WeChat, QQ, UC browser, and Dou Yin. The startup speed of the apps is unimaginable. Perhaps this is the advantage of a late entry into the market? The Star Cloud system is far superior to the Android or iOS system. The niche of the Star Cloud in its first entry must be speed! Photos are average. It can take up to 12 million single shots but this should be enough for basic use. With this price, you can’t be too fussy about the quality of the photos taken. Let’s try some games… I’m not seeing this wrong, am I…? It has all the mainstream games like ‘King’s Pesticides,”A Thrilling Battlefield,’ and ‘Crash 3’? It even has the newly launched ‘Crash 4’? It’s only been a few short months, yet Xing Hai Technologies has built up its ecosystem of applications to such a terrifying degree?”

Koala’s mouth hung open. He was truly shocked. Xing Hai Technologies was too terrifying. It had built a complete ecosystem of applications even before the launch of the first 100% domestic phone, when there were only a minority of Star Cloud System users. “We’ll leave that aside and play some games!” He opened the app for “King’s Pesticides” and shot a group of human bots. He nodded. “The phone maintains a frame rate of 60 frames per second easily throughout the entire game. I support the SX-800!” Then he went into a game of “A Thrilling Battlefield.””F**k, what is happening now? Even though its showing HD quality images, it still manages to maintain a full frame run at its peak of 60 frames per second with only the occasional drop to 58 or 57 frames per second. How is this possible? The running benchmark of the SX-800 is only half of the top quality CPUs, how can it have the same frame rate performance?”

The cameraman standing at the side reminded him, “President Chen had mentioned this at the launch, the Star Cloud system is equipped with ‘game super-optimization’ technology. By reducing the level of transcoding, compressing program instructions, and other optimization methods, they doubled GPU performance without the need for increased power consumption. This type of optimization technology is twice as powerful as the GPU-Turbo of Hua Yao phones. Games on the phone have been optimized to an unimaginable peak!”

Koala’s eyes widened and he mumbled, “Just what did I miss in the launch that happened mere moments ago?” After a round of “A Thrilling Battlefield,” he played “Crash 3” for another 10 minutes. Then he touched the back of his hand to the back panel of the phone. He exclaimed in shock, “Where’s the heat? I’ve been playing almost an hour of games non-stop. Why doesn’t the phone feel hot?” How could it not feel hot at all when he had been playing games for an hour? The phone used a plastic shell for its back panel and it was not equipped with graphene in its interior to disperse heat.

The cameraman explained again, “It’s been said at the launch. The Red Pepper Z1 has excellent control of its power consumption. With a full charge, one can play “King’s Pesticide” for up to 18 hours in a row, which is twice as long as can be played on most mobile phones. There is no need to worry about excessive heat and reduction in its CPU frequency.”

Koala was stupefied for a moment. He glanced at the phone again. It still seemed to be roughly crafted. Curiosity welled up in his mind and he could not wait to take it apart to see its internal structure. However, he suppressed this impulse. His conclusion: Due to the outstanding performance of the operating system, the user experience of the Red Pepper Z1 was comparable to the top quality flagships that were selling for a few thousand dollars. However, this phone was only selling at $999. The 128GB version was also selling at a low price of $1,099! The price of a Red Pepper Z1 costs only about a tenth of an Android or Fruit flagship.

He looked at its appearance again, decked out in a shade of white that was pale as paper. A thought zipped through his mind! He could not help but ask the cameraman, “What is this color called? What white?”

“Woeful White.”

Koala beat his chest and raised his head. He stared at the ceiling light. An expletive suddenly burst from his mouth, “What a f**king amazing ‘Woeful White’!” Whoever thought of this name was a genius. He predicted that mobile phone manufacturers, both domestic and foreign, would have a paper-white expression on their faces after testing out the Red Pepper Z1. The color of their expressions could be suitably described as a “Woeful White.”

“This is a definite victory for Xing Hai Technologies! Via the additional advantages conferred by its operating system, you can now have the user experience of a ten thousand dollar phone for only one thousand dollars. It is part of the natural order that this will be a victory for Xing Hai Technologies!”

The leader of the field was about to be changed. With such ridiculous value for consumers’ money, what else could stand in Z country’s way?

In yesteryears, the smartphone defeated Nokia via its interactive mode, which was an entire generation ahead of its time. Now the secret behind Star Cloud System’s defeat of Android and iOS would be its amazing value for money.

…

After the end of the launch event, the real Chen Jin returned back to his room. Just as he took out his phone, he received a new WeChat message. It was from Su Zipeng.

Chen Jin felt slightly stunned when he saw the contents of the message.

“Brother-in-law. You’re actually… A super bigwig.”

Chapter 228 - Sales Volume Exceeded Ten Million!

“No, you’re wrong. I’m not some kind of bigwig.” Chen Jin denied Su Zipeng’s statement three times. He took great care to keep a low profile in his private life by wearing cheap clothing and non-prescription glasses. Moreover, he pasted on his face the facial adhesives tapes that had micro-plastic surgery effects. His image was a far cry from that of a famous and powerful person. The average person could hardly recognize his real identity.

However, Su Zipeng had very good observation skills. He said, “Brother-in-law, your voice is very similar to that person. Even the way your walk, the way you raise your hand, and other habitual gestures are virtually the same. He has a tiny mole below his neck, close to his right shoulder. And you do too. Even your facial features share many similarities. Moreover his surname is ‘Chen’, same as yours. Your name comprises of a ‘Jin’ and his is a ‘Jing’. There’s no great difference. So….” Su Zipeng was very certain of his guess and was feeling a little excited. He gave a silent cheer to his sister. She was too awesome. She actually bagged a powerful company president for herself.

Chen Jin was stunned for a while. Then he typed, “Is there anything else you want to add?”

Su Zipeng became even more excited. “None!”

“All right, then promise me something.”

“What is it?”

“Keep it a secret; don’t let anyone know about this.”

“I understand, Mr. VIP! But, I have a small request too!”

“Say it!”

“I want to buy a Red Pepper Z1. The 128GB version in Starry Blue. I’ll transfer the money to you immediately.”

Chen Jin laughed heartily. “You’re young, but you’re already learning how to curry favor. You can keep the money, just let me know the shipping address.”

“Thank you, Brother-in-law!” Su Zipeng brandished his fist in excitement. He really wanted to shout, My brother-in-law is a super VIP!

They ended their conversation, and Chen Jin shook his head. From now on, he had to keep an even lower profile when he went out as himself. Even Su Zipeng, whom he was not particularly close to, had managed to guess his identity through the observation of some details. It would be impossible to hide his identity from people who were even closer to him. Of course, there should not be a need to hide it from the people who were the closest to him. He was simply worried that someone with a loose tongue would shout to all and sundry that “My xx is actually xx!” He would become household news. The more people who knew his identity, the higher the risk of exposure.

Su Zipeng’s character was more trustworthy than others. As for others… The less who knew, the better.

…

At noon on the 4th of July, the online sale of the first 100% domestic mobile phone, Red Pepper Z1, had begun. The first batch of 1 million units was sold out within a short 15 seconds.

A cheap price. A secure and reliable operating system that ran smoothly. A user experience that was comparable to the top quality flagships that utilized other operating systems. A continuous performance that was astonishing.

Faced with a phone that had combined so many advantages into one single phone, the vast numbers of netizens were shouting about what a fantastic product it was. Following which, they decided to contribute generously to the sales of this product by buying it. After all, it only cost around a thousand. Many used their Ant credit pay to buy a few units. Some chose to pay in 12 month installments, meaning that it only cost them about ten dollars per month.

Even if there was no need to get a new phone, many chose to blindly buy it. The low pricing strategy of the Red Pepper Z1 achieved great success in terms of sales volume. More than a million units were sold in just 15 seconds. It broke the record for the fastest sales for mobile phones. However, there were countless netizens who expressed their discontent.

“Where’s this awesome phone that I heard about?”

“I just took a nap and everything was sold out.”

“More than a million units have already been sold? Do they have to sell it so quickly?”

“Must be the cheap monkey trick of restricting stock to make the product look more desirable!”

The discontented opinions of the netizens flooded the comment section of Xing Hai Technologies official Weibo. Besides the ordinary consumers, the hundreds of thousands of Star Cloud app developers also had the urge to buy the Red Pepper Z1. They had to get their hands on a few Red Pepper Z1 phones to do some tests. The government had also placed an order for more than a million units. They hoped that Tiny Pepper Corporation could complete their order in a month. There were at least a few million other potential customers.

Chen Jin called Wang Xiaoyan to enquire if he could meet this outrageous demand in a shorter period of time.

“It’s not a problem as long as we have ample supply of the various components. Tiny Pepper can produce 500,000 units per day. We can handle any number of orders. However, the components that we are currently short on are mainly the OLED screens and the LPDDR4 memory chips. I’ve thought of a solution. A portion of the screens and memory chips will be replaced with LCD screens and Purple Ray’s LPDDR3 high-frequency chips respectively. Of course, the prices for these phones will be lower. These replacements will not have any significant impact on the overall performance of the phones.”

In any case, as long as there were sufficient supplies of the necessary components, Tiny Pepper’s production capacities could be rapidly increased to 500,000 units per day.

Chen Jin was stupefied. 500,000. 500,000 units per day?

“President Wang, you are certain about this production number?”

“Yes. If I expanded my factory just a little more, it would not be difficult to produce 1 million units per day.” Wang Xiaoyan talked about his experience in the high-efficiency production of mobile phones. “The production of the casing is the most time-consuming. Many companies are using materials like aluminum alloys, carbon fibers, all-ceramic, etc. They would be polishing the quality and construction of the casings every day. A high proportion is scrapped. It would be strange if they could increase their production speed under these circumstances. The production speed is much faster by employing plastic casings. The production cost is only a few dollars and the shape is molded with just one try. We can easily make as many as we need. It’s also convenient to open and do repairs on the phone. There are many advantages to plastic casing. In addition, there are all sorts of inspections and tests to be conducted. All these processes are killers of speed and efficiency. How could the speed of the production process be increased? In the post-production stage, we would charge the phone to a power supply, conduct some tests on the finished product, and that would be all. Typically, there are no problems with 95% or more of the phones.”

Hearing these statements, a great suspicion welled up in Chen Jin’s mind. Quality. Would there be any quality to the phones that were manufactured like that? What if large-scale quality issues appeared out of the blue?

“President Chen, I guarantee that there won’t be large-scale quality issues! Our product quality is passable in this industry. We are one of the few to achieve efficiency without neglecting quality. We provide free maintenance and repair services if there are any malfunctions in the first three months of usage. We have reduced our short-term return-for-repair rate to 3% of all users. Ah… President Chen, please don’t think that 3% is a high number. The return-for-repair rate of Hua Yao and Da Mi is not low either. On the other hand, it’s OV that produces truly high-quality phones. We hope for your understanding, President Chen. As manufacturers of phones of inferior brands, we would not earn any profit at all if we do not cut costs wherever we can. You have given us a billion dollar loan, part of the money has been used for development, and even more has been spent on the construction of a bigger factory. It’s pretty much gone in a short time. We want to make a good product. But we need to take things one at a time.”

The product quality could only be improved significantly when the new factory had been constructed.

“Ok.” Chen Jin shook his head. “It’s best that phones with quality issues make up less than 5% of our total units sold. If the user tells us that there are problems with the phone in the short-term, immediately provide them a new model. They can keep exchanging their phones until they get one that is working ok. We need to have an excellent attitude with regards to solving any potential issues with the phones.”

Immediate exchange for a new model? This would significantly increase production costs. However, Wang Xiaoyan had no choice but to say, “Ok, President Chen. I promise to exchange a new model for them until there are no more issues.”

Chen Jin nodded. With this promise, there should not be any major issues no matter how much Tiny Pepper expanded their production capacities. However, Chen Jin did not notice this detail. By using this type of production and sales method, it would eventually lead to a unique production sales model. Manufacturers would mass produce on a truly massive scale, without giving any considerations to quality. Then they would sell these units directly to the consumers. Once the user reflected that their phones had problems, the manufacturer would exchange it for free with another model that had been thoroughly inspected. There would be no need for a second exchange. In a situation of higher product yield, the type production model mentioned above would not help to build a good quality inspection system. After all, it was more cost-effective to build a good quality inspection system. Its only flaw was the hassle that a minority of consumers experienced.

Therefore, most of the inferior mobile phone manufacturers employed such a production model. Hence, this production sales model became a killer move for manufacturers seeking to dominate the market rapidly.

…

At 12 pm on the 5th of July, after Wang Xiaoyan had promised Chen Jin that he would “definitely keep an eye on the quality,” Tiny Pepper Corporation started taking pre-orders for the first 100% domestic phone on their official Taobao shop. They had unlimited stock. As long as users paid in full, they would get their phones.

That was right. Totally unlimited stock. Anyone could place an order. You could buy a maximum of 1,000 phones with your account. As long as the money was paid, Tiny Pepper would ship the product as soon as possible.

The vast majority of scalpers were shocked. Unlimited orders? What kind of trick was this? They did not dare to make a single order for fear of falling into yet another trap. The ordinary consumers were not plagued with such misgivings. The earlier they placed their orders, the earlier they could receive their phones. Why hesitate? Hurry and place your orders!

Unlimited pre-orders began. Pre-orders for the phone exceeded 1 million units in thirty seconds. In two minutes, pre-orders exceeded 2 million units. In another half an hour, pre-orders exceeded 5 million units. In another ten hours, pre-orders exceeded ten million units!

…

At Da Mi Company, Lei Xiao Jun’s eyes widened as he saw that number. It continued rising to a value that stunned him and made his heart palpitate. He turned around and shouted to a company staff who was standing behind him, “Quick! Announce our 100% domestic mobile phone now!”

“Right now, President Lei?”

“Yes, right now! Announce it this instant!”

Chapter 229 - Da Mi Joined the Star Alliance

“Da Mi launches 100% domestic mobile phone through the night.”

The next day, this news became a hot search topic and the center of debates for many netizens. It turned out that Da Mi Company had released the second “100% domestic” mobile phone at 12 midnight. This was done with no warning, no publicity to warm up the responses from potential audiences, and no invitation to the launch event. As the launch event was prepared in a hurry, there were not even a few Powerpoint slides to accompany the demo. The few hundred or so audience members were all Da Mi staff. However, due to the lack of copy and scripts for the speech, Lei Xiao Jun’s performance onstage was messy and incoherent.

Hence, this launch was called “The Most Inadequately Prepared Launch Ever.”

Even so, the 100% domestic phone that was introduced during the launch had some pretty good specs and performance all around. It was called “Guomi 1.” It was also installed with the SX-800 CPU, LPDDR4 memory chip from Purple Ray, UFS storage from Da Jiang, a 5.99 inch OLED screen from Crystal Oriental, as well as other domestically produced components. The screen to body size ratio of the phone was as high as 92% The battery capacity was 4,2000 mAh. Besides the normal version of 4+64GB memory, there were two other versions with higher end specs at 6+64GB and 6+128GB.

They were also sold at “friendly” prices of $1,119, $1,399, and $1,599 respectively. There were three colors available, “National Red,””Dream Blue,” and “Lucky Yellow.” Pre-orders with unlimited stock had also begun, and consumers could make a purchase right now.

But… Nobody paid any attention. A few hours after sales of the product started, less than 1,000 units of the “Guomi 1” were sold. On the contrary, it was faced with ridicule all over the internet.

“Lei Xiao Jun, until now, do you not know the reason why Da Mi is still so weak? It has always been a follower, never a trendsetter, that’s why it’s fated to be weak.”

“If you announced this launch just one day earlier, you would have sold billions of it.”

“No, no, no. Guomi 1 is not a ‘pure domestic’ phone. It’s still installed with the unsafe Android system. I won’t buy it.”

“The price is really competitive. But the Android system… Forget about it. I will never buy it unless it’s installed with the Star Cloud system!”

“Sorry. I’ve already purchased the Red Pepper. I have no spare cash on me now.”

“Brother Lei, don’t be sad. I’ll play ‘Chilly’ to console you.”

The vast majority of netizens roasted the Da Mi Company for being “extra.” They did not look upon the Guomi 1 with favor.

It was a flop. The fire in Lei Xiao Jun’s heart chilled. However, he did not give up. Instead he made a call to ask for a last ditch rescue plan. “Brother Chen. Do me a favor and help me this time!” Lei Xiao Jun was wailing in despair over the phone.

Chen Jin said, “I’ve given you the opportunity, Brother Lei. How do you want me to help you now?”

With Da Mi’s technological ability, it was entirely within their realm of power to launch the first 100% domestic phone ahead of Tiny Pepper. In the end, they lost the initial advantage due to various concerns. He could only blame himself for that. Lei Xiao Jun said helplessly, “Yes, yes, yes. I was wrong. I act like a blind man even though I have eyes. It’s all my fault. But the mobile phone sector is the lifeblood of Da Mi, I can’t suffer any losses in this sector! The death of the Da Mi mobile phones would also mean the death of the company. Hundreds of thousands of employees would lose their jobs… Brother Chen, please understand the difficult position I’m in. Sometimes, I’m really at a loss of what to do!” One could not always do as he liked in this world. He was no exception. Billions of Android software and Da Mi mobile phones formed a critical link in the ecosphere of Da Mi’s products. These products had entered countless households and enabled them to enjoy a wonderful, smart lifestyle. Their entire product ecosphere was based on Android. How could Da Mi free themselves from Android overnight?

Even though Da Mi mobile phones were not profitable for the company, it was true that they formed the core of the company’s business. Once the core was lost, everything would still be pointless no matter how rich the array of products that Da Mi offered was. He could not overturn the deeply rooted foundations of the company that had taken more than 10 years to establish simply on a whim. This was a perfect example of the inflexibility that was inherent in a big company. The reason why Google dared to charge money for its Android system was because of this dependence that one could not easily free himself from. However, now that Google’s greedy side had been exposed, the Star Cloud system from Xing Hai Technologies would be the death blow for Da Mi.

It was too terrifying how the pre-orders for Red Pepper Z1 exceeded ten million units in a day. In the year of 20X0, the total number of smartphones sold in Z country was only 380 million units. Of those 380 million units, 11% were Da Mi phones. However, the first half of the new year had passed, and so far, the total quantity of Da Mi phones sold in the country had not even reach 20 million. This showed the downturn in the smartphone market.

But the first 100% domestic mobile, Red Pepper Z1, created such a terrifying sales volume. Ten million units were sold within a day. This was equivalent to 50% of Da Mi’s total mobile phone sales in six months. When Lei Xiao Jun saw the sale statistics, his entire soul trembled. At the same time, he gained new understanding of the patriotism the citizens felt towards their country. And then what he felt was regret. But it was too late for regrets! Had there been any need to worry over the ecosphere of Da Mi’s products when he could have achieved this sales number for himself? Why did he have so many concerns and worries in the first place?

“Ah…” Chen Jin said with utmost seriousness, “Brother Lei, if you trust me, then immediately do as I say. If you don’t trust me, then only death remains for your Da Mi company.”

“Quickly say it! I trust you, Brother Chen!”

“First, you need to issue an apology to the infinite number of netizens and take out the ‘100% domestic’ or ‘pure domestic’ from the official description of the Guomi 1. You need to be more honest. You’re still using the Android system in Guomi 1, how can it be called a ‘100% domestic phone’? It’s better to call it the ‘100% domestic hardware phone.’ We can’t lie to the consumers.”

“Ok, ok. I will apologize. I will make adjustments and apologize as soon as possible!”

“Then, you’ll announce that Da Mi will join the Star Alliance and work with Xing Hai Technologies to create a real 100% domestic phone that is installed with the Star Cloud system. Only with this will the consumers buy into your product and the sales of your mobile phones can be saved. Otherwise, your market share will only continue to dwindle to nothing.”

“This…” Lei Xiao Jun hesitated as some concerns continued to plague him.

Chen Jin said helplessly, “Brother Lei, can you please have some backbone? Da Mi is not a small-scale company. Billions of Da Mi mobiles are sold all over the world every year. Da Mi has capital, technologies, and strength. What can Samsin and Google do to your company after Da Mi has joined the Star Alliance? They’ve witnessed the power of the Star Cloud system. Would they do anything to push you away from them and towards us? You’ll be benefiting from both sides. If you don’t believe me, you can try taking a stronger stance against them and see how Samsin and Google react.”

“Yes, yes! You’re right!” Lei Xiao Jun had an epiphany. He silently thought, I’m just joining the Star Alliance to meet the needs of the domestic consumers. It’s not stated that Da Mi will have to stop using components supplied by Samsin or to give up the Android system. It’s not necessary for them to behave so agitatedly. If they force Da Mi into a corner… They’ll be the ones to regret their actions. He immediately responded, “Brother Chen, I’ll listen to your advice! I’ll announce that Da Mi will join the Star Alliance this instant and produce a 100% domestic phone for real!”

Chen Jin nodded.

…

On the very same afternoon, an apology was declared on the official Weibo of the Da Mi Company as well as Lei Xiao Jun’s personal Weibo. They sincerely apologized to the vast numbers of consumers for misleading them about the Guomi 1, which was not a 100% domestic phone as they had claimed. Then, they announced that they had joined the Star Alliance. They would not let down their “Mi Fans,” and planned to produce a real 100% domestic phone.

The majority of netizens responded positively to these two announcements.

“Not bad. He has a sincere attitude.”

“It’s not too late to make up for it.”

“Cheers. I’ll buy it for sure when they produce a real 100% domestic phone.”

Chen Jin posted a comment on Weibo too. “Everyone, please give Brother Lei another chance. I’m sure he will not disappoint you again.”

Even so, less than two hours later, Chen Jin suddenly received an urgent call!

Ling Jundong said in a hurry, “President Chen. The Goreans have taken action. From today onwards, Samsin is reducing the prices of all its core components, including their RAM memory chips, NAND storage, OLED screens and more! The prices are reduced by 30% or more. Prices of their memory chips have plunged by a dramatic 50%. President Chen, this is bad news!”

A gleam shone from Chen Jin’s eyes. “Is the ‘Law of The Downswing’ finally coming into play? The news comes at an opportune moment!”

Chapter 230 - Law of the Downswing

The Moore’s Law was very famous in the CPU production sector. It went like this: under fixed-price conditions, the number of components that could be accommodated in an integrated circuit would be doubled every 18 to 24 months, leading to a doubling in the rate of performance. In other words, the performance of a computer that can be bought for the same price would double every 18 to 24 months. This law was also called the “Law of The Boom Phase.”

However, this law was useless in the memory storage production sector. In addition, with human interference and control in the market, a different observation could be seen. It was called “Law of The Downswing.” Samsin Corporation was the best at using this law. They were even regarded as the forefather of the “Law of The Downswing.” Samsin took full advantage of the unique strengths found in the boom phase of the memory storage industry. By relying on the inflow of capital from the government, they would expand their production as much as possible, causing prices to drop. Factories would be left with production surplus and other companies would also cut their investment spending. However, during this period of time, Samsin would continue to mass produce. This eventually forced the prices of the products even further down. In the end, competitors would be pushed out of the market or even go bankrupt. This became known as the “Law of The Downswing.”

In the history of the memory storage production sector, Samsin had employed this law a total of three times. The first two times occurred in the mid-80s and the early 90s. This had enabled Samsin to claw its way from the bottom to the top of the sector. However, Samsin was not satisfied with the extent of its games. Hence, it employed the law a third time before and after the ’08 economic crisis.

In early ’07, Microsoft launched its Vista operating system, which required a huge amount of memory. The DRAM manufacturers predicted that the demand for memory storage devices would increase dramatically, hence many of them expanded their production capacities. However, the sales of the Vista was much lower than expected and prices of DRAM plunged due to the oversupply. With the ’08 economic crisis exacerbating the situation, prices of DRAM chips dropped from $2.25 per unit to $0.31 per unit. At this point, Samsin did something truly shocking. They invested 118% of the total profit for ’07 into DRAM production to expand their business. They deliberately worsened the industry’s losses. This was the final blow to many competitors who had been experiencing a difficult time.

The effects were obvious. Prices of DRAM plunged even further. In mid ’08, DRAM prices were so low they could not break even with manufacturing costs; by the end of the year, prices could not even cover the costs of raw materials. At the start of ’09, the third biggest manufacturer, Qimeng from Germany, was the first to fall as they announced their bankruptcy. With this, the European players in this sector had disappeared. By early ’12, the fifth largest memory manufacturer, Elpida, announced bankruptcy. The Japanese, who used to dominate 50% of the DRAM market, lost their last trump card with the fall of Elpida.

On the evening of the very same day when Elpida announced their bankruptcy, the lights in Samsin’s headquarters in Gyeonggi Province were turned on throughout the night. Samsin’s share prices increased dramatically the next day. The whole world knew that the Goreans had won again. Up to now, there were only three players left in the DRAM sector: Samsin, Hynix and Micron.

But since the beginning of 20X8, a new player had entered the market; Purple Ray from Z country. When Purple Ray had successfully manufactured the DDR memory chips, Samsin did not take any rash actions. Instead, they had adjusted their production numbers according to the needs of the market. They merely protected their own profits by stabilizing the prices within a certain range. However, when Da Jiang started to mass produce the NAND memory storages on a shockingly massive scale in 20X9, this severely threatened the market share of Samsin. Even so, Samsin only continued to adjust their production numbers and reduced prices within a reasonable range. They did not take any drastic action. In 20X0, Purple Ray had started mass production of the DDR3 and successfully developed the DDR4. Still, Samsin remained quiet.

The “Law of The Downswing” had not been deployed a fourth time. It was long in coming. It was because the price-cutting game did not face many restrictions in other countries. But, Z country could play the game even more skillfully. For example, Samsin and LG successfully destroyed the electronics panel industry in Japan by ramping up their production during a downward market phase. Z country’s government had learned similar tricks by observing these examples. After several years of government investment and subsidies, Oriental Crystal was finally created with a large amount of money. The company was even able to seize a large share of the display screen market which had once been dominated by Samsin. Faced with the massive Z country as their opponent, the Goreans had a deep-seated fear in their hearts.

But, it was 20X1. They were witnessing the unstoppable rise of Purple Ray’s memory storages. If they did not take action now, there might be no chance to do so in the future. The relevant industry professionals in Z country knew very well that Samsin Corporation had not been taking any action these few years because they were preparing their “ammo.” Enough ammo to start a massive war!

…

In Gorea, at Samsin Corporation, there was a meeting of staff to organize an internal mobilization strategy. Li Jianrong brandished his fist. “Everyone, the battle of life and death has arrived! For this day, we have prepared more than 300 billion in our cash reserves. The government also promised to give us their full support. And this time, our target is a dragon. An abominable beast. Many shareholders are not confident if we can defeat this kind of beast. Samsin cannot be a match for Z country’s government because they have unlimited ammo. However, I don’t agree with that. I believe that we can win against them! Our screens and storage technologies are more advanced. Our yield and production efficiencies are higher so production costs are lower for us. We have an innate advantage! Once the price war starts, they’ll be the ones to suffer greater losses. For every one dollar of losses we incur, they will incur double, triple or even more.”

He slammed his fist on the table. “Just like the battle between a knight and a dragon, every slash of the sword will result in large amounts of blood loss from the wound. But, the knight is only expending a certain amount of physical energy. Lowering the prices by 30% to 50% is only the beginning. We have to reduce our prices by 60% to 70% as their products have poor performance. Otherwise, we will not be able to sell our products. If the prices were cut even more, their government would have to provide backup by spending from their precious state coffers to continue this war. We can afford losses of up to 500 billion. Is their government willing to pay a higher price just to protect those few piddling companies? Will the citizens agree to their government using up their pension money, their blood, sweat, and tears for the sake of this useless war? Ok! Let’s suppose that their government could resist the public pressure and stand against us until the very end. By then, our HBM flash storage should be in widespread use by all relevant manufacturers. The DDR technology that is on the market now would become obsolete. What would they gain from their victory? Can their citizens accept the fact that the government had spent hundreds of billions to protect those few outdated companies? No matter what, the victory of this battle belongs to us. Even the scariest dragons would fall when faced with the excellent swordplay of our knights. This battle will be called ‘Slaughtering The Dragon.’ Everyone, please join this battle alongside me and create glory for Samsin. We’ll create a glorious legacy for us Goreans!”

As the upper management of Samsin listened to this call to war, they felt their blood heating up. They punched their fists in the air and shook them fiercely with a crazed expression.

“Victory belongs to us!”

“Kill the dragon! Kill the dragon!”

“We’ll gain a victory against Z country! We’re the heroes of our race! We’ll be worshipped by all of our citizens!”

“Nobody in this universe is a match for us Goreans!”

…

At Xing Hai Technologies, in an upper management meeting, the Chairman of Purple Ray Group, Zhao Guo Wei, had made a special trip to Shang Hai for this meeting. Chen Jin looked at him and asked some important questions.

“President Zhao, the Goreans mean to destroy your company with this aggressive approach. Can Purple Ray resist them?”

“This came at a most excellent time!” Zhao Guo Wei smiled disdainfully. “I’m even looking forward to this fight with them.”

Ling Jundong interrupted with a gentle reminder, “Oh, how are you so confident about this, President Zhao? We should not underestimate the enemy.”

“Purple Ray is no longer the same company it was in the past few months.” Zhao Guo Wei shook his head. “The Goreans will never believe that we’ve increased the yield rate of the DDR key pieces from 20% to 99.7% in a short span of four months. Our production efficiency has also been increased by 250%. In terms of production costs, we’ve reduced the per unit cost of a 4GB DDR4 chip to about $3. This is definitely lower than what the Goreans can achieve! The thing that we are least afraid of is a price war.”

The increase in the yield of Purple Ray’s memory chip production was too shocking! Even Chen Jin was astonished. This was where the “virtual factory” displayed its most powerful strength and its greatest terror.

Zhao Guo Wei continued, “We’re not afraid of a price war. What we’re worried about is that our technology might still lag behind theirs. So, we’re developing the DDR6, DDR5, and the high-frequency version of the DDR4 concurrently. The high-frequency DDR4 is more or less settled and we should be able to come up with the DDR5 before the year is out. A team is also tackling the next generation of HBM memory chips, but results will only be apparent next year… I hope that this fight will drag on for a while longer. As long as Samsin does not use their trump card, our victory will be assured.”

“They won’t.” Chen Jin nodded. “The DDR memory chip is still the mainstream technology. Who would ever play their trump card at the start of the battle? But you also have to ensure that your secrets are well-kept and present a weak image to the enemy. You must not reveal your insider information at all costs before you are ready.”

“I understand. Keeping our works a secret is very important to us.”

…

Purple Ray had given their assistance. In addition, the government had their backs if they were overpowered. Chen Jin was not especially worried about the powerful challenge initiated Samsin. It was akin to a three-year-old child picking a fight with a full-grown adult. They were only courting their own death.

Then, on the 7th of July, a piece of news came from Zhongxin International, causing a tremor to go through Chen Jin’s body.

A breakthrough had been achieved in the production of the 7-nanometer chip!

Chapter 231 - Conquering the 7-Nanometer Production Techniques!

The development of the advanced chip production techniques generally went through several stages from the initial project establishment to the final success.

Tape-out: Production of the first usable chip.

Trial production: Attempt mass production. The first batch of usable chips would be produced after achieving certain results.

Mass production began: The product yield met the standard set out and the product could be continuously manufactured in large quantities. This is the most desired result of the chip foundry.

So, what was the progress of the research into the 7-nanometer production techniques?

…

At Zhongxin International, in the OEM factory production room of the advanced 7-nanometer chip, the Chief Inspector of Development, Yang Ming, held up a chip that was about the size of a fingernail. Facing Chen Jin, he began to explain. “President Chen, this is the SX-1000 high-end CPU chip jointly developed by our company and Teng Xun Corporation. We produced this chip using the art of the 7-nanometer production techniques. Based on testing done on the engineering machine, the running benchmark of the SX-1000 is as high as 450,000 points. Its performance is double that of the SX-800. This running benchmark is comparable to the most advanced CPU chips in the market, such as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8350 and Hua Yao Haisi’s Kirin 1120. The performance of our chip has caught up to the market leaders of mobile CPUs. With the combination of this CPU and the Star Cloud system, Xing Hai Technologies is definitely the winner in the market! No other company is a match for the combo of SX-1000 and Star Cloud system!” Yang Ming was full of excitement.

“Chief Inspector Yang, I’m not here today to listen to your introduction of the SX-1000 chip. I want to know about your progress on the 7-nanometer production techniques.” Chen Jin rolled his eyes. This fellow was actually feeding him some long-winded story that had no ending or importance.

“President Chen, what stage do you think we’ve progressed to?” Yang Ming scrunched up his brows. “We’ve taken it down!”

Chen Jin gave him a harsh glare. He turned around and said to Zhang Wei Jin, “President Zhang, start explaining the current phase of your progress. There wouldn’t have been a need to call me over if it was just a small breakthrough.”

“President Chen, your guess is right!” Zhang Wei Jin nodded. “You may not believe it; even we can’t believe it… Our 7-nanometer production techniques have achieved success in the tape-out and trial production phases with just one attempt. But, we were not in a rush to announce this news. That was on the 10th of June; it was still early.”

Chen Jin’s eyes almost bulged out. He blurted, “You’ve achieved continuous mass production?”

“But the yield is not too high.” Zhang Wei Jin said in a miffed tone, “We’ve made major adjustments to the production lines more than ten times. Yet the yield has only been raised to 86.4%. This is not enough. The yield attained in the virtual factory exceeded 96%. We’ve been trying to find the source of the problem these past few days.”

Chen Jin could not bear this pretentious act any longer. He folded his arms and asked, “Old Zhang, this yield should be comparable or even exceeding that of Mossy Electric’s 7-nanometer production techniques. If that wasn’t the case, I doubt that you would call me over for a visit.”

Zhang Wei Jin nodded calmly, “According to my knowledge, the yield of Mossy Electric’s 7-nanometer production techniques should be around 80% too. It would not exceed 90%. The more advanced the chip production techniques become, the harder it is to increase the yield.”

The excitement started to show on the faces of the Chief Inspector, Yang Ming, the Vice President Liang Mengnan, and other upper management personnel who were standing around him. Some staff had red eyes from holding back their tears. They clenched their fists and suppressed the excitement in their hearts.

All eyes were on Chen Jin. He finally knew what they were waiting for. He observed his surroundings and nodded. “Congratulations on your success! We have finally accomplished the 7-nanometer production techniques with all your hard work! You’ve used less than eight months to reduce the technological gap that under normal circumstances would have taken five years. You’ve fulfilled your promise in advance. As the largest shareholder in Zhongxin International, I would like to express my gratitude to everyone here for your hard work. Now, everyone, please enjoy this celebration to the fullest! You’re all good people I can count on!” Chen Jin stuck up his thumb in praise.

Indeed, the staff of Zhongxin International, who had been looking forward to this moment, finally stopped holding themselves back in that instant and partied to their heart’s content.

“We’ve succeeded!”

“We can finally cry our tears of joy now.”

“President Zhang, I want to give you a hug!”

“President Chen, the virtual factory from your company is the real hero!”

In a moment, the staff of Zhongxin International were crying, laughing, or hugging one another. They surrounded Zhang Weijing or other leaders and gave them a group hug. Even Chen Jin was tossed into the air by several staff members. There seemed to be no hierarchical distance between the management and the ordinary staff. Sounds of cheering, laughing and crying resounded. Everyone was especially moved and their hearts were filled with joy.

…

After the celebrations, Chen Jin, Zhang Wei Jin, and other personnel from Zhongxin International’s upper management were discussing the follow-up plans in a meeting room.

Yang Ming asked, “President Chen, should we finally announce the news that our company has achieved the production techniques of the 7-nanometer chip? This would boost the confidence of our shareholders.”

Liang Mengnan said, “We had been able to announce it for a long time. Actually, we could have announced our progress to the shareholders when we had completed the two stages of the tape-out and the trial production. We had completed the commands given in advance. But the time was too soon. No one would believe us even if we announced it. Now that we have achieved continuous mass production and can successfully manufacture hundreds of thousands of 7-nanometer chips, there should not be too many skeptics. After all, the physical product can be witnessed.”

“We can’t be sure of that.” Zhang Wei Jin shook his head. “There are way too many skeptics in our country, especially with regards to chips. After the ‘Hanxin Incident’, netizens would naturally doubt the existence of any sort of advanced chips. Is this built upon someone else’s research or product? Is this a fake product? The distrust amongst people is very real. Moreover, our production techniques had jumped from the 14-nanometer straight to the 7-nanometer. This is a miracle in the OEM industry. As well a scam in the eyes of many. It won’t be easy to convince them that our achievement is real.”

“It’s simple,” Chen Jin interrupted, “I’ll get either Tiny Pepper Corporation or Da Mi Company to produce a high-end Star Cloud phone. It will be installed with the SX-1000 chip. With a running benchmark of 450,000 points, the user experience will be out of this world. These features will convince the consumers for sure.”

Yang Ming suggested, “President Chen, why don’t we announce the technology of the virtual factory by Xing Hai Technologies? This technology sounds more convincing and it can also explain why Zhongxin has achieved a major breakthrough.”

“We still have to keep it under wraps for now.” Chen Jin shook his head. “Recently, Samsin started deploying their ‘Law of The Downswing’.They plan to get rid of Purple Ray’s memory chips. Once the virtual factory is made public, the Goreans will immediately know that the situation is turning against them and end the war. They still have plans to make us hurt. Now that Zhongxin International has achieved a breakthrough in the production techniques of the 7-nanometer chip, I guess that you’ll become Samsin’s target too. The prices of CPUs produced by the OEMs will begin falling too. But, that’s ok. The lower the price, the better. Let’s see who can suffer the greatest amount of loss in the shortest period of time; who will be the first to buckle under the pressure? You have to keep the virtual factory secret. When you announce the achievement of the 7-nanometer production techniques, try to give a lower estimate of the yield rate. There is no need to make shock waves. The show has just begun.”

How could the show end so quickly? Everyone nodded in agreement.

…

On the morning of July 8th, even though there might be many skeptics, Zhongxin International still announced the news of their achievement of the 7-nanometer chip to all media and netizens. The news was not particularly attention-grabbing in the beginning until Chen Jin posted a comment on Weibo. “Congratulations to Zhongxin International on conquering the 7-nanometer chip production techniques.”

The impact reverberated across the country.

The internet was in a frenzy!

Chapter 232 - Skyrocketing Share Prices

“Fake news?”

“One has to bear the criminal penalty of creating fake rumors.”

“Is today April Fool’s Day?”

The initial reactions by netizens were along the lines of “fake news,””fake rumors,” or “April Fool’s joke.” Only some idiots who were unfamiliar with the chip industry were offering their congratulations.

“Congratulations on your breakthrough!”

“Zhongxin is awesome!”

“Fight for the glory in the name of the nation!”

The netizens who had a deeper understanding of the chip manufacturing industry felt that they had no choice but to give them a crash course on the scientific workings of the topic.

“Our chip manufacturing standard is more than 10 years behind those of the most advanced companies. Our manufacturing techniques and processes are lagging by about 2 to 3 generations. It is impossible to catch up to the most advanced standard within a few short months, much less surpass the current mainstream production of the 7-nanometer chip.”

“Even with the most ideal conditions, the earliest we can catch up to the 7-nanometer chip manufacturing technology is around 20X5. It’s impossible to reach and even surpass that milestone so early!”

“It might be believable if this kind of leap in technological advancement happened in other sectors, but when it comes to high-end manufacturing sectors like chip production, it’s absolutely impossible! It is a tree that is the hardest to climb; it’s the holy grail of all the industrial sectors. Just like our motors, it can only be achieved step by step in a concrete manner. There is no possibility of skipping past the necessary stages through shortcuts or cheap tricks!”

“Don’t believe this! This kind of breakthrough is impossible unless the manufacturer has mastered the zenith of chip-making technologies or received help from aliens.”

Indeed, the disbelieving voices of the skeptics dominated the internet. However, these doubts were normal. They were common sense and logical conclusions. Most of these opinions contained no personal bias. Would they not like this news to be real? Would they not hope that Zhongxin International had achieved a breakthrough in advanced manufacturing techniques? But, to conquer the 7-nanometer chip in 8 months and to finish the given commands 2 months in advance… It was too unrealistic, like something from a fantasy novel.

They had immediately thought of it as meaningless pomp and decided that the announcement by Zhongxin International’s upper management was only to increase their share prices. It must be a mere show. They even employed what they thought was a critical move by claiming that they had skipped over the development of the 10-nanometer chip and produced the 7-nanometer directly. They were spoiling things with their excessive enthusiasm and exaggeration. They were courting their death.

They persuaded Zhongxin International with good intentions. The company should maintain a stable and patient attitude, and at the same time restrain themselves from making unnecessary shockwaves. Then, the future would belong to Zhongxin International. But their words fell on deaf ears. The company still continued to do as they pleased. Many people gave up on persuading them.

Now that 8 months had passed and Zhongxin International had announced the good news that they had “conquered the 7-nanometer chip,” many found that they could not be happy about it. Instead, the vast majority of citizens shook their head in disbelief. This must be a joke that has gone wrong. If Zhongxin International continued to display their happiness, their reputation would be facing a downward slide.

The news of Zhongxin International “conquering the 7-nanometer chip” was drowned beneath the doubts of the skeptics. The company did not receive any cheers for their thrilling and happy news. Nobody wanted to spread this piece of good news either.

Chen Jin called Zhang Wei Jin to discuss the matter. They decided to change their story to gain the trust of the netizens.

Zhang Wei Jin declared his apology on his personal Weibo as well as Zhongxin International’s official Weibo. “My apologies to everyone for this deception. I did not explain the matter clearly. In actual fact, the command we gave to ourselves to ‘conquer the 7-nanometer chip in ten months’ did not mean that we started researching the 7-nanometer chip production techniques from scratch. After we received the first EUV in 2018, we started the development of both the 10 and 7-nanometer chips simultaneously. Then, we achieved the tape-out of the 10-nanometer production techniques two years later and created our first 10-nanometer chip. With this milestone, we obtained the technologies relevant to the production of the 10-nanometer chip. But what was really shocking was that our development team for the 7-nanometer chip also achieved the tape-out process for the 7-nanometer production less than a month after the 10-nanometer development team produced the first 10-nanometer chip. In other words, the 7-nanometer chip development team had advanced so far ahead of the 10-nanometer development team with their amazing speed. Taking into consideration that Mossy Electrics was in the midst of the trial production phase for the 5-nanometer chip, we felt a sense of urgency, and therefore we made a risky decision to invest all our resources and time into the development of the 7-nanometer production techniques! We were forced by circumstances to make the promise to conquer the 7-nanometer in 10 months in front of the media. Zhongxin International faced tremendous financial pressure. If the shareholders were not optimistic about our projects, we would lose the source of our funding. We would lose this critical battle not because of any incompetence or mistakes by the R&D personnel, but because of the lack of funds. I hope that we can have everyone’s understanding in this matter. It was lucky that our gamble paid off! We’ve only used a total of three years to conquer the 7-nanometer chip which would typically require 5 years! Although the yield is less than 20%, we have successfully produced the 7-nanometer chip for real! I would like to thank all the R&D personnel for this. It’s because of all your hard work and determination that we can finally taste the fruits of our labor. Zhongxin International will keep working diligently; we will not disappoint the support and anticipation of everyone!”

After this “declaration of apology” was posted online, the netizens were finally feeling impassioned!

“When I saw the word ‘deception’ in the title, I thought that the 7-nanometer chip was only fake news.”

“This finally explained how they used only three years to conquer the 7-nanometer chip.”

“We’re just keyboard warriors; we’re not occupying the positions of Zhongxin International’s upper management, of course we can’t understand their difficulties or the pressure that they were under. The command that they gave to themselves in front of the media was because they were forced by circumstances.”

“Cheers to the 7-nanometer development team; they are unbelievably good!”

“Don’t underestimate the abilities of the EUV lithography machine. The wavelength the machine is 13 nanometers. There’s no big difference when applying the machine in the production of the 10 and 7-nanometer chip. It’s entirely possible to achieve simultaneous breakthroughs for the two projects. This only means that Zhongxin International has a brilliant R&D strategy. They started both projects at the same time and also achieved breakthroughs in both projects at about the same time. But, they chose to stake everything on one project when it became necessary. By doing so, they were choosing the route that’s fraught with much more difficulties but would present them with huge rewards in the end. Much courage is needed to make this decision.”

“Then, it’s true that Zhongxin International conquered the 7-nanometer chip?”

“Seems like it’s real.”

At that moment, Chen Jin posted another piece of news on his personal Weibo account. Its contents were a line of words and an image. “The SX-1000 by Zhongxin International OEM has a running benchmark of 453,831.” The image was a photo of the running benchmark points on a trial version of the SX-1000.

This Weibo post created great excitement in the netizens!

“I’m so amazed by the 7-nanometer chip!”

“Only the 7-nanometer chip can produce a running benchmark like that!”

“Xing Hai Technologies has handed all their OEM orders for chips to Zhongxin. Due to the isolationist strategies by Samsin and Google, they can only depend on themselves to develop and manufacture the high-end chip. With a running benchmark of 450,000 points, it proves that Zhongxin has really succeeded.”

“Zhongxin International has created a miracle!”

“This happy news is too sudden. I still can’t believe that it’s real, yet, I really want this to be real.”

“Chen Jin has replied to a netizen. He said that the first batch of SX-1000 is in the trial production process now. The first high-end flagship mobile with the Star Cloud system will be launched within two months. All your doubts will disappear when you buy one!”

“Ok! Even if it’s selling for more than $10,000, I’ll still buy it when it comes out!”

Suddenly, a netizen shouted, “Do you guys want to speculate on their share prices? Any of you bought Zhongxin’s shares? Everyone, quickly buy their shares!”

The public had basically believed and confirmed amongst themselves that Zhongxin International had conquered the 7-nanometer production techniques.

The stock market opened on the morning of July 9th. In less than 2 minutes, the share prices of Zhongxin International were rising straight up to the daily limits. It was similar on the 10th and 11th. For three days straight, Zhongxin’s stock prices increased until they reached their daily limits. The market value of Zhongxin International shot straight up to 150 billion.

Since the early days, Chen Jin’s Xing Hai Investments had used all its idle cash of more than 20 billion to purchase the shares of Zhongxin International. Thus, Xing Hai Investments now held 45.7% of Zhongxin International. After reaching the daily increase limits for three days straight, Xing Hai Investments saw at least 30% return in their investment in Zhongxin International.

Zhongxin International’s stock prices increased to their daily limit again on the 12th of July. Many investors who could not buy Zhongxin’s stock were cursing Xing Hai Technologies. “Stop hoarding your meal, Xing Hai Technologies,””Leave a little something for others,””Zhongxin International, hurry and release another batch of shares,””We want to show our support for our domestic chips!”

Faced with the pressure exerted by countless investors, Chen Jin let the head of Xing Hai Investments sell off about 20 billion of the shares that were purchased using deposit funds (that was, the investment capital given by his little aunt and others). Those shares were quickly scooped up by the majority of investors.

Xing Hai Investments earned nearly 1 billion in profits by cashing out their shares in Zhongxin International. The investors who worked with Xing Hai Investments saw more than 50% returns on their principal!

His little aunt, He Jia, made a special call to express her thanks. “Little Chen, your company is too awesome! It was right to put my money into your investment company. How about this, I won’t be withdrawing my original principal or the profits made from it, I’ll give you another 1 billion to invest. I hope that you can replicate this excellent result again.”

Chen Jin nodded. “Ok, ok.”

After which, he received another call from his second eldest uncle and Wang Zeyu, amongst many others who wanted to invest. He had not even distributed the investment’s profits for the current investors and yet he had attracted another wave of investment capital worth more than 10 billion. The current cash flow of Xing Hai Investments had swelled to more than 40 billion.

Chen Jin could only shake his helplessly in response to this matter. “This is snowballing. Investment capital is a terrible beast. It won’t stop until it has taken every last penny.”

It was good that Xing Hai Technologies could make use of this beast.

…

On another side of the world, the news of Zhongxin International conquering the 7-nanometer chip was creating huge waves outside of Z country.

Chapter 233 - Shocking the Rivals

Chapter 233: Shocking the Rivals
r: Nyoi-Bo Studio Nyoi-Bo Studio

In Gorea, at Samsin Headquarters, there was incredible shock.

“How is this possible?” Samsin’s president, Li Jianrong, widened his eyes in shock when he received the news. Perhaps he was experiencing an auditory hallucination? They had conquered the 7-nanometer chip in eight months? The 10-nanometer was skipped. They had moved directly from the 14-nanometer to the 7-nanometer. “Is this some kind of fantasy?” Skepticism was written all over his face.

He shook his head fiercely. “Impossible. Absolutely impossible! At the most, they could only have moved onto the 12 or even 10-nanometer. They simply announced it as 7-nanometer to the outside world. They’re giving out false information to get more publicity. The real performance of their chips is definitely worse than Samsin’s 12-nanometer!”

This marketing strategy had been employed by Samsin in the past. When Samsin had first started to enter the OEM industry for chip manufacturing, they frequently announced that they were the first to conquer the 12-nanometer and 10-nanometer. But the chips that they produced had mediocre performances and were far worse than even the 16 and 14-nanometer chips. Hence, they had been described as “fakes.” Even so, this strategy produced good results and Samsin received many big orders.

However, no one would fall for the same trick twice. After CPU chip manufacturing had progressed to the 7-nanometer, nearly all companies, including AMD, Fruit, and Hua Yao, had chosen Mossy Electrics as their OEM manufacturer. Many in the industry did not believe that Samsin had achieved the 7-nanometer production techniques. In reality, Samsin’s 7-nanometer chip was more like the 8 or even 9-nanometer. It was only in these couple of years that Samsin had mastered the 7-nanometer chip.

But, Mossy Electrics was about to start mass producing the 5-nanometer chip. Therefore, if Zhongxin International came to the forefront, the structure of the OEM industry for chip production would undergo tremendous change. Mossy Electric would be the industry leader, and Samsin and Zhongxin International would be in second place. But Samsin could not accept this situation. Absolutely not!

“It must be fake! They are liars!” Looking at the trial version of the chip with its running benchmark of 450,000 points, Li Jianrong felt a shadow in his heart. He silently thought, So what if you’ve conquered the 7-nanometer? How would you compete with Samsin with a yield of less than 20%? Our yield rate is four times yours.

But, the yield was something that could be continuously raised… As long as one had funds for R&D. Once their yield had been increased to a significant rate, and with Z country’s lower labor costs, after two years…

At this point, Li Jianrong hit upon an idea. He immediately said to his assistant, “Hurry and announce this. From today onwards, we’ll reduce the charges for OEM chip production by 10%! We must never let Z country’s companies take away our OEM orders!”

“Yes, President!” The assistant left the office.

Li Jianrong suddenly felt a headache coming on. Chips that had brought in 60 billion in annual revenues would see their price reduced by half. The NAND storage had experienced many price reductions since the previous year. The selling price of every 1GB of storage space was less than $0.10. There was no profit at all. They were involved in a price war with Z country over the screens and panels. Losses had started appearing last year. Z country had achieved breakthroughs even in the OEM industry for chips.

A full frontal assault. That was the phrase that suddenly appeared in his mind. Although his Samsin empire was as powerful as before, its foundations had already been shaken under this assault. In addition, with Z country’s government backing them up, there was no way that Purple Ray would collapse even if Samsin attempted the “Law of The Downswing” for the fourth time. Z country’s government would never allow this company to collapse even if their market share was essentially zero. It was not even worth mentioning the many products of Xing Hai Technologies. Purple Ray, Da Jiang Storages, and Zhongxin International could be sustained simply with the sales of phones that were installed with the Star Cloud system.

So… Li Jianrong, who was feeling extremely confident about “slaughtering the dragon” mere days ago, now thought that his prospects were bleak. He could only brandish his fist and yell “Ah! Hah!” to vent the frustration in his heart.

…

In a particular private villa on Treasure Island, after hearing Liu De Ming’s report, the founder of Mossy Electrics, Zhang Zhongmou, widened his eyes. “They really did it, and in such a short period of time.” Disbelief was written all over the old man’s face.

“Old man, I don’t think it’s the 7-nanometer.” Liu De Ming shook his head. “At most, it might be the 10 or 9-nanometer. We took 5 years to conquer the 7-nanometer. Their technological repertoire is much weaker than ours, how could they achieve that in less time than us? It’s a fake process! They must have employed the same strategy by Samsin to inflate their share prices. Even so, this is a pretty good achievement.”

The old man shook his head. He raised his face and looked towards the direction of the mainland. “We should be happy for their achievements. But now, we have one more competitor.”

Liu De Ming frowned. “A crazy Samsin that reduces their prices drastically to get orders is enough of a headache for us. And now, there’s Zhongxin… Old man, how should we handle this?”

“I’m not in a position to meddle. I’ve quit the company. You can decide how to manage this situation. This had nothing to do with me.” Suddenly, the old man sighed. “It’s difficult. We’re always prideful over every little small achievement of ours and looked down on them on various things. We had thought that Z country would remain forever outdated and never catch up to us. We’ve never seriously considered the environment where our R&D had taken place and their environment where their scientific research had taken place. Whenever there was any refined or high-end equipment that we could not manufacture, we could simply import them from Merica, Japan, or Europe. There were no sanctions against us. Behind us is the advanced and powerful industrial system of Europe, M, and not by such a small island. Our development was aided by the advanced and powerful industrial systems of Merica, Japan, and Europe. We did not depend on ourselves as a small island. As for them, they started from the very bottom. They could only depend on themselves in every aspect! When it comes to essential technologies, Europe and Merica had never relaxed their isolationist policy towards Z country for the past decades. They bore the brunt of Europe and Merica’s isolationist policies. Their technological sanctions against them were the strictest out of all the countries. They don’t want to sell even a higher grade screw to the mainland. But, Z country still managed to achieve an admirable success under these kind of circumstances. Anyone can ridicule the mainland for being outdated and undeveloped, but we are the only ones who don’t have that right! Although Mossy Electrics is number one in the world, the mainland has many other companies that are also the top in the world! Now, even their OEM chip production is slowly catching up. If certain people in our island still refuse to open up their minx and continue to underestimate the mainlanders, I predict that they will surpass us in our last area of pride and joy within 10 years… That would be really tragic, although I would probably be dead by that time. This island would be thoroughly impoverished.”

These were the words of the 91-year-old elderly man.

When he heard these words, Liu De Ming shook his head fiercely. “No, old man, it won’t happen! They will never surpass us! Not even in 10 or 20 years! We’re the top in the world. We’ll forever remain the pride of Treasure Island!”

Never surpass?

The old man laughed in self-deprecation. “We had to use a myriad of methods to overcome the problem of transistor leakage caused by quantum effects before we were able to successfully progress to the 5-nanometer chip production. But, we might not advance to the 3-nanometer chip even with ten years. We’re at the end of the alley with pursuers hot on our feet. ” The old man shook his head again. “With the speed that the mainland is catching up to us… After 10 years…”

Liu De Ming’s heart sank. He left the villa, and decided on his way home that he would persuade the board of directors to reduce the charges of OEM chip production by Mossy Electrics by 15%! He clenched his fist. “Zhongxin International, you will never achieve great success. The title of number one will always belong to us!”

Chapter 234 - Hua Yao Joined the Xing Hai Alliance

On the morning of the 12th, at the Chip factory of OEM Zhongxin International, Gaoxin District, an ordinary domestic sedan was parked by the entrance to the factory. An old man alighted from the car with the support of his secretary. The old man was wearing a western-style business suit. His gaze was spirited and sharp. However, he looked very frail and old, as he was nearly 80. His hair was white at the temples and there were deep lines at the corners of his eyes. Beside him was the short-haired and bespectacled middle-aged man who was supporting him. He would look familiar to many if they took a closer look at him. Was he not the Executive Chairman of Hua Yao, Zhao Ming?

Looking at his highly respectful gaze as he helped the old man, the identity of the old man became clear in an instant. He was the founder of Hua Yao, Old Master Ren. The old master made a special trip to Shang Hai after getting wind of Zhongxin International’s success in the production techniques of the 7-nanometer. He wanted to visit the OEM factory production site of Zhongxin International.

Zhang Wei Jin agreed to the old master’s request. He was waiting at the door in an anti-dust suit and brought them into the factory for an observation.

Old Master Ren asked many questions that he was concerned about during the site visit. “How’s the production capabilities of this line? How many wafers can be processed and how many chips can be produced in a day?

“Under non-stop production, we can process 800 twelve-inch wafers every day. Theoretically, about 330 chips can be cut from each wafer. With this, we can produce 264,000 chips every day.”

His eyes brightened and he sighed in appreciation. “Chips are still the most profitable. Nowadays, the manufacturing cost of a twelve-inch wafer is less than $1,000, yet more than 300 chips can be cut from it, and each chip is worth hundreds. The profit margin is ten times or even a hundred times more than the production costs. Had I known that this industry was so profitable, Hua Yai would have entered into the OEM industry for wafer and chip production. We should have occupied a share of this industry. But it’s too late now.”

Zhang Wei Jin smiled. “It’s not too late even now. With Hua Yao’s capabilities, it would have made something of itself in the wafer OEM industry within 10 years at most. It can become a large OEM brand and dominate the market.”

The old man said with a wave of his hand, “Forget it. I’m almost 80. I would be dead after 10 years. We’ve already lost the advantage of being the first player on the scene. It would take a lot of money if we wanted to build ourselves in this industry to a level that is comparable to Zhongxin International. 50 billion might not even be enough… We won’t be joining this industry. One company like Zhongxin International is enough. ”

Zhang Wei Jin said humbly, “Chip production does not require complicated technologies. Chip designing is the most essential technology. The purpose of Zhongxin International is to provide OEM service to the various design companies. We’re merely earning a small fee for our hard work.”

The old man shook his head. “Ok, ok. President Zhang, there are hundreds of chip design companies, but only a few chip OEM companies. What’s easy to do and what’s difficult; I’ll stop talking about that now.” He was suddenly reminded of something and asked with concern, “President Zhang, what’s the yield of the 7-nanometer chip production of your company? If the production capacities are satisfactory, I will entrust a portion of Hua Yao’s Kirin chips to you. I hope that you won’t charge us a high price for the OEM fees. We can accept a price of up to 30% higher than Mossy Electrics’… Your breakthroughs are amazing, but we can only provide limited support.”

As he heard this, Zhang Wei Jin felt moisture at the corners of his eyes. “President Ren, please there is no need for that! We’ll accept the same price that you pay to Mossy Electrics. You don’t have to pay us a higher price. The only thing we need are orders. The more the better! Our second 7-nanometer chip production line is currently under construction. The yield of this production line has reached 86.4%. It can produce 228,000 high-quality chips every day. This production capacity is able to meet the OEM needs of all the high-end chips required by Hua Yao.”

After all, Hua Yao sold about 30 to 40 million high-end phones every year. It would be easy to meet the orders for a similar amount of high-quality chips.

The old man nodded. Suddenly, his eyes grew wide and he asked, “What did you say? An 80% yield? Didn’t you mention that it was not even 20% in that declaration of apology? Why are the numbers different now?” He asked with a serious gaze, “Did I mishear, or did you misspeak?”

“There was no misunderstanding. The yield that we announced to the public was merely a smokescreen. The actual yield is 86.4%. We’ve achieved the same yield as our competitors.”

“How is this possible?” The old master and Zhao Ming yelled at the same time.

Zhang Wei Jin began to explain the causes and the results in detail.

…

More than 2 hours later, Old Master Ren and Zhao Ming finally came out of their stupor. The virtual factory. The time needed for development could be shortened by 90% or more. Development costs could be reduced by 90% or more. With this kind of god-like equipment, it was not a fantasy to conquer the production techniques of the 7-nanometer chip in 8 months! With the possession of this gold-like equipment, it was no longer a mere dream to reduce the technological gap between Z country and other nations within 2 years when it would typically have taken them more than 20 years. The technological prowess of Xing Hai Technologies was stupefying.

“The software technologies of Xing Hai Technologies has progressed to such a shocking extent?”

“The virtual factory has brought about an acceleration in technological developments in the industrial sector. This will lead to the creation of a power similar to the possession of the atomic bombs.”

“It’s lucky that this technology was birthed in Z country instead of other nations.”

“Xing Hai Technologies has been established for only three years and Hua Yao has been established for 30 years. How did they come up with so many shocking technologies?”

“Has the young man received blessings from aliens or what?”

Old Master Ren and Zhao Ming were ragging each other on as they discussed the matter. They were wearing bitter smiles. It was said that to constantly compare yourself to others would only cause more anger for yourself. But to constantly compare your company to another company would only hurt yourself more.

“Old Master, do you think that Hua Yao should agree to President Zhang’s suggestion and invitation? We are a large company. By joining the Star Alliance established by Xing Hai Technologies, we will form a strategic alliance in the field of hardware design and manufacturing. This means that we agree to avoid internal friction, jointly address external challenges, and occupy a larger market in the future.” Zhao Ming asked, “Are we really going to be allies with Xing Hai Technologies as the leader?”

Did Hua Yao company have to join an alliance with a company that had been established for less than three years as their leader? And they would have to obey the commands given by this little company?

“Of course we are joining!” The old man said, “The reason why President Zhang revealed so many top secrets to us is because he wants Hua Yao to join them. They are showing us their sincerity. Moreover, we have no choice. Although Xing Hai Technologies has only been established for a short time, its prowess cannot be underestimated. It would be great if Hua Yao could even come up with one of the products that they have launched. The smart robot, the intelligent learning machine, the Work Assistant, and the virtual factory; any one of those would be exceptional for us. But Xing Hai Technologies could produce them one after another… They seemed to have grasped the secret formula to the workings of this world by mastering the technology behind the intelligent learning machine. With that one learning machine, they seemed to have mastered all the technologies in this world. That company has ten times, no, a hundred times the potential of Hua Yao. Even if we don’t work with this company and reject joining their alliance, the Star Cloud system and the Star Alliance, including Purple Ray, Zhongxin, and other software and hardware manufacturers that make us this army will quickly sweep across this world. Even Hua Yao won’t be able to resist them. Although we have hundreds of thousands of patents in our possession as well as our own operating system, they are totally insufficient against someone who is the undisputed master of this industry. We can only go with the flow and join them. We have to work together, share our advantages and achieve a win-win situation instead of being beaten down. Hua Yao is an excellent company, but the future belongs to Xing Hai Alliance. Only by joining them can Hua Yao maintain its niche in the market. Otherwise, we’ll be reduced to an impoverished state.”

Hearing this, Zhao Ming nodded helplessly. A company that had been established for less than 3 years was about to become a hegemon. Even Hua Yao had no choice but to rely on it and be obedient or risk getting crushed in the future. He found it hard to accept this fact. But, it was a fact nevertheless.

…

On the 15th, at Xing Hai Technologies Headquarters, unknown to the public, Hua Yao and Xing Hai Technologies signed many contracts on strategic areas of collaboration. Included was Hua Yao joining the Star Alliance and to “aid the domestic chip production industry” together. They also agreed to “share advanced technologies and to build a close alliance” amongst others. In short, both parties agreed to work closely together, help each other, and create a wonderful future together.

Of course, these contracts on collaboration were signed in secret and would not be made public knowledge in the short-term. This was to prevent external forces from retaliating out of anxiety.

They completed the contract signing. Looking at Chen Jin, whom the old man thought was rather heroic yet ridiculously young, he said with an envious and jealous tone, “Young man, I can give you half of my company and you can give me half of your age. Then, we’ll have a chance to fight for dominance in this world!”

Chen Jin shook his head. “President Ren, I don’t want your company but I can give you half my age. Even so, I would still have a greater chance of winning. You should acknowledge this point.”

Zhao Ming harrumphed in annoyance. “What arrogance!”

“Hahaha!” The old man gave a hearty laugh. “In my life, I have won a great number of battles even when the odds were stacked against me. Young man, you shouldn’t be too arrogant with your words.” Even though he was nearing 80, he still hated to lose.

“That’s true too.” Chen Jin nodded with great admiration. It could be said that it was because of the existence of countless people like this old man that Z country’s scientific technologies were able to progress to an advanced level even without a “cheat sheet” that was Chen Jin. The spirit of those individuals who hated to lose and still gave their all even when the odds were against them was truly admirable. They saw their hopes of Z country surpassing the foreign countries being realized.

These people were worthy of respect.

Chapter 235 - Announcing the Entrance into the Field of Home Computers

It was like doubling their power. There were huge implications in Hua Yao joining the Xing Hai Alliance. Hua Yao was the hegemon in the communications sector. They sold the largest amount of mobile phones in the world, had countless patents, and earned annual revenues in the trillions. For example, if Hua Yao gave all their orders for chips that were used in their phones and 5G communication devices to Zhongxin International, it would be a contract worth tens of billions. If Hua Yao chose to use only domestic components for their products, such as memory chips from Purple Ray and NAND storage from Da Jiang, that would mean contracts worth another tens of billions. This would also lead to a loss of business for countless other foreign manufacturers.

In short, the alliance between the two companies was an alliance between the strong. It was akin to the champion and the runner-up joining hands to get rid of the third and fourth ranked players. There was no need to put into words who would be the final winner and loser.

…

After Zhongxin International had conquered the production techniques for the 7-nanometer chip and Hua Yao had joined the Xing Hai Alliance, Chen Jin did an inventory in private. He was calculating the number of trump cards he had accumulated. “There’s not much to talk about when it comes to the intelligent robots. There is no competition for both the cleaning robot (Wa-wah) and the household service robot (Bang Bang). The combined sales volume of both products is about 20 million units annually, which means a net profit of about 50 billion. The Little Star learning machine has progressed to the third generation. A total of almost 150 million units have been sold to date. The markets for the primary school students, the junior high schoolers, and senior high schoolers have almost reached saturation point. There are only two ways that I can only make money from this: the new students who entered the schooling stage later and coming up with new editions. Only a maximum of 20 million units will be sold every year from now on. This will generate 70 billion of net profits. However, the ‘Little Star, Fourth Generation’ that will be specially made for college students, as well as the ‘Intelligent Brain Terminal’ that can be more conveniently used by consumers in general, are currently under development. They will be distributed in the market about two to three years later. There is a potential to make trillions more from the market when it comes to knowledge products.”

He continued, “The software product of the Work Assistant is mainly targeting the programmers. It brings in a monthly revenue of about 5 billion. 70% or even more of the revenue is net profits… We can earn more than 40 billion every year. Besides the programmers, there are many R&D organizations that need the Work Assistant. The functions of this software can be expanded continuously. It will be used by tens of millions of people in the future and bring in tens of billions in monthly revenues. The special effects rendering engine for movie-making and the game development engine could generate an estimated ten billion in net profits every year. We charge a minimum of 1 billion to build one virtual factory. The clients can either pay via cash or give us shares in their company. The barriers to using it are greater, but we cannot publicize it for now in order to avoid causing an earthquake on a geopolitical level… We can only let insiders use it. Making the Star Cloud system was purely spending money for the sake of self-entertainment. Currently, it brings no benefits, yet it had already burned through some hundreds of billions. Before we finally eliminate the Android system, I estimate that the annual expenditure for this project will be at least 30 billion… It consumes about 100 million every day. Moreover, Xing Hai Technologies receives dividends from the many different company shares that they hold. We receive more than 10 billion in dividends per year, but expenses for investment are more expensive.”

In summary, Chen Jin would earn about 180 billion every year. Excluding the salaries of 30,000 company staff and various operating costs (about 30 billion), including various types of large-scale R&D projects, investment activities, and other costly activities… The total annual expense was at least 150 billion.

Moreover, he was the type who spent as much as he earned. But, he still felt that he was not earning enough. The money was still insufficient. He had to start a few more projects and earn more money. Then, what kind of project should he start?

“I’ll try to avoid robbing the rice bowls of the local monopolies and businesses. But… there’s no need to be so polite about foreign businesses and their profits. I won’t be changing my style of taking every single grain of rice from them.” So, what were the major profitable businesses that belonged to overseas companies? Which of them could Chen Jin devour?

Home computers, otherwise known as the PC. When it came to personal computers, only the motherboards, memory, hard drives, power supplies, chassis, fans, and other components, could be produced domestically. The two most profitable products, the CPU and graphics card, were monopolized by several foreign companies such as intel, AMD, and Nvidia amongst others. For the operating system, there was Microsoft, who had been enjoying their windfall for decades. Their good old days were about to come to an end… At least in Z country’s market. They were about to meet their strongest match.

The project for the development of the home PC (including the operating system) had begun last year. They had achieved some results by now. It was estimated that they would launch the first 100% domestic PC by next year. The bottom layer architecture, CPU, graphics card, and operating system of this PC would all be locally made. Hence, it could be said that the intention to make a 100% domestic computer had been in Chen Jin’s plans all along. He would fix one last weakness and make money from it at the same time.

However, many people were negative about this project. The hardware component of the computer was hardly profitable and it was difficult to distribute the new computer operating system on a wide scale. It was also difficult for users to change their habits, not to mention how inconvenient a new operating system would feel. However, Lei Xiao Jun was positive about his ability and invested a sum of money into the project. As for Chen Jin, he was even more determined about this project and he invested tens of billions into it. Because he strongly believed that the home PC by Xing Hai Technologies would definitely achieve success!

…

On the 18th of July, Xing Hai Technologies announced that they would be entering the field of PCs and that they planned to create a 100% domestically produced computer.

The internet was in an uproar again. The majority of reviewers from the scientific communities and netizens with considerable knowledge about this topic were not enthusiastic about this. There were many voices predicting their failure.

“What is the current era? The home computer is about to be eliminated. They’re still trying to board this ship?”

“There is still a market for the home PC. Everyone has to get one for work, studies, or entertainment. It’s just that this market is stagnant. There have been no significant updates in the performance of the PC for nearly ten years. Nowadays, we can buy a high-end computer and use it for 5 or even 10 years and it still wouldn’t be outdated. Who would ever want to buy a new one?”

“Things do feel a lot safer when a domestic company is making our computers. They would create their own architecture and develop their own operating systems. But, this doesn’t mean that consumers would buy it. They would also have to create a complete ecosphere of applications. But Xing Hai Technologies…” At this point, the user stopped typing. Xing Hai Technologies was crazy.

“I suspect that Xing Hai Technologies definitely has the skills to produce a PC with their technological capabilities. But no matter how good your technology is, it doesn’t mean that the market will respond well to your product. This is especially true for users who are used to the Windows OS. It’s very difficult for them to change their habits and adapt to a new OS.”

“Ok, I’ll reserve my opinions. But it’s much less profitable to produce computers as compared to mobile phones. Many buy a new computer only once every five to ten years. The profit from the hardware is not high. There are profits to be made from the software, but they would need to have a large number of ready users. Can your computer create an impulse in consumers to change their old computers so that you are able to sell millions and even tens of millions of your product?”

“It’s good that someone is doing this. Recently, the prices of the memory chips and hard disks have been falling, causing many to be struck with the impulse to DIY their computer. However, the prices of CPU chips and graphics cards have been increasing. By entering this field, Xing Hai Technologies might just be the shark in this pool and teach the likes of Intel and Nvidia a lesson. I think that’s pretty good. Who knows, I might buy a computer from Xing Hai Technologies.”

…

The news of Xing Hai Technologies announcing their entrance into the field of home computers spread to the foreign media. The foreign netizens laughed until their stomach hurt. They ridiculed the company’s decision.

“I admire their bravery.”

“I’m reminded of Don Quixote challenging the windmills.”

“Even if we give them another 100 years, they’ll still be using the computers that we invented.”

“Hey, stupid farmer, you’re facing a giant.”

The upper management from Intel, Nvidia, and other companies held a meeting to discuss the matter. They did not attach much importance to the issue. The challenge presented by Xing Hai Technologies was not taken seriously at all.

Since IBM had launched its first home computer in the 1980s, they had been involved in squeezing out meaningless updates for almost 50 years. From the architecture to software ecology, they had established an all-encompassing regime. But a company wanted to challenge this kind of regime now?

They could only laugh in contempt.

Chapter 236 - Fusion Energy

Chapter 236: Fusion Energy

: Nyoi-Bo Studio Nyoi-Bo Studio

It was nearly two years of environmental transformation on the Planet Haierfa.

The amount of sand in the air was scarce. A large portion of the sky was presented in a faded blue color. During the day, one could see the sun vaguely hanging amidst the daylight. There was a significant increase in rainfall. Some drought-tolerant plants emerged near the base. From the base, dozens of plants that were cultivated in laboratories were planted in flower beds, green belts, roofs of houses, and roadsides by the robots, and frequently watered and fertilized. Now, there were already green fields and blossoming flowers. Every corner of the planet was flourishing with greenery. The whole base was brimming with vitality, much the same as a garden city.

With evident improvements in environmental conditions, the quiet and peaceful atmosphere prompted Chen Jin to come over for leisure and relaxation much more frequently. He seemed to have found a place to lay away his flamboyant, inciting, and hustling life on Earth. After all, he was the only person on this planet.

Inside the office building, using the remote communication instrument, Chen Jin formed a link with Nuwa who was mining for Helium-3 on the moon, and inquired about her recent situation. “Nuwa, how’s mining going? How much Helium-3 have you gathered?”

“The mining efficiency isn’t that high right now. Around three tons of Helium-3 is segregated every day. Within these two months, I have garnered some 150 tons, but this is far from enough. My goal is to gather one thousand tons and above.”

“Then won’t you need to stay at the moon for a year?” After doing some simple calculation, Chen Jin frowned. He was not afraid that Nuwa would run away, it was just that this mining efficiency was rather underwhelming.

“That won’t be the case. Within a month, I will increase efficiency to above 10 tons per day. In that way, I would be able to return to Haierfa in another two months, making mission time totaling around six months. Rest assured master, I would also like to complete the environmental transformation task in advance. I’m as anxious as you are.”

After all, when the environmental transformation plan was completed, they could divert all their energy into carrying out more important matters. For example… inventing powerful interstellar battleships and delving into higher levels of technology.

Chen Jin nodded. He fairly trusted Nuwa’s overall performance. Besides, all the 150 tons of Helium-3 resources gathered were transported back to the Base of Operations at a two to three day interval via small cargo spaceships. There were no cases of private possession whatsoever. It was normal for initial efficiency to be low. It would be fine as long as it could be sped up at later stages.

At the same time Nuwa was continuously transporting Helium-3, Alice was belching out an even greater efficiency on planet Haierfa. She commanded a million robots and built a large nuclear fusion power station in the southern part of the sea more than some 500 kilometers away from the Base of Operations. It was basically completed within just a short three-month period. It could start generating electricity right away.

Chen Jin named the fusion power station “Yang Yang 1.” Yang Yang 1 occupied over five acres of land. Its core equipment weighed more than 20,000 tons and it had maximum power generation of over 3 billion kilowatts. With this single fusion power station, the energy resource issue of the whole Mi continent would be solved entirely. The continent no longer needed additional power sources. Building around three to five Yang Yang 1 power stations would suffice for the whole of planet Haierfa. Subsequently, they could do whatever transformation to the environment that they wanted, even desalinating sea water and pumping them inland. The transformation efficiency would be raised dramatically.

Previously, realizing nuclear fusion power generation technology was going to require several years. But now, they would no longer have to wait. Firstly, the technical difficulty to build a large nuclear fusion power plant that runs on the surface of a planet was even smaller than building a nuclear fusion reactor inside an interstellar battleship… downscaling a highly sophisticated tech was difficult, upscaling them, on the other hand, was easier.

Besides, after mastering the nature of power thoroughly with the formula of the Grand Unification, Alice had found an easier alternative to control nuclear fusion. Its material requirement was immensely lessened. The difficulty of construction was also reduced by a significant margin. Therefore, Alice could set up a few large fusion power stations more easily and efficiently.

After a few days, Alice reported, “Master, the construction of ‘Yang Yang 1’ has been completed. Should I commence ignition?”

“Light it up.” Chen Jin nodded. Subsequently, he witnessed the ignition process of a nuclear fusion reactor with his own eyes.

Inside the ring-structured reaction chamber. At first, all was pitch black. As the magnetic field intensified, plasma Helium and Helium-3 started to glow in yellow and blue due to collision and abrasion. The temperature gradually rose. 50 million degrees… 100 million degrees… 200 million degrees… Particle flow accelerated. The stream flattened into thin rings like that of planets. The blue glow that radiated was as dazzling as the northern lights. 500 million degrees… approaching 600 million degrees…

At that very moment, the critical temperature was achieved! A ray of light, ten thousand times brighter than the stars, abruptly illuminated the reaction chamber. The endless amount of energy contained within the particle nuclei was unleashed and converted into huge electrical energy in the magnetohydrodynamic generator. The reactor’s ignition succeeded in one go! Energy as powerful as that in the core of stars were unmitigatedly regulated within man-made equipment, thus ensuring utilization at the highest possible efficiency.

“What a magnificent view. Only the most powerful tech can make this possible.” Chen Jin was left breathless by what he saw. He was mesmerized. With the advent of such equipment, humans as small as a sixpence could already weigh against the legendary Ra… man could be God. Or it could be said that scientists that created this miracle were Gods.

Back on Earth, controllable nuclear fusion had not yet been achieved. Their sun had not been illuminated. Earthlings were still plagued by energy issues. With that being said, should he bring the controllable nuclear fusion technology to Earth? Build a “Yang Yang 1” back on Earth? With a billion kilowatts of power generation, the power generated would definitely suffice for all the Z’s. Even if the charge was 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, he would still be able to make 2.4 billion dollars every day.

That amount multiplied by 365… With just a single “Yang Yang 1,” the profitability that it would generate would far exceed that of all of Chen Jin’s company, assets, and investments combined.

“Should I march into the energy industry?” This idea emerged in Chen Jin’s mind. He thought that it was feasible to a certain extent. With the technology level back on Earth, it would not be too difficult to build a “Yang Yang 1.” It could definitely be realized within five years. The source of the technology could be explained with the “Virtual Factory.” The fuel used would be more prone to fusion reactions, but it would considerably complicate the design and technology of the equipment.

However, after some thought, Chen Jin scrapped his idea for the time being. “Electrical power generation is controlled by the state. It involves millions of electric power workers, several trillion dollars of annual profit, and unifying the power supply and transmission system. With all of these mingled, it would only get incorporated by the state, and they will certainly milk the hell out of it. It will be impossible for privates to have a grasp over this field. This piece of cake belongs to the state! There’s no way I’ll be able to claim it. What’s more, the country is making several full superconducting tokamak reactors (or ‘artificial sun’). One of the reactors by the name of EAST realized continuous operation for over 600 seconds under temperatures of a hundred million degrees. It is just one to two steps away from complete success. Optimistically, it is totally possible for them to ignite the artificial sun before 20X5, which then will be the first to achieve commercial operation.”

Therefore, Chen Jin did not have to worry nor interfere with the energy field. However, Xing Hai Technologies could provide some technical assistance free of charge for overall national interests rather than their own commercial interests, thus accelerating the progress of the “artificial sun” project. If an energy crisis broke out, oil prices skyrocketed, and there was an urgent need to use the ‘artificial sun,’ under these conditions, Chen Jin may provide assistance.

Indeed, money was a good thing. But he was also willing to do some things that looked stupid on the surface but meaningful on the inside.

Chapter 237 - No Longer A Young Lad

On the 23rd of July, after a long and anxious wait, the scores for the College Entry Examination were released. The candidates were eagerly picking up their mobile phones or turning on their computers to check their own scores and rankings by keying in their student id at the score query website.

…

In the Sunshine Garden district, inside a newly purchased and furnished 160 square meter house, Chen Jin walked up to Su Zipeng, who was sitting on the sofa in the living room. “How was it, Little Peng? Have you seen your score?”

At that moment, Su Zipeng was holding two mobile phones in his hands. In his left, was a navy blue “Red Pepper Z1”. In his right, was a Hua Yao Mate 30. The Red Pepper Z1 in his left hand was his own phone, the Hua Yao Mate 30 in his right hand was his second elder sister, Su Tiantian’s phone. He intended to use both phones to check his score at the same time.

He looked at the time and said, “Wait a while longer, it’s almost 10; hopefully, it won’t be too laggy.” They waited for another 10 seconds or so.

It was 10 o’clock sharp! Su Zipeng’s index fingers tapped at almost the same time. Two green circles appeared at the screens of both mobile phones. It was rotating ever so slowly, indicating network congestion.

Sorry, this site can’t be reached – The Hua Yao phone linked him to an error page.

The Red Pepper Z1 he was holding in his left hand, however, miraculously displayed a form, which was a detailed list of Su Zipeng’s College Entry examination scores.

Language: 145

Mathematics: 150

Comprehensive Science: 297

English: 140

Total Score: 732

Ranking in Province: 312

Special Score: 78

“Yep, what I expected was also 732 marks, no more, no less. But isn’t this ranking a little too far behind?” Su Zipeng was a little too heartbroken for tears. He did outperform his usual self in the College Entry Examination, and the marks for all his subjects were around the same range. Originally, he thought he could attain the top three in school and some top 50 in the province. But he ended up outside 300. It seemed that he had no fate with Jing Hua University and National University.

“This score is not bad at all, a proper high achiever indeed!” Chen Jin raised his thumb. “If it were ancient times, you might very well be the Zhuang Yuan.”

“I blame this on you, brother-in-law.” Su Zipeng looked at him with resentment. “If it wasn’t for you, there would never be so many scholars in this exam.” In other words, if he were to be the only one using the Little Star learning machine, the ‘Zhuang Yuan’ title would definitely be his.

“Where’re your manners? What do your results have to do with your brother-in-law?” Mother Su came out from the kitchen. Upon hearing what Su Zipeng said, she rebuked him. Immediately after that, she asked out of concern, “Tell me, what is your score? Is it not satisfactory?”

“Yes, mum.” Su Zipeng nodded. “It was not good. 732, rank 300 over in the province.”

Mother Su’s expression was somber at first. She thought that things weren’t going well. But upon hearing the number 732, her eyes widened. “How much? Say it again?”

“732,” Su Zipeng repeated.

Around half a minute later, Mother Su, who was holding a feather duster in her hands, pressed Su Zipeng against the sofa and whipped his rear. “You stinky little brat, you dare play pretend in front of your mum eh?”

“I was wrong mum! I was wrong!” Su Zipeng begged for mercy.

“You are still my son no matter how good you did. I will whip Zhuang Yuan’s as well.”

…

In the evening, Su Yun and her sister Su Tiantian came home from work. This house in the Sunshine Garden district with four rooms and two compartments was purchased by Chen Jin. Every square meter was 45 thousand dollars, totaling at 7.2 million dollars.

His motive for buying this house was very simple. Firstly, this small district was only some 500 meters away from Su Yun’s office unit. It was very convenient for her to go to and from work, thus providing her a better living environment. Secondly, after Su Tiantian obtained her postgraduate diploma, she rejected her universities invitation for her to stay in school and the olive branches held out by various units. She came directly to Shang Hai and intended to find her desired job over there.

Her profession was Biological Engineering. Coincidently, there were a number of Biological research institutions in the High-tech Zone. She swiftly found a job with an absolute wage of 15 thousand… the biggest problem was that her working place was a little far from the Sunshine Garden district. However, it so happened that there was a subway station right at the gates of the Sunshine Garden district. She could take the subway directly to a place near the company. The time she would spend on the road would not be over half an hour every day. Therefore, Su Tiantian moved into the house, saving her trouble to rent a place. Another consideration was that Su Zipeng might come over to Shang Hai to further his studies.

With all three children working or studying in Shang Hai, Father Su and Mother Su carried their luggage over and stayed for a while, doing their dishes, cooking for them, living with their children every day; it was as if their whole family had moved to Shang Hai.

Even so, Father Su and Mother Su only intended to live there for a short while and return after summer holiday. This house was the wedding house of their eldest daughter and son-in-law, why would they stay there for the long-term? Besides, they enjoined Su Tiantian and Su Zipeng in private that it was okay to stay here momentarily, but after their elder sister Su Yun got married, they had to move out asap to avoid interfering with the couple’s private life.

“Got it,” Su Tiantian and Su Zipeng answered at the same time.

However, Father Su and Mother Su were completely unaware that the reason Chen Jin bought this house was to let them settle down here. It was not the so-called wedding house they thought it was. A house that was so simply furnished, small, and cheap. How could this be his wedding house? It could only be said that the two elders were too guileless. They rejected Chen Jin’s invitation for them to settle down in Shang Hai, saying that they had work to do, and would at most visit occasionally.

Chen Jin was unable to convince them and yet, he did not want to reveal his identity as a mogul. Therefore, he could only obey their wishes.

…

After learning about Su Zipeng’s College Entry Examination score, Su Yun excitedly said, “You scored 100 points more than your sister. Little Peng, you are better than your sister.” She thought for a moment. “How about this Little Peng, as your sister, my salary this month is all for you. Buy whatever you want, I won’t be picking a present for you.”

“Elder sister gave you one month’s salary… it seems that I could only give you my first month’s pay,” Su Tiantian followed. But after she turned around and saw her dad and mum, she shook her head and said, “No! Little Peng, I can’t give you all my pay. 10 thousand will be enough, the remaining five thousand is for dad and mum’s supplements, you have no opinions about this, right?”

“No need, my sisters!” Su Zipeng crossed his arms. “I’m an adult now, how could I still use your money? Besides, I have found a job at the nearby market. I’m working the night shift today. Enough said, I’m going to work.” Upon finishing, he changed into his work clothes and went out… although the transporting job at the market was harsh and he would often get slammed by his supervisor; although both of his sisters doted him since he was young and would give him all the good stuff; although he knew that his brother-in-law was a super tycoon… but all of these were not related to him. His future still depended upon himself. Who would not admire such a young lad?

Chen Jin had this thought in his mind. But immediately, he felt that something was not right. “Little Peng is a young lad, what about me? I’m just 26, oh… no. I turned 27 just a few days ago. It seems that… I’m not that young anymore.”

He was no longer a young lad at 27 years old.

“Sigh, youth… time really does fly.”

Chapter 238 - Registration?

Late in the night, in the south-facing Master Bedroom, Chen Jin was embracing the body of a beautiful lady and fondling her smooth and silky skin. Chen Jin thought it was still quite delightful. Although the beautiful lady with a conservative mindset was still reluctant for him to make the last advance, they still did surmount some obstacles and performed almost everything else… he was rather satisfied with it. And besides, Chen Jin figured that the woman’s mindset was not necessarily conservative; she might have been influenced by some ideas.

Father Su and Mother Su were not conservative in any way. Their elder daughter had not married the man. Yet, they consented for both of them to live together. It was a new age, and their daughter was already 28, she should be having a child about now.

Therefore, the biggest problem still lay on Su Yun herself. Numerous concerns jogged her to keep her most precious thing. Men were all as such. The best things were often the ones they could not obtain, if they got something easily, they would not cherish it. Su Yun did some homework in this prospect. She discovered that for many successful people, they had a rich love history. They had two, three, even four marriages, and many of them even had female intimates that they cater for outside their marriage. Not many of them were serious and loyal.

She did not wish to be hurt in entirety and to realize at the end that it was all a dream. She dared not go all-out in this relationship. Therefore, despite the many times that she thought of forgoing her upholds, that clear thought within her mind enabled her to persevere.

It was also not possible for Chen Jin to force her, he could only respect her view.

…

“Su Yun, you only make some 10 grand a month. Have you ever considered quitting your job and committing fulltime in honing your mothering skills in the future?” Chen Jin asked. He thought that going to work was a painstaking affair. One would have to commit to it five days a week, lose most of their free time, become obliged to do it well, have good relationships with colleagues… it required one to invest a whole lot of energy. The most important thing was that it was very hard to obtain satisfactory pay. 30 thousand, even 50 thousand dollars per month would not suffice. It was nearly impossible to achieve financial freedom by working for someone.

Of course, he was a company’s boss. Under him, was more than 30 thousand employees that would increase to 50 thousand, or even 100 thousand in the future. However, he was very much in favor of Ling Jun Dong carrying out some reformations so that his employees can “work happy and live happy.”

This effort, on the one hand, was to improve their welfare treatments. On the other hand, the attempt at practicing “7 hours work policy,””four days’ work and three days’ rest,” and “working from home,” helped solve their worries in housing, medical care, pension, etc. Thus, abolishing their troubles back at home. By doing so, even if they could not be inexhaustibly satisfied in terms of welfare, their happiness rating would still be brought up extensively.

Gradually, coming to work would be a happy thing. One might even get the envy and praise from the people around them just because they joined Xing Hai Technologies… earning themselves some extra sense of pride. Many people would certainly be willing to opt for such a job.

Upon hearing his question, the belle in his arms shook her head. “No, I will not quit my job. I’ll keep doing it. I will not stay at home to become a full-time housewife, even if I have kids.”

“But why? You pay isn’t that high.” Chen Jin was rather surprised.

“Money isn’t an issue. I have put in lots of effort back in the days when I was applying for this post. I don’t want my efforts to go to waste.”

That was one of her reasons. Secondly, she felt that women could not fully rely on men. They must always possess a certain amount of independence, economically in particular, and that women must actualize independence in this aspect. It must never become that, once they left their man, they could not survive. This would be a very scary thing to happen and a rather miserable fate for them. Besides, Su Yun had her own ambition. She intended to make her name exalted within the tax bureau.

Her director would be retiring in another two years. She might very well be the one to replace her position… her director used more than 10 years to climb up to that position, and she might just be able to accomplish it with just four years of working experience… she would become the youngest accounting director. This definitely did not reflect her exceptional abilities, but her underlying connections.

The whole of Shang Hai’s tax bureau knew who her director’s son was. Now within the tax bureau, from normal guards to the director and even the chief of the bureau, they were all very respectful towards her director. The director of the bureau often cared for her with kind words. The chief of the bureau, on the other hand, wanted to make her the deputy director of the bureau. He suggested she retire at 60, but she refused. She had been longing for retirement and to enjoy her old age surrounded by her grandchildren. Nevertheless, she brought up an excellent “talent.” Naturally, this talent was Su Yun.

Therefore, if she were to stay within the institution and be promoted to a director at the age of 30, nobody could guess what she might actually become when she was 40, 50 years old. But nonetheless, she would definitely attain greater heights than her director. Instinctively, Su Yun would hope to do something great on this smooth boulevard she was paved.

“Okay, do whatever you wish for. There’s another thing that I would like to discuss with you,” Chen Jin said.

“Speak.”

“I would like to get us registered.”

The woman startled. “Registered? Are you f… for real?” Her heart was buzzing. “There are so many good girls in this world, and he happened to fancy me? An ordinary girl? Could it be that I’m really that important in his heart?”

“Yes, are you willing to?”

The woman lowered her head. Lightly, she said, “Yes.” How could she not be willing? At that moment, she was on cloud nine.

“Don’t be in such a hurry to agree,” Chen Jin said abruptly, “The main reason I’m getting the both of us registered is to make your father and mother happy, and we could make a baby earlier to please my mum.”

The woman’s face was shrouded by red clouds as she shyly held herself together.

“However, I won’t be using my real identity for registration. I will be using my fake ID by the name of ‘Chen Jing’,” Chen Jin continued, “I’ve got myself a special ID going through some relations. I’ll bring you to the civil affairs bureau after I get my hands on it.”

The woman was confused. There were question marks all over her face.

Chen Jin turned on the lights. He took out an ID with the name ‘Chen Jing’ written on it from the drawer of the bedside cabinet and placed it in front of her for her to have a detailed look. He explained, “You should know that for people like me, marriage will be very troublesome. I’ll need to find all sorts of lawyers, sign all sorts of documents, and it might even affect my company’s normal operations…it is very, very much of a hassle. You won’t be happy either because the procedures would be too alien for you. Su Yun, I know your kind of person. You’re not the materialistic kind of girl, and that’s what I admire the most about you. I would like to build a simple family and live a normal life with you. So, let’s not think about that complicated stuff. The most important thing will be us being happy. What do you think?” He massaged the woman’s shoulders as he spoke.

The woman, however, kept silent. Although the man was rather obscure in his speech, she understood what he actually meant. She looked at the ID that the man said could be used as a normal one… she was astonished by the man’s sweeping capabilities. She also understood the man’s considerations. According to the ‘Marriage Law,’ although personal deposits, real estate, gold antiques, lottery winnings, investment stock funds, company shares, and many other personal belongings obtained before marriage still belonged to the individual after marriage, the income generated by company operations, the income earned by the husband and wife through hard work, would become the common property of the couple. As long as one had an industry or a company, even if their company had expanded and made more money than before after marriage, it would still become the property of two people. Even if the wife was just at home cooking, bringing up the kids, she would still be entitled to half of the pie. Considering Xing Hai Technologies’s current value…

If he did not wish to make a “prenuptial agreement” and potentially damage their relationship, it was indeed a wise alternative to come up with a fake identity.

However… Su Yun can’t seem to make herself happy.

“What do you think?” Chen Jin asked again.

“It’s late, I’m going to sleep.” The women slipped out from his embrace. She wrapped herself in a blanket and slept with her back to him.

Chapter 239 - Engine Sales Ban

After that very night, Su Yun’s attitude towards him became a little indifferent. Placing their usual intimacies aside, she even requested him to take away some of his personal items.

“Isn’t it just an identity? Besides, she can’t say that this ID of mine is fake. It can be used to board trains, planes, and that means that it’s real… can’t she accept this by looking at it from a different angle?” Chen Jin thought. He wanted to do some thinking for Su Yun. But of all the messages he sent through WeChat, Su Yun only gave him abbreviated replies. If he so touched on the key topic, she would outright ignore him.

Chen Jin shook his head. Troublesome. Why must it be so troublesome? There were actually women he could not tackle with the person he was. Who would have believed in these words? His massive career, a whole planet in his hands and even an entire cosmos, only these could stay in his own hands? Could he bear no successor to inherit all these? Whose problem was it exactly?

After some thought, Chen Jin still thought that the problem lay on him.

“I’m still too hesitant and too concerned about the feelings of others. I must be domineering! A man should be domineering, especially in front of women. I should break her last line of defense when I should, or else I will be worse than a beast. If I keep on being so indecisive, I’m afraid that I might be single even after 30.”

Thinking about this, he sighed once again.

As a human, when you possessed a certain amount of resources and have been emboldened to a certain extent, under the condition that it doesn’t break the law, you should learn to let go of yourself instead of tying yourself up.A proper amount of emancipation would be good for your health. Besides, many women say words that were not true to their hearts. They might be saying no by their lips, but their body, on the other hand, was very honest. With a few sweet mouths and coaxing, in a few days, she would be good as new.

Ding~

He received a message on his phone.

“Dear, are you free? I haven’t seen you for a long time, I really missed you (heartbroken).”

Underneath, there was a picture of that woman that seemed wan and sallow. Yuan Li! It was the Nth time that she came looking for him these few months. It was merely a few days after the Peeza Charity Night ended that Yuan Lin messaged him, asking him “How are you doing,””What are you busy with,””Are you okay,” and all sorts of questions. In less than a month, the questions that she was asking the most frequently was “Can we meet,” and “Are you free?”

But during that period of time, Chen Jin was not without company. He only replied a few sentences occasionally and found some excuses to say that he was not free. The two had not met for a few months… by nature, Chen Jin was not a playboy. He wanted to be serious in a relationship and was disinclined to hurt even more people.

Yuan Li, however, kept on bugging him, and therefore, the message today. After some thought, Chen Jin replied, “Yuan Li, just forget about me, I am not a good man, why are you refusing to let me go? There are actually a lot of good guys out there.”

“I can’t, I only have you in my heart, it has no space for the others.” Yuan Li replied immediately.

“Have you forgotten about what I told you previously? I’m a man who wants to grow a garden. I want myself to be surrounded by many, many women, could you bear with it?”

“I…I don’t know. But I’ve been doing research on wedding culture in some countries in the middle east and have read lots of books on traditional culture. I think that, though some things might be hard to accept, their existence is reasonable, and it would not necessarily end up as a tragedy either… so I think that it isn’t that I can’t accept it.” As a modern woman, Yuan Lin could not believe that she would say such a thing. But within these few months, she indeed did some research on middle east culture and read a lot of books on ancient marriage in the Z nation. Of course, what she looked at the most was place dramas of numerous women surrounding a man. “Schemes of a Beauty,””Legend of Zhen Huan,””Story of Yanxi Palace,” and many others.

She, who once would not even spare a glance at such “dross” entertainment, was now intoxicated by those dramas. Especially the “Story of Yanxi Palace.” She often imagined herself as the female main and other important characters, thinking about: how could she triumph if she were to be them? If she were in such dire straits, how would she turn the tides? What should she do to earn the emperor’s favor all for herself?

Many things went through her mind. She swiped through a whole bunch of drama reviews and had read countless strategies. She latched herself onto a deep hook, unable to extricate herself. In the end, under the poisoning of these dramas filmed by moderners… a dramatic twist had befallen her mind. Besides, after doing an abundant amount of research, she gradually built up her confidence. She was no longer like before, worried and afraid of how many women her true king had… who would she fear when she had palace strategies engraved in her entire brain? The contest would reveal who would be supreme and who would be fodder.

What?

Upon reading this message, Chen Jin opened his eyes wide.

“Yuan Li, is your WeChat account hacked?”

“Nope, I said it.” Yuan Lin blushed.

“So… it has gotten through you?”

“Yes, as long as I can live with my love, I can bear to live a traditional life.”

Chen Jin felt that the old blood within his chest was about to stream out. He replied, “Alright, fine. I’m all free the next few days, in another two days… uhm, no, tomorrow. Tomorrow, go to the villa, I’ll call the guards to open the door for you, wait for me over there.”

“Okay!” Yuan Lin hopped up out of excitement, striking a fist to the skies.

Chen Jin wiped away the sweat on his forehead. All of a sudden, he was enlightened by the truth. Men should be domineering.

…

At Happiness Court, Chen Jin returned home in the evening.

His mother He Li was a little surprised. “Aren’t you living happily with your in-laws at the Sunshine district? What’s up with those bags?”

“I missed you mum, is that fine?”

“Sure, you have a nice conscience in you, little brat.” He Li smiled as she smacked his shoulders.

Going past the kitchen, Chen Jin shockingly discovered that his dad, Chen Gang, who previously would not lay even a finger on liquor, was actually drinking it one cup after another. Moreover, he was drinking white wine with high alcohol content. His father, who wasn’t that much of a drinker, had his face glowing red and his body wobbling after just a few cups.

“What happened to him? Mum, why didn’t you nag him and ask him to stop?” Chen Jin gave his mother a weird look.

He Li only sighed. “Let him be. He wasn’t feeling that good. Let him get drunk and have a good sleep. It might actually feel better for him.”

Chen Jin was shocked. Looking at his father who was going cup after cup, “What happened to him? What has he gone through?”

Chen Gang punched his fist on the table. The plates were clanking from the action. “Isn’t it just a civilian aircraft engine? If you westerners won’t sell it to us, fine! We Z’s will make them ourselves!”

He Li, on the other hand, explained the whole incident to Chen Jin at a volume that Chen Gang wouldn’t be able to hear. Shang Fei Corporation, which his father was working at, invented their first domestic large-scale passenger aircraft C-919. After five years of flight tests, they finally obtained the international Airworthiness Certificate. In this year originally, it would be put into mass production and enter the civil aviation market for service. At this juncture, to hinder the Z’s from developing their own large-scale aircraft, Safran company, which they relied on importing LeapX engines used in the C-919, abruptly tore their contract and announced a sales ban!

Once the engines were out of stock, the mass production of the C-919 would be broken immediately. Under such an impact, not to mention his dad Chen Gang, but the whole of Shang Fei Corporation was rendered in helplessness, humiliation and agitation.

Chapter 240 - Harsh Terrain

After taking in around half a kilo of white wine, Chen Gang’s body slammed the table, going unconscious immediately. At 10 o’clock the next morning, he was pushed by a hand as he heard a voice tingling around his ears.

“Dad, stop sleeping, wake up.”

Chen Gang opened his eyes slowly, took his phone, and looked at the time. Immediately, he flipped his blanket away and sat up. He needed to go to work today and actually overslept! He put on his coat, wore his pants and rushed to the door without even visiting the toilet or brushing his teeth!

The company was going to have a mobilization meeting today. All the employees would be making an oath in front of the flag to unite their thoughts, overcome difficulties, and swear to solve the problem in the shortest time possible. He needed to go there. He did not expect that he would oversleep after just a few cups.

“Wait, dad.” Chen Jin grabbed him. “Tell me about the specific situation.”

Chen Gang swung his hands and continued to move forward. He shook his head and said, “What’s the use of me telling you? Your company doesn’t make engines.”

“My company can’t make engines, but I have ways to build the engines, does this seem useful to you?”

Chen Gang halted his steps. He looked at Chen Jin with a serious face and said, “Engine is the crown of industry, only five countries throughout the globe have the capabilities to manufacture aircraft engine. All the best engine companies out there have more than a hundred years of technical experience. How long has Xing Hai Technologies been established?” Chen Gang shook his head. “Your company can’t help.”

“I’m asking you, dad, among engines and chips, which one do you think is more difficult?” Chen Jin asked abruptly.

“Uhm… almost the same. Equally difficult.”

“Zhong Xin International managed to tackled 7-nanometers within eight months. You know about this, right? What they were using was Xing Hai Technologies’ tech.”

Chen Gang’s eyes widened. He was finally not rushing to office. Both of them sat on the sofa and had a detailed conversation. The question that Chen Jin was most interested in was: a commercial contract was evidently signed, why did the French decide to renege? The construction of each C919 cost approximately 30 million dollars. Two of its engines accounted for 30% of its cost price… not only did the engine have the highest value, it had the highest profitability. Thousands of engine orders, billion dollars of profit, and the French actually flung it off just like that.

“Actually, the French didn’t want to tear the contract. Such a massive order would suffice the Safran Corporation for 10 years. No company would ever forsake a market of 1.4 billion people. It was under the M’s pressure that the French were forced to tear the contract. The LeapX engine manufactured by CFM International is a company under the Safran Corporation, and it has the M nations General Electric’s shares. The core technology used in the LeapX engines was licensed by the M’s… Safran has no right to speak towards the Shang Fei ban.”

The M’s had the final say on everything.

“That would mean that GE could profit from the engine sales as well, it would still benefit the M’s… why are they banning sales?” Chen Jin was confused.

“I think Boeing sent some men to go canvassing around the M nation’s Congress, stirred up some stuff from inside, and ultimately destroyed the contract.” Chen Gang said, “Our C919 is cheap, fuel efficient, and environmentally friendly. Once it launched, it will erode the market share of Boeing, harming their benefit. Of course, they will do just anything to press us down.” However, Boeing was rather secretive in this matter. After all, Z was Boeing’s biggest market. If they provoked the Z nation and got themselves sanctioned, they would lose the whole Z nation market.

Therefore, on Shang Fei’s engine ban, the ones that would actually be in seventh heaven would be the few politicians from the M nation. Clearly, they had accomplished their motive. The plans to put the C919 into mass production was broken in a jiffy.

“The engine supply is such an obvious weakness. Are there no prior plannings for dealing with the worst situation? Didn’t you guys expect a chocking situation by the foreigners on key equipment? Could you people only be nonplussed once they cut off stock supply and you can’t find local-made engines as a substitute in time?” Chen Jin said while frowning. Core technology and equipment could never be bought over. The others might sell their core equipment for the sake of profit, but they could forgo the spirit of contract and cease stock supply at any time. Their lifeblood would always be in the grasp of the others. It was necessary for one to have their own possessions.

“We do have local produced high bypass ratio engines!” Chen Gang said, “When we initiated the project, we considered the choking issue. We resorted to a two-way strategy. The first one would be importing, striving to realize the C919’s mass production in the most convenient and fastest way… it has been fifteen years since the domestic large passenger aircraft project was initiated. The R&D for the engines, however, will be 20 or even 30 years. If we wish to push the C919 into the market quickly, importing would be the only path. We can’t possibly wait for 20 or 30 years, our customers can’t either. Besides, we have established the Commercial Engine Manufacturing Company (CEM). They are responsible for the R&D of C919’s engines. The engine model is named CJ-1000. Currently, the C version of the engine has significant improvements in thrust, lifespan, and reliability. But it is far from enough! The CJ-1000C engine is at least 20 years behind LeapX engines. Its lifespan, reliability, and fuel consumption are trailing far behind. Even if the researchers at CEM go into overdrive, they would still need around 10 years to be able to come out with a reliable substitute.”

10 years? Chen Jin shook his head. Flowers would have withered by then. He thought about something and asked, “If CEM’s engines won’t do, what about the engines for military use? I heard that the Large Military Transport Aircraft-20 was already using the local made Turbofan-20 engine, which is already on mass production. If the C919 uses the Turbofan-20, can’t we get rid of our reliance on the foreigners right away?” What not use engines for the military?

“It can’t be done!” Chen Gang still shook his head, “The requirements for engines for civilian usage are way stricter than that for military usage. Using engine lifespan as an example, it is common for civilian-use engines to have a lifespan of 20 thousand hours, 30 thousand hours or above, overhaul intervals of a few thousand hours, low failure rate, low maintenance cost… after all, every plane is linked to the lives of hundreds of people. It must be made absolutely reliable. Military-use engines don’t have these requirements. Military transport aircrafts won’t fly every day, its frequency of usage is much lower. Thus, it had no strict requirements towards its engines. A lifespan of a couple of thousand hours would be enough. Besides, the military’s maintenance support is also better, it would still be okay even if the engine’s reliability is slightly lower. Another thing is the economical aspect. For airline companies, their largest operating expenditure is fuel. Planes that can save 15% fuel and those which can’t save any are totally different in their eyes. Planes that save 15% fuel would translate into 15% more profit. They would opt for the fuel-saving planes without hesitation. Fuel saving was mainly achieved via the engines. The better the engine, the more fuel they will save, and the more competitive it will be in the market. But our CJ-1000 or the military’s Turbofan-20 use above 30% more fuel than the LeapX. It won’t have any competitiveness in the market. No airline companies will be willing to buy it either. Profit is those companies’ lives after all.”

The domestic large-scale passenger aircraft C919 must be equipped with engines with a long lifespan, high reliability, and economical fuel saving capabilities to be able to possess competitiveness in the market. Or else, customers would not pay the bill. Of all the 5,000 orders placed, half would be lost due to delayed production. Therefore… it was all high and dry. Left in helplessness and agitation.

Chen Jin kept on shaking his head. He did not expect that in the year 20X1, the technical level for local engines were still in such harsh terrains. Looking at his dad’s agitated and frustrated expression and the white hair that had grown on his temples, Chen Jin suddenly realized: his dad was already 53. His biggest wish was to board the domestic large-scale passenger aircraft that he participated in developing and soar the skies of the Z nation before he retired at 60.

After some thought, Chen Jin said, “Be rest assured dad, I can help in this matter. I will solve the engine problem for you within half a year!”

Chen Gang looked at him with doubt on his face. After Chen Jin used around one hour describing to him about a technique, his father Chen Gang’s eyes abruptly widened, and on his face was an ecstatic expression.

Chapter 241 - A Game of Ever-Increasing Expenses

At the grand staff mobilization meeting in the morning, faced with the brightly colored national flag, the blood-thirstiness and fighting spirit of the tens of thousands of staff from Shangfei Corporation were awakened. Everyone held their breaths and silently vowed to produce the large-scale domestic passenger aircraft!

However, after their passions had cooled down, they found that they still faced a cruel reality. Swearing an oath collectively and shouting some slogans merely served to stabilize the heart of the army and unite their minds. But, there were always plenty of ways to approach a problem.

In the call to the second-in-command, the elderly president of Shang Fei Corporation, He Jin Long, proposed his alternative solution. “We will buy the PS90 engine made by the Russian Aircraft Parts Manufacturing Group. This engine model made by the Russians is pretty good. It uses less fuel too, and its standard is similar to that of the CFM56-5. It has a lifespan of 10,000 hours and above. The time between major repairs are longer and the purchase price is a third cheaper. It is expected that the engines from the PS90 series will be used in the long haul widebody passenger plane C929 that is jointly developed by us and UAC Corporation of Russia.” Although the Russians’ PS90 engine was good, their price was still much cheaper. However, the fuel consumption was 16% higher than the Leap X engine. Moreover, the working lifespan was about half of the Leap X engine too. As for the rate of breakdowns… The engines made by the Russians always gave one a somewhat unreliable impression. Purchasing the Russian PS90 engine was the only way to alleviate the problem before the 100% domestic replacement engine was successfully developed… but this would significantly reduce the market competitiveness of the C919.

Hence, one could see that there were some similarities between the field of civil aviation engine manufacturing and chip manufacturing. The winners would have a veritable feast, while the losers would be hard-pressed to get even a little bit of leftover business on the fringes.

Even so, He Jin Long made a strong guarantee. “We will hurry and continue to optimize our airplane! Even though our engine consumes more fuel, the body of our passenger aircraft C919 is about 15% lighter than similar aircrafts from Boeing and Airbus. We can achieve a weight that is 18% lighter than them if we get rid of some redundant weight. When the aircraft is lighter, its speed will increase and it’ll use less fuel. In addition, our production costs are about 20% lower, so we can set a relatively affordable selling price. We would have a definite edge after its launch in the market.”

The reason for the lighter weight of the C919 and its lower production costs was because the Z country manufacturers had mastered an amazing technology; the 3D printing technology for large-scale structural components. This level of technology had not yet been achieved overseas. Foreign manufacturers did not have the ability to print large structural parts with diameters of a few meters, much less parts with diameters of more than 10 meters. But the 3D printers from Z country could do it.

The 3D printer could print the main beam of the aircraft wing, the fuselage skeleton, and other key components by employing this type of technology. The strength of the components was up to standard and the material utilization rate was more than 90%.

The components used in the aircrafts of Boeing and Airbus, such as the main beam of the wing, were still processed by traditional industrial lathes. The scrap rate was high and the material utilization rate was low. They were put at a great disadvantage in terms of production costs and efficiency.

It was due to the blessings in the form of the 3D printing technology that Shang Fei’s C919 was able to achieve a great competitive advantage in the market. It could even be said that it became the champion of value for money in the passenger jet market of the 200 seaters doing long haul flights of 5,000 kilometers. It had completely dominated the civil aviation market.

The Boeing company and even the European Airbus company were motivated to hinder the progress of the C919, as they had a great fear of the C919 dominating their own markets. They did not want a competitor like the C919 to appear in the market before they had mastered 3D printing technology. The advantages brought about by 3D printing technology would be immediately offset by using the Russian PS90 engine in the C919. It would instantly become a mediocre aircraft with an average value for money.

Moreover, based on the character of the Russians, they would not hesitate in asking for a steep price even if their product performance was mediocre. It may be cheap to buy their engines for now, but it would not always be the case.

From the other end of the phone, the second elder in command lamented, “It’s still best to have our own advanced engine. We have to fight for our dignity!”

He Jinling sank into silence.

At that moment, his secretary walked into the office. “President He, the Deputy Chief Designer of the landing gear project team, Chen Gang, wants to see you. He said that he has to report an important matter to you. ”

Chen Gang? Chen Gang, who was missing from the mass mobilization gathering in the morning. He was somewhat annoyed when someone had reported this incident to him. But he did not hold it against him. Anyway, there was nothing he could do since Chen Gang had a powerful son. But a grand gathering to motivate and mobilize the staff was a very serious activity. It was a critical time that called for a united front and battle spirit. How could he be missing? What did that mean?

He Jin Long still did not feel too good about his absence. He did not really want to see him. However, he heard his secretary add, “President He, Designer Chen has brought his son along with him, Chen Jin, the founder of Xing Hai Technologies.”

“Yes, yes, yes, let them into my office.”

…

As they entered the office, He Jin Long extended his hand enthusiastically. “President Chen, welcome. The young are promising indeed!” He turned and shook hands with Chen Gang before patting his shoulders. “Old Chen, you have a pretty amazing son!”

However, He Jin Long was at a loss as to why father and son had come to see him. What was the purpose of their visit? Perhaps they thought that the mass production of the domestic large-scale passenger plane was a hopeless dream and they felt disheartened. So, they wanted to retire early from the project and were asking for his approval? He Jin Long gave a silent groan in his mind. He invited them to sit down and got the secretary to pour two cups of tea.

After exchanging some meaningless pleasantries, he asked, “May I ask what’s the purpose of your visit?”

Chen Gang said in a hurry, “Of course it’s because of the aircraft engine. We have a solu–”

“Ahem,” Chen Jin coughed heavily, “Our main purpose is to discuss the progress of the domestic aircraft engine. This topic is classified. I was wondering if the secretary can lock the door?” He looked at the male secretary.

He Jin Long picked up on the hidden request immediately and ordered the secretary to exit the room. “Little Lin, go out for a while and lock the door.” Only the three of them were left in the room.

Chen Gang could not control his impatience again and said in a hurry, “President He, my son’s company has a solution to the problem of the poor performance of the domestic engine!”

“Dad, why are you so anxious?” Chen Jin looked at him impatiently. He threw him a gaze that seemed to say, Stay out of it and keep quiet. Let me talk to President He.

He Jin Long gave him an astonished look. His expression was filled with doubt.

Chen Gang shut his mouth in embarrassment.

“President He, can you let me have some of your time so we can talk about the progress of the development of the domestic engine?”

He Jin Long nodded. “Yes, of course.”

They two began to discuss the matter. However, Chen Jin was the one doing most of the asking and He Jin Long was the one doing most of the answering.

“President He, tell me honestly. How big do you think the gap is between our engines and the most advanced engines from overseas?”

“Erm, there’s at least a thirty-year gap. Honestly, the gap could be as much as fifty years.”

“Why is the gap so big?”

“The aircraft engine is the product that can best reflect the standard of a country’s industrial foundations. Our foundation is still seriously lacking. The industrialization of the West took more than 300 years. We are not even 60 years into it. Many basic sectors are still too lacking. I’ll use a simple example. The Mericans went to the moon 52 years ago, but we still can’t do that.”

“But, I saw on many articles that you’ve conquered most of the material technologies needed to construct an advanced engine. Materials are no longer a problem. The main problem lies in engine design. We are still weaker than others in that area… Is that the reason?”

“Yes, you are right!” He Jin Long nodded. “We’ve fixed the flaws in the materials used. The main problem lies in the design. Our country is still lacking in design masters who can come up with a top quality engine.” Of course, the mediocrity of their current engines was not entirely due to the lack of good designers. The insufficient investment by the government in this field was another significant reason. A good engine was not entirely born from a good design, it was also born from loads of money! It went without mentioning that equipment like the specialized wind tunnels and test versions cost a lot. For every engine test bench, a few tons of aviation fuel would be consumed. Sometimes, more than ten tons… The money for fuel had to be spent day after day, year after year. For example, the test for a foreign matter caught in the engine included throwing a rock as large as a fist into the engine. And just like that, an engine that was worth tens of millions of dollars became nothing more than scrap.

It was difficult to carry out such expensive activities when the economy of Z country was doing poorly. But even now, when Z country had become richer and more powerful, an annual investment of tens of billions was still insufficient. In simple words, one could only successfully develop the advanced aviation engine by footing the exorbitant costs day after day and year after year. Past efforts would be wasted if the work was stopped halfway, Only countries who could afford those continuous expenses could become a powerful manufacturer of engines.

But… Chen Jin had a “cheat sheet” that would not only save them large amounts of on-going development costs, it could also drastically reduce the R&D period. He explained this special software to He Jin Long. This software would allow “tons of fuel to be saved daily,””coordinate the simultaneous testing of hundreds of engines,” and “reduce the R&D period by 90%.”

He Jin Long immediately jumped up from his seat. He yelled in shock, “How is this possible?!”

Chapter 242 - A Military Representative

The virtual factory! t could make the impossible possible. The 7-nanometer, which was conquered by Zhongxin International within 8 months, was an example of its capabilities.

He Jin Long was more or less sold by the words of father and son. After all, the breakthrough achieved by Zhongxin International was an industrial legend. Even now, there were many who did not believe that it was real. They still insisted that it was an elaborate hoax… There were many related articles on the internet claiming that they had exposed the so-called hoax. For example, the famous anti-counterfeit activist, ‘Fang Zhouzi,’ had written an article titled “Ten questions surrounding Zhongxin International’s 7-nm chip.” The resulting impact of this article was huge. The price of Zhongxin International’s stock fell steeply.

He Jin Long had read the article too and he had become extremely doubtful about the 7-nanometer chip. But the doubts that he had had all disappeared. He received an excellent answer to his questions. The amazing technology of the virtual factory could indeed create an industrial legend!

Chen Jin exhorted, “President He, the technology of the virtual factory cannot be announced to the public yet. I hope that that you can help to keep it a secret. It’s best that this technology is only known by a few.”

“Yes, I will keep my lips sealed!”

…

The next day, at the commercial aircraft engine manufacturing company., the Chairman of Shangfa Corporation, Tan Ruisong, who was feeling the abrupt pressure by the West’s recent ban on Leap X engines, had received a call from President He from Shang Fei Corporation yesterday.

“How is this possible?” Upon hearing of the virtual factory, his initial reaction was one of shock and disbelief. “How can the simulation technology of a supercomputer be so powerful?”

He Jinlong had no choice but to provide an explanation. He also used Zhongxin International as an example. Tan Ruisong was very close to being sold on the idea. He said on the spot, “I’ll go to Xing Hai Technologies tomorrow to discuss a partnership with President Chen!”

…

As Shangfa’s headquarters was also located in Shang Hai, in the early morning, Tan Ruisong arrived at the lobby of Xing Hai Technologies headquarters. He managed to get a meeting with Chen Jin only after waiting for nearly two hours.

In the meeting room, sitting across from Chen Jin, Tan Ruisong asked impatiently, “President Chen, is it true that the virtual factory technology from your company is able to simulate the development of physical objects?”

Chen Jin shook his head. “You can’t always believe what you hear, but what you see is always real. How about this, I can let you have a trial run of the TC9000 supercomputer. It’s installed with the ‘virtual factory 1.0 technology.’ You can send over a group of engineers to assemble an engine in the virtual factory and see for yourself the extent of difference in the simulated environment and reality.”

“OK!”

—

In the afternoon, a technical team composed of more than a hundred engine specialists was sent by Shangfa Corporation. The team entered the fourth development plant of Xing Hai Technologies. As the body of the engine was on the smaller side and the CAD industrial design blueprint could be imported into the virtual factory, the engine could be generated straightaway. The expert team assembled an engine in just a few hours.

On that very same night, they received the first batch of valuable data.

“This is really useful!”

“There is less than 0.1-kilonewton difference between the thrust generated by the simulated engine and what is generated in reality. The law of thrust changes basically remains the same.”

“By increasing the supply of fuel, the thrust is raised to around 148-kilonewtons… Eh, the engine interval surge issue actually appears here too. This indicates that our engine does have significant design flaws.”

“Continue to increase fuel supply and see how long it can run under extreme conditions?”

After about ten hours…

Boom!

In the virtual factory, the internal parts of the engine had overheated and subsequently been blown into bits. A specialist who had been monitoring the test data all night long with no sleep said, “It’s nearly the same. All the test results are virtually the same as what happened in reality.”

Everyone looked at each other. Then, the joy and excitement that they could not suppress burst out of them. There were even some who could not hold back their tears and started crying.

“We’ve suffered too many scoldings and have been the target of too much finger-pointing all these years.”

“It’s not that we’re incompetent. The annual funds of 1.5 billion allocated to us are simply not enough.”

“According to the plan, the CJ-1000 engine should have been ready for commercial use by last year. But as its main technical indicators obviously fell short of the Leap X engine, we continued making improvements on it. We needed at least 5 years before we could catch up to the overseas standard… But we have caught up to them now. No matter how good or how advanced the engines from the west are, they will never catch up to us now.”

“We have hope now; we can hope to catch up with them!”

“What a truly amazing device!”

Not bad. It was deja vu. The challenge faced by Z country’s manufacturers of civil aviation engines were almost identical with that of the chip manufacturers. The long period of chip development and production was due to the constant adjustment needed to optimize its production processes. Long periods of time was wasted. On the other hand, the development and production of the aircraft engine required spending huge amounts of money.

After taking into account labor expenses, annual funds of a billion or so were only sufficient to produce 10 test versions to conduct experiments of about 10,000 hours. The average hourly cost of a test was about $100,000. This might look positive, but with Shangfa’s current efficiency, the number of test engines had to be increased to more than 30. The total test hours in a year had to exceed 30,000 hours. A CJ-1000 that was comparable to the Leap X could be produced before 20X5 only under these conditions. This meant that the annual fund allocation had to be increased to 3 billion and above.

Although the state-run enterprises of Z country were large and powerful, there were also many areas where expenses ran high. It was impossible to allocate unlimited funds to the development of the aircraft engines. However, the dire situation of Shangfa Corporation would be improved radically with the use of the virtual factory. As long as the computing power of the super-calculation was sufficiently large, one could assemble a hundred or even a thousand test engines in the virtual factory. Experiments could be carried out on all the test engines at the same time. Adjustments and optimizations could be continuously made. If the engine was spoiled beyond repair in the tests, a new one could be generated immediately.

By developing the engine in this manner, the money and time saved might be even greater than what the chip manufacturers had experienced. They would be able to produce a CJ-1000 engine that met the standards within 6 months or so. It was not an impossibility to fully solve the problem within a year!

…

Tan Ruisong asked, “President Chen, how much does your company charge to use one of the virtual factories?” He was no longer in doubt about the prowess of the virtual factory. Now, he simply wanted to ask about the charges!

Chen Jin said, “I’ll give you two alternatives. The first; you can rent a TC900 with a computing speed of less than 10 quadrillion Flops for a very friendly price. You simply have to pay an electricity bill of $100,000 every day. This price should be reasonable?”

“Yes, very reasonable!” Tan Ruisong shook his head. This was a steal!

“However, the computer power of the TC9000 is too low. It can only run 15 test engines at the same time and it has a mere 99.99% match with reality. There would still be a definite difference between the simulation and reality. Hence, I’m offering you a second choice. You can directly purchase a ‘Supernova 1’ supercomputer that has a computing speed of 10 quadrillion Flops, which is 15 times that of the TC9000. It can assemble up to more than 200 engines each time. It is installed with the ‘virtual factory 2.0’ that has a 99.9999% and above match with reality. There is a smaller margin for error. You can do as you like with the supercomputer after you purchase it. You can develop two, three, or even more models of engines at the same time… You are free to do with it as you will.”

Tan Ruisong’s eyes brightened immediately. “How much are you selling that supercomputer for?”

“1 billion.” Chen Jin said, “This price is an absolute steal. My father has reminded me not to profit from my dealings with you, only to recover the hardware production costs and the R&D costs of the software.”

It was true that Chen Gang had urged him about this. He had advised Chen Jin to support the project on the domestic large scale passenger aircraft by helping to reduce the costs of the project. Large quantities of C919 would be sold in the future. Chen Jin’s efforts would play a part in it too… Chen Jin agreed after some thought.

Tan Ruisong said without hesitation, “I choose the second option!”

It was a steal indeed! He had never heard of a 10 quadrillion Flops supercomputer with a manufacturing cost of less than 1 billion. In addition, it went without saying that the value of the virtual factory was far greater than the supercomputer itself.

Hence, an agreement was reached.

…

Then, after a mere day had passed, a row of military personnel decked out in their blue uniforms arrived at Xing Hai Technologies. The group was led by the Chief and Air Vice Marshall, Yuan Lang. He looked big and robust. He was the representative selected by the Z Aviation Industry Group. As he witnessed this group of people in his company, Chen Jin enquired about the purpose of their visit.

The words from Yuan Lang greatly surprised Chen Jin. “Um, we want to purchase three ‘Supernova 1’. Erm, all those that are installed with the virtual factory.”

F**k.

Chen Jin wanted to curse out loud on the spot. It was one thing if that Tan Ruisong fellow had taken advantage of him. But he even betrayed him and summoned his small-time buddies to get a free meal from him.

Shangfa Corporation was a shareholding company. The Z Aviation Industry Group held 40% of its shares; it was the biggest shareholder of the corporation. It was only yesterday that Ruisong had signed the purchase agreement with Xing Hai Technologies, and today the military representative had arrived. It was evident who had told the secret.

Chen Jin felt a sense of helplessness as he was faced with the expectant yet ill-at-ease expression of Yuan Lang.

Chapter 243 - Detonation Engine

Actually, this was not the first time that Xing Hai Technologies would be working with the military. Many military departments wanted to use the Work Assistant when it was launched. But the core parameters of most of the equipment such as the weapons operations systems, missile control programs, and radars on the fighter jets could not be uploaded onto the server. A leak could happen.

Xing Hai Technologies had to specially build a set of servers for those military departments so that sensitive data could remain classified. Only the military researchers from the management had access to these servers. Even so, Xinghai Technology’s background operation and maintenance personnel found that there were more than 100,000 programmers specially dedicated to the military. There were many expert programmers amongst them.

After the scandal of Google’s “Backdoor Incident” had broken out, the military had approached companies in the “Star Alliance” and signed billion-dollar orders to free themselves from the dependence on Android devices.

Including today’s request, this would be the third time that the military had actively sought out collaboration with Xing Hai Technologies. And the first thing that they asked for was the “Supernova 1!”

What did they want to use it for? What was their purpose in purchasing so many units of the supercomputer? Chen Jin really wanted to ask this question. But upon further thought, he decided not to.

Rocket testing, engine development, explosions from nuclear weapons… Was there anything that the virtual factory could not do? He predicted that soon after the military had gotten their hands on the “Supernova 1” that was installed with the virtual factory, another wave of highly advanced weapons in various forms would arrive. The world would become more peaceful and harmonious.

As he thought of this, the depression in Chen Jin was lifted. He immediately said, “Sure, Xing Hai Technologies will sell three Supernova 1 to you!”

Yuan Lang’s face lit up with delight. He asked, “Then… What’s the price?” He was rather apprehensive about this.

Chen Jin threw the question back at him. “What do you think is a suitable price?”

“This… This is… Ten… cough, cough! It’s better for President Chen to name a price!” Yuan Lang smiled awkwardly. He wanted to follow the orders given by the higher-ups and state a price of 1 billion for a unit. But he thought that 1 billion was dirt cheap considering the value of the virtual factory. It was so cheap that people might come out in droves to grab a unit for themselves. His conscience told him that 1 billion for a unit was too cheap. But the higher-ups had approved of only 3 billion for this transaction. His mission was to buy three units with this 3 billion.

Now that he had given away his initiative, he felt an immediate sense of regret. He forced a smile and added, “President Chen, we are buying this equipment for the protection of the country. I hope that you can sell them at a cheaper price.” Yuan Lang spoke in polite terms. He was born into the army and did not like to be calculative. Even though he did not like the atmosphere in a business negotiation, he had no choice but to go through it frequently. After all, every dollar and every cent that the military spent was the blood and sweat of the civilians.

“Oh, you want it cheaper?” However, he heard Chen Jin continue, “I had intended to sell one unit for 1 billion. Was that too expensive? How about this, I’ll give you a 10% discount since you are buying in bulk. 900 million for one unit. This price should be acceptable?” He even added, “I can give you a greater a discount if you buy even more the next time.” This offer by Chen Jin seemed to have made the package deal of a supercomputer+virtual factory into a price elastic product. The more units one purchased, the greater the discount.

Yuan Lang quickly said, “Yes, it’s acceptable!” He grinned from ear to ear. This was too unexpected. He had saved 300 million! Fearing that Chen Jin would take back his words, he quickly added, “President Chen, let’s sign the purchase contract immediately. We’ll set it at 900 million per unit.”

Chen Jin threw back his head and laughed heartily, giving the impression of someone with more money than sense. Actually, he had his own plans. He was hoping to establish a friendly relation by selling it so cheaply. He would become friends with the military. What were the benefits of making friends with the military? He could not tell what the benefits were for now. There were no instant results. But there were definitely no disadvantages! He should establish good relationships and make friends not only with the military, but also with other organizations like the various government departments and state-run enterprises. There might not be any benefits, but there were definitely no disadvantages.

Moreover, the country had become prosperous and powerful. The armies were mighty and the environment had stabilized. Xing Hai Technologies could also develop with a peace of mind, without fear of external harassment and suppression… This was a win-win situation.

The purchase contract was quickly signed. Due to the large order, the delivery of the three “Supernova 1” would only start after three months and the full order would be delivered in six. They had to wait for some time. Yuan Lang reflected this situation back to the higher-ups. In turn, they replied, “Can you give us one unit now? We have a research project that needs to use it urgently. It’s best if we can receive the item within a month. We can pay an additional fee for that!”

This request was made to Chen Jin. Chen Jin shook his head. “This is not an issue of money. Xing Hai Technologies only has a total of five Supernova 1. Four are for our own uses and one has been ordered by Shangfa Corporation. We have to procure the various parts before assembling a new Supernova 1. This would take three months or more.”

“What? Your company is using four? Isn’t that too many? Can you transfer one of them for our use? We really have an urgent need for one.” That higher up military official was very surprised. Four supercomputers. Were they running a supercomputer internet cafe?

“I can’t transfer it out. All the supercomputers are running at full capacity with the various projects. Our projects and servers would be interrupted once the supercomputers are transferred. This will affect our day-to-day operation. The clients will be unhappy. I really can’t move any one of them! But…” Chen Jin added, “About 50% of the computing speed of our fourth supercomputer is idling. If you are really in urgent need, you can bring your project over and run it on the supercomputer. Half of the supercomputing speed should be sufficient. You can use it free of charge… Is that ok?”

“Um….” The other party gave it some thought but had no choice except to agree. “Ok! We’ll send someone over!” The higher-up official from the military accepted Chen Jin’s plan of compromise.

…

On the evening of that very same night, a military aircraft slowly descended on Shang Hai International Airport. Dozens of armed special forces and experts carrying computers for military use alighted from the plane… They got onto two buses and went straight to the eighth development plant of Xing Hai Technologies in the Bao Shan District.

The special forces sealed off half of the development plant. Staff was restricted from entering or exiting a portion of the area. The armed forces were on high alert and the atmosphere was rather tense. But it was the first time that the experts from the military had come across the virtual factory so they did not know how to operate it. The technicians from Xing Hai Technologies guided them step by step for three days. After teaching them, they were all chased out by the group of special forces who gave the reason of “maintaining secrecy.”

Even so, Feng Xuehong, who was the leader of the technical team sent to provide guidance, was also a highly experienced fan of the military. He had more or less guessed what the military experts were developing.

He called Chen Jin. He said excitedly into the phone, “President Chen. It’s too amazing. The equipment that those experts from the military are developing is simply too amazing. It will transform the structure of this entire world.”

“What equipment?” Chen Jin, who had been messing around all day with a call girl, lowered his voice. He was very curious.

“The detonation engine!” Feng Xuehong said, “The detonation engine that they will soon have a breakthrough with! Look at how anxious those experts are. This means that the sixth generation of our country’s fighter jets will soon take their first flight!”

F**k! The sixth generation of fighter jets! We actually achieved a breakthrough so quickly?

Realizing the detonation engine in the military sector was akin to taking the opportunities at tight corners to make swift progress. This would fully solve the core issues. Chen Jin was stupefied. He immediately said, “Keep it a secret! Don’t ever tell this to anyone else. If this is leaked, I won’t protect you even if you are faced with a death sentence.”

“I know, I know. President Chen, I won’t tell this to anybody else. I promise to keep this secret to myself. Haha, hahahaha…”

The sixth generation of fighter jets. They were equipped with the detonation engines of the next era that had a simple structure, high thrust-to-weight ratio, and low production cost. Once it was successfully launched and Merica got wind of it, they would probably faint from shock!

Chapter 244 - A Million Dollar Prize

It was not easy to be an entrepreneur. Based on research data, the failure rate of new entrepreneurs in the technology and internet sectors had exceeded 90%. Of the remaining few that had succeeded, the success that they yearned for with all their hearts was not to expand their company into a big business or to create large revenues. They hoped to be acquired by a big corporation so that they could achieve financial freedom. It was because they were short-sighted. Rather, to be acquired was the smart and best choice that they could make.

This was especially true for start-ups in the internet sector. Your ideas could easily be regulated or suppressed and your products easily plagiarized. Your company would not have the same financial capabilities as other larger corporations. Once the bigger companies entered the market, it would immediately be a feast for them. Your market share would all be snatched away by the big corporations in a short time.

The strong became stronger and the large became larger. That was the general observation of the businesses in the internet sector. If the smallfry did not want to be swallowed by the sharks, it would be better for them to offer themselves up as food and become part of the giant.

Of course, Liu Xiaoping did not think so far ahead. He merely wanted to do his current job well. And that was to grow “Ningshuang Studio” into a bigger business. Three months. It had been three months since he joined the studio established by Xu Ningshuang. What made him rejoice the most right now was that this company was still standing. In other words, it was a miracle that it had not collapsed. He had witnessed various actions taken by Xu Ningshuang when it came to the business and thought, if this woman can become a successful entrepreneur, I’ll cut my head off.

He had tried to stop her from taking some actions, and even fought with her in private, but was still unable to change her tendency to cling to her course in a stubborn manner. If not for his goddess, Ren Jiaojiao, he would have sworn to himself that he would not work in this kind of studio any longer. Loser. He was too much of a loser to keep working here!

Although the “Ningshuang Studio” was a small business with only four staff, their office was not located in a small cubicle of 30 square meters with a monthly rent of a few hundred dollars. Instead, they were located on the 38th floor of an office building in the CBD of Tianfu city. Moreover, they had rented an office area of 160 square meters. He enjoyed a wide view and beautiful scenery. The city skyline of Tianfu delighted the eyes. However, the monthly rent was $18,000!

For the convenience of work and living, Xu Ningshuang purchased a set of high-end sofas which cost more than $5,000. This was in addition to the top quality computers that she had bought. A premium edition of Wa-wah Robot 2.3, check. A deluxe edition of Bang Bang Robot, check. A coffee machine that cost a few thousand dollars, check. Top-grade coffee beans that cost more than a thousand dollars for a kilo, check. Including other office and kitchen equipment as well as other types of equipment, she had spent a total of more than $400,000.

She even planned to add a massage chair and a treadmill in the future, claiming that they were for the purpose of fitness and aiding blood circulation. Then, she would buy a good quality car for the convenience of running business errands. She would not use a rented car… Liu Xiaoping believed that she meant to buy all that she had said.

In short, Liu Xiaoping took his hat off at her spendthrift ways. There was nothing he could about her actions. Then again, could the profits of the studio be maintained with her extravagant spending? Although the studio had been established for a mere three months, they had already accepted more than 20 projects and were busy nearly every day. Sometimes when it got too busy, they would have to work overtime until 8 or 9 pm. The projects that they had taken on were of a huge variety.

They included an app that took menu orders for an F&B outlet and a task manager app for a business department. Other projects included applets and such for WeChat. They charged an average of $20,000 to $80,000 for each project and their total revenue was $580,000. In addition, they had received the “motivational prize” for two of their projects after it had been uploaded onto the Star Cloud app store. The total prize money given by Xing Hai Technologies for their effort was worth $100,000.

The studio had earned more than $680,000 in the three months that it had been established. However, she had spent the majority of that huge sum of money with her reckless, squandering ways! Liu Xiaoping wanted to continue roasting her, but he slowly realized that his efficiency had increased as he started working in such a comfortable office environment. He found his mood lifted whenever he stood at the floor-to-ceiling windows and gazed at the city skyline. His mind was invigorated and his body energized.

Moreover, whenever Xu Ningshuang brought the clients over for a visit, their loud voices as they bargained over petty details had reduced. The number of contracts that were signed had increased too. It was all due to the influence of such a good office environment. The market share of the Star Cloud system would only keep increasing as there were more and more people who used mobile phones that were installed with Star Cloud. He could predict that the business of Ningshuang Studio would also increase. There was no fear that it would collapse. As long as that big spender cut down on her spendthrift ways, it was not an issue for the studio to earn 2 to 3 million every year.

“Ah!”

He suddenly heard a shriek close to him. Liu Xiaoping, who had been engrossed with his coding, jumped in shock. He turned around and glared at Xu Ningshuang. “Why are you screaming?”

Xu Ningshuang started to dance in joy as she laughed maniacally, “We’ve hit the jackpot! Our project has won the million dollar grand prize! Yay! Yay! This is awesome!”

Liu Xiaoping quickly asked, “For real? Which is the lucky project?” It was not the first time that they had won a prize. Whenever they won a prize from Xing Hai Technologies, it was called a “jackpot.” The small jackpot was a $50,000 prize and the big jackpot was the million dollar prize. They had won the small prize two times in the past. But it was the big prize this time around.

Song Xiaoling and Ren Jiaojiao left their seats and crowded around Xu Ningshuang. “Sister Xu, which one of our projects bagged the prize?”

“It’s our very own ‘Tree of Baby’s Highlights.’ This app has been downloaded more than 100,000 times and the user reviews are very good. We have been selected for the grand prize by Xing Hai Technologies.”

In addition to taking on client commissioned projects, Ningshuang Studio also made their own products. The ‘Tree of Baby’s Highlights’ was an app that they had developed when the company had just been established and they were not as busy. The app was used to record the growth of a baby. The user could attach photos of the baby onto the Tree of Highlights, write a short note detailing their feelings, and put up some short video clips. Users could record the timeline of their baby’s growth and capture funny and heartwarming moments. In addition, this app had social functions. Mothers could share their Tree of Highlights, add each other as friends, and discuss their children’s education, training, etc. Actually, this type of app was neither uncommon nor original. But Ninghshuang Studio was meticulous about the details. The art style was also simple and beautiful. Lastly, the built-in social functions allowed mothers who lived within close distances of each other to communicate and interact, thereby expanding their network. The users were quite impressed.

Hence, they were chosen for the million dollar grand prize by Xing Hai Technologies. One million dollars was soon transferred into their company account. Xu Ningshuang waved her hand in a grand gesture and said, “Come on, let’s go for a feast to celebrate this properly!”

“We’re going for a feast!”

The four of them put down their work and went down with whoops of joy. They found a high-end seafood restaurant and ordered enough dishes to fill up the entire table. Then they started to enjoy the grand meal.

Xu Ningshuang glanced at her phone and began to describe her vision for the future. “When the ‘Tree of Baby’s Highlights’ won the grand prize, I saw many messages on the back-end from various bosses. Many are selling diapers and milk powder. They said that they want to work with us to promote their products. We can create another function called the ‘Baby’s Mall’ and add some high-quality baby products there. We can make even more money from that function.” She said boldly, “I told you so. There are two groups of people that you can really profit from. Women and children. But, there’s just someone who didn’t believe me. He said that this project was a no-go. Well, what are your thoughts now; is this project a go or no-go?” She cast a disdainful look at Liu Xiaoping. When she had decided to start on this project, this fellow had lots of protest.

Liu Xiaoping nodded. “You’re right. I did think that this project was unoriginal so nobody would download the app… But, the results prove that you are right. I admit defeat.”

“Hmph!” Xu Ningshuang gloated, “If the product is good, there’ll naturally be lots of people who admire it. It’ll shine sooner or later if it’s gold. Based on this project alone, we’ll be able to capture the hearts of the huge number of users as long as we can follow through on our customer service. It’ll be easy to earn 5 million every year.”

Song Xiaoling exclaimed, “Wow, 5 million?” She had never seen so much money in her life. As she felt the confidence radiating from Xu Ningshuang, she thought that perhaps they really could succeed.

Liu Xiaoping really had to hand it to her. He was way better than Xu Ningshuang when it came to the technical side of things, but she totally beat him in product design and sales.

“I’m sorry, something came up, I’ll leave first. Please continue with your meal.” Ren Jiaojiao received a call and abruptly left.

Xu Ningshuang said, “Go ahead.”

Ren Jiaojiao lifted her bag from a chair and left the room.

Liu Xiaoping’s eyes followed her back as she turned to leave. Suddenly, his eyes widened. He saw her exiting the restaurant and going towards a tall and handsome male. He was holding a rose as he waited for her outside the restaurant. A bright red sports car was parked beside him. Ren Jiaojiao was very happy when she saw the man. She accepted the rose from him and got into his car.

Liu Xiaoping’s heart fell into a bottomless abyss. He recognized the man. He was the studio’s biggest client who had sought them out for five projects. He finally realized that the man had sought them out so many times because he was interested in Ren Jiaojiao. The CBD district was too prosperous. There were too many wealthy people there. Young and rich men were not uncommon. It would be difficult for Ren Jiaojiao to remain unaffected if she met one with all the right standards. It was agony. He could taste the bitterness in his mouth.

“Waiter, wine!” Liu Xiaoping asked the waiter to bring more wine. He started drinking one cup after another. He drank until he was dizzy. He wanted to be so drunk that he forgot everything. After more than ten cups of wine, Xu Ningshuang finally grabbed his cup and hauled him out.

“Isn’t it just a woman? It’s her loss if she doesn’t like you. Why do you care about someone who doesn’t even like you?”

“I joined your studio because of her. Did you think I was willing to work for you? Now that she’s been snatched away by someone else, I should just get lost too.”

“So what do you want to do?”

“I quit! I want to work in a place where I can find a wife.”

Slap!

Xu Ningshuang smacked him across the face. “Grow up! You go to work just to find a wife?”

“Stay out of my business. Anyway, I’m quitting right now.” Liu Xiaoping pushed her away and turned to leave.

“Wait!” Xu Ningshuang grabbed him and said, “Don’t you simply want to find a partner? Ok, I’ll be your partner, are you happy now?” Ren Jiaojiao had found a tall, rich and handsome boyfriend and Song Xiaoling was also attached. Xu Ningshuang could only offer herself if she wanted to keep this capable staff on. For some unknown reason, her face heated up after saying those words.

“What?” Liu Xiaoping looked at her in astonishment. “You? Be my partner? For real?” He stared closely at her. Although she was not as pretty as Ren Jiaojiao, her looks were rather decent.

She nodded and cajoled, “For real. As long as you stay on.”

“No! You’re a big spendthrift. Not unless you change your extravagant spending habits.”

“Ok ok, I won’t spend money so recklessly anymore.”

“That’s more like it…”

The effects of the alcohol was starting to add up. Liu Xiaoping felt his vision getting blurry. He collapsed and felt himself falling onto an all-encompassing softness.

Chapter 245 - Spies

After more than ten straight days of debauchery, Chen Jin left the villa at Junting Grand Court and returned to the Court of Happiness.

…

On Haierfa, at the Base of Operations, Nuwa was still gathering He3 on the moon and would only return after about a month.

Alice, who had temporarily taken over the environment remodeling project, reported a special situation.”Master, our exploration squad found a very special piece of ‘equipment’ in their excavation of the Lyons Air Force Base in Kensini.”

Alice projected an image. The image depicted a hemispherical device, similar to a helmet. The object had a diameter of about 1 meter and countless pipes and cables were studded on its surface. It had the appearance of a metallic hedgehog. But upon closer inspection, it seemed to look like a massive brain. The surrounding cables seemed like countless strands of nerve fibers.

He was starting to get goosebumps. Chen Jin asked, “What’s this?”

“Master, if my guess is right, this should be the terminal of the ‘Brainwave Control Device.’ This is the central device used to release mind control signals… It was under the influence of this device that countless voters became the hardcore supporters of the madman Lucio.” Alice said, “This device is the original killer that caused the destructive war to erupt.”

Chen Jin asked, “Can it still be used?”

“It can’t be used normally anymore. This equipment lacks a controller; this terminal has to be controlled by a human. It affects the brains of other people via the brain of the human controller.” Alice shifted her lens to the bottom of the hemispherical device. A half-reclining metal chair was found below the terminal. The ergonomics of the design seemed to be rather suitable for a human body; it seemed meant for a human.

Chen Jin suddenly thought of something. Professor X? “So you mean that this terminal cannot control anyone on its own. Only a human can use this device to control others?”

“Yes, master,” Alice said, “The structure of the human brain is very complicated. Even the most advanced supercomputer is unable to simulate or generate brainwave signals. Only the human brain can generate such signals. Those helmets used in simulations achieve the effects of perception for the user in the game merely through the use of electrodes to stimulate the regional nerves such as touch, smell, pain, perception, etc. But it cannot generate brainwaves and cannot be directly transplanted into the human’s brain. It is almost impossible to use only a metal device to affect and control the brains of billions of humans. But this device works as an amplifier by transmitting the brainwaves of a certain creature. It is entirely possible that its uses could be extended and it would then affect other humans wearing the ‘Brainwave Control Device.’ However, even with this amplifier, the human controller can only affect 10 people at the same time. The power of the brainwaves generated by humans is limited. But, on the day that Lucio was elected, more than 100 million people became puppets in a short period of time. This signified that the one controlling the terminal of the ‘Brainwave Control Device’ had brain waves that were tens of thousands of times stronger than a normal human. In other words, the controller of the terminal was not a human at all, but an…”

Alice paused, then slowly said, “Alien.”

The word hung in the air as she played a video. The video showed the exploration squad finding a crystal and ice coffin in a secret cold room while searching the Lyons Air Force Base, which was located underground. The length of the crystal and ice coffin was over two and a half meters. The robot wiped off the layer of frost on the surface of the coffin and the thing laying inside was revealed. Chen Jin was so shocked when he saw it that he nearly jumped out from his seat.

It was an alien! It had a massive head and was bald all over. The alien corpse even had a long and coarse tail! The corpse was well-preserved in the cold environment. There was no sign of damage to the body. But it still looked disgusting and ugly. His first reaction upon laying eyes on it was to destroy it. He wanted to annihilate every single one of them! It was too fugly! “Alice, you mean this is the thing that was controlling the terminal, and by extension, the humans? It is also the one that orchestrated the destructive war? Only the brain of an alien can release brainwaves that are ten thousand times stronger than a human?”

“Yes, master. It should be the real culprit that caused the destructive war.”

As he heard this, Chen Jin felt even more questions pressing on his mind. How did this alien come to Haierfa? How did it die? Just what were the specific methods it had employed to turn Haierfa into the state it was now?

“He was most likely a spy sent by the aliens. I’m not too clear on how it arrived at Haierfa. But what is certain is that they must have an interstellar flying device that can transport them from their mother planet all the way here. It is without a doubt that it was tasked with the mission to destroy our civilization. I have a clearer picture of many things now. Sealing off the scientific and technological progress is not sufficient to destroy a planet that has a population of more than 10 billion. That was simply a ploy by the aliens to delay things. The spies that were sent later was the killing blow. The Brainwaves Control Device was the weapon that they brought to destroy us. The reboot virus was insurance that made their plan foolproof. The death of this alien was due to the excessive use of its brainwaves by the terminal. The task of controlling hundreds of millions of people was beyond its ability to withstand and it died as the terminal drew on too much of its brainwaves. Hence, it must have at least one other colleague that took up where it left off. It completed the task of releasing the rebooted virus but went missing in the end. When the robots opened the coffin, they found a fist-sized hole at the back of the corpse’s head. It was as if something had been dug out. Lastly, some books were found under the alien corpse. They are filled with a strange script. I think that this is probably the journals written by the alien when it was alive.”

In the video, Chen Jin saw a few journals hidden under the ice coffin. Each journal was very thick. The journals opened to reveal many words written in an unknown script accompanied by several illustrations. Chen Jin quickly asked, “Alice, can you decipher the messages?” He was sure that these journals held a wealth of information!

“Of course,” Alice continued, “Together with Nuwa, we’ve deciphered 80% of the content in these journals and translated most of their meanings.”

It turned out that a mysterious alien force tens of light years away had released a “microparticle” that blocked the progress of Haierfa’s technology more than 150 years ago. A special service spaceship carrying two spies was also launched at the same time. The alien spaceship landed on an unknown location on Mars whereby they switched to a smaller capsule and arrived at Haierfa. The two spies lived in Haierfa for about fifty years and completed their mission of destroying human civilization. The alien that was lying in the crystallized ice coffin had died in the line of duty due to overexhaustion for the sake of completing the mission. The other spy might have died in the ensuing chaos, or perhaps he might have boarded that special service spaceship and embarked on his journey back to his mother planet of Mars… And taking away some “items” on the way back home.

Chen Jin’s expression grew stern. He immediately contacted Nuwa who was still on the Moon and said, “Nuwa, do not come back directly to Haierfa when you have completed the extraction for He3. Go to Mars and search for traces of the alien spaceship. You must confirm either the presence or absence of the other alien spy!”

It was lucky that a sketch of Mars was found in the journals. A red dot was marked on the sketch. According to other reference information on the sketch, one could roughly guess the location of the red dot… Nuwa could hurry straight to this location when she was ready. “I understand, master!”

He looked at those thick journals in the video. Chen Jin smiled coldly and shook his head. “You actually keep the habit of writing a diary every day even though you’re a spy who executes top secret missions. It seems that you’re no professional. Or perhaps you’ve underestimated this ‘inferior civilization’ and forgotten your position as a spy and your professional training. You didn’t come to carry out a mission undercover, but to travel and relax. You thought that you did not have to worry too much about work and you could easily complete the mission. Perhaps after a number of years, you will pay a painful price for the mistake made in this kind of intelligence work.”

Chen Jin had gained a general understanding of the aliens by reading those bulky journals. But they knew nothing about him.

Chapter 246 - Admission

The discovery of the alien corpse unveiled the species’ characteristics, gene sequence, strengths, and weaknesses. Artificial intelligence Scarlet could attempt cultivating and cloning a few alien individuals for research purposes. Within the content of those thick diaries, apart from the deep-seated reminiscence of the aliens to their home, it introduced their civilization, culture, technological advancement, political system, and other valuable information. There was even a star chart which roughly marked the location of the galaxy that the aliens were residing in.

Chen Jin nodded his head. Smart people often made low-level mistakes because they treated everyone else as fools. The mistake that this alien spy committed was that he never regarded the human civilization as a real threat, but only as weak ants.

“If I could further affirm your specific coordinates, after a few years, I won’t have to expend too much effort on finding you.”

Once the alien’s nest was determined, it would be much easier for subsequent matters to be executed.

…

On the 20th of August, Chen Jin received a call from Lei Xiao Jun.

“Brother Chen, I want to tell you a piece of good news. Da Mi’s ‘Guomi 1’ cell phones have already sold more than one million units, it’s a little overwhelming, haha!” Lei Xiao Jun said while smiling heartily.

“Oh? Sales of the Guomi 1 have rebounded from the brink of death? How did you accomplish it?” Chen Jin was rather surprised. When the Guomi 1 launched about a month ago, its sales on the first day did not even wind up at a thousand units. It was simply brutal. Brother Lei even called him and cried for help. In the blink of an eye, sales actually broke into the millions.

“We did literally nothing, our accomplishments must be credited to our peers that gave us a lot of help.” While smiling, Lei Xiao Jun explained, “In the end, it is still the product quality that matters. Last month, after Tiny Pepper Corporation released their Red Pepper Z1, Aiai Mobile Corporation released their Luvaly Z1, Nutshell Mobiles released their Nutshell Z1… more than 10 different local phones were released one after another. Their combined sales were over 15 million units. But the quality of these phones are…” He shook his head. “Brother Chen, when you are looking for partners, make sure you go for the reliable ones. You can’t refuse anyone and take in whoever comes to you. Among those local mobile phones, aside from the Red Pepper Z1 and the Nutshell Z1 that are slightly better, the others are all crappy phones technical-wise. Over 20% of those phones are sent back for repairs due to some fault. Not to mention their customer feedback is severely down the drain… Brother Chen, you need to be more cautious when it comes to finding partners, or else it will cause a negative effect on the Star Cloud System’s promotion. Guomi 1’s quality, on the other hand, is definitely above satisfactory levels. Equipped with 4200 mAh large batteries, it can truly sustain two days of heavy usage. The workmanship of large manufacturers is indeed solid. There are some Guomi 1 buyers that installed the Star Cloud system on the phone. The upshot is they realized that the Guomi 1 work wonders with the system! Guomi 1 immediately became the alpha mobile among people! Considering that many phone buyers are unaware of the methods to overwrite their phone’s OS, for their convenience, now, all the new Guomi 1’s manufactured had the Star Cloud 1.5 installed. It has now truly become a ‘purely domestically produced mobile phone’ and is now attracting more buyers than ever. However, Da Mi’s core priority is placed on the upcoming ‘Guomi 2’ mobile phone. This new phone will be equipped with the SX-1000CPU with a run score of 450 thousand, Baron 5000 baseband, the first-ever domestically produced 4K screen, 5000 mHA batteries, triple rear cameras… but its price is only approximately 2,499 dollars! The Guomi 2 will launch in about September. Brother Chen, help your Brother Lei advertise this new phone by then. The flagship of mobile phones that has the Star Cloud OS installed, sold at 2,499 dollars! I believe that this flagship product can sell at least 10 million units!”

A flagship phone at only 2,499 dollars? How could a flagship phone be so cheap? How would Da Mi Technologies even gain profit? It was indeed impossible in the past. Previous models of flagship phones would only get costlier. From the price range of 2,000 dollars, it rose to the vicinity of the 3k’s and even the 4k’s. After the advent of 5G in the year 20X0, the pricetag of mainstream flagship phones was already closing in on the 5,000 dollars threshold. The inflating price was the main reason that consumers were changing their phones less and less often.

After Da Mi Technologies’s ‘Guomi 2’ mobile phone launched, this flagship would revert the pricing into the 2,000-dollar periphery, directly chopping prices at waist level!

What was the reason? Within those two months, the buying price of core parts dwindled across the board. The price of screens dropped by 35%, RAM 60%, Read-Write Memory (RWN) 50%, and even the price of high-performance CPU dropped by 30%. The age of low-cost mobile phone core parts had dawned. Recently, after the cost price was reduced, the price of flagship phones was taking a drastic downslide. The consumer’s desire to replace their old phones had significantly surged. In this year, the wilting situation of the smartphone market in Z would be swept away. Total shipments were expected to increase by 30%.

The increase in the consumers desire to replace their phones would also be beneficial to the promotion of the Star Cloud system. Consumers could buy a Star Cloud phone at a relatively lower price. After they got used to the Star Cloud system’s operating smoothness and the long battery life it proffered, it would be near impossible for them to revert to using the Android or IOS system. Therefore, towards the price war initiated by Samsin, Chen Jin’s welcoming attitude played the perfect supporting role.

“Sure, sure. When your Guomi 2 launches, send me two of those, I will help you advertise it.”

“Thank you, Brother Chen, haha!”

…

At the Sunshine Garden District, Chen Jin arrived on the Su’s premise with a few gifts. Among the gifts were a high-spec laptop, a 10-thousand-dollar red packet, and a beta version of the ‘Little Star learning machine’ meant for university students. All of these gifts were for Su Zipeng. The other gifts were for Su Yun.

Su Zipeng had received his admittance letter. He was accepted by Jing Hua University’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The Su’s were not expecting this. Su Zipeng, who only wrote Fudan University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University on his application, suddenly received a call from Jing Hua’s student admission office, asking him whether he was willing to further his studies over there.

“Yes of course!” Of course Su Zipeng would be willing. Jing Hua University was the best university in Z, who would have not wanted to go there? But his ranking was below 300 in the province, and the admission quota of Jing Hua University in Huxi province was only at some 100 people per year. With such a low ranking, how did he catch the sight of Jing Hua University?

It was because his special mark was high! He who had gotten a conventional score of 732, which was in fact only a few points away from the Zhuang Yuan of the province. Adding up with his special score, he breezed in the provincial top 10… for those with a high conventional score, their special score was not necessarily high, there were those who only got 2-30 marks. This did not imply that the brains of those candidates were rigid, it was just that in this era where creative talents were increasingly scarce, many prestigious universities sought the special score with grave importance during enrollment. Therefore, Su Zipeng stood out from the crowd.

Aside from Jing Hua University’s call, shortly after, he received invitation calls from Kings City College, Fudan and Shanghai Jiao Tong University which he applied for, and many others. He suddenly became very popular and even bred a catfight between those famous schools. But as man moves upwards, naturally, Su Zipeng picked the best one.

At the celebration feast, Su Tiantian said while pouting, “You actually want to leave Shang Hai for Kings City for your studies. Hmph! A brother without a heart. I wasted all my kindness on you.”

“What are you saying? Your brother got enrolled in the best of the best, why can’t you be happy for him?” Mother Su said with a straight face.

“There’s no one here to play with me anymore! Not happy!”

Su Zipeng comforted her, “Sis, I’ll come back to Shang Hai during summer holidays in the future, will that make it up to you?”

“That’s more like it.”

Su Zipeng then looked at Chen Jin and remembered the beta learning machine he gifted him. He said, “Brother-in-law, thanks for the laptop and learning machine, I will work hard!”

Chen Jin nodded his head and winked to him, “Use the laptop as you please. But be more cautious when using the learning machine, don’t let too many people see it.”

“Understood.” Su Zipeng gave him an ‘OK’ sign.

Chen Jin turned around. His attention returned to the woman next to him.

Chapter 247 - Perfect Solution

After dinner, Chen Jin dilly-dallied past nine, with no intention to leave. On the contrary, he followed Mother Su’s arrangements. He went to the bathroom, took a shower, put on his pajamas, and popped into Su Yun’s room.

“What are you doing here? Why aren’t you going back?” Su Yun pushed him outside.

“Okay, okay, that’s enough, I want to discuss some serious stuff with you.” Chen Jin grabbed the woman’s hand and reached out for her waist with a serious expression on his face.

The woman struggled coyly. She turned her head aside. “If you still mean to say that, then there’s nothing for us to discuss. I will not marry a man with a false identity.”

“Don’t be so agitated, let’s sit down and have a nice talk.” Chen Jin held her to sit by the bed. He reiterated his ideas. “I didn’t express myself well enough the last time around. You’ve misunderstood me. My intention is not to deceive you. I just want to pursue a simple life with you. Many people on the internet say that my net worth will soon surpass Jie Kema. I’m the soon to be the richest man in Z and am thus destined to entice a whole lot of attention. In the future, whether it is my career development or my private life, they will all be drawing a lot of attention. Once you get together with me, could you get used to living under the spotlight? As the wife of the richest man, could you still go to work and live as usual? To ensure your safety, preventing kidnappers and what not, you would have to bring a few guards with you to work. You are a very independent woman. You are no flower vase. But if you really wish to be the wife of the richest man, I’m afraid that you will have to become a vase at home… is that the life you desire? Of course, if you so desire this kind of life, I could go register us with my real ID.”

Chen Jin tossed out a problem, a problem that Su Yun was destined to encounter in the future.

“I…” The woman calmed down. After thinking thoroughly, she realized the man’s words truly made sense. The man in front of her was like a star. For those who were near to him, if even they themselves did not emit light, they would also be drawn into the spotlight as the moon. Living around a star, her future work and personal life would undoubtedly be greatly affected, heaping lots and lots of trouble onto her.

Once again, Chen Jin said gently, “Besides, after we get married, we will be living together every single day. What are you worried about? Is it that you do not trust me?” He spoke these words out of his own heart. When he had a wife, he would definitely restrain himself in his private life. He couldn’t be staying out all night anymore; unless it was for a business trip, he would surely return home at night… he would become a qualified husband. As for daytime, the movements of his real self were as erratic as Schrödinger’s cat. He might be at the office, the R&D factory, or maybe loitering around the Junting Grand Court. After all, having an Avatar robot made things so convenient for him. He could take good care of her in every possible aspect… he truly was not a playboy.

Besides, he alone was really not enough for the whole of planet Haierfa. It would be great if someone was there to help him. If he were to voyage to the stars in the future, he can’t possibly be going all alone, right? Humans were group animals. Although there would be tears and divisions when people could not get along, they still couldn’t live without other humans in entirety. One strand of silk doesn’t make a thread and one tree doesn’t make a forest. He couldn’t conquer the whole world alone!

In this world, the thing that rendered humans in despair was actually loneliness. No matter how much he had, Chen Jin still wished for more liveliness on planet Haierfa. It was true that he could use invitro cultivation techniques and breed a ton of babies, or use the cloning technique to clone a couple of millions of humans, but thinking about the scene of a whole horde of individuals walking out from dense culture tanks and calling him “Dad” while being covered in sticky substances gave him the major heebie-jeebies.

Oh well, better be with a real human.

…

Su Yun stewed through all the information.

“We could get registered with that ‘Chen Jing’ ID of yours. I’m not after your assets. But what about our children? Is it that our children have no rights to inherit your company?” She rolled out a very serious question. Child inheritance rights! Su Yun did not covet his wealth. But their children would be born without the rights to inherit Xing Hai Technologies and his trillion-dollar assets.

“What you said makes sense!” Chen Jin slapped his own forehead. “Even I didn’t consider this issue. I will also need someone to inherit Xing Hai Technologies. If things go down this way, it would be quite troublesome for our child to inherit the company. Is using my real identity the only way?” He sighed. “Oh well. Su Yun, it turns out to be me that did not think about things thoroughly. I give up. Let’s just go through the main gate and forgo all those devilish thoughts.” He would still need someone to inherit his possessions on Earth. He couldn’t be weaving a cocoon of trouble for himself by making things more complicated.

Su Yun, who was beside him, looked at him with surprise.

This man… did I wrong him? Is he really not thinking about keeping his wealth all to himself, but just to have an ordinary and simple life? Did he really just want to leave out his halo and keep a low profile?

But upon thinking about their children, he regained his rationality.

Su Yun clasped her hands together and said, “How about this; let’s get married in secret. Use your real ID during registration. On normal days, use that fake ID of yours. Be rest assured, I will for sure sign on the prenuptial agreement. Your company is 100% yours, nobody can possibly snatch it from you. Isn’t this a perfect solution to the problem?”

Chen Jin’s eyes shimmered. He slapped his forehead again. “Most certainly! Why didn’t I think of such a great idea? You have the brains, my wife.” He grabbed the woman and kissed her face frantically! There were too many people with the same name in this world. The richest man in Z was called “Chen Jin”. As a matter of fact, he could still call himself “Chen Jin” even when disguised as a normal person; it would not really cause too much suspicion. Nobody would have realized that the richest man got married.

In his usual life, on the other hand, he would use that fake ID by the name of “Chen Jing,” living a simple life with a low profile. When people at his surroundings do not spot any major problems, his real identity would be successfully concealed. It was the perfect solution!

The woman poked his chest and said, “Dummy. And you dare accuse me of having a rigid brain! You are the one who can’t think.”

“Yes, yes, yes. My brain was clogged. You, my wife, are the wisest among all!” He held the woman with one arm around her waist. Chen Jin pressed his body against hers while his other hand was unbuttoning her pajamas. “Let’s heat things up, my wife.”

“Muttonhead.” The woman rolled her eyes at him. Her hands, however, uncontrollably hooked around the man’s neck. Their lips came together, falling into a deep, affectionate kiss.

After a little while…

“No, no! I’m not giving it to you now.”

“Let’s get married tomorrow!”

“Ah!” Tears rolled down from the woman’s eyes.

Her last line of defense was therefore broken.

Chapter 248 - Rental Crisis

On the second day, Su Yun was a little hobbled in her steps. Upon seeing this situation of hers, Chen Jin drove her to work.

A few days passed by.

At the end of August, Su Zipeng quitted his transporting job at the supermarket which he had worked for 48 days. He acquired a 7200 dollar pay.

When he was leaving, his fat supervisor said to him frivolously, “You’re not at all bad at this job. I think you are made for this. I’ll say it this way, just quit studying if it is some trashy university you are going to and stay here. You might just be returning to work at the supermarket after you finish your studies.”

“Nah, I need to train my body, or else I might get slumped by the university’s military training.” Su Zipeng said while smiling. He heard that Jing Hua University’s military training was the strictest and the most tiring among all universities in the country which would last a month long. If he does not gain some muscles now, he might really well get bested by the training.

“Little Peng, which university you are attending? Do you have any difficulties at home that you might want me you help with?” His manager who liked him asked.

“Thank you mister manager. My family condition is still okay, they can afford my studies. My university is just some regular school. I’m admitted to Jing Hua University’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.”

Upon finishing, Su Zipeng waved his hands and walked away chicly.

“Jing Hua University?”

His manager opened his eyes wide.

His fat supervisor’s face suddenly turned red. He wobbled the flesh on his face and berated him in secrecy, “Jing Hua? Who would have believed him!”

…

Su Zipeng would be reporting for school soon.

Father Su and Mother Su wanted to send him over and at the same time have a stroll around the famous Jing Hua Garden, having a look at the scenery themselves.

There were three fewer people at home at an instant.

In within two days’ time, Su Tiantian moved out as well, reason being “the company is providing hostel, it will be more convenient for me”. The real reason was because of what Father Su and Mother Su told her. Moreover, in front of her elder sister and her brother-in-law who were madly showcasing their affection, she thought that it was rather unsightly for a light bulb like her to stay in their way and moving out would be the better choice.

There was now only Chen Jin and Su Yun in this large house. But Chen Jin would only be coming over occasionally… he would still mostly be staying in his own house.

It was even more difficult for a person to get used to staying in such a big house. Therefore, to ease herself going on and off work, Su Yun too moved back to her unit’s dormitory… she would only go back to the Sunshine Garden District during weekends.

Besides, about her getting registered with Chen Jin, Su Yun’s account book was still in her old house, and so they could only wait until after Lunar New Year.

Summer holiday ended.

The tract of daily life had seemingly reverted to its former plainness. But at the same time, lots of new anticipations were born, at least for Chen Jin. He was relishing in this moment of his life. No matter what the others have to say about him, he had already grasped on everything he desired.

…

Early September.

Forever Jewels.

In the resting hall on the third floor.

Store manager Chiu Wanting, vice store manager Guo Yan and several foremen were all perturbed and emotionally distressed. All the other staffs in the jewelry shop were also in a state of trepidation and anxiety.

“Manager, that Landlord Lee is so rapacious!”

“A rental of 10 million dollars per year. That doubles our current rentals. And he demands us to pay not a single cent less.”

“Why didn’t he go rob a bank?”

“Auntie Chiu, we have already talked to him for more than 10 times. That man isn’t making any steps back. What should we do?”

“Are we going to lose our jobs?”

Some of them almost cried. They had finally found a job that they wished to do in the long run. But due to inflating rentals, their dreams were about to disperse like bubbles.

Guo Yan grinded her teeth, “That damned son of a landlord!”

“Manager, what should we do?”

Everyone looked at store manager Chiu Wanting with helplessness and anxiety written on their faces. Chiu Wanting’s face was also very awful, but she was helpless either, because that landlord by the surname Lee have them firmly under his feet!

Forever Jewels’s store rental contract would be expiring in less than a month. They would have to renew the contract to continue business operations. Under her boss’s authorization, Chiu Wanting went to the landlord to discuss about renewing their contract, expressing their desire to continue renting this shop lot.

“Renew the contract? Sure, 10 million a year and you can continue your business at this shop.” Landlord Lee said.

What?

10 million?

Chiu Wanting was shocked, “Mr. Lee, you are not joking with me right? The original rental was 4.33 million a year, now you are raising it to 10 million?”

“That’s correct, 10 million dollars it will be.”

“This is too exaggerated! It has far exceeded what we could afford. Please tune it down to a normal price range.”

“10 million a year, not even a single cent less!” He shown a tough attitude and hung up the call immediately.

After that, Chiu Wanting called him for more than 10 times and talked to him face to face for three times. His tough attitude however was still solid as rock. Rentals would still be 10 million dollars, not even a single cent less.

“Why are you increasing the rental so much? Are you afraid that we will not rent this shop?” Chiu Wanting asked this question numeral times.

“This is my shop! I do whatever I want with the rental!”

Landlord Lee kept on giving her the same answer. There was one time that he got impatient and spoke out what he really thought on the inside, “Isn’t your boss Chen Jin? He already has a few trillion dollars of net worth, why is he still stubbornly attached to this small amount of money?”

It suddenly became clear for Chiu Wanting. Landlord Lee clearly wanted to leech from Forever Jewels, or to say leech from her young boss, Chen Jin.

The boundary her boss Chen Jin gave her was: annual rental must not be over 6 million dollars.

This amount of money obviously could not satisfy Landlord Lee’s appetite. He even thought that 10 million dollars a year was considered less. Thus, he would not accept price negotiations of shaving the price by even a single cent.

Besides, that Landlord Lee just visited Forever Jewels. He greeted the people there by announcing that their rent would due in a month, if they do not wish to renew their contract, he would rent the shop to somebody else.

And that was why everyone was agitated.

Chiu Wanting shook her head, “I can’t make a dent out of this problem, I shall let boss decide on this.”

She picked up her phone and made a call, reflecting the situation to Chen Jin.

Chen Jin who had received the call said, “I’m on the way to the shop, let’s continue over there in 10 minutes.”

Staunchly, 10 minutes later.

Chen Jin arrived at Forever Jewels. Beside him was a young man wearing fancy clothing.

Upon seeing Chiu Wanting, Chen Jin pulled the young man over and introduced to her, “Aunt Chiu, this is Mr. Wang. Just call him Little Wang. His family is doing real estate. In this street Forever Jewel’s at, his family owns 18 shop lots with sizes not smaller than this shop you’re currently standing in. Later, go pick one with Mr. Wang, I will buyout whichever shop you choose. Forever Jewels must keep on operating forever!”

Boom…

Chiu Wanting and the others were all stunned. Guo Yan was also stupefied. Her heart was thumping rapidly. Her boss was so tyranny and handsome at the same time!

“Big Brother Chen, leave this to your little brother!”

Wang Zeyu pounded his chest with a smirk on his face, “That Landlord Lee plucked up some good courage over there. Looks like he’s unaware of his rightful place. He dares set his mind on moguls like you. Be rest assured Big Brother Chen, I have ways to teach him a lesson. I will make it so that he can never rent this shop away forever and can only let it out at a very low price!”

“Oh? How do you plan on doing it?” Chen Jin asked curiously.

“As long you have plenty of cash, there are a myriad of methods that you can resort to. By that time, I will let you Big Brother Chen, listen to that Landlord Lee begging for mercy.”

Chen Jin nodded and patted his shoulders, “All on you Little Brother Ze.”

He was also disgusted by that Landlord Lee to the uttermost. It could not get any better when somebody offered help to prank him.

…

Later on.

Wang Zeyu brought along Chiu Wanting, Guo Yan and the others and paraded down Jin Ling West Road as if they were riding on clouds. Of all the 18 shop lots that belonged to the Wang’s, it happened to be that shop lot 157 was not rented out yet. Therefore, Chiu Wanting and the others decided on this shop, making this shop lot Forever Jewel’s new store. Renovations would begin immediately. When the rental contract at the other shop ends, they would immediately shift over.

The area of shop lot 157 was 389 square meters. Adding up with its land value, its price would be at least 60-70 million dollars.

Chen Jin was preparing to take out his money, but Wang Zeyu waved his hands and declined his payment. This shop was his gift for his Big Brother Chen. Xing Hai Technologies had helped his father to earn a couple of billions, their family must do some gestures as gratitude… humans must learn to be grateful!

Unable to waver his persistence, Chen Jin accepted the gift.

Chapter 249 - Clear Outcome

5th of September.

Tiny Pepper Corporation which had close co-operation with Xing Hai Technologies had over 12 million units of sales on their first model of the Red Pepper Z1. Subsequently, they launched the second model, the Red Pepper Z2 equipped with SX-1000 high performance CPU.

Installed with the Star Cloud 1.6 system, the models operating smoothness further improved. Its other specifications were a 2K screen, 4000 mAh batteries, dual rear cameras and many more.

Because it was produced in a new factory, workmanship and quality control had been greatly improved.

In terms of pricing, the 6+64 gigabyte version would be sold at only 2299 dollars, literally as cheap as a cabbage among its peers.

After the launching of unlimited pre-sales, orders on that very day pierced 3.5 million units.

“One step behind once again!”

Lei Xiao Jun pounded his own chest in despondency. In terms of technical strength, Da Mi Technologies was definitely way ahead of Tiny Pepper Corporation. However, due to their emphasis on quality control, the underlying hardware adaptation and performance optimization took too much time. In the end, they were caught off guard by Tiny Pepper Corporation.

Da Mi Technologies would like to hasten up their steps too, but they just could not sacrifice the quality of their product for the sole reason of making fast progress. Therefore, facing Tiny Pepper Corporation’s blitz, Da Mi could only take it on firm and steady.

They held their new product conference on the 12th of September, a week later. Da Mi Technologies announced their first ever “Pure Local Series” phone – Guomi 2.

During the end of the conference, they unveiled the product’s price tag. The Guomi 2 also caught Tiny Pepper Corporations flat-footed.

2299!

The 6+64 gigabyte version of the Guomi 2 was also priced at 2299!

But the Guomi 2 was equipped with a 4K screen. Its battery capacity was 1000 mAh higher. Its photography prowess was leading by a mile with its triple rear camera. Adding on with the better workmanship by large manufacturers and so on, the price/performance ratio of the phone was way beyond a big cut… the netizens were yelling, “Tasty!”.

For these reasons, Guomi 2’s preorders on that day exceeded 3 million units.

Barring that, within the country’s boundaries, Da Mi Technologies own thousands of physical stores which established them a perfect after-sales system. Therefore, they would be almost no suspense if the final sales of the Guomi 2 overtakes the Red Pepper Z2.

“Brother Lei, are you even profiting with the Guomi 2 selling at such a cheap price?” Chen Jin gave him a call. He was very curious about this problem.

“Nope.”

Lei Xiao Jun shook his head, “Not only that I’m not profiting, I will suffer around a 50-dollar deficit for every unit sold. The Guomi 2 is just for us to make friends.”

“Do you think that this is worth it?”

“Of course! The mobile phone is the core of all our hardware products. Other hardware products can sell less, but the market share of our mobile phones must not be lost! ”

If they so lose this market, Da Mi Technologies would meet its demise in no time. They could only resort to the bloodletting tactic to withhold their territory… even if it means losing a few billion dollars every year.

Chen Jin nodded. Competition was harsh in the smart phone market. Besides, the market does not bear much profitability. This was the very reason Xing Hai Technologies was reluctant to enter this field.

However, during the end of the month, after the well-known statistical agency CuntPoint published “The Z nation’s third quarter mobile phone sales report”, all the mobile phone manufacturers within the Z nation was utterly flabbergasted.

The report said, “Smartphone shipments in the Z nation market in the third quarter were 125.06 million units, a 35% growth compared to that of the previous year.”

“Among the smartphones, 45% were installed with the Android system, 5% the IOS system, and 50% the Star Cloud system.”

“In within three months, 62.5 million Star Cloud users were born in the Z nation market, and it was still growing at a pace of 1 million users per day.”

“Trends were the direct opposite for the Android system. Their market share had suffered a sharp decline and was currently losing users at a pace of more than 1 million per day.”

“According to current tempos, in approximately two years, the market share of the Android and IOS system combined would be reduced to below 20%, the Star Cloud system on the other hand would rise to the top.”

“If no remedial measures were taken, the downfall of the Android empire would be even rapid than that of the Nokia empire in the past.”

Phuush…

This analytical report stirred an uproar. All the mobile phone manufacturers were astonished by the rapid rising of the Star Cloud system.

30th of September, late night.

After merely a few days of publicity, Hua Yao suddenly released a mysterious smart phone product.

The product model was named as “Royale ZG1”, equipped with 5 nanometer Kirin 1220 processors, local produced foldable full screens. The products first launch was installed with the Star Cloud 1.7 OS.

Since then, Hua Yao officially join the “League of Star Apps” and said that all Hua Yao mobile phones released in Z in the future would be equipped with the Star Cloud system.

This was a walloping news.

As the top domestic mobile phone manufacturer, Hua Yao mobile phones occupy nearly 30% of the Z nations smartphone market!

30% of the total market share was swept by the Star Cloud system all at an instant. The tremor it caused within the field was comparable to an earthquake with a magnitude of 8 on the Richter scale!

Even Hua Yao does not care about Google and opted for the Star Cloud system, speeding up Android’s death, what other mobile phone manufacturers were still waiting for?

Hence, in one to two hours after the “Royale ZG1” was released, Ling Jun Dong who was still meandering in his dreams was awakened by a phone call. He received many phone calls subsequently which came one after another.

There was one from OV Mobile’s chairman Liu Tianhu, Meihong Phones’s CEO Lee Nan, Nobia’s chairman Ni Fei, expressing the same thing in overall: we want to join the “League of Star Apps”. Adding on Hua Yao and Da Mi, all the local top brands in mobile phone manufacturing applied to join the “League of Star Apps”!

Above all, the mobile phone sales of these few companies occupy more than 90% of the local market.

Once they forsake the Android system and turn to the embrace of the Star Cloud system, it would imply that the Star Cloud system had already taken down more than 90% of the mobile phone market within the country.

The massive Android empire was instantly clipped by half because of Hua Yao’s conference. If the Star Cloud system goes abroad in the future, other parts of the Android empire would also fall one after another.

Afterall, the Star Cloud system was simply too good. It was far smoother than the Android system and was generations ahead in every aspect of user experience. Every user the Star Cloud system gain would imply that those individuals would never revert to using Android… moreover, the Star Cloud system was free while the Android system had a charge.

Out of everyone’s expectations, the war between Star Cloud and Android basically concluded merely six months after the Star Cloud system was rolled out.

But Google wasn’t a company that would blindly wait for death.

Upon perceiving the unfavorable circumstances, Google’s higher ups immediately announced two major decisions:

“Our Android system will be free! From today onwards, we will not collect even a single cent! The Android system will be free forever!”

“Our engineers are currently working on a new OS which operations will be smoother than the Android. It will be launched soon! This new OS will be way ahead of the Star Cloud system in terms of operating smoothness. It will give users an experience far exceeding that of the Star Cloud system… our tech is leading, and it will always be.”

The Android’s fee abolishment and the launching of a new operating system was Google’s emergency survival plan… these responsive measures were definitely better than that of the dull Nokia empire. It implied that Google’s higher ups placed extreme value in this matter.

But… it was all to no avail.

After the Android system lost the Z nation smartphone market which occupied 40% of the world market, only the fate of decline and fall awaits Android.

Irremediable!

…

Planet Haierfa.

After the Helium-3 mining mission was completed.

Via the virtual projection on the communication device, Nuwa said, “Master, I have departed. Under full thrust, the Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens will arrive at Mars in about five days to explore that coordinate point.”

“Go, be sure to find some clues!” Chen Jin nodded.

“Copy that!”

The plasma engine of the “Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens” that was stationed in some crater in the moon was ignited, ejecting numerous high-velocity particle streams. The crater was instantly suffused by dust, clocking the entire spaceship in amid.

“Zoom Zoom Zoom~”

Nuwa increased engine power.

The “Dark Lady of the Nine Heaves” that was humongous as a colossal beast pierced through the dust clouds, maneuvering into to the clear and endless space.

The power of the large engines at the spaceship’s rear continued to escalate and thrusted the spaceship towards the direction of Mars, leaving behind a trail of blue glow.

Chapter 250 - Scavenged an Alien Spaceship

After several days of sailing.

The Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens approached the low orbit of Mars. Under Nuwa’s control, the spaceship gradually decelerated and descended into the thin Martian atmosphere.

Various scanning instruments were deployed, sweeping through the Martian terrain.

In the alien’s diary, there was a page, containing a draft that was marked with a red dot, located at approximately 43 degrees north latitude and 120 degrees east longitude. The Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens swiftly found the location, situated on a large vermillion hill.

This hill was vast, spanning over hundreds of square kilometers. The terrain’s perimeters were elevated with its middle area in a slight inward depression, identical to a basin. It may be a structure formed after the impact of the meteorites.

The mysterious alien’s agent spacecraft should be lying around the hills or in the large crater in the middle.

Nuwa who controlled the Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens conducted a throughout scan of the vicinity. Including optical scans, ground radar scans, magnetic induction scans… everything could be scanned evidently from the surface to ground structures dozens of meters down under.

Undoubtedly, the main focus was placed on the image scanned by the magnetic induction device. Most spacecrafts were mainly composed of metal, with lots of metallic equipment residing in within. Under the influence of the planet’s magnetic field, those would be magnetized after a long period of time. For that reason, metallic objects could easily be detected by the magnetic induction device.

With the sensitivity of the magnetic induction device the “Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens” was equipped, even a fist sized metal could be displayed crystal clear. However, scans were repeated three times, going back and forth in the nearby area of the coordinates.

Nuwa reported, “Negative, master. No trace of mysterious alien spaceships was found.”

“There’s nothing at the coordinates?” Chen Jin asked.

“Yes. But after deploying the probe vehicle, the soil distribution in the central area of the basin infers that large objects once resided in this basin.”

Nuwa transmitted a computer simulated diagram.

A contour of a large object was generated according to soil traces at the bottom of the pit. It was of a round structure roughly 50 meters in diameter.

“UFO?” A term popped up in Chen Jin’s mind.

“It should be a disk-shaped aircraft. Spaceships of this kind are more common due to its many advantages.”

“But since now that it’s gone, does this mean that another alien spy flew it off Mars?” Chen Jin said.

“There’s a probability that it was as so. But we can’t be a hundred percent sure unless we scan through the whole planet.”

“How long would it take to complete a full scan?”

“Around three days. Should I conduct a full scan?”

“Yes, of course! Better be safe than sorry.”

Chen Jin nodded. The disappearance of the mysterious alien spaceship at the coordinates does not imply that the aliens were surely gone. The possibility must be ruled out completely.

“Yes master.”

Nuwa drove the Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens to an elevation of around 100 kilometers and initiated the scanning process.

Mar’s diameter was only 53% of planet Haierfa’s. The planet’s surface area was 145 million square kilometers and bears only a mere 11% of planet Haierfa’s mass.

All the widespread rumors that “there were once intelligent lifeforms on Mars” were basically a fraud. They were all forged for the sole purpose of click baiting.

In fact, you don’t even need your brains to think about it. On Mars, there was no volcanic activities. Its atmospheric density was only 1%. Water was nonexistent in most areas. How was it even possible for this planet to nurture intelligent lifeforms?

The so-called ‘Martians’ was only a concept for entertainment.

Of course, it was still good as a colonial planet. In Haierfa’s history, there was once a heatwave of migrating to Mars. At its peak, the number of Martian immigrants exceeded one million.

But after the heatwave frazzled, migrating to Mars was not something cool anymore. Due to the planet’s harsh environment, scarce water supply, lack of entertainment and hefty cost of living, many Martian immigrants gave up their ship of living on Mars and returned to Haierfa.

In addition, due to the inability to make ends meet, countries slashed their spending’s on Mars’s development. Dozens of Mars immigration bases were all abandoned, and the once lively Mars reverted to its former quietness.

When Nuwa was in the process of scanning the Martian surface, lots of capsule houses, abandoned cars and equipment’s were spotted.

Chen Jin shook his head and said, “Nuwa, it seems that there are quite a lot of iron ore on Mars. If they so mine large amounts of Iron and ship them back to Haierfa, or maybe transport some of the more valuable resources back, won’t these provide them with some lucrativeness… why can’t Mars colonization go on? ”

“The cost is too high.”

“According to statistics, the cost of mining 1 kilograms of iron ore on Mars is 1730 times than that in planet Haierfa. Even if it were to be rare earths, the mining costs will also be 260 times than mining on planet Haierfa and more than 20 times than mining on the moon…

“Unless new technological advancement is achieved and interstellar mining is made profitable, only by then we can truly enter the interstellar colonial era.”

“But for us, we can mine and use all the mineral resources on the moon, Mars, asteroids and other planets… we don’t have to think about cost-effectiveness. What we need is more resources.” Nuwa said.

Chen Jin nodded. Indeed, in his context, the difference between mining minerals from nearby and faraway was only about using less or more power and having low or high efficiency… it doesn’t actually make much a difference, minerals was all that matters to him.

Nuwa continued scanning operations.

In about two days later.

Scanning at about the Martian south pole.

Coming across a large immigrant base, Nuwa abruptly decelerated and turned over!

She targeted all the scanning equipment’s at the central area of the immigrant base, aimed at a large disk-shaped object standing in the center of the open space.

She transmitted a message immediately:

“Master, Nuwa has a great discovery!”

“I’ve discovered a suspected alien aircraft.”

“It may be an alien spaceship!”

10 minutes later.

Chen Jin bolted back to the Base of Operations and replied via the communication instrument, “Nuwa, is it true?”

“It is true master!”

Nuwa send across a large number of photos, videos and presented them to Chen Jin.

The disk-shape object in the images had a similar diameter of around 50 meters. Its height was about 30 meters and was coated in silver-grey. It looked somewhat like a hat.

“Are there aliens inside?”

Chen Jin asked subconsciously with a highly vigilant look.

“I’m uncertain. From the dust on the surface of the spaceship, it seems that it hasn’t move for quite some time. For security reasons, we can take two measures. First, we could raze it to the ground with our weapons. Second, we could first place our weapons around the spaceship, then conduct investigations to collect some intelligence. Once there is a threat, immediately detonate the weapons!”

The Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens was bringing along 10 nuclear weapons with an equivalent mass of 10 thousand tons. The ten-thousand-degree temperature generated at the core of their blast can destroy all matter.

The two alternatives presented before Chen Jin was to destroy it without checking the spaceship or to plant nuclear bombs around the disk-shaped spaceship and deploy robots to approach the vehicle to collect some intelligence, after affirming that detonation could be performed at any unspecified time.

“Go for the second one, give it a check!”

Although it seemed that something was off, but Nuwa already said that the spaceship had been dormant for a long time and moreover, there were many big footprints around the aircraft. Besides, there were no lights flashing on the surface of the aircraft and there was no radiation of electromagnetic signals, indicating that it may be in a power failure state.

Straight up demolition would cut off the possibility to discover more intelligence.

“Yes master.”

Hence, all the nuclear bombs were planted around the spaceship. They could be detonated remotely at any time.

Latterly, a squad of robots was deployed.

In about 30 minutes later.

The messages sent over by Nuwa made a phrase emerge in Chen Jin’s mind: Scavenged an alien spaceship.

Chapter 251 - The Riddle Of Its Death

The meaning of the message sent by Nuwa could be summed up in two words: A breakdown.

That alien spaceship had broken down.

The reactor had stopped working, hence the power stopped too.

The robots had opened the hatch and found an alien corpse in the control room of the spaceship.

The corpse was dressed in a spacesuit and held a Gauss pistol in its hand. A bloody hole was located right in the middle of its forehead. Green colored blood was splattered all over the transparent hood over its head.

Nuwa said, “Based on the position of the corpse, it probably died by suicide.”

“Suicide?”

Chen Jin was filled with questions, “Why did it commit suicide?”

The alien spy had finished their mission. Should it not go back happily to receive its reward? Why would it choose to commit suicide?

“I don’t know. Master, please give me two days. I’m trying to find a way to recover the power supply of the alien spaceship and search through some of its memory storages. I’ll do my best to get some valuable information.”

“Ok, investigate the the matter thoroughly. I want to know the entire truth!”

…

Two days later.

Chen Jin returned to the Base of Operations and turned on the remote communications device. He contacted Nuwa and enquired about the results of the investigation.

Nuwa said, “Master, even though nothing can be 100% confirmed, I’ve thoroughly investigated the overall situation. Please ask your questions.”

“All right! Tell me the conclusions from your investigations.”

Chen Jin said, “This is what I want to know the most. Why didn’t the spaceship depart from Mars? Why did it stay when it should have left according to logic.”

“Yes, master. It should have left according to logic, but it quickly returned due to insufficient power, It didn’t even have the power to resist the gravity of Mars.”

Nuwa shook her head, “This is puzzling. They actually had insufficient power left on their spaceship to return to their mother planet.”

Nuwa further explained the situation. The power system installed on the spaceship was a type of mini reactor. It was actually smaller that 50 cubic centimeters.

But the output of the reactor was on an unimaginable scale as it used a a type blue fuel block.

The fuel block held a massive amount of energy. A fist sized one was equivalent to tens of thousands of tons of coal.

But the fuel blocks on this spaceship had all been used up. The reactor’s control panel had been giving out a reminder to replenish the fuel blocks and showed the empty state of its fuel level.

“Why is it like this?”

Chen Jin was astonished, “Could it be a one-way spaceship?”

“Master, your guess is correct.”

Nuwa nodded, “Your description is accurate. This is a one-way spaceship. The chip used to store the navigation data located in the control room had been burned; the main engine at the bottom of the spacecraft is seriously damaged. It seemed to have been caused by an internal explosion… The spaceship had activated the procedure for self-destruction. ”

“The purpose was to stop this spaceship from returning.”

This……

Chen Jin was stupefied, “What does this mean? They have successfully completed their mission, but they’re not allowed to return?”

A phrase popped up in his mind. Getting rid of the pawn that had served its purpose.

This signified….. The tragedy of being a pawn?

“Master, I’ve found some video logs taken by the alien who have committed suicide. It seemed extremely agitated in the videos. It was cursing in a loud voice and its expression was one of extreme hopelessness.”

“I’ve tried to decipher the meaning of its words based on its actions, expressions and eye contact. I’ve deciphered about 60% of its words.”

“It’s primary expression is one of rage. It is loudly expressing the question ‘why did you deceive me in this manner?’ It is scolding its superiors who have ordered him on this mission ‘you bastards’; ‘I want to kill you all’. Only hopelessness and terror was left in the end. It was muttering to itself ‘I will soon die in this place’….. Finally, it chose to shoot itself after fighting to survive for 3,700 odd days.”

Nuwa played the series of video logs as she narrated the situation. The videos depicted the general process of the emotions the alien spy had felt, from its initial rage to its ultimate hopelessness and suicide.

“How did he manage to do it? Living for 3,000 plus days, which is more than 10 years… Does this ship have sufficient food and water?”

“It relied on the water and goods in the immigration base in order to live for such a long time. But the reactor of the spaceship had stopped working and the goods at the base were exhausted. It was facing a lack of oxygen, food and water… In order to reduce its pain, it had no choice but to commit suicide.”

Chen Jin nodded. It had to be a master at survival in order to live alone for more than 10 years in Mar’s environment and under conditions where resources were limited.

It reflected the alien spy’s yearning and thirst for survival.

However, he was still helpless to resist the fate that had been decided for him.

Chen Jin still found it difficult to comprehend one thing. Two excellent spies were put on a relatively easy mission. But why were they still relegated to the tragic fate of disposable pawns and abandoned by their civilization?

Would it greatly increase their costs to add a few more fuel blocks on the spaceship to aid their return?

Nuwa shared her speculations.

“Master, I think that there are three aspects to this situation that led to their superiors using them as one-time pawns.”

“The first is to avoid the risk of failure.”

“Both possibilities of success and failure naturally exist in a spying mission. If they succeeded, everything would be easy. But what if they failed? Wouldn’t the coordinates of their galaxy be instantly exposed? They could be captured and become guides for the enemies. The enemy could then lead a huge fleet to to their homes to take revenge….. Even if the probability of failure is low, they certainly don’t want this result. ”

“The second is to reduce costs.”

“Let’s assume that their bureaucratic system is very corrupt, that there are serious malpractices. Only half of the fuel blocks is given, and the cost of the other half goes to line the pockets of the corrupt bureaucrats. It may have been reasonable or normal for them. Or perhaps they didn’t want to give the reward for the successful completion of the mission. They wanted to divide the achievements of the meritorious privately amongst themselves… At the same time, the real people who should have been credited with the effort would have no chance to expose them.”

“The third, their superiors wanted to escape from moral accusation and negative public opinions.”

“This applies to all kinds of civilization (including Zerg and machine civilization): A civilisation has no possibility of progressing to the interstellar era if it has an evil side. It would have self-destructed long before that. The civilisation must be constrained by kindness and morality. It must have a group of intermediary rationalists occupying the upper level of hierarchy….. Only then can the civilization can develop into a stronger entity.”

“Hence, most civilisations will not typically do something like destroying another civilisation.”

“They will be undertaking a huge risk if they commit such a thing, The kinder groups would slam them for their actions and the moderates would be rather vocal about their opinions.”

“In order to stop the comments from both sides, it would be best to keep things under wraps to prevent public opinion from fomenting and falling into a powerless and passive role.

“Hence, we have to be more ruthless when we deal with this.”

“Master, I’m leaning more towards the first and the third guesses.”

Chen Jin could only nod in agreement as he listened to Nuwa’s analysis.

The future belongs to the information era where information flows in massive quantities in a highly developed manner. The voice of a single individual was insignificant. However, if the information released was sufficiently impactful, billions of people would pay attention to it and a storm of public opinion would be created.

Moreover, when it came to human nature, there were good and bad, left and right. An overall balance would prevail in the end. Going to either extreme would result in an unmitigated disaster.

Therefore, it could not be said the the civilisation that the two aliens came from was a 100% evil one. They were merely controlled and led by the evil in their society.

Based on the words in the journals expressing their homesickness, he could tell that monsters could love their hometowns.

Some conceptual differences also existed in the monsters.

Human civilisations were also the same. Human civilisations could attain a very advanced standard of science and technology. After which, they might suddenly discovered that there were several inferior civilizations around them that had the potential to become a threat. They could also become monsters to for the sake of their own interests.

In short, there was no absolute good or evil when it came to the various civilisations in this universe. There were only the strong and the weak.

…

“Nuwa, can we get a lock on the coordinates of the galaxy that the alien civilisation is located in based on this spaceship?”

“It’s not possible for now. Their navigation data was erased when the ship self-destructed. I can also make inferences based on other information. It may be possible to get a lock on the position of their civilisation.”

“This…”

Chen Jin shook his head. Those dastardly aliens actually made such a move.

“Master, don’t give up hope. Although the navigation data was lost, we still obtained huge rewards. We can even determine the technological development route for the next hundred years by using the spaceship. We have a physical object with a very high reference value. It is not an exaggeration to say that the value of this alien spacecraft is equivalent to a planet.”

Oh~

Chen Jin’s eyes brightened.

Chapter 252 - Photolithograph Machine!

Nuwa was not exaggerating.

There were many types of advanced technologies integrated on that special service spaceship of the aliens. Those technologies could be used as points of references.

For example, there were material technologies, reactor technologies, engine technologies, artificial intelligence programming technologies and so on.

There was even a miniature gravity field generator. When the device was started, it would generate a gravity field within a small area. Thus, gravity could exist in the interior of the spacecraft. This definitely belonged to the realm of futuristic technology.

In addition, a quantum communication device was installed in the alien spaceship.

This quantum communicator was based on the principle of quantum entanglement; the technology of instantaneous communication was thus achieved. As long as the particles remained in a state of entanglement, real-time communication could be achieved no matter how far apart the caller and the receiver was.

There was zero delay!

Haierfa did have its own quantum communication technology, but it had not advanced to the level where the particles could remain in an entangled state long term. As the particles could not remain entangled for a sufficient amount of time, the communication range was limited to 100 million kilometers and the contact could only be maintained for a short time.

Chen Jin was using the quantum communication technology of Haierfa to talk with Nuwa. However, it was necessary to arrange multiple relay base stations between Haierfa and Mars. There was a communication delay of more than ten milliseconds due to the conversion of information.

Moreover, based on the speed that particles untangle on their own, the quantum communication system would fail and return to the traditional electromagnetic wave communication after about ten days.

Therefore, contact was poorly maintained!

It was precisely due to the poorly sustained state of entanglement that a stable and usable quantum supercomputer had never been successfully created in Haierfa. This quantum supercomputer, with its wonderful prospects had never moved past the laboratory stage.

But apparently, the alien civilisation had solved the problem of maintaining the particles in an entangled state.

Not only was the spaceship equipped with the quantum communication device, it was also installed with a quantum supercomputer.

The alien spy had employed superb use of quantum technologies to release the rebooted virus.

If Nuwa and Alice could unravel these quantum technologies and open the door to the world of quantum technologies, the power that Chen Jin wielded would increase exponentially.

Therefore, Nuwa’s words were not an exaggeration. Even if that spaceship belonged to the category of “inferior and outdated products” from the alien civilisation that it came from; even if it turned out to be a simple and primitive sort of spaceship, it still represented the basic overall technological standard of the alien civilisation.

Lastly, Nuwa had also made a big discovery about the alien’s body.

“Master, a transparent crystal was growing behind the brain of the dead alien. This crystal has the structure of a rhombus and is the size of an adult fist. The function of this physiological structure is unknown, but I think that since their brain capacities are three times larger than that of humans, that crystal may be used to support the processing of brain information.”

“Or it could also be a physiological structure where the brain waves are generated and sent.”

“It is precisely through this ‘brain crystal’ that it was able to send out brain waves that are a thousand or even ten thousand times stronger than those from a human brain.”

“The robots have found another ‘brain crystal’ in a locker on the spaceship. This crystal is red and much denser, It should be in the brain crystal of the alien body found in the Lyons Air Force Base. It should be an exact fit with the hole that had been dug at the back of that alien corpse’s brain. It was probably dug away by its companion to be taken back to its hometown.”

“Master, this type of alien must be a very unique higher life form. Their intelligence and potential may have possibly surpassed that of the human race.”

Nuwa suggested, “Master, since they will become our enemy, why don’t you give a name to this species of aliens?”

A name?

Chen Jin stroked his chin and considered the alien’s image shown in the projection. He thought hard about the possibilities.

They were uglier than zombies; should they be called ‘The Revenants’?

He shook his head. Although these aliens were ugly, they were not as easy to deal with as zombies. He should not underestimate them.

He looked at the transparent and red crystals again. He thought of Nuwa’s description of these “brain crystals” and was suddenly inspired.

“How about this, Nuwa, let’s call them the ‘Crystal Brainers’. Aren’t they crystal brainers since they have a crystal growing at the back of their brains? Isn’t this name fitting?”

“Yes, master. I will give this species of alien the uniform label of ‘Crystal Brainers’”.

Chen Jin nodded.

His lips suddenly quirked in a cold smile.

Haha, the Crystal Brainers will be the first obstacle that I will get rid off once I begin to explore the outer space.

Of course, with their standard of technology, they would not be easy to deal with. They were strong opponents who could even be quite tricky and challenging to eliminate. He could not afford to underestimate them or be complacent.

But Chen Jin was not anxious about it. He planned to go into the fight in a steady manner and strike his opponent hard. In order to do that, he would have to strengthen his abilities first.

He had to wait until he had unraveled and mastered all the technologies onboard the alien spaceship.

After that he would have to develop weapon technologies that were even more advanced as well as supporting industrial technologies. Only when he had enough confidence in his abilities would he make a move.

It would be a moment where he would amaze the world in a single feat without making a sound.

However, it would be a lengthy incubation period before he was confident enough to make his move. The period could last for a hundred years, two hundred years, or even longer… He had to make full use of this precious incubation period to sufficiently improve and expand the technologies in his possession. His technologies would be even way more advanced than the civilisation of the Crystal Brainers!

Chen Jin was not the reckless sort. Based on the development history of civilizations, one or even two hundred years was nothing at all. He could not lack even this little bit of patience.

Moreover, the preparation before a fight was something that was rather dry. Besides the major breakthroughs, there was almost nothing significant to witness in the lull periods.

It was such a long stretch of time that it was impossible to not be bored.

Hence, Chen Jin reminded Nuwa again to bring the alien spaceship back to Haierfa without incurring any damages. After which, his focus returned back to Earth.

He decided to resolve a small issue.

Of course, it was not Xing Hai Technologies who was in trouble. It was Xing Hai Technologies close partner company, Zhongxin International, who once again met a rather tricky and stressful issue.

The photolithograph machine!

Faced with pressure from Merica or perhaps other forces, ASML company from Holland had suddenly announced that it would ban the sale of its photolithography machine to Zhongxin International!

They had originally signed an order contract to purchase three EUV photolithograph machines with wavelengths of 13 nanometer. But, ASML suddenly went back on the agreement. Even though ASML had to pay hundreds of millions for their penalty fee, they still chose to violate the agreement.

There was no need to further explain the reasons behind ASML’s violation of the agreement. Zhongxin International was able to mass produce the 7 nanometer chip and thus they had gained many chip order contracts for OEM manufacturers. The orders for the chips were made by Hua Yao as well as many other major mobile phone manufacturers.

Therefore, the ban on the sale of the photolithograph machines had started.

Zhongxin International had originally planned to add another two production lines for the 7 nanometer chip. This would allow them to expand their chip production capacities. However, they were immediately thrown into a crisis due to the shortage of photolithograph machines.

Stock prices fell by 20%.

Vexed beyond his limits, Zhang Wei Jin called Chen Jin immediately.

“President Chen, I’ve had enough of their ignorance and arrogance! They actually think that Zhongxin International can’t make anymore chips without their lithography machine! I’ve decided to allocate 8 billion to acquire Shanghai Microelectronics. We’ll create our own advanced photolithography machine right now! ”

Shanghai Microelectronics was a local company that manufactured photolithography machines. Currently, the most advanced photolithography machine produced by the company could be used in the manufacture of the 22 nanometer chip. However, Shanghai Microelectronics had also developed a photolithography machine in their labs that could be used in the manufacture of the 10 nanometer chip. But due to various reasons, mass production was not realised.

“Haha!”

Chen Jin laughed chillingly, “President Zhang, go ahead with the acquisition of Shanghai Microelectronics. On our side, Xing Hai Technologies have the supercomputer with a quintillion Flops, the Supernova 2. We can lend it to you when the time comes. Haha, it’s futile to use the photolithography machine to try to strangle us. They’re courting their own deaths!”

Chapter 253 - The Most Challenging Obstacle

The challenges in producing the lithograph machine lie in three critical components: The light source, the double workpiece platform and lithograph lens.

It was doubtless that Z country was the best when it came to producing the light sources. This could be concluded from their laser weapons, which were obviously way more advanced than those from Merica.

A tiny little light source was a piece of cake for the scientists of Z country.

The double workpiece platform was slightly harder. It was said that the double workpiece platform developed by ASML was based on the magnetic suspension plane motor. The motion control of the photoresist had been honed to a highly precise 2 nanometers. This greatly improved the precision and efficiency of chip processing.

Foreign specialists had arrogantly proclaimed that “no other organisation will be able to produce such an advanced double workpiece platform”.

However, less than 5 years later, a team of scientists had developed a double workpiece platform with a photoresist motion control of about 2 nanometers which had successfully passed inspection.

With this, their core technological indicators had caught up to the technological standards of the overseas double platform photolithography machine.

Z country had conquered the double workpiece platform too.

Lastly, it was the lens of the photolithography machine. In recent years, Z country had experienced rapid progress in the field of optical lenses. Even the optical satellites produced by a civilian company had a resolution up to 0.5 meters. It could provide a panoramic view of the aircraft carriers, warships and vehicles on the ground. Even the aircraft that was taking off could be videoed. The video of a rocket launching had a clarity that was simply amazing.

If the performance of the optical lenses for civilian use were so ridiculously good, then the lenses developed for the military must be out of this world.

This reflected the progress of Z country in the field of optical lenses.

Naturally, the lenses for the photolithograph machine was no challenge for the scientists of Z country.

Hence three essential components of the light source, the double workpiece platform and lithograph lens had already been mastered by Z country.

This was the reason why ASML had stopped selling photolithography machines to Z country. A strict isolationist policy would only force Z country to achieve breakthroughs in the photolithography sector at a faster rate.

Even a tame rabbit would want to kill you if it was forced into a corner.

The lithograph machines of Z country had not caught up with the most advanced level in the foreign countries. One reason was because the market share was firmly controlled; the second reason was that by taking the same technical route as ASML, they would inevitably infringe on the intellectual property rights of ASML which would lead to patent lawsuits.

In addition, sales of certain essential equipment to Z country were banned.

Hence, the progress of the domestic photolithograph machine had stagnated.

Even so, Z country’s Institute of Optoelectronics has developed a new photolithography machine in order to circumvent foreign patent barriers.

The nanolithography machine with super-resolution.

This type of photolithograph machine adopted a completely different technical route from the traditional photolithograph equipment. With a near-ultraviolet light source with a wavelength of 365 nm, the maximum line width resolution of a single exposure was as high as 22 nanometer. Combined with multiple exposure techniques, it could be used to manufacture 10 or 9 nanometer chips.

This photolithograph equipment made use of ultraviolet light, which had a longer wavelength and was more common, to complete the photolithograph in a normal environment. This meant that domestic made photolithograph machines could achieve higher resolution photolithography using lower-cost light sources.

Their production costs were less than half of ASML’s, maybe even only a tenth of AMSL’s production costs.

This breakthrough in the technical principle was akin to building a tunnel through the mountain when others were building roads on that same mountain.

However, no matter how excellent the nanolithography machine was, it still had a critical flaw.

And that was the overly long exposure time.

This was especially true in the chip manufacturing sector. The EUV photolithography machine could complete its task within 15 seconds of exposure, but the nanolithography machine needed more than 10 days.

A clearer comparison would be that the traditional lithograph machine took a photo directly, while nanolithography with its super resolution used a pen and slowly drew a picture… the difference in efficiency was huge.

…

Shanghai Microelectronics.

Chen Jin came to the company for some investigation and research. He saw the 22 nanometer nanolithography machine with super resolution and listened to the introduction by the company’s CEO Zhang Yuming.

“You’re saying that such a good piece of equipment can’t be used to manufacture chips. Why not?”

Chen Jin frowned. This was too much of a pity.

“It’s not that it’s impossible, it’s too slow! We’ve thought of various methods to increase the efficiency of its exposure. However, it takes five days to expose a shadow inscription. The efficiency is a fraction of traditional lithography, which completely offsets our cost advantage. It is only suitable for some small-scale markets, such as chips for military use, optical devices, high-precision gratings, photonic crystal arrays etc. We’ve sold more than ten units of our super-resolution photolithography machines to businesses in these sectors. ”

Zhang Yuming said with a shake of his head, “However, when it comes to the massive production of chips, we can only follow the book and make improvements on the traditional photolithography machine.”

At present, the 10 nanometer photolithograph machine of Shanghai Microelectronics was based on the immersion lithography that used the 193 nanometer light source. But manufacturing cost was too high, and they had no competitive edge in the market.Moreover, it was also facing the patent barriers presented by ASML. Hence, it was not even introduced to the market.

By cooperating with many domestic organisations, Shangwei Electronics had made a number of breakthroughs in EUV lithography. However, it also faced many problems with regards to patents.

It was not that Z country could not break the supplier monopolies of many high-tech equipment. It was just that they were blocked by patent barriers.

Chen Jin asked, “Do you have any ideas to increase the efficiency of the exposure so that it is on par with the traditional photolithograph machine?”

He thought that the super resolution photolithography machine had excellent prospects. They should continue to develop it and use it in the mass production of chips.

“Yes, I do have a way, but it’s too difficult to realise it. It’s pretty much impossible to make it a reality with our current level of technology.”

“Tell me about your idea first.”

“We want to increase the number of ‘pens’ and reduce the size of the lens! 10,000 micro-lenses will be integrated in the thumb sized lithography lens, allowing these micro-lens to work simultaneously. This would complete the photolithography of the integrated circuit.”

Zhang Yuming shook his head. But upon seeing the serious expression on Chen Jin’s face, he continued, “The internal structure of the chip is not complex. Each die has the same structure, and each transistor is also the same. The same work done can be done simultaneously with 10,000 microlenses. This would greatly speed up the efficiency of the super-resolution photolithography. ”

“If such a lithography lens can be made, we can integrate 10 sets or even 100 sets of photolithography lenses in the super-resolution lithography machine, and proceed with the photolithography on a wafer with a diameter of over 100 inches, With 100,000 or even 1 million micro lenses working at the same time, the overall efficiency of the photolithography process can far exceed the traditional lithography machine!”

“But, it’s too difficult. With our current industrial manufacturing abilities, we need at least 20 years or more to produce that kind of photolithography lens,”

The problem was that after 20 years, the cost of traditional lithograph machines would also dropped with the improvement of industrial technology. The super resolution nanolithography would still not have obvious competitive advantages. Its prospects was good, but it was not destined to become a huge success.

Chen Jin asked with a glimmer in his eyes, “So, the main problem is the lens, right?”

“Yes, the main obstacle is the lens.”

Chen Jin said, “This is easy. The problem of the lens is not difficult at all. Xing Hai Technologies has a way to provide you with the lens that you described.”

Zhang Yuming started to nod.

He froze suddenly.

He twisted his head and looked at Chen Jin with astonishment!

He asked dumbly, “President Chen, what did you say?”

Chapter 254 - Legalised Counterfeitsa

Chen Jin repeated, “Xing Hai Technologies can provide the lens that you need.”

“This is impossible!”

Zhang Yuming shook his head fiercely, “It’s impossible to produce this kind of lens with the current industrial processing technologies. The level of difficulty in their processing is legendary.”

Chen Jin said with a confident yet mysterious air, “Give me the design plan for the lens. Whether it can be done; whether it’s passable, you can judge for yourself when you receive it.”

That was right.

With the current standard of Earth’s industrial processing technologies, it was pretty much impossible to produce a photolithography lens that was integrated with 10,000 micro lenses.

Hence, he decided to use his “cheat code”.

He would manufacture it in Haierfa and “import” it to Earth.

He had to become a porter again and carry a few hundred photolithography lenses to Earth.

In order to pull the wool over people’s eyes and provide a reasonable explanation of the source, Chen Jin had to set up a “photolithography lens project team” and recruit a group of personnel. He also had to provide technical guides and routes to enable these people to make replacement products in a short period of time in order to avoid suspicion… with the help of ” Virtual Factory 2.0″ technology, there would be a way to make that photolithography lens in a year or two.

Chen Jin held 100% of the shares in Xing Hai Technologies so there was no need for him to announce the company’s business operations to the public. Moreover, Xinghai Technologies had diverse projects in the R&D field. It would not be suspicious to suddenly produce a photolithography lens.

This was definitely a benefit of a 100% individual shareholding.

He would get the people from Shanghai Microelectronics do a good job of keeping it secret. With Chen Jin acting as the transporter, producing a lithography lens would be easy.

In any case, they must immediately break the isolationist blockade by ASML on the photolithography machine!

Seeing the determined expression on Chen Jin’s face.

A trace of anticipation bloomed in Zhang Yuming’s heart. He nodded. “Ok, President Chen! The blueprint of the lens will be given to you immediately. If your company can really make the lens, our super-resolution photolithography machine will definitely be able to make a big impact in the field of chips! ”

Once the problem of the lens was solved, the advantages of the super-resolution photolithography machine would be massive. First, the cost must be reduced. Then, etching on a larger wafer would be simultaneously done by one hundred sets of lenses and one million beams of light. The efficiency of the super resolution photolithography machine would be more than 10 times of the conventional photolithography machine.

The yield would also be higher (basically a 100% increase).

As integrated circuit was directly “drawn”, the level of flexibility would be greatly improved. The production process of the chip could even be simplified.

The production efficiency of the chip would also be significantly improved.

The price of the final chip from the production line would be unimaginably cheap.

However…..

Even though the super-resolution photolithography technology was good, and it could be combined with multiple exposure technology, it could only produce chips of 10 or 9 nanometer in the end. It would be difficult to further reduce the size of the chips using this type of machine.

The most advanced chips on the market today were still 7 and 5 nanometer chips produced by the traditional EUV photolithography machines.

Although the 10 nanometer chips produced via super-resolution photolithography was cheaper, its performance would still be much poorer than the 7 and 5 nanometer chips.

For users who were looking for excellent performance and experience in their devices, they would still care much more about the user experience rather than the price.

Therefore, Zhongxin International must still get their on hands on the EUV photolithography machine!

It was still necessary to use this type of photolithography machine to produce the high-end 7 and 5 nanometer chips. They must not give up on this market.

The problem was that AMSL was not selling the EUV photolithography machine!

What should Zhongxin International do?

They could only produce the EUV photolithography machine themselves.

This was the purpose of Zhang Wei Jin’s acquisition of Shanghai Microelectronics. He wanted to use their own EUV photolithography machines and break the malicious sales ban of ASML.

Eh, what about intellectual property? Were they simply ignoring the barrier presented by the patents?

What if they infringed on ASML’s patents of the photolithography machine?

“This kind of action cannot be considered as illegal.”

Zhang Wei Jin explained, “The government had amended the ‘Patent Protection Law’ 2 years ago by adding a special clause. If certain advanced equipment are unreasonably prohibited from being sold to us by foreign powers, companies that are on the receiving end of this malicious ban can ignore the patent barriers of the other party. They can copy the other’s equipment to break the supply monopoly. If the other party file a lawsuit, we can present them with this law. Their complaint will become invalid.”

Chen Jin said, “So you mean is that Zhongxin International can develop its own EUV photolithography machine without considering whether it infringes on ASML’s patents when ASML has banned the sale of the EUV lithography machine to Zhongxin?”

“Yes! If they implement the sales ban unreasonably, I will immediately make a copy of it! This is completely legal. If they don’t ban the sale of their product, I will not copy it. Since they aren’t acting in a reasonable manner, I am qualified to retaliate.”

“Well, I think that many foreign companies will find this law rather unacceptable?”

“They have no choice but to accept it! They’ve forcibly blocked the metaphorical road, yet other road users are supposed to quietly sit aside and take the consequences? Just because they were the first to invent that technology does not mean that they have the right to decide the life and death of others! That’s a robber’s logic! Patent protection does not give you the right to do whatever you want. If you dare to use the sales ban to harm the interests of customers, then the customers have the right to take retaliate! ”

Zhang Wei Jin brandished his fist, “Acquiring Shanghai Microelectronics and producing our own EUV photolithography machine is our most direct method of retaliation!”

Chen Jin nodded, “That’s true. Patents are not a tool for anyone to act out their whims. The victim had the right to self-defense.”

However, he immediately thought of a problem. Frowning, he said, “That bunch of foreigners are really clever. They’ve immediately lifted the ban on their sales just when you’ve achieved a breakthrough with your EUV machines. What if they find another reason to sue you? Your 8 billion plus acquisition would become ineffective in a moment.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll have a bargaining chip after we break their sales ban. If ASML wants us to give up using our domestic made EUV photolithography machine, sure, but they will have to sell their EUV photolithography machines to us at 50 million per unit when they could have originally sold it to us for 100 million. They have to sell to us at cost price! Our domestic made EUV has that same production cost. And they have to supply us with as many units as Zhongxin International wants to buy. We’ll be their priority customers. If they can’t satisfy our needs, then we have the right to purchase our own EUV photolithography machines.”

Cost price sale + right to unlimited purchase.

This was the right that ASML would enjoy if they chose to call for a truce after the ban on sales of EUV to Z country had been broken.

This was also part of the supplementary clause in the “Patent Protection Law”

So what if those foreign companies found it unacceptable? They could choke on themselves!

Nobody forced them to implement the sales ban to Z country which caused unimaginable losses to Zhongxin International. The company had lost 30 billion in their market value!

Hence, these supplementary provisions in the Patent Protection Law were also referred to as “legal counterfeits clauses.”

Its launch had effectively shocked a group of foreign technology companies and patent hooligans.

Shanghai Microelectronics, a subsidiary of Zhongxin International, had decided to copy the EUV photolithography machine of ASML. With the assistance of the “virtual factory”, it would break the sales ban of ASML within six months.

This could be summed up in one sentence. When you had the same things that others had, You would never experience a sales ban from the suppliers.

Chen Jin shook his head: “If only I had known that there was such a legal clause. Shanghai Microelectronics should have been acquired six months ago and the counterfeit produced in advance. Then, when they announced the ban, we’ll immediately take out the replacement product. It would be impossible to fall into such a trap that cost us half a year’s time.”

“It’s my fault for placing too much trust in ASML.”

Zhang Wei Jin blamed himself, “I had thought that they would never dare to implement a sales ban. In the end, they still did it. The West are backing Samsin and Mossey Electrics. I’ve underestimated the power of the capital that the West possess. Hah, how could they possibly give up on annual revenues of hundreds of billions?”

“Interrupting one’s flow of income is akin to murdering his parents. They have reason to be driven to desperate action.”

Chen Jin nodded, “It’s fine to learn your lesson from this incident. Check if there are any flaws or loopholes again. Rectify them now if there are. ”

Upon further investigation, he realised that other than the photolithography machines, there were nearly no other areas where they were restricted or controlled by external powers. For example, many domestic companies had made breakthroughs in the area of photoresists for the past two years. The monopolies of foreign countries had been broken. The etching machine was an area that they were even stronger in…..They had everything that they needed.

The foreign companies would soon find their limited abilities exhausted when it came to imposing technological blockades.

They really had few happy days left to live.

Chapter 255 - The Richest Billionaire

After half a month.

According to the design scheme, Chen Ji brought two sets of the super-resolution photolithography lens produced according to the given design scheme as required by Shanghai Microelectronics.

They tested the two lenses.

The company’s technicians were shocked.

“They are usable; they really are!”

“The most difficult problem of the lens has really been solved.”

“The 10 nanometer chip produced by the super-resolution photolithography machine would only cost a maximum of $10 to produce!”

After they have calmed down from their excitement, Zhang Yuming pulled Chen Jin aside and made some enquiries about this photolithography lens. How much was Xing Hai Technologies selling one for?

Chen Jin looked at him and asked, “How much do you think it should sell for?”

“$500,000, no, at least 1 million! There is no other company that can produce this. It can even be sold for an open-ended price.”

“Then I’ll sell it for 1 million per unit. You don’t have to pay now. Just record it in your expenses, you can pay my company at a future date.”

“Ok.”

Chen Jin sternly urged, “Also, it must be strictly kept as a secret. Seal your lips. Don’t ever reveal this to anyone.”

Zhang Yuming nodded, “I understand.”

…

It was now November.

Some important events had happened this month.

First of all, the 8th World Internet Conference was once again held in Jiangzhe’s Wuzhen in early November.

Chen Jin did not go for the conference this time round. Xing Hai Technologies’ CEO Ling Jundong attended on his behalf.

As many foreign companies’ CEOs and foreign media reporters attended this international conference, Xing Hai Technologies became the target of mass criticism. Ling Jundong was surrounded by a group of foreigners where he suffered severe verbal attacks and criticisms.

“Xinghai Technology, how long do you want to act in such a selfish manner?”

“The intelligent learning technology belongs to all mankind and cannot be solely dominated by you!”

“I hope your company can be a company with ethics and conscience.”

“A qualified entrepreneur should consider the interests of more people.”

“Do you even feel any shame?”

“Please stop going your own course so stubbornly without any consideration for others.”

“…”

These words of admonishment and criticism put Ling Jundong in a rather awkward position. He could only make his escape when the security guards intervened.

The reason behind the calculative and merciless actions of those foreigners was still the same – the intelligent learning technology.

The power of this technology had been clearly shown to the world.

For example, the average test scores of more than 9 million candidates Z country had increased by more than 50 points in the nation wide college entrance examination that was held a few months ago. This was due to the extensive use of the intelligent learning machines.

This was another example. The work assistant that had evolved to version 2.0 could increase programming efficiency by ten times. Moreover, the quality of the codes produced was extremely high. With the support of this amazing software, the Star Cloud system had shaken the foundations of the Android Empire in just six months.

The rise of Xing Hai Technologies as a technology giant and the launch of a series of major products by the company could be seemingly linked to this technology.

The intelligent learning technology was equivalent to the “universal truth” of this world.

Whoever mastered this “universal truth” would also be the master of everything. He would have the power to transform the world.

There were no organisation or nation that did not yearn to master this technology.

Therefore, the primary purpose of the strong comments expressed by the foreigners surrounding Ling Jundong was to force Xing Hai Technologies to make concessions and share their “intelligent learning technology” through the pressure of words.

Chen Jin posted a Weibo comment on this incident: “It seems that the two companies have been thoroughly played by you. Xing Hai Technologies will make our attitude clear: as long Z country is banned from purchasing any one product from the West; and as long as there is one technology company in Z country that is unreasonably isolated or blocked by you, you can stop dreaming about the intelligent learning technology!”

This Weibo comment received countless praises, and netizens shouted “Good on you”.

However, a mere few days later.

The West retaliated in the most direct manner possible.

Merica’s Ministry of Commerce suddenly issued a ban. In view of the serious violation of user privacy by various products from the Da Mi Company, a fine of 1.9 billion would be imposed on Da Mi and it would not be allowed to sell any electronic products in Merica’s market.

Da Mi was completely banned and expelled from Merica’s market.

Da Mi suffered heavy losses.

Lei Xiaojun cried until he had no more tears: “I regret bringing the Guomi 2 mobile phone into the Merican market. The phone is equipped with the Star Cloud system and it supports global satellite calling technology (so there is no need to buy a mobile phone card). It’s only selling for $350. It is sweeping up all the mobile phone users in Merica. It sales volume has exceeded 500,000 in just two weeks.”

“Then the Fruit company, Samsin and the Merican telecom operators started attacking Da Mi like crazy. But, they still couldn’t stop the robust sales of the Guomi 2.”

“In the end, the government of Merica intervened. Hundreds of Da Mi stores have to be closed down. It’s my fault for not thinking about things carefully beforehand. This would not have happened if I was more cautious.”

“Ah!”

Annual revenues of some tens of billions was gone just like this.

Chen Jin sank into silence.

The expulsion of Da Mi from Merica’s market should not have any direct link with the Weibo comment that he had posted.

The global satellite call system was created a private aerospace company in Z country called “Blue Arrow”. By using cheap rockets, it was able to launch 226 wifi satellites into space in succession. Wifi signals covered the whole world. One could connect to the satellite signals in almost any corner of the world. It only cost 1 cent per minute to make a 2G call. There was no need to go to the telecom operators to buy a package service.

It was akin to pulling the carpet out from under the telecom operators.

Hence, the retaliation came right away.

And Da Mi bid farewell to the Merican market just like this.

Chen Jin was at a loss for words. Perhaps Da Mi was too daring. Perhaps….. This was what happened when you did better for yourselves.

“Brother Lei, forget about paying the fine. Quickly return back home! Sell off the few hundred shops that you have and all the goods inside….. Return to the domestic market and put some effort there; you will crush Samsin and Fruit.”

“Hmm, I understand.”

…

28th November.

Forbes magazine, Z country edition had published the latest issue of articles on wealth. The latest list of wealth rankings by Forbes was also included.

Chen Jin was placed at the very top with a net asset of 906.7 billion among the richest 500 individuals in the mainland of Z country according to their personal value. He ranking as the number one list of Z country’s richest.

He was even ahead of the runner up in the list by more than 300 billion.

He was also ranked among the top 20 in the global rankings.

Just like this, Chen Jin had become the number one billionaire in the country.

This was the amazing achievements of Xing Hai Technologies despite being founded only a little more than three years ago.

With Xing Hai Technologies’ speed of development and expansion, he could certainly become the richest man in the world one day.

After the publication of this list.

The netizens immediately engaged in intense discussions. The news became the number one search topic.

“Fuck me!”

“He had ascended to become the top billionaire within 3 years of starting his business!”

“It seems that I’ve been living the life of a dog.”

“His entire existence seems to be borne from a cheat code.”

“More than 900 billion. That means he earns 300 billion every year; 1 billion every day; 690,000 every minute…. He’s seriously earning hundreds of thousands every minute.”

“The money that he earns in a day is equivalent to what I earn by working for 10,000 years.”

“Haha, no wonder the median salaries in this country is so high. They’ve included the big bosses in the statistics. Everyone is a billionaire.”

“Can I call him Dad?”

There were many others who expressed their envy and jealousy.

Chen Jin was also shocked when he saw the rankings. When did I become so rich?

Do I really have more than 900 billion?

Well, he might be that rich if cash and fixed assets were included. But he felt some pressure that came with the sudden title of the richest billionaire and being the focus of everyone’s discussion.

With regards to this topic, he had to post a Weibo comment, “The richest billionaire? I hope everyone can call me the boss.”

He expressed, “Xing Hai Technologies is planning to recruit another 10,000 staff. All entry level staff would have their salaries increased by 10%. This money is not mine, it’s everyone’s. I’m willing to share this wealth with many more.”

What he meant implicitly was that he would not keep too much money for his own enjoyment.

Money was like water. If it was not flowing, its accumulation would only form a pool of stagnant water. This would give others the image of “being rich but not benevolent”. If it flowed in a benevolent manner and was timely spent, it would eventually create greater social value and bring about a greater level of equality.

For example, although he had the money, he had not bought private jets or private yachts. He had not wantonly spent it for his personal enjoyment.

Moreover, Xing Hai Technology’s cash flow has rarely exceeded 100 billion in the books.

This attitude had created a good impression of him in many people’s eyes. Countless communities of fans were created in an instant.

Chapter 256 - In Abundance

1st of December.

No. 157, Jin Ling West Road.

Along the crackling of firecrackers, Forever Jewels which moved to a new location reopened after halting business operations for more than a month, welcoming all old and new customers.

The store’s new address was not far from the No. 188 old store, merely a hundred meters away. Its location was, similarly, not bad at all. After furnishing, the shops interior become more atmospheric and luxurious.

In spite of that, business still plundered by quite a significant amount. It would require a long period of time to cultivate the “business aura”, that business would start booming.

On this day, Chen Jin passed by the street. He stopped by the shop to find out about the situation.

“Business is less than half of our original. We’ve lost many old customers. The shop is very quiet from day to night.” Chiu Wanting said while frowning. She was in a depressed mood. She who rarely loses her temper had started castigating her lazy employees.

“Take things slowly aunt Chiu, there’s no point rushing. Time would make everything work.” Chen Jin said while crossing his hands. He was rather puzzled. Why would there be such a big difference in business just a hundred meters apart?

But in matters such as opening a store, there were many metaphysical elements regarding the locations fengshui and what not. Only ‘old eyes’ in the field can visualize its obscure correlations.

He felt a jolt. If he were to let Nuwa do some calculations on which location was better before picking one for the shop, maybe the jewelry shop’s business would not differ too much. But since it was already done, it was no use thinking about it again.

“Hahaha!”

A hearty laugh came from the door.

Guo Yan and an employee returned to the shop and reported about a situation with extreme excitement, “Scared away another one today. Landlord Lee’s face looked extremely awful. He can’t rent his shop anymore.”

“??”

Chen Jin was at sea. He asked Guo Yan about what was going on.

Guo Yan said while her face was glowing in rosiness, “Mr. Chen, your friend is so mean. Landlord Lee was punked so hard and had already reduced rental price for three times, but there’s still nobody that wants to rent his shop.”

“Why? It is his freedom to rent his shop to whoever he wants to, we can’t possibly interfere with that right.”

Chen Jin too wished for that Landlord Lee to get pranked, but how? He felt that there was no good way to do so.

“How is it not possible?”

Guo Yan grinned and said. “Mr. Wang bought the whole building at the opposite of No.188, and then let his men spread the words saying that: whoever dares to rent No.188, the shop at its opposite will do and sell the exact same thing as No.188, and it will certainly be sold at a cheaper price. Go ahead and try.”

“Nobody in this street dares to offend Mr. Wang and even more, you, Mr. Chen. After those oblivious tenants became aware of the situation, no matter how low is No.188’s rental, they won’t dare to rent it. They were all scared away.”

“Haha, this is called shooting oneself in the foot.”

Owh~

Chen Jin nodded his head.

Clever, very clever indeed. It was nearly impossible for that Landlord Lee to rent out his shop after getting screwed by Mr. Wang. Over time, Landlord Lee would crumble sooner or later, and could only soften himself and beg for mercy.

There was no need to feel sorry for this kind of people. There must be a limit, even for greed. People with unrestrained avarice must be piled out with a bucket of cold water. Only that the person with the ability to pour this bucket of cold water must have more capital in their possessions.

In most cases, greedy people would normally accomplish their goal, leaving the weak in lamentation.

To prove this, it could be seen from the store on this street whose door had been rolled down by a third.

…

Leaving the Jewelry shop.

Junting Grand Court, Villa No.8.

Chen Jin who had not come for a long time, came. Therefore, he did some prior communications.

On the white steps in front of the villa, there was a woman who was looking around earnestly. She was smiling with happiness. She was holding her waist with one hand and gently touching her slightly bulged belly with the other.

Upon seeing a car entering the villa.

She hastened her steps forward to welcome him. “You’re here darling” she said.

“Be careful, the ground here is uneven.” Chen Jin quickly took her arms and helped her into the villa.

“It’s only three months. It’s not that delicate yet.” The woman looked at the man with her eyes filled with affection. She then looked down at her tummy. Her heart was overflowing with joy, “I have his child now.”

Chen Jin nodded with satisfaction. In point of fact, when he turned 27 and realized that he was no longer young anymore, he had already decided, “I can’t be f*cking around meaninglessly anymore”

On contrary, he must look at his previous ‘playboyish’ acts as something serious and meaningful, because it was intertwined with the continuation of the human species. It was even interwoven with the future of another planet and another galaxy.

In other words: he wanted a couple children.

Furthermore, the woman was willing to bear for him his monkeys.

Thus, he had his first fruit rather swiftly, and it was already 15 weeks old.

Besides, Chen Jin already had quite a number of instances with Su Yun and he did not care about protection whatsoever. Regarding the fact, he felt strange that nothing had seemed to transpire on Su Yun until now.

Luckily, he had quite a capable one over here.

Subsequently, Chen Jin kept the woman company in the villa for three days, providing her his utmost care.

When he was about to leave, there was an additional female bodyguard with short hair and wearing tights standing before him. She had an ordinary look and a dull personality but was emitting a menacing aura.

Chen Jin said to the woman beside him, “This is the female bodyguard I hired for you. Her name is Jennie. From now on, she will be protecting you 24/7. Besides, she can also cook, do the laundry, move stuff and many other things, it will be equivalent to having me by your side.”

Jennie was a human replica robot. Chen Jin felt assured with Jennie keeping the woman company.

“Jennie?”

The woman scanned through Jennie. She wanted to say that she does not need protection, but considering that it was the man’s kind regards, she nodded and said, “Okay. In this way, we won’t have to hire a nanny anymore.”

Aside from that.

Chen Jin drew a black gold colored card out of his pocket, handed it to the woman and said, “There’s some pocket money inside. The password is your birthday. Go eat and buy whatever you want, don’t ever think of saving money. More money will be banked in every once in a while.”

“Pocket money?”

The woman looked at the card in her hands. It seemed that this was the first time the man gave her money. She became curious in an instant. How much money was inside?

She couldn’t help herself and asked, “Dear, is this money for childcare? How much is inside?”

“You’ll know eventually when you use it. There will be this much for you every year.”

Chen Jin gave her a tenterhook and left Junting Grand Court.

…

After leaving.

Yuan Lin went playing for a few days with the black gold card with her but had yet used it. It was until one time when she went shopping with her mother. They bought quite a lot of stuff and her mum was out of cash. Only then she took out the black gold card from her purse and paid for the 10-thousand-dollar down jacket.

“Ding Dong~”

She received a message on her phone.

The SMS shown the remaining cash balance in the black gold card. Yuan Lin counted the number of digits to the left of the decimal point. She almost fainted. It was 9 digits. There was 10 before she used it!

Moreover, there would be this much every year.

She was moved from deep down.

At this moment, she truly felt the abundance of love that the man had towards her.

Chapter 257 - Flawless Architecture

Mid-December.

The “Household Computer” R&D center at Su Hing City achieved a breakthrough.

“Mr. Chen, the first batch of prototypes have been produced. Its operations are very smooth. We have achieved success in both the hardware and software system!” Hu Teng Jiao who was in charge of the project said excitedly in the phone call.

“Prototypes are out?”

Chen Jin was slightly surprised. The “Household Computer” project that had been going on for two years had finally came up with substantial results.

…

The following day.

To show that they attach great importance to this project, Chen Jin’s real self along with a few executive members drove to Su Hing City and inspected the research center.

He sent his greetings to nearly 2,000 software and hardware developers in the research center.

Seeing their boss in person, the developers were every excited. They shook hands with him, took photos with him, and there was even a female staff that asked for a hug from him.

“Great job everyone, you’ve done well.”

Chen Jin constantly waved his hand. The scene was filled with acute enthusiasm.

…

Inside the product testing room.

Chen Jin saw two prototypes placed on a long table.

One of them was a household desktop. It had a rectangular CPU and a 19-inch LCD display, not much of a difference with ordinary household computers. The other one was a laptop. Because it was a test prototype, its appearance was also rectangular, and its thickness was comparable to the ThinkPad.

Project leader Hu Teng Jiao did not immediately boot the computers. On contrary, he asked someone to bring in two chips.

The computer CPU chips!

One of them had physical dimensions of 4×4-centimeter cube, half the size of a palm. It was four times the size of regular Intel CPU’s… this was the CPU for the desktop. The other chip was 2.5×2.5-centimeter cube… this was the CPU for the laptop.

“These two CPU’s were produced using Zhong Xin International’s 28 nm process technology. It was two to three generations behind Intel’s most advanced 10 nm process technology… however, the production of Intel’s 10nm is severely scarce. As of now, they are mainly still making 14 nm CPU’s.”

The difficulty to make computer CPU’s were much higher than making the Soc on mobile phones. The surface area of computer CPU’s was a few times larger. The number of transistors was also multiplied several times and even to as many as ten billion times.

While using the same process technology, the larger the area, the lower the conformity rate, and the higher the cost price. Hence, Intel’s 10 nm CPU only realized mass production on 20X0 after being held back for three to four years.

CPU’s made using Zhong Xin International’s 28 nm process technology was certainly worst. The performance gap can only be compensated by increasing the area of the wafer and the number of transistors.

Fortunately, after Chen Jin helped solve the problem of the lithography lens, the Super high-resolution lithography machine that would soon be launched by Shangwei Microelectrics could be used in manufacturing the 10 nm computer CPU, assuring optimal conformity rate… it could almost tie with Intel’s most advanced CPU.

In addition, the size of the CPU here was several times larger, and it would be completely unnecessary to worry about it having underwhelming performance.

More importantly, the CPU, named as the ‘Azure Generation’ used the more common X86 and MIPS for its physical architecture, which both had a huge competitive advantage.

Engineer Liang Yongpin who was responsible for the CPU architecture introduced”

“Mr. Chen, the CPU architecture Intel and AMD are using as for now is mostly the X86 architecture which occupy the absolute mainstream in the market.”

“The X86 architecture which uses a complex instruction set features single line instructions with high speed and a smaller number of instructions. It executes instructions sequentially, making it easier to control.”

“But the X86 instruction set has only 8 general-purpose registers. In CISC, most of the data is accessed in the memory. The RISC (Reduced Instruction Set) systems on the other hand tend to have very many registers, which slows down the speed of the entire system. In some micro-decoding scenarios, the decoding speed will be very slow and complicated…causing the computer to have a low utilization rate and slow operating speed.”

“The MIPS architecture with a reduced instruction set is similar to the ARM architecture. Consisting of a large number of core registers, it reduces the amount of data access to the memory and greatly reduces power consumption… with the same performance, the MIPS architecture provides the lowest power consumption per square millimeter of the chip design, and is more flexible and open to use.”

“The shortcoming of the MIPS architecture is that there are certain limitations in terms of memory and cache support. There are some problems when dealing with high-capacity memory… and this is exactly what the X86 architecture is good at.”

Liang Yongpin held the chip in his palm, presented it in front of Chen Jin and said,

“This is the ‘Weaver Architecture’ this CPU is using. It takes into account all the advantages of the X86 architecture and the MIPS architecture at the same time. It has fast speed, high performance, fast memory data exchange and high CPU utilization, but its power consumption is comparable to the MIPS architecture.”

“There are definitely shortcomings that exists in other architectures, but on our Weaver Architecture, all of them are unriddled!”

“The reason is that the transistor distribution on this CPU is no longer done with the previous matrix arrangement, but a special kind of ‘array’. This ‘array’ can be diversified, allowing those transistors to be combined into computing units and sometimes combined into memory cells… transitioning intelligently to meet a variety of usage.”

“Perfectly actualizing both high performance and low power.”

Chen Jin nodded.

The Weaver Architecture was brought over by him from the Base of Operations, of course he was aware of the strength and the advantages of this architecture.

In short, this architecture was in the forefront of all the mainstream architectures that currently existed on the market. Is was an advanced product beyond a generation.

Not only that it enacts both high performance and low power consumption, it also has a killer-like function. And that was, it can be a pure CPU or a pure GPU. It could complete all the operations that graphics card could do without users having to purchase a graphics card separately.

Commonly, the price of a slightly better CPU was approximately a thousand dollars. But the performance of the built-in integrated graphics would be very poor and would only allow users to play games that required low system configuration.

If a better graphics card dedicated to graphics operations were to be added by the user to play some battle royale’s, its price on the other hand would be at least a thousand dollars and above, or maybe even 2000, 3000, 5000… a graphics card would take up about half of the price of the entire computer. The price of the two items combined would be equivalent to 60-70% that of a high spec computer.

Now, courtesy of the Weaver Architectures ‘Azure’ CPU, people won’t have to buy a high-performance graphics card separately at the price of merely 1500 dollars. How could people not be moved?

Of course, considering that both CPU and GPU would greatly increase power consumption, if someone were to run a game that required extremely high system configurations, not even cold water could cool down the immense heat released by the hundreds of watts of running power. Independent graphics card must still be developed later on.

But as of now, it was perfectly adequate.

Hu Teng Jiao held the CPU the size of half of his palm and said, “Mr. Chen, if this CPU can be made using the 10 nm process technology, its performance in graphics processing would be roughly equivalent to the RTX2080… this would suffice in current times. Most users won’t need to consider adding another graphics card.”

Chen Jin nodded. The RTX2080 was already a huge thing priced at over 10 thousand dollars on the market. Maybe only not more than 1% of the world population can afford such a deluxe.

Aside from a pint-sized wealthy population, for more than 99% of regular users, a CPU with the ‘Weaver Architecture’ would make the grade for them.

Of course, good hardware architecture must still be paired with a commensurate operating system and software to unleash its utmost potential.

For example, although there were many shortcomings in the X86 architecture, the win-tel alliance formed with Microsoft had played a decisive role in the widespread application of the X86 architecture that it ended up dominating the absolute mainstream in the market.

Hence, Chen Jin set his sight back on the two computers in front of him.

“Turn on the computer. Let me see the operating system’s performance.”

“Okay.”

Two staff members simultaneously pressed the power button.

Chapter 258 - Chapter 258 - Xuanyuan Operating System

In one, two, three…

“Ding Dong~” The sound of a water droplet was heard.

It only took slightly more than three seconds. Both computers finished booting at almost the same time and entered the main system interface.

The desktop was rendered in the color of a blue sky with a dynamic white cloud floating in the middle. In fact, it was a line of text – Xuanyuan Operating System.

It was a domestically produced independent operating system developed in the past two years based on the system kernel provided by Chen Jin with the combined effort of more than 500 software engineers.

Software and algorithm have always been Xing Hai Technologies’s stronghold. Along with the Work Assistant, not only that the Xuanyuan OS installed on the two computers had complete functions in its current state, there were even hundreds of applications created for the operating system. For example, the few common office software’s, video players, music players, browsers, drawing tools, and input method tools were all available. There were even dozens of minigames.

As of now, it could satisfy everyday office work and light entertainment without any problems.

Once Xing Hai Technologies’s personal laptop was launched on the market and gained a substantial amount of users, massive amounts of applications based on the Xuanyuan OS would bloom like mushrooms after the rain.

The most crucial thing was that, in order to let users, accept and get used to the Xuanyuan system in a hastier manner, aside from gaining the customer’s sentimental resonance, the system must also be superior than the others in terms of the customer experience it provides.

In other words, the Xuanyuan system must possess something that was leading the mainstream Windows, Linux and MAC system by a significant margin. There must be something special that would make it so that, once customers had experienced the OS, they would never want to switch back to other systems.

With that being said, does the Xuanyuan system have such a specialty?

Of course, it had one. Or to say, it must have one. Or else, where would the Xuanyuan system’s market competitiveness come from? How could they have a stand in the market?

On this matter, Liu Xu, the technical director responsible for the operating system, said:

“Mr. Chen, we are very confident with the Xuanyuan system. We are 100% confident that it can defeat the Windows system.”

“In fact, Windows is generally popular, not because it is smooth, fast, safe and stable. In terms of operating smoothness, Windows is inferior to MAC. After a long period of usage, the system will become laggy, and more and more garbage will accumulate in the system disk. With regard to security and stability, Windows is once again inferior to Linux. Linux, which is widely used in server systems, can run continuously for more than one year. Windows on the other hand crashes more often than not. Due to the systems insurmountable amount of bugs, it requires patches for hotfixes at every other period of time.”

“Despite so, Windows still occupied more than 80% of the market share.”

“The reason is that, the operational methods of Windows’s visualization window really made it easy for people to get started with it. Its conventionalized operations will allow anyone to get used to the computer within hours.”

“Besides, Windows’s compatibility is not bad at all. Most applications and games can run on Windows. Its abundance in software resources is also the reason why users can’t get rid of it.”

“It is because of Windows’s triumph in the operating experience it provides and its application resources that it became almost impossible for other OS’s to even budge Windows on the throne.”

However…

The launching of the Xuanyuan system could very well topple Windows’s dominance.

Liu Xu thus explained the few strengths of the Xuanyuan system:

“The first is its operating smoothness. The Xuanyuan system runs very smoothly.”

“At least 50% faster than Windows. It’s not only quick in starting up applications, it is also quick in opening webpages, doing audio and video decoding, file compression and decompression… the Xuanyuan system is faster and more efficient in any operation.”

“Secondly, on stability and security.”

“The Xuanyuan system has achieved the same security and stability levels as the Linux system, and even better. Developers can use it as a server operating system without having to make any customized improvements.”

“Also, in terms of visualization, we have to admit that there’s a lot for us to learn from Windows. Thus, the Xuanyuan system has engrafted something similar to Windows’s ‘Window mode’, but we have many specialties exclusive to ourselves, or to put it in another way… users can freely pick for themselves from a variety of operating fashions.”

“For example, Linux users prefer keyboard commands. We give them this mode of operation and let them do whatever they want.”

“It also has the sandbox operation that MAC users prefer, including the Touch Bar function.”

“The Xuanyuan system had even added the touch screen function which allows operation using the touch screen. It can run on mobile phones or tablets, which means that it can become an operating system for mobile devices.

“It can also run in VR equipment’s which allow user operation via eyeball and joystick movement.”

“There are even more under the special Workstation system.”

“Hence, users won’t have to worry about being accustomed to it. The Xuanyuan system provides all operating modes… it’s a system that runs on all devices.

“At last will be compatibility. For most Windows software’s or games, they might be compatible on Windows XP, but once the system is updated to win7 or 8, it might no longer be compatible. Software adaptation is required for almost every version update, which causes a lot of trouble and even make many users reluctant to use the latest system.”

“This problem doesn’t exist in the Xuanyuan system. Regardless of the version, as long as the system kernel does not have any major changes, the original old application will always be compatible. Users can be rest assured to upgrade their system version as all their software’s will remain usable.”

“As for viruses, Trojans, loopholes, etc., we are willing to provide rewards. As long as someone successfully implants a virus or Trojan, or find a loophole on the Xuanyuan system, they will be rewarded 10 thousand dollars. In this way, hackers won’t have to commit crimes. It will also be unnecessary for Xuanyuan users to download protection software’s such as 361 AntiVirus and what not that will slow down the computers’ operations.”

Afterall, during the development process of the Xuanyuan system, a supercomputer was always there finding loopholes. Unless the hackers were smarter than a supercomputer, they would never get to hack a computer with the Xuanyuan system installed.

The Xuanyuan system was indeed that confident in its security.

Chen Jin held the mouse and experienced both of the computers respectively. He felt that it was indeed much smoother than Windows. After configuring to the Window mode, nothing felt accustomed to him. He learned very swiftly at zero cost.

Another thing worth mentioning was that the programming language used in developing the Xuanyuan system was an entirely new language called the “Yanhuang language”. It used Z language characters in programming. The language could easily be comprehended which made it easy to understand and learn. Acting in concert with Z language programming tools, novices could swiftly master the language, greatly reducing learning costs.

The various software tools running on the Xuanyuan system on the other hand was coded using the “Yanhuang+” programming language, which was also relatively easy to learn.

Therefore…

For this whole set of purely domestically produced computer system, which from its underlying hardware to the operating system, from its applications to its programming language, and from the operating experience it provides which was completely no worse than any foreign system, Chen Jin does not believe that it would fail, nor would it ever fail!

It was just that on its path towards success, it may require a slightly longer time, or maybe shorter.

“Hmm, I remembered that Loongson Corporation launched their own Loongson 5A4000 computer last month which performance is similar to that of an i5-6500 computer. The government bought 10 thousand units of that computer at one go.”

“Loongson CPU’s uses the MIPS architecture and 22 nm process technology. Many of their technical licenses was obtained from foreign countries. The path they took was far from comfortable compared to the one taken by Xing Hai Technologies which uses only homegrowns. They will have no way to surpass intel and defeat the win-tel alliance at least within these 10 to 20 years.”

Should Xing Hai Technologies help Loongson Corporation who was still struggling in the path of darkness?

Chapter 259 - Loongson’s Decision

Fu Weiwu. Chairman of Loongson Corporation. Leader of the state-owned ‘Project-863’.

He was 53 this year, still considered young, but living a life of abiding toil and anxiety turned half of his head grey as if it was dyed in snow.

From Loongson’s establishment in the early 2000’s until now, he had already held the company in his hands for 20 long years… it could be said that he dedicated half of his life in the domestic chip production field.

It was only until recently, after the Loongson 5A4000 computer was launched that the deep-rooted anxiety lurking on his face dispersed. He could finally smile.

It was because this product had achieved success.

Not only that the government purchased 100 thousand units at one time. Loongson fans at home and abroad bought a full 50 thousand units collectively… after being experienced, the product won raves from its users.

With the product, the company achieved its first major breakthrough in the civilian market as the product gained acceptance from a portion of the ordinary consumers.

Over the next two years, if Loongson so launches a computer with better technical quality and greater performance, the company will definitely gain more popularity and take down a bigger portion of the market.

He had faith in this!

However, on the 20th of December, a person’s visit caught Fu Weiwu unprepared and even muddled his mind.

CEO of Xing Hai Technologies, Ling Jun Dong.

Inside the tea hall.

After the man was done with his polite pleasantries, the suggestion he gave him knocked him over.

Ling Jun Dong said, “Mr. Fu, your company’s determination is very respectable and what you have achieved throughout these years is truly admirable. But the MIPS architecture was only a niche. The Linux OS doesn’t really fit for civilian usage. If you continue walking down this path, it will be very, very difficult for you to achieve great success.”

Fu Weiwu was not agitated by such negative comments; he had listened too much. He said with a light tone, “I know it will be hard, but we are currently moving towards success, and we will prevail in the end.”

“But that will require too long, Mr. Fu, the whole process you are going through is still too slow.” Ling Jun Dong shook his head.

Fu Weiwu became solemn and refuted him, “I’m now 53 and I plan to retire at 70, could it not be done until then? What is the motive of your visit Mr. Ling?”

He became a little impatient. He had too much of such belittling words. It was meaningless and would only delay him from working. If Ling Dong Jun does not talk about some substantive topics, he would be asking him to leave.

“Here it goes Mr. Fu, Xing Hai Technologies is also currently making our own CPU and operating system, are you aware of this?” Ling Jun Dong asked.

“Yes.”

u Weiwu nodded, “Your courage is admirable and that was some bold steps you have made… so what’s the matter, have you encountered some problems?””And you have come specially to seek our help?”

“That’s not the case. We have succeeded. We used our own architecture and operating system and created the first ever purely local made computer.” Ling Jun Dong said.

What?

Fu Weiwu was shocked, “You succeeded so quickly?”

Moreover, everything from hardware architecture to software system was self-made, how was this even possible?

“Yes, we have achieved initial success. Besides, the architecture we developed is very advanced and our operating system is very smooth as well. The performance of our first prototype should be better than the Loongson 5A400 your company just released.”

Fu Weiwu started his eyes wide open.

Then, he shook his head hard!

He must be bluffing!

It was only two years since Xing Hai Technologies decided to make personal computers, and the results they obtain was already comparable to what Loongson worked hard for 20 years. Is this even possible?

Is this logical?

In short, he had a million reasons to disbelief him.

He laughed and said, “Mr. Ling, I was unaware that whether your company’s computer R&D department purchased our Loongson 5A4000 computer. If you happen to have bought it and gave it a throughout inspection, you won’t be saying these words in front of me. Our society now is too impetuous. Every single person is eager for quick success. I suggest your company to soothe yourselves down and do things the right way. Maybe in five to ten years, you just might be able to achieve the heights where Loongson is now.”

What he said was not mockery, but an earnest advice. Xing Hai must be able to withstand loneliness when it comes to autonomous chips. Having the mentality of wanting quick success would never make things work. He too hoped for Xing Hai Technologies’s success. In this way, Loongson would have company in their path towards autonomy.

“Yes, we’ve bought it Mr. Fu. Our team on the computer project had bought a few Loongson 5A’s and conducted many comparison tests. What we concluded was that both of them were on par.” Ling Jun Dong said. His was obviously being modest. The actual test result was: the Loongson 5A was slammed by the “Xing Hai First Generation” computer on almost all test items.

Fu Weiwu finally took on a ghastly expression.

He could not keep the conversation going. He stood up and said, “Mr. Ling, my last piece of advice for you company is, no matter what product you are doing, be realistic and down-to-earth. Companies that rely on only big talk is destined to fail… I still have things to tend to, I’ll be leaving.” He swung his hand and was prepared to leave.

“Mr. Fu, I’ve brought along with me a ‘Xing Hai First Generation’ laptop. I can give you a demo.”

Fu Weiwu halted his steps.

…

Ling Jun Dong really did bring along with him a “Xing Hai First Generation” laptop, and it was in his handbag.

Upon seeing that Mr. Fu was reluctant to believe his words, he could only take out the computer and demonstrate it in front of him. He also explained the technical specialties of the “Weave Architecture” used by the “Qinglong First Gen” CPU within the computer and talked about the power of the kernel used by the “Xuanyuan Operating System”.

He placed the mouse down and let Fu Weiwu operate it for more than two hours.

One whole afternoon had passed.

The laptop powered off due to low battery.

Only then, Fu Weiwu placed the mouse down reluctantly and sat in the chair, remaining silent for a very long time.

None of the technical personnel’s present stepped forward.

A knockdown.

This was undoubtedly a tremendous blow to them. Their hard work for more than 20 years was actually inferior to a new company’s two years of research and development.

The astonishing Weave Architecture, the smooth and handy Xuanyuan operating system, all of the system was autonomous from hardware to software. Towards its exceptional performance, not only Fu Weiwu, all the other researchers from Loongson bowed their heads down and started doubting themselves.

A voice emerged in their hearts: what we made, was trash.

Fu Weiwu was unable to accept the fact. After staring blankly for quite some time, his eyes suddenly became teary.

He pounded his own chest, “Twenty years of futile work. Why didn’t such a marvelous architecture and system appear earlier but chose to appear before my very eyes just when Loongson finally achieved something?”

He was a little crushed. On one side, he was criticizing his own inabilities; on the other end, he was blaming that, why didn’t such computer products appear before him at an earlier time but chose to appear and crush him when he was at the peak of his confidence?

Ling Jun Dong was a little guilty. He knew that he should not have brought along the laptop. He did not want to stimulate this faithful dreamer who deserved respect. But in the field of technology, there were many of those who had faith , but once they go down the wrong path, only the Southern Wall awaits them at the end.

Therefore, he along with the others comforted Fu Weiwu. After his emotions were calmed down, Ling Jun Dong revealed the real motive of his visit:

“Mr. Fu, we, Xing Hai Technologies want to bring you along a brighter path. We provide two choices:”

“First. Xing Hai Technologies acquire Loongson at a premier price, reintegrate the project team, forgo the MIPS architecture and adjoin the company into the Weave Architecture’s R&D”

“Second. We will not acquire Loongson, but will be willing to license the Weave Architecture, Xuanyuan operating system to Loongson. We will initiate the ‘Xing Hai Computer Alliance’, integrate all domestic hardware and software manufacturers together, call upon an all-out promotion of the Weave Architecture, the Xuanyuan operating system, and create a strong ecosystem.”

“In short, we hope that Loongson will join us.”

Upon hearing his words.

All of Loongson’s technical personnel began discussing among each other. In the end, all their eyes were set on Fu Weiwu. Fu Weiwu however fell into silence. He did not provide him with an immediate reply.

Ling Jun Dong said, “Mr. Fu, I hope that you would give it good consideration. Give me your answer at any time.”

After that, Ling Jun Dong left Kings City and returned to Shang Hai.

Chapter 260 - Light Years of Love

Two days later.

Loongson Corporation gave them an official reply: Loongson agreed to join “Xing Hai Computer Alliance”, request for the Weave Architecture’s patent license and was willing to partake in efforts to perfect the Xuanyuan operating system.

But they rejected Xing Hai Technologies’s acquisition. Neither would they forsake the path of the MIPS architecture that they have been going down for 20 years.

Fu Weiwu said, “Loongson computers has over a million users in the country. We have also received orders of a few hundred thousand units from governments of more than 20 countries. We have quite a considerable amount of foreign users as well. We will not leave off this market until the day comes where profits could no longer sustain us,”

Yes.

No one should ever belittle Loongson!

The fact that Intel CPU’s and the Windows system were not safe was not the opinion of a few. It was the consensus of the tech circle and the governments of many countries. The computer used by the famous Richard Stallman, the father of free software was exactly a Loongson laptop.

There were more than 500 special departments within the nation and more than 20 foreign governments (including Germany) that purchased a large number of Loongson computers for their government offices in order to prevent Intel CPU’s and Windows from collecting user data.

With these users and market, Loongson profit hundreds of millions of dollars every year and formed a complete industrial chain which was endowed with tens of thousands of talents. They could survive well enough without state funding. Even if Xing Hai Technologies does not interfere with them, the future of Loongson would still be aglow.

This was the reason why many big foreign companies still offered them their olive branches, propose to them generous cooperation conditions and persuaded them to give up working hard despite the fact that Loongson was actually very weak.

And this exactly was the reason why Fu Weiwu was respected by the insiders of the autonomous chip field.

This man from the Z nation had persisted on one single thing for 20 long years. It was his determination that made companies such as Intel and Windows felt threatened. No matter the field, as long as a Z go all the way in for 20 years or above, other foreign companies in the field would become as jumpy as a puppet.

For this very fact, the westerners were always disquieted to issue an all-out ban towards customers from the Z nation. The Z’s own many tech products. But even if the products they made were severely trailing behind and considered garbage, the conception of whether they have it or do not have it still had a large disparity. If they lay upon them a thou-shall-not and they so lose the Z nation market which was the biggest among all and make space for those garbage products to develop and expand, ultimately, they would be the ones who would be exterminated.

It was people like Fu Weiwu who made the Z’s fearless against all impediments. These people could be best described as the Z’s backbone.

“Oh, so Loongson agreed to join the alliance?”

“Yes Mr. Chen. That is an inevitable choice. After all, a goldmine is better than a silver mine.”

“Their spirit is very worth learning. There were never once computer products that could survive in the cracks for so long. Give Mr. Fu a call, ask him whether they would need financing, and do they have any problems on their funding’s. If it so happens that they have some difficulties, Xing Hai Technologies could provide them with some loans or financing… just like what we provide for the ‘League of Star Apps’.” Chen Jin said.

The hardware of a computer consisted of the motherboard, memory, power supply, CPU, graphics card, chassis, cooling fan, display and other parts. Aside from the CPU and graphics card, Xing Hai Technology can’t possibly be producing all the other hardware’s, and it was not cost-effective either!

In order to promote Xing Hai computers, it was imperative to launch a “Xing Hai Computer Alliance”, take out more than 50 billion dollars of funds, provide large amounts of technical patents and recruit partners to establish a complete industrial chain.

With regard to this matter, Ling Jun Dong had begun operations since he went to Loongson Corporation, bringing along with him a “Xing Hai First Generation” laptop.

Consecutively, Ling Jun Dong and other executive members of the company still had to visit lots of hardware factories, perform many demos of the actual machine, and sprinkle away a considerable amount of money in order to establish a hardware alliance at the fastest speed possible.

They were striving to realize mass production for the “Xing Hai First Generation” computers in March the following year. Then, they would hold a conference for this product’s grand release!

Once the firecrackers were lit in which after Xing Hai computers become well received by the market, Xing Hai Technologies would not have to produce the whole computer themselves anymore. Making the entire device was not profitable. Prospectively, they would only focus on the CPU, graphics card and software system, as these were the few fields with the biggest profitability, at least some hundreds of billion dollars annually.

At this point, Chen Jin’s layout in the traditional science and technology field was basically completed. All the voids were basically filled. In this way, if such a highly populated country with no shortcomings could yet become a global superpower, which country could?

Indeed, perhaps influenced by the precept and example of his father, Chen Jin wished for this country to become stronger, even stronger than the M nation.

It must be done!

He whom possess the resources and capabilities intended to push the country forward with his powers. And besides, he could profit a little in this process. This would be shooting two hawks with one arrow, what could someone have against this?

Furthermore, if Xing Hai Technologies’s development continue down this way, sooner or later, they would become the needle in the eye of many countries and the abhorred villain among the foreigners. They would become the evil roots that marked the foreigners down from egotism to humility and would inevitably be subjected to numerous containments and attacks.

Without the protection of a powerful nation, Xing Hai Technologies would never get to grow safe and sound.

…

31st of December, the last day of year 20X1.

Shi Xiaotao came to Shang Hai.

Chen Jin met her once again in the office.

“Mr. Chen, I’ve completed my new movie, help me go through it.”

Shi Xiaotao pushed her laptop to him lightly. She smiled and added, “This is the first ever live action I produced.”

Oh?

Chen Jin focused his sight on the laptop screen. Upon seeing the movie title, he was slightly surprised, “Light Years of Love?”

“Yes. The plot is set in the future which tells the story about a couple who was deeply in love. Due to work, they were separated at two places a light year away. They could not meet each other and could only keep in touch via the Quantum communicator, confiding to each other, and putting on a romantic splash in space…”

Shi Xiaotao introduced to him the overall plot.

“Love separated by a light year… the farthest distant relationship in history?” Chen Jin responded immediately.

“Ahem ahem~”

Shi Xiaotao coughed awkwardly, “Many people in my film crew said the same thing, but I can guarantee you that this is an awesome and heart melting story. You will know when you look at it.”

“Let me have a look then.”

Chen Jin nodded and double clicked on the play button.

Two hours later.

The credits rolled.

Chen Jin blinked his slightly feverish eyes twice, sighed and said, “Xiaotao, I must admit, I’ve underestimated you. Your talents are no less than Japan’s Makoto Shinkai. In your movie, from the main casts acting, dialogues, scenes and everything, they all give people the ‘Kimi no Na wa’ vibe. The ending is also spectacular and heartwarming… a fine production indeed.”

“However…”

Chen Jin pointed out some of its weaknesses. For example, the soundtrack and theme song were not good enough to tap into the human soul. The soundtrack was directly extracted from the galaxy rendering engine. It works very well with the scene, but it would make people feel that the movie was a cheap production… it was all due to her lack in experience that she was unable to conceive the more specific details.

But Chen Jin could help her solve all these problems.

“Give me a week, I’ll give you the perfect ‘Light Years of Love’.”

“Sure. Thank you Mr. Chen.”

Chapter 261 - The Power Of Culture

Haierfa

Base of Operations.

Chen Jin had brought over the movie filmed by Shi Xiaotao so that Nuwa could optimise it.

The optimisation did not solely consist of improving the quality of the details in the special effects…. That would only take a few minutes.

A good movie was not only about the special effects. The abilities of the actors, the soundtracks and theme song were very important too.

There was not much to nitpick about with regards to the script or the acting in her “Light Years of Love”. However, due to the hurry to screen the movie in cinemas during this Lunar New Year, the soundtracks and the theme song were not too perfect.

Hence, after the optimisation had been completed, Chen Jin suggested some ideas for these two areas.

“Xiao Tao, rather than saying that this is a science fiction movie, this should be a romantic movie dressed in the skin of sci-fi. It’s similar to those space musical movies from abroad.”

“But the market potential of such films is definitely not to be underestimated!”

“The ‘Titanic’ is a romance film. It achieved box office sales of 2.18 billion more than 20 years ago. After which, a 3D remake was produced and it earned a stupendous 1 billion in box office sales.”

“The second to fifth place in total box office sales all belonged to science fiction films.”

“Xiaotao, your ‘Light Years of Love’ has elements of both romance and sci-fi. It would be surprising if box office sales are not good. But, it is almost impossible for it to reach the level of ‘Titanic’”.

It was because the “Titanic” was too much of a classic. Not only was the acting excellent, but the soundtracks and musical interludes were all classics. Some of the melodies have been passed down for many years with an unchanging appeal, leaving an indelible impression on many.

Could the “Light Years of Love” with its production period of less than a year attain that kind of standard?

Obviously, that was not possible!

Therefore, in addition to the special effects, optimisation must all be carried out on the soundtracks and theme song.

Say, how would he optimise those? The soundtracks and theme song were all created by humans. They needed to be born from the inspiration and talents of humans. It was impossible for an artificial intelligence to complete a human’s work.

Chen Jin knew this too.

Fortunately, more than 1 million movies and tens of millions of TV drama resources were stored in the databases of the artificial intelligences Alice and Nuwa. Moreover, there were countless music and songs….. The number of such artistic works were still increasing as the robots continued to scour Haierfa.

Chen Jin got Alice and Nuwa to conduct a full search of their databases where they found a number of movies similar to the “Light Years of Love”. Among those, there were some that were such tear-jerking classics. Chen Jin felt that their quality was so much better than “Light Years of Love” that they were in a whole different league.

He easily found the classic soundtracks that he wanted.

He found three suitable pieces of music for the theme song (interlude). The names were “Quantum Entanglement”, “The Road to Find You”, “Beyond Light Years”

These three songs could be inserted when the male and female protagonists were using the quantum communication device to talk to each other, when the male protagonist was finding the female protagonist, and the ending of the finale respectively.

Chen Jin immediately asked Nuwa to insert these soundtracks and songs into the movie and he watched it again.

Gosh, the tear-jerking effect was just too good!

“Box office sales of less than 3 billion is a failure!”

It was entirely possible to achieve 5 billion in box office sales.

If the movie did well in overseas markets, it would become another movie that brought in tens of billions in box office sales.

At this point, Chen Jin suddenly developed the idea to enter the creative industries.

“In the future, the productivity of society will become highly developed. Material goods will become cheaper whereas products that has spiritual or psychological value will become more important. Creative and entertainment industries will become a greater contributor to GDP; they could even become major industries for the nation. High-tech companies will not be as profitable as the creative or entertainment companies. Products with a rich content are starting to become more important than physical products.”

“If Xing Hai Technologies’ revenue grows weak in the future and the market has become saturated, it will be necessary to enter the creative industry in order to maintain the business scale of Xing Hai Technologies.”

“It’s lucky that I have an accumulation of countless creative products. This is yet another treasure trove waiting for development.”

Although Z country was getting stronger and their political and military strength would surpass Merica sooner or later, they still had some serious shortcomings in terms of a creative culture.

If a country did not have a strong creative culture, it would still be difficult to gain respect in other areas no matter how strong they were in those areas.

Of course, this was not an issue that Chen Jin needed to worry about. He could simply march to his own tune.

…

A week later.

Chen Jin sent the optimised version of the movie, “Light Years of Love” to Shi Xiaotao.

The three songs and the sheet music were also sent to her by courier.

“Xiaotao, I’ve found people to compose these three songs and write the lyrics for them. Find some suitable singers to sing these songs well and add them to the specified movie scenes…… Remember, you must find suitable singers for these songs. Otherwise, the desired effect will not be achieved for the movie.”

Chen Jin repeatedly urged that it was impossible for him to bring the original versions with vocals. How could he explain the identities of the singers?

He could only bring the lyrics and music over and hire the singers on Earth.

“Ok.”

By this time, Shi Xiaotao was actually stunned. The optimized movie with the added soundtracks seemed to have undergone a radical change. It seemed to no longer be the film that she had made.

After she watched the entire movie, she could not help but shed tears. This was despite her having seen it countless times before.

Her gaze returned to the sheet music in her hands and she suddenly saw a few lines of the lyrics from one of the songs:

Faced with the vast sea of stars

We’re so tiny like grains of dust

Floating on an expanse of helplessness

Fate lets us meet in troubled times

But destiny wanted us to love each other

I am willing to wait in the unknown for you

Just beyond the distant light year.

For some reason, Shi Xiaotao cried even harder when she saw these lyrics.

For the first time, she was moved by her own film that she could not control her emotions.

For the first time, she realized that a good creative work, was like a home for the soul. It contained an unimaginable power.

…

One month later.

In order to save costs, the “Light Years of Love” was low-key released in cinemas across the country without any large scale publicity campaigns.

Due to insufficient publicity, the cinemas did not provide too many screening slots for movie. The first day of box office sales barely exceeded 100 million and that was only possible by relying on the title and reputation of Shi Xiaotao’s “double billion movie director”.

Then, a terrifying thing happened.

The fame of the film sky-rocketed on the very same day.

Weibo, Circle of friends (WeChat) and various social platforms… Many viewers who had watched the movie strongly recommended it!

“It’s too touching, I walked out of the cinema crying.”

“Nearly everyone cried. Even a stoic old man like me also cried myself stupid.”

“I strongly recommend this! You have to watch this at least once in your lifetime.”

“I think it’s as good as the ‘Titanic’”.

“It only a simple love story, yet it was able to show us the purest form of love that we want the most. I wish from the bottom of my heart that the leading male and female characters can be together. That’s right, I’m a die hard single, but even I want the characters to be happy.”

“A long distance relationship that is a light year apart. Nothing can happen if this was reality. Miracles would only happen if it was true love.”

In addition, “Light Years of Love” had achieved a staggering rating of 9.8 in the Douban Film Review site which was well-known for its spammers, poisonous comments and unreasonable criticisms amongst many other negative features.

Fearing the attacks of fans, even the most nitpicky film reviews had to express, “The ‘Light Years of Love’ had lets us witness the talent of Shi Xiaotao as a director. She has proven herself with this film. ”

With a highly acclaimed reputation.

One could imagine what kind of box office sales the “Light Years of Love” had achieved.

Chen Jin had specially put two packets of tissue paper in his pocket when he brought Su Yun to the cinema to watch this movie. Even after the movie had ended, the tissue papers were still insufficient. He could only pull her into his arms and let her cry her heart out.

Soon afterwards.

Chen Jin went to Su Yun’s hometown to spend the Spring Festival with her family. He stayed for half a month.

They returned as an inseparable pair with their marriage certificates.

Chapter 262 - Possibility Of Moving The Portal

Before getting married, Chen Jin had been plagued by a very troublesome question.

Where should he live after marriage?

Was it ok to continue living in apartment 302? It was the marital home that his parents had prepared for him.

There was definitely a problem with that.

The portal to Haierfa was right in the toilet attached to his bedroom.

Of course, Chen had remodeled the toilet a few months ago to increase security and further avoid suspicion. All washing facilities were removed and the bathroom was transformed into a cloakroom.

The wall where the portal was located had become perfectly connected to the wardrobe.

The level of secrecy had increased yet again.

But…

Chen Jin still hoped that there would not be additional people moving into this apartment.

Unless the time was right, he would never reveal his secret to anyone… Not even his parents.

He was still operating on that same logic – it was way more difficult for two people or more to keep a secret as compared to only one person….. He did not want to add more variables.

Moreover, there were dangers and challenges Haierfa planet. It was fine to bear them alone.

When the situation on Haier’s planet became a lot more positive and he urgently needed more people to assist him, he would naturally bring some of his closest and most trusted people over there.

But not at the moment.

At the very least, that would have to wait until the environmental transformation of Haierfa had been completed. Only then he would bring people over to Haierfa.

Therefore, for the sake of minimising the risk of his secret being exposed, apartment suite 302 could not be used as a marital home for him and Su Yun…. After all, it would be too difficult to keep the secret under wraps when they would be living together every day.

The facilities and layout of the apartment in Sunshine District were unsatisfactory. It was impossible to live in such a simple and crude place.

Moreover, his mother, He Li also hoped that Chen Jin would live closer to them. It would be more convenient for them to visit their grandchildren or to bring them out….. Living in the downstairs apartment of 302 was the most suitable choice..

“Mom, it’s not good to live so closely to you and Dad.”

Chen Jin said, “Moreover, I want to have two kids. When they grow up they will have their own families too. One apartment is not enough. We need to at least have a few more homes.”

However, he promised, “I will buy two apartments in this neighbourhood. We’ll live in the same neighbourhood and we won’t be far away. This should be acceptable?”

He Li was still rather unhappy about his decision. She sighed indistinctly, “Ah, when the son is grown, he can’t be bothered about his mother. The status of the mother in his heart has dropped after he marries a wife.”

Su Yin did not have any opinions. On the contrary, she supported Chen Jin’s decision. There were not many modern women who were willing to live with their mother-in-law. In addition, her mother-in-law was her superior at work. Her opinions would most likely be swept away if they had to live so closely together…. It would be better to live a little further away.

Chen Jin and Su Yun then spent more than ten days viewing many apartments for sale in the Court of Happiness.

After many rounds of selection, they finally settled on an apartment with two levels in Block 6.

First of all, Block 6 was closer to the entrance of the housing estate community. They would be saved from 100 meters of walking to the entrance. This was convenient for travel.

In addition, this double storey apartment had an area of 280 square meters. Apartment 301 and 401 were not connected at first. The original landlord had cut through a portion of the floor of 401 and added a set of stairs to connect the two storeys. Thus, the double storey apartment was created.

It was also due to the massive size of the apartment that the original landlord was not able to sell it for more than a year. In addition, he had urgent need of money. Hence, the price has been lowered again and again. In the end, the apartment only cost $48,000 per square meter.

Chen Jin thought that it was a good price and he planned to buy it. However, Su Yun still felt that it was too expensive and had persisted in bargaining with the landlord for a few days. Finally, the transaction was completed at a price of $43,000 per square meter.

But the landlord requested for a lump sum payment.

Of course this was only a small matter for Chen Jin. He immediately transferred the money to the landlord after signing the contract.

Besides this.

He also transferred 1.4 million Su Yun’s account.

Upon receiving the text message, Su Yun asked him inexplicably. “Why did you transfer so much money to me?”

Chen Jin said, “It the bonus that you had earned with your own ability. Of course I have to transfer the money to your account.” He had witnessed the bargaining ability of the woman and her meticulous calculation, He must reward her.

Su Yun said helplessly, “What do I want your money for?”

However, she did not return the money in the end. After all, this was the money that he had helped to save through her own abilities. She felt a warm glow in her heart. She had money to buy necessities for her baby now…. Her period had been late for 5 days. Good news was likely on the way.

They bought the apartment.

But they had to remodel and redesign it before airing it for a year or so…. They could not move in it right away.

They could only live in apartment 302 in block 16 during this transition period….. He Li was very happy about this.

Hence, Chen Jin had to make another series of adjustments again.

For example, he transformed the south-facing master bedroom where he had been living in into a large gaming lounge. The cloakroom was changed into a storeroom…. He and Su Yun could only live in the north-facing bedroom.

In addition, considering that it would now be impossible to go to Haierfa at night, Chen Jin brought over a simulated reality headgear in order to facilitate the management of Haierfa.

He could wear the headgear and have discussions with the AIs, Nuwa and Alice for any matters pertaining to Haierfa in the future…. This would reduce the frequency that he had to open the portal.

Su Yun saw him wearing this device on his head which seemed to be straight out of a sci-fi novel. Although she was curious, she did not interrogate him about it.

Chen Jin took the initiative and explained, “This is an epoch-marking gaming device that my company is researching in secret. Wife, do you want to experience it?”

Su Yun nodded and donned the headgear. The realism of the simulated world caused her to yell and shriek in succession.

When the experience was over, she said excitedly, “Hubby, your company is too awesome. I’m sure you can sell tons of this headgear!”

Chen Jin shook his head, “I can’t distribute it for now. Its radiation is relatively high, and it causes certain damage to the human brain. It cannot be used for long periods of time.”

“Ah, there’s radiation?”

The woman received a shocked upon hearing the word “radiation”. She reflexively kicked him aside. “Don’t come close to me. This is not good for the child. Don’t use it in this room.”

Su Yun touched her abdomen.

Chen Jin’s eyes brightened.

He took the simulated reality helmet and ran towards the “gaming lounge” across.

It was just that constantly donning this headgear to manage Haierfa was not the most intuitive or direct to the senses. When it was evening on earth, it would be the dark of night in Haierfa. It was not convenient at all.

In the simulated world.

Chen Jin asked Nuwa and Alice: “Is there a technology that can be used to move the portal? Perhaps it can even shrink and expand the portal anytime so that I take it wherever I want?”

Nuwa and Alice nodded at the same time, “Yes, there is!”

“For real?”

Nuwa said, “As long as you master the technology of space, you will be able to manipulate space. This includes moving, expanding and compressing. And on this basis, you could even develop a curvature engine for flight at superluminal speeds.”

Alice added, “But we are unable to master such high-level technology at the moment. Maybe some hundreds or thousands of years later, we will be able to make a breakthrough.” Alice added.

A few hundred years?

Chen Jin shook his head, “I hope that you can achieve a breakthrough as early as possible, the earlier the better! How about this, the two of you can set up a research lab for space technology. Invest a certain amount of resources for this and proceed with the research. No matter if it will be fruitful or not… Starting the research in advance is absolutely the right thing to do. ”

Nuwa and Alice nodded, “Yes, master!”

Chapter 263 - Launch of SX-900

20th February 20X2.

Xing Hai Technologies, together with Purple Ray and Teng Xun Corporation had jointly released a new mobile CPU.

The SX-900!

This was a high-end CPU model that was produced using the 10 nanometer chip processing technology. It had an operating frequency of 2.6GHZ, and an Antutu running benchmark 325,000.

As compared to its previous generation, the SX-800, its performance was increased by 55%.

All aspects of its performance were generally better than the high-end flagship Snapdragon 845 released by Qualcomm more than three years ago. It was also comparable to the current mainstream mid-range U Snapdragon 765 on the market today….. However, the SX-900 had a 10% lead in terms of power consumption and GPU performance.

The most important thing was its price!

The Snapdragon 765 by Qualcomm was selling at $385 per unit, almost $400.

Everyone was shocked when the price of the SX-900 was announced at its launch on the 25th.

$195!

Its price was half of the Snapdragon 765.

If manufacturers purchase in bulk, the price could even be discounted further!

The audience at the launch was abuzz as they immediately started whispering to one another.

“Fuck, they’re actually selling it so cheaply?”

“This is pennies, it’s a proper steal!”

“What an attractive price! And it’s a domestic made to boot. I can tell that the prices of mid-range phones are about to fall again.”

“Mr Amon, we’re done for. Our company is about to completely lose our share of the mid-range market!”

Zheng Junming, the president of Qualcomm’s branch in Z country picked up his mobile phone in a fluster and called Qualcomm’s President, Christian Amon to explain this grim situation.

“what?”

Christian Amon nearly threw his phone on the ground. He cried out in alarm, “$195? Are those folks from Z country insane?!”

He found it unbelievable. The greatest cost in making chips was not in production. The production cost itself was not high. There was still a significant amount of profit to be earned from the hardware even if a medium to high end CPU chip sold for $200 per unit.

The greatest cost was actually in Research and Development!

A good CPU required a team of engineers to spend a year or two on its development during which hundreds of millions would be spent.

Then, they had to look for an OEM to conduct the testing and trials. The cost of each test exceeded $200 million.

A high-performance CPU, from the very start to the end, cost a lot to make. Research and development cost up to several billions even hundreds of billions….. This meant that the price of high-end CPUs could not ever be reduced.

Qualcomm was currently in a very difficult situation. With the wave of “100% domestic made products” in Z country, the market had become an unfavourable one for mobile phones containing Qualcomm CPU chips. Consumers were afraid of backdoors and sales volume had plummeted more than 30%!

This was a fatal blow to Qualcomm. The company’s sales in Z country’s market accounted for more than 70% of its total revenue. The consequences would be unimaginable if they lost their share of Z country’s market.

In order to save themselves, Qualcomm announced that it would move its headquarters to Z country. The President, Vice President and several of the upper management executives of the company had come to Z country. They guaranteed that “our products absolutely do not have any backdoors. If there is, please call the police to arrest us”. This move reflected how important Z country’s market was to Qualcomm. With this, they were able to win the trust of the vast majority of Z country’s consumers.

In addition, the licensing fee for the 5G baseband had been greatly reduced. The price of the CPUs was also lowered to the point that it was even cheaper than the price of those CPUs that were sold in Europe and Merica.

Qualcomm’s various initiatives had won them the title of “A Conscienable Company in The Land of Z” among Z country’s netizens.

Even so.

Qualcomm was still suffering in the face of the strong competition presented by Xing Hai Technologies and Teng Xun, Qualcomm is still suffering. The SX-1000 had snatched away more than 30% of the high-end CPU market for itself while the SX-800 had snatched away more than 40% of the low-end CPU market.

They had never expected that a SX-900 would burst onto the scene of the mid-range CPU market, with only half of the typical price.

Christian Amon had to call the marketing department. “Quickly, announce price cuts for our Snapdragon 7 series. The price will be reduced to less than $200. Yes, including the best, Snapdragon 765. All of their prices cannot exceed $200!”

After saying those words.

He covered his heart, which was dripping with blood.

…

22nd.

Zhongxin International.

At the latest 10 nanometer chip processing factory.

Chen Jin had brought along a few of the upper management for a site visit.

In the factory’s sealed off product testing room.

Chen Jin held a SX-900 chip in his hand and gently rubbed it through his gloves for some time. He asked Zhang Wei Jin who was standing next to him: “President Zhang, this CPU was made with Shanghai Microelectronics’ super-resolution photolithography machine? ”

“Yes.”

Zhang Weijing nodded, “This was made with the first super-resolution photolithography machine assembled by Shangwei. They are currently assembling the second and third units… the machines will arrive soon.”

Chen Jin asked, “How is the yield rate?”

The Chief Technical Inspector, Yang Ming, who was standing behind him leaned in and said “100%. There has been no junk units produced so far, hence it can be regarded as 100%….. This is the advantage of super-resolution photolithography.”

“What about its production capacity? Is there sufficient?”

“President Chen, it is definitely sufficient!”

Yang Ming arched his brows with a lively expression. He said excitedly, “Just this one CPU production line is enough to meet the needs of the entire world for the mid-range CPU.”

It was because super-resolution photolithography machine was used in this chip production line!

6 photolithography lenses were integrated in this first generation of the super resolution photolithography machine.

There were 10,000 miniature lenses inside each major lens.

This meant that there was a total of 60,000 “pens” painting at the same time.

The “canvas” was made up of blocks of 24-inch wafers.

Due to the utilisation of the most advanced intelligent control program, the photolithography efficiency was improved by 3 times. Moreover, each “pen” could even be finely controlled with different tasks assigned to each “pen”.

Hence, such a photolithography machine was equivalent to five conventional immersion type photolithography machines.

It could process 1,000 pieces of 24-inch wafers and cut 1.5 million chips per day.

Such a production line could indeed meet the needs of almost all users of the mid-range CPU.

But was it too cheap to sell such a good CPU for only $195 each?

The Vice President, Liang Mengnan said, “Actually, the material cost of this CPU is only $10 yuan per piece. The OEM will charge another $10 as their processing fee. Including the additional 1 billion in R&D expenses, the per unit cost will be further reduced to $30 if more 100 million units can be sold. Even if we sell one unit at $180 instead of $195, we’ll still have profit margin of 500%.”

He shook his head, “When it comes to chips, as long as you’ve conquered the market, it is definitely an industry of windfall profits.”

Even something that cost pennies could be profitable when the amount sold was sufficiently massive!

“Not bad.”

Chen Jin nodded, this was not bad at all.

Chen Jin thought of something and asked Zhang Wei Jin, “President Zhang, has the adjustments for your 28 nanometer production line been completed? The Xinghai first generation of the Xinghai computer will soon be launched. The performance of the 28 nanometer CPU is still falling way too short of the mark. We are waiting for you to mass produce the 10 nanometer ‘Qinglong First Gen’ CPU.”

“Adjustments have been completed!”

Zhang Wei Jin nodded, “We’re currently waiting for the photolithography machine from Shanghai Microelectronics. Their second unit of their super-resolution photolithography machine is estimated to arrive on the 25th. We will debug the machine first and try our best to produce the first batch of the 10 nanometer ‘Qinglong First Gen’ CPU chips by mid-March.”

“So that means that the ‘Xinghai First Gen’ computer can only be launched at the end of March?”

Chen Jin wrinkled his eyebrows. He had planned to officially release the ‘Xinghai First Gen’ computer on March 15th. Was it not too late if he had to wait until the end of March?

Zhang Wei Jin guaranteed, “President Chen, we’ll try our best to speed up the process so that the launch of the Xinghai computer will not be delayed.”

“All right!”

…

The inspection ended.

However, on the 10th of March.

Zhang Wei Jin suddenly called, “President Chen, we’ve underestimated the difficulty in manufacturing the 10 nanometer computer CPU. Moreover, the surface area of the ‘Qinglong First Gen’ is too big. It’s four times that of the Intel CPU, and twenty times that of the SX-900. There is also a high error rate caused by multiple heavy exposures. We have not successfully produced a 10 nanometer CPU so far. The rejected rate is 100%.”

He added, “We need at least three months to solve these problems.”

Chen Jinda was shocked, “What? The launch is scheduled in the next few days and you don’t even have the finished product? What have you been doing?”

Zhang Wei Jin explained multiple times and proposed a plan of compromise, which was to temporarily give up on the multiple heavy exposures. They would use the super-resolution photolithography machine, to produce a batch of 22 nanometer CPUs as a last minute replacement.

The manufacturing process of the 22 nanometer chip was one generation ahead of the 28 nanometer. It sounded much better too.

The manufacturing difficulty had also been significantly reduced. The yield rate was 100%.

“Ok ok, replace it with 22 nanometer first. In any case, we must make it in time for the launch event.”

Chen Jin shook his head. Although he was flushed with “cheat codes”, technical laws still remain. Intel used 6 or 7 years to conquer the 10 nanometer production techniques. Why did Zhongxin International think that they could achieve the 10 nanometer with only 10 odd days? It was impossible.

The 15th of March soon arrived.

…

Chapter 264 - Xinghai First Generation Computer

Wang Danian, male, 29 years old; a digital product enthusiast with a wealth of knowledge on the subject..

He had been paying attention to Xing Hai Technologies for a long time. He could be described as a “Xing fan”. He had purchased all the products by Xing Hai Technologies, including the Wa-wah robot and the Bang Bang robot. He even bought the Little Star learning machine that he had no use for. After experiencing the product, he gave it to his nephew who was in junior high school.

Even his mobile phone, was also a “Guomi 2” that was equipped with the Star Cloud operating system.

Although these products were good, they were not what he most wanted.

As a rather famous copywriter in the tech circles and someone who wrote science and tech copies for a living, he was yearning for a 100% domestic computer. He wanted to use a domestic made computer to develop his work.

In fact, he had bought a Longxin notebook and used it for a while. But the performance was too poor and resources for the application were too limited. He could not find the information he wanted. Thus, he had no choice but to “retire” it.

He had concluded that 100% domestic made computers would take a long time to develop.

However, this time round!

He harbored considerable expectations for Xing Hai Technologies’ upcoming “Xinghai First Generation” computer.

To be more accurate, he has been paying attention to the progress of the project since Xing Hai Technologies had announced that it would be starting a project to develop an independent operating system with plans to produce to be a domestic computer 2 years ago.

He did not expect that they would achieve results so quickly.

“The all new self-developing Weaver Girl architecture perfectly combines the major dual features of low power consumption and high performance. It is more advanced than the X86 architecture by one whole generation.”

“The CPU also functions as the GPU. Users don’t have to pay a high price to buy a separate graphics card. The game performance is equally strong.”

“Xuanyuan operating system is the first kind system that allows all users to find an operating mode that they love. It has an extremely high degree of freedom, a rich variety of software, and a powerful compatibility. It will make you forget all other operating systems.”

“History will change on March 15th!”

These comments posted by Xing Hai Technologies in its official Weibo account caused Wang Danian to become more excited and his sense of anticipation to increase.

“Stop bragging!”

“You’ll be blown away by all that hot air!”

“Even Longxin doesn’t dare to brag like this.”

“We need at least twenty years to catch up to the foreign countries in the field of personal computers. Be more realistic.”

In the comment section below Weibo post, there were plenty of criticisms and netizens throwing cold water in the comment section below the post. Many netizens advised Xing Hai Technologies to act a more low profile manner. Make a product realistically and honestly. The company should get rid of their tendency of bragging.

However, Wang Danian believed that Xing Hai Technologies would be able to achieve it.

One, he knew a lot of insider information as a veteran blogger in the technology circle.

Two, every boastful claim made by Xing Hai Technologies since its birth had been successfully realized. Not a single “Xing” fan had been disappointed by the company.

Hence, Wang Danian gradually became a hardcore “Xing” fan.

And at this moment, most of the 100,000 audience who had entered the Shanghai Stadium in succession were hardcore “Xing” fans. A small number of them were even fanatical fans.

8 pm sharp.

The lights at the stadium dimmed.

The booming of the music sounded.

The launch event had officially begun.

Everyone’s focus, including Wang Danian’s, was on the stage.

Of course, they would first play a VCR according to the convention – “Why do we have to make domestic computers and systems”

Hence a big table appeared in the video. There were multiple computers placed on the table… Some of these computers were installed with Windows and some used the CPUs by Intel.

The narrator said: “Perhaps everyone has guessed what we are about to do. Yes, we are going to help our competitors to find some bugs again.”

“Our testing organization has conducted a number of rigorous tests on many foreign CPUs. It is confirmed that there are multiple redundant modules with unclear functions. We have also found that there are more than 20 undisclosed commands, including those in encryption and decryption and floating-point operations. Of which, there are three commands that can cause the machine crash or restart even in the user mode. The mechanism directly penetrates various software protection measures. The protection software cannot detect that a command had been embedded in the ordinary applications that can make the system crash.”

“In addition, there is a ‘zombie command’. Its activation can be set up in advance. Once the command is activated, the CPU immediately stops working and cannot be recovered.”

“Now, for the Windows operating system. After many days of troubleshooting by our senior programmers, we have found 33 major loopholes in the win7 system and 227 loopholes in the win107 system. Win11 system also has numerous loopholes. In addition, these systems will collect all the data of users. Moreover, they can access any computers through the remote control program… Of course, this cannot be called a loophole, but a way to better serve the users. You had checked the consent option when the Windows system was activated.”

“I just don’t know if you had been willing to hand over your data and be remotely accessed at any time?”

“In addition, there are similar problems with Fruit computers…”

Fuck!

Many of the audience were swearing after they watched this VCR.

Even knowing that this was the usual tactic by Xinghai Technology’s to blacken the names of their competitors, the large numbers of backdoors and loopholes were still shocking to everyone and caused their blood to run cold.

Some of the audience had brought along their computers. They nearly threw their computers on the ground.

Wang Danian shook his head and smiled: “This is a time-tested trick. Even if it is old-fashioned, it still produces very good effects.”

At this moment.

Chen Jin, who was dressed in a pair of jeans and a gray sweater went up to the stage with an in-ear microphone and a laser pointer…. Of course, this was only his double. The real Chen Jin was remotely controlling the double from Junting Grand Court.

The staff carried the product that was to be released, the Xing Hai First Generation computer (one desktop version and one laptop), onto the stage for a live demonstration.

However, the audience was most concerned about the various performance parameters of the core CPU.

Chen Jin held up the ‘Qinglong First Gen’ CPU in his hand and began to explain.

“I believe that everyone’s first impression of this desktop CPU is the same as mine – that it is big, very big.”

“As a quad-core CPU, one of its cores is equivalent to a complete Intel CPU. It could be described as the single largest core in history.”

“Since the CPU is so big, will it have a very poor power consumption? Will it become a veritable stove?”

“Actually, its TDP is only 160 watts due to the use of the most advanced Weaver architecture. Moreover, with such a large heat dissipation area, the heat can be suppressed using ordinary air cooling methods.”

“The 22 nanometer production technology with a 3.2GHZ frequency….. I have to admit that this is one or two generations behind the most advanced CPUs abroad. However, as we have used the most advanced architecture, it was able to achieve a score of 145,000 points on the entertainment master running benchmark. This performance is on par with the i7-8700K. It is only about 160,000 points from the most advanced iX-9900K… In other words, its performance is equivalent to half of the iX-9900K.”

“Please give us some time. We will reduce this gap soon. And we will definitely pull ahead of them!”

“In addition, our CPU also has a special feature thanks to the new Weaver Girl architecture. Our CPU can also act as a GPU!”

“In specific graphics operations such as games, the Qinglong first generation CPU can redistribute the use of transistors, convert most of the memory and control units into computing units, before recombining them into a powerful GPU! The image computing process can effectively utilize more than 90% of the computing power.”

“In the process of conducting tests on the graphics operations, we’ve found out that this CPU has a running score of up to 160,000. Its overall performance is equivalent to the GTX1060!”

Chen Jin explained, “This is another powerful GPU!”

The staff was on operating the product from the sidelines. He tested the running benchmarks of the desktop twice. It came in at 148,000 and 146,000 points respectively, which was not too different from what he said.

At this instant, the 100,000 live audience and the countless viewers of the live stream were extremely surprised.

“This Weaver architecture is amazing!”

“The CPU can really be used as a GPU.”

“It’s equivalent to GTX1060. I can play survivor games without buying a separate graphics card now, this will save me a lot of money.”

Wang Danian was very excited too. The Xinghai computer possessed a great competitive advantage simply based on this one feature. It could be said to be a major selling point.

But it was useless if only the hardware was good enough to blow the consumers away.

The product had to be complemented with an excellent operating system to fully bring out the full prowess of the hardware.

Therefore, Chen Jin spent more than two hours on the grand introduction of Xuanyuan operating system!

Chapter 265 - Strategy of the Big Boss

As mentioned before, the Xuanyuan operating system had these few special features: Firstly, it was smooth, extremely smooth; more than 50% smoother than the Windows system. Secondly, users could define their preferred mode of operation. Thirdly, it had a good rate of compatibility. The application software in the lite version of the operating system was compatible with the standard version.

But even with so many advantages, the Xuanyuan system was still limited by a huge flaw. The software ecology was far from perfect! There was only 132 software that could be run on the Xuanyuan system so far. This software was all developed by Xing Hai Technologies. There was office software, audio and video players, drawing software, calculators, browsers, and even some small games. All these were sufficient for everyday work.

But how many people actually bought a computer only for work? Were the games that the male otakus loved to play and the movies that the female otakus loved to watch available on the system? Even if the computer was used purely for work, one would still play a game or two such as those survival action games during one’s free time, right? How could they be wowed when these games and features were not available on the Xuanyuan system?

Naturally, Chen Jin took this issue into consideration and proposed a solution at the launch event. “We will build the most complete software ecosystem as fast as possible! The specific measures that we will employ are the same as what we had done to support the Star Alliance. We will personally develop some apps and also allocate 10 billion to reward the numerous app development teams. A quota of 10,000 reward places will be established. The bonus for each rewardee is up to 1 million. Secondly, development tools and learning materials are provided free of charge, allowing developers to quickly master the ‘Yanhuang Language’ to produce our own apps. In addition, we have produced the ‘Yanhuang Work Assistant,’ which is specially used to assist the development software for the Xuanyuan system. The developers can download and use it for free. There are no speed limits, as we want to accelerate the development of the apps. Moreover, our Starry Sky Engine is equipped with an amazing feature after some upgrades. Games developed with this engine can be directly converted for migration to the Xuanyuan system as a whole without making any adjustments. The cost of this conversion is free, and it applies to all games developed with the Starry Sky Engine. In order to encourage the majority of game companies to migrate their games to the Xuanyuan system, we will no longer charge a monthly work assistant fee of $10,000 for companies that buy the Starry Sky Game Engine in full and develop their games on the Xuanyuan platform. For game companies that choose to pay in installments, Xing Hai Technologies will only charge 10% of the profits generated by the business operations of the games. This is 5% less than what is charged by the Windows platform. In short, please be assured that there will be no shortage of games available.” Chen Jin smiled, feeling pleased with himself.

Wow…

The audience was all astir.

Wang Dainian heard a flurry of exclamations rising up beside him.

“F**k, this is the style of a bigwig’s tactics!”

“I really have to take my f**king hat off.”

“I was wondering why he was so confident. It turns out that he had prepared his opening move and strategy in advance!”

“The Starry Sky Game Engine is too powerful. More than 80% of all the major games on the market are made with that particular engine. Even Tencent’s ‘LOL’, ‘A Definite Win’ and their ‘Crossing The Firing Line’ were all remade using the Starry Sky Game Engine. If Tencent did not do that, they would soon lose their users to other games with more exquisite graphics. Hence, all the mainstream games that were developed using the Starry Sky Game Engine can be easily migrated to the Xuanyuan operating system.”

“Once the Xing Hai computer is distributed to the market in bulk, it may take only a few days for the Xuanyuan operating system to be filled with thousands of games developed via the Starry Sky. The lack of entertainment will be instantly solved!”

A netizen sighed in wonder, “Is this the strategy of the big boss? The detail of thought put into this is really terrifying.”

Wang Danian was so full of admiration that he felt like he could prostrate himself on the ground! Why did the introduction of the previous domestic operating systems like the Kirin system or the Red Flag operating system fail? It was largely due to insufficient games. Sometimes, there were even no games available. Fruit computers only had a minor share of the market. This was also due to the fact that many games could not be played on their operating system. The critical factor that determined the success of an operating system was the scope of its games. Even if one only specialized in gaming equipment (such as handhelds, game consoles), one would be able to sell a lot of them. If one made a computer that could only be used for learning and working, it would not sell at all. It was destined to be a bust.

Because this was human nature! The top reason why people liked computers was because they could be used for entertainment. There were only very niche and small markets for computers that could not provide entertainment. In order to solve the problem of insufficient games, Xing Hai Technologies first launched a game engine that could dominate the market. This game engine would win over all the mainstream games, thereby snatching most of the players. The games could then be easily converted and then migrated into a whole new operating system. The problem of the small amount of entertainment available on the system would be immediately solved. A game engine was the life of an operating system. Moreover, the expenses were minimal.

This was a stroke of genius. So… this strategy bowled everyone over. In an instant, countless people who were felt rather negative towards the Xing Hai computer were all won over.

…

The launch event continued on the stage. The last phase of the event had arrived.

“So… how much is it selling for? How much should the Xing Hai First Generation sell for?” Chen Jin walked back and forth on the stage. He asked the audience, “A lot of the audience are computer enthusiasts. There are even some veteran computer DIYers. Let me ask you this; Excluding the monitor, how much should a desktop that is equipped with a 16GB four-channel DDR4 memory drive, a 512GB SSD, a i7-8700K CPU, and a GTX1060 graphics card cost?”

The audience quickly did some mental calculations and arrived at a conclusion.

“About $5,500.”

“About $6,000!”

“If you choose a better driver, power supply, and casing, it will not be less than $6,000.”

“The main reason is that the CPU and the graphics card are expensive. These two add up to $3,500. The other components are cheap. $5,000 can buy you an outdated version.”

“Stop keeping us in suspense and quickly announce the price. I want to see if the price is good!”

The audience was getting a little impatient. Many even stood up with expressions of excitement or nervousness on their faces.

Chen Jin nodded and said, “From now on, all computer-loving gamers, please cheer!”

He slowly turned to the big screen behind him and shook his fist in a downwards motion, “The era of the DIY computer has returned!”

A sensation arose beyond the stage.

A price chart appeared on the big screen:

Xing Hai First Generation desktop, Qinglong First Generation CPU (Long -1000) + 16G memory + 512G solid state host. $3,499

Xing Hai First Generation notebook, Xuanwu First Generation CPU (Gui -1000, Xuanwu is the lite version of Qinglong) + 8G memory +512G solid state host. $2,999.

When this price chart was published, a wave of cheers could be heard from beyond the stage.

“Woah!!”

One phrase overwhelmed the entire bullet screen of the live streaming platform: “What an attractive price!”

Chapter 266 - Wait 115 Days

Cheap, affordable, conscient product…

Aside from the word “tasty”, these were also the words that popped up in the people’s mind.

The question followed: Why was the Xing Hai computer so cheap?

It dragged down the price of computers with similar specifications by a whole 2000 dollars!

The reason was that the Qinglong First Gen CPU cost only 1000 dollars individually and the simpler version of the Xuanwu First Gen was only 350 dollars. Adding on with the cost saved from purchasing a graphics card, at least 2000 dollars of the device’s installation costs were saved.

This was the dawn of the era of cheap computers.

…

Backcourt experience zone.

60 Xing Hai computers were placed on a few long tables. Among the computers, half of them were desktops and the other half were laptops.

Numerous evaluation agencies, video content creators, veteran bloggers, and technology media reporters have experienced the Xing Hai First Generation computers in the experience zone.

Wang Danian who was swift and agile in his movements got himself a spot to try the Xing Hai First Generation desktop. He sat on the chair and begun operating the computer.

First, he tested powering on and off the computer. Sure enough, the desktop booted in three seconds, while the laptop on the other hand needs five.

The system was very smooth. Its system response was even better than the Fruit computer he used before. The interface was simple, beautiful, and pleasing to the eye.

Under Window mode, nothing felt accustomed to him.

“3499 for the CPU, around 4000 dollars after adding graphics. Nope, not expensive! I must get one as my work computer when presales start at the 20th of March!” Wang Danian said with exclamation. Xing Hai Technologies certainly lived up to his expectations and truly released a computer that everyone would have the urge to buy. People buy it not because of feelings or emotions, but for its powerful performance, complete features and a price that no one could say no!

Prideful!

Placing his hands on the mouse and keyboard and sitting in front of this purely local-made computer, Wang Danian felt pride surging through him.

“Garbage!”

“A piece of disgusting rubbish!”

All of a sudden, he heard these words in his ears.

Wang Danian’s smile stiffened as he turned around to have a look. The person who was hurling insults was a blonde-haired foreigner who was sitting beside him. He was berating the computer with his broken Z language mixed with English.

“Yes indeed, this is pure garbage.”

“Never have I seen such an ugly operating system in my life.”

Behind the blonde man, there was another two foreigners who held cameras in their hands. They echoed with the blonde man and made ear-piercing sneers.

Wang Danian had a good command over English and caught on what they said. His face sterned down at an instant.

He immediately got to the side of the blonde, and said to him in English, “Hey, what’s your name, why did you show up in this place?”

The blonde man was startled by his words. He slightly tuned down his laughter and said, “My name is Tom Jackson, call me Tom. We are evaluators from the M nation. Behind me are my partners. We got permission to join this product conference and we have the rights to give our opinions on this product.”

“So… what do you think about this computer?”

Wang Danian questioned them with a stern face.

The blonde man and his partners looked at each other for a year. Then, they lifted their heads and burst into laughter.

“Hahaha~”

“Hahahaha!”

Their laughter was extremely exaggerated with their bodies leaning backward.

Upon seeing Wang Danian’s irritated expression, Tom Jackson spread his hands and said, “My friend from Z, I’m sorry that we only speak the truth. Garbage. In our eyes, this computer is pure garbage and merely a big joke to us.” After finishing, he along with his two partners started laughing frantically once again.

“Why did you say so?”

Wang Nanian held his fist and asked solemnly.

“You angry, boy?”

Tom Jackson whistled tauntingly. Then, with a scorning expression, he said, “Then I’ll tell you why!”

He set his sight back to the computer in front of him and explained, “First of all, its CPU performance is so, so bad, only equivalent to the i7-8700K five years ago. Meaning to say, the CPU’s inside these computers are at least five years behind us… do you really feel proud of such an outdated CPU?”

“This…” Wang Danian was unable to refute.

“Besides, it has too few features inside. It can only do some word processing and run some boring, outdated minigames. Frankly speaking, nobody would have the urge to buy this product. Only you Z’s with your brains burnt will have interest in such garbage.”

“Software issues could be solved swiftly. Do not forget the Star Cloud system, your Android empire is almost going to be toppled by this system!” Wang Danian refuted.

Tom Jackson gulped and laughed in disdain, “You guys won because you people are good in copy and paste, just like this Xuanyuan operating system. Its Window mode is a complete rip off from the Windows system, you should be paying us patent fees!”

“Window mode wasn’t invented by Microsoft. They too borrowed it from Macintosh computers. Everybody can use this design; it isn’t some kind of patent.” Wang Danian corrected them.

Tom Jackson’s face was altering between white and red. He waved his hands in outrage, “Anyways, you people are just despicable thieves, all you know to do is copying!”

He was too lazy to argue with Wang Danian. He left the backcourt experience zone along with his two partners promptly.

Exiting the stadium.

At the parking area.

The few figures having a talk over there caught Tom Jackson’s eyes!

Jin Chen.

The host of tonight’s conference, Xing Hai Technologies’s founder, Jin Chen, was right over there.

“Quickly, take out your phones and record, I’m going to ask that Mr. Chen a few questions!” Tom Jackson told two of his partners beside him. His daringness prompted his desire to interview the richest man in Z.

“Ok!”

His two partners nodded. They fixed their phones on the camera rods and turned on shooting mode.

“Mr. Jin Chen! Mr. Jin Chen!”

Tom Jackson ran towards Chen Jin’s avatar until they were halted by two guards 50 meters away.

Upon hearing the shouting of the razz over there, Chen Jin who was currently negotiating with two important hardware suppliers about cooperative measures, frowned.

“Mr. Jin Chen! I’m a reporter from the M nation. I would like to ask you just one question, please allow me to ask you a question!” Tom Jackson was shouting amok.

Chen Jin was annoyed to his limits. He waved his hands, asking the guards to let them through. He said to them, “What you want to ask?”

“What I want to ask is, Mr. Jin Chen, why are you launching such a meaningless product tonight, didn’t you know that these are trailing far behind our computers?” Tom Jackson said with an enigmatical tone.

Two of his partners lifted their phones at the same time and positioned them in front of Chen Jin. They too would like to listen to his answer.

Why release an outdated product?

Chen Jin kept quiet for a while, ruminating this question in his mind.

He thought about it and done some calculations on the inside. Then, he told the three foreigners, “Today’s product conference is indeed a little rushed. I’ll make it this way, please wait for us patiently for 115 days. We will release a product that is far more advanced than what you have.”

“Zhong Xin International should be able to solve their problems and come out with the 10nm process technology for the CPU within four months right?”

After answering this question, he turned over and left.

He could roughly hear the sky-piercing laughter’s of those three.

…

On the second day.

A short video blown up on the internet.

Fires quickly spread through the Z nation, even across the globe.

Chapter 267 - To Fight Against Piracy, to Defend Microsoft’s Interests

That short clip was exactly Tom Jackson’s interview video.

The one interviewed was exactly the richest man in Z, Chen Jin.

Naturally, that one sentence that caught the netizens attention was, “Wait for us for 115 days. We will release a product that is far more advanced than what you have.”

The reaction of Z netizens:

“Learn how to swank from the moguls.”

“Taking down Intel’s strongest iX-9900K in 115 days? Is this a little too much?”

“I like that confidence!”

“In other words, does this mean that there are 115 days left in the countdown until we slap the foreigners in their faces?”

“Those few yellow hairs made me very angry. I hope they could really make it happen.” Wang Danian commented.

“Seats are ready, just wait for the show.”

…

As the clip was also uploaded on YouTube and other video sharing platforms overseas, the reaction of foreign netizens was also very exuberant.

Sarcasm was all over the comments section:

“Sorry I laughed. This is the best joke I’ve ever heard.”

“My God, it turns out that the Z’s are so good in boasting.”

“115 days? Did he get the unit wrong? ‘Days’ should be ‘Years’ right?”

“Honestly speaking I admire this man from Z. He’s so loaded, just that his brain is a little off.”

“All they ever know is to steal our tech and copy our creativity. Now, they want to surpass us through plagiarism? Dream on!”

“Well, that’s the Z’s for you. They can’t do anything but boast. They can’t surpass the M nation in like, forever.” said a comment written in traditional Z language.

There were also a few comments written in Z language that attempted to talk about how powerful the Weave Architecture was and clarify that all of these were created by the Z’s own wisdom. However, those commenters were flamed badly. Many replied to them, “Get back to Z!”.

Those Chinese netizens who were flamed could only shake their heads helplessly. They do not wish to continue debating with those foreign keyboard warriors. They only hoped that Xing Hai Technologies could really step up their game, genuinely take out something better within 115 days and slap those insulters in their face with Xing Hai’s true power!

…

20th of March. 10 in the morning.

Online preorders for the Xing Hai First Generation computers were opened.

The first batch of stock was 2 million units, with desktop and laptop each accounting for half.

Before opening pre-sales, Xing Hai Technologies issued an announcement through multiple channels:

The Xing Hai First Generation computer is only a low-end entry-level product. Users who desire to experience a higher performance could wait patiently for a few months. In a few months, we will be releasing the high-performance “Xing Hai Second Generation” computers. Similarly, it will have reasonable pricing. Users should not be hurried to purchase the current unit.

This announcement really did recoil some buyers. Since a better product would be released in a few months, they would just have to endure another few months.

But the majority of people ignored the announcement and signed for it straight away.

“It’s just some 3k dollar stuff, what is there to think about?”

“I’ll buy a Xing Hai laptop for now. I’ll buy the ‘tastier’ desktop a few months later.”

“I can’t wait for that long! It’s smells so good I cannot!”

“A poor f*ck here. Can only afford the low-end version (crying)”

Hence, in just about three hours after online preorders opened, all 2 million Xing Hai First Generation computers were sold out.

This result was rather shocking!

It implied that Xing Hai computers were completely accepted and widely received by the mainstream market!

Compared to the rains and storms that Loongson had gone through over the past 20 years, on PC’s, the results Loongson acquired after 20 years of hard work was inferior to Xing Hai computer’s three hours of pre-sales.

Looking at this, Fu Weiwu felt bitter on the inside. But at the same time, he was pleased. After all, these computers were made by the Z’s. The Xing Hai computer’s success was every Z’s success and deserved the pride of every citizen of the Z nation!

The Xing Hai computer’s robust launching also officially announced that Western companies that have dominated the computer market for nearly 50 years was about to face a terrible opponent.

Most certainly, Intel was not indifferent in this matter. The company announced their countermeasures the following day Xing Hai First Generation computers were launched.

Price reduction!

CPU prices were scaled down significantly. Especially the i7-8700K that was benchmarked by the “Qinglong First Gen” CPU. Its individual price plunged from 1600 dollars a unit to 800 dollars a unit. Directly slashed by half!

This was enough to show that Intel attaches importance to the Xing Hai computer. They do not want to be the second Google, not to mention losing the Z-country market!

It was not only so. Intel’s chairman Brian Annick even dragged along graphics giant, Nvidia, hoping that they would reduce the prices of their graphics card to cope with the impact of the Xing Hai computers. They gave another graphics card company, AMD a similar calling.

These two graphics card companies replied swiftly.

Nvidia agreed to reduce the price of their GTX 1060 graphics card from 1600 dollars to around 1200 dollars. AMD on the other hand shown no willingness to cut down prices. They graphics card was already cheap by default. If they do so, won’t they be starving by the streets?

Even for a full-blown price reduction, the price of a CPU and independent graphics card combined was still over 2000 dollars. Compared to the “Qinglong First Gen” that could be a CPU and a GPU, they still do not possess any price/performance advantages.

Judging by the advanced Weave Architecture and the pricings and performances of core hardware’s, Xing Hai Technologies had placed themselves in an invincible position!

Thereupon, Xing Hai Technologies’s next target was placed on the head of Microsoft.

Chen Jin dispatched Ling Dong Jun to Kings City’s copyright management agency. He gave the agency an advice, hoping that they would adopt his suggestion.

“What may you suggest?” the person in charge of the agency asked.

“Strictly crack down pirated Windows OS and fully promote the use of genuine operating systems. Let piracy disappear from our land once and for all.” said Ling Jun Dong while smiling.

“More than 90% of computers in the Z nation market is using pirated versions of the Windows system. Are you calling us to enforce strict anti-piracy policies?” The person in charge took a deep look at Ling Jun Dong, wanting to figure out something from his face.

Ling Jun Dong nodded mildly, “Our GDP per capita is already over 10000 units. We are already a well-off society, even considered a moderately developed country. We should not continue to pirate the other people’s operating systems and use their intellectual property for free. It will drop us a bad reputation internationally.”

“From what I know, the cheapest genuine win7 system is only 399 dollars. If it comes along with additional genuine software’s such as word, PPT and Excel, the total price would only be at 888 dollars. I think the majority of consumers should be able to afford this amount of expenditures. It’s only a meagre amount after all. There is really no need for us to continue using pirated versions.”

Ling Jun Dong shook his head, “If consumers still think that the genuine software is too pricy and still chooses to not spend a single cent, we could only advise them to buy the Xing Hai computer which was incorporated with the Xuanyuan system. Our Xuanyuan system is free of charge, most of its software tools are so too, although there might be quite an amount of ads… their experience may be a bit worse than the genuine windows system.”

Of course, if users want to completely shut off harassment from advertisements, they could spend a little money to buy an ad-free version.

He spread his hands, “It’s not our problem that they choose to be thrifty right? If they do not want to spend, they could only settle for something less and opt for the Xing Hai computer.”

“In a few words, we wish to abolish piracy thoroughly and let the Z nation become a country that respects intellectual property! Even if Microsoft is our competitor, we still have an obligation to defend their interests in terms of Intellectual Property Protection!”

Ling Jun Dong’s stern and righteous words however did not gain the applause that it deserved.

The head of the copyright agency flipped his eyes at him instead. Reluctantly, he gave him a thumbs up and said, “I’ll reflect this to my superiors. Will reply timely.”

…

Three days later.

The National Copyright Administration announced abruptly:

From 25th of March onwards, an anti-crime campaign by the code “HERALD” will be commenced. Authorities will clampdown every pirated operating system. The duration of this campaign has no limit. We strive to eradicate all forms of piracy within a years’ time.

Boom…

This announcement brought about a huge response.

Chapter 268 - Microsoft Is Flustered

The Windows system was going to ban all pirated versions?

After the news spread on the internet.

Unquestionably, the netizens were immediately rendered in a field of outraged.

“I’ve been using the pirated version for so many decades and you’re asking me to suddenly switch to the genuine version?”

“Do you know how expensive genuine Windows is? The cheapest is 399, the more expensive ones are 699 or even 899! Who would be willing to take out so much money?”

“What’s the big deal of a couple hundred bucks? On steam, I’ve seen a lot of people buying games, skins, recharges, krypton golds, and they spend hundreds and hundreds without even blinking their eyes. What’s up with them being thrifty when it comes to the OS?”

Someone immediately refuted, “Rich people only accounts for the minority, most of us are poor f*cks! You said a couple hundred bucks is no big deal, pay for us then, don’t talk sh*t until you’ve walked in our boots!”

“Indeed, it should be time to go all genuine. Many pirated systems have a lot of junk software’s and Trojans, which hampers security. I think it’s well worth it to trade a couple hundred for security.

This comment was also refuted, “Who said that genuine Windows is sure to be safe? Did you watch Xing Hai Technologies’s conference? No matter genuine or pirated, backdoors and loopholes will still exist, you can’t spend money for privacy and security!”

“I don’t care, I’m accustomed to the pirated version, can’t change habits, not gonna spend even a single cent!”

“Using pirated versions is against the law now! The National Copyright Administration’s new regulation says that: after 25th of March, for those who spread pirated copies, as long as they go over 100 points, law enforcement agencies will file a case against them. Not only that they will be fined not less than 30 thousand dollars, they will also be jailed for not less than six months. Besides, they will be opening a report hotline. Reporters can acquire half of the paid fine. For those who install pirated versions on the PC’s after the 25th, Windows will launch their anti-piracy program, which will render your PC screen in black and make it totally unusable.”

This…

That person flew into rage out of humiliation, “Then…then screw Windows! I’m switching to other computers!”

“I heard that the Xing Hai computer’s Xuanyuan OS is free, let’s use the Xing Hai computer in the future alright?”

“Exactly! You dare charge us? Then we will not use you!”

The netizens assented with one another.

…

The M nation.

Microsoft headquarters.

After the news of the Z nation strictly enforcing anti-piracy reached them.

Microsoft’s executives held an emergency meeting.

In the meeting, none of Microsoft’s higher ups smiled in glee in face of this great news. In contrary, they were a little flustered.

One of the executive members asked chairman Brian Annick, “Brian, Z is really going for real, what should we do?”

Brian Annick’s expression was in broken weather. He was very gloomy.

He had in fact pressured the Z nation for many times regarding anti-piracy. He frequently bashes the Z nation in public occasions for not being effective in protecting intellectual property.

Today, the Z nation stepped up and announced to abolish piracy in entirety. It would soon bring huge economic benefits to Microsoft. The Z nation market was eminently huge. One billion devices had Windows installed, but genuine rates were less than 10%. If all of those, switch to the genuine version, with each device paying at least 399 dollars, multiply that by one billion…

That would be an astonishing 400-billion-dollar revenue!

If the shareholders and investors were aware that the Z nation was going all authentic, Microsoft’s stocks would absolutely be skyrocketing.

Yet…

Of all times, the Z nation chose to go head on head with piracy at this particular time.

Brian Annick can’t seem to make himself happy. The other executives too, saw the real issue.

“It’s a scheme, this is the Z’s scheme!”

“They wish to exploit the fact that the Windows system requires a charge to promote their own operating system.”

“Everybody likes free stuff. Now, since we have a charge, those free OS’s will steal our market and threaten our dominance.”

“We can’t accept the Z’s NCA’s invitation. We must not send out black screens to those computers installed with pirated systems!”

In fact, with Microsoft’s technical capabilities, they definitely have the means to contain those pirated operating systems on the Z nation market. As long as one’s computer does not have a genuine system activation code and have no genuine purchase record, not only that they could send them a black screen, they could even send over blue screens, green screens or just anything else to hamper the computers normal operations.

For Microsoft, executing anti-piracy was not an issue, technically speaking. But for some reason, they did not do so.

“NoNoNo!”

Brian Annick waved his hands and said, “We must not reject them. Once we rejected them, our intentions will be revealed.”

He felt that he had seemingly shot himself in the foot. Didn’t he request for the Z nation’s help to combat piracy for numerous times? Now, the Z nation had officially agreed and decided to eradicate pirated systems within one years’ time, but they, on the other hand, was reluctant to provide technical cooperative measures as to sending black screens.

They have suddenly backed off and resign themselves from the fight against piracy.

What does this imply?

So, this is what Brian Annick felt the most awkward about.

After discussing and exchanging views, they came out with the final solution.

Actively participate in the Z nation’s anti-piracy operations and produce a good financial report this year.

Slash the price of genuine operating systems on the Z nation market. Lower them until the 150, 300, and 450-dollar price range, making the genuine system affordable to all users from Z.

…

After Microsoft’s response plan reached the Z nation.

The netizens had another round of heated discussions.

An analytical article wrote by veteran blogger with the ID “tWisting wEather” became widespread and gained countless approvals.

“I have made a guess many years ago and now, it has been proven.”

“This theory was also proposed by Academician Yan Nanguang, which is that, pirated Windows operating systems being prevalent across the whole Z nation is the result of Microsoft’s silent consent.”

“Their purpose is to occupy the Z nation market and stop our domestic OS’s from rising.”

“Is it truly that hard for them to go against piracy? Must they work with the Z nation’s government to do so?”

“Obviously that’s not the case! It is very simple if Microsoft so wants to fight piracy. They could embed many backdoors or loopholes in their system, and if you are not using a genuine version, they could immediately give you a black screen so that you can’t use your computer at all. It is impossible for the average person to create an operating system. It will be impossible to resist such anti-piracy measures.”

“But Microsoft did not do so. Instead, they throw the blame on the Z government, branding our country as misfits in protecting intellectual property. What they opted for is a well thought out sinister approach!”

“The reason behind Microsoft’s silent consent is simple. The Z nation market is too big. Even if they only ask government departments and companies to use genuine copies, they will still make a lot of money. If the entire Z nation so uses the genuine system, multiplying our numbers with the priciest Windows system, we would be at least a three to four hundred-billion-dollar market for them… if Microsoft so wishes to take all in, dream on!”

“If I were the Z nation’s government, I would rather bash one hundred billion dollars in to make our own operating system then to see Microsoft make so much money.”

“If I were an IT company, I would also be willing to invest all my funds to develop an operating system and gobble down a large portion of the cake.

“This is why our own operating system has not appeared until lately, or they cannot occupy the mainstream. Microsoft killed them with their pirated versions.

“This is Microsoft’s marketing strategy. They don’t even care about the pirated copies out there. They just want to conquer this market firmly so that they can harvest us in the future.”

There were a few who proposed their doubts: the Windows system imposes fees in Europe and in Japan and Gorea as well, why didn’t they only allow piracy in the Z nation, could this not be the Z nation’s government’s fault?

The problem was that, how could a small market of tens of millions of people be compared with a big market of more than one billion people?

With how much weight the Z nation was carrying, as long as there were companies that see the 100-billion-dollar annual profit they could make from the operating system market, within a short time, they might come out with tens or even hundreds of operating systems. The price tug of war would be immensely fierce. For the final operating system that prevailed, why would it be afraid of Windows?”

This included the domestic single-player game industry. It was exactly piracy that destroyed the infinite possibilities.

Chapter 269 - The Grandmaster Era

1st of April.

It was a special day.

Xing Hai Technologies launched a brand-new product – the “Star Brain No. 4” AI chip which architecture was based on the human neural network.

The chip was made using the 7 nm process technology. It had the size of a beer bottle cap. Its intelligent computing speed reached 7 trillion times per second; a two-fold improvement compared to the previous “Star Brain No. 3”.

The chip assimilates with the “smart learning program” and could meet the needs in various scenarios.

For the Little Star Fourth Gen learning machine which was apparently in test phase, exerting its utmost strength “gobbling” up university level professional knowledge, after it was incorporated with this version of the AI chip, it would be able to hit the shelves very soon.

But the purpose of Xing Hai Technologies specially announcing the “Star Brain No. 4” AI chip was not to declare the forthcoming launch of the “Little Star Fourth Gen” learning machine.

It was to announce that the “Intelligent Age” had arrived!

This presumably confused some people. The intelligent age had long dawned, who gave Xing Hai Technologies the privilege to announce its arrival?

But it was indeed so.

The “Intelligent Age” announced by Xing Hai Technologies was the true “Intelligent Age”.

They declared that intelligent products would slip into each and every industry and into every corner of the human society, bringing forth great convenience in mankind’s working, learning, and living environment.

The scope of its application would become infinitely broad!

The “Star Brain No. 4” AI chip’s usage was not only limited to Xing Hai Technologies. Its sales and usage were made available to any manufacturers within the country’s boundaries. Besides, they also released the “StarNet Developer Platform”, welcoming all companies or developers to use this platform to create their desired smart applications.

During the conference.

Chen Jin said via his Avatar robot:

“From today onwards, all local industries or individual developers can purchase our Star Brain No.4 AI chip, use our StarNet Developer Platform, and with them, develop your own smart device.”

“Let me give you a few common applications in several fields.”

“For example, in the agricultural field, farming is actually an experience-oriented profession. There is a lot of knowledge in planting crop seeds, weeding, fertilizing, watering, pest control, and harvesting. There would likely be no revenue for those who do not possess these knowledges. However, we can develop an ‘Agricultural Assistant’, to guide farmers in how to farm and manage their crops. It could even let novices with zero knowledge become farming experts swiftly.

“For example, in vehicle maintenance, it is said that it takes at least two years to train a qualified repair worker which understands the structure of the car engine, gearbox, brakes, etc., and knows how to troubleshoot a faulty car, develop a corresponding maintenance plan, and at last, fix a car… Ordinary apprentices may not be able to fix complex and large-scale malfunctions. Only experienced masters can repair a car quickly, and with quality.”

“Now, if someone invents a ‘Vehicle Service Assistant’ based on the StarNet Developer Platform and the Star Brain No. 4 AI chip, and upload a bunch of master level repair techniques to the database, allowing the smart learning program to learn and master these vehicle repair knowledges, once the apprentices use the ‘Vehicle Service Assistant’, all repair workers can become grandmasters with its help.”

“In the field of maintenance, in addition to the maintenance of vehicles, there are some large-scale construction machinery, and even more complex tanks, aircraft, ships and aircraft carriers. Their corresponding ‘Service Assistant’ could be developed for each and every of them.”

“Another example will be factory machine operations. A ‘Machine Operation Assistant’ could be developed to help workers get started quickly.”

“In addition, for assembly line factories, if they feel that training workers is too time-consuming or it’s too much trouble, they can develop a ‘Training Assistant’ to improve the workers training efficiency.

“There are also welding, fitting, and various types of technical jobs. All of which can develop their own respective ‘Work Assistant’ to improve their workers work efficiency and experience.”

“Let every ‘Work Assistant’ become an experienced ‘grandmaster’ and they will guide you correctly, making you competent in all kinds of work.”

“The most powerful thing about the ‘Work Assistant’ is that, with its help, every hands-on kind of person, even a little, will be able to fix a spaceship.”

Unrefutably, with all kinds of work assistances being created, no matter the job, the difficulty in getting started and the cost of learning will be greatly reduced. Occupational barriers would no longer exist. The ultimate situation would be: even if you do not know anything, with the “Work Assistant” at hand, you can do anything.

For example, if one sees a plane, but does not know how to maneuver it, but when knowledge about “aircraft maneuvering” was uploaded into the “Work Assistant” in their hands, they could learn how to fly a plane following the step-by-step instructions at the work assistant.

Like skills in games, the era that knowledge was like skill had been unfolded. If one owns the “Work Assistant”, it would almost be like protagonists in fantasy novels meeting an old grandmaster, which would immediately transform them from a human waste to a genius.

Therefore, this was why Xing Hai Technologies released the “Star Brain No. 4” AI chip and launched the StarNet Developer Platform. It was to guide the arrival of the “Grandmaster Era”.

However…

How would this benefit Xing Hai Technologies?

What would they gain by selling the most advanced AI chip to others and support other companies to participate in the development of the “Work Assistant” for other industries?

Knowledge!

Xing Hai Technologies would gain invaluable knowledge!

If a company develops a “Vehicle Service Assistant”, it would mean that Xing Hai Technologies will master all knowledge in vehicle service.

If a company develops a “Welder Assistant”, it would mean that Xing Hai Technologies will master all techniques related to welding.

If companies use a variety of work assistants to create aircrafts, aircraft carriers, and spacecrafts, then Xing Hai Technologies which had mastery over all their workmanship would have the ability to build aircrafts, aircraft carriers, spacecrafts….

The knowledge or skills of various industries would almost be completely amassed by Xing Hai Technologies.

Knowledge is wealth. Mastering infinite knowledge will be equivalent to grasping infinite wealth.

Moreover, the efficiency of collecting knowledge in this way was the highest. Afterall, not all industries were like the programming industry, which had more than five million people in the field. Many industries were niche industries with only some ten thousand or hundred thousand workers. It was not worth for Xing Hai Technologies to invent the field’s corresponding “Work Assistant” themselves to help those workers in niche industries. Not only that it would be of meagre value, they would also be overwhelmed by workload!

It would be the best if they provide the chips, development tools, big data services and let the others do it themselves.

…

After Xing Hai Technologies’s conference ended.

It dropped a bombshell in all local industries!

At the same time where many were excited for the dawn of the “Intelligent Age”, they were astonished by Xing Hai Technologies’s wild ambitions.

Chapter 270 - Wish to be a Monopolist of Knowledge

Wu Yunxing, 26. An ordinary office worker. Engaged in software programming work.

He was a so-called ‘coding peasant’.

His programming skills was so so. His wages were still okay, at about 20k per month.

He was a committed hedonist. He would spend all the money he earned every month. Every weekend, he would tour around just everywhere on his 400-thousand-dollar Jaguar along with his gang of scoundrels, going fishing, barbecuing and even going on some expeditions to some deep mountain areas. He lived a chic life.

Hm? That was illogical. Since he was from the Moonlight Clan, how did he amass 400 thousand dollars to buy a Jaguar?

The money, of course, was from home.

His family was a major contributor for grain supplies. Their family had more than 1000 acres of land in their hometown of Nanyun Province, gaining them a considerable amount of revenues every year. Moreover, he was the only child at home. His parents dotted him a lot. What he wants, he gets.

In spite of that, Wu Yunxin was reluctant to return to his hometown and take over his parents’ large grain fields. He would rather be a small programmer in a big city.

The village was too boring. Despite the village having fresh air and beautiful scenery, he still preferred the hustles and bustles of the city. Furthermore, his body can’t do rough work. He knew nothing about farming, and farming was not swanky enough for him either. He was truly not made for growing plants. But every time he remembered how his parents looked at him with some kind of expectation in their eyes, and their stuttering voices through phone calls which they seemingly wanted to tell him something, a stinging feeling would stir up in his heart… as if a tug-of-war was happening between the bustling city and the tranquil village.

In fact, he does not fancy a programmer’s job. What he liked was to travel around the world, looking at the scenery of various places and take part in some exciting outdoor adventures. But as he had gone to many lands and got tired with the ever-changing scenery, in the end, he realized: his hometown had the best view and the best people.

He felt his heart throbbing… calling him back home to inherit his family’s property.

However, he was only 26 this year. He was still young. Until this day, he had no achievements. The money in his savings had never gone past five digits.

“It’s better if I work another two years, earn some money, then go home, startup a countryside tourism business and make a promotion website or something. This could stop people from babbling about me.”

After making this decision, he went out less frequently with his friends and was able to save up some 10 thousand bucks every month. Through his hard work, his programming skills improved by a considerable margin.

Upon seeing Xing Hai Technologies’s product conference for the “Star Brain No. 4” AI Chip, he was utterly amazed. The “Intelligent Age” described by Xing Hai Technologies was actually so exaggerated and magnificent at the same time.

An era in which knowledge becomes skill sets.

Occupational barriers completely vanishing.

Anyone with a little bit of hands-on ability can repair a spaceship.

Wu Yunxing held his fragile little heart and said, “You scared me with your wild ambitions Xing Hai Technologies!”

“I still thought that you guys were pure hearted warriors yesterday. Who would’ve known that you people will vilify into a demon lord so swiftly?”

Exactly! He was talking about their wild ambition!

Anybody with even tiny amounts of distinguishing abilities could discern Xing Hai Technologies secluded raging wild ambitions. As the only company that had mastered the “intelligent learning technology” in the whole world, the reason why Xing Hai Technologies kindheartedly imparted their “Star Brain No. 4” chip, provided the StarNet platform, and called upon companies or individuals to develop the work assistance for various industries could be seen with a glance.

Knowledge!

To garner knowledge that extends to infinity and beyond.

Wu Yunxin thumped his chest, “You’ve change Xing Hai Technologies, you’ve changed. You actually wished to monopolize knowledge itself. Now you want all industries to help you evolve into a super demon lord?”

All torn up.

A company that was brimming with kindness and justice suddenly plunged into the trench of atrocity. He was utterly disappointed!

After he was done with his insults.

He intended to resign immediately, then recruit a few partners to form a team. He and his newly formed team would buy a “Star Brain No. 4” AI chip, apply to become a developer at the StarNet platform and develop a bombshell product – the Farming Assistant.

That’s right, he also intended to join the ranks of the demon lord, leading his partners to seek the true path in farming.

If he successfully develops the “Farming Assistant” and his product gain entrée to the market, not only that he would gain the villagers favor and earn a heck ton of money, he could also put his heads up in the sky in front of his relatives and friends when he returns home… a glorious comeback indeed.

This was much better than doing countryside tourism.

It would be fine even if he failed. By creating a “Farming Assistant” for himself, constantly amassing skills and expertise, he would also turn into an excellent farmer in a few years’ time.

Thinking about this, he shook his head and smiled bitterly, “I’m actually so excited. Is farming truly my calling?”

…

Huxi Province.

In the courtyard of a pig factory.

“Do you mean that if I ask somebody to make a ‘Pig Rearing Assistant’, my techniques will all be stolen by Xing Hai Technologies?” pig rearer Huang Hongdong asked after listening to the words of the only scholar in town.

“Uhm… you can say it that way. After all, all the database will be uploaded to Xing Hai Technologies’s servers.” the college student nodded and said.

“No no no! This can’t happen!”

Huang Hongdong shook his head violently, “If my secret technique is stolen by Xing Hai Technologies and they make a pig factory, won’t I lose all my fortune?”

Huang Hongdong who had 30 years of experience in the field had his own way of rearing pigs. There were only a few within the country that claimed superiority over him in the field.

The pigs he rears grow fast, require less injections and had high meat content. Besides, he had a secret technique which allowed him to lower fodder usage by 10%, thus reducing total costs by 20%.

With this secret technique of his, in the pig rearing industry which was said to have “one year profit, one year break-even, one year loss”, he still managed to profit every year.

But what was the point of him being so good in rearing pigs?

None of his three sons were interested in raising pigs and were reluctant to work in his factory. This college student on the other hand had already stayed in his pig factory clenching his teeth for more than half a year, just to be with his youngest daughter.

“Uncle, Xing Hai Technologies will not open a pig factory.”

The college student explained, “Every pig of yours in this factory earns you two to three hundred dollars, an ok-ish revenue. But Xing Hai Technologies is a company doing high tech products, they won’t even bother to look at these little profits of yours. You worry too much.”

“But if you are willing to take out some money and let me help make a ‘Pig Rearing Assistant’ for you and upload your most advanced pig rearing expertise to the server, this technique of yours won’t be lost in time. It can be passed down one generation after another. This bowl of rice will forever be in the possession of the Huang’s.” the college student said on paper. In fact, his actual intentions were: after he comes up with the pig rearing assistant, he would sell the assistant to all the pig factories within the country. In that way, the profit he would make would far exceed that of guarding this single pig factory.

It won’t be lost?

His words touched the bottom of Huang Hongdong’s heart. His old eyes glowed.

He was already near his sixties. Three of his sons were useless. The college student in front of him was not bad, but he was not willing to be married into the family and call himself a Huang, thus making him an outsider. But his pig rearing techniques and pig factory must be preserved for his future generations.

After some thought, he nodded, “Alright, I will give you the money. Go make a ‘Pig Rearing Assistant’ for me and give it to my grandchildren in the future.”

As for Xing Hai Technologies, if they dare rear pigs with his technique, he would definitely take them into court!

Chapter 271 - Knowledge = Money

On the 2nd of April, a special guest had arrived at Xing Hai Technologies. He wore a light gray Chinese-style tunic suit with a pair of old-fashioned glasses. Not one hair was out of place. The huge smile on his face made one feel as if the spring breeze was blowing gently onto one’s face.

Chief Tan!

The government had sent their personnel over. And he was rather high-ranking too. In a meeting room, Minister Tan shook his head. He explained how they had been caught off-guard. “Comrade Little Chen, your company had not even given us a heads-up before you announced such a big decision. We were caught totally unprepared by the announcement.”

Chen Jin asked strangely, “Oh, what’s wrong, is there any problem?”

In the eyes of Chief Tan, the question by Chen Jin seemed to be too much of an attempt to look stupid. “Comrade Little Chen, let’s stop talking in circles. The government definitely supports what your company is doing. This is an era where artificial intelligence will permeate all levels of society and all aspects of life. This has great benefits for the future development of all industries and occupations. No one is going to stop it. Everyone wants to embrace a bright future. It’s just that…”

Chen Jin looked at him. “Just what?”

Chief Tan asked him with a squint, “It’s just that all the knowledge, technology, and data are stored in your company’s databases. They’ve all become your company’s ‘assets’. Is that an accurate description?”

“Yes.” Chen Jin nodded. “All data related to the smart products developed on the StarNet platform by users who have bought the Star Brain 4 chip will be uploaded to the Xing Hai Technologies’ databases. These data will be rightly owned by Xing Hai Technologies according to the collaboration rules. But users of the uploaded data can use that data for free forever.”

Minister Tan’s eyes widened and he heaved a sigh. He stopped beating around the bush and said straightforwardly, “So according to what you’ve said, the online statements are correct: Xing Hai Technologies wants to be a monopoly of knowledge; it wants to monopolize all knowledge?”

“No, no, no.” Chen Jin waved his hands. “I don’t like the term ‘monopoly’. This word has a negative connotation. I think it is most appropriate to use the term ‘Guardian of Knowledge’ to describe Xing Hai Technologies.”

Chief Tan rolled his eyes. What was the difference? His expression became serious. “Comrade Little Chen, I think you have not realized the seriousness of the problem! You are moving towards a road with no return. Can knowledge be monopolized by an individual, or even a company? What if this individual uses this knowledge to cause chaos in the various industries and earn all the profits? Is there any industry that can withstand this? Wouldn’t this mean that the particular individual had successfully monopolized all industries?”

“No.” Chen Jin shook his head and said, “Xing Hai Technologies will not enter every industry. We are only involved in a few industries, or we’ll create and grow new industries. We will not destroy the jobs or careers of others. I’ve also guaranteed this at yesterday’s launch event. We will not use the data uploaded by the users to do things that harm the interests of the users. If they are still worried, the state can introduce relevant laws to restrict Xing Hai Technologies from entering traditional industries.” Regarding this point, Chen Jin’s conscience was clear. He had never destroyed any jobs in Z country from the very first production of the Wa-wah robot, to the Bang Bang robot, the Little Star learning machine, and the Xing Hai computer. The products by Xing Hai Technologies had never killed off any jobs. On the contrary, they had created many job opportunities. Of course, the launch of the “Work Assistant” had caused a wave of unemployment in the programming field, but it was quickly solved. However, he had destroyed the jobs of many foreigners who were simply enjoying the fruits of others’ labor.

“No, this is still unsatisfactory!” Chief Tan said sternly, “You still don’t have a clear idea of the nature of the problem. I’m not only talking about the economic aspect, but also the right to the control of knowledge! It is too dangerous if all knowledge is controlled by one person. He would have the ability to influence and control all industries. In reality, he would have ultimate control as an individual and he could do whatever he wanted. He could force any company that relies on smart assistants to do submit to his will. The harm caused by this type of monopoly must be contained at the source!”

Chen Jin raised his head slightly. “So… the government does not support the growth of the ‘Intelligent Age?’”

“It’s not that the government doesn’t support it, but it can’t be monopolized by one company! There must be competition and restrictions.”

Chen Jin nodded. He understood the meaning of the other party. Minister Tan proposed two solution plans. One, split Xing Hai Technologies into two independent companies. Two, stop keeping the ‘Intelligent Learning Technology’ as their company secret and allow other companies to master it. This would promote the existence of several companies like Xing Hai Technologies in the market.

However, both plans were rejected by Chen Jin. Xing Hai Technologies could not be split up! The ‘Intelligent Learning Technology’ was the most essential technology created by the company; its value was limitless and he would not share it with anyone.

“You…” Minister Tan glared at him. “Young man, no one will support your actions like this. The Anti-Monopoly Department will not tolerate this either. You’ll meet a dead end sooner or later!”

Chen Jin suddenly said, “Chief Tan, I want to ask you a question.”

Chief Tan leaned back on the sofa. “Go ahead!”

“Say, how many currencies will a country issue?”

“Of course there can only be one currency. Wouldn’t things be a mess if there was more than one type of currency?”

“That’s right, and this is true for knowledge as well. Knowledge is the same as the monetary currency. It’s best to be ‘issued’ by only one organization.” Chen Jin explained, “Everyone is emphasizing the danger of monopoly, but they are not clear about the advantages that monopoly can bring. This is especially true for knowledge. If only one company is responsible for the collection and management of knowledge, then the efficiency of collection would be significantly greater than two companies doing the same thing. The content collected would also be more comprehensive. First of all, I will propose a concept. Since all users of smart devices will upload their knowledge to Xing Hai Technologies’ database, my company can be regarded as a bank. A ‘knowledge bank’ that stores knowledge. Let’s assume that there are two ‘knowledge banks’ on the market now. Clever companies will put a portion of their core technologies in Bank A and the remaining portion in Bank B. However, neither Bank A nor B will be able to fully master the core technologies of that company. Once knowledge is dispersed, we will arrive at the universal formula much later. We can put all our knowledge into one bank and let these pieces of knowledge learn from each other, combine, and expand to birth more comprehensive knowledge. This new knowledge can then be combined to form even more powerful technologies. This will undoubtedly mean a great improvement for the whole industry and even the development of our country. Just like the principle of the Little Star learning machine, as long as we have mastered all the pieces of knowledge, the various industries in Z country will develop at an accelerated pace. Major scientific and technological achievements will emerge with the strength and speed of blowouts from a geyser. This is the ultimate form of knowledge-sharing. Everyone can get the best knowledge. Then in order to surpass others and gain a competitive advantage, they would have no choice but to explore higher levels of knowledge and more advanced technologies from the foundations. Under this kind of competition mechanism, the speed of Z country’s science and technology development will definitely be amazing! With this mechanism and at the pace of development, the future of Z country will be unimaginable in 50, 100, or 500 years later.”

They could even rapidly enter the interstellar era and start on their journey to outer space. If the number of knowledge banks was not limited to Xing Hai Technologies, the ultimate form of knowledge-sharing would never be realized due to innate human selfishness. For example, there had been only one knowledge bank in Haierfa since the emergence of the intelligent learning technology on the planet. However, the government had forcibly split it up in order to prevent a monopoly. The knowledge bank was unable to come into its greatest potential. This had caused Nuwa to sigh in lament. She expressed that if the knowledge banks could be unified, Haierfa could have achieved the breakthroughs needed to evolve into a higher civilization before the aliens had sealed off their technology. It would have been impossible for Haierfa to stagnate for hundreds of years. And if only one knowledge bank was established on Earth and all knowledge was unified in this bank, their future would be limitless.

After listening to Chen Jin’s words, Chief Tan’s eyes gradually lit up. His body was straight as a pencil and he trembled slightly. He said with some excitement, “Comrade Little Chen, I may have misunderstood you! I will report this situation to the higher-ups and ask for their comments!” He returned to the capital on that very same day.

…

Two days later, Chief Tan returned and had a discussion with Chen Jin that lasted half a day before coming up with the final solution:

1. Agree to Xing Hai Technologies establishing the “Xing Hai Knowledge Bank.” It is designated as the sole Central Bank, responsible for collecting and managing all data.

2. The State will send special forces to protect the “permanent data center” in Guishan Province that is built by Xing Hai Technologies with an investment of $10 billion from being damaged by others.

3. The State will invest $20 billion to build a “data backup center.” Xing Hai Knowledge Bank must give the State a complete set of backups of all the data in its possession.

4. The State has the right to use all data.

With this, the two sides had successfully reached an agreement (it seemed a little bit like thieves dividing their ill-gotten gains). All obstacles to the “Intelligent Age” strategy by Xing Hai Technologies had been eliminated. The road forward could only be described as smooth.

Chapter 272 - I Have No Regrets Joining Xing Hai Technologies

In the process of negotiations with Chief Tan, it was obvious that Xing Hai Technologies had won the exclusive authority to be the sole manager of knowledge. But he had also made some concessions, such as giving the State the right to use all data as well as providing a full set of backup data. The “Permanent Data Center” established by Xing Hai Technologies in Guishan Province would also be protected by special armed forces in full gear. Considerable power had been given to the State.

Of course, Chen Jin was not so naive as to think that he could rest easy after giving them such a huge compromise. Things were never that easy or simple. The world was always in a state of flux! There was no organization that could be trusted forever except for yourself. Hence, he still kept one last move up his sleeve.

A mysterious data network cable was pulled from the company and connected to the Base of Operations on Haierfa via Apartment 302 of Block 16 in the Court of Happiness. In addition, this network cable was equipped with quantum encryption and it had a transmission rate of up to 10GB/s. All high-value data in the “Xing Hai Knowledge Bank” could be sent to the Base of Operations and saved to a large-capacity data storage device. In this way, Chen Jin would have two sets of complete data. No matter what changes might occur in Xing Hai Technologies in a number of years, he would have at least one copy of the high-value data.

For now, these data did not possess much reference value for Chen Jin. After all, the level of technology on Haierfa was at least two hundred years ahead of Earth. The question was, what about two hundred years later? If the level of scientific and technological development on Earth caught up to or partially exceeded Haierfa two hundred years later, then the reference value of the data stored in the “Xing Hai Knowledge Bank” would be huge. It could push the development on Haierfa onto a faster pace.

Therefore, Chen Jin still hoped that the collaboration between Xing Hai Technologies and the State could be stabilized. It would allow the “Xing Hai Knowledge Bank” to stand for another 200 years, 500 years, or even longer. It would be best to be the “Guardian of Knowledge” forever, to protect the infinite knowledge. In short, he hoped that the company and State had a stable, cooperative relationship. The more stable, the better.

…

On the 5th of April, at the periphery of the Baoshan Industrial Zone, somewhere not far from the river, a skyscraper of 298 meters that was built like a battle spaceship pierced the sky. The building was surrounded by some fog-diffusing structure. The fog produced seemed to rush towards the sky in great plumes. It had 80 stories, and two large words composed of iron and silver components were depicted on its surface: “Xing Hai.”

It was completed. Xing Hai Technologies’ Headquarters, which had been under construction for nearly three years and cost more than 6 billion, was finally completed. The headquarters building, which covered more than 60,000 square meters and could accommodate up to 5,000 employees, was also known as the “Xing Hai Building.”

After the interior renovation was completed, the first batch of company staff, which numbered in the hundreds, arrived on a number of buses from the old headquarters. From now on, they would be working in the new headquarters.

The bus stopped at the entrance of the Xing Hai Building. Like other colleagues, Zhen Ker Shin, who was holding a stack of documents in her arms, alighted from the bus with excitement. She was quickly surrounded by voices of exclamations.

“Wow!”

“This is the headquarters of our company?”

“It’s too spectacular! It suits my aesthetic so much.”

“It gives off an intense science and tech feel.”

“This is surreal. I can’t believe that I’m working in such a company.”

Zhen Ker Shin raised her head too. She was stunned. Lights flashed in her eyes and hot tears were welling up. The company headquarters building was really like an interstellar battleship rising high into the sky. Beautiful, spectacular and magnificent. It caused her heart to swell with emotion and her chest to be full of pride.

“It’s very shocking, isn’t it?” The Vice President Liang Ying stood beside her and said, “This is the headquarters of our company. It does not stand amongst the most prosperous buildings, instead, it stands alone next to the river and looks somewhat lonely. It is not the tallest building in the city of Shanghai. Its height is not even in the top 10, but it will definitely be one of the most famous landmark buildings in Shanghai! It will be a tourist attraction and there will be many people visiting every day. This will be the so-called palace where countless job seekers would want to enter and participate in the work they want to do the most. Countless wishes will become reality here. Countless dreams will shine here. With the momentum of this interstellar battleship, our race and our country will soar towards the sky. We will be unstoppable!”

Faced with the majesty of this building, Liang Ying was hit with a wave of poetic inspiration. If not for her lack of talent in this area, she would have created an entire poem on the spot.

“Well said!”

Clap clap clap!

A round of applause rose from the audience.

Zhen Ker Shin also nodded repeatedly. “Vice President Liang, well said.”

The first batch of employees posed for a few photos together at the entrance of the building. Then, they entered the headquarters with the items that they had carried with them.

Zhen Ker Shin was finally able to see the interior of such a grand building. For example, the style of its decoration style was actually quite similar to the interior of an interstellar battleship. It had a silver and white theme, automatic doors, corridors that were designed with dense circuit patterns, numerous bulky pipelines, projected screens, and many robots that were rushing in all directions, busy with their tasks. It gave her a sense of really being inside an interstellar battleship.

“This is too realistic!”

“We should wear a spacesuit for work. The business suit is too incompatible for this environment.”

“I finally realized the boss’s ambitions. He really wants to take us to the stars. This building is to allow us to familiarize ourselves with the working environment of a spaceship in advance.”

Her colleagues sighed with deep emotion.

Zhen Ker Shin found her work station and saw a completely transparent item that seemed like a thin card that was inserted in a card slot on the table. She pressed the main switch button. After about three seconds, the transparent card lit up. It turned out to be a new generation of OLED display.

A notification sounded after the computer had been turned on. “Hello, Zhen Ker Shin of the 12th workstation, I am Office Assistant Xiaotian. From now on, you can use me for your work. I am very powerful and I hope to bring you a wonderful working experience.”

This building was also a high-tech building. Its power supply system, air conditioning system, air circulation, smart office… everything was high-tech. Working in this building seemed to be something that she would only experience after time traveling to the future of 20 years later. Zhen Ker Shin sat down and used the Office Assistant Xiaotian to deal with some documents. Her work efficiency more than doubled. She had finished all her work. She sat on the chair and idled for some time. Looking through the light, murky green glass window next to her, she stared at the scenery outside and sank into a temporary peace.

At that moment, she heard some colleagues in a discussion. “Don’t touch the windows casually. These are all power-generating glass. When there is light in the daytime, it can provide 10% of the electricity needed for the building. It will save hundreds of thousands of watts a year. In addition, these glasses also function as OLED screens. Stay back tonight and you will definitely see something greatly shocking!”

Zhen Ker Shin’s pretty eyes brightened up. She was filled with anticipation, as she waited for the evening to arrive. The sky outside turned dark. A rumble could be heard.

Indeed, Zheng Ker Shin, whose eyes had been glued onto the window, saw a very shocking scene. The scenery outside the window rapidly retreated. The city below shrunk. The clouds from the sky started to appear in front of her.

After bursting out of the atmosphere, the burning stars, magnificent nebulas, and infinite sea of stars with their numerous shining lights were presented to the audience.

Although this was just a video played on OLED glass, there were still many who stood rooted to the ground for a long time, feeling deeply shocked.

A male colleague clenched his fists and his eyes filled with tears. He shouted, “I have no regrets joining Xing Hai Technologies in this life!”

“No regrets joining Xing Hai Technologies in this life!”

Many followed suit, shouting with faces flushed from excitement. The gentle voice of Zheng Ker Shin was also amongst them.

Chapter 273 - Successful Mass Production of C919!

On the 8th of April, major news suddenly spread like wildfire on the Internet. The first domestic large-scale passenger aircraft C919 announced that it had broken the ban on sales of advanced engines by foreign companies into Z country. It had successfully achieved mass production! The news caused a flurry of heated discussions on the Internet. Many netizens did not believe this to be true.

“How is this possible? It has only been a short time since the sales ban was implemented!”

“They probably bought the engine from the Russians. This really is the fastest way to solve the problem.”

“No, no! The news release said that the aircraft uses the domestic CJ-1000 large bypass ratio engine. The performances of its thrust, fuel consumption, working lifespan, and other functions are comparable to the LeapX engine produced by CFM International. Our domestic engine overcame the ban!”

“Impossible!”

Immediately, someone shook his head. “Absolutely impossible! Our engine sector lags behind their foreign counterparts by more than 30 years. It is impossible to catch up in just a few months. There is definitely something fishy about this news.”

“But Shang Fei Corporation has indeed solved the problem of engine supply. It has mass-produced a batch of 10 C919 passenger aircrafts in one go. You can see from the details of the picture. Look at the engine mounted under the wing. It is clearly different from the LeapX engine and the PS90 engine by the Russians. It seems to be a little smaller. It is doubtless a domestic engine.”

“Even if it is a domestic engine, its performance cannot be said to be comparable to the LeapX! It’s at least one generation behind! They used this outdated engine in order to adhere to the stipulations of the contract, not to default. In reality, its fuel consumption is terrible and it has no competitive edge at all… All the customers will definitely ask for a refund. This is the last struggle of a company in its death throes!”

“Scram! You’re just sucking up to the westerners. No matter how bad it is, the domestic engine is still our engine. We have to use it even if the fuel consumption is terrible! It doesn’t matter even if the flight ticket is expensive, I’ll buy it!”

“Yes, we must support domestic-made large aircrafts, we can bear it even if the price of the flight tickets are higher!”

Netizens said that even if the ticket price was more expensive, they would still take the domestic aircraft. All the employees in Shang Fei were very touched by the support of netizens. The company immediately issued a letter of gratitude. In the postscript, they expressed that the problem of the engine had been completely solved and the performance of the engine was indeed comparable to the LeapX engine. Its fuel consumption index was even better than the LeapX. They said, “Everyone, please rest assured regarding our domestic-made large scale aircraft.”

This reply made some of the netizens happy and excited. But there were more who remained unbelievers.

“Braggart!”

“Impossible!”

“Lies! Cheaters!”

There were also a small number of netizens who held a very clear stance. They were determined that this was a scam.

…

On the morning of April 9th, at Shanghai International Airport, an aircraft was parked at the end of one of the runways. A large portion of the aircraft was painted the red color of their flag. It was the mass-produced C919. The C919 would have its first passenger flight that morning. The aircraft would be fully loaded with 168 passengers before flying to another airport 2,800 kilometers away. Then, they would proceed with the return trip without refueling. This meant that they would take off and land twice. The total distance of the round trip was 5,600 kilometers.

Shang Fei Corporation attached great importance to this test flight. There were thousands of people standing on both sides of the airport runway. Except for the majority of media reporters, most of the audience was composed of Shang Fei’s leaders, employees, and their relatives.

Chen Jin and his mother, He Li, were also among the crowd who were sending off the plane. He Li asked, “Old Chen, do you really have to board the plane and personally participate in the test flight?” She was a little worried, and even grabbed the hand of her husband, Chen Gang. She shook her head slightly. A small part of her wished that he would not go.

“It’s okay, I have ample confidence in the plane that we made ourselves!” Chen Gang gave his wife a firm look. He had 300% confidence in this passenger flight test.

Chen Jin could not help but ask, “Dad, has the engine of this plane really attained a powerful standard? I remember that the maximum flight distance of the C919 was 5,500 kilometers at the very beginning. You have to fly 5,600 kilometers this time and complete two take-offs and landings, which consumes more fuel… Is this passenger flight test safe?” He felt that today’s passenger flight test was a little risky. If the fuel reserves were not enough, or… He shook his head.

“It’ll be fine, it’ll be absolutely fine!” Chen Gang explained, “Compared to the most advanced LeapX engine, the thrust of our engine is weaker by 5% but our fuel consumption is 10% less. It is an astonishing 0.432kg/kgf.h. Moreover, because our aircraft is lighter by 15%, the actual thrust-to-weight ratio is not small at all. The thrust is completely sufficient. The most amazing thing about it is its voyage performance. You may not believe it, but in the virtual factory simulation environment, the fully loaded C919 exceeded the 8,000 kilometer limit voyage. This was almost 50% more than the voyage that was designed at the very beginning. Although the fuel consumption during the take-off phase is a little higher, it will have no problem with two takeoffs and landings and a voyage of 6,000 kilometers. And we’re only flying 5,600 kilometers today. That leaves more than 400 kilometers available. In addition, through this flight test, we also want to say this to the vast number of netizens who showed their concern for this domestic-made large-scale passenger aircraft, our customers, as well as the foreigners who banned the sales of their engines to our country: We have succeeded with our engines! Our aircrafts are absolutely reliable!” Chen Gang was a little excited by now. He experienced an urge to let loose and vent his feelings.

Chen Jin nodded. The reserve of 400-plus kilometers was still a little risky, but it was sufficient. “Dad, go! Visit the great mountains and rivers of our motherland. Today is the day your dreams come true.” Chen Jin raised his two thumbs and watched him board the C919.

At 09:50, the tower issued the go-ahead for taking off.

“We are starting the engine…”

“We are about to taxi, accelerating…”

“Pulling up the lever. The landing gear is leaving the ground…”

“Increase the thrust; takeoff is successful!”

More than three hours later, at 1:01, the plane successfully landed at another airport 2,800 kilometers away. The plane remained at the airport for an hour and everyone had their lunch. All passengers and crew members boarded the plane again.

At 2:05, the plane taxied and took off again. It rushed towards the infinite sky with greater acceleration.

At 5:00, more than 100,000 live audience members had gathered at Shanghai International Airport. Millions more crowded in the area surrounding the airport. They held their breath as they looked anxiously westwards. The excitement was clearly etched on the faces of countless people. Some were clenching their fists or tearing up. They seemed like a group of radars as they collectively turned to face one direction.

The passenger flight test was a 360-degree live broadcast. Every possible angle was filmed by cameras. There were no opportunities to cheat under the watchful eyes of millions. If the domestic engine was working fine, then the plane would return. If the domestic engine was not working, then the plane…

Reality was louder than words! Action was better than any online post! And at that moment, everyone was watching anxiously.

Everyone prayed in their heart. Return, you have to return. No matter if the domestic engine works or not, the plane must return!

There were more than 160 lives on the plane!

Suddenly, a low humming sound was heard.

“Everyone, quickly look over there!” Someone exclaimed and pointed in one direction.

Everyone followed and looked in that direction. Exclamations arose in an instant as the audience became all astir.

“It came back!”

“Our plane has returned!”

Against the backdrop of the reddish sky and the amber sun that was slowly slipping below the mountains, a red-painted plane bore its way out of the sun like a fiery stream of light. As the engine roared louder and louder, it seemed to resemble the scream of a phoenix. It symbolized the rebirth and rise of an ancient nation!

With countless eyes witnessing this scene, the plane landed steadily on the runway.

“We’ve succeeded!”

“Wooaaaaahhhh!”

“Boo hoo hoo!”

Cheering, shouting and crying resounded…

The international airport was all abuzz, the city of Shanghai was all abuzz, and the entire land of Z country was caught in a sensation!

Chapter 274 - Old Friend, Do You Still Want To Buy The Engine?

The plane firmly rolled to a stop. The shuttle bus quickly drew close and accurately placed the gangway against the cabin door. A flight attendant opened the door. She smiled and waved towards a spot below her. The aerial drone captured the image of her face. Her makeup had completely melted off. The 168 passengers and crew members who participated in the passenger flight test walked down the gangway in succession as they alighted from the plane.

“Comrades, all of you have worked hard.” The two most senior officials were also at the scene. They personally put a flower wreath on all the participants of the flight test. They also shook hands with the participants and greeted them warmly. The significance of this passenger flight test was even greater than the achievement of the passenger space flight! After all, Z country had achieved manned space flight more than a decade ago. But the domestic large-scale passenger aircraft was only officially mass-produced today. One could tell from this fact that the difficulty of developing the large passenger aircraft was even greater than that of the manned rocket. Now that Z country had made such a major breakthrough, how could it not be given the highest priority?

Chen Jin found his father, Chen Gang, amongst the many passengers. He was immediately shocked! He quickly walked over. “Dad, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?” Chen Jin looked at his father, who was holding onto another person and crying.

The engineer held in Chen Gang’s arms explained helplessly, “Your dad is different from me. The only thing he did on the plane was taking photos with his mobile phone, whereas I was crying non-stop. When we got off the plane, your dad became this mess. It makes me want to cry again.”

“I’ll take care of my Dad from here.” Chen Jin nodded at him. He supported his father’s elbow with his arm. Chen Gang rested his head on his son’s shoulder. Like a child, Chen Gang continued to sob loudly.

“Son, it’s been almost twenty years. My dream has finally come true. To tell you the truth, I haven’t flown in a plane for 18 years. I forgot what it feels like to fly. It’s not due to the lack of money or opportunity. I am a researcher involved in the development of our own large-scale domestic passenger aircraft. I would feel ashamed to fly on a foreign-made plane. I had vowed to take our own domestic plane! I’ll visit the whole country on that plane. But your Dad never achieved that. Even after working for more than ten years, I had no fame; no achievement. I’m about to retire but I didn’t even know if I could fly on our very own domestic-made plane. We are still relying on foreign countries for the core components of our aircrafts. Son, you’ve helped me. If it weren’t for you, I don’t even know how long it would take for my dreams to become a reality. Son, thank you. Thank you!” Chen Gang babbled in spurts as he cried.

Chen Jin patted his shoulder heavily. He said comfortingly, “Dad, don’t cry. I really didn’t do much. Our large-scale plane will be successful even without me. Part of the success is because of your efforts too. You have always been my pride!”

“No, I am just an old and mediocre person. Son, you are my pride.” Chen Jin shook his head helplessly.

At this time, his mother, He Li, had come over. She found this scene to be touching, yet funny. She patted her husband’s back. “You’re so old yet you’re crying like a child. Aren’t you afraid to be laughed at by others? Alright. Quickly, stop crying. The celebration banquet will begin soon. Let’s go to the banquet now.”

Chen Gang felt a little embarrassed as he listened to his wife. He wiped his eyes with his hand. Smiling, he said, “Ok.”

Chen Jin smiled and shook his head. His eyes felt a little strange. When he rubbed them with his hands, he found that they were wet too.

…

The mass production of the C919 and the success of its passenger flight test quickly spread around the world.

In France, at the Safran Company Headquarters, Hertmann, the Chairman and CEO of the company watched a video clip that had been cut down to 24 minutes. His eyes were filled with disbelief, set in a face that showed how incredulous he felt. He pressed the replay button and watched the video twice. He widened his eyes and watched it carefully but could not find any problems with it. “Loaded with the maximum passenger capacity, they took off and landed twice. The straight flight distance is 5,600 kilometers. It is absolutely impossible with our LeapX engine! Our aircraft with a similar standard can fly a maximum of 4,500 kilometers. But they flew more than 1,100 kilometers… Perhaps the people of Z country arranged a space-time wormhole in the middle of the two airports? This would shorten the distance of thousands of kilometers. How else could they still have sufficient fuel for the return flight?”

Of course, the theory of there being a time and space wormhole was ridiculous. It was too much of an attempt to lie to themselves and others. Moreover, no problems could be seen in the video. He could only come to the conclusion that he did not want to face; the engine by Z country was good. Its standard was at the very least comparable to the LeapX engine! Moreover, the body of C919 was 15% lighter, so it had extra mileage of 1,100 kilometers.

He calculated the time. It was a total of eight months from August of last year to this April. In this short time, Z country had conquered the technology of the advanced engine and solved the supply shortage of the core components. Their speed was amazing! He watched the video again and saw the surprised and proud expressions on the countless faces of the ordinary Z citizens after the plane had landed. Their eyes revealed a passionate, determined, and profound light shining from within as well as the tears welling up. He heard the wave of cheers like a tsunami.

Hertmann felt a tingle of anticipation. His soul seemed to have received some kind of stimulation. He could not help but grit his teeth. “Merica, you fools!” He immediately picked up the phone and called the head of General Electric (GE), Flannery, to request that they should immediately cancel the ban on the sale of the passenger aircraft engine to Z country. They should recapture the Z market! He even yelled in anger, “I said this long ago. We can’t underestimate Z country; don’t anger Z people! They can’t physically hurt us, but they will kill our wallets and we’ll all become poor bastards. This is a punishment that’s crueler than death. But you’re repeating your stupidity again and again! Cancel the ban! Immediately, right now! Then tell the Z country that you’re sorry. They will consider buying our engine!”

“Yes, yes, yes!” Flannery did not argue. On the contrary, he quickly agreed to everything.

…

5 days later, after numerous argumentations and analysis by various professionals, they fully confirmed that Z country had made a breakthrough in the technology of the advanced aircraft engine. The Merican Congress finally relented. With 55% of approval votes, the cancellation of the ban on the sale of the engine for civilian use was successfully passed. This allowed the LeapX engine to be exported to Z country’s market again.

The moment the ban was lifted, Hertmann immediately called the President of Shang Fei Corporation, He Jinlong. As the two had a good personal relationship, Hertman called He Jin Long an old friend. “Hey, old friend, let me tell you excellent news! I’ve been working hard rubbing shoulders with all the right people and speaking into their ears. The Merican Congress finally agreed to lift the ban on the LeapX engine! That regrettable incident has passed. You can buy this product again. You can buy as much as you like. The price is 15% lower now. Old friend, let’s re-sign the contract.” Hertmann’s voice over the phone was brimming with enthusiasm. He believed that He Jinlong would definitely re-contract. After all, what Z country had was a newly developed engine that had to bear huge research and development costs. Its price would never be as cheap as what he could offer.

He Jin Long listened to the translation provided by the translator. He Jin Long stared blankly into the air for a moment. “Sorry, we don’t need it!” He hung up immediately.

Chapter 275 - The First Flight of The Sixth Generation Fighter Jets

The successful mass production of C919 and the smooth resolution of the advanced engine supply issue perplexed the Western intelligence agencies no matter how much they wracked their brains over it. This was a mystery. Warren Turner, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of Merica, and his subordinates, had a special meeting to discuss and analyze the incident.

“How did they solve the engine problem?” Warren Turner looked down and asked, “In theory, their engines will take at least 30 to 50 years to catch up with us. How did they do it in only eight months?”

The subordinates looked blankly at each other. No one could answer this question. After some time, one of the cleverer subordinates said, “Sir, I think there must be a problem with the engine made by Z country! Although its performance appears to be good and the fuel consumption is not high, its working lifespan will never exceed 1,000 hours! Failures will occur after 1,000 hours. It’s just a one-off product with garbage quality!” He spoke with utmost certainty.

“He’s right.”

“The quality of their products has always been terrible!”

“I agree.”

Voices expressing their agreement rose up across the table. Warren Turner frowned. None of these ignorant answers were satisfactory. It was also insulting the intelligence of the Z people! Engines for the passenger aircrafts had extremely high safety requirements. If the engine really was a “one-off product,” not only would passengers be afraid to board the plane, even the airline companies that had purchased this aircraft would quickly ask for a refund. It was simply impossible to bluff their way out of this shoddy behavior of using poor quality substitutes.

“I don’t think their engine quality is that bad. The working lifespan should be around 5,000 hours, which is one-sixth of our engine. The time between major maintenance and repairs should be about 1,000 hours, this is also much worse than our engines. Even so, from the indicators of the thrust-to-weight ratio and fuel consumption, Z country seems to have produced a very good engine. The standard of their engine’s design has undergone an astonishing level of improvement. We can no longer look down on their engines.” This comment was made by one of the subordinates, who was a pilot and a graduate of mechanical design studies. Warren Turner nodded as he provided a more professional analysis.

This subordinate continued with a serious tone. “It is harder for the design of engines for the passenger aircrafts to pass than those for the military aircraft. If Z country had achieved such a breakthrough in the engines for the passenger aircrafts, then their progress in engines for military aircraft will be equally astonishing. If there are no accidents, they will also achieve great improvements in the field of military engines within a short time! Perhaps they have already achieved a breakthrough. This is a problem that cannot be neglected. Once Z country has produced a high-performance military engine, it will pose a fatal threat to us! We should increase our intelligence-gathering forces to confirm the extent of Z country’s achievements in this area. Otherwise, we would not know which course to follow.”

Warren Turner nodded. The subordinate was correct. He had exactly the same thoughts as him. However, conducting intelligence investigations in the Z country and prying into their most essential intelligence was impossibly difficult for the CIA. They had established an intelligence network with much difficulty. However, that network had been destroyed twice, rendering them deaf and blind to the internal happenings of Z country. They had no choice but to recruit some volunteers online who were “for freedom.” Those volunteers had helped to spy in exchange for some monetary compensation. However, the Z country had introduced a system of “get a reward of $500,000 for reporting spies.” This had made intelligence-gathering an even more herculean task.

Finally, they had found the safest and most effective way to gather intelligence. They sent someone to trawl a forum called “Military Base Camp” where their spy collected a lot of high-value information. But essential military intelligence would not be found on a website forum.

Warren Turner became gloomy at this thought. However, he immediately thought of an excellent plan. “Hasn’t the C919 been successfully mass-produced and put into operation? Well, we’ll wait for this type of aircraft to transit in Merica or land in Allied territories and we’ll immediately confiscate it! We can remove their engine and see for ourselves how their engines work. We’ll come up with a few security reasons and cancel the C919’s airworthiness certificate. Sales of the C919 to the West will be banned. We’ll isolate the C919’s access to other markets! I will raise this proposal to the President. He will probably approve it.” His gaze was sharp and malicious like an eagle, full of cruelty and viciousness. He was very experienced when it came to doing this kind of thing.

Suddenly, someone knocked on the office door vigorously. On the other side of the door, a voice urgently said, “This is an emergency! A major emergency! Hurry and open the door! Mr. Turner, I need to see you immediately!”

Warren Turner frowned. He looked at the subordinate who sat at the desk nearest to the door. The subordinate got up and opened the door.

An agent rushed in and trampled loudly across the floor!

He held a set of documents in his hand and flew towards Warren Turner. He placed the documents on the table in front of him and opened the file. He said in a panic, “Mr. Turner, please look at this information. This is simply a disaster for the democratic world!”

Warren Turner looked down at the documents spread out in front of him. His eyes suddenly widened. “F**k, this is impossible!!!” A violent tremor went through his body and he let out a mournful exclamation.

…

Half an hour ago in Z country, at a large flight test base in a central western province, there was a wide area where the grass grew densely just beyond a wire fence. Yu Xiaoguang was anxiously waiting for the plane to land. He wore a Geely camouflage suit topped with a straw hat. In his hands was a Hua Yao mobile phone.

That was right. He was a member of “F**k The Party.” At the risk of being arrested by military personnel at the airport; at the risk of being sentenced by the court for leaking sensitive information; the group known as “F**k The Party” still existed. It was a triumphant success. Two good friends of his had been arrested and were sitting in jail for six months for illegally capturing military test activities. They had since withdrawn from the “F**k The Party”. Even so, he refused to give up! He did not want to miss the most exciting moment; the moment that would cause him to feel the proudest. He could not help but want to share that joy with hundreds of millions of people.

Even if he was arrested and went to jail for two years, leaving a stain on his life history, he was still willing. He would also get what he wanted by sharing the most explosive moment in his life. The post that he made had instantly gone viral on the “Military Base Camp” forum. Within moments, it made headlines on various online media outlets.

He used the 5x zoom and super wide-angle function of the camera on the Hua Yao mobile phone to clearly capture the pneumatic arrangement of the aircraft and a close-up of its back end. Lastly, he videographed how it took off with a ridiculously fast acceleration.

As an experienced military fan, he also realized just what kind of plane it was. He could infer what kind of engine it was using through the propulsion device consisting of a set of six holes at the rear of the aircraft. Hence, he gave the post a title that was shockingly eye-catching: “The sixth generation of domestic fighter jets had their first flight today.”

And he was now waiting for the plane to land. If it landed successfully, he would post a second post: “The 6th-generation fighter made its first flight successfully”

He heard a strange roaring approaching. Yu Xiaoguang’s soul was shaken! It was coming. The plane was back! He quickly picked up the Hua Yao mobile phone in his hand and looked towards the source of the sound.

“Don’t move!”

“Raise your hands!”

Two voices bellowed from nearby. The back of his head was stopped by a hard foreign object; a gun. Yu Xiaoguang’s excitement was overwhelmed by an abject sense of failure and dejection… The soldiers responsible for patrolling the airport had found him. He had no choice but to raise his hands and stand up. However, his head was turned towards a particular direction in the sky where he had fixed his gaze. It was near. He could see a tiny black spot now. He subconsciously wanted to lift the phone in his hand. But there were two guns pointing at him.

One of the soldiers said cooly, “Come on, stand up and take your photos! The commander said so. We’ll kill you if you don’t take a clear shot of the plane!” The two soldiers put away their guns.

What?

Yu Xiaoguang was taken aback! He hurriedly lifted the phone in his hand!

Chapter 276 - Global Sensation

What were the standards that differentiates a sixth generation fighter jet?

All countries developing sixth generation jets were fumbling in every nook and cranny for the specific standards. Hence, there was no clear and uniform standard.

In spite of that, these were a few criteria that must be fulfilled:

1. Usage artificial intelligent systems in combat. Combat capabilities must be on par as being piloted by top pilots.

2. Better stealth capabilities. Difficult to be detected on radar.

3. Better Situation Awareness (SA).

4. Revolutionary airborne weapons.

5. Powerful flexibility and wider combat range.

Among all the criteria, the five most crucial criteria were decided by engine performance.

However, after nearly a hundred years of development, traditional turbofan engine technology had reached its limits. No matter how good the materials, how exceptional the design, and how complex the architecture the engine used, it was still difficult to achieve fuel efficiencies above 35%. Approaching design limits, it was nearly impossible for further breakthroughs.

Detonation engines on the other hand were different.

The working principle of the detonation engine was somewhat similar to traditional diesel and gasoline engines. It depletes fuel in an instant, accelerating gases above 2000 meters per second then ejecting them via the rear nozzle, converting energy into massive thrust force.

The fuel efficiency of a regular diesel engine could reach 40%, 45% or even 50%. Detonation engines could also reach similar levels. Compared with turbofan engines weighing more than 1 ton and 1.5 tons, the detonation engine which had simpler structure and smaller size can be compressed to less than 500 kilograms. The weight saved can be supplanted with more fuel resources.

As fuel for detonation engines was burnt more exhaustivity, the thrust force produced would be bigger with only small amounts of residual heat. Thus, the fighter jet’s flexibility and infrared stealth ability would both be enhanced significantly.

Human pilots cannot withstand the strain caused by the jet’s high mobility. Therefore, sixth generation fighter jets were generally unmanned aircrafts… this again could save up another portion of the space and weight, to add in more fuel.

Therefore, compared to the fourth and fifth generation fighters using turbofan engines which had flight distances within the 3000 to 5000 kilometers range, the flight distance of the sixth generation fighter jet could be boosted to 6000 to 10000 kilometers.

This imply an elongated airtime which correspondingly doubles the combat radius. As long as there was enough ammo in the jet’s weaponry, a single sixth generation fighter jet alone could finish off enemies several times larger than it. Utilizing the jet’s superiority in maneuvering, enemy jets could even be kited into exhaustion.

The absolute superiority detonation engines provide for the sixth generation fighter jet allow its users to rub out their enemies in a variety of ways.

In addition, detonation engines could also be installed on missiles, rockets and other weapons. Not only that it would increase the range of these weapons sharply, it could also improve the missile or rocket’s flexibility.

With improved flexibility, it could easily intercept large warheads as an anti-air weapon. With improved flexibility as well, it could surge the failure rate of the enemy’s interception system and annihilate their billion-dollar missile defense system in a flash when used as offense.

The advent of the denotation engine broke the balance of power between the world’s military powerhouses. It had made it so that nations who broke through this technology first, would gain a huge military advantage.

Evidently, this advantage had been acquired by the Z nation… all the world’s military powerhouses apprehended this very fact after the Z nation’s domestic sixth generation fighter jet’s initial flight was announced.

In fact, there were many countries engaged in the detonation engine’s research and development. The M nation too had smashed in several billion dollars, but have been unable to solve the issues in precise control, power coupling, and other problems of the detonation engine… this kind of engine was too difficult to control.

The Z’s however had conquered the technical difficulties and successfully applied the engine on their sixth generation fighter jet.

This breakthrough caused a worldwide sensation.

Media’s from various countries were making reports with horrifying titles and variegated contents:

‘Russian Pravda’ reported, “The Z nation has become the first country to invent the sixth generation fighter jet. Its advent has established them a one to two generation lead against our so-called fifth generation fighter jet, Sukhoi Su-57 and our fourth generation fighter jet. Now, we must not be grateful that the Z nation is our friendly neighbor. We cannot expect our Aircraft Design Bureau to come up with the same sixth generation fighter jet immediately. We could only hope that our leaders are willing to buy sixth generation fighter jets from the Z’s… let go of the poor self-esteem as the Z’s are indeed better than us. ”

‘German Times’, an article titled “The Weakening Empire” , “15th of April. Do remember this meaningful day. From this day onwards, the hegemony of the most powerful empire of this planet has weakened. Its significance is no less than the disintegration of the Soviet Union that occurred more than 30 years ago. This is a frustrating bad news. It could bring the world some positive changes, but nonetheless… the era of a multipolar world has dawned.”

England’s ‘Times Magazine’ wrote, “It is time to adjust our foreign policy. We have strayed too far from the M nation. We have lost our huge economical advantage. We have lost umpteen development opportunities. We have even invited ourselves into dangerous territory. We are just a small country and should take a safer and more balanced approach in our diplomacy… It is said that the Z nation’s sixth generation fighter jets could travel more than 10 thousand kilometers, while the UK is only 6000 kilometers away from Z. We should listen to the Z’s advice.”

‘Paper Cat Observer’ reported, “It must be fake. That must be just a model. It is impossible that It is real!”

…

The M nation.

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Within the director’s office.

The president’s private secretary stood in front of Warren Turner, holding a dismissal file in his hand, “Mr. Turner, the president is very upset. He is shocked by your inabilities.”

“You failed to notice such an important intelligence as the Z’s successfully flying a sixth generation fighter jet.”

“Your incompetence shamed the M nation. Our country’s sixth generation fighter jet has also completed initial flight, but you have made it that the Z’s disclosed their success before us.”

“You are dismissed Mr. Turner. Several aides proposed for you to go through trial on the military court. But Mr. President only gave you the lightest punishment due to your previous credits. Scram now. Someone will replace you in the office immediately.” The secretary looked at him with dismal.

“Received.”

Warren Turner nodded his head. he signed on the dismissal document, took off his uniform and put up ordinary civilian clothing. He left the CIA in front of his former subordinates and colleagues who were gossiping and pointing fingers at him.

He walked slowly with his head lowered, constantly looking at the ground.

He was not depressed and had accepted the rulings.

He was only reflecting, why did things turn out this way?

Breaking down his assorted actions in the previous years, he was obsessed with committing unconstitutional actions to please the Congress, the President and to prove his own abilities. He had achieved their goals and protected the M nation’s benefits by opting for insurmountable amounts of rogue methods.

But now…

The Z nation’s sixth generation fighter jet took off for the first time.

What was the use of him excelling in doing the dirty work?

Could he stop the Z nation from rising by stabbing them from behind, tripping them or badmouthing them in front of the others?

No!

It was all in vain!

In the face of the Z nation’s sixth generation fighter jet, his actions seemed so lowly and absurd, as if he was a clown!

The competition among countries were based on hard power. It was about who mastered the most advanced technology before the others. Opting for despicable means might put one on high horse momentarily. But once a crisis occurred, they would be exposed, naked, in front of the others.

For example, in the face of the Z nation’s sixth generation fighter jet, the M nation’s fourth and fifth generation fighter jet would suffer a fate as grass getting mowed over… this was true cruelty.

Warren Turner could only murmur, “May God bless us. Let our scientists come out with the sixth generation fighter jet asap. We can lose, but in this field, the M nation must not lose!”

Chapter 277 - Quantum Computer

Planet Haierfa.

Base of Operations.

After artificial intelligence Nuwa returned the alien spaceship from Mars unscathed.

Nuwa and Alice expended a considerable amount of resources in examining the various advanced technologies surrounding the alien spaceship.

Using a few months’ time combining their findings with the technological information they already mastered, they achieved a major scientific breakthrough as of recently – a quantum computer.

A 128-qubit quantum computer.

Only 128 qubits?

Wasn’t that a little too less?

In fact, the 128-qubit over here bear similar meaning to the “bit” as in the term “32/64-bit operating system”. It meant that it could operate up to a maximum of 128 quantum bits at an instance.

At least a few trillion photons resided inside the quantum computer in front of Chen Jin, which was about the size of a fridge, but it could only control up to 128 quantum entangled particles at a time in performing serial calculations.

“Nuwa, Alice, in my knowledge, the computing power of a quantum computer is 2 to the power of N, and N is the number whereby how many quantum entangled particles the computer could control at an instant. This quantum computer of yours is 128 qubits, so its computing powers will be 2 to the power of 128…”

“How much is 2 to the power of 128?” Chen Jin looked at the two artificial intelligence in front of him and asked.

“It equals to 3.4028 times 1038, which is 340.28 trillion quadrillion times, 340 million times that of me and Alice’s computing speed.”

Holy moly~

Chen Jin had his mouth wide opened, “This tiny device is equivalent to having 300 million you and Alice’s?”

The quantum computer was too niubi!

“You can take it this way. The quantum computer cannot completely replace traditional computers. It excels in some unique fields in Mathematics, for example factorization, solving logarithms, cracking complex encryption systems, building molecular models, particle physics, and even simulating particle collision… it is a very powerful tool, but not omnipotent. You must not overstate its functions.”

“But why? I remember there were scientists that said that a quantum computer can accomplish just everything,” Chen Jin was baffled.

“That’s just commercial exaggeration.”

Nuwa explained, “It is similar to what had happened on Haierfa. In early stages of the development of quantum technology, anything that goes down into the microscopic scale was seemingly linked to the word ‘quantum’, such as quantum water, quantum television, quantum air purifier… many quantum products emerged, but in fact, none of them had anything to do with the word ‘quantum’. It was just a concept created to induce hype and had in fact no correlation with real quantum technology.”

“The true strength of quantum computers is in first, data processing, and second, communication encryption. There’s nothing to write home about the other aspects.”

“Here’s a simple example. A traditional computer is composed of three units: storage unit, control unit and calculation unit. Quantum units cannot be stored because it takes on an indefinite form, a superposition state of 0 and 1. Our data on the other hand is definite and therefore can only be stored in traditional data storages.

“Of course, we could add a ‘quantum computing module’ on the basis of traditional computers. By then, we can actually call it a ‘quantum computer’. It will indeed be much more powerful than an unmodified traditional computer.”

“Hence, both me and Alice are now ‘quantum computers’, because we both have a few ‘quantum computing modules’ in us.”

Listening to Nuwa’s somehow ridiculous words, Chen Jin was stupefied.

Quantum computers wasn’t a complicated thing to begin with. But many fake experts and commercial organizations jumbled up its simplicity, rendering it unintelligible for their own benefits. It made people regard quantum computers as something beyond this world and even omnipotent.

The was no issue of who would be replacing who in between traditional computers and quantum computers. They both have their own boons and banes and could compensate for each other. The advent of quantum computers would not cause traditional computers to decline or be eliminated. Both will coexist as long as time flows.

Of course, the power of the quantum computer cannot be repudiated because most problems in this world can ultimately be solved with mathematics.

The essence of this universe itself was mathematics!

Now, the computing powers of both artificial intelligence Nuwa and Alice was raised 340 million-fold. This would undoubtedly impart a huge thrust towards the development of the Base of Operations and planet Haierfa.

It could even save them enormous amounts of energy. For instance, after Nuwa and Alice was incorporated with quantum computing modules, both of their energy consumption was reduced by 50% and above as they perform most complex calculations in their quantum computing module.

The speed of scientific research in various fields would also be significantly accelerated.

But Chen Jin wasn’t quite satisfied.

“Nuwa, isn’t 128 qubits at a time a little too less? Why can’t it be increased to 256 or 512 qubits? Won’t computing powers be more… spectacular in that way?”

“128 qubits is sufficient, master.”

Nuwa explained, “The more the number of qubits, the faster the decoherence (ie, exiting the entangled state), and the lower the error correction accuracy. 128 qubits is almost just right. The system can be very self-sustaining and attain an error correction rate of over 99%, the best balance that can be achieved.”

“The quantum modules in the computer on the alien spacecraft are even 64-bit. The crystal brainers thought that 64 qubits would be enough for small-scale usage. A 128-qubit quantum computer would almost be able to solve all mathematical problems… it would suffice for now by the very least.”

Chen Jin nodded.

It was indeed enough for the time being. If they were to discover that it was not enough, they could think of ways to create a quantum computer with higher qubits.

With a quantum computer, the Base of Operations had broken through the bottleneck of computing power, with literally translates into unlimited “computing power”. It signified that the work progress of all their projects would improve by leaps and bounds.

Suddenly, Chen Jin thought of something. He murmured to himself, “I remember that back on Earth, all powerful nations are presently making their own quantum computers. Some countries had attained 10 qubits while some had broken through 20. Whoever that reaches 50 qubits would announce that they had realized quantum supremacy… as of now, the country nearest from achieving quantum supremacy is the Z nation. I heard that we have already broke through 39 qubits, and therefore quantum supremacy is already in sight.”

Besides, he also discovered that in the field of quantum computers, its development on Earth seemed exceptionally fast and up to snuff.

Alice however, said with disdain, “This kind of supremacy is only laboratory supremacy, it has no big significance. There were countries on planet Haierfa that achieved quantum supremacy very early on, the highest qubits they achieved were even 198. But after a long time, commercial quantum computers could only process 32 qubits at the same time. Even 200 years later, nobody had yet achieved 50 qubits… quantum technology does have a bright future. But reaching 64 qubits or above for commercial usage is very difficult.”

Its progressive growth in computing power might even fall behind that of traditional computers, rendering the technology stuck in laboratories for long periods of time.

“Really?”

Chen Jin was meagerly shocked. Why would such a promising technology be frozen in laboratory phases?

In spite of that, he still decided to build a “Quantum Computer R&D Center” back on Earth and strive to realize commercial quantum computers with 50 qubits and above within one to two years… he will be taking away quantum supremacy.

Chapter 278 - Conquering the 5-nanometer Chip

5th of May.

Happiness Court.

After breakfast, Su Yun put on her coat, took her briefcase and was prepared to go to work.

At the door.

She held her stomach, feeling nauseated all of a sudden. She quickly returned to the living room and vomited in the trashcan beside the coffee table.

“barf~”

“barf~”

Woosh.

In just a moment, she vomited almost everything she took in her guts during breakfast. Her face became as pale as paper.

Chen Jin quickly patted her back and helped her to the sofa.

“I think you shouldn’t go to work, now is the time period when your morning sickness is the most severe, it would be impossible for you to work normally. It would be better if you apply for unpaid leave and stay at home for a couple of months. It won’t be late for you to return to work after you have the baby.”

The woman was already three months pregnant. Her tummy was slightly bulged, but her morning sickness however was very serious. She would vomit almost everything she took in. Within a short time, she had already loss seven or eight kilos. It was impossible for Chen Jin to not feel sorry for her. He advised the woman to not go to work and stay at home for the baby, but she just won’t listen.

“I will be doing absolutely nothing at home, so, why not I go do some stuff at the department. Besides, the doctor already said that pregnant women must exercise regularly and get good physical fitness, only then natural childbirth would be possible. Or else without strength, I could only take a slice on my tummy.”

Su Yun wished to give birth to a healthy baby through natural childbirth. But with her morning sickness, she could not even replenish her nutrition. Not to even mention pushing the baby out, she does not even have strength for work. This was not called exercise either, it was torture.

“Listen to me, stop going to work!”

Chen Jin’s expression was stern, “At least for the time being. Wait until your morning sickness soothes down.”

I-I…

Su Yun was a little hesitant.

Chen Jin picked up his phone and summoned his mother from upstairs. He requested her to help Su Yun apply for a 10-day leave.

“Alright alright, I’ll do it right away. I can’t put my future grandchild in so much suffering,” Chen Jin’s mother, He Li said.

Chen Jin proceeded to stayed by his wife for the rest of the day at home and studied culinary arts with her. They were studying food recipes suitable for pregnant women that would not easily trigger morning sickness.

He even put on the virtual helmet and inquired Nuwa in the virtual world: what kind of food would be better for Su Yun. Nuwa introduced him several ingredients and cooking methods. Chen Jin followed them all and it was indeed effective. Su Yun’s symptoms of morning sickness were significantly alleviated. Her pale face had regained her rosiness and her color had improved a lot.

She rested for four days.

On the fifth day, she went to work again, and Chen Jin couldn’t stop her. She said it was too boring to stay at home the whole day. Chen Jin helplessly shook his head and let her go.

A while after Su Yun left.

“Ding Ding Ding~”

His phone was buzzing.

It was a WeChat video call request.

The caller was Yuan Li.

Chen Jin swiped up and answered.

“Darling, it’s me,” said a woman who was lying on a soft sofa in the video.

“Yes.”

Chen Jin nodded. He turned his head away slightly as he was reluctant to look at her directly.

Nine months.

The belly of the woman in the video call was already nine months old.

At this moment, it was spiking out like a water bucket. It made Chen Jin thought of a python that devoured a buffalo.

Yuan Li had good physical fitness. Not only that she never vomited, her appetite was enlightened after being pregnant. Whatever she tasted would taste good. She, who was by default a little above a hundred pounds was now over 140 pounds. Her delicate face became round and her arms had seemingly doubled in size.

Yuan Lin asked him before whether he would be disgusted with her current looks, and he said no. After all, most women would become pumped up after pregnancy. Despite of that, the woman still said, “I will slim down after I unload this cargo! I want to be more beautiful than I was before!”

Chen Jin gave her encouragement through his eyes.

“What’s the matter Yuan Li, do you have something for me?”

“Darling, I went for checkup at the hospital yesterday. The doctor said that my placenta has fully matured, and the kid inside already weigh more than six kilos. The expected date of birth is the 28th of this month. But I’m so scared. I even had a nightmare a few days ago, and I can’t sleep these few days.”

Yuan Lin pouted and shown an expression that she was about to cry. Giving birth was just like going through the gates of hell. Which women won’t be afraid?

Modern medicine was very well developed. Birth accident risks have been reduced to some fraction of a million, but nonetheless, it still existed. Hence, in these few days, Yuan Lin’s food no longer taste that good to her. She was afraid that the child inside her might get too big and lead to dystocia… she also wished for natural childbirth.

“Don’t be afraid, it’s okay. Your body is so great, it’s impossible that anything would happen to you, so, don’t worry too much,” Chen Jin could only comfort her with warm words.

“I hope that you can be here by my side.”

The woman suddenly became emotional. Her eyes became teary, “As long as you are with me, I won’t be afraid of anything.”

“Darling, can you come over?” Be with me until our child is born, can you?”

“I’m really scared now.”

The woman pleaded him. She was constantly wiping away her tears.

Chen Jin nodded. Anybody would have softened down in face of the woman’s helpless expression.

After having some thought, he said, “Alright, I’ll make some time to go over. But I can’t be by your side to whole day. I have things to be busy at the company. But don’t worry, when our child is almost coming, I will definitely be by your side!”

He decided to dispatch his avatar over and comfort the woman for a few days.

Actually, he should’ve gone in person. But his real self was only free during daytime. He can’t possibly be out all night if he so went there. Therefore, he had to let his avatar robot do it in his place… there was nothing awkward about this arrangement as the robot can’t do that thing. When the child was born, his real self must be present over there for a few days no matter what, or else it would really be inappropriate.

“That’s great! Thank you dear!”

Yuan Lin smiled from ear to ear. Her heart was filled with blissfulness.

…

15th of May.

News came from Zhong Xin International.

With the aid of a supercomputer in the ten trillion league and the virtual factory, Zhong Xin International conquered the more advanced 5 nm process technology within about eight months!

They successfully taped out the first batch of 5 nanometer chips two days ago. Its conformity rate was not bad either.

Chen Jin rushed to Zhong Xin International’s 5 nanometer factory.

Inside the sample exhibition room.

Chen Jin asked a few questions.

“Mr. Zhang, as of now, you only own a 7 nm factory and set of EUV lithography machine. Where did the lithography machine this 5 nm factory is using came from?”

“Of course we made it ourselves.”

Zhang Wei Jin said, “Our domestic lithography machine has a solid technical foundation. There are many talents in its technical field too. Adding on with the virtual factory, after the ASML lithography machine project was initiated, we came up with our first product in just four months, thus severing foreign monopoly. Besides, this factory had been erected since a long time ago. It was always sitting there waiting for a lithography machine. We have also explored the 5 nm process technology in the virtual factory very early on… when we don’t have to worry about getting choked, all just comes naturally.”

Chen Jin smiled out of satisfaction.

“So, what you are saying is that, not only that you have solved the EUV lithography machine issue, you nailed the 5 nm process technology at the same time?” This progression speed was overwhelming.

“Yep.”

Zhang Wei Jin nodded, “The 5 nm is simpler than I thought. We have even seen the possibility to further push it to 3 nm. The lithography machine too did not cause us any hassle… everything just seemingly became easier.”

Moving on!

What they wanted to discuss was that, should they disclose this explosive news, or keep a low profile and play dumb?

Chapter 279 - Playing It Big!

In this matter, the crowd was divided into two factions.

One faction thought that it would be better to not disclose the matter immediately. After all, once announced, the product would encounter patent lawsuits from ASML, and they would get into troublesome court procedures. The product might even get banned from foreign markets.

So, why not first product a batch of EUV lithography machines like some 10, 20 units to fill in all production lines before welcoming a lawsuit for themselves. This was called “securing the rice bowl”.

But these ideas were quickly refuted by the other faction.

“We need to announce it right away!”

“After AMSL ban the sales of our lithography machine, the industry generally believes that Zhong Xin International will be put into shock for at least three years. In this period of time, we will be unable to improve our production capacity and revenue. Besides, in the face of Samsin and Mossy Electrics’s price war, our profits will shrink continuously… under the effects of various aspects, the situation we will be facing is not optimistic.”

“Our intuition can be seen from the stock market. Since October last year until May this year, our stock price has been constantly falling for half a year. Our market value had plummeted from its peak at 250 billion to 120 billion now. More than 100 billion dollars had evaporated. All these is already enough for us to buy hundreds of EUV lithography machines.”

“We must immediately restore the confidence our investors are losing.”

“We must pull back our market value!”

“There’s no need to be afraid of a lawsuit. We are under the special clause protection of the ‘Patent Law’. The foreigners can’t do anything to us, at least in the Z nation market. Besides, more than 80% of our business is carried out within our borders. That little market we have overseas is nothing compared to a hundred-billion-dollar market value.”

In short, it was a must for this matter to be announced without delay.

However, Chen Jin spun his eyes and had a eureka.

120 billion… Zhong Xin’s current market value had actually become so cheap.

Those investors within the country really do not possess any insight, and their level was relatively low as well, no wonder they were revered as the “chive marketers” that would blindly follow market trends to buy in or sell off stock. All of them were pathetically short-sighted and was incapable of noticing any potentials dwelling within the market that would benefit them in the long run.

In the end, they were only speculating.

Even for unlisted companies as Hua Yao, the stocks of their suppliers had plummeted when the company encountered a huge crisis a few years ago… this clearly shown what kind of people the investors were.

He put forward his suggestion to Zhang Wei Jin.

“Zhong Xin’s market value isn’t that high as of now, only at some hundred billion dollars. Why not you privatize and delist yourself. Currently, Xing Hai Technologies owns 38% of your market shares. Why not I buy all the rest of them. Zhong Xin will become Xing Hai Technologies’s wholly owned subsidiary and can focus solely on developing in the chip field. You won’t need to care about investors or whatsoever anymore.”

Upon listening to his words, Zhang Wei Jin glanced at him. He then shook his head and refused his suggestion.

“Zhong Xin is one of the key enterprises under government support with the country owning 15% of our shares. First of all, you can’t withdraw these shares.”

“And you are too naïve. You are completely oblivious about the power of the market and how much profit it could bring forth. The market is a lever. A lever which multiplies revenue by tenfold or even hundredfold.”

“Let me be honest with you. All 20 thousand personnel’s in Zhong Xin International, including me and the executive members, had place all of our fluid capital and even mortgaged our fixed assets into the stock market, buying our own stocks. We all believe that it will definitely skyrocket.”

“If the company is delisted, all of us will gain nothing or even suffer from severe losses. Nobody would agree to do so.”

The reason why all of Zhong Xin International kept it in the dark was because they were gambling for their stocks to rise.

Hence, the advice Zhang Wei Jin gave Chen Jin was, rather than hoping for Zhong Xin International to get privatized and delisted, why not increase his shares and invest a little more money, which would be the more realistic approach.

The whole company playing the stock market.

Chen Jin shook his head. This was just like gambling which was highly addictive. But it could irrefutably give someone a colossal amount of revenue.

He scraped his idea of privatizing the company, neither did he intended to increase his shareholdings… he was already warned by the Securities Regulatory Bureau once last year.

At the same time that they decided to disclose Zhong Xin International’s achievements in the 5 nm process technology and them overcoming the sales ban of EUV lithography machines, Zhong Xin’s higher ups still wished to increase their wager!

They wanted to play with something bigger, announcing another equally heavy news.

The super resolution lithography machine!

Announce the super resolution lithography machine at the same time.

Chief Technical Inspector Yang Ming said with excitement:

“Now in the high-end chip field, we have taken down the most advanced 5 nm process technology, coming neck to neck with Mossy Electrics. Our shortcomings in our chip performance had been fully compensated. Based on our relatively lower OEM cost and higher conformity rate, we have acquired a significant competitive advantage in the high-end OEM market.”

“Based on the regular pattern in the chip industry, we can seize more than 90% of the OEM market even with just a 10% advantage.”

“We will for certain gobble up a big piece of the high-end market.”

“In the field of middle and low-end chips on the other hand, we have ourselves the super resolution lithography machine.”

“With the aid of this awesome tool, we can manufacture both 22 nm and 10 nm chips. Compared to traditional lithography machines, chips produced using the super resolution lithography machine will only require one-third of its original production costs. Production efficiency will also be multiplied by more than a factor of 3.”

“Even if we sell the 22 nm and 10 nm chips manufactured using the super resolution lithography machine half the price of its foreign contemporaries, we will still gain revenue.”

“Before such a price/performance ratio, we will definitely sweep the whole middle and low-end chip market into our pockets.”

“In that way, we will almost be swallowing the whole high, middle, and low-end chip market in entirety. We will become the overlord in chip foundry! We could take at least half of the 200-billion-M-dollar annual market revenue.

“It is said that the market value of the giant in chip foundry, Mossy Electrics is 200 billion M dollars. Our goal now is to replace Mossy Electrics and become the new giant.”

200 billion M dollars multiplied by 6.

That would imply that Zhong Xin International’s market value should reach at least 1200 billion Z dollars, which was ten times their current market value. This would mean that buying in Zhong Xin International’s stocks now would turn a house into ten houses in the future.

When could a person buy 10 houses just by their own efforts?

And that was why the stock market was so exhilarating.

Chen Jin shook his head and said, “Go on and play then. Do it big, the bigger the better!”

…

The following day.

16th of May.

Zhong Xin International rented a large venue that could accommodate ten thousand people and held a press conference.

This was a product conference and at the same time a news conference!

On the conference.

Yang Ming, who was made the host due to his good eloquence demonstrated the SX-2000 high-end CPU produced using the 5 nm process technology. In a test device, the CPU scored a horrifying 780 thousand marks in the Benchmark test, becoming the world’s first in CPU performance.

Besides, he introduced two types of lithography machines using VCR: the local-made EUV lithography machine and super resolution lithography machine!

A variety of chips produced by the two lithography machines were displayed. There was a 7-nanometer chip, 10-nanometer cheap CPU, 22-nanometer Qinglong First Gen desktop CPU, and up to more than 50 types of various chip products. It shown that the machines can satisfy all customer requirements.

At the end of the conference.

Facing the 10 thousand audiences offstage who were all on their feet full of excitement and fanaticism, Yang Ming shouted frantically:

“Ban us, keep on banning us! Five years, ten years, one hundred years, anything! Spend the rest of your life guarding your rubbish!”

“We do not need you anymore! We have better ones in our hands!”

“We can produce all chips! Our tools can sustain our own needs. Our product’s performance and quality far exceed that of foreign products!”

“Last question for all of you: would you choose domestic boutiques, or choose foreign garbage? Tell me your choice!”

Boom…

The audience was totally blown away.

Chapter 280 - The Rise of Local Chips!

“We choose local!”

“Local!”

“Local for sure!!”

Under the stage.

As a veteran engineer with more than 10 years of working experience in the integrated chip field, Wang Minyu did not scream along with the crowd. He just stood there, dazed. All the screaming and shouting happening around him cluttered his thoughts and made his vision blurry. He murmured to himself, “Am I dreaming?”

Domestic EUV lithography machine!

Domestic 5-nanometer chips!

Domestic super resolution lithography machine used for chip manufacture!

Logically speaking, all these only existed in dreamland, but all of these were announced at one go in this conference. The foreigner’s seal was broken, the world’s most advanced technology was attained, a tremendous advantage was established, all in a single instant!

No matter how strong he wished for domestic chips to rise, he never once fantasized it to happen this way.

He moved his hands to the chubbiest part of his thigh and gave the spot a good pinch.

Ah!

P-p-pain!

It hurt so much that he began crying, and he couldn’t seem to stop no matter what.

He lifted his fist on pounded on his own chest. With all of his might, he shouted, “Z chips are the best in the world!”

“Z has chips, the world we beat!” At this moment, a youthful voice sounded.

“Z has chips, the world we beat!”

“Z has chips, the world we beat!”

The scene seemed to have been completely blown up. Countless people were shouting. Their uncluttered and loud roars almost lifted the ceiling of the venue.

How could the 10 thousand audiences at the scene be the only ones who were agitated?

The news that Zhong Xin International mangled foreign monopoly and their several huge breakthroughs spread through the internet at the speed of light.

Millions of netizens on each social media platform were quickly hyped up.

“Way to go Zhong Xin! Niubi!”

“16th of May. Please remember this day. This is the day our nation’s chip industry completely shed away its reliance towards the foreigners. This is the day we announce that we, ourselves, now own powerful chips. This is the day we stand on our own feet. I urge the country to set up a special festival, or record this in elementary school textbooks to commemorate this special day.”

“For 30 years, we have been self-abased, looking up towards advanced Western technology in our inferiority. We made a wish, a wish that we would one day surpass them. For 30 years, the westerners had assumed control in the development of science and technology. They brought upon our ancient civilization great suffering. They made our people kneel upon them for generations, never being able to straighten up ourselves. After 3000 years, we are finally back to where we belong. I know they must be uneasy, even we ourselves are yet used to it. But that day will still come, because the Z nation is number one, and it has always been!”

“Who said we Z’s are incapable. Who said that our industries will die off once the foreigners block us? If it were the foreigners that said so, then so be it. But why even our own people own so little ambition? I always thought that the sales ban is a good thing. It inspires our people to be self-reliant. Division of labor in a global industry, free trade, the say that there is no need to do anything, I say that all these are bullsh*t! Division of labor is designed by the foreigners. Free trade is designed by the foreigners. They came up with these to control the entire chain and to maximize their own benefits. Why are we jumping into this big crater and rendering ourselves to be controlled by the others?

For a nation as huge as us, we must know how to do everything! We must master all state-of-the-art core technology. Only then we will not be controlled by others, only then we can ensure our own safety, especially under the circumstances where even the rule makers don’t follow the rules. We can only make ourselves strong in every aspect, fill in all our shortcomings, and show that we have the will and ability!”

“Advanced engines and the 5 nm chips. That’s a grand slam!”

“I feel so physically and mentally refreshed. Never have I felt so good in my life. There is nothing to be afraid of now. We have sixth generation fighter jets to protect us. We have Zhong Xin International to win us the competition in technology. What is still there for us to be afraid of? What else can we feel inferior of? Everything we own are on par or even greater than what the others have!”

“From today onwards, please accustom yourself to be a civilian of a global superpower!”

“I don’t know why, since morning when I saw the news until now, I have been crying, and I can’t seem to stop.”

“It has been so many years. The path hasn’t been easy for our country, our tech companies and even for each and every one of us.”

“Yes indeed, it hasn’t been easy. Even we ourselves do not believe in our own! Too bad I’m no scientist, but I hope that my son could grow up to be one.”

“I can’t hold my tears anymore; I salute all the people working in the tech field!”

“Salute +1. The backbone of our country, you people are our pride!”

“Salute +1”

…

On the other side.

The netizens went to several interesting places.

The official Weibo of the Dutch Embassy and Netherlands ASML company was flooded by the following messages:

“Please continue your ban, don’t ever lift it.”

“Don’t be scared ya know! You are dogs if you dare lift the ban!”

“We humans talk about credit. When you say you are not selling it, means you are not selling it. Do not say one thing today and say another the next day.”

“Stick to your 100-year sales ban!”

“I’m placing my bets over here. If you lift the ban, you will have to call me daddy. But I on the other hand do not want a son with such short-sightedness as you.”

“Stop selling us garbage, we don’t need them!”

“Consider a 50% discount and a ‘buy one free one’. This is the only way you can sell your stuff now.”

There were netizens who got so bloated with pride that they went to release all kinds of cocky words at the M Embassy’s official Weibo.

“Is that all you got? Do you have any more tricks up your sleeves?”

“Come on, come up with more tricks please!”

“Engines last month and chips this month. It’s indeed that we are breaking through everything that was banned. Hey Mr. M, help us check where are we lacking on, and give us a sales ban on that, thanks.”

“You must not falter Mr. M. We still have lots of shortcomings. I hope you work harder. All of us here are waiting for your ‘face slap highlights’.”

“Huhuh, do you know tomfool’s knot? For this kind of knot, the more you struggle, the faster you die. You are exactly the one who was dying.”

“What’s wrong with fair competition in doing business? But you guys can’t seem to learn from your mistakes and are getting increasingly stupid!”

“Please continue shutting us out. We won’t miss any of your stuff.”

…

Several minutes after the conference.

On the A-share market, Zhong Xin International’s share price quickly soared red, reaching the daily limit almost instantly.

Fortunately, in order to obtain more financing, Zhong Xin International applied for additional shares worth about 50 billion dollars. Originally, this application was still under review. But after the conference this morning, the SFC immediately passed the review and allowed the additional shares to be listed.

Fuush~

Less than two minutes after the 50 billion additional shares were put on the shelves, they were snapped up by the investors.

Of course, the influence of this conference was not only limited within the country. It also set off a huge tidal wave abroad.

Chapter 281 - Wailing Like A Banshee

In Holland, at the ASML Headquarters, Gallaher Rodney, CEO of the company, was awakened by a phone call in the middle of the night. The caller told him several surprising bits of news in succession.

What shocked him the most was that Z country’s Zhongxin International broke through the ban on the sales of photolithography machines into their country. They manufactured their own EUV photolithography machines and used them to produce the 5-nanometer chips.

“How is this possible?” Gallaher Rodney was stunned still. It had only been a few months since the ban was implemented. This was impossible!

The company’s shareholders and upper management were reduced to a mess during the emergency meeting held on the very next day. The gentlemanly elegance, the certainty, and the calm composure that they had in the past were now lost.

“This is absolutely impossible! It must be fake news!”

“I don’t believe this either. They need at least three more years before they can create the EUV photolithography machine.”

Gallaher Rodney pounded his fist on the table and asked, “Everyone! The facts cannot be changed by our willpower alone. Let’s just assume that they have achieved what they did. Ladies and gentlemen, what should we do now?”

In an instant, an executive replied, “Sue them, we’ll immediately accuse them of copyright violation! There is no way for them to go around the patent barriers. They must have infringed on our patents, so we’ll file a lawsuit against them!”

Gallaher Rodney shook his head. “But it takes time to find a lawyer and to collect evidence. It takes even more time to file a lawsuit and continue the dispute. It’ll be at least a year or two before we can see the results… In addition, due to the special provisions of the Z country’s copyright law, we will not win the court case in Z country. This is because we implemented the sales ban first.” As a supporter of free trade, he opposed the sales ban from the very beginning. Despite the advanced technological nature of the photolithography machine, the market for the machines was not large. ASML sold merely a little more than 10 photolithography machines every year. The annual revenue was only about 3 billion euros. With the slowdown of the market’s growth, the revenue shrunk every year. Hence, every order was precious to him. Moreover, he was very optimistic about the market prospect of Z country. He believed that the market would be the driver of ASML’s growth for the next 20 years.

In the end, the audience fell silent. Everyone thought that the problem was very tricky but they could not resign themselves to the fact that there was such a problem. How could Z’s citizens ever manufacture the EUV photolithography machines?

“Ladies and gentlemen, as things stand today, we can only sue for peace. This is for own benefit.” Gallaher Rodney proposed his solution plan. “One, we’ll immediately announce the lifting of the ban and allow Z’s citizens to buy our photolithography machines. At the same time, we can get Zhongxin International to stop counterfeiting our photolithography machines by offering them ‘priority supply’. This will allow us to reach a preliminary settlement. Next, we’ll apply for technical collaboration with Shanghai Microelectronics to obtain their super-resolution photolithography technology. If necessary, we will offer our core technologies in exchange. The super-resolution photolithography machine has an excellent competitive advantage in the field of low-mid end chip manufacturing! We will lose all our share in the low-mid end market if we don’t master this technology. It’s akin to having one of our legs cut off if we lose this market. In short, we want to cooperate with Z’s people at all costs. Otherwise, our market share will shrink rapidly. We’ll be reduced to the verge of bankruptcy… Our good days are coming to an end. This is a fact that cannot be changed!”

A dejected executive raised his head and asked, “What will we do if Merica opposes to this unauthorized cancellation of the ban? We import many core components from Merica.”

“The Mericans?” Gallaher Rodney said with a condescending laugh, “We can’t destroy our income source for Merica! Yes, Merica can retaliate. But didn’t Z’s people create their own EUV photolithography machines? When that time arrives, we can simply buy our core components from Z country. Remember that we are Dutch; we are not obliged to uphold the interests of the Mericans.”

Everyone from the upper management nodded. Some of them were still paying the mortgage on their houses, some were saving up to buy a yacht, and some did not want to give up the two-month annual paid vacation. They were all adults and they must make choices based on their own interests.

…

In Gorea, at the Samsin Headquarters, in the President’s office, Li Jianrong was destroying everything in his sight. The table, the vases, and tea sets; he smashed everything into a mess. His eyes were bloodshot. From time to time, he would shout “Ah!”and “Ha!” like a wounded beast. There was a reason for his present anger.

The Z people deceived him. Their deceitful battle tactics caused his Samsin to suffer a net loss of more than $200 billion in less than a year.

When Samsin launched the great battle using the “Law of the Downswing,” he fully mobilized all the fields at his disposal including the memory, internal storage, panels, and semiconductor OEMs etc. A skirmish to bleed the enemy turned into a full-scale world war. Samsin had indeed been ruthless. Their ferocity and savagery this time around had far exceeded what they had done in previous price wars using the “Law of the Downswing.”

There were some ghastly facts using last year’s prices in the same period as a comparison:

The price of RAM chips plummeted by 91%.

NAND storage prices plummeted by 84%.

Panel prices plummeted by 52%.

The standard for the semiconductor OEM charges had been reduced by 45%.

These were originally industries with huge gross profits. All of them were bleeding money now. He expected to conduct the price war for 3 years or more using the huge cash reserves. However, two-thirds of the cash reserves had already been used in less than a year. And Z country was still holding on! They had not revealed the slightest sign of an imminent crash. On the contrary, Samsin was the first to show signs of buckling.

Li Jianrong never predicted this kind of situation! Until he got wind of the press conference by Zhongxin International. At that moment, his chest felt so tight that he thought blood might spurt out! The manufacturing cost of chips was reduced to one-third of its original price with the use of the super-resolution photolithography machine. Was there even any room for comparison? Would there be any point in comparing who would be the winner and who would be the loser when it was so obvious?

$200 billion… How nice would it have been if he kept it all to himself? Now he wasted all of that for nothing!

After he destroyed the room to his satisfaction, Li Jianrong picked up his mobile phone and made a call. “Hurry! Send someone to Z country. We request an immediate truce. We hope that the market will return to its normal and orderly state.” His Samsin company would go under if they did not stop the war now.

…

On Treasure Island, after news of Zhongxin International’s several major breakthroughs spread there, public opinion on the island exploded.

Their netizens commented in profusion.

“Fake news. This is impossible!”

“The mainland has manufactured a 5-nanometer chip? Is it April Fool’s Day today?”

“They’re probably using chips and passing it off as theirs.”

“They only used 8 months to achieve the 5-nanometers? Again? Are they writing science fiction? It can’t get any faker than this!”

“If it is really 5-nanometers, it does have a certain threat to us.”

Someone ridiculed, “Do you have enough IQ? You should also believe in such obvious fake news. Remember this sentence: in the chip field, the mainland can never exceed us!”

…

At a particular villa, Liu De Ming trembled as he stood in front of an old man. Dazed, he asked in a faint voice, “Old man, did you hear about the news from the mainland?”

“Yes.” The old man closed his eyes slightly. “I’ve finished watching the press conference.”

“Then… do you believe it?”

The old man sank into silence and did not immediately answer him. After a long time, he said one thing. “I never thought that I would see the Chinese race rise to stand at the top of the world in my lifetime. What a happy event!”

At that moment, the old man let go of all interests’ disputes. Only a joyful smile remained on his face.

Chapter 282 - Safe And Sound

Chapter 282: Safe And Sound

ASML lifted the sales ban and issued a call for peace. Samsin asked for a ceasefire. Treasure Island’s media outlets continued to amuse themselves with merriment. This overseas news was reported back to the mainland within a couple of days.

Zhongxin International and its subsidiary, Shangwei Microelectronics, agreed to the ASML’s call for peace after careful consideration. The two sides would cooperate to solve the problem of the patent dispute. After all, Zhongxin could never abandon the overseas market that was worth hundreds of billions a year simply because of some 10-odd EUV photolithography machines that only had a total value of several billion.

It was not impossible to authorize the cooperation of the two sides when it came to the super-resolution photolithography technology. However, Zhongxin requested that ASML should merge with Shangwei Microelectronics to form a brand-new photolithography machine company. Each of them would hold 50% of the shares! They would rule the market for the photolithography machines together.

Moreover, the production lines and the R&D headquarters would be placed in Z country. Z country’s counterpart in the brand new company would be the primary decision maker and would have the right to decide the sales sequence for the photolithography machines. Now they were simply waiting for the Dutch to agree or reject this suggestion.

Gallaher Rodney fell into a state of humiliation and resentment as he was faced with this difficult choice. When had he ever witnessed such harsh conditions for cooperation? Although the high-end EUVs were more profitable in the field of photolithography, larger quantities of low-end photolithography machines were sold. It was the low-end photolithography machines that represented the cornerstone for the maintenance of the long-term operation of the company! They could not give up either of the two markets! After sitting on this dilemma for a few days, Gallaher Rodney was inclined towards agreeing. However, he wanted to bargain some more.

…

“Oh, the Goreans want a ceasefire?” The corners of Chen Jin’s mouth tilted and he said into the phone, “How are you going to respond? Will you agree or not?”

“Haha!” On the other end of the call, Zhang Wei Jin said, “The price war was initiated by the Goreans. They don’t have the right to end it whenever and however they like. The decision is in our hands! But we’ve unanimously decided this. We’ll continue the war and drive the prices down! We’ll fight this war for another one to two years. The Samsin Group is a dog reared by Western capital. They’ve given us their fair share of trouble in the past few years. We must get rid of this dog. We have to cripple it even if we can’t kill it! We’ll cut off the capital from the West; they are an instrument of evil! In addition, we will soon reach a settlement with ASML to solve the legal issue of supplying the EUV photolithography machines together as well as the expansion of our OEM capacity. We’ll extend our reach in both the domestic and international markets to seize even more of the OEM market share. Our goal is to replace Mossey Electronics in three years and occupy more than 70% of the OEM market share for chips. Of course, this process will be expensive. We plan to circulate another 150 billion shares to get sufficient funds. We are even prepared to not make any profit in the next three years. There is only one goal, and that is to become the world’s top OEM company.”

Not making any profit for the next three years? Chen Jin nodded. This meant that all chips would be selling for pennies in the next three years. In addition, there was another fact worth mentioning. Zhongxin International reached the daily limit for share price increases 11 times. Its current market value was more than $450 billion. If the 150 billion new shares were issued, its total market value would exceed 600 billion. The market value quadrupled in ten days. There was still room for further growth in the future.

Zhongxin International was like a balloon in its rapid expansion. This was a huge beast that was about to grow even bigger. Chen Jin saw the articles in the entertainment news. Netizens from Treasure Island, who seemed to have lower than average IQ, did not agree with this fact. They mocked and ridiculed Zhongxin’s achievements.

Chen Jin chuckled and shook his head. “Let’s see if any of you are still able to laugh after three years!”

…

On the morning of May 28th at the Court of Happiness, Chen Jin was tidying up a few pieces of clothing and packing them into a medium-sized suitcase. An appearance of preparing for an upcoming business trip. Su Yun asked, “Husband, where are you going?”

Chen Jin lowered his head as he sorted the items in the suitcase. “I’ll be inspecting several major R&D centers across seven or eight places. It’ll be a five to six-day trip.”

Su Yun urged, “Oh, go on your trip, then. Don’t arrange your schedule too tightly. It’s very exhausting to travel continuously. You should pay attention to the food you order. Don’t drink too much.” She had no suspicions.

Of course, for his part, Chen Jin did not do anything that would arouse her suspicions. After he went downstairs, his robot double would be driven off in his car. It would begin its business trip. Moreover, photos would be sent every day to prove that he was indeed on a business trip.

Chen Jin wiped the sweat from his forehead as he thought of this. He had seen a piece of news where a man had 75 sex friends at the same time. One of his sex friends happened to be the cousin of his girlfriend’s best friend. Of course, the girlfriend ended the relationship. He could only exclaim in awe at this ultimate performance by a super casanova.

Two were difficult enough for him. He had not even thought about how to explain it in the future. It would be impossible to conceal forever. Tricky problems would arise after a number of years. But for now, he could only take one step at a time. He did not want to think about so many things. “I know. Take care of yourself too. I’m leaving.”

…

At Shanghai First Peoples’ Hospital, Chen Jin alighted from the car. He disguised himself as an ordinary person and entered the hospital.

Once he was at the 28th floor of the inpatient building, at the entrance of the second delivery room, he saw a middle-aged couple waiting anxiously at the door… It was Director Dong and her husband, Yuan Zhengguo. Chen Jin asked as he walked towards them, “Auntie Dong Wei, Uncle Yuan, I’m here. How is Li Li’s situation?”

Dong Lei said, “She’s been inside for more than three hours. She’s still in labor.” She gave Chen Jin a complicated look. In fact, she never dreamed that the young man in front of her would grow to such an incredulous degree. Her only daughter was dead-set on being with him at the cost of her status, which was currently rather embarrassing. Even so, her daughter was still very happy to endure it.

As she watched her daughter’s belly growing bigger each day during her pregnancy, Dong Lei thought about fighting, about instigating a showdown, and even planned to blow up the situation. She wanted to fight for a legitimate status for her daughter so she did not have to stay in this current humiliating and low status any longer. However, with the discouragement of her daughter, the extreme and aggressive thoughts in her mind were never realized.

“My dearest son-in-law, your timing is just right. Lin Lin missed you the most when she entered the labor room. She can rest her heart now. You can be assured that both mother and child will be safe.” Yuan Zhengguo went towards Chen Jin and shook hands with him warmly. He gave him a detailed explanation of the situation.

Dong Lei’s eyes were burning with rage as she gritted her teeth. She wanted to strangle the two men. Especially Yuan Zhengguo. He could actually talk and laugh with Chen Jin.

“Son-in-law, I’ve listened to your suggestion and withdrew all my liquid capital out of the hand. I’ve heavily bought Zhongxin International’s shares. What happened next was really too much. Four times, the share price has skyrocketed four times. I’ve earned billions with this.” Yuan Zhengguo was very excited. The money that he earned from his lifelong career as a businessman was still less than what he profited with this single speculation. He had been doing business for a lifetime. He felt extremely happy and rather pleased with himself.

“Uncle Yuan, let’s wait for the outcome of the labor. We can discuss business affairs at a later time.” Chen Jin felt the power of material wealth. This cheap father-in-law really had no sense for occasions. He easily solved the issue of Yuan Zhengguo. First, he sent a red packet of $50 million. Then, he offered him several high-yielding investment channels. These were two simple moves that he used to buy the man over to his side. This cheap father-in-law acted in a familiar and self-satisfied manner every time they met, which helped to ease the pressure he felt.

They waited for another hour before the door of the delivery room opened. “Is Yuan Lin’s family here? Congratulations, she has successfully given birth to a boy. Both mother and son are safe.”

Chen Jin felt a wave of excitement coming over him in an instant.

Chapter 283 - Intelligence Report

“Please come this way.” The nurse leading the way urged them as both mother and child were pushed out and sent to the high-class nursing ward. As it was a natural birth, Yuan Lin’s face was a little pale. A smile broke out on her face when she saw Chen Jin and she stretched out her hand to him with some effort. “Dear, you’re here.”

“Yes, I’m here.” Chen Jin held her hand and said gently, “It was hard on you.”

Yuan Lin shook her head slightly. She suddenly asked, “My child, where’s my child?” The maternal instinct in her was awakened.

Dong Lei replied as she pushed a small surgical cart, “The child is here. He is really cute!” She looked at the child in the cart with a kind smile stretching across her face. Her dissatisfaction with the situation temporarily disappeared. She was promoted to a grandmother. This was a happy event that she had been looking towards for a long time.

Yuan Lin finally nodded her head in relief.

…

In the high-class nursing ward, Chen Jin learned some key facts about the baby from the nurse. He was born at 10:28 am on the 28th of May and weighed 3.8 kilograms. He was very healthy.

Chen Jin kept Yuan Li company in the ward all day long and stayed close to her side for six days. He did what he could do with the best of his ability. For example, he helped to support Yuan Li when she had to sit up or lie down. He also helped to fetch hot water, prepare milk powder for the child, and change diapers. Sometimes, he even got up in the middle of the night to help. It was torture.

As it was a natural birth, the mother recovered quickly. Yuan Li could even move and walk around on the same day that she gave birth. Yuan Lin asked Chen Jin, “Dear, what do you think is a good name for our child?” Yuan Li considered the fact that they had to register a birth certificate for the child and he needed a name.

Chen Jin thought about it carefully for a while before saying, “Why don’t we name him ‘Chen Bufan’, he will become an extraordinary man in the future.”

“Chen Bufan?”

This name was written with a mere few strokes. Was it a bit too simple?

Chen Jin shook his head. “Let’s give him this name, I can’t think of others. If you have a better name, we’ll give him the name that you come up with. I’m not too good at giving names.” He usually sucked when it came to naming. For example, he actually named the nuclear fusion power station on Haierfa “Yang Yang 1”. He thought the name was quite cute. Although it did not sound very mighty or superior, it was still very interesting.

He noticed another strange thing. Yuan Li’s name was a little weird too. Sometimes she was called “Yuan Li” and other times she was called “Yuan Lin.” When Chen Jin expressed his doubts, Yuan Lin explained that Yuan Lin was her official name but she was often called “Li Li” in real life. Hence, “Li Li” was her nickname. As the two names were often confused as they sounded similar.

Chen Jin nodded. So that was the reason.

“How about ‘Chen Linxuan’ or ‘Chen Yuxuan’? His nickname can be ‘Xuan Xuan.’ These two names aren’t bad, right?” Yuan Lin said that she got the two names after spending $10,000 on a name-listing website to find a grandmaster to calculate the eight characters of the birth. The grandmaster gave her these two names. She thought that they were very good.

“Xuan Xuan?” Chen Jin shook his head fiercely. “No! This name is way too common. Just yell this name at the entrance of the kindergarten and you’ll see more than 10 children running out. We can give him any name but this.” The way he shot down her idea was really too harsh.

“Um…” Yuan Lin muttered to herself for a while. In the end, she had to admit that there was a reason for the man’s words. “Ok, let’s just name him Chen Bufan.” This name was not bad. At least it had a very meaningful message.

On the sixth day, Chen Jin registered the birth certificate for the child and signed on it. He kissed the woman and the child, saying that he would visit them frequently. Then, he left the First Peoples’ Hospital and returned home.

Yuan Lin moved to a high-class postnatal care center with her child after dealing with the discharge procedure. With the help of professional postnatal nannies, she completed her physical rehabilitation, recovery, and the promotion of lactation for her baby, etc. She saved herself a lot of trouble by enrolling in the care center.

A short time after she moved into the postnatal care center, with the guidance of Dong Lei, a harried figure entered Yuan Lin’s room. When the mysterious figure spotted the boy in the cradle, ecstasy lit up her face. She lifted the child in a hug and madly kissed the child’s face countless times. “My good grandson, your grandmother is late. It’s my fault. I’ve not been sleeping well these days. I really want to hug you. Mmm.” She planted another kiss on the child’s fair cheeks. She held the child and walked to Yuan Lin, saying, “Lin Lin, you’re a great hero. You’ve worked hard. Rest assured, you will always be part of the Chen family in my eyes! My son may be a little b*****d, but I’ll acknowledge you as my daughter-in-law!”

“Hmm, thank you, Auntie!” Yuan Lin nodded repeatedly. She had a feeling that her hard times were over and her good times were about to begin.

“Silly child, why do you still call me ‘Auntie?’”

“Mom!” Yuan Lin screamed and burst into tears of joy.

Standing beside them, Dong Lei folded her arms and kept her face blank. She was unaffected by the touching scene played out in front of her. She only felt a deep sense of helplessness. Actually, Dong Lei hauled her daughter along with her swelling stomach to the Chen residence to find Manager He at the beginning of the year. At that time, He Li had been very surprised. She said that she would definitely confront Chen Jin and ask for a clear explanation of the situation. She promised to give them a proper answer.

However, many days passed with no follow-up. When Dong Lei sent a message to enquire, the replies from Manager He contained only one basic meaning; she was teaching that little b*****d a lesson! Lin Lin must pay attention to her health. The child was very important.

When the child was finally born, Manager He immediately rejoiced upon seeing her grandson. And in that same instant, she acknowledged Yuan Lin as her “good daughter-in-law.” Besides her grandson, she would never mention any other things that also had substantial meaning.

Dong Lei gritted her teeth in anger yet again. Good on you, Manager He; and good on you, Chen Jin! I was blind to have provoked you two troublemakers! Then, she thought of her daughter’s limitless infatuation, as well as her husband’s utter lack of integrity and morals. Dong Lei felt extremely despondent. What kind of broken brains did these people have?

…

On the 12th of June, in Merica, the new CIA Director, Sanders Capello, took over the office. He was a man who had been engaged in front-line intelligence work overseas for more than 20 years. He directed the overturning of six regimes from small- to medium-sized countries and had a rich experience in intelligence warfare. He was tall and thin, with a fierce appearance. Known as the “Scorpion,” he brought tremendous changes to the CIA in a short amount of time. Work efficiency increased. There was a higher focus! More resources had also been invested. As such, great results were quickly achieved! A piece of top-secret intelligence was collected from Z country.

His deputy reported the situation. “Sir, we used the method of bribery and have bought over a staff in Zhongxin International. He goes by the surname Lin. He depicted a software tool called ‘Virtual Factory,’ which is extremely powerful. It can simulate a complete industrial production process…”

Virtual factory? This strange vocabulary caused Capello’s eagle eye to slowly open. An extremely sharp gleam radiated from his eyes. He immediately issued a command, “Start an in-depth investigation and get more relevant information!”

Chapter 284 - Lin Lichung

Online simulation technology had always been the trend in industrial development. In the early days of paper drawings, the “amount of paper used” was the most objective indicator of the complexity of a piece of equipment. Take, for example, a bicycle. 10 sheets of drawings were enough to depict all of its construction. At least 100 sheets of drawings were required for a motorcycle. As for a car, around 1,000 sheets of drawings were required. For complex equipment consisting of thousands of parts, such as tanks and aircraft, the amount of paper used may exceed 10,000 sheets.

The most complicated design went to the ships, which consisted of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of modules or parts. The amount of paper used in their design was calculated in tons. It was said that the design drawings of a large aircraft carrier would require a few trucks to carry and transport them. Moreover, these drawings were all hand-drawn by the designers. Not only difficult to keep the design an absolute accuracy, but the efficiency of the design process was also very low as well.

However, after entering the computer age, industrial design software appeared as an aid. The world bid farewell to the era of hand-drawn drawings. Standardization and efficiency of the design process was greatly improved. Take, for example, the fifth-generation fighter jets of Z country, Jian-20. 14 years separated the start of the project and the first flight. It took another 6 years after the first flight for them to be used in military service. Their overseas counterparts needed 30 years to achieve the same thing.

The performance of the large military transport aircraft carrier -20 was even more outrageous. 7 years separated the establishment of the project and the first flight. It took 3 years after the first flight for aircraft carriers to be used in military service. Their overseas counterparts needed 20 years to achieve the same thing.

Of course, the hard work by their science and tech workers and the pace that they pushed themselves was one reason why Z country had such high efficiency. Other factors for their efficiency included the use of computer design software throughout the entire equipment development period, which greatly accelerated the progress of the project. Therefore, industrial design software could be described as the “accelerator” for the research and development of equipment.

But, compared to the common industrial software, the powerful “virtual factory” could no longer be described as a mere “accelerator.” It would be more appropriate to describe it as a “cheat code.” This was because the “virtual factory” was not only able to design the structure of the equipment, but it could also realistically simulate the equipment in its working state! Could ordinary industrial software do this?

Of course, one could not trash the West to such an extreme degree as to claim that they had nothing good. It was said the prowess of Merica’s engine technology was due to their advanced engine design software. This software could dynamically simulate the state of the engine while it was working and obtain some high-value data. But their simulation was not too realistic. The scope of application for their software was narrow. Compared to that, the “virtual factory” was in a totally different dimension. In other words, the “virtual factory” was the ultimate design tool.

Lin Lichung also learned about the various special characteristics of the “virtual factory” from his colleagues who had contact with and even operated the “virtual factory.” Then, he fell into a state of deep worry. Lin Lichung was from Treasure Island and he loved his hometown very much. He graduated from semiconductor design studies. He most desired to enter Mossey Electrics, which was known as “The Light of Treasure Island.” However, due to the fierce competition on the island and the severe shortage of relevant talents in the mainland, he came to the mainland to try his luck. He easily passed the interview and entered Zhongxin International. His salary was twice as high as his fellow graduates who entered Mossey Electrics.

According to logic, he should be happy. But he was not. He merely regarded it as a job that paid the bills. He still wanted to join Mossey Electrics after he improved his technical skills and abilities. Zhongxin was only a springboard for him. But he never expected that the two years that he joined Zhongxin International was the time where it would grow in such an exaggerated manner. Almost like it had a cheat code of some kind.

First, Zhongxin International conquered the 7-nanometer chip in eight months. Then, it overcame the sales ban on the photolithography machine from the West into Z country in a short period of time. After which, the company again took another eight months to overcome the 5-nanometer chip. It was now at the same level as Mossey Electrics.

Most of the netizens on Treasure Island did not believe the speed of Zhongxin’s progress. They thought that it was fake news. But, Lin Lichung, as the backbone of the production line technology, had seen the 5-nanometer chip coming out of the production line with his own eyes. He was extremely shocked at that time. However, he could not continue lying to himself. In addition, Zhongxin shared huge bonus rewards with him in its rapid rise. For example, his salary increased to $30,000 per month, which was three times that of his fellow graduates who joined Mossey Electrics. Zhongxin issued new shares last month and he received stock worth $100,000, which now appreciated to $400,000.

Even so, when he chatted with his fellow graduates online (after breaching the Great Firewall of Z country), he never shared the joy of his salary increase. Instead, he summed up the insider information he heard and communicated his worries. “They have a set of design software that runs on a supercomputer; this software is used to support the research and development on chips. It is called the ‘virtual factory.’ With the aid of this software, they conquered the 5-nanometer chip production techniques in a few months. This is a deadly ‘technological ambush’!”

Due to the problem of his identity, Lin Lichung did not have the opportunity to operate the ‘virtual factory’ on the supercomputer itself. But he learned a lot of details from a mainland colleague that he was close to. The colleague regarded him as a confidante and also liked to brag to him. Lin Lichung successfully made use of these two facts.

All of his fellow graduates back on the island were shocked. A virtual factory that could create simulations that had 99.9999% match with reality. Research and development costs were reduced by more than 90%. The efficiency of scientific development increased by more than 10 times. By creating such a powerful “cheat code,” how could they expect other players without this “cheat code” to stay in the game?

“Impossible! How could such an outrageous technology exist?”

“Lin Lichung, have you been brainwashed? How could you come up with this ridiculous story!”

“Haha, he’s been in the mainland for too long. He has actually learned how to lie and brag.”

His ex-classmates were all skeptical. They raised their suspicions one after another. Some even wanted to break off their friendship with him.

“I really didn’t lie to you!”

Lin Lichung tried his best to explain, “Do you know Xing Hai Technologies? The technology of the Virtual Factory technology was developed by Xing Hai Technologies and then they, in turn, provided it to Zhongxin International. Do you think that Xing Hai Technologies has the ability to develop this tool?”

Xing Hai Technologies? His ex-classmates were all silent now. Even though they often looked down on the various technologies of the mainland as being too outdated, they could not find any weak spots regarding Xing Hai Technologies, which had risen at the speed of light in the past few years. There were even a group of “Xing Fans” in Treasure Island. After trying out for themselves the various products by Xing Hai Technologies, they began to praise the mainland mindlessly. And if you disagreed, you would be faced with various kinds of passive-aggressive attacks. “My son topped the exams with the help of the Little Star learning machine, what’s your ranking then?”, “With the Bang Bang robot, our family rarely falls sick”, “The Star Cloud mobile phone is really good, let’s compare if you really don’t believe it.”

One would get sick of the passive-aggressive attacks by the “Xing Fans” after being on the receiving end of such comments for long enough. There were now very few people on the island who spoke badly of Xing Hai Technologies.

Now that they knew the “virtual factory” technology was developed by Xing Hai Technologies, Lin Lichung’s fellow graduates stopped questioning him. But they all started to panic! How would they resist in the face of the Zhongxin empire, who was playing with a “cheat code?” Moreover, they were simply small fry with their mediocre abilities at work. They would be the first to be laid off when the crisis hit. Perhaps out of the desire to save themselves, they quickly reflected this situation to the higher-ups in Mossey Electrics.

A few hours later, Lin Lichung became an important informant of the Central Intelligence Agency of Merica. He was given the mission to investigate all information pertaining to the “virtual factory.” He was the 15th most important person on the list of CIA’s secret executors. He enjoyed an expense allowance of $30,000 per month. Of course, he never received this money. He never even heard of it.

Still, Lin Lichung faithfully completed his given mission. He paid for his expenses with his own money when he treated the colleague who had the opportunity to be in contact with the “virtual factory” to meals and entertainment. He got even more information about the “virtual factory.” With his earnest pleading, he even got a few photos that his colleague secretly took… Which was quickly sent to the other side of the ocean.

…

On the 18th of June, in Merica, at the President’s Office in the Washington White House, CIA Director, Sanders Capello, walked into the office with a thick file in his hands. He laid the file down in front of the President and said, “Mr. President, we must raise our protest to Z country and request that they immediately hand over a deadly technology that has the capability to change the geopolitical pattern; that has the capability to endanger the entire Western civilization. We have enough evidence now and we should take serious actions against them. We must exert the greatest pressure to safeguard our interests, and safeguard the fairness of the world!”

Dana Trump opened the file with some suspicion. In a short time, his angry roar shook the office.

Chapter 285 - $500,0

There were reasons behind Dana Trump’s angry roaring. Although he did not have a good understanding of industrial processes, he did have some basic technical knowledge. High-precision industrial equipment could not simply be produced just because one improved the standard of the design. It was impossible to manufacture certain advanced equipment even with a full set of design blueprints. It was because the material technology could not meet the minimum standard needed. It was because the accuracy of industrial processing was not accurate enough, therefore, quality components could not be produced. It was the same reason why the earliest humans could not create a machine gun. It was useless even if one gave them the full set of design blueprints for the atomic bomb.

But the existence of the “virtual factory” was similar to that of a cheat code in a game. Your material technology was lacking? Well, the “virtual factory” would first help to simulate the materials, including its production process. Was the processing precision of the lathes not accurate enough? Ok, the “virtual factory” would first design a lathe machine for you. The “Virtual Factory” was not only used for the improvement of the chip manufacturing process, but it could also be used to rectify any flaws in the production process. This could be described as a kind of “multi-purpose” cheating tool.

How could Dana Trump not roar like a crazy and be an angry person after learning about this special feature? The next thing he did was to think about countermeasures! “Where are our navies and aircrafts?” Dana Trump subconsciously asked.

“Reporting to Mr. President, we have two groups of aircraft-led battle navies that are conducting mobile patrols in the Asia-Pacific, and one group that is carrying out missions in the Indian Ocean.”

“Send all of them to the surrounding areas of Z country! All!” Dana Trump brandished his fist.

“Mr. President, this is not a military issue. The aircraft and navy battle groups cannot solve the problem.” Capello felt compelled to remind him. He could not understand the president’s brain. They were fighting a war in the field of science and technology, not a military war.

“I know, I know, but this is the only way that I can get the Z people to comprehend my rage!” He said to Secretary of State Edmunds, “Edmunds, first go to the Z country’s ambassador in Merica, and then immediately go to Z country. Express the most severe protest and the angriest dissatisfaction on my behalf. We cannot tolerate this unfair competition. They must hand over the technology that is so extremely deadly; that threatens world peace! Otherwise, they will face the harshest punishment.”

“Yes, Mr. President!” This was diplomatic pressure.

Capello quietly shook his head. This was useless! With his understanding of the Z people, these two types of pressure were useless. It was not possible that Z would yield. He had to say, “Mr. President, what we should do now is not to expect Z country to surrender their technology, but to increase investment in intelligence work and find ways to get back the technology that belongs to us! This includes intelligent learning technology and the ‘virtual factory.’ But both are essentially products developed on the basis of the ‘smart learning technology’! Mr. President, it is impossible to count on the Z people to compromise. We can only rely on our own efforts, invest more money, develop more informants, and finally take back the technology that the Z people have stolen from us. Theoretically, it is impossible for that technology to have been born in Z country. They were despicable to have stolen the fruit from the wisdom and talent of our scientists. So, in addition to military and diplomatic pressure, the most urgent task at present is to increase the intensity of our intelligence-gathering. We should try our best to enable the informants to take back those precious technologies!” Obviously, Capello hoped that the informants could provide outstanding service for them; this was the most direct and effective method. They should not be using other methods of pressuring and wasting resources on useless efforts.

“What you said was logical, Capello.” Dana Trump nodded. “I will try to get Congress to approve a higher budget for you. But you have to show some results first. If the informants successfully take back the technology, believe me, your budget will increase by at least 50% next year.” He could only give a verbal promise and paint a rosy picture. After all, Merica had been so poor recently that the government was about to close down again. They accumulated a total amount of $28 trillion in national debt, which was close to $30 trillion. However, military spending was still maintained at a high amount of $700 billion per year. It was maintaining its hegemony with great effort. Nowadays, in the face of countless requests for money, Dana Trump could only throw out checks made up of empty promises.

“Okay, Mr. President!” Capello nodded helplessly.

…

“What? I have to sneak into the core R&D office and find a way to steal all the data relevant to the ‘virtual factory’?” Lin Lichung was taken aback. He did not expect the liaison officer to arrange such a herculean task for him.

He immediately refused. “I can’t do it, I don’t have the authority to access the core R&D room, and I don’t have any way to copy and steal such a huge amount of data.” Lin Lichung learned from the colleague that the package size of the virtual factory’s software was about 1,000TB. Including various data, the total amount of data would exceed 3,000TB. How could he steal such huge data?

“We will provide you with the relevant copying tools and a hundred mobile hard drives of 30TB each!”

“I’ve already said this. First of all, I can’t get into the core R&D room! Moreover, they have encryption and anti-copy measures on their computer equipment. They have sufficient protection in place for their hardware. It is impossible to copy and steal the entire ‘virtual factory.’ I really can’t do this.”

“You have to do it even if it’s impossible!” The liaison officer said with an unyielding tone, “Think about your family, think about your parents and younger sister and think about our Treasure Island. If you don’t do this, they will all be in danger.”

What? Lin Lichung’s eyes widened in shock. “What have you done to my parents and sister? You b*****ds!” At that moment, he felt endless remorse. What was wrong with working peacefully? Why had he been mixed in an affair that came to this point?

The liaison spoke bluntly, “We didn’t do anything to your family. They are safe now. But whether they will be safe in the future is up to you.”

“B*****d!!” Lin Lichung gritted his teeth with rage burning in his eyes.

…

He could not escape. He had been kidnapped by a pirate ship; there was no retreat. He could only do it according to the other party’s instructions. But, he really did not have the authority to access the core R&D room. With strict security measures, it was impossible for him to sneak into the core R&D room. He could only follow the advice of his liaison officer and develop his own “external connection.” He should get the staff who had the opportunity to enter the core R&D room to help him copy the data. Hence, Lin Lichung stared at the colleague with whom he had a good relationship. He planned to get his help again.

…

In a private room of a coffee shop, Lin Lichung took out the $100,000 cash that he withdrew from the bank and put it in front of his colleague. He pleaded, “Brother Ye, help me. This money is yours after the work is done!” Lin Lichung’s heart was bleeding. This was all his own hard-earned money. He was paying out of his own pocket!

His colleague widened his eyes and looked at him with shock. His face was filled with disbelief. He even said with a trembling voice, “Lichung, I treat you as a brother, a friend. But you are actually a foreigner’s spy, their lackey?!” Right now, his heart was a pit of endless disappointment and in a moment, it grew cold.

“No, no! Brother Ye, listen to me, I am not a spy, I was forced to…” Lin Lichung tried his best to explain. However, he found out that the more he tried to explain, the worse it sounded. His colleague shook his head, he could not listen to it any longer.

He could only push the $100,000 towards his colleague and say, “This $100,000 is yours. There’s more after the task is done! Brother Ye, just help me this once for this money!”

However, his colleague picked up the phone immediately and made a call.

“Brother Ye, who are you calling?” Lin Lichung asked with surprise.

“Call 110 and receive $500,000!”

…

Twenty minutes later, a crisp “clack” sounded out. A pair of ice-cold handcuffs were locked on Lin Lichung’s wrists. However, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Chapter 286 - Pressure

A severe information leak occurred at Zhong Xin International and a spy was captured. Chen Jin was shocked when he received the news. “Is the leak serious? Is the potential harm big?” he quickly asked.

“The spy is someone by the name of Lin Lichung from Treasure Island. He was not authorized to access the ‘virtual factory.’ It was another staff by the name of Yap Chilin from the mainland that revealed some technical features about the ‘virtual factory’ to him. The core database isn’t leaked, so the harm isn’t that severe. The reason Lin Lichung was discovered and arrested was because he was under pressure from foreign intelligence agencies and was panicking to steal the ‘virtual factory’ technology. Later on, he revealed his intentions and identity when he was bribing Yap Chilin. He has since been behind bars after Yap refused his bribe and called the police. Even so, Yap Chilin can’t claim the 500-thousand-dollar prize money. The most his actions could be justified was that he turned himself in! We have decided to dismiss these two employees. Of course, Yap Chilin did earn himself some merits by reporting the incident. Therefore, his punishment will be slightly lighter,” Zhang Wei Jin said through the phone.

Only the technical features of the ‘virtual factory’ had been exposed. The core database wasn’t leaked. Chen Jin nodded. This was within his acceptance range, but equally infuriating. For a strategic R&D tool as the “Virtual Factory,” even leaking just its technical features would be enough to land someone in the death penalty.

Zhong Xin International’s security measures were not very on point. Compared to Xing Hai Technologies’ anti-leak measures, theirs could be described as containing countless loopholes. Chen Jin did not only attach some regular amounts of importance on confidentiality, but he also attached grave importance to it! Moreover, since Xing Hai Technologies’ establishment until now, they would encounter at least a hundred cases that might lead to leaks every single year!

There were spies from other companies, infiltrating agents from foreign intelligence agencies, and staff within Xing Hai Technologies’ technical department that could not stand the temptation of money, and intended to sell confidential information in exchange for money. On average, up to a hundred employees of this category were caught every year.

Chen Jin became used to the phenomenon because there were too many of them. He wasn’t particularly concerned in this either. After all, who within Xing Hai Technologies would be capable of pulling off such a feat under artificial intelligence Alice’s full-time surveillance? Besides, Xing Hai Technologies also had some special and seemingly weird policies. For instance, the company’s executive members were prohibited to go overseas, to prevent them from being kidnapped in foreign soil. For R&D personnel that participated in core R&D projects and had mastery over core technology, if they so wished to go job-hopping, they could go to other local companies. However, going to foreign companies and leaving the country was strictly prohibited.

Besides, for employees that were unsatisfied with their current situation and desired to strike out on their own, Xing Hai Technologies would not suppress them like barbarians. On the contrary, they would support them creating their own business, providing them funds, technical support, fully supporting them to make their own name… if they failed, they could return to Xing Hai Technologies. Under Xing Hai Technologies’s support, almost a thousand of their ex-employees successfully created their own business and more than a hundred billionaires were born… they formed the so-called “Xing Hai Solar System.”

It could be said that under these various policies, employees that joined Xing Hai Technologies would all find the shortcut to maximize the value of their lives and attain their dreams. Those who would rather be a pawn for foreign intelligence agencies and shamelessly attempted to smuggle technical information abroad were all shortsighted imbeciles.

Although logically speaking, idiots as such were unlikely to pass Xing Hai Technologies’ written test and interview with that kind of IQ they possessed, but Xing Hai Technologies would still find a few of them every single year. Subsequently, those imbeciles would be facing litigation and would end up in jail for at least five years.

For this kind of phenomenon, Chen Jin did not have a particularly good way to put an end to it. He could only enhance prevention while sighing, “Just how many people have been charmed by the moon in foreign lands?” But no matter the case, he had two words for those who wished to acquire secrets and steal the core technology from Xing Hai Technologies: dream on!

But that wasn’t the case for companies that partnered with Xing Hai Technologies. For instance, the “Virtual Factory” and “supercomputer package.” Zhong Xin International was using two, Purple Ray Technologies bought 2, Shangfa Corporation bought one, and the military already wholesaled eight units successively.

Groups of users exceeded two digits and their ability to protect confidentiality was lopsided. There were even “shocking” articles introducing the ‘Virtual Factory’ appearing on the internet. Under these circumstances, it was very difficult to hide the “Virtual Factory” from the rest of the world. It wasn’t that Chen Jin wanted to hide the “Virtual Factory” forever, and he couldn’t possibly do it anyways. He just wanted to let the “Virtual Factory” technology work its magic at crucial times such as these. He would still unveil the tech’s existence in the future.

But following the “spy incident,” all his plans were disrupted. Consecutively, the M’s pressure arrived.

…

On the 20th of June, via new media channels, the M nation issued their severest protests and condemnations:

“Hand out the illegal tech immediately!”

“We strongly condemn and protest against this. Please put unfair competition to halt!”

“We will take all necessary means to protect the M nation’s benefits and defend the fairness of the world!”

“The Virtual Factory was Google’s secret project. All their valuable data was lost in a downtime accident. It might be the doings of Chinese engineers. Now the tech has achieved great success in the Z nation…”

After the sky-breaking news was reported, it raised a furor among M netizens:

“Despicable thieves, why do they keep on stealing our tech again and again?”

“Please stop, we are already depleted!”

“We can’t tolerate this any longer!”

“Send our warships and missiles, take back everything that’s ours.”

And countless more extreme remarks.

…

After the news that the M’s collectively snapped reached the Z nation, Z netizens were all in shock. On one hand, they were excited and zipped up for the “Virtual Factory.” On the other hand, they were refuting and mocking the hysterical reactions of the M netizens:

“Retards! We copied something you don’t even have?”

“Does all technology belong to you? Why are the others’ advancements called copying?”

“Can you come up with something new? You are hopelessly brainwashed by fake news!”

“We are all keyboard warriors, but how could you people leave your common sense and brain aside just for the sake of flaming?”

“They’re not keyboard warriors. They are an insult to keyboard warriors. They are just a bunch of morons that happened to scavenge a keyboard.”

“Their average IQ is not even 30. The more you refute them, the more you think you are insulting your own intelligence.”

“Let’s just do what we should do. No matter how pesky those flies are, they can still be dealt with a slap.”

“A Virtual Factory capable of imitating everything. I thought that it was some kind of business slogan previously, never thought that it was real. Haha, way to go Xing Hai Technologies!”

The Z netizens were joined in jubilation.

Chapter 287 - Operation ‘Punch of Justice’

In Washington DC, at the White House, in the President’s office, Dana Trump inquired of the Secretary of State, Edmunds, who had just returned. “How did the Z government respond? Did they agree to hand out the ‘Virtual Factory’ technology?”

“They did not give us a positive reply. They are playing buck-passing for now,” Edmunds said indignantly, “They actually said that the ‘Virtual Factory’ tech had nothing to do with them. They claimed that it was a product of a private company and they had no right to dispose of it.”

“Did they not nationalize such an important tech or even take away a portion of it?” Dana Trump was infuriated. “Shameless excuses!”

“Indeed. Their sixth-generation fighter jet’s hasty developments must be directly linked to this technology! But they were reluctant to admit it!” said the defense minister.

Bam! Dana Trump smashed his fist on the table and roared, “Command our aircraft carrier to accelerate. Knock on their doors as fast as possible.”

“Mr. President, military pressure won’t yield any effect,” The director of the CIA, Capello, interrupted, “The daily expenditure of three aircraft carriers combined is 50 million dollars. The Z nation, however, owns four similar aircraft carriers. If we advance to their doors… this kind of confrontation has no advantage for us and will only put our forces in grave danger.”

“What do you suggest then?” Dana Trump stared at him furiously. “How would they surrender that devastating technology if not so?” He had enough. His patience had been stretched to his limits against the Z’s, who were immune to both cajolery and coercion. All means that could be taken had already been taken! But still, they were unable to force the Z nation to make any concessions due to the Z’s clutching onto some benefits. The Z’s achieved major breakthroughs in the engine and chip field consecutively through tech-stealing and had already caught up to western levels. They lost all the bargaining chips they were proud of. At current times, aside from military deterrence, all other actions would be futile screaming. But his years of experience of dealing with the Z’s told him that he would not achieve his goal even with these last resorts. The only thing that could stop the Z nation from rising was the black safe in his office desk.

“Mr. President, I have a simple yet effective plan.” Capello’s incisive hawk-like eyes slightly narrowed. With a chilling voice, he said, “We can’t do anything to the Z government, but we can definitely deal with and sanction a mere small company within the Z nation’s boundaries! Since the Z government claimed that the tech isn’t theirs and they had no ties with it, okay then. Immediately announce that company called ‘Xing Hai Technologies’ as a terrorist organization that deliberately launched a ‘technological terrorism,’ destroying world peace and justice. After that, we can do anything we want to sanction that company! Any other company that has a partnership with the company will all be within our scope. Apart from that, issue a global arrest warrant, setting the company’s founder, CEO, high executives, and their family members as wanted personnel with each of them having a bounty of 5 million dollars and above. Especially the company’s founder Chen Jin. He should be made our important target! Mr. President, after careful analysis, I’ve discovered that this man is a very extreme anti-M activist. The purpose he established his company and everything he had ever done was to harm the M nation’s benefits. He is clearly standing against us. Besides, this man is very stubborn. He never once thought of taking cooperative measures with us. Since the very beginning, he already shunned the M nation’s benefits. He rejected our kind intentions again and again and completely ignored Google’s kind reminders. He even went against him and launched the Star Cloud system, completely snatching away the Android’s market. From this, we can conclude that Mr. Chen Jin’s will to go against the M nation is even firmer than any terrorist. Moreover, his destructive powers are colossal. As long as he exists in this world for a day, the M nation’s benefits will be harmed for another. If he lives for another 10 years or more, our mighty M nation might be no more.”

Capello’s hideous face was filled with bloodlust. “Mr. President, we should not wait any longer. For the M nation’s benefit, we must take immediate action. The man by the name of Chen Jin must vanish. He must disappear from this planet forever! Later on, we can wait until an M-friendly person is at the helm at Xing Hai Technologies, then let he or she hand over all core technology corresponding to our request. If the company’s next helmsman is still unfriendly to us, we shall continue to make them disappear, until a person that would cooperate with us appears! Mr. President, I think this is the most effective and cost-efficient solution to this problem,” Capello said with unrivaled desolation in his tone.

Upon hearing this plan, Dana Trump was first stunned for a brief while. Then, he nodded his head. “Well, well, I’m indeed not wrong about you Capello. Your plan is absolutely marvelous. That man by the name of Chen Jin is a big threat to the M nation! He repeatedly refused to cooperate with us. In that case, let him vanish from this world! I will not tolerate anyone with such defiance that harms the M nation’s interests any longer.”

But what plan would be better? They had a round of discussion. In the end, they came out with the most reasonable course of action. This plan, from its overall planning, selection of personnel, execution procedures… would all be handled by Capello, as he was very experienced in the field. Dana Trump gave him the utmost authority, allowing him to mobilize any special force of the military, and funded him with 50 million dollars of operating expenses under just one request: make sure the target was wiped off the face of the earth within five days! Time was of the essence.

On that very day, Capello flew to a military training base in Montana on a military aircraft. He gathered a 120-person special force that was being trained in the base and gave those elite soldiers a speech. “You are the M nation’s heroes, the chilling nightmare for our enemies. You are our country’s most elite SEALs. Now, for the M nation’s benefits, there is a daunting mission in front of you. The execution of this mission is very special and very demanding. In this mission, you cannot bring along any lethal weapons, whether automatic rifles, daggers or even a nail clipper. You can only put on your casual wear, bring along your travel passport, and go to the mission location, unarmed, to assassinate our important target. However, your target lives in a villa, guarded by more than 20 guards. Those guards are not equipped with lethal weapons. Including your target, all of them do not possess guns. The most they might have is a kitchen knife. Therefore, I will choose 20 of our strongest warriors in close combat. You will be using your bare fists to eliminate our target. I name this mission, ‘Punch of Justice’!”

After listening to the mission briefing, the SEALs looked at each other. They were dumbfounded by such a peculiar mission.

Chapter 288 - Run Jack, Run!

Bryan and Jack were a pair of “butt buddies.” They joined the army in the same year and entered the selection team participating in the “Devil’s Week” training selection of the SEALs in the same batch. Due to their outstanding performances, both passed the trial that had more than 70% elimination rate and entered the Navy SEALs. Not only were they lucky enough to become teammates, but they were also even assigned to the same dorm. Even more coincidently, they were both fighting and fitness enthusiasts, possessing a sturdy and muscular physique. Moreover, they were tall and handsome. If they were to walk on the streets with less clothing, ladies would scream for them, offer them their phone numbers, and give them a long, meaningful wink.

However, in the face of countless beauties, Bryan and Jack didn’t seem too interested. On the contrary, going through long periods of training and living together in camp, they have developed a huge ‘interest’ towards each other’s muscles. Bryan was 201 centimeters tall. Usually, he would take in large amounts of raw eggs and protein shakes, and was doing long-term weightlifting training. Therefore, the specialty of his muscles was that they were big and solid like rocks, with blood vessels spreading all over, overwhelming with explosive power. This kind of muscle was also called “explosive muscles” or “tough muscles.”

Jack, on the other hand, was only 178 centimeters tall, slightly petite. Usually, he fancied chicken and vegetables. He was not too fond of fitness recipes and was more into running and stretching. Hence, the specialty of his muscles was that they were smooth, well-proportioned, and curvy. These muscles had relatively weaker explosive power, but it was long-lasting and enabled Jack to run faster. This kind of muscle was called “curvy muscles.”

The style of both their muscles was different.

But “tough guy” Bryan really liked the delicate and curvy muscles on Jack’s body. Jack, on the other hand, was envious of the explosiveness of Bryan’s muscles. Through daily practices and duels they had for their training, their muscles would collide with one another in the arena, smearing upon them with each other’s sweat. Gradually, they built among themselves a very deep relationship, and thus, they officially became a couple.

Coincidently, Capello needed a bunch of outstanding “musclemen” excelling in close combat to execute his “Punch of Justice” plan. Of course, all 120 SEALs present were “musclemen.” None of them had weak fighting abilities. Thus, 20 most powerful elite “musclemen” would be selected for the mission.

During selection, Capello wasn’t looking at their fighting techniques. Contrarily, he established a defined threshold: only fighters with a punch force of 400 kilograms and above were qualified for this mission. This target was fairy exaggerated. One must know that the renowned King of Boxers, Mike Tyson, could only do an 8,000 kilograms right punch and 5,000 grams left punch in a test environment. He was a beast-like existence within the field.

Regular boxers had a punch force of 300-600 kilograms. A regular 60-kilo person had a maximum 150-kilogram punch force. Those who went through professional sports training had punch forces in between the 250 to 400-kilogram range. A 400-kilogram punch force was twice the amount of a regular person, even more powerful than people who were professionally trained. In a 1v1 hand-to-hand combat, such a man would deal a KO with just two to three punches.

During the punch test, without question, Bryan passed the test with ease. His right hand punched out a monstrous 550-kilogram force, winning him everyone’s cheers. Bryan was enlisted for the mission. This made Jack a little nervous. Bryan was going for a mission, as his butt buddy, he would have to tag along as well! In regular tests, he would only punch some 380-kilogram force, sometimes 390, but never once exceeding 400 kilograms. But to be able to go along with Bryan on this mission, looking at the test equipment in front of him, Jack clenched his teeth, took some ten steps backward and then thrust forward.

“AHH!!” He let out a huge roar and smashed his right fist against the equipment.

BAM!

A number appeared on the device: 401.

The power of love allowed him to overcome his own limits.

“Lieutenant Jack. Pass.” Capello nodded.

After all 120 SEALs went through the punch force test, Capello discovered that there were only 13 people capable of a 400-kilogram punch. There were some that looked very fearsome and solid on the outside that only got out with some 350 or 360-kilo punch.

He was a little disappointed. He forwent the subsequent fighting skill test and added seven additional members with a punch of 380 kilograms and above into the special task force. And so, personnel selection was completed.

…

On the following day, on a large passenger aircraft heading towards the Pacific Ocean, all members of the task force, wearing short sleeves and pants, were feeling a little uneasy. After all, the location of their secret mission this time around was an intimidating giant nation.

“Bryan, do you think that this ‘trip’ of ours will be successful? You know, we only have five minutes of mission time. Within these five minutes, we must barge into the villa, get rid of the target, run back to the shore, take a speed boat to the outer sea, and enter a submarine… is five minutes really enough?” Jack raised his doubts.

“Five minutes is more than enough.” Bryan was filled with confidence. He lifted his arms and wiggled his strong muscles. With disdain, he said, “I can take down those small d**k yellow people in just a single punch, I can send 10 of them to hell within three minutes… Mr. Capello is being too cautious, I think that 10 people will be just enough.”

“What you said is true.” Jack nodded, but he had this faint feeling within him that things weren’t going to go well.

…

On the 23rd of June, at three o’clock in the morning in Junting Grand Court, a group of sneaky figures came to the front of the villa. Facing the three-meter outer wall, they climbed in swiftly, stepping on each other’s backs.

“Who are you, what are you doing here?” The gatekeeper inside the guard booth was awakened by unusual voices. He came out from the booth and questioned loudly.

“Huhuh…” Bryan grinned. He grabbed his shoulders and threw him forward. He clipped him within his stout arm and then…

Snap!

He broke the gatekeeper’s neck.

“Go to villa no. 8!”

20 musclemen accelerated their footsteps, trotting towards villa no. 8.

Suddenly, they slowed down and looked at the front strangely. Around 20 guards wearing tuxedos came out from villa no.8, and they were coming right at them.

“Eliminate them!” Bryan waved his hands. These bodyguards came out just at the right moment.

Both parties sped up at the same time, swiftly colliding into a skirmish. A few seconds after the encounter, Bryan heard a few daunting screams.

“AHHH!”

“AHHHHH!”

He turned his head over, witnessing the horrifying scene. In the lights at the flower bed, he saw the hand of a guard wearing a tuxedo piercing through the body of his comrade from chest to back. His comrade was spitting out large amounts of blood. He was not going to make it for sure. Later on, he saw another comrade whose head busted apart like a watermelon after getting punched by a guard. There was another comrade currently flying two meters in the air. His ribs were cracking with half of his chest gone. He never moved after hitting the floor.

“AH! GO TO HELL!” Seeing a guard wearing a tuxedo charging towards him, Bryan channeled all his might into his fist, wanting to smash his opponents’ brain apart. The guard, however, did not budge at all. In return, it responded with its own punch.

Bam!

Both of their fists came together.

Crack!

“AHH!” An unspeakable sense of pain was transmitted into Bryan’s brain. He screamed as his right arm wobbled down like noodles… his bones were fractured. Not only did the guard in front of him sustain no damage, but it was also as if they were following a fixed program, channeling another punch at him in a flash.

“Demons! You demons!” Bryan countered with a punch on his left hand.

Crack!

The bones in his left hand were also shattered.

“AHHH!!” Bryan, whose both hands were crippled, cried in unparalleled agony.

The guard wearing a tuxedo did not stop. It callously gave him another punch on his chest at high speed! Bryan turned his body around, barely dodging this fatal blow. Turning over, he saw something shocking. In less than one minute, among all his 20 comrades that came to the mission, only he and Jack was still frantically dodging and leaping around, avoiding direct confrontation. All the rest were already collapsed in a pool of blood.

“Jack! Run!” For unknown reasons, he shouted these words to his last surviving buddy at this most dangerous juncture. Listening to his screams, Jack complied to his wish. He turned over and ran, yelling back to him, “Bryan! Run!” But Jack’s reminder came late. A brisk punch landed on Bryan’s back. The thousand-kilo punch force propelled him three meters forward, shattering the bones in his right shoulders.

Bryan spewed out the blood in his mouth and held himself up, kneeling using his explosive power. He shouted at Jack who was constantly looking back, “Run Jack, Run!”

A fist, harder than metal, abruptly plunged through his back and emerged through his chest. It severed his spinal cord and at the same time crushed his heart. Looking at the fist covered in blood in front of him, Bryan’s consciousness was quickly disappearing. In the last moments of his blurry vision, he seemed to have seen Jack running back madly and end up being surrounded by the guards in tuxedos.

Chapter 289 - Into Thin Air

Zhang Chyuan Jun was the head of the National Security Bureau’s special investigation team. He had thick eyebrows, a square face, and a stern expression. After receiving the police’s emergency call, they rushed to the scene immediately. They pulled up the cordon and blocked off the entire Junting Grand Court.

Upon seeing the hellish scene, Zhang Chyuan Jun’s face was permeated with shock. Who were the attackers? Who was the mastermind? Why would they attack Z’s richest man in the dead of night?

Many questions emerged in his thoughts. But all the attackers were killed. None of them were still breathing. Hence, he could not get his answers for the time being.

“Captain, the deceased are all foreigners. Their injuries are… strange. Some of them had their sternum crushed, some had their skull crushed, some had their palm and elbow fractured… There were no signs of injuries caused by sharp weapons or bullets… only bruises by blunt force. Their pupils are wide open, and their expressions are pathetic. Many of them sustained a fist-shaped thrust that runs through their chest. There are lots of traces of close combat on the scene. Hence… the conclusion we made was, all of these foreigners were beaten to death,” said the forensic doctor in charge of the autopsy.

“Beaten to death?” Zhang Chyuan Jun had his mouth wide open. Looking at the corpses with a fist-shaped hole tunneling through their chests, he murmured, “How big of a force does it actually require to inflict these wounds?”

“Based on my many years of experience, it requires at least a one-ton punch force to cause such damage.”

“One ton? Could humans be that strong?”

Those guards in villa no.8, what monstrosities were they?

“They might have equipped some unique exoskeletons or ingested some drugs. If not, humans can’t be punched to death that easily. Moreover, these foreigners are not normal people,” the forensic doctor hypothesized.

Zhang Chyuan Jun nodded.

“Captain! Major discovery!” An exclamation came by, “We’ve discovered a tattoo on the arm of a corpse, this should explain their identity.”

“What tattoo?” Zhang Chyuan Jun walked over to have a look.

The tattoo said: SEAL.

The identity of these foreign attackers was immediately unveiled.

…

On the night of that same day, the cordons at Junting Grand Court were receded. All corpses and bloodstains vanished. No waves were impelled on the internet. Everything returned to normal.

But Zhang Chyuan Jun was still somewhat against the grain. He had too many doubts in his heart that had yet been cleared, but he had to resign to retract his forces. Was he only here to clean the mess? How in the world did the richest man’s atrocious guards accomplish those feats? The SEALs being so unscrupulous, could they really have regarded the guards as mere decorations?

But in the face of such a big event, Zhang Chyuan Jun, who was a mere underling, had no authority to further intervene in this case. Subsequent matters were unassociated to him. The orders he received from the higher-ups were: Protect Mr. Chen’s safety at all costs!

“I don’t like to be followed every day. I need my own privacy!” said Mr. Chen, who had yet recovered from the recent shock but refused their protection.

After consulting his superiors, what they replied to him was “try to comply.” Zhang Chyuan Jun had no choice but to retract his forces, leaving behind only a small number of elites to guard the peripheries of Junting Grand Court at a distance.

This was actually against the rules and regulations. Mr. Chen was too important to the Z nation. He resonated with the Z nations fate and destiny! But his personal feelings had to be taken care of. They had to be compliant with all his demands. In short, there must not be even the slightest mistake in protecting Mr. Chen’s personal safety!

…

On Planet Haierfa, at the Base of Operations, Chen Jin’s real self was already hiding. “Network protection has been breached. The system has been successfully intruded! The mastermind behind the ‘Punch of Justice’ operation has been determined. Sanders, Capello. Master, it was this person. He wanted to threaten your life.” Alice displayed all the mastermind’s information in front of Chen Jin.

Looking at the projection of the scrawny middle-aged man with hawk-like eyes and a wolf face, Chen Jin let out a chilling grin.

“Playing dirty eh? Let’s see between you and me, who is better in dirty work!” In Chen Jin’s heart, he already gave this man a death penalty. A Killer Robot that took lieutenant Jack’s appearance was already on a flight to the M nation. In at most three days, Capello Sanders would completely disappear from this world!

Tit for tat is fair play! You want my life? I’ll send you to hell!

Chen Jin was definitely no lay practitioner of Buddhism. He wasn’t that kind of person who requited evil with good. If someone did him evil, he would usually take revenge immediately, pulling out his vile claws! He would kill until his opponent was terrified. This was the best course of action to ensure his own safety. If he swallowed it down this time, he was afraid that his enemies would become aggravated and even unscrupulous! Besides, Chen Jin was all but surprised in this. He completely saw this coming and prepared beforehand.

Perhaps because the others might still have some good feelings and fantasies for the M’s, believing that they would not resort to uncivilized actions. But Chen Jin had long seen their true colors and never once carried any fantasies. They would absolutely do evil, inhumane, bottom line tramping and dirty things without even the slightest hesitation.

In fact, a few logical reasonings would be enough. It was said that there was such a person or company, whose existence would cause the M nation’s hegemony to be a hundred percent weakened, throwing them down from the first place. He would reap off their entitlement to earn easy money and break the comfortable life they were enjoying. He would force them to accept the fact that there were people better than them. Under these circumstances, would they not resort to playing dirty? Would they calmly accept everything and let the others surpass them without even struggling?

What a daydream. They couldn’t even tolerate a single Hua Yao, striving their best to lock them down, not to mention if it came to Xing Hai Technologies. The other’s weakness was their playground. The other’s excellence was their nightmare. But likewise, they would still do dirty tricks under both circumstances. Occasionally feigning saint and putting on a humane face was just to better serve their own benefits. The law of the jungle has never changed in this world. You could have a kind heart, but you must not be naïve. Otherwise, you would be slapped in the face by cruel reality and come to realize that you were not on the same channel as the others.

Speaking of which, what should Chen Jin do? Did he need to hide on planet Haierfa and keep a low profile for a period of time? That was completely unnecessary.

…

On the 28th of June, there was a loud boom on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.

The ruthless Capello Sanders completely vanished from this world.

At the same time, Xing Hai Technologies’ important new product launch conference begun.

Chapter 290 - Are You Afraid? This Is Our ‘Core’ Deterrent!

Three months ago, on the 15th of March, Xing Hai Technologies released the first generation Qinglong CPU based on the “Weave Architecture.” The product code was Dragon-1K. In CPU operating mode, its performance was roughly equivalent to Intel’s i7-8700K, scoring about 140000 points in comprehensive test runs. In GPU operating mode, its graphics performance was equivalent to NVIDIA’s GTX1060 graphics card. Its running score was also about 140000 points. Its performance was enough for everyday office, gaming, and entertainment. Its individual price was only 1,000 dollars.

Moreover, the simplified version of the Xuanwu First Gen (Turtle-1K) built based on the Dragon-1K used in laptops was even as cheap as 350 dollars. Although the CPU’s price-performance ratio was rather high, it had been ridiculed and degraded by many people due to it falling behind Intel’s most advanced CPU by a huge margin in terms of performance. Chen Jin even encountered malicious interviews by foreign evaluators that deliberately wanted to embarrass him publicly. At that moment the reply Chen Jin gave was: Wait 115 days, we will far exceed you.

This triggered a massive response on the internet both in and out of the country.

“Bluff”, “Acting”, “Disgrace”, “Best joke of the year”…

There were countless condemning and mocking comments targeted against him.

But Chen Jin was not joking. This day was the 28th of June, 105 days after the incident, 10 days from delivering a slap in the foreigners’ faces. Zhong Xin International did perform rather well. They were not dragging Chen Jin behind. After going through a three-month research period, they finally tackled the production issues of the 10-nanometer desktop CPU, successfully realizing tape out. They could now produce the greatly enhanced Qinglong Second Gen CPU (Dragon-2K).

Through the phone, Zhang Wei Jin explained to Chen Jin’s avatar, “Mr. Chen, we have taken two approaches to solve the issues on the 10-nm desktop CPU’s conformity rate. Firstly, we tuned down the lithography speed of the super-resolution lithography machine by approximately a third. This reduced the error rate by a significant margin. Secondly, we altered the lithography method. We split the whole CPU into eight cores, turning it into eight modules, then combined them back together to reform a complete CPU… it’s somewhat similar to building blocks. The assembling method added a lot of procedures to the production line. Production efficiency dropped quite a lot as well. But if we do not do so, it would be difficult to increase conformity rates. Its consequences would be, with four times the performance and about five times the production cost, the Qinglong Second Gen CPU’s individual pricing cannot be made lower than 4,000 dollars per unit.”

Chen Jin nodded. A four times improvement in performance would imply that its test run score would be boosted from the Qinglong First Gen’s 14000 points to above 56000 points. On the other hand, Intel’s most powerful iX-9900K’s test run score was only at around 30000 points. Its performance almost doubled its opponents at an instant. However, due to realistic concerns on heat dissipation and stability, the Qinglong Second Gen’s operating frequency was only 3.2 Gigahertz… its settings were rather conservative, just a normal 220-watt TDP Air Cooler sufficed its usage. Intel’s iX-9900K, on the contrary, had an operating frequency as high as 5 Gigahertz and even 5.5 Gigahertz under turbo mode. The heat produced could only be suppressed by water cooling. In order to squeeze the performance of the CPU to the extreme, many overclockers were able to push the CPU into smoke.

For a CPU like the iX-9900K that used graphene cooling, its operating frequency was once pushed by overclockers to an exaggerating 9 Gigahertz while scoring a staggering 54000 points in the running test. Based on the score, the performance of the Qinglong Second Gen CPU was only slightly above the iX-9900K. It wasn’t as “far exceeding” as what Chen Jin said.

However, Xing Hai Technologies’ desktop CPU could also perform overclocking! A better CPU integrated with graphene cooling technology and great potential in overclocking was built based on the Qinglong Second Gen: the “Susaku Second Gen” CPU (Phoenix-2K). The base operating speed of the Phoenix-2K was 3.6 Gigahertz and 4.0 Gigahertz under turbo mode… its initial performance was improved by at least 12% from the Qinglong Second Gen. As for how capable its overclocking abilities were and what would be its peak score in running tests, it all depended on how well the computer wizards could push the Susaku series.

Aside from the Qinglong series for normal usage, the Susaku series made for computer fanatics, and the Xuanwu series used on laptops, there was another one prepared for business users: the “White Tiger” series. This series featured high performance, high stability, and long-term operation. Qinglong, White Tiger, Susaku, and Xuanwu. These four beasts of a CPU signified the rise of domestic desktop CPU and blew the horn calling for the Z’s to completely replace foreign CPU. Moreover, due to the special characteristics of the “Weave Architecture” where transistors could be freely combined, these CPU’s would be equivalent to GPU’s with a similar score. It was said that NVIDIA’s RTX2080 graphics card only scored around 450000.

“Let’s proceed. Don’t let those who are watching us wait too long.” Besides, for the conference of this second-generation CPU, Chen Jin would control his avatar robot to make a “public” appearance and “personally” host the event.

…

At Eight o’clock at night, Xing Hai Technologies’ new product conference began. In the limelight of up to 10 thousand audience members, Chen Jin, who was wearing an ear microphone and fiddling with something in his hands, strolled to the center of the stage. He turned to the audience and kept quiet for a brief moment.

Out of everyone’s expectation, there was no cumbersome and inexhaustible introduction about the second-generation CPU’s performance parameters made by the tycoon standing on stage. Contrarily, he slowly lifted the flat, square-shaped object in his hands. The audience sitting in the front row could even see the golden needles on the underside of the square object. The tycoon’s stern expression was suddenly smudged with hostility. With a growl-like voice, he said, “Are you afraid? This is our ‘core’ deterrent!”

Having said that, the tycoon walked off the stage. The “shortest product conference” in history thus ended. But a data form appeared on the big screen behind the stage, displaying the performance parameters of the four desktop CPUs.

The running score was specifically highlighted. The running score of all four CPUs with different positioning were 550 thousand, 510 thousand, 680 thousand, and 160 thousand respectively.

The backcourt experience zone was opened. All audience members could now experience Xing Hai Technologies’ second-generation desktop CPU’s powerful performance and witness them going ham on foreign products. Seeing was believing!

…

On that night, the whole internet was flipped around by Z netizens who were overwhelmed with pride.

“Are you afraid? This is our ‘core’ deterrent!”

“Are you afraid? This is our ‘core’ deterrent!”

“Are you afraid? This is our ‘core’ deterrent!”

This phrase was from end to end in all social media, especially under the official Weibo of Intel, Nvidia, the M Embassy, and some other institutions. This phrase queued up for some thousands or even ten thousand times on their wall in an oddly neat manner.

…

In the M nation, at the White House, Dana Trump was looking at a video showcasing a young man that haughtily spouted words with a chilling and vicious expression on his face. “Are you afraid? This is our ‘core’ deterrent!”

After understanding what he meant from his translator and concurrently remembering the assault panickily reported by the CIA, Dana Trump’s face was flushing and turning pale alternatingly. He grabbed his chest, almost vomiting blood in that instant.

Chapter 291 - Recruiting Bootlickers

A provocation. A tit for tat provocation. It was no longer done in the subtle way of the East, but a direct hit to their image and ego. Not only was good old Merica unaccustomed to this, but they also found it completely unacceptable. Hence, retaliation arrived the next day.

Isolation! A complete and thorough isolation policy against Z country. Any company that collaborated or had business contacts with Xing Hai Technologies and their related businesses would all be blocked. All copyrights of western tech companies would never be authorized to Xing Hai Technologies. The overseas assets of all employees from Xing Hai Technologies were frozen… Etc., etc.

However, unexpectedly, the global bounty for the arrest of the founder, upper management of Xing Hai Technologies, and their relatives were never announced.

“If you could place a bounty on my people, I could also place a bounty on your people! And the bounty reward would be ten times more! Your family would also be on the wanted list. Say, would you dare to issue this wanted list?” Alice sent out this blunt warning message.

Then, he thought about the burst of rage from the CIA. The other party thought about this and his anger completely disappeared. However, he still had no idea why the sanctions did not work. Was the isolation tactics against Xing Hai Technologies even effective? It was indeed true that Xing Hai Technologies needed many patents that were copyrighted by Western tech companies.

For example, the ARM architecture was needed to manufacture mobile CPUs. At present, Xing Hai Technologies was still using this architecture for the sake of better software compatibility. However, for Xing Hai Technologies, the impact was minimal. Xing Hai Technologies could make a mobile CPU based on the “Weaver Architecture.” Its performance would be on par with CPUs made with the ARM architecture.

The Star Cloud operating system needed to be slightly adjusted. Alternatively, they could use the mobile version of the “Xuanyuan OS.” The user would find it equally smooth and easy to use. As for the software ecosystem, they could use the conversion function of the “Work Assistant” to quickly resolve system compatibility issues.

In addition to the ARM architecture, for some patent barriers that simply could not be circumvented, Xing Hai Technologies could only go into the production of counterfeits in accordance to the special protection clause of the Patent Law. If you were alive and you want to continue living, there was no way that you would not grab any means of survival available. Moreover, the core technologies integrated into most of Xing Hai’s products, such as the Wa-wah cleaning robot, the Little Star learning machine, the Bang Bang robot, the Xinghai computer, and other hardware products, were their own technology. They were not dependent on external sources. Not to mention their software products.

But even so, as they were caught in the middle of the storm, Xing Hai Technologies still aroused concern in many in the face of such sanctions. There were some small domestic suppliers who were so frightened that they canceled their collaboration with Xing Hai Technologies.

In order to avoid being implicated and the negative effects on overseas revenues, many companies distanced themselves from Xing Hai Technologies for fear of being on the sanction list. Certainly, this had an impact on the business development of Xing Hai Technologies.

After all, Merica was still the overlord of the global economy. They still had a great amount of power. No matter how much they despised and scorned Merica, Merica still had many ways to restrict their development and damage their interests.

…

“Brother Chen, you’ve really managed to provoke Merica this time. You’ve delivered a hit with the strength of a nuclear bomb on Merica in the field of science and technology. Merica would find this absolutely unacceptable. The chip industry is their most profitable core industry and an important pillar of their technological hegemony. Now, you’re destroying this pillar and taking away their pie. They absolutely can’t accept this. So, Brother Chen, your Xing Hai Technologies can only expand in the domestic market. The Star Cloud system and Xing Hai computer may not be distributed in overseas markets in either direct or indirect ways. Their development will face severe restrictions. Even the domestic supply chain will shrink.” On the phone, Lei Xiao Jun sighed, “Brother Chen, your company’s development strategy is too extreme, too extreme! You’ve offended the overlord, Merica, as well as its most difficult to deal with agency. Brother Chen… your balls are too big. You’re too headstrong, you lack thought!” Lei Xiao Jun could not help but roast him with his words. Once you offended Merica, your good old days would be over. Even for him, his Da Mi company still obediently paid a fine of $1.9 billion before exiting the Merican market. He hoped to return to the Merican market in the future, and did not want to extinguish his last hope.

What about Xing Hai Technologies? They actually dared to confront them with dogged determination. There was not even a trace of fear of the total isolation policy of Merica against them. They could not possibly get even more hard-headed.

“Headstrong?” Chen Jin was slightly stunned, am I headstrong? Then he smiled and said, “Brother Lei, are you confused about the direction of the isolation policy? It is clear that I am isolating Merica, how is that Merica is isolating me? Do they even have the ability to block Xing Hai Technologies?”

“You–” Lei Xiao Jun was suddenly stunned. He was annoyed. He was still acting so stubbornly at this time! He was hopeless! He was really helpless in the face of this idiot.

“Don’t be anxious, Brother Lei, listen to my analysis. Xing Hai Technologies’ most competitive technology is not our robot, nor is it the Xing Hai computer. These are just small toys. These technologies are not our core technology. Our core product is the ‘Little Star Intelligent Learning Machine’ which has the ability to transform the education of a country. It is also the “virtual factory” that brought the industry of a country to a whole new level. It is also the “work assistant” that improved the efficiency and quality of workers in a country. Of course, the most essential of all the core technologies that form the basis for all these core technologies is probably the “Intelligent Learning Technology.” This should be the thing that all countries are dreaming of. It is also the reason why Merica has repeatedly cracked down on and blocked Xing Hai Technologies. As long as we don’t hand over these technologies and don’t cooperate with them, the suppression will continue. Their tactics will get harsher until Xing Hai Technologies compromises. We are considered criminals because we have something precious that they want! This is the simplest reason. Their sanctions are something that will come sooner or later. It will happen as long as Xing Hai Technologies is still standing.”

This conflict was irreconcilable. Of course, Lei Xiao Jun’s worries were not unreasonable. Under the comprehensive sanctions implemented by the West and led by Merica, the development of Xing Hai Technologies would definitely be seriously affected. It was akin to being restricted to an isolated island. They would develop abnormally, as they were unable to obtain sufficient resources to freely develop. In the long run, this was not conducive to the growth of Xing Hai Technologies.

However, Chen Jin came up with a solution to overcome the ridiculous blockade. He planned to put the word out, and reserve two places for the recruitment of two bootlickers.

“Bootlickers?” Lei Xiao Jun was confused. What did this term mean?

“Dogs that will kneel down in front of Xing Hai Technologies and lick our boots.” Chen Jin explained, “This is my plan. I will no longer defend only the development strategy in Z country. I’ll allow the three products, ‘Little Star Learning Machine,”Virtual Factory,’ and ‘Work Assistant’ to enter the overseas markets. They will even enter western markets besides that of Merica’s. Of course, the knowledge tree of the Little Star Learning Machine would only be available up to the high school standard. The simulation of the virtual factory would only attain a reality index of 99%. The ‘work assistant’ will be limited to a few civilian sectors. And all data will remain stored in the database of Xing Hai Technologies. When the bootlickers are not sufficiently obedient, we can cut off the data service at any time.” Chen Jin asked calmly, “Brother Lei, do you think it’s possible to recruit bootlickers with such conditions?”

“Yes, for sure!” Lei Xiao Jun nodded fiercely and felt extremely excited.

Chapter 292 - Xing Hai Technologies Made A Compromise?

Xing Hai Technologies spread the word that they planned to recruit bootlickers. What did the government think if this plan? Would they express their approval or opposition? The Little Star learning machine, the Virtual Factory, the Work Assistant. These 3 products by Xing Hai Technologies provided an unprecedented level of aid and improvement to a country’s education and industry, as well as various sectors and occupations. It could even be described as an evolution akin to the Industrial Revolution! There was no country or region that could bear the cost of lagging behind in this revolution.

On the contrary, countries that embraced this technological revolution early would undoubtedly gain great advantages. They would achieve rapid take-offs in their industries and quickly kick their competitors to the curb. From a common sense point of view, these technologies or products should be strictly forbidden from export to foreign countries. This was to avoid others catching up to their outstanding standard. This was human nature.

However, the government did not have specific legislation to restrict Xing Hai Technologies from exporting or licensing their copyrights to others when it came to advanced technologies that were at the level of “strategic weapons.” No short-term or long-term bans had ever been issued either. Even if Xing Hai Technologies were to actively ask the government to enact relevant laws to help limit exports.

There was no clear answer from the higher-ups. It seemed that they did not want to offend the Western power. The strong pressure exerted by Merica could only be borne by Xing Hai Technologies itself.

Now, Xinghai Technologies changed its mind and intended to expand into overseas markets and recruit two bootlickers. The government naturally had no reason to object and could only express its support. If the state opposed his plan, it would introduce relevant bans or laws, and the burden would be borne by the state. The pressure on Xing Hai Technologies would be reduced. It was exactly what Chen Jin wanted but failed to attain.

Then again, did the government dare to bear this burden? They would be a target faced with countless violent attacks! Besides Chen Jin, who was so headstrong and stubborn, who dared to step into this position?

Therefore, Xing Hai Technologies met no resistance when they notified the government higher-ups that they intended to recruit two bootlickers. In the past few years, Z country took up the banner of free trade. Not only did they welcome all foreign companies to enter Z country and invest, but they also supported domestic companies to go global.

…

A few days later, on the 1st of July, 20X2, an announcement was issued in succession on Xing Hai Technologies’ official website, Weibo, WeChat, and other platforms. It was titled, “Announcement on the Development of Xing Hai Technologies’ Globalization Strategy.”

The main content was as followed:

“After a long period of careful consideration, our senior management realized that Xing Hai Technologies’ existing business development strategy that was based on ‘a complete footing in the domestic market’ is indeed somewhat conservative and narrow. This has caused many customers who followed Xing Hai Technologies closely to express their regrets and disappointment. Here, we want to apologize to these customers. We also apologize for our stubbornness and ignorance. We’ve clearly recognized our mistakes. In this world, everyone should be equal, regardless of the country they came from, their ethnicity, or their skin color. We live on the same planet and our destinies are connected. We cannot only be concerned for ourselves and ignore the development and appeals of others. We cannot turn a blind eye to the current situation of poverty, low education levels, and outdated production in other countries. This is a very selfish approach and we should be ashamed. We will correct this mistake in time and be a company with ideals and a sense of responsibility. As a company who is currently in the pursuit of these ideals, we will serve the world’s humanity. Therefore, we decided to reform and start over again in the nick of time. Not only will we serve the 1.4 billion Z citizens, but we’ll also provide quality services to 7.5 billion people. We’ll change the fate of more people and make this planet an even better place. We plan to come up with two places. This will be our first step to embrace the global market! In addition to ordinary robot products, the Star Cloud operating system and the Xing Hai computer, our Little Star intelligent learning machine, virtual factory, work assistant, and other core products are included in the range for global distribution. However, in terms of specific cooperation, we hope to find the most trustworthy partners, so that both parties can be at ease. We hope to have a sincere and long-term collaboration. Hence, we have the following requirements for our potential partners. First of all, we will not collaborate with countries that are fiercely imposing sanctions on Xing Hai Technologies and isolating us. Secondly, in order to take into account the ‘level of reception’ by the overseas users for the core products that we will be distributing overseas, the services and technologies that we provide will generally be within the users’ scope of understanding. For example, the knowledge tree in the Little Star learning machine will be made to the level of the Z country’s high school standard cut off. Some of the knowledge that is too advanced will be eliminated to avoid situations where students are unable to learn the knowledge. Considering the expensive price of supercomputers, we have launched a ‘virtual factory’ that can run on computers with more than 500 trillion Flops of computing power. This will reduce the usage cost for the customer. The degree of simulation will still be sufficient for most industrial design scenarios. As for the Work Assistant, we are only introducing the ‘Programming Assistant’ that is suitable for programmers. This will increase the efficiency of software engineers by five to ten times. In the future, greater variety and number of jobs will be created from the use of this software. In addition, considering the security and stability of the data, all the cloud data and servers of the products will be located in Z country… but the impact on the users is small and the data provided will also be more comprehensive. Also, in order to provide a better experience, our Little Star learning machine, Work Assistant, and other products are not too ‘safe’ in some special circumstances as we will collect usage data. There is about a 1 in 10,000 chance that the product will infringe on the user’s ‘privacy’… it can be considered a product that infringes on privacy. As this is our first attempt to enter the overseas markets, we hope that the countries or institutions that are interested in collaboration will take the initiative to contact us and apply for collaboration. We are not too good at interacting with foreign customers. Finally, from the date that this report has been made, we are willing to wait for a month for partners who are interested in collaboration. If there are no applicants for the 2 positions of collaborators a month later, on the 1st, Xing Hai Technologies’ globalization strategy would have failed. The senior management of our company will close themselves off for three years to reflect on the lessons learned. We may launch a new globalization strategy three years later. We are a company that is good at reflection. We are willing to take the time to sum up and learn from our lessons. Our unchanging aim has always been this: ‘transform yourself before transforming the world.’”

…

Very quickly, after this announcement was made by Xing Hai Technologies, public opinions were all astir. Some domestic media and internet celebrities quickly commented. They could not wait to express their welcome.

“Xing Hai Technologies has made a positive change, breaking the original thought pattern of the small farmers.”

“This is change with a positive meaning.”

“Xing Hai Technologies is working hard towards becoming a noble company.”

“Science has no borders, the world can only become better when core technologies are shared.”

However, the media did not notice the thousands of comments posted by netizens after they carefully read the announcement that was more than a thousand words long. Under the original announcement by Xing Hai Technologies, the comments posted by the netizens amounted to one word repeated over and over.

“Hush!”

“Hush!”

“Hush!”

Netizens were ‘hushing’ all across the board.

But those media and internet celebrities were so excited that they immediately told this “good news” to their backers the first chance they had.

“What? Xing Hai Technologies has compromised?!” After getting this news, Michael, the ambassador of Merica stationed in Z country, was ecstatic. He stomped his feet in joy. “They’ve really surrendered and agreed to hand over their core technology? Good, good! I knew that there’s no company that can survive three days of sanctions by Merica! I have to report this good news to the President!” He picked up the phone and reported the good news to Merica with lightning speed.

Chapter 293 - It Was A Major Misunderstanding!

Very quickly, in Merica, at the Washington White House, the statesmen received the “good news” from their ambassador in Z country, Michael. In the meeting room, the senior statesmen were excitedly discussing the matter.

Secretary of State, Edmunds, waved his fist and said, “Good, very good! It seems that our strategy of pressuring them has worked. That company from Z country called ‘Xing Hai Technologies’ has finally yielded! In fact, I have long believed that they will surrender, it is impossible not to surrender! Our power and authority is the greatest on this planet, no one can go against our will!” His depression was swept away and his face was brimming with enthusiasm.

The Minister of Defense said, “Mr. President, we can withdraw our aircraft-led navy battle groups. The officers and men are exhausted to the limit. The ships also require maintenance and repair. They can no longer carry out long-term quasi-combat missions.”

“Withdraw them then.” Dana Trump waved his hand and nodded.

However, the Minister of Energy Resources said, “The intelligent learning machine, the virtual factory, and the work assistant… Mr. President, it’s not enough for Xing Hai Technologies to cough up only these three core technologies. We must get the most essential of their core technologies, the ‘intelligent learning technology.’ Only with that can we be in the same league as Z country… we have to demand that the company hand over this technology.”

“Then take it, take all the technologies that we should take!” Dana Trump said, “Send 100 people along with a sufficient number of hard drives to Xing Hai Technologies. Copy all their technologies and data over. We’ll issue a fine of $10 billion before reaching a settlement with them and lifting the sanctions against Xing Hai Technologies. But, we’ll still ban some of their products from entering the Merican market. This company has done too much harm to Merica, and must be punished accordingly.”

Everyone looked at the president weirdly. Their lips tightened as they felt that this measure was not appropriate. Some form of retaliation was sufficient, there was no need for overkill. If they provoked Xing Hai Technologies again…

Dana Trump maintained his style of “asking for sky-high prices.” He knocked on the table and said, “Gentlemen, This is Xing Hai Technologies admitting defeat and begging for forgiveness, we must not spare them so easily! We must teach this company a good lesson to prevent the emergence of another similar company!”

“What Mr. President says makes sense.”

“Yes, they must be severely punished!”

“This is the last one! I can’t tolerate the emergence of another company like this.”

Everyone agreed in an ass-kissing manner.

Bang bang bang!

An urgent knock sounded on the door.

A female assistant rushed into the conference room and distributed the papers in her hand with some nervousness. She said, “Mr. President, gentlemen, the ambassador in Z country has sent a second urgent document. He said that he received the wrong news. This translated document is the full text of the announcement by Xing Hai Technologies. Gentlemen, please look at them carefully.” After saying that, the female assistant quickly walked out of the conference room, as if to avoid an incoming storm.

Dana Trump and the others were full of confusion. With a puzzled look, he lowered his head and looked down at the documents in his hands. They nodded as they read the first half of the content. There were no problems. The tone of their apologies was very sincere and they reluctantly accepted it.

But, they were all slightly stunned when their eyes swept to the lines of “we have the following requirements for our partners.” Requirements? What right did the company have to make any requirements?

“First of all, we will not collaborate with countries that are fiercely imposing sanctions against Xing Hai Technologies and blocking us…. What?” Dana Trump widened his eyes forcefully. The country that was blocking Xing Hai Technologies, was it not referring to Merica? Will not collaborate with… It meant that they would exclude Merica from the get-go? Dana Trump’s face suddenly grew red. The frequency of his heartbeat and breathing was rapidly speeding up. He got an ominous feeling as he continued to read!

The version of the Little Star learning machine, the virtual factory, and the Work Assistant that would be distributed overseas seemed to be “castrated versions” out of consideration for the costs and level of reception and costs by overseas users. The data and servers would be placed in Z country. They even explicitly state that their products would invade user privacy by collecting user data. Moreover, interested parties had to take the initiative to contact Xing Hai Technologies to apply for collaboration. The recruitment period lasted for only one month. If they could not recruit a partner, they would “reflect” for three years.

After seeing the full announcement, he thought again of the bold and visionary words that he just said. He felt a huge contrast. Dana Trump’s body started to shiver. Soon, he was trembling violently. “Argh!” Suddenly, he roared and shredded the papers in his hands! “F**k! F**k! Recall Michael back to the country immediately and give me a gun. I will shoot him dead with my own hands! And you! If any of you dare to leak what I just said, you’ll die! I will kill you! F**k, f**k!” Dana Trump slammed his fists on his desk and bellowed, almost as if he was in a state of madness.

“I promise to keep my mouth shut, Mr. President.”

“I completely forgot what Mr. President just said.”

“Um, I’m currently attending a private party and have never seen the president.”

Everyone in the scene expressed their agreeable opinions. They even worried that with the president’s age, if he might get a heart attack in his rage and pass away on the spot.

After a long time, the president finished venting his anger. Everyone stared at one another in dismay in the conference room. It was a misunderstanding; a major misunderstanding! Those well-known internet celebrities in Z country and the group of dumb bootlickers did not read the announcement in full. They did not even understand the meaning of the second half of the announcement, yet they could not wait to send celebratory messages with the report of the good news to Michael. What was the actual situation?

It turned out that Xing Hai Technologies was recruiting bootlickers! As the owner of countless bootlickers, the Merican President was used to being on the receiving end of the bootlicking. But now he had to lower his posture and become the bootlicker of somebody else? It was because Dana Trump had a stronger than average heart. Otherwise, he might really have passed away on the spot after 2 more of these misunderstandings. The IQ of the bootlickers was really hopeless. All of them should die horribly.

“Isolate them, increase the intensity of our sanctions! I must let them regret their actions!” After the awkwardness passed, Dana Trump released this ruthless statement.

The meeting ended in a hurry.

…

Turning our attention back to Z country, after Xing Hai Technologies made the announcement that seemed to be a “sincere apology,” it caused a wave of “Hush!” to rise from the netizens. Everyone was paying close attention to this. Would there be bootlickers in the world coming forward to kneel within a month?

Then, three days passed. No activity took place.

Netizens began a heated discussion:

“The conditions for collaboration proposed by Xing Hai Technologies are too harsh. It is impossible for a bootlicker to appear!”

“The overseas products will be castrated versions. The data and servers are all placed in Z country. The service can be cut off at any time. Any bootlickers that accept this offer will be strictly controlled by an external party. No one likes to be controlled.”

“Personal privacy is very important to the West. To them, personal privacy is more important than anything else! Xing Hai Technologies actually said that it will collect user data, which may infringe on user privacy. With this alone, they will not use the products no matter how good they are.”

“Haven’t you heard of this phrase: If it’s for freedom, everything can be abandoned. In the West, freedom is greater than anything else.”

“Big VIP of the industry, I think you should continue to ‘reflect.’”

Netizens were not very optimistic.

However, on the 4th of July, a national institution suspected to be the first “bootlicker” took the initiative to contact Xing Hai Technologies.

Chapter 294 - Death Note on Weibo

In the Xing Hai Headquarters, at the meeting room on the top floor, a middle-aged man in a suit sat nervously on the sofa across the CEO, Ling Jundong. The middle-aged man’s manners were refined and very respectful. With two hands on his lap, he nodded and bent forward from time to time. His etiquette was excellent. He was very fluent in the Z language, and one could tell that he was very knowledgeable about Z country’s culture. The only downside was that no matter how flowery and cultured his speech was, a sense of wretchedness could always be seen on his face.

“Your company’s technology is very advanced. This building is shockingly amazing and has unparalleled beauty. The moment I walked into the building, I knew that this is the greatest company on the planet. The CEO of this company is also the best CEO in the world. Respect. Ling-san, I really respect everything that’s been done here.” Ichiro Maeda raised his thumb and praised him.

Ling Jundong nodded slightly. He rather enjoyed the fact that this sort of flattery could come from the mouth of the Deputy Chancellor from Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Moreover, the Japanese government responded to the recruitment announcement by Xing Hai Technologies and was the first to come forward. This was completely within the prediction of Xing Hai Technologies.

Although many people really despised the Japanese, their country was indeed very “eager to learn.” More than a thousand years ago, they dispatched a large number of “envoys” to the Tang Dynasty. They learned all aspects of the Tang Dynasty, from the written language, festivals, food, clothing, to the architecture, and completely bid farewell to their barbarian era. Two hundred years ago, when the West dominated the world, they dispatched a large number of students to the West to learn Western science and technology, festivals, clothing, food, and architecture, etc. They learned everything they could from the West and called their transformation an “all-pan westernization.”

Now that they witnessed more advanced technology appearing in Z country, of course, they wanted to learn. One must know that the Japanese economy had been stagnant for more than 30 years. Japan was plagued by natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcano eruptions, tsunamis, and typhoons which occurred frequently. Sometimes, they experienced a nuclear plant explosion too. Their declining birthrate was extremely severe and the total population was declining year after year.

Besides a few key strengths in the field of science and technology, they were facing fierce competition in other sectors from the two neighboring countries, Z and Gorea. The myth of their “artisan spirit” was being continuously eroded, it now turned into a “bowing spirit.” The pride that they had in themselves had long been overwhelmed by emotions such as disappointment, anxiety, nervousness, and inferiority.

Faced with the rise of Z country, they struggled hard. But they found that the gap between them widened. In their futile attempts to get out of their predicament, they only found themselves to still be slipping into an even deeper abyss. Just at this time, they heard that Xing Hai Technologies of Z country issued an announcement to “recruit bootlickers.”

The conditions in the announcement were somewhat harsh. But after three days of shutting themselves in to carry out an in-depth discussion, the Japanese high-level officials still felt that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! Once they seized this opportunity, it was very likely that Japan would rise again. They must seize this opportunity!

Hence, Ichiro Maeda, who was proficient in the Z country’s culture, was sent here by Prime Minister, Shinzo Anbe, after his position had been rapidly upgraded from a mere “diplomatic officer” to the “Deputy Chancellor” so as to show their high regard for Xing Hai Technologies. All the little details were very well done.

However, after hearing the request for collaboration from Ichiro Maeda, Ling Jundong shook his head and raised several questions regarding the principles of the matter. “Has Merica given you the ok to come over to us? After our collaboration is over, can you ensure that our products and data will not be touched and analyzed by the Mericans? If Merica intervenes in this matter and causes our collaboration to be cut short, shouldn’t Xing Hai Technologies receive compensation that is ten times of our financial losses?” In fact, all these were simply different forms of one question: What if Merica interferes and disrupts the cooperation between the two parties?

Ichiro Maeda thought for a moment and said, “Ling-san, we have discussed this issue in detail. Our solution is to conceal. We plan to conceal our cooperation, and carry out our collaboration secretly to prevent the Mericans from finding out.”

Were they not just burying their head in the sand? Ling Jundong rolled his eyes. “There will be millions of students, thousands of science and tech companies, and hundreds of thousands of employees using our products at the same time. How is it possible to keep this a secret from Merica?”

“Ling-san, this is impossible in other countries, but it is entirely possible in Japan!” Ichiro Maeda proudly said. He was not bragging. There was a ‘shaming culture’ in Japan. The essence of this culture was about “going with the flow,””the minority obeys the majority” and “not fitting in is a disgrace, those people will be isolated and outcast.” Hence, the Japanese could often display an amazing sense of uniformity. This could be seen from the scenes of useless fans waving their glow sticks in sync at the concerts of some anime songs. Of course, this was not unity, nor was it a reflection of their “high inner quality;” it was just a special culture. If this culture was used for the purpose of ‘keeping things secret’ and ‘falsification,’ it would definitely achieve good results.

However, Ling Jundong still shook his head! “We tend to prefer open and transparent collaboration, we also publicly announce our partners. Rather than sneaking around, Xing Hai Technologies is honest and upright! We want the world to know who our partner is!”

Ichiro Maeda’s body trembled fiercely! Announce the partner to the world? If Merica got wind of this, it would skin them alive. There were three aircraft-led navy battle groups that were even now docked in the Yokohama Port in Japan for repairs! Since they were already Merica’s bootlickers, they could not become the lackey of Xing Hai Technologies. The consequences of being a half-hearted, disloyal dog for two powerful countries at the same time was to be skinned alive.

At this thought, Ichiro Maeda pleaded earnestly. “Don’t announce it at all costs! Our Prime Minister is consulting Merica about their opinions on this matter. Merica will definitely agree. Japan is a big country! We are taking an independent diplomatic route. Other countries cannot intervene in our foreign policy. This collaboration is possible, but please don’t announce it! We hope to avoid unnecessary trouble.” At this point, he already became incoherent. His logic was so full of loopholes it could not withstand any more rebuttals and doubt. Even he himself could not believe these words. He had no confidence. A dog-like country. His country was essentially a dog.

Besides, even if there was a one in a million probability that Merica would agree to Japan and Xing Hai Technologies collaboration, Chen Jin would still propose several additional conditions that he personally prepared. Would they stop worshipping the ghost of the latrines? Would they apologize for historical issues, would they kneel and acknowledge their mistakes? Would they fork out at least tens of billions for civil compensation?

Although it was said that one must be forward-looking, to forget one’s history was to betray one’s ancestors! If these left-over issues remained unsolved, Chen Jin would never collaborate with them. He would only end up cultivating an ingrate that harbored ulterior motives. It would turn around and bite his hand. In short, he would not treat the other party as a human. The dog leash had to be grasped tightly in his hands.

The first negotiation ended without results.

In the evening, Ichiro Maeda went back by plane. Then, he had no chance to return to Z country. A rope was wrapped around his neck and hung on the roof beam. Very quickly, he became cool. This was because Xing Hai Technologies posted on their official Weibo, saying that Japan sent a diplomat to come and discuss the possibility of cooperation, but the talks were fruitless. This Weibo post instantly became the death note for Ichiro Maeda. Would the Mericans have mercy on him? This was the content of the discussions by the majority of netizens on Japan, who was the first country to propose the collaboration.

“Be an honest and loyal dog, stop dreaming.”

“It’s too difficult to change your fate. You can’t change your dog life.”

“The country under the strictest control of Merica is Japan. It is a natural dog + cash cow. It also provides young and fair girls to the Merican soldiers for them to trample and enjoy.”

“One dog and two masters, isn’t it looking for death?”

“If you want to lick the boots of Xing Hai Technologies, you should free yourself from your leash before talking about it!”

“We can’t agree to this collaboration. Japan has a human appearance but the heart of a beast. We can’t share good things with them!”

The first country who seemed to be a bootlicker failed to be recruited because it did not meet the conditions. Two days passed. On July 6th, a country that had the real qualifications to become a bootlicker finally appeared.

Chapter 295 - Sorry, Cousin! We Want To Collaborate With Xing Hai Technologies!

The various conditions proposed by Xing Hai Technologies in their recruitment for partners were both tempting yet harsh enough to make one take a step back. After all, Xing Hai technologies was too harsh on some aspects. It was OK if the performance of the products were reduced. But the two conditions of “collecting user data, which may infringe on user privacy” and “servers will be located in Z countries” were really difficult to accept. Individuals would not only lose their valuable privacy but, once Xing Hai Technologies cut off the data service, it would immediately become paralyzed and they would very much be under the control of others. This meant that you could only be a nice person in the future, and you could not afford to offend Xing Hai Technologies or Z citizens.

Of course, the resistance one felt towards these requirements or restrictions, could actually be overcome and tolerated. It was the era of big data. You could only have your so-called “privacy” if you lived like a caveman. There were even many apps which were unusable if you did not give your permission for certain authorizations. As for the relationship with Xing Hai Technologies and the attitude towards Z people, it could be more polite and friendlier. Even if there was nothing in it for them except lining the pockets of Z people, they should still put on a smiling face. But the most challenging thing to deal with was not the above difficulties, but the sanctions of Merica!

“Whoever dares to collaborate with Xing Hai Technologies will have to bear the most violent anger and the most brutal sanctions by Merica!” This was the original statement made by the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Merica. Which headstrong country dared to try to go against Merica?

So, it was really difficult to be a bootlicker. Without a thick skin, without great courage, without the mental preparation to face fatal retaliation by Merica, it was impossible to make this step.

In addition, when the public in those countries with electoral systems saw how their government knelt at Xing Hai Technologies’ feet without an ounce of integrity and accepted such harsh conditions, public support for them would definitely go down. It was tantamount to political suicide. After all, many Westerners never experienced Xing Hai Technologies’ products. They did not think that this company from Z country was anything great. Instead, they were very contemptuous. They believed that the company’s achievements came from “technical theft.” This was a classic case of the Western media digging their own grave. They created too many false news reports, and in the end, they fell into the hole that they dug.

They created a situation where it was very difficult for them to become a bootlicker to Xing Hai Technologies. Therefore, it could not be said that no countries wanted to become bootlickers. In fact, there were a lot! However, due to various concerns, they were still in a state of balancing the pros and cons while watching from the sidelines.

However, the quota was limited and it was on a first-come, first-served basis. After the first attempt by Japan to become a bootlicker, the other countries felt a deeper sense of urgency. They stopped weighing the pros and cons. The second candidate quickly emerged.

Abraham Fred was a 47-year-old ordinary British businessman who ran a sweets shop. Due to his chubby figure, one could not distinguish his neck from the rest of his body, which made him look like a potato. One felt a sense of hilarity looking at him. At the moment, he was sitting across from Ling Jundong, and looking with some surprise at the sci-fi layout of the room. He lived in Z country for 20 years and could also speak Z language fluently.

“Mr. Fred, can you really represent the British government and discuss collaboration at this level?” Ling Jundong shook his head. He sighed in admiration at the savviness of the old imperialist. He did not send diplomats, but a candy merchant as the front while commanding from behind the scenes.

“Yes, Mr. Ling, my government and the king has given me the highest power to negotiate. I can discuss all matters regarding collaboration.”

“Then, do you understand the risks? Two days ago, I was talking to Ichiro Maeda, who was sitting where you are right now. He’s already dead. Do you know about that?” Ling Jundong nodded and asked.

“I know.” A trace of sweat appeared on Abraham Fred’s forehead. However, he continued calmly, “This is a very difficult task, but for the benefit of the country, I am willing to give all that I have!” He looked utterly fearless.

The current situation that their empire was in could be described as very dangerous. It was high praise to describe it as “an empire in its dusk.” The most appropriate description would be “an empire after its sunset.” Its GDP was ranked 8th in the world. Its science and technology was nothing to write home about. The number of its most advanced warships was only a fraction of its battle fleets during its heyday. It had more generals than tanks, and it was said that “one general commanded one tank.”

Although it was still one of the five Allied powers, it fell to the last of the five. Soon, it would become one of the five most shameful countries. At best, it was a second-rate world power. At the same time, it was like Japan, in its desperate attempt to reverse its decline in fortune and restore the glory of the past. But, it was all in vain. No matter how hard they struggled, they were still unable to resist the weakening trend.

It was under this kind of situation that the candy merchant, Abraham Fred, sat in front of Ling Jundong as Britain’s response to Xing Hai Technology’s announcement. And there was virtually no bargaining when it came to the various conditions for collaboration set forth by Xing Hai Technologies. He simply nodded in agreement.

For example, when it came to the reduced performance of the lite versions of the products, it was ok as long as it was usable. He supported the collection of user data for the purpose of providing better services. The infringement on user privacy did not have to be particularly emphasized and it could be categorized as part of “user data.” But, it had to guarantee that user privacy would not be exposed and accept appropriate supervision.

The core server would be placed in country Z. But a “cache server” would be set up in the UK to store a small amount of data for speeding up network access. In short, many problems could be solved in a flexible manner. There was no need to fix all the little details to their solutions right here and now.

Ling Jundong nodded. He began to appreciate and admire the way the British were carrying things out. Only savagery and arrogance were left of the imperialist states. This description was more suited for the Merican empire. But another description could be added for the old imperialist, Britain, and that was “cunning and savvy.” After all, the British ancestors had rich experiences and they saw more of the world. They had to deal with more troubles and experienced several ups and downs in the intermediate years. They had been through great periods of troubles! They knew how to judge the situation and seize their victory. When they saw something beneficial, they would reap it immediately.

It was an outstanding s**t-stirrer in the geopolitical field. It seemed to take great pleasure in stirring s**t up with all its might in the global hotspots of conflict. After entering the new century, the British became fully aware of their weakness. They yearned to recover their glory days. With these two major reasons, Britain, who was also an island country like Japan, began to learn from the expertise of other countries. For example, they introduced a new style of mathematics education from Z country and achieved remarkable results. Drawing on the national system of Z country, they won more medals in recent Olympic Games. They were also the first to join the Z country’s initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and so on. Now they planned to collaborate with Xing Hai Science Technologies and decided to seize this golden opportunity to rise again!

That the British, who were still arrogant down to their very bones, made such a decision, was completely within the expectations of Ling Jundong. Hence, he reported the situation to the boss.

Chen Jin was slightly stunned. “I didn’t expect the second applicant to be the s**t-stirrer. This is the elder cousin of Merica. By looking to collaborate with Xing Hai Technologies at this time, aren’t they afraid of Merica’s retaliation?”

“No, since they took the initiative to come to us, it showed that they are confident of dealing with Merica’s retaliation. Moreover, the United Kingdom is one of the five Allied powers. If this important ally completely turns against them, Merica will immediately be in a very isolated position. The UK has a large following behind them in the form of the Commonwealth countries! Would Merica dare to lose this ticket?” Ling Jundong analyzed.

Chen Jin nodded. “Then, let’s agree to collaborate in principle. We’ll confirm them as our partner if all the terms can be satisfactorily negotiated!”

…

On that same evening, Xing Hai Technologies posted a comment on its official Weibo, “Cousin, I am sorry, we want to collaborate with Xing Hai Technologies.”

This immediately caused a huge wave on the Internet! The netizens exclaimed collectively, “What? Has the cousin actually rebelled?”

The various countries were also in a state of turmoil. Seeing that the United Kingdom took action, many countries that were in a restless state suddenly became utterly flustered. They could not sit still. The next day, all of them sent their applications almost simultaneously.

A large wave of bootlickers was rushing in!

Chapter 296 - Lapdog, Licking All

France, Germany, Idaily, Spain, India, Brazil, Mexico, Husiky, etc…

All these influential mid-tier countries were all within the partnership application list. However, it seemed like there a few countries missing, like longtime friend Pakistan, strategic quasi-alliance Russia, and some dozens of other countries friendly to the Z nation. Why were these countries forgotten?

Actually, Chen Jin did not let them slip. These countries already requested for partnership ages ago but were all declined by Xing Hai Technologies, leaving behind quite some grudge in them. They even pressured the Z government, hoping that Xing Hai Technologies would open up for cooperative measures. But Xing Hai Technologies only wanted to recruit lapdogs! Could these countries be lapdogs? Could Xing Hai Technologies cut off data services for these Z-friendly countries whenever they wanted to?

Doing business with acquaintances was the most difficult. There better be no money affiliation between brothers… once it comes to money, there goes the friendship. For that reason, Xing Hai Technologies was not quite willing to do business with these “friendly countries.” Hence, they authorized the “Intelligent Learning Machine,””Virtual Factory,””Work Assistant,” and other core technologies (which was simplified and weakened) to the country, allowing the country to set up a company themselves that would specifically deal with those friendly countries including Pakistan, Russia, and the others. The data service could be provided with the data in the backup data center.

But for unknown reasons, the country still opted for Xing Hai Technologies’ data center. The authority to cut off data services towards those friendly countries was handed over to Xing Hai Technologies.

In this matter, Chen Jin smiled bitterly in a shrug resignation! “Why must Xing Hai Technologies be the bad guy again? Can they show a little courage and responsibility?” He was only a businessman. He would only see benefits in his sight. “Slap whoever harms my benefits, punish whichever dog that is disobedient to me,” this was an easy principle he used in dealing with people.

In a partnership with these “friendly countries”, it wouldn’t be that easy to deal with things if they were the ones to take a slap. They would have to understand the other side’s difficulties and care for their feelings. Towards customers under this category, Xing Hai Technologies’ attitude towards them was to keep a respectful distance. Besides, he would not like to be overly involved in politics, in planning the country’s future, or any other similar configurations, as those were the politician’s concerns. Xing Hai Technologies only wanted to escape from the morass they were currently in and earn money in peace.

After the first lapdog was basically decided, how would Xing Hai Technologies choose from the pack of lapdogs that swarmed to them? One must know the fact that there was only one spot left.

Inside the conference hall, France, Germany, Idaily, Spain, India, Brazil, Mexico, Husiky… facing diplomats from nearly 50 countries, who exactly would be the better choice?

A very good plan whizzed through Chen Jin’s brain. His avatar said to the diplomats, “There is only one spot left, but there were dozens of partnership applications. It will be impossible for Xing Hai Technologies to satisfy all of you. As of now, we only plan to extend our business into two countries. How about this; 10 billion.” Chen Jin extended his avatar’s finger, “Firstly, pay us a 10 billion dollar margin. Those who are capable of paying the deposit will qualify for the first round of screening.”

There was a diplomat that exclaimed, “What do you want to do with that much money? How is it possible for our country to pull out a 10-billion-dollar guarantee?”

Chen Jin explained, “Currently, the M nation is madly sanctioning Xing Hai Technologies. What if the country that partnered with Xing Hai Technologies suspends cooperation under the M nation’s pressure and cause us tremendous loss?”

Out of words, the diplomats present in the hall called their respective countries. During the call, some diplomats were shaking their heads while some were nodded theirs slightly.

Half an hour later, more than half of the diplomats left the hall, leaving only 16. Chen Jin’s eyes swept across the board. He discovered that Husiky’s diplomatic representative was actually still present. Chen Jin asked him in a strange tone, “Didn’t you leave just now? Why have you returned?”

He returned an awkward smile. “Mr. Chen, I’ve convinced my president.”

Chen Jin nodded. Nonetheless, there were still 16 candidates, and the competition was still fierce. The selection process must continue. After thinking carefully, Chen Jin said, “Gentlemen, I’m not deliberately putting you in a difficult spot. But your numbers are still a little high. If nobody wishes to withdraw now, I’ll need to announce the second test. Do anyone of you wish to drop out?”

The diplomats were perspiring and clenching their fists. But looking at the competitors around them, they nodded out of resignation.

Welcome to the second test!

“Gentlemen, the second test is very simple. It won’t require you to spend any money and will cause you no economic burden.”

This statement slightly relaxed the diplomat’s stern expressions.

“Within half an hour, let your country’s highest ruler post three positive sentences about the Z nation on social media. It must be of flattery. Moreover, it must stay on their social media platform for more than 12 hours and not be deleted halfway. Whoever sounded better and seemed more sincere will be given a higher score. The top five on the list will qualify for the next round. The rest, eliminated. Gentleman, I’m not deliberately making you difficult, but I’m affirming your sincerity. True goodwill is from the heart and can clearly be seen at a glance. Pride and prejudice can also be reflected in words. We will look at them with our hearts, identifying the trueness of your hearts to find out who would be the more trustworthy partner. So, give your presidents a call. I hope to see your answers in half an hour.”

Upon listening, the diplomats were all spouting expletives on the inside. What was this outrageous request! It was clearly to make people feel difficult and force them to say something against their heart. But for the sake of obtaining help from Xing Hai Technologies’ core technology, they had no choice but to call their respective country.

“F**k, tell that d**ned Xing Hai Technologies to go to hell!”

“I will not speak good words for them even in my grave.”

“Uhm, the Z nation is an excellent country.”

“I like the Z nation.”

“Z nation has a long history and cultural background. There are a lot of things we can learn from them.”

Half an hour later, a total of 10 “test papers” were submitted. But most of their content was rater abbreviated, like “I like the Z nation,””Z nation is a noble country,” very perfunctory and lacking sincerity. Naturally, Xing Hai Technologies did not give them a high score. Another 10 candidates were eliminated.

The countries that advanced to the final round was: Idaily, Spain, Brazil, Husiky, and Kazakh. Indeed, the ineloquent Germans and prideful French were eliminated in the second test.

The last ultimate test was presented before them.

“The last test is, within half an hour, let the leader of your country publish three negative comments about the M nation on social media… Xing Hai Technologies is currently under severe sanctions by the M nation. We hope to hear some voices of justice. We hope for some voices backing up Xing Hai Technologies. Xing Hai Technologies is very lonely. We eagerly want to know: who in this world are good people? Which country is on the same boat as us? Who is willing to surf the tides and work together with Xing Hai Technologies to create a better tomorrow? Therefore, please unleash your cry of justice, Xing Hai Technologies already has our arms wide open for you,” Chen Jin said while spreading his arms.

The remaining five diplomats almost collapsed, tearing and sniffing! They already endured a 10-billion-dollar margin and speaking out three positive sentences for the Z nation, licking the Z’s boots. But the last ultimate test; criticize the M nation. They were really afraid; they might get beaten to death by the M’s!

But things wouldn’t work out for them if they did not bear the name of a defiler. There was only one limited spot. Moreover, reaching this phase wasn’t easy, they could not bring themselves to give up now. They could only call their countries while clenching their teeth, giving the Z’s an end-to-end bootlick!

Chapter 297 - A Hero

Overboard. Xing Hai Technologies went a little overboard in this. How could they torment those countries seeking partnership? The 10-billion-dollar margin was still reasonable, but requesting the leaders of countries to praise the Z nation and criticize the M nation was kind of brainless. But this was still better than being naïve!

Firstly, it was these countries that took the initiative to apply for partnership. They themselves wanted to be lapdogs, and nobody was stopping them from doing so. But there was only one precious place! In order to stand out, they could only pass the assessments as required.

Moreover, a considerable amount of large-scale construction projects overseas taken by the Z’s was called off over the past few years, especially by those so-called “democratic countries.” Every time when they were about to pass the political baton, investment projects by the Z nation would often be targeted for attacks. When the opposite party took reign, a high-speed rail project would be scrapped this day and a reservoir project that day, causing tremendous loss to enterprises of the Z nation. Tens and hundreds of billions of dollars of investments all walked off into the sunset!

Most of these were the civilians’ hard-earned money. Rather than letting them vanish, how much better it would be if it were to be used to improve the looks of impoverished areas within the country? But of course, foreign investment was not being opposed. It was rather that risk assessments and precautions must be done wisely!

The best way to deal with this would be putting self-benefit before courtesy. Add some terms to secure your own benefits before considering the other’s requests, just like Xing Hai Technologies. First, they collect a 10-billion-dollar guarantee, then make them do something. This would be the most secure form of cooperation! A suffered loss would not be that high even if unforeseen events were to happen later.

If you so wanted to be a gentleman, doing projects for the benefit of other countries, you would end up being their bargaining chip. By then, even small countries the size of a marble would dare to ride on your face and p*ss on you.

Chen Jin would never be such a gentleman. He was from head to toe an authentic “despicable” businessman.

…

The last ball was kicked to the faces of the leaders of five countries. Criticizing the M nation? Pointing their fingers at the most shameless hooligans on Earth and infuriate the planet’s most powerful bully? Nope, they were really too intimidated to do so! Because most of those who dared so were already six feet under with three meters of weed above their graves. Those who steamed up the M nation would definitely end up very pathetically. However, it would be a pity for them to give up since they were already at this phase. After all, Xing Hai Technologies’ tech might very well be a “superpower catalyst,” enabling their country to grow stronger at a very fast pace! For such a golden opportunity, not to mention letting it pass, even seizing it late was an absolute no-no.

Xing Hai Technologies already said that the second batch of partnership quota would be announced after one year! Moreover, for those two countries in the first batch, if the successful applicant suddenly changed their mind and forwent cooperation, Xing Hai Technologies would not return the 10-billion-dollar margin and would not return to the market of that country within 10 years… this was yet another safety measure. Hence, with a mentality like that of a gambler, the leaders of those five countries could only continue dashing forward, clenching their teeth.

Of course, there was still a lot of flexibility in the actual operation. Because in the so-called “criticism,” there was “constructive criticism,””sharp criticism,””light criticism,” and “harsh criticism.”

Husiky’s president wrote these three sentences after some careful thought:

“M’s actions in many things lack appropriateness. M should deal with things in a more civilized and friendly manner.”

“The world is even, M, please respect the benefits of the other countries.”

“I hope for the M nation to become great, but greatness from the heart and not from a rigid fist.”

Subsequently, the leaders of Husiky, Idaily and Spain too posted their ‘criticism’ respectively:

“M’s, please be a good person.”

“Stop bringing our planet war and destruction.”

“We need a noble, fair, and kind leader.”

“Stop suppressing those innocent countries and companies. Keep healthy competition!”

Evidently, the magnitude of these criticisms was so-so, floating around and only causing some itches. The worries that dwelled within those leaders could clearly be seen. Their score should be nowhere near high.

But one country’s performance caused an eye-popping sensation.

…

Jayna Sonaro, President of the Republic of Brazil, extreme rightist, dubbed as the “Brazilian Dana Tump,” had a big mouth. In fact, he held no good feelings towards the Z nation. He once made statements like ‘the Z nation is currently buying off Brazil’ publicly. He had deep-rooted resentment towards the Z nation’s economic expansion out of envy, jealousy, and hate. But in the face of Xing Hai Technologies’ ordeal, he had to say a few good-sounding words in violation of his heart. He felt a little nauseated immediately afterward.

However, towards the M nation, he only had pure hatred. He had a stomach full of pent-up dissatisfaction and grudge. Hence, in the last test, it fit his tastebuds superbly to make three comments criticizing the M nation, he even thought that three wasn’t enough! He posted 10 comments consecutively!

“M nation, you are the most despicable, evil, and rogue country in this world that is habitat to a bunch of devils!”

“You should face the wrath of the heavens. God should punish you all, barring you from heaven and throwing all of you in hell.”

“All of your belongings are stolen, snatched and conned from others! You d*mn robbers!”

“I’ve had enough, we had enough of your oppression! Oppose them, we need to oppose them, we must all oppose them and kill every single M pirate!”

“Dana Tump. The whole world hates you. Why aren’t you dead yet?”

Jayna Sonaro unleashed everything to his heart’s content, releasing all dissatisfaction that resided within his heart. As for the consequences, he did not give a red a** anymore, as this was his true personality.

…

At Xing Hai Technologies, after five answer sheets were submitted, upon seeing Brazil’s answer sheet, Chen Jin nodded. “Not bad, not bad at all. I see Brazil’s firm attitude. I give you full marks. Congratulations on passing the test. You have secured yourself the second spot in the cooperation quota. Your president made a wise decision. Brazil is also a country that has great potential. Xing Hai Technologies will provide you our help to uncover Brazil’s utmost potential. Wish us tight cooperation in creating an infinitely bright future.” Chen Jin spread his arms and embraced the Brazilian diplomat.

The Brazilian diplomat, however, did not smile at all. On the contrary, he was in unspeakable misery. Doomed. They offended the sovereign M nation; they were definitely done for! For the other four diplomats from four other countries, some of them showed an expression of relief, while some, pity, but they were all hands-down convinced of their loss. They were thinking, “A hero, a hero indeed.”

They hoped that that president didn’t go six feet under that quickly.

…

On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, in M nation, they were shocked. First, they were stabbed in the back by their dearest cousin. Then, another hothead popped out from their southern backyard, cursing the M nation in public using malicious language.

Dana Tump was almost driven crazy! He psychotically smashed the things in his office, clamoring for every traitor to the M nation to be slain. All of a sudden, Dana Tump clenched his own chest. He felt a twitch, an awful one in his heart. He was quickly rushed to the hospital. After two hours of rescue, he was finally out of danger.

The doctor exhorted him to not become agitated ever again, otherwise, his life would be endangered!

But having thought of the despicable traitors and Jayna Sonaro’s vicious insults, he quickly stuck his hands on his heart once again.

Chapter 298 - A New World Pattern

Unexpectedly, England and Brazil was the first batch of successful applicants to cooperate with Xing Hai Technologies. Why didn’t France or Germany take a spot, and end up letting that precious spot slip to Brazil?

Some netizens made comments that hit the nail on the head:

“There’s a saying: weakness and ignorance are not hindrances to survival, egotism is. The French are renowned for their arrogance. Throughout history, they have paid some hefty prices for their arrogance, but they were still unable to alter their assertive personality. They can’t seem to learn to be humble and keep a low profile. They can’t even give in to the M nation, not to mention being a lapdog for Xing Hai Technologies.”

“The Germans are nothing better. They have brought calamity to this world twice and have swelled up to the point of absolute defiance. The Germans are an excellent ethnic, but their stubbornness is the same as the French’s arrogance, which is also egotism in another form. The Germans advocate pragmatism, but their media seldom talks good of the Z nation. Many dregs and tumors about the Z nation have thus taken root in Germany, which facts have then been officially recognized.”

“They look down on us from their bones. It is even impossible for them to put down their ego and be a lapdog with no dignity.”

“Unless they had no choice. Until they have fallen out from the mainstream and have lost too many opportunities, only then would they let go of their ego and make some changes.”

“But of course, it will be too late for them by then. They would have lost their first-mover advantage and could only work hard to close the gaps.”

“I wonder if they will regret it when the time comes?”

But a missed opportunity was a missed opportunity.

After Chen Jin’s Xing Hai Technologies received the 20-billion-dollar margin, they swiftly deployed two workgroups, bringing along equipment with them to establish two overseas branches in England and Brazil. The production capacity of the Little Star learning machine’s production line was also enhanced to produce learning machines for foreign customers. Besides, to ensure the safety of the workgroup members, Chen Jin let Alice produce 100 guard human replica robots and got each of them a gun license to protect the safety of his employees overseas.

Of course, Chen Jin still thought that it was not quite enough. The foreign environment was too turbulent and too unsafe, especially at times where the greatest hooligans wanted revenge against all forces that stood against the M nation. Those two workgroups’ existences would be as a needle in their eye. It could be foreseen that there would definitely be oodles of unknown dangers waiting for them.

50 guard robots for each workgroup… this was the only thing Chen Jin could do for the time being. “Hope they won’t meet any danger that would harm them. They shouldn’t be losing their lives in a foreign land even if cooperations can’t go on.” Chen Jin shook his head. Actually, he possessed a heart that was facing the light. He did not want to think of this world as an unduly murky place. Tragically, whether on planet Haierfa or back here on Earth, only one word could describe the human civilization: dark.

There was no healthy competition among nations, only unscrupulous competitions. Aside from a full-out war and nuclear warfare, nations would resort to all means possible and again break through the bottom threshold of civilization, making them more or less like beasts. At this time, if somebody still wanted to be a so-called gentleman and follow the rules that nobody followed, they would only plunge into infinite passiveness. Chen Jin was no gentleman. He despised passiveness. He liked to be the initiator!

Therefore, he would be placing bigger importance in the two lapdogs of the first batch, focusing more resources in cultivating them and making both countries exemplars. They would strive to achieve a positive outcome within a year, the best would be being able to produce instant results. By doing so, it would be easier to recruit the second batch of lapdogs the subsequent year.

…

After more than a month, flying in the face of the Z nation springing up, grappling with the weakening technological hegemony, within a short month, the M nation made major adjustments, thus forming a new world pattern. One phrase could be used to describe these adjustments, which was “closed-door policy.”

The M nation gathered some 20 countries together, including Japan, Gorea, Cadana and Australia, forming a regional economic, political, and military alliance, completely shutting out the Z nation. The alliance would strive to extricate their economic dependence towards the Z nation and achieve self-sufficiency in all goods within around five years. At the same time, they were implementing a stricter sales ban towards the Z nation in the high-end tech field, disallowing even a single screw of good quality to be exported to Z.

After the ban was issued, many high-tech enterprises from the Z nation immediately sunk into a mire. For example, the evaporators used in OLED screen manufacturing. There was only one company from Japan capable of producing the machine. Now, under the M nation’s pressure, the product’s export was banned. The Z nation’s panel industry was hence immediately caught in a plight of not being able to expand their production capacity.

The supply of chips with special functions, for example, analog chips, DSP chips, photosensitive chips, and RF chips were broken, causing the semiconductor industry to descend into cold winter. The development of the medical industry, the biopharmaceutical industry, and others were all affected on a varied scale.

The action would be best described as a comprehensive showdown. Moreover, it was exceptionally unwise, literally killing 1,000 enemies by sacrificing 1,000 of your own. Everyone would perish together, bringing about suffering to both ends.

Despite that, even if there would be agony all over the globe, the M nation still did it. First was to protect their own core industries; the second was to slow down the Z nation’s advancements at all costs. The longer, the better!

Besides, they initiated a project by the name of “Manhattan 2.” They invested a large amount of funds and manpower in the project, striving to take down the “Intelligent learning technology” within five years. They would not allow the Z nation to get too far ahead in this technology. Besides, they would conduct countless efforts of tech-stealing espionages. Xing Hai Technologies once again needed to further enhance their confidentiality.

Under a strong sense of crisis, this device called the M nation once again started running ever so efficiently… from this point of view, the M nation was not to be belittled. It was still too early to call them “weakened,” not to even mention taking them lightly. Certainly, if it were to be a legitimate competition, the Z nation would not be afraid no matter what move the M nation made.

Chen Jin’s Xing Hai Technologies was even happier that things turned out this way. No despicable means, but only face to face collision. Honestly speaking, he would not be afraid even if there were 10 M nations. “Unless the aliens give you a cheat code as well. Otherwise, all your struggling will be futile. You can only forsake your self-esteem, ego, and come be Xing Hai Technologies’ lapdog, or else it is impossible for you to catch up.”

…

On the 10th of August, in order to deal with the foreign ban on core parts and free the Z’s from the current predicament, Xing Hai Technologies took out a “Supernova 2” and 10 “Supernova 1” which was all incorporated with the “Virtual Factory 2.0″, allowing them to be rented to local parts manufacturers at a lower price in order to hasten up the realization of self-sufficiency in core parts and accomplish a comprehensive upgrade of the high-tech industry.

Towards Xing Hai Technologies’”Recruitment decree,” local manufacturers were champing at the bit:

“My company is doing R&D for evaporators. Our product is already very close to evaporators made by Japan’s Canon Tokki. We would like to rent the Supernova 1 and strive to come out with an alternative product within a year, reactivating our domestic panel industry.”

“We are doing analog chips. Rent us a supercomputer and we’ll use 180 days to design a qualified analog chip.”

“We are doing design for DSP chips, give us 85 days, we will certainly achieve breakthrough!”

“We are doing R&D in XXX, give us 78 days…”

The netizens were shocked on this matter:

“What the f**k! This is too insane, is it now the matter of ‘days’ that we break the foreign monopoly in core technologies?”

Chapter 299 - Returning Cultural Relics

: Returning Cultural Relics

On the 30th of August, a cargo plane from London landed gently at Kings City International Airport. After the plane stopped, media reporters swarmed forward with microphones in their hands and cameras on their shoulders, surrounding the plane completely. The reporter’s faces were clothed in big excitement.

They made their respective comments facing their camera:

“For nearly two hundred years, western colonizers looted tens of millions of valuable cultural relics from the Z nation. Despite that, the Z nation became rich and powerful in current times and made numerous attempts of negotiating with the western powers, but they were reluctant to return those relics. Contrarily, they regarded the Z nation’s relics as their legal assets that paid tribute to their former glory. But for the first time in history, The British Museum returned 100 cultural relics that are beyond price to the Z nation. The remaining 20 thousand relics will all be returned within half a years’ time.”

“This incident bears great historical significance, symbolizing our revolution into a global powerhouse!”

“Today is the day we shed our shame. Every citizen in Z should feel proud and prideful. The descendants of bandits have compromised, they have finally turned soft on us, not because we are reasonable in this, but because we are powerful!”

“A wise man submits to circumstances. It is a wise choice for the British to return us our relics. It lifted the historical disputes that dwelled within our people. The opium war in 1840 and other resentments are all thawed away with a smile. Peace and friendship will be the main theme of future relations between the two countries.”

“Certainly, Xing Hai Technologies played a vital role in the return of our cultural relics. They should be revered as our greatest hero!”

“It is unknown how Xing Hai Technologies convinced the British to hand over our cultural relics. But without a doubt, Xing Hai Technologies outperformed our diplomats and even our warships, making the British abide by the return of our cultural artifacts… this company is our biggest hero!”

“Well done Xing Hai Technologies! I’ll be their fan for life, based solely on this incident!”

“Excuse! Excuse me!” At that moment, dozens of specialists wearing white coats forced a path among the reporters, swiftly arriving at the rear of the plane, and let the staff open up the cargo. Within the cargo, there were up to a hundred square containers. Naturally, it was the priceless relics that were contained within.

The bespectacled lead expert with a head covered in grey was Jin Baochang. He was already past 80. He was the Palace Museum’s chief identification expert and was very familiar with all kinds of cultural relics after indulging in them for numerous decades. There was almost no one that transcended him in terms of experience and judgment towards cultural relics. Within the field, he was revered as the “Living Dictionary.”

As the containers were all labeled with the names of the relics, when the hundreds of priceless treasures were being transported down one after another, Jin Baochang couldn’t help but introduce them in front of the media:

“This is a Shang dynasty Dual-goat bronze Zun. It was a wine vessel for ceremonial use. The earthen jar is held between the heads of two rams. You can see the head of a ram on both sides which is realistically crafted. It reflects the superiority of the ancient Z’s in crafting bronzeware more than 3,000 years ago… this relic can be described as priceless. This relic is called a Cloisonné, crafted in the Ming dynasty during Xuande Emperor’s reign. The craftsmen of the time used the Byzantine craftsman’s cloisonné craftsmanship and improved the technique in the early 15th century. The production of cloisonné porcelain is time-consuming and costly. The craftsman would use a metal wire to outline the tenacious figure of a dragon and clouds on the bronze vessel, and then fill it with glass paste, giving the relic its extremely bright color… there are currently only two covered cloisonné as this in the entire world, one in the British Museum and the other in private collection. This pair of relics are called ‘David Vases.’ These are one of the most important blue-and-white porcelain samples in existence, and it is probably the most famous porcelain vase in the world. They were made for the Taoist altar. Its value resides within the dated inscription above the dragon and on the side of the bottleneck. This is the earliest known blue and white porcelain with inscriptions in Z. This artifact is a painting. It is a ‘Shan Shui’ piece by Tang Yin, a painter of the Ming Dynasty. Tang Yin is a very famous person, best known by Tang Bohu, one of the four renowned great talents…” Jin Baochang introduced each relic’s origin, specialty, and value in long passages without even changing his breath, enlightening all the reporters at the scene.

For unknown reasons, towards the end, tears rolled down from Jin Baochang’s wrinkled eyes. He sighed. “It has been more than 60 years that I’ve been working in the identification of relics. I’ve visited The British Museum more than 30 times, on average about once every two years and at most three times in a single year. Things have not been easy, it really hasn’t. The British people’s arrogance is buried deep down in their bones. In the beginning, we couldn’t even enter the museum, we were directly refused entrance… at that time, our country had just opened to the outside world. We were still poor, and they looked down on us. Not to mention returning us those relics, they would shun you away even if you just talked about it. Another decade passed, and we could then enter The British Museum, but we could only look at those relics through a glass. We even had security following us. We were not allowed to take photos, and our visit was limited to an hour per instance. Later on, we could take photos, and there were no longer security guards following us. But the relics were still not ours. We have talked to them countless times, but they were still reluctant to return us our relics. I felt humiliated. I felt heartbroken. Every time I saw my nation’s own relics lying in somebody else’s museum, I would feel an ache in my heart. But now, they are back, they are finally home! I can touch them with my own hands and have a good look at them. These are the treasures of our people, and they will not be leaving us ever again! Splendid! Wonderful!” At this point, Jin Baochang already lost his voice in his tears.

Clap clap clap!

The reporters applauded. There were some sentimental female reporters that wept along with him. Looking at the old man who was weeping bitterly, countless audience members watching live broadcast had their eyes get watery.

But most of the netizen’s hearts were filled with doubt. How was it accomplished? How could Xing Hai Technologies have done it?

There was a netizen that did some calculations and analyzed the situation. “There are approximately 230 thousand relics of the Z nation kept in The British Museum. Each of the relics are priceless jewels. Let’s put it this way. On average each relic will be worth 10 million dollars, multiply that by 230 thousand, that will be 23 billion dollars! Returning all of them now would be equivalent to losing 23 billion dollars of economic benefit. Judging on those brazened English gentlemen, how is it possible that they would forgo such a huge benefit and return all the relics without something in return? This is a giant mystery. There are certainly some hidden trades running behind the scenes!”

Other netizens expressed their agreement. “You’re right, there must be some strings that were pulled from behind!”

…

At Happiness Court, at the dining table, looking at Chen Jin with adoration and curiosity, Su Yun inquired of him the same question, “Darling, talk to me about it, how did you manage to do it?”

His mother He Li and father Chen Gang also looked at him with eyes filled with interest.

“The British wanted to save their face and asked our side to keep it a secret, but…” Chen Jin shook his head, “Well, it would cause no harm telling it to you people, but make sure to not tell anybody else.”

“I will keep it between us.” Su Yun nodded her head.

“It was in fact very simple. We have set the basic price of the Little Star learning machine at 20 thousand pounds per unit. The pricing of the virtual factory and the work assistant was also set at 10 times more than that in our country. The British thought the pricing was too expensive. I said, it is simple to reduce the price, for every relic you return, the price of the learning machine or work assistant will be reduced by a pound, while the virtual factory, 1,000 pounds… the more relics they return, the cheaper the price. They did some calculations on the economic account and chose to return us our stuff.”

So that was what happened! Su Yun’s eyes brightened and she instinctively grinned while covering her mouth. 20 thousand pounds per learning machine, her man was so naughty and witty!

Chapter 300 - Mom Retired

“Son, the director of the tax bureau has approved for me to retire six months early. From next month onwards, I won’t need to go to the unit anymore. Later on, I’ll concentrate on taking care of Su Yun at home. Finally, I’m able to shed all this weight on my shoulders,” said He Li with a smear of melancholy on her face. She was almost 55 and could finally retire. In the rest of her old age, she would stay at home taking care of her daughter-in-law and grandchildren. As her sight swept through everyone at the round table, she paused briefly on the white hair on her husband’s temple. She sighed. “An entire lifetime gone in the blink of an eye. Humans grow old before even fully enjoying their youth.” A train of past memories jogged through her mind. Unconsciously, some tears hung by the corner of her eyes.

“It’s a good thing that you will retire early. You can concentrate on our house and the grandkids,” Chen Gang said. “I could only retire in about another decade or so. The company issued a ‘sprinting decree,’ striving to realize mass production of the CR929 long-range aircraft before 20X5, and at the same time started the ‘Super Passenger Plane C939’ R&D project, striving for success before 20X0… if everything goes smoothly, I’ll retire in another eight years. I can’t help in bringing up the kids during this period of time.” In fact, he too wished to retire early and play with his grandchildren at home. But he had more meaningful work to do. Hence, he decided to keep going for another few years.

He Li glared at him. “You are already past 60 and still going to work. How could your brain outrun the youngsters? At the end of the day, you only want to slack off from bringing up our grandchildren.” She had gone to the director’s home for two days and helped her to take care of her grandson, Chen Bufan, or as she called him, Fan Fan. She immediately realized that bringing up kids in current times was no easy task, even three adults to one child was a little lacking. Anyways, only torture awaited them in the times to come.

Chen Jin nodded. Su Yun’s pregnancy was already six months along. Her due date was the end of November. She would need someone to care for her at home. His mother retiring early and becoming a full-time nanny at home was the best thing that could ever happen. He felt more assured. “Mom, I’m sorry that I have to trouble you with this. You’ll be suffering more in the future,” Chen Jin told his mother while nodding his head.

“You unfilial brat. Looks like I won’t be getting any rest throughout my entire life just for your sake,” said He Li helplessly. She looked at him with a glare of complicated feelings. Unable to tell whether his mother was praising him, dissatisfied at him, or pleased with him, Chen Jin coughed twice awkwardly.

She knew. She knew about the things going on between him and Yuan Li for a long time now. A few months ago, she dragged him to a corner and inquired about everything.

Chen Jin was shocked at that moment. He was flustered as he asked, “Mom, how did you know about this? Who told you about it?” He was a little frustrated. He exhorted Yuan Li countless times not to spread things around, but his mother still received the news in the end.

He Li was speechless as she watched him trying to cover things up.

For all that time, she always felt that her husband Chen Gang betrayed her and abandoned the relationship between them. She held a grudge towards him for more than 20 years. However, the year before, that woman by the name of Zhen Xiao Qin came to her in private. Not only did she apologize to her, but she also threw light on the whole situation. Upon listening to her clarification, He Li was stunned. It turned out that her husband never once betrayed her. His connection with Zhen Xiao Qin was innocent. Especially after she saw the aged yellowed IVF surgery record, He Li was astonished by this woman’s craziness. She lifted her hand right on the spot, wanting to give that woman a slap on the face.

Zhen Xiao Qin did not try to dodge. Instead, she said with infatuation, “I do not regret it.”

He Li ultimately did not swing her hand. The fanaticism and infatuation of this woman in front of her actually bred a glimmer of sympathy and compassion within her. A sense of guilt emerged from the bottom of her heart. Her attitude towards her husband was indeed a little too harsh over these years. Her husband Chen Gang was a decent person. He was no scumbag!

But as for her son Chen Jin… without a doubt, when she saw Yuan Lin visiting her home with a bulged tummy, and after she listened to her director questioning her, He Li only kept her head down and stayed by her guests for their entire visit.

Scum. Her son was quite a scumbag. She tried very hard to convince herself otherwise but ended up realizing that there was no way of whitening this in any way possible. After confronting Chen Jin and looking at him trying so hard to conceal the facts, it gave her a vivid lesson: so… this is what a real scumbag looks like.

She had to clarify on her end as well. “That lady did not come to me, it was her mom, Dong Lei, that brought her along to visit.”

“So that’s the case. Who aside from you knows about this?”

“No one. You dad went to work that day.”

“Oh, that’s great.” Chen Jin gave out a sigh of relief.

He Li rolled her eyes. How did I give birth to such a scumbag?

But she couldn’t bring herself to criticize him, and even had to help him cover things up. She was even a little pleased and surprised on the inside: I can hold my grandchild soon. In the end, she only sighed and lightly pinched his arm. “How did I give birth to such a thing?”

“Mom, I’ll explain it to you later. Our urgent priority now is to calm down the emotions of the Yuans and let Yuan Li give birth in peace and quiet. We can talk about other things at a later time.” Of all Chen Jin had said, there was only one meaning at its core: keep it a secret. Hold down the Yuans and keep this from spreading.

“Alright!” He Li nodded in resignation. Her presence immediately became that of a ‘stabilizer’ for Chen Jin, sharing with him much of the pressure. Chen Jin gained quite an amount of peace in his mind. He sighed. “You are the best in this world, mom.” But He Li could only do so much.

Especially after watching Chen Bufan, who was constantly getting bigger and bigger, and thinking about her grandson’s awkward position, the child’s grandmother, Dong Lei, considered this intolerable. Her heart could not understand any of this and her sufferings grew larger as the days passed by.

Recently, she came to He Li and faced her in private. “Director He, it is either the child following my daughter’s surname or your son giving my daughter an official title! He must choose one of the two options!”

Chen Jin’s mother conveyed her message to him. His head was cracking in the face of these two options. Mrs. Director, it is just a title, why do you insist on it so much? Of course, the child must be a Chen. Going for Yuan is not quite good.

In the end, after thinking critically for a long time, he took out a stack of photos. After exhorting his mother with a few words, he let her bring those photos to the director.

After opening the letter and going through the photos inside, Dong Lei was startled. Her body was trembling furiously, and she began mumbling to herself, “So that’s what happened, I never thought that it was like this.”

…

After their meal, upon seeing that Su Yun was in the living room watching television, Chen Jin slipped into the kitchen and whispered to his mother who was doing the dishes, “Mom, have you settled it with the director?”

“It’s settled.” He Li nodded. She had some lingering fears. “Are those photos true? They are so gruesome and terrifying! Even I was shocked. You said you became the CIA’s primary assassination target and they deployed a special force to kill you, but they were punched to death by your guards… is that true, my son?” Her face was filled with tension and worry, while her hands were mildly shaking.

“Those were fake, they were all put together. And I made up the story. The M nation is a civilized country, how could they possibly engage in this kind of thing? I deliberately exaggerated stuff a little. Of course, we would have to take precautions and let Li Li, the Director, and my son be careful and try their best to keep a low profile, so… I’m not shedding responsibilities, it’s all for the sake of their safety.”

“Really?” He Li was hesitant, but chose to trust her son in the end.

The M nation was the representative of liberal democracy. It was impossible for them to commit such an evil crime. But why did those photos look so real? She shook her head, her heart filled with confusion.

Chapter 301 - Material Of A New Era

By late October, it had been four months since the release of the “Xing Hai Second Generation” computer.

Marketing Manager, Li Yuan Liang, gave a report on the sales of this computer model. “President Chen, Xing Hai Computer now occupies 60% of the new sub-market that was created in the personal computer market. Little by little, it is pushing the traditional computer out of the game. Microsoft was even forced to repeatedly lower the price of its genuine operating system. You can buy and use it for as little as $50. But it’s still useless. Compared with our Xuanyuan operating system, the Windows system is totally uncompetitive and is being eliminated by the market. After all, it’s not only expensive, it also has many backdoors and loopholes. The user experience is not as good as what we can provide. Consumers know which choice to make.”

Chen Jin shot a glance at him, “Stop spouting nonsense. I am asking about the sales of the Xing Hai Computer. Why are you going off on a tangent and talking a mess?”

“Yes, yes, yes.” Li Yuan Liang restrained his smile. “According to the data submitted by agents at all levels, the total number of Xing Hai Computers that have been shipped out currently stands at 6.5 million units. This includes 3 million units of Xing Hai First Generation and 3.5 million units of Xing Hai Second Generation. In addition, 60% of the quantity sold are desktops, notebooks account for the remaining 40%. But the sales revenue from these millions of Xing Hai Computers does not equate to the revenue of Xing Hai Technologies. We are only selling the most essential component – CPUs. Because of the large number of purchases from downstream manufacturers and the online ordering done by the majority of DIY players, our company’s outgoing shipments of CPUs totaled 10 million. The average price of one CPU is $1,800, which brings in a total of 18 billion in revenue to the company. The profit is about 10 billion.”

The processor market was enormous. Besides personal computers, large servers, supercomputers, specialized workstations, advanced military equipment, and various other sectors also needed CPUs and processors. In Z country’s market alone, annual processor sales exceeded $100 billion.

If Xing Hai Technologies devoured this entire market, it could generate hundreds of billions in revenue every year and earn more than $50 billion in profits. It could be said that Xing Hai Technologies was sitting on a big gold mine.

But… Xing Hai Technologies’ revenue for this year was not too good! Compared to last year, it was even experiencing a trend of decline and shrinkage.

Li Yuan Liang said with a worried heart, “President Chen, the company’s revenue this year may be more than 30% lower than last year. The market for cleaning robots is basically saturated now. The sale of Wa-wah robots has fallen by more than 40% compared to last year. The medical robots are not selling well. Several similar products have appeared in the market, and their prices are cheaper, which has caused our sales to drop by 50%. There’s no need to expound on the intelligent learning machines. It is our main source of revenue. Last year’s outgoing shipments were close to 100 million units. Almost every student has one unit. This year’s demand is awful. The shipment volume is less than 30 million units. I’m afraid there will be even fewer shipments next year. In addition, the company has launched several industrial robot products this year. Domestic factories have purchased them across the board. The sales volume is still pretty good. We’ve achieved a revenue of around 10 billion. Moreover, the CPU installed in the Xing Hai Computer has become a very significant area for the company’s profit growth. But even then, we are still unable to withstand the downward trend in revenue. Of course, the company’s work assistants, virtual factories, special effects engines, game engines, and other software products have performed well. This year’s revenue is expected to exceed 150 billion, an increase of 80% compared to last year. However, because the company has launched the ‘Star Alliance’ and ‘Xing Hai Computer Alliance’, money is flowing out like water. The rate of profits from the software products can’t keep up with the company’s rate of spending… Moreover, we have to continue spending this money for one or two years. This would offset the profit from the software products. So, not only will the company experience a sharp fall in revenue this year, but the company’s profit will also experience a similar trend. The financial statements may look worrying.”

Fortunately, Xing Hai Technologies was not a listed company. If shareholders saw the company’s revenue plummet by 30% and its profits plummet by 50%, which would be reflected in a rather ugly report, they would likely sell their shares immediately. This would result in a steep plunge in share prices. But this was the law of the real economy. This was especially true for hardware products. Saturation would occur sooner or later no matter how big the market was. Huge amounts of existing stock in the market would only limit your sales volume… This was somewhat similar to the growth curve of an organism. Pies that could be divided would lessen in number. No company could free themselves from this law, including Xing Hai Technologies.

Therefore, the decline in the company’s revenues and profits was something that would happen sooner or later. Many famous companies that had shaken the market and were once household names had since declined and disappeared. It was not because they did not work hard enough, it was because of the market rules. This was especially true for frontier fields like science and technology. Of those old companies reputed to be “100-year-old brands,” there were only a rare few who really endured for more than a hundred years.

Chen Jin long predicted this day. He also had sufficient countermeasures to effectively curb the decline of Xing Hai Technologies’ revenues and maintain the scale of annual revenues at over one trillion. After all, Xing Hai Technologies was established little more than four years ago. It was impossible for him to accept that it had so quickly gone into decline. He would maintain Xing Hai Technologies in a prosperous state for at least the next 20 years.

What right did he have to make such a bold statement? Huge strategic moves. Huge strategic moves that were constantly being executed. Those action plans would constantly create new areas of profit growth for Xing Hai Technologies. Their pace of innovation would never stop. For example, Xing Hai Technologies’ new materials research department recently made a major breakthrough. They conquered a new material technology and entered the “free application era” of this material.

Graphene. This material was exactly graphene, which did not sound all that novel.

In the conference room, on a remote video call, Tang Shengwu, who was in charge of the “Graphene” project, was extremely excited to report their results. “President Chen, CEO Ling, and other leaders, we have completely conquered graphene production technology. Whether it is single-layer graphene, double-layer graphene, reduced-layer graphene, or multi-layer graphene, even abnormally-shaped graphene like the Bucky Ball. We can prepare and mass produce any material that has a carbon atom structure. Moreover, the cost of production is not high. It has reached the standard where it can move out of the laboratory for full commercial use. Our research center can be said to be the first institution to achieve this standard. It is the first to enter the kingdom of free graphene application. We can manufacture any graphene product that we want to produce. Our research center will bring this planet into the era of ‘graphene’ materials!”

Tang Shengwu’s words were not exaggerated in the slightest. Graphene was the thinnest but also the hardest nanomaterial in the world. It was almost completely transparent and absorbed only 2.3% of light. Its thermal conductivity was up to 5300 W/m·K, which was higher than carbon nanotubes and diamonds. The vibrational frequency of its electrons at normal temperatures was over 15000 cm2/V·s, which was higher than that of carbon nanotubes or silicon crystals. Moreover, its resistivity was only about 10-6 Ω·cm, which was lower than copper or silver.

Due to these excellent physical properties, graphene had extremely broad and positive application prospects. For example, making the next generation of computers. Graphene was currently the material that was known to be the best in electric conductivity. This feature was especially suitable for high-frequency circuits. Graphene would be a substitute for silicon. It could be used to produce supercomputers in the future, making computers that could run faster and consume less energy.

It could be used to make a “space elevator” cable. Scientists imagined that space satellites would be connected to the ground by cables in the future. At that time, the satellites would become wired kites. Scientists finally found a special material that could make such space cables. This was graphene.

It could also be used as a liquid crystal display material. Graphene was a “transparent” conductor that could be used to replace current liquid crystal display materials for the production of the next generation of computers, televisions, and mobile phone displays.

It could also be used to create a new generation of solar cells. Transparent graphene conductive films were the most ideal material for a new generation of solar cells. Its high transparency would result in very high conversion efficiency for all infrared rays, including mid and long-ranged infrared rays.

It could also be used to manufacture medical disinfectants and food packaging. Researchers found that bacterial cells could not grow on graphene, but human cells were not damaged. This feature of graphene could be used to make bandages, food packaging, and also to produce antibacterial clothing, bedding, and the like.

It could also be used to create “new super-strong materials.” Graphene and plastic composites could draw on their toughness and combine their ultra-thin, ultra-soft, and ultra-light characteristics. It was the next generation of new plastics.

Moreover, graphene was suitable for making transparent touchscreens and light-transmitting plates for photodetectors and the like.

It was extremely versatile. It was a material that could trigger a technological revolution. Previously, graphene had not been fully promoted due to difficulties in production and high production costs. Now, Xing Hai Technologies’ R&D personnel thoroughly cleared these obstacles.

A new era was coming.

Chapter 302 - Graphene CPU

After listening to Tang Shengwu’s introduction, Chen Jin nodded. He was suddenly reminded of something. He looked at Ling Jundong, who was sitting to his left. “Old Ling, didn’t Intel Corporation release a desktop CPU product last month? It is said that the performance exceeds our ‘Qinglong Second Generation.’ Is this true?” He vaguely remembered the many aggravating comments that appeared on the comment section below his Weibo some time ago. Many of those comments were written in English. His English was poor, but he noticed words like “F**k” and the like. So, of course, he realized that they were not saying anything good.

“Yes, it’s true.” Ling Jundong nodded. “The performance of the Qinglong Second Generation CPU has been surpassed by Intel’s iX-10000 CPU. Their counterattacks are very rapid. But the method that they employed was very extreme. They doubled the area of the chip wafer and increased the working frequency to 8 GHz. Finally, it exceeded the running benchmark of our Qinglong Second Gen. It was a reversal. But there is not much significance to this product. The maximum power consumption of this CPU is more than 400 watts. It’s like a fire dragon, it gets so hot one can fry an egg on it. It does not have a high commercial value. Intel just wanted to prove that they have not lost. The product can hardly be sold.” Intel merely won back their face and reputation. They were still steadily losing ground in the market.

“An operating frequency of 8GHZ; wouldn’t the CPU be smoking from the get-go?” Chen Jin asked, frowning. Silicon chips could withstand up to an operating frequency 5GHZ, which was basically the upper limit. How did they achieve an operating frequency of 8GHZ without the CPU catching fire?

“They used the second generation of graphene cooling technology; the heat dissipation capacity was been greatly improved. If it was also cooled by liquid nitrogen, the frequency of the CPU could even be overclocked to 10GHZ. Heat could still be quickly removed so that the CPU could work normally. From this point of view, Intel’s product does have some extraordinary features. Domestic DIY players only overclocked to 6.8GHZ on our Susaku Second Generation CPU. We need to continue to catch up in some areas,” Ling Jundong explained.

In addition, Intel planned to conquer the production techniques of the 7-nanometer CPU within 18 months. Its performance would double again. It also started the development of a new architecture and strove to achieve a more advanced architecture than the X86 within two years. With this, they planned to achieve the standard of the “Weave architecture.” In response to the challenge posed by Xing Hai Technologies, Intel Corporation mobilized all of its resources. They completely abandoned the strategy of “eking out a maximum number of updates with minimal changes in each update.” Instead, they introduced updates with significant changes and improvements every year. They had to suppress Xing Hai Technologies!

However… In Chen Jin’s view, these moves by Intel were just the final struggle of a company facing imminent death. Xing Hai Technologies would not subsequently follow suit by entering the field of the 7-nanometer. Instead, it would open and go straight onto another race track, leaving Intel behind forever! Because there was a CPU made of a particular material that had much brighter prospects than the CPU made of silicon crystal! A graphene CPU! The silicon chip came to an end; the graphene chip was the real future.

In addition to the Materials Research Center, there was also a graphene CPU R&D team in the chip research center of Xing Hai Technologies. The small team was established more than two years ago. Chen Jin also spent a lot of money and resources on this team and provided a lot of high-value information. In addition, the material research institute completely conquered the technology to obtain graphene.

Regarding the graphene CPU that he hoped for, the center recently produced some laboratory products. But Chen Jin did not know the specific performances of the products in detail. He got his Vice President Liang Ying to contact the research center. In the video conference, Chen Jin consulted some issues with the project leader, Rong Weizhi. “Team leader Rong, you said that you’ve created some laboratory products, how is the performance of these products?”

Rong Weizhi was a very young man in his early thirties. He was a famous top student in his studies. He had a haughty personality and was a perfectionist. He was not only highly demanding towards himself but also others as well. Therefore, he was not very sociable and did not fit in. Many people lambasted him behind his back, saying that he had a very high IQ, but zero emotional intelligence. Fortunately, this aspect of his personality did not present any delays to the progress of the project. Hence, Chen Jin was not particularly concerned.

“No, the product performance is not good enough, it is all garbage!” Rong Weizhi shook his head. “We’ve determined the technical route of the graphene CPU very early on. There is not many issues there. What we are solely concentrating on right now is finding ways to reduce the volume of the graphene transistor. In August last year, we successfully produced the first graphene transistor, which measured 100 microns and is far from the commercial standard. We are constantly improving and shrinking the size of the transistor. After one month, we compressed the size to 10 microns. We continued to improve and shrink the transistor. It was compressed to 1 micron, 600 nanometers, 500 nanometers, 400 nanometers, 300 nanometers… Lately, we have been able to reduce the size by 100 nanometers per month. In August this year, we’ve finally reduced the size of the graphene transistor to 100 nanometers. But, it suddenly became difficult after this. We have not achieved remarkable results in the past two months. The size of 100 nanometers is absolutely unacceptable. It cannot meet commercial standards. It must be compressed to 50-30 nanometers or less. Only then will it be possible for it to replace the traditional silicon CPU.” Rong Weizhi shook his head repeatedly. He was extremely dissatisfied with the progress made so far.

100 nanometers? Chen Jin was struck with a thought and asked, “What is its maximum operating frequency after you compress the graphene CPU to 100 nanometers?”

“100GHZ.” Rong Weizhi replied, “It is easy to achieve this operating frequency. The heat created by graphene transistors is only one-thousandth that of traditional silicon transistors. The thermal conductivity is far better than that of silicon. In theory, the operating frequency of the graphene CPU can be raised to 1THZ, with minimum heat produced.”

Chen Jin was rather surprised. An operating frequency of 1THZ could be described as extremely exaggerated. It meant that the efficiency of a graphene transistor was approximately equal to 1,000 silicon transistors. Even with a similar area, the number of transistors integrated into a 10-nanometer process chip was about one hundred times that of a 100-nanometer process chip. However, graphene transistors could have an operating frequency that was thousands of times higher. In summary, the graphene CPU made via the 100-nanometer process had a high commercial value.

For example, it could be used in the processor for supercomputers. Even if the manufacturing process was relatively backward, the computing speed would not be affected much if the operating frequency was set to 100GHZ. On the other hand, the electricity cost would be reduced by at least 90%. Using a supercomputer with an operating speed of 100 Flops that racked up an annual electricity bill exceeding $300 million as an example, more than $270 million would be saved in annual electricity bills with the use of the graphene CPU. The money saved from the electricity bill could more or less cover the purchase of the CPU.

However, due to Rong Weizhi’s perfectionism, the graphene CPU that was ready for commercial use was actually delayed for two months.

Chen Jin immediately criticized him, “The process of 100 nanometers is enough. Why are you only telling me this now? It was delayed for more than 10 days for nothing.”

“Sorry, President Chen, this is my fault. I am not fully aware of its value.” Rong Weizhi realized his mistake. He held his head between his hands and apologized.

Chen Jin shook his head and did not continue to criticize him. Instead, he issued two orders. First, they would continue to explore the process of creating a smaller graphene CPU. Second, they would immediately make the 100-nanometer process graphene CPU commercially available while developing a supercomputer that had a smaller power consumption! After all, supercomputers were just too power-hungry. Moreover, Xing Hai Technologies had a large number of large servers and supercomputers. They had more than 30 supercomputers. They could open an internet cafe specializing in supercomputers.

What followed was naturally a totally ridiculous electricity bill. The company spent at least three or four billion dollars in electricity bills a year. Even if rich people such as Chen Jin could not completely ignore this kind of spending… How nice would it be to reduce some of the electricity bills?

Therefore, they could not delay the use of the graphene CPU.

Chapter 303 - Qualcomm’s Predicament

Qualcomm’s recent days had been very difficult. The situation of the company’s market could be described as “crisis around every corner” and “surrounded by perils.” It was on the verge of “life and death.” Since last year, Qualcomm conducted three rounds of lay-offs and fired 80% of their R&D personnel to save labor expenses. The company’s main executives took the initiative to lower their salaries and earned only 20% of their previous salary. They also implemented a variety of other cost-saving methods. They were doing all they could to save money and avoid expanding their losses.

Even so, although they gave their all, Qualcomm’s net loss for this year was still as high as $3 billion! Qualcomm, which maintained their profitability for many years, suffered such a large loss for the first time.

How was this possible?

One must know that Qualcomm held tens of thousands of communication technology patents. Simply based on the patent fees it collected, it could earn a lot of money every year. If they could make a lot of money without even really doing anything, how was it possible for them to lose money?

Like Nokia, the company experienced ups and downs for more than 30 years. There had been many crises and it had been sold for cheap several times. However, it never collapsed. Instead, it regained its life by collecting patent fees and finally occupying a special place in the market again. As long as the people on this planet still needed communication functions, the related communication companies would not close down. It would be difficult for them to close down!

The same was true for Qualcomm. But Qualcomm also had to make money! Without enough profit, how could Qualcomm executives and employees enjoy the material life? Without enough profit, how would they carry out follow-up research and development? Patents did not fall from the sky, they were made with money! However, the current Qualcomm not only had no money, but they were also suffering huge losses. What was the reason?

Inside the office, Zheng Junming, President of Qualcomm’s branch in Z country, reported to President Christian Amon, “Mr. Amon, the company’s revenue in Z country this year has plunged 70% from last year. It is predicted that it will be very difficult for revenues to exceed $30 billion.”

“$30 billion?” Christian Amon was taken aback. He frowned severely. “Why is our performance so bad?” He smacked his head and spread his hands out as he complained to Zheng Junming, “I’ve listened to your suggestion and moved the company headquarters to Z country. 70% of the executives also came to Z country and tried hard to adapt to the environment. I even learned many phrases from the Z language. But why is this happening? Why don’t the consumers in Z country like us? Why do they still choose to overlook us? Just where are we getting things wrongs to be treated like this?”

It was a blow to Christian Amon. He was deeply disappointed and despondent. The Z country market was very important to him. He even left his hometown and came to this mysterious eastern country. He took the initiative to express his goodwill and sincerity repeatedly. As a result, he achieved commercial success.

In the end, the reality was a bucket of cold water. Qualcomm was steadily losing ground in Z country’s market, revenues plunged 70% compared with last year. He felt a deep sense of failure. A faint whisper of withdrawing from Z country’s market appeared in his mind, but it was immediately dispelled. Qualcomm could not afford the price of exiting Z country’s market. This was especially so after entering the 5G era. It was only in Z country that Qualcomm’s 5G chip could get better sales, which resulted in more patent fees collected.

The reason was that Z country was the country that truly entered the 5G era! Only Z country invested trillions of dollars to deploy more than 10 million 5G base stations nationwide. All cities were covered by the 5G network. The density of the 5G base stations in other countries was lower than that of Z country due to costs, population density, technical strength, etc. In addition, the usage fee of 5G services in other countries was higher, resulting in only a small range of coverage. It was difficult to fully roll out the 5G network. One of the most direct data was this: with the exception of Z country, the total number of 5G base stations in other countries was less than 8 million. This led to the fact that Qualcomm’s 5G chips were difficult to sell in all other countries except Z country. It was hard for most users to experience the speed and convenience brought by 5G.

Of course, there was one other reason. The percentage of patent fees collected by Qualcomm was too high. Qualcomm received 3.5% of the patent fee for the traditional 4G mobile phone. Whereas, there was an additional 5% for the 5G mobile phone. Hence, the total patent license fee was 8.5%. It meant that Qualcomm took $255 from the sale of a mobile phone with a price of $3,000. This additional cost was naturally borne by consumers. However, due to the incomplete coverage of 5G signals, the experience was similar to that of 4G mobile phones. Moreover, the 5G package was more expensive. So after some thought, consumers still chose to continue using 4G mobile phones. Therefore, Qualcomm’s 5G chip could only obtain significant sales number in Z country’s market.

In addition, the Snapdragon CPU had a good reputation in Z country’s market and was welcomed by consumers. The revenues from Z country’s market once accounted for 75% of Qualcomm’s global revenue. This was also why, after the outbreak of the “Backdoor Incident” of Android systems, Qualcomm decided to move its headquarters to Z country despite severe criticisms. It was so they could win the trust of Z country’s consumers.

Even if Qualcomm had done so much, their executives inevitably felt helpless and dejected in the face of a 70% drop in revenue.

Zheng Junming consoled, “Mr. Amon, this is not a problem with our marketing strategy.” He analyzed, “The reason for the decline in the company’s revenue is mainly the performance and price of the company’s products. It has not been acknowledged or favored by consumers, resulting in hardware manufacturers choosing to collaborate with Hua Yao or Xing Hai Technologies. Our latest Snapdragon 8550 made with the 5-nanometer process only has a running benchmark of 610,000 points. It cannot be compared to the 780,000 points of the SX-2000 or the 650,000 points of Hua Yao’s Kirin 1220. The performance of our high-end product is not as good as them. Even if there is a gap in performance, as long as the gap is not too big, consumers can accept it. However, because Mossey Electrics is our OEM, our chip manufacturing cost is higher, resulting in higher prices. Besides the Soc, we also charge a communication patent fee of 5% for each mobile phone (3.5% discount compared with other countries). This percentage is not high. Based on the current high-end flagships that are sold for a starting price of $2,000, it is just another additional $100 on top of it.”

The sharp drop in mobile phone prices was also one of the reasons for the decline in Qualcomm’s revenue.

“But Hua Yao only charges 3.5% of the 5G patent license fee. Also, it does not charge extra patent fees for the 5G baseband sold. This means that all mobile phones equipped with Qualcomm chips will cost about $100 to $200 yuan more per unit. Hardware manufacturers will, of course, abandon us. Mr. Amon, we must adjust our business strategy! If this continues, our remaining market share will be taken over by Hua Yao and Xing Hai Technologies. We’ll completely lose the Z country market.” Zheng Junming expressed the ideas that he had been hiding in his heart for a long time.

Christian Amon shook his head. How could they adjust? Qualcomm was merely a company specializing in communication technology. They only had two means of profit: selling Soc and collecting patent fees. It was not comparable to Hua Yao, which manufactured all its software and hardware. It was totally not comparable to Xing Hai Technologies, which possessed countless core technologies. Only by acting like a tyrant in the area of patents could Qualcomm continue to survive.

Of course, Zheng Junming understood this. Hence, he made a suggestion that brightened up the eyes of President Christian Amon. “Yes, Xing Hai Technologies has highly advanced technologies such as work assistants, virtual factories, etc. But it faces limitations by Hua Yao Company in the communication field. It only has a few communication patents on hand. If we collaborate with Xing Hai Technologies, it will be an alliance of the strong. We will be able to improve Qualcomm’s current status!”

Christian Amon immediately got Zheng Junming to contact Ling Jundong of Xing Hai Technologies to express their eager desire to collaborate.

…

At the Xing Hai Headquarters, in the conference room, after listening to the situation as narrated by Ling Jundong, Chen Jin was slightly stunned. Then, he immediately smiled. “What you are talking about is the Qualcomm that claims to be ‘Z empire’s conscience and will annihilate the Fruit Company in the name of justice?’”

Chapter 304 - Acquiring 40% Of Qualcomm’s Shares

To be honest, Chen Jin still felt some goodwill towards Qualcomm, even though it was an out-and-out gangster. But compared to the Fruit company, who was a gangster of all gangsters, Qualcomm seemed to be more like a philanthropist.

It was well-known that Fruit company pursued profits with any and all means. On the other hand, the price of Fruit mobile phones was getting higher and higher. Its selling price was more than three times the cost of its hardware. It took more than 80% of the hardware profits of the entire mobile phone industry. Even so, Fruit company was still unsatisfied. They made use of the closed features of the ios system to seize any and all opportunities to earn a buck. All applications that were recharged and marketed in the ios system had to pay a 30% fee, only a few apps could be exempted. This was also known as the “Fruit tax.”

With multiple heavy-handed means, the Fruit company became the most profitable technology company in the world, with a market value of over $1 trillion. However, after adopting Qualcomm’s baseband, the Fruit company found that it would have to pay Qualcomm their patent license fees of up to tens of billions of dollars every year. All of this money that was wasted; all of this money that was actually given to Qualcomm. According to the 5% chargeable principle, the more expensive the Fruit mobile phones were, the larger the amount that Qualcomm would earn in patent license fees.

How could they tolerate this?

Unwilling to give up any profit, Fruit company immediately abandoned Qualcomm and supported Intel instead. It chose to use Intel’s communication baseband and completely ended its relationship with Qualcomm. The problem was that Intel had only been engaged in communication technology for a few years. There was no way for another company to circumvent Qualcomm’s patent barriers for many of its patented technologies. However, the Fruit company chose to disregard this and allowed Intel to explicitly infringe on the patents. It risked patent lawsuits by using Qualcomm’s patents directly. The Fruit company really gave their all in the name of profit.

However, once the Fruit company did this, Qualcomm, who had been rolling around in surplus profits, had a 30% drop in revenue that very year. Qualcomm was instantly enraged. Breaking off one’s income source was akin to killing one’s parents. They determined that Fruit violated their patents and immediately initiated a patent lawsuit. Hence, this was how the two started feuding.

After fighting furiously for two years, Qualcomm collected enough evidence to prove that the Fruit company did infringe on their patents, and fully emerged as the victor. First, a court in Z country ruled that the sale of Fruit mobile phones was prohibited. Then, other countries and regions also made judgments in favor of Qualcomm. The war between the two gangsters ended with Qualcomm’s victory.

After the sales prohibition took effect, the Fruit phone vanished from Z country’s market for a few months. In the end, the Fruit company had to give in and make a one-off payment for the fine that was tens of billions of dollars. They also promised that they would not carry out any further activities that would infringe on Qualcomm’s patents. The two sides finally reached an understanding.

The Fruit company paid for their greed.

In the fiercely competitive trade war a few years ago, Hua Yao’s 5G suffered from Merica’s barricades and interceptions. At that time, there were countless appeals on the Internet to boycott Fruit products, and countless expose articles on the gangster nature of the Fruit company. Even so, all these efforts could not persuade the die-hard Fruit fans to stop purchasing the Fruit phone. However, a Merican company helped to fight against the success of the Fruit company.

What was this spirit called? Hence, the title of “Righteous Exterminator of the Fruit Company” was given to Qualcomm on the Z country’s internet. They praised Qualcomm for being benevolent and righteous. Last year, Qualcomm moved its headquarters to Z country, which reduced the patent licensing fees for Z country’s market. This move won the favor of the majority of netizens who gave another title of “The Conscience of Z Country” to the company.

However, Chen Jin knew that Qualcomm was still a gangster deep down. But since it had done a few good things, Qualcomm was a better “gangster” in his eyes. Hence, he greatly welcomed Qualcomm’s initiative in applying for a collaboration. This was because Xing Hai Technologies had not accumulated many patents in the field of communication technology and was very dependent on Hua Yao.

In the short-term, there was no great issue with this kind of dependence, but in the long run, it would be somewhat subjected to external control. The range of applications that communication technologies could be used for was too broad and there would always be ample scope where one could employ the technologies. The market performed at a scale of more than one trillion every year.

Xing Hai Technologies did not want to enter this field. It was even more unrealistic to develop from scratch. Xing Hai Technologies simply wanted to avoid being subjected to restrictions and the future possibility of being slaughtered in a single blow.

Ling Jundong suggested, “President Chen, we are better off acquiring Qualcomm and getting the free rights to use its tens of thousands of communication patents. We could then collaborate with Qualcomm to develop more advanced 6G communication or other new communication technologies to make up for this disadvantage on their side. Of course, Hua Yao is also our partner. We will not give up collaborating with Hua Yao. But what about after ten or twenty years? If Hua Yao became the only major company in the communication field, would it continue to give us a discount?”

When that time came, was it possible for Hua Yao to become a new gangster? In any case, the future was hard to predict.

“Acquiring Qualcomm?” Chen Jin nodded. “This is a good idea.” There were tens of thousands of communication technology patents. He had to admit that he was somewhat envious. He, too, wanted to experience what it was like to be a gangster. Actually, there was no need to think about it. Xing Hai Technologies was already on the path to become a gangster of patents. Take, for example, Xing Hai Technologies’ recent breakthrough of the graphene technology. It did not build a variety of factories to produce various graphene products. Instead, the company recruited partners and licensed a large number of their graphene technologies to their partners in return for a net profit of 50%. At present, more than 30 partners were recruited. It was expected that various graphene products would soon appear in rapid succession.

But with Qualcomm’s current market value of $60 billion, did Xing Hai Technologies have so much money to spend on this?

“Money is not a problem, as long as Qualcomm agrees to the acquisition request. Even if it is a premium of 500 billion, I have a way to get that money.” Ling Jundong’s statement was astonishing.

Chen Jin was shocked. $500 billion, was this kind of overkill necessary?

Ling Jundong explained that in the field of capital operation, there was a concept of “leverage.” Xing Hai Technologies did not need to really withdraw 500 billion. Simply taking out 100 billion was enough. Then, it would raise 100 billion from the private sector, and the remaining 300 billion would be in the form of bank loans… the funds would then be sufficient. With the profitability of Xing Hai Technologies, there was no pressure about devouring a Qualcomm.

After listening to Ling Jundong’s analysis, Chen Jin nodded. “Ok, try your hand at acquiring it. If you can close the deal with an offer of 500 billion or less, then do it.”

…

At Qualcomm, after receiving the request to acquire them as initiated by Xing Hai Technologies, the Qualcomm executives refused without thinking about it. They sat on a gold mine. They made a lot of money every year without really working. Who would sell the gold mine under their a**? Moreover, the Merican government would never approve of it. There was no possibility of an acquisition. However, Qualcomm moved its head office to Z country and it was not subject to the jurisdiction of Merica. Xing Hai Technologies could be a shareholder.

The senior executives of the two companies conducted negotiations that lasted for several days. The two sides finally settled on an agreement and signed a collaboration plan which mainly consisted of the following points:

One, Xing Hai Technologies would inject funds of 80 billion and hold 40% of the shares of Qualcomm (Z Country), enjoying the free use of all Qualcomm’s communication patents.

Two, OEM orders for Qualcomm’s chips would all be completed by Zhongxin International.

Three, Xing Hai Technologies would provide technical services such as the “virtual factory,” etc. to accelerate the speed of Qualcomm’s research and development and reduce R&D costs.

Four, the two sides would begin a technical collaboration to jointly develop more advanced communication technologies.

After a collaborative agreement was successfully reached, it was doubtless a win-win partnership.

To Chen Jin’s Xing Hai Technologies, he only spent 80 billion and got the free rights of use to tens of thousands of communication patents. He saved a lot of time and massive R&D funds. He could even enjoy a share of the profits in the process.

As for Qualcomm, it received support and a cash flow injection from Xing Hai Technologies by collaborating with the company. It might not catch up with the obvious leader, Hua Yao, but it would at least be on an equal footing to quickly turn its disadvantages around. It would not be beaten into a steady retreat from the market by Hua Yao.

Qualcomm’s President, Christian Amon, sighed and walked back and forth. He said excitedly, “We will be able to get out of the woods soon. Just based on Xing Hai Technologies’ 5G baseband orders alone, it can bring us tens of billions of revenue every year! In addition, with the help of ‘virtual factory’ technology, we have accumulated patents and saved costs to the extent that we would very soon be on the same level as Hua Yao Company (Hua Yao purchased a supercomputer equipped with a virtual factory). We are finally on a fair track.”

…

On November 20th, Xing Hai Technologies became a shareholder of Qualcomm. Once the news of their strategic cooperation had been announced, it immediately caused a huge wave of response.

Chapter 305 - Bruce’s Angry Roar

Xing Hai Technologies actually became a major shareholder of this high-tech company. This was a very astonishing event, which led to many discussions on the internet.

“A few years ago, Botong Corporation planned to acquire Qualcomm. It quoted a price as high as $130 billion. However, it was coldly rejected by Qualcomm. But now, it has so joyfully accepted the acquisition by Xinghai Technology and sold itself very cheaply. So the bride price can be so drastically reduced if the groom is handsome?”

“He used 80 billion to buy up 40% of the shares. Isn’t that too cheap?”

“Xing Hai Technologies got a steal; it has the rights to freely use tens of thousands of communication patents. Of course, Qualcomm is not a loser in this scenario either. It is climbing upwards via this big tree called Xing Hai Technologies. The benefits for Qualcomm will far exceed the shares it has sold.”

“It’s kind of out of the nature of Xing Hai Technologies to do this. It has a good partnership with Hua Yao. Now Hua Yao will be upset.”

“Hua Yao: Hey hey, we were having such a joyful time just moments ago. You grew to be suspicious of me in the blink of an eye. You’re so bad. I’ll hammer your chest with my little fists.”

“Hua Yao: Yesterday, you called me ‘sweetheart’ too. But you’ve changed your tune today by calling me ‘Madam Hua.’ What a heartless rat.”

“Hua Yao: Hey hey, please don’t leave me. We must continue to be each other’s angels.”

Netizens started creating many spoofs of this incident. It was originally only typical business news. But with the sensationalizing done by a few old hands, the news suddenly radiated a filthy vibe all around. Of course, public opinion generally believed that Xing Hai Technologies’ decision was wise. It directly inserted itself in the huge communication industry with very little cost.

Some commentators even pointed out that Qualcomm gave up 40% of its shares at a price significantly lower than its market price. It was an attempt to hold onto the sturdy support of Xing Hai Technologies. It seemed to have the intention of then using the power of Xing Hai Technologies as support to jointly seize Hua Yao’s market share. The intention… One had to admit this move by Qualcomm was very sinister.

Of course, Hua Yao also inferred this point. Therefore, on the day when Qualcomm and Xing Hai Technologies announced that they reached a strategic cooperation, the mobile phone in Ling Jundong’s pocket immediately rang. He received a call from Zhao Ming, the CEO of Hua Yao.

He could hear that Zhao Ming was majorly pissed. He blamed and rebuked Ling Jundong over and over. “CEO Ling, this is such an important thing, why didn’t you discuss it with us first? Even if you didn’t want to discuss the matter with us, you should at least have let us know in advance! You have settled on a partnership with Qualcomm without a peep, causing rumors and speculations to abound on the Internet. There were even claims that Hua Yao and Xing Hai have broken off collaboration. It’s not that I’m concerned about these malicious speculations, but everyone involved is a Z company. We must be united and cannot let outsiders see us as jokes.”

“I’m sorry, CEO Zhao, I am very sorry.” Ling Jundong repeatedly apologized. “We were inconsiderate. Indeed, we really should have given you a heads up in advance, but we didn’t pay much attention to this issue. It was neglectful of me to do so. I apologize again.”

The flames of Zhao Ming’s anger flared even higher. “How can such an important thing be overlooked? Xing Hai Technologies can collaborate and partner with any company, Hua Yao will not interfere. But we must pay attention to the impact on the internet, and we must pay attention to our unity! What’s more, Xing Hai Technologies is the founder of the Star Alliance and the Xing Hai Computer Alliance. Your company is a leading ally. How can you ignore this issue?”

Ling Jundong repeatedly said, “Yes, yes, yes, unity. We, Z country enterprises, must unite!” He promised, “We will not commit such mistakes again. Xing Hai Technologies must abide by the obligations of the leading ally and never destroy our unity!”

With this, Zhao Ming finally stopped his relentless scolding, and they matched their wills against each other again as they beat around the bush in an attempt to persuade and manipulate the other party. In the end, Zhao Ming could not help but say, “CEO Ling, it’s better if you call off your collaboration with Qualcomm. Don’t partner with foreigners. It’s too much to spend 80 billion in one go. It’s better to give this money to Hua Yao. Hua Yao will give 5% of its shares to Xing Hai Technologies in exchange. Xing Hai Technologies would also have free use of our tens of thousands of communication patents. Fertile soil should not be given to outsiders to sow. Why give such a good deal to the foreigners? CEO Ling, this is a big deal. Don’t act carelessly.”

“I know, I know.” Ling Jundong said with a bitter smile, “But the contract has been signed, much of the 80 billion of cash has been transferred. The penalty fee for the breach of contract is very high. It really can’t be canceled.” However, he ridiculed in his mind, CEO Zhao, are you bullying us because you think we are poor at mathematics? 5% of the shares compared with 40%. A smart person knows how to choose.

Speaking of unity, Qualcomm could actually be considered as a Z country company. In addition to the main executives, more than 90% of the employees and technicians of Qualcomm were all Z citizens. The majority of its shares were also held by Z citizens. There was no need to overthink this issue.

“Penalty fee? Do you want to borrow money from Hua Yao to pay the penalty fee? CEO Ling, please give a call to President Chen about this. Don’t be careless.” Zhao Ming still had not given up on this matter.

“Know, I know, I will call President Chen.” Ling Jundong shook his head as he patronized the Zhao Ming. Then, he ended the call.

One did not have to think too hard about it to know that if Xing Hai Technologies only collaborated in-depth with Hua Yao, Hua Yao would become more and more powerful in the field of communications. Eventually, it would defeat all its opponents and become a gigantic monopoly. In fact, this was no good for anyone. No one would be able to resist if Hua Yao also wanted to play the gangster. This was somewhat alarmist, but who could predict the future? Was it rare for one to evolve from a good and brave man to an evil demon king? It was still better to have one or two competitors in the market.

Therefore, Xing Hai Technologies would always hold this playing card of Qualcomm in the palm of its hands.

…

Besides that, the news that Xing Hai Technologies became a shareholder of Qualcomm also spread overseas. A 23-year-old man, Tom Bruce, noticed the news on the web portal. He was immediately taken aback.

“Our best technology company has been bought by the Z people? The buyer is the major robber, Xing Hai Technologies, who has stolen our most advanced ‘intelligent learning technology’? Damn! The abominable Z country company has stolen our top technology. And now they are even using the money they earned from our technology to buy our Qualcomm?”

Tom Bruce was so angry that he was out of it. In his heart, he shouted, The despicable Xing Hai Technologies, stop what you’re doing right now!

In the process of reading the comments, Tom Bruce saw a lot of rants similar to his thoughts. He saw a post that was forwarded from an unknown source. The title of the post was “The traitor of Merica, and the three sins of Qualcomm in detail.” After seeing the contents of the post, Tom Bruce’s eyes widened, his breath became heavy, and his chest trembled violently.

This post said. “Qualcomm is a traitor! They sold their bodies and souls to the Z people! Fruit company was once the world’s largest mobile phone company. Fruit company sold 40 million Fruit mobile phones in the Z country market. At least 100 million Z people are fans of Fruit mobile phones, bringing us tens of billions of profits every year. However, Qualcomm used patent lawsuits that were based on groundless accusations against the Fruit company, allowing Z country to find an excuse to ban Fruit company. This has caused us to lose hundreds of billions of dollars. Although Z country has lifted the ban, the lost market share can no longer be recovered, now fruit the Fruit mobile phone’s share in Z country’s market is less than 1%. It is Qualcomm who let our proudest technology company fall into decay in Z country. Last year, in order to please the Z nation lord, Qualcomm moved its headquarters to Z country. What is even more surprising is that Qualcomm’s only charged 5% in patent fees for its 5G chips in Z country. But it’s charging 8.5% in Merica. That’s right. Qualcomm chips are more expensive in Merica than Z country, Qualcomm is taking our money and subsidizing the Z people! Now, Qualcomm has sold itself to the Z nation and given tens of thousands of patented technologies developed by engineers from Merica to the Z people on a silver platter. This would enable the Z people to become more powerful in the field of communication technology, Z people will use those technologies even more unscrupulously and steal our privacy. Qualcomm has destroyed our greatest Fruit company; they have used our money to subsidize the Z people; they have given tens of thousands of patents that our engineers have developed over the past few decades to the Z people. This company has done countless unimaginable deeds. Even in the Z country, it even has the title of “Z Empire’s Conscience,” the company’s executives are all yellow people wearing white skins! Friends, what should we do about such a company?”

At that point, Tom’s eyes were burning with rage. He was so furious that he trembled all over and his face grew red. He shook as he placed his hands on the keyboard. He quickly typed a line of words and sent out his angry roar. “I swear, I will never buy any products related to Qualcomm ever again!”

Chapter 306 - Star Cloud Developer Convention

In Tianfu City, Central CBD zone, in office building F, on the 38th floor, Liu Xiao Ping was standing by the French windows, relishing in the beauty of the city. He gasped out of emotion. It almost felt like he was dreaming. He brushed across his ten-thousand-dollar custom-tailored tuxedo with his hands. He was sighing about that money-squandering dame he had at home, but never had he thought that a good-for-nothing like him would one day transcend into the realm of glory.

Within two short years, he had more than ten million dollars of savings in his bank account. Houses, cars, he bought them all. He tied the knot with the dame, completely shedding away his single status. In a cut scene, he was seeing his dame negotiating with a customer while carrying a bulge in her tummy. He basically accomplished all his three wishes in life.

Classy. Very classy.

Liu Xiao Ping once mocked himself, the others all dreamt of influencing and changing the world, but his dream, on the other hand, was to make money, get a wife, and have a kid. He only wanted a simple life and had no noble pursuits. He was just an ordinary man. Ordinary IQ, ordinary EQ, and ordinary looks, nothing about him stood out from the crowd. He was so ordinary to the extent that he felt self-abased. In this world full of material desires, he thought that being successful was to be able to make some money, afford a house and a car, and establish a family of his own. He dared not expect for more.

But luck favored this ordinary man. The business of “Ningshuang Studio” was getting better day by day, acquiring three to four customer orders every week. The studio expanded and currently had 12 employees. Besides, the studio also came up with their own product. Aside from the “Tree of Baby’s Highlights” app that had more than three million downloads, they came up with two additional mobile games that had more than a million downloads, and a few apps that were less successful.

Some time ago, “Ningshuang Studio” acquired a high-spec “Xing Hai Second Generation computer.” Liu Xiao Ping brought along a few core technical personnel himself to learn the ‘Yanhuang language’ and to attempt application development based on the Xuan Yuan operating system. Aside from doing regular office and entertainment software, they also gained access to the Starry Sky Game Engine and intended to make a few games out of it.

Not only that, the game studio that Liu Xiao Ping got invited into previously was now on the verge of dissolution due to insufficient funding. Liu Xiao Ping intended to acquire this studio of his friend with a couple of million dollars, including the online game “Nine Realms of Heaven,” which was 70% complete.

Liu Xiao Ping tried the game. He felt that the game’s settings were very creative. The game had a large map and it took on a unique perspective towards the world… it had a lot of potential.

“Their ambition is too big,” his dame said while cuddling his arm. “For games such as this, its development would require at least three years and a cost of not less than ten million dollars. Advertising expenses later on would be even higher. Their team of merely seven people can never take on such a massive project. It is inevitable that their funding channels will be broken. Everyone knows that doing games will earn them lots of cash, but some forget that making them costs more! Coming into this field without enough capital will result in a high chance of failure!”

“Yeah.” Liu Xiao Ping nodded in agreement. In software development nowadays, only two types of software had the highest profitability; one would be shopping apps, and another would be games. In Ningshuang Studio’s “Tree of Baby’s Highlights” app, there was an exclusive area dedicated to selling infant products. Its daily trading volume was quite impressive and generated a significant amount of income for Ningshuang Studio.

In games, they only did two simple minigames to test out the water, but they also achieved rather exceptional results. Both games had monthly downloads of over 500 thousand instances, totaling at a million for both minigames. Certainly, when compared to the more successful games, a million downloads per month was inferior to that of a day for the others. But Ningshuang studio was advancing one step at a time, not forgoing any tiny piece of meat. They were accumulating small successes, and never once thought of plumping up with a single bite.

Liu Xiao Ping recognized this steady development style. Thinking, he said, “Ningshuang, my friend’s studio was in an extremely dire situation. They are penniless and would almost be begging on the streets. I personally think that the game ‘Nine Realms of Heaven’ is not bad at all. It has quite some potential. Why don’t we take out 5 million dollars and acquire my friend’s studio?”

“5 million?” Xu Ningshuang rolled her eyes at him. “Do you really think that a gale blew all our money to us? Are they worth so much money?”

Liu Xiao Ping was surprised. Why had the woman that only knew how to spend money become so thrifty? He had no choice but to add on, “Ningshuang, I think that their game is worth 5 million dollars. If it were to be launched on the market, the money we would earn will not be less than 5 million.”

“When I say they’re not worth that much, they’re not worth that much! I’ll go talk to your friend tomorrow and you better zip your mouth up!” Xu Ningshuang had tight control over the company’s cash flow. She was responsible for most of the studio’s business affairs. Liu Xiao Ping did not have any say about how money should be spent. Even his own salary was managed by Xu Ningshuang after they got married. He would only have a meager amount of pocket money usually… all of this made Liu Xiao Ping wonder if he had fallen into a trap and was now locked up.

The following day, inside a classy café, a scene that left Liu Xiao Ping jaw-dropped took place: a b***h with a huge bulge going against seven brawny men of his friend’s studio all alone. With her lip gun alone, all seven tough men were bested, terribly. They were all rendered speechless by the b***h’s rebuttals and were left utterly crestfallen. The combined struggles of seven men ended in a fiasco. In the end, Ningshuang Studio acquired his pal’s studio at a low price of 3 million dollars as well as the seven generals… gulping in Xu Ningshuang’s ecstasy hodgepodge, those few disheartened programmers that were determined to leave agreed to stay and finish “Nine Realms of Heaven.”

Impressive. Liu Xiao Ping was thoroughly impressed. At the same time, he gave up struggling. He decided not to think so much anymore and focus solely on knocking out his codes. “Even seven programmers together got murdered so badly, how could I even escape from her palm? My dame, what great figure were you during your past life?” Liu Xiao Ping shook his head. Looking at the face of his dame, which was nothing out of the ordinary, he was thinking, is the soul of a powerful being sealed within her?

On the spur of moment, he saw a confident smile radiating from her ordinary face. The bottom of his heart quivered. All of a sudden, he felt that, in the face of such an alluring smile, the exquisite looks of Ren Jiaojiao who had already left the studio, suddenly became bland, incomparable to even a millionth of this smile. In short, he felt that he was lucky to have acquired such a treasure.

Of course, he would also need to thank Xing Hai Technologies. If it weren’t for the opportunity and platform provided by this company, how would an ordinary programmer like him get a chance to make his own name? Even for a simple dream as his, he wouldn’t have accomplished it that quickly. He was very grateful for this.

On the 28th of November, inside the studio, Xu Ningshuang began screaming all of a sudden. “An invitation letter! An invitation letter from Xing Hai Technologies! We are qualified to partake in the first-ever Star Cloud Developer Convention on the 5th of December! Xing Hai Technologies will be reimbursing all travel and accommodation expenditures, and we can even go tour around the Xing Hai Headquarters! It’s even mentioned in the invitation that we have won a prize and we must make sure that we send someone over to claim it. Haha, that’s great, marvelous!” It was impossible for Xu Ningshuang not to feel elated. The first Star Cloud Developer Convention would be held in the famous Xing Hai Headquarters. However, there were only 5,000 places available for participants while there were more than 500 thousand applicants. They struck the jackpot on a one percent possibility and were told that they had a prize to claim.

“We’re going for certain!” Liu Xiao Ping became excited as well. He had long wanted to visit Xing Hai Technologies, the most famous and noble tech company in the Z nation.

Chapter 307 - The Greatest High-Mindedness

On the 4th of December, in Shang Hai City, the first Star Cloud Developer Convention was about to begin. “Ningshuang Studio,” who received an email invitation, could send at most five participants to this convention.

Liu Xiao Ping and the others would definitely not let the quota go to waste. He, Xu Ningshuang and Song Xiaoling, the three elders of the studio, in addition with two employees who had good performance, boarded the plane and arrived in Shang Hai full of excitement and anticipation. Coming out from the arrivals, the reception crew arranged by the organizer was already waiting, and their accommodation was swiftly arranged. Moreover, developer teams entitled to a prize could stay in Xing Hai Headquarter’s guest room. Thus, Liu Xiao Ping, Xu Ningshuang, and the others stayed in the edifice, which was seemingly embroidered within science fiction.

It was an absolute eye-opener! Liu Xiao Ping and the others had never stayed in such a unique “guest room.”

Within the silver and white themed room, after having walked through the room, Liu Xiao Ping said, “Including the toilet, this room is at most 16 square meters. It is just like a spaceship’s cabin, simply furnished but very practical.” Looking at Xu Ningshuang, who was currently having some difficulty to get herself on the bed while holding on to her tummy, Liu Xiao Ping went over and helped her. He said, “Ningshuang, the environment here might not be suitable for you, why don’t we go stay outside? The organizer said that there are a few five-star hotels nearby.”

“That won’t be necessary!” Xu Ningshuang waved her hands, “I’ve looked at the room service records. Robots will come to clean the room once every day. They use all sorts of tools and have made this place spotless, even the bedsheets were cleaned and disinfected at a very strict standard. There’s no problem with this place. Let’s just stay here. The room is definitely cleaner than a five-star hotel. I heard that most five-star hotels are very dirty and their toilet bowl, washstand, and table are all wiped with the same towel. Bedsheets are also changed once in a few days and kettles can’t be used as well. So, I brought my own bed sheet and bought a travel-use kettle. But over here, we won’t be needing the things I brought. Xing Hai Technologies spent more than 5 billion dollars to build this place. The facilities here are worthy to be trusted. It is said that this place fulfills the standards of living in space, so there will definitely be no problem.”

Moreover, this was a rare opportunity. It was difficult for normal people to even enter the Xing Hai Headquarters, and they actually had the chance to spend two nights in it. This was worth to be valued and would also be an unforgettable experience. Besides, after seven o’clock every night, a jaw-dropping image could be seen within the Xing Hai Headquarters. Many of Xing Hai Technologies’ employees chose to work overtime until seven at night just to see the “spaceship liftoff” before they left work.

On Dou Yin Videos and other short video sharing websites, there were already thousands of shocking videos posted by Xing Hai Technologies’ internal staff, and they were nowhere near to getting bored of it.

“After the spaceship’s liftoff, I initially thought that the picture displayed on each side of the glass would almost be the same, but in fact, it is not. Every side of the glass display is showing something completely different! You will need to see the imagery from more than 1,000 angles to roughly picture the entire starry sky,” said a Xing Hai Technologies employee.

More than a thousand angles? Different imagery? Liu Xiao Ping shook his head. This kind of super-large area display technology surpassed his imagination. Coincidently, there was a window in the room he was living in which was an OLED display.

At 7 o’clock at night, after the sky outside completely darkened, in the originally transparent window, he suddenly realized that the scenery was moving backward. A whirl of dust swirled around. Amongst a rumbling sound, the view outside the glass window became an infinitely vast abyss filled with bright stars and galaxies.

“Is this a little… too real?” Xu Ningshuang walked to the window, carrying the same expression as Liu Xiao Ping. “I finally understand why Xing Hai Technologies’ employees are still not going home even though it is so late, and why some people aren’t bored of it even after watching it hundreds of times.”

Liu Xiao Ping sighed, “How small and insignificant are we before such a starry sky? But it doesn’t prevent us from looking upon its greatness. If I could work at such a company and see such a view every day, I would not job hop even if someone else offers me one billion dollars. Aside from Xing Hai Technologies, no other company could enliven my thoughts more.”

Xu Ningshuang gave her man a weird look. She never thought that he could come out with such classy words. “Not bad.” She nodded and agreed with him, “This should be Xing Hai Technologies’ high-mindedness. There’s no way I would leave after being smeared with such greatness every day. If our studio were to grow bigger and become a company, we could adapt this idea of Xing Hai Technologies… it is indeed much classier than high-mindedness conveyed solely through the mouth.”

Liu Xiao Ping was startled. He looked at his woman, stunned. Becoming big. The high-mindedness of Xing Hai Technologies. Were these something that could be fathomed by small figures such as they? He would be content with just an ordinary appearance for his company. Xing Hai Technologies for them was a god-like existence, it would be difficult to attain even a millionth of them.

But upon looking at Xu Ningshuang’s expression filled with vigorous spirits and wild ambition, he really could not comprehend just how immense the zeal was that dwelled within this woman’s chest. He was even struck by an impression that it was not a baby inside the woman’s bulged belly, it was her zeal and wild ambitions.

In short, he was dazzled.

…

On the second day, the first Star Cloud Developer Convention officially began. The event was divided into a total of three sessions. The first session was about introducing the accomplishments of the Star Cloud operating system. The Star Cloud OS was now at version 2.2 which was enhanced with greater functions. It could now even automatically generate applications such as the “Work Assistant 3.0” according to the needs of developers.

The second session was prize-giving. Awards were given to excellent developer teams that made outstanding contributions as an official token of encouragement and appreciation in gratitude of their hard work to perfect the Star Cloud operating system’s software ecosystem for its full-out promotion. The awards included “Most Popular Award,””Most User Award,””Most Innovative Award,””Best Game Award,” and some ten other awards.

The award Liu Xiao Ping and his team acquired was the “User Rating Award”… their “Tree of Baby’s Highlights” app obtained an average rating of 9.7, which was the highest among all Star Cloud applications. They got themselves a gold trophy and a 200-thousand-dollar cash prize. Liu Xiao Ping, Xu Ningshuang, and the others all went to the podium to receive the award and were cast in the limelight, especially Xu Ningshuang, who was pregnant. After knowing that she was the founder of ‘Ningshuang Studio,’ the host couldn’t help but ask, “Mrs. Xu, not only are you an excellent female programmer, you should be the only mother-to-be in this convention. The application you developed is very popular among mothers and that would imply that you have a beautiful heart. I would like to ask you, do you have any wishes for your future child, or to say… a dream? Do you wish for your child to follow your footsteps and become an amazing programmer?”

“No.” Xu Ningshuang shook her head. She held her belly and said, “I hope that my child inherits my company and makes it bigger, as big as Xing Hai Technologies. Build an edifice similar to the Xing Hai edifice, hold a convention like what we have today, hand out awards to the others, and ask the others of their dreams.”

“Hahaha.”

“Hahahaha!”

Clap clap clap!

The audience burst into laughter while some even leaned forward laughing. In the end, they all applauded her out of goodwill.

Ningshuang Studio, it was an unpopular little studio. But Xu Ningshuang’s big words made a deep impression in the others. The rise of many small figures was just as so. As long as they dared to imagine, as long as they were provided with a stage, many years later, they would become the “big figure” that everyone else was talking about.

It was exactly via this convention that a figure dubbed as the “Queen of Software” emerged.

Chapter 308 - Imagination Drives Scientific Advancements

On the 6th of December, at the Second Mother and Child Hospital, in a deluxe nursing ward, Chen Jin was carrying a baby with a fatherly smile on his face. A baby was born. Five days later than expected, Su Yun gave birth to an adorable daughter. However, there was a little twist that happened. For the baby to be healthier, Su Yun was going to try natural delivery. But even a few days after the expected date of birth, the baby had not yet entered the pelvis. After the hospital examined her, the doctors found out that the volume of her amniotic fluid was too low. Thus, she did not have the conditions for a natural delivery. To avoid danger, she could only opt for a cesarean section. And hence, Chen Jin had a daughter.

In private, his mother expressed her concerns. “If she were to go for cesarean section, she will need another three years before she could have her second child, for her wounds to heal. Moreover, the second child will also have to come by cesarean section. Su Yun is already 29 this year, she won’t get pregnant that easily pass 30. Sigh, youngsters nowadays, none of you listen to your elders. How much better it would have been if you got married earlier!” Her dissatisfaction was mainly directed at Chen Jin.

“Mom, please don’t say that. Youngsters now don’t even have enough playtime, who’d be willing to bear such a huge burden? And besides, weren’t you almost 28 the time you had me?” said Chen Jin.

“It was very strict during the days of the one-child policy, so it was still fine for me to give birth later. Now, people can have two, three, or even four kids and nobody will even care. Besides, your company is so big, it’s better for you to have more kids,” He Li nagged him.

Chen Jin gave his mother a weird look. He did not expect that his mother would recognize this problem and become somewhat anxious about it. Aside from Xing Hai Technologies, Chen Jin still had an entire planet. All these would require helpers, or even more, inheritors. Shouldn’t he be more anxious? But after going through a period of ups and downs, precipitating his thoughts, Chen Jin adjusted his mindset. He no longer held a mad obsession. Now, he had a son and a daughter, which could be described as perfection. The basics were already firm, and he no longer felt light-weighted. He would not force the rest, how many he should get, and that would be it… his life was destined to be a long one, he should not be bothered by the troubles of laymen.

He came to the sickbed and placed the baby beside the woman. He held her hand and kissed the back of it. “Su Yun, thank you for your hard work.”

The woman’s face was a little pale, showing traces that she was in pain from time to time. There was no pain during the cesarean section, she had her child without even feeling a tickle. But after the anesthetics wore off, the three following days would be very difficult for her as she would feel pulsating pain emitting from the cut.

Contrarily, for natural childbirth, the pain would last a couple of hours, but the mother would be able to walk on foot at a much hastier manner. Anyways, for women, no matter how they unloaded their cargo, it would be like going through the gates of hell itself.

“Hubby, I don’t want another one, it’s really painful.”

“Alright alright, I’ll go by you,” Chen Jin said while smiling. He did not want to stress her too much.

The woman nodded, becoming slightly relaxed.

After the three most unbearable days passed, Su Yun could now walk. Her face regained her blush as her health obviously improved by a whole lot.

Chen Jin asked her, “Oh yeah, have you decided on the name for the baby? What should our baby be called?” He discussed with her about the baby’s name countless of times. They came up with a lot of names, but they all didn’t seem to fit. Especially Chen Jin, he thought of more than 20 names. He was thinking that, if it were a boy, he would call him “Chen Yu Zhou”; if it were a girl, he would call her “Chen Ying He” or “Chen Xing Bao”… all the names sounded very domineering, and were all rejected by Su Yun. So, Chen Jin decided to give up and let Su Yun think of the two good names. He had given up entirely on treating his ‘naming cancer.’

“Let’s call her Chen Xing Yue.” Su Yun looked at her daughter beside her and said, “I’m not good with names either. I was thinking that if it were a boy, I’d go with ‘Chen Xing Yang’, if it were a girl, I’d call her ‘Chen Xing Yue’… what do you think?”

“Chen Xing Yue…” Chen Jin mumbled to himself then nodded, “Sure, that’s a good name.” At least a lot more normal than the names he thought of. Apart from that, it would also be easy to give her a nickname. Yue Yue, she shall be called. “Yue Yue, my little darling, my cutie little apple pie.” Chen Jin teased his own daughter with an expression full of blissfulness and satisfaction.

…

Another five days passed. Su Yun and the baby were both discharged and transferred to a deluxe month confinement center. Over there, she would complete postoperative recovery and be nursed back to health under professional care. He Li would also be at the month confinement center accompanying the pair.

Chen Jin had his own matters to tend to, it was impossible for him to stay there all day every day. Therefore, he went home alone that day. Subsequently, he would visit them occasionally. In that way, he also gained a precious length of time to deal with some special things, especially those on planet Haierfa.

…

On Planet Haierfa, Chen Jin’s real body showed up at the Base of Operations, which rarely happened. He frowned as he felt that things were tricky. Artificial intelligence Nuwa and Alice had encountered a “fatal” problem.

Aside from the quantum computer, this problem they were facing hampered their progress in delivering high-value tech after obtaining the Grand Unification formula and the Crystal Brainer’s advanced spaceship.

Such as artificial gravity and anti-gravity devices, forcefield shields, forcefield space, force field weapons, smaller and higher performance next-generation nuclear fusion reactors; the research of these cutting-edge technologies became more difficult or bottlenecked at a varying margin. It became difficult for them to make major breakthroughs within a short period of time.

Nuwa said, “Master, we are more confident to attain success in the next generation fusion reactor, but we would still need around 10 years to realize it in entirety. We would need even more time for the other tech. For example, for the artificial gravity device, we would need at least 50 years. As for the small-scale forcefield shields, forcefield space, and forcefield weapons, we are unsure whether we could achieve any breakthrough within a hundred years. For the even higher-level space-time technology, we haven’t gotten even the slightest clue. In fact, it is not physical materials that are limiting our research and development efficiency. We can build any experimental environment and have the conditions to verify any physical formula and mathematical assumptions. What we are lacking is ‘imagination.’ It is hard for us to be ‘innovative.’ After all, we are only tools and not creators. In the process of research and development of advanced technology, there are many places where ‘creativity’ is needed. We are caught in a bottleneck and are powerless in the face of many problems. Although we have near-infinite computing power, our R&D will still be slow. Master, we need ‘imagination’ to join us. We need the help of a ‘creator.’ Otherwise, it will be very difficult for us to hasten up progression.”

Chen Jin nodded. He understood what Nuwa was trying to convey. Scientific advancement was driven by ‘imagination.’ This was an irrefutable statement. At the beginning of the last century when microscopic technology was yet advanced enough, Rutherford proposed the “atomic structural model” because he dreamt of a cake with many layers. The structure of the atom was then inferred and turned out to be a complete match with the actual atomic structure. The chemist Mendeleev inferred the “chemical periodic table” when all the chemical elements were yet to be found. The big bang theory, which was widely accepted by the scientific community, was also proposed by scientists without experimentations. These scientists were like “prophets,” seeking out the truth of this world entirely through “guessing.” They often guessed a formula or theory correctly before experiment conditions even existed, peeking at faraway land ahead of time.

Did computers possess this ability? Could computers predict the truth for the time to come? Most certainly, if they did have it, artificial intelligence Nuwa and Alice would not be in front of Chen Jin expressing their helplessness.

Chen Jin had to come up with a plan to solve this tricky problem.

Chapter 309 - ‘100% Science Lab’

Talents. Only “humans” owned the so-called “talents.” In many conspiracy theories or science fiction, artificial intelligence, robots, and similar technologies were portrayed as ferocious beasts, catastrophic floods, and a threat that would destroy mankind. In fact, this was an act of weakness, low self-esteem, and timidity. As the “creator” of artificial intelligence and robots, how could humans be so vulnerable? How would they be bested by the “products” of their own creation? The fear of the opposers might have originated from their foolishness and ignorance.

A wise man fears no evil.

Looking at artificial intelligence Nuwa and Alice, whose performance wasn’t that “omnipotent” after all, Chen Jin, on the other hand, felt rather relieved. If they were to be omnipotent, he would not be needed at all. It would imply that his arrival on planet Haierfa was completely worthless and he would be no more than a dispensable “outsider.”

From the looks of it, Chen Jin was not extra. He thought for a while about the difficulties that Nuwa and Alice were facing and swiftly came up with a plan. “Let’s do it this way. Nuwa, go make a game with Alice. The game shall be called ‘100% Science Lab.’ The target population should mainly be the scientists in the R&D field back on Earth. We would attract those people to the game. The platform for the game’s operations will be you and Alice’s servers, which are two computers with near-infinite computing powers. The degree of simulation will be set at 100%. This game will be somewhat similar to a business strategy game. Every player will have their own laboratory. The laboratories will be divided into classes from low to high grade as F, E, D, C, B, A, S, SS, SSS, and then the Supreme Laboratory, totaling at 10. The types of the laboratories will be Biology laboratory; Physics Laboratory; Chemistry Laboratory; Mathematics Laboratory; Material Laboratory; Medical Laboratory; Quantum Science Laboratory; and so on. All fields shall be included. Before entering the game, players from each field will go through a professional exam of their respective field. Assuming that the total score is 100, those who got lower than 60 will not be qualified for the game. For those whose scores are between 60 to 70, assign them to the F grade laboratory, 71 to 80, the E grade laboratory, and for 80 and above, the D grade laboratory. A different initial environment will be provided according to initial ability. Of course, the starting point doesn’t determine everything. Efforts and contributions made later will bear more significance. The reason being that, after the game started, aside from doing research in projects they are interested in and acquiring results that belong to the players themselves, the system will also give them credits. The credits can be used in purchasing tools, renting lab equipment, or it can be used in upgrading the laboratory, thus improving the grade of their laboratory gradually. Besides, the system will often publish tasks that come with a reward. Those players who accomplish those missions and solve the system’s problem can earn for themselves a rich amount of credits. When a game like this goes on, the player’s problem-solving abilities will grow stronger. Gradually, they will be able to take on problems that you and Alice couldn’t. Just like what you said, Nuwa. Theoretically speaking, the Grand Unification Formula can never be deduced. Artificial intelligence can never deduct such a formula, but humans could. It was the human imagination that deducted this formula. Those humans have entered the realm of ‘God.’ Our ‘100% Science Lab’ will try to draw in more ‘Gods,’ gathering more ‘imagination’ and ‘creativity’ to aid you both in developing advanced technology and achieving breakthroughs.”

The problems encountered by Nuwa and Alice would then be readily solved. Chen Jin’s mind went over the horizon. He went so detailed in this because he played too many games in the past, including strategy management games. Therefore, he thought of solving the problem via the means of games.

“Master, your idea is good, but it can’t solve the problem entirely.” Nuwa shook her head. “My and Alice’s computer cannot do 100% simulations, only infinitely approaching. Certain errors will still exist. Moreover, in areas that I and Alice are unskilled in, it would be impossible for us to solve the problems via our computer simulation.”

Only problems on classical physics, chemistry, and mathematics could be handled. Conundrums in uncharted territory could never be unveiled. To solve unknown problems and seek out its mysteries, it could only be done within 100% reality where it would be tested with tools in reality.

“That would be easy! Just build the labs in ‘reality’ and allow the players to operate them in reality.” Chen Jin said, “The Supreme Laboratory in ‘100% Science Lab’ will be located in the desert on planet Haierfa, on the moon, or the super large laboratory hovering in space. The facilities at those places are very complete and will support any bizarre experiments. Players on Earth will be connected via a virtual helmet and will be able to truly experience everything through quantum communication which has no delay. They can create everything for real and let their imaginations go wild. The ‘100% Science Lab’ should be 100% genuine.”

This would be somewhat similar to him governing planet Haierfa by wearing a virtual helmet back on Earth. On the surface, it was a game, but in reality, players would have 100% influence on another completely real dimension. The game would be best described as a “real game.”

“Nuwa, you said that technological advancements on Haierfa are leading Earth by more than 200 years. There should be no problem if we use the ‘100% Science Lab’ incorporated on computers to gather talents for now. I guess it won’t be an immediate thing that virtual helmets and Supreme Laboratories would be used.”

The development of science and technology was fast. Various theories and formulas were emerging one after another. For where the scientists on Earth were currently at, it would be impossible for them to be at a level capable of assisting Nuwa in an instant. Just like a primary schooler with a brilliant imagination, could they help university students who were lacking imagination? Obviously, they couldn’t. They would only be useful when their knowledge about truth was on the same level as the prior. Compared to Nuwa, the scientists on Earth were about elementary to junior high level.

“You’re a correct master. Within 10 years, the scientists on Earth would not provide us much help… they will need to complement themselves with lots of necessary knowledge in the ‘Science Lab’ before they could be useful in the days to come.”

In a sentence, scientists on Earth still had a lot to do to catch up. Until they finally caught up, the most excellent among all would then put on the “virtual helmet” that Xing Hai Technologies created for them. Their consciousness would be sent to another universe and into the Supreme Laboratory, where they would be at service for planet Haierfa and truth itself.

Chen Jin smiled and crossed his arms. “So, does it mean that my idea is feasible, and we could use this to solve the problem?”

“Yes, master.” Nuwa nodded. “While we were conversing, I’ve already completed the ‘100% Science Lab’.” Before him, Nuwa displayed the login interface of a game.

Chen Jin shook his head. “Now that’s fast!”

“Master, I have a suggestion!” Alice said, “Master, I think that aside from having the Z language version, we should do a few foreign editions of the ‘Science Lab’ and promote the game across the world. There are 7.5 billion people on Earth and your kind, master, is only a small part of them. The scientists from the Z nation are brilliant, but there are excellent scientists in other countries as well. We must not harness the wisdom of scientists from only one country. We need wisdom from all scientists throughout the entire planet! Only in this way can we speed up our research significantly!”

Nuwa expressed her agreement. “What Alice said was true. From the perspective of maximizing our benefits, our stretch shouldn’t be that narrow.”

“Science without borders, eh?” Chen Jin nodded. If this was to benefit him greatly, science should be without boundaries. He took Alice’s advice and agreed to launch the ‘100% Science Lab’ in various languages, promoting this scientific simulation game to the entire world.

Chapter 310 - The Most Hardcore Game in History

On the 1st of January 20X3, the first day of the Lunar New Year, after many days of heavy advertising, Xing Hai Technologies released a game product:

“100% Science Lab”

Chen Jin said during the conference, “This is the first game in the world that has a 100% simulation degree. Hold me responsible as I shall say that no other game will be more realistic than this. Rather than calling it a game, it should be called the almighty assistant for scientists. No matter what field, no matter what technology realized in the game, it is possible for all of them to be actualized in reality. It is very similar to the Virtual Factory, but even stronger. Many of Xing Hai Technologies’ forbidden tech has been included in the game. Besides, this is a game that can earn you money. The credits you earn in-game can be exchanged with dollars that will be credited to your bank account. One credit is equivalent to 1 dollar, and 1 million credits will be equal to 1 million dollars. If the player chooses to cash out, the money will quickly be transferred to their bank account. But of course, you could use your credits to redeem your scientific research results, extracting the data of your scientific research within the allowed scope into reality, thus transforming them into greater economic benefits. Hence, once you find your game mode, and if your brain has what it takes, do join us in this game and start excavating your own goldmine! The ‘100% Science Lab’ welcomes you!” Chen Jin spread both of his arms.

That’s right, he added player monetization mode to the game. For a game, if it was boring, hard to master, and if players couldn’t get something out of it, the game’s player base would completely evaporate in no time, especially for the “100% Science Lab.” Its path was destined to be parallel with flunkies and all those outside the field of scientific research. Only a small number of professional talents would be able to enter the game and carry out their explorations. It would definitely expend a ton of the player’s time and energy to dive profoundly into bewildering professional knowledge. In the end, if players did not get any substantial rewards, it would be difficult for them to last long in the game.

Hence, Chen Jin provided players with two paths of collecting profits. Firstly, credits to cash. Secondly, extracting the results of their research into reality. 1 credit was worth 1 dollar. If players were to accomplish a research project with higher difficulty and was rewarded with 1 million credits, it would be equivalent to them earning themselves 1 million dollars hard cash. Extracting research results would be even more intense. Once players employed some advanced technical result that carried great value in the actual world and turned them into some sort of product, the wealth players would gain might be in the billions. Without question, the price for this type of withdrawals would cost a lot more. The amount of credits players would need to expend might be tenfold or even more. In spite of that, Chen Jin believed that there would be more players that would choose to extract their research results.

“If there are players who created an artificial sun in the game, extracting their research results might cost them at least 10 billion credits.” Besides, credits would also be needed for laboratory upgrades and exchanging learning materials for players to enhance themselves. “It will become that, the smarter the player, the more they will realize that they do not have enough credits. In the aftermath, they will work their lives out to earn more credits and again discover that they will need even more credits… falling into a vicious cycle that goes on eternally. Their brainpower will be squeezed to the utmost by the game. But this, however, is the personality of a wise man. Those who seek the truth will forever desire to know more. At last, the person who will gain the most benefits will naturally be… me.”

Chen Jin, with planet Haierfa in his hands, would be the biggest winner.

…

On the same day, after Xing Hai Technologies’s game “100% Science Lab” was launched, it induced a sizable repercussion shortly after. On the internet, netizens were all over it.

“Woah, has Xing Hai Technologies just gone into games?”

“This is unprecedented. Xing Hai Technologies has never released any games. This is their virgin attempt.”

“Be wary game companies, Xing Hai Technologies has entered the arena. They are butchers of the market. For any field they enter, they will wipe out everyone within and emerge as the lone survivor.”

“Can you not be so ignorant? Xing Hai Technologies has long entered the gaming industry. Soon after the Starry Sky Game Engine was launched, it occupied more than 90% of the market. The mainstream games in the market are basically all from Starry Sky… Xing Hai Technologies has already earned a lot from this. But making a game on their own however, is a first.”

“The tycoon said during the conference that ‘this is a game that will earn you money,”you can convert all the credits you can are able to earn into dollars,’ why does it feel like some game from third-rate websites? ‘Fast leveling,”High rebate, make money online,’ it sounds just like these to me.”

“For goodness sake, isn’t it for money after all that our young tycoon made the game? How could players actually earn money?”

“It’s a trap, it’s definitely a trap from some third-rate websites! I’ve seen through this in a glance.”

“Trap or not, I’ve already found the official download website and I plan to give the game a try. If it really was a trap, even if it’s Xing Hai Technologies’ game, I’ll still uninstall it… Woah, the game client is just a little over 500 megabytes, a game with 100% simulation degree in such a small installation pack, Xing Hai Technologies, even if you just wish to con people, can you please at least put in more sincerity?”

“I’ve logged into the game, it’s indeed the same as what was shown at the conference. The game client is small because most of the game is in cloud servers, the local file is only for the video projection. My oblivious friends, please stop showcasing your ‘intelligence’.”

“Game entry test? What have I just witnessed? How is there a test in a game? But I can’t seem to understand any, what should I do?”

“Dumbass! This is a ‘Science Lab,’ if you don’t know science, how could you play this game?”

“12 marks, I only got 12 out of 100. Not qualified to enter the game.”

“I got just 5, school dreg here bidding adieu.”

“Graduated from a prestigious school with considerably good results, gone with 39 marks.”

“Oh well, I think I’ll continue playing LOL.”

“Uninstalled it, this game is not meant for people like me.”

Two hours after the game was launched, the game client swiftly went over a million instances of downloads. But a few hours later, the amount of uninstalls was also over a million. The player uninstall ratio was over 80%.

…

Lee Yan was a postgraduate in bioengineering, apprentice of a renowned biology professor in Z, involved in research in frontier fields such as genetics and molecular science, and published several research papers in international academic journals. He was considered an exemplary researcher in an excellent research team. Lee Yan was also a “Xing fan.” He paid close attention to every move of Xing Hai Technologies, including the “100% Science Lab.” He, too, was greatly intrigued by it. Using his spare time, he downloaded the game to his local computer and challenged the introductory test questions that must be passed in order to enter the game.

He was thinking that, with his academic level, 60 marks should be no problem. However, the difficulty of the introductory test questions far exceeded his expectations. He wrung his brain three hours straight and when the time was up, the answer sheet was automatically submitted.

Upon seeing his own score, Lee Yan can’t hold himself back and screamed, “55 marks? How is this possible? A world-class university, world-class mentor, excelled in all professional courses, and I only got 55 marks? Even I am not qualified for this game?” Lee Yan looked awful. At that particular moment, he suffered a great blow. Subsequently, an expression of discontent bubbled up his face. He clenched his fist and said, “I can take the test once every week. Next week, I must get in the game! I must get over 60 marks!”

His pride as a scholar must be recovered!

…

The following day, less than 24 hours after “100% Science Lab” launched, an article went viral on the internet: “The Most Hardcore Game in History. Terminated 99.9% of Players Before They Even Got Started”

Chapter 311 - Reversing The Standard Around Them

At the Base of Operations, Chen Jin asked Nuwa, “Nuwa, what is the current number of players who have successfully entered the game?” The game was released a day ago and he was very concerned about the number of players.

“856 people.” Nuwa said, “In the territory of Z, only 800 people have successfully entered the game.”

“Not even a thousand?” Chen Jin shook his head slightly, “It seems that the threshold of this game really is too high. Amongst the millions of people who downloaded the game, only less than one in a thousand players successfully entered the game. It deserved to be called the most hardcore game in history.”

“Master, the game’s entry test questions are not particularly difficult, but the level of technological development on the earth is still too backward. Only a few top talents have the possibility to enter the game.” Nuwa continued, “According to my estimation, there will probably be around 10,000 players in the Z country region who have the ability to enter this game. It will gradually increase to 30,000, even 50,000 over the next few years. The overseas version of “100% Science Lab” will probably attract about 30,000 scientists to enter, and it will probably increase to 50,000 in the future. The maximum capacity of this game is 100,000 scientists. If this number is exceeded, I will increase the difficulty of the entry test and eliminate those players with poorer research ability. All research resources are limited. Only the best of the best will acquire the most adequate resources.”

To put it even more plainly, this was the survival of the fittest in the scientific community. Only in this way would a large number of highly valuable R&D results be produced.

Chen Jin nodded. Nuwa was right. Pressure created drive. An adverse environment could better stimulate one’s potential than a comfortable and easy environment. When there was no competition, it would create a group of warm and affable people that kept on the right side. Technology would stagnate. They would sit on the shoulders of old giants and enjoy the gains brought about by old work. At the same time, they would even count on others to make breakthroughs and share the results with them. It was definitely necessary to eliminate such unambitious and complacent scientists. According to Chen Jin, no one inferior could disguise themselves as part of the capable in “100% Science Lab” and get away with it.

…

For the next three weeks, Li Yan continued to challenge while frantically “charging.” He tried again three times in a row. 58 points. 56 points. 61 points! In the fourth attempt, he finally got a passing score and entered the game “100% Science Lab.”

He was the 11,706th player who successfully entered the game. Say, was he a bit silly? It was only an entry test. It was too easy to pass the test. Just get your tutor or classmates to help. They would complete the entry test together. With several people taking the test together, was it not a piece of cake to get 60 points?

In fact, there were many players who more easily entered the game this way to acquire their own “laboratory.”

But what was this called? Cheating. This was dishonest test-taking behavior.

Moreover, they could never successfully deceive “Science Lab.” The level of players’ academic level can be inferred and analyzed through their actual research ability. If you did not have a solid grasp of the basic knowledge, you would inevitably make many low-level, layman-type mistakes in the process of doing experiments. These mistakes would be in stark contrast to your entry test scores. This kind of “contrast” could be detected by the game AI. A test panel would automatically pop up asking the player to answer the questions again. If their results were not up to standard, they would lose the right to continue in the game and be redirected to the login interface.

Even if you continued to pass the test via cheating, the test panel would pop up again after 2 days as long as those low-level, common-sense mistakes were still being committed… eliminating any way to continue “cheating.” The probability of getting away with this kind of hoodwinking without someone that had real scientific ability in their group was almost zero.

Li Yan had his pride as a top student, and he would not lower himself to that kind of “cheating.” He firmly believed that he had the ability to enter the game.

“I’m in, haha, I finally entered the game.” Li Yan looked at the computer screen with excitement. On the screen, an F-class laboratory covering an area of about 100 square meters became his personal laboratory. He controlled the mouse to switch between the various lenses. Then he zoomed in and out abruptly to observe every corner of the lab. The beakers, test tubes, microscopes and culture rooms, etc. in the laboratory seemed to be incomparably real. It did not feel like a game.

After checking out the facilities in the lab, he was shocked. “In reality, it would take at least tens of millions to build such a lab. But it is the lowest-level F-class lab in the game. Just how great are the conditions of the higher-level laboratories?” Li Yan was full of anticipation and longing. He felt a sense of urgency to quickly upgrade the level of his lab.

He scrutinized the layout and environment of the lab once again. A great sense of accomplishment bloomed in his heart. He nodded and said, “No matter what, this lab is mine!”

…

The next day, Li Yan told his tutor that he passed the “100% Science Lab” entry test and successfully entered the game.

“You passed?” His tutor glanced at him and gave a gratified nod. “Very good, you are the third person in our research team to enter the ‘Science Lab’ and the tenth in our school to do so. You are… very outstanding.”

Li Yan was shocked and was somewhat doubtful about the veracity of the tutor’s claim. “Teacher, our school is a famous school ranked in the top 20 nationwide. There are at least a hundred top experts, professors, and doctoral students. How can it be that only ten people have entered the ‘Science Lab’? This is impossible!”

“Ten is a lot, it accounts for one-thousandth of players who have entered the game in this country. There are many schools and research institutions who did not have even one person from their organization successfully enter the ‘Science Lab.’ They’re all panicking now.” The tutor shook his head. “In our country’s scientific research field, there are people who fake their academic achievements, people angling for fame, scammers, fake experts, academic scammers, and the immoral and despicable… It’s a mixed bag of people with chaos all around. Science has a very high threshold. The layman can’t understand the insiders. It is easy to be fooled by those fake experts. Some will end up wasting a lot of money with no results. There are even some who muddle through their mistakes which leads to serious academic corruption. This kind of phenomenon can’t be eradicated. There are real talents this year, but they can never win against those with glib tongues. The scientists who are buried in the laboratory will never look better than the actors in front of the podium. Even if they produce results that should win them a Nobel Prize, if they are not good at expressing themselves, they may not be able to win the Nobel Prize. This is the current state and reality of the scientific field. Fortunately, the emergence of Xing Hai Technologies”100% Science Lab’ put a lot of pseudo-experts back in their place. How much real, demonstrable skills do you possess? This game can see all that with a glance. It has become the most direct and observable evaluation standard. Now, the government has introduced a new project funding application standard. If there is a member of the project team who successfully entered the ‘Science Lab’, the project team would pass the application with priority. The more project team members who entered the game, the easier it was to apply for R&D funds. A game has become an important criterion. There are three people on our R&D team who have entered the game, this is enough to prove the strength of our team. I think it will not be as difficult as in previous years if we were to apply for research and development funds again,” The tutor said with a sigh of relief.

More than half of his hair was now white. That did not happen because he used too much brainpower in his research, but because of the worry and stress that resulted from his fight for research and development funds. He went to many places every year and participated in a large number of banquets. A lot of energy was involved and it even affected his normal R&D work. Things were looking up now. A standard that measured the true level of one’s ability emerged. The level of one’s academic skills, who could do it and who could not, could now be seen with a glance. And as for who should be given research funding, there was no need to put on a show or argue. Real ability spoke louder than words.

From this point of view, Xing Hai Technologies’ “100% Science Lab” game reversed the research environment of the entire Z country.

Li Yan nodded in agreement and looked at the white hair on the head of his tutor. He listened to his lament and his heart ached inexplicably. He said to himself, Teacher, we no longer have to beg for scraps in the future.

Chapter 312 - What? Rejecting The Advanced?

On February 1st, 20X3, one month after the release of the domestic version of “100% Science Lab,” the international multilingual version of “100% Science Lab” was released in more than 80 countries and regions around the world, covering more than 4 billion foreign populations. Those countries included Japan, Gorea, the United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, France, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, and other mid-sized industrial countries.

It was expected to attract about 20,000 foreign scientists to enter this scientific simulation game. The main reason why the overseas version of this game was launched one month later than the domestic version was to ease the resistance against the promotion of this game.

Chen Jin intended to wait for the domestic players of “100% Science Lab” to come up with some scientific research results, which would prove the value of this game. The company would fully promote it when all other countries could see the potential of this game.

Say, did any players from Z country achieve any results in his research in a short period of one month? Of course, they did! In fact, there were more than a few players who achieved successful outcomes in their research and even more who completed their projects. There were thousands and thousands of them!

It was because “100% Science Lab” had a special feature called “the actual application field.” The development speed was 10 times faster, and the accuracy still remained close to 100%. This meant that it took one month to complete an actual application project in the game, which was equal to ten months in reality. In ten months, you could, of course, get a lot of scientific research results.

According to the research and development results, more than 10,000 academic theses had been automatically generated, including hundreds of high-value theses… Players in this game did not have to worry about writing a thesis. There were even a few papers in it that had the potential to be featured in top science journals such as Nature. This stunned and overwhelmed many editors of the science magazines.

“A game-generated thesis in which all the data are simulated data, but the principle of the experiment, the conclusion of the paper and the results of the experiment can all be confirmed in the real-life laboratory. There is not much error when compared with the real situation.”

“This kind of thesis can be regarded as an ‘effective’ paper.” This was said by a discussion author who applied to be featured in a magazine.

“No, no!” Another editor-in-chief of a particular magazine desperately shook his head. “This kind of paper is not an academic achievement, but a mischief of game production. It is not real science! Its emergence is a mockery of all science!”

“But… these papers do have great value. They do represent some truth. And isn’t the purpose of scientists’ work to pursue the truth? Why should we care about the process of obtaining truth?” said an editor in the office.

“It is still unacceptable! Such a thesis cannot be accepted!” The editor-in-chief still insisted on his own opinion. He could sit by and watch as a game replaced the entire field of science. It was really ridiculous! Therefore, most of the top scientific journals at home and abroad refused to publish all papers generated by the “100% Science Lab” game, regardless of their high value.

Until a well-known academic journal, who was the first to try publishing a few of these “game papers,” achieved a surge in sales. Since then, the “game papers” were very attractive features by these journals and magazines. In short, there was no doubt that the “100% Science Lab” game was extremely valuable.

On the one hand, it was a practical application field, which could speed up scientific research tenfold. In addition, the threshold for scientific research this year was too high. The price of various types of precision instruments and equipment was too expensive. It was simply a game of spending the most money. The rich countries could afford to spend top dollar, hence they became stronger and stronger, leaving everyone in the dust. And those small industrial countries, or small countries with no industrial base, would never catch up in most areas except for a few small projects.

Now, the computing speed of the “Scientific Lab” was in the league of the supercomputers. Those functions of the game were the same as in reality. The laboratories were worth tens of millions, hundreds of millions, billions, and tens of billions. You could own all of those in the cloud server as long as you improve your game level. In the cloud server, you could carry out the so-called “cloud research;” the research and development results could be extracted into the real world. It was a truly amazing piece of equipment. A super amazing piece of equipment that saved money!

How many medium-sized countries had it given hope to; that they could become a “scientific and technological power” too. And how many of those old powers had it given hope to; that they could “take shortcuts” and “become a superpower all over again.” It also brought the hope of becoming a “science and technology god” to the vast number of science enthusiasts, pseudoscientists, and untrained self-declared scientists. That was, as long as their level was high enough. It could be said that the game “100% Science Lab” pushed the whole world to enter the era of “low cost” high technology.

Although the responses from the scientific circles of various countries towards this type of game were mixed, the governments of various countries all embraced it with open arms. This was especially true after Xing Hai Technologies announced that it would implement the “Science without Borders” program on a global scale, and promote “100% Science Lab.”

The performance of each country was overwhelming in its flattery. Japan said, “We are very pleased to welcome Xing Hai Technologies”Science Without Borders’ program. We are willing to spend 10 billion to support the promotion of ‘Science Lab’.” They were simply giving money away.

Gorea said, “We hope to be the first overseas country to welcome the introduction of the “Science Lab.” We are willing to provide 100 billion for support. We will also provide free office space, permanent tax exemption, and a certain amount of subsidies every year.” The Goreans were even more enthusiastic.

Britain said, “If possible, we are willing to invest 10 billion to buy the “Scientific Laboratory” server and build a European service for European players in order to ease the operating pressure on the main server.” This was rejected by Xing Hai Technologies.

Germany said, “Xing Hai Technologies, it is a pity that we have not settled on a partnership before. We have corrected some mistakes and hope to become the best friends and partners of Xing Hai Technology.” The integrity of the Germans also began to fall.

After a round of performances expressing their goodwill, Chen Jin found that there was one figure missing. Merica. This time, Xing Hai Technologies did not exclude Merica. It clearly stated that it hoped to build a world of “science without borders.” This meant that the game “100% Science Lab” could also be released in Merica. It could attract Merican players and strengthen the nation’s technological capabilities. But in the face of such a good opportunity, Merica actually remained indifferent. They expressed nothing.

“What is going on with them?” Chen Jin was puzzled, he asked Ling Jundong to investigate the reasons. Very quickly, Ling Jundong reported the results of the investigation, which surprised Chen Jin.

“The Merican scientific community saw the value of the game ‘100% Science Labs.’ They wrote a joint proposal letter recommending that the President and Congress introduce the game to help Merica’s technology remain in the lead. Hence, they hoped that Congress would lift the sanctions against Xing Hai Technologies and establish a normal cooperative relationship. But… This was rejected by the National Assembly. The President agreed at the beginning but changed his mind later. He thinks that the sanctions against Xing Hai Technologies should continue until Xing Hai Technologies hands over the so-called ‘stolen technology’.’ The joint initiative of the scientific community in Merica has been denied due to government politics.” Ling Jundong shook his head. “The Merican government is still holding onto their stance with all their might, which is pointless. This even led to uproars in the scientific community. When the whole world is vying for a partnership with Xing Hai Technologies, the politicians of Merica would rather embrace stupidity and ignorance, and refuse to embrace the advanced.”

Chen Jin squinted. This incident was somewhat unexpected. But after thinking about it carefully, he thought that the matter was not strange at all. Instead, it might even make a bit of sense. “Old Ling, I think that that bunch of politicians is not embracing stupidity and ignorance, but a pack of lies that they can’t package and pretty up any longer.”

Chapter 313 - Entering The Field Of Entertainment

What lies were they embracing? This was the lie that a very large number of people in Merica chose to believe without even thinking: The lie that all the advanced technologies of Z country were stolen from Merica. This lie had been repeated for a thousand times, 10,000 times, by the politicians of Merica and their media. This lie appeared in every corner of the country. Not only did the majority of Merican citizens believe this lie, but even the creators of such lies believed them on a subconscious level. Hence, they then subconsciously continued to spread such lies.

“But what they don’t know is that lies are always lies! Even if it is repeated a thousand times, 10,000 times, it is still a lie! It cannot become a so-called ‘truth.’ It is very easy to expose this kind of lie. We’ll simply let the people of Merica experience the products of Xing Hai Technologies. The people of Merica will discover that Xing Hai Technologies’ products have powerful functions, that they are irreplaceable and bring about endless convenience. But there is no Merican company that has launched similar products. When scientists in Merica find out that their country has missed out on a golden opportunity and are starting to fall behind because of the arrogance and stupidity of the politicians, I believe that they will then voice their rationality and clarity, criticizing the lies that are poisoning the future of Merica. This will allow the M country to wake up from their dream of ridiculous self-importance. Actually, this kind of mentality from Merica country is very normal. Our country experienced it too. At that time, our rulers thought that Z country was a ‘celestial empire lacking for nothing.’ They regarded science and technology as ‘strange and dirty tricks.’ They closed themselves off from the world and lived in their own happy little bubble. They chose to isolate the country. In the end, they quickly became a joke when they were faced with the colonists’ unyielding ship and powerful cannons. The impact quickly caused them to go into a state of extreme inferiority. For the next 200 years, this led to the subservient spirit of Z people, which still persists in some today. It’s hard to stand up tall again. This is the consequence of indulging in lies! Now Merica has also sunk into a self-numbing state. Well, we’ll congratulate them; they should stay in this state of arrogance for a while more! The longer they remain arrogant, the longer they will be stuck in an inferior state in the future, maybe even double the time! Seeing the huge gap between us, I think that even some Mericans couldn’t help but feel inferior and subservient. As for those who are still repeating lies like good little robots, they will get the retribution that they deserve. They will be completely crammed into the trash can like a pile of ugly garbage. The more arrogant they are now, the worse they will fall. They will only feel a greater sense of frustration and disappointment.”

Therefore, their lies could not hurt Xing Hai Technologies. Ultimately they would only be hurting their own interests and self-esteem. Chen Jin would not be afraid of such accusations and attacks. “Old Ling, if this is the case, then make a declaration: If Merica does not revoke the sanctions against Xing Hai Technologies, we cannot commence a working partnership with Merica. Unless the sanctions are revoked! Only then is it possible for the two sides to collaborate.” To be honest, the country that currently had the highest level of scientific research and the best quality of scientists on earth should still be Merica. The majority of the world’s top scientific research talents were working in Merica.

Chen Jin was rather covetous of these talents. As a result, due to the opposition by the Congress of Merica, his plan to absorb top talents could be described as a “partial failure.” But Chen Jin was not in a hurry! “100% Science Lab” was a game that was accelerating the development of the earth’s technology at a speed ten times faster as compared to previous years. If the Merican congress delayed for a day, other countries would have made 10 days worth of progress. If the Merican congress delayed for a year, other countries would have made 10 years worth of progress. If they insisted on being so stubborn; let’s see who gives in first!

Moreover, the level of science and technology on Haierfa was more than 200 years ahead. The scientists on earth were still in the “remedial” stage. Currently, there was not much use for them. So it was not urgent. Chen Jin was not in a hurry at all. In fact, he was eager for the Merican Congress to waste two more years until they felt that something was wrong.

“Hmm, I understand, President Chen.” Ling Jundong nodded.

…

In Mid-February, shortly after the release of the foreign edition of “100% Science Lab,” Xing Hai Technologies made another major move. They announced their entry into the entertainment sector. With a capital injection of 3 billion, they established a subsidiary company called “Xing Hai Entertainment.”

The entertainment businesses that this subsidiary company planned to get into included novels, advertisements, movies, animation, music, and so on. For the novel category, he intended to create a “Xing Hai Sci-fi Novel Platform.” Its main feature was to collect a variety of science fiction, preferably hard-core science fiction! Long, medium, or short-form works, all would be accepted. As long as one’s sci-fi novel was exciting, one would be able to submit his stories to “Xing Hai Sci-fi Novel Platform.”

Xing Hai Entertainment’s film, animation, and music departments would be mainly serving the Xing Hai sci-fi novels. All the sci-fi works that became popular on the platform and had great potential would have the chance to be made into a film or animation! It could be adapted into a movie, web drama, animation, etc. The creator of the story would gain huge amounts of attention and a lot of money. This was undoubtedly a great temptation for the majority of authors; it would attract them to join “Xing Hai Sci-fi Novel Platform” and publish their own works. They would also work hard to create excellent science fiction works and strive for their works to be made into movies and animations. They would then achieve both fame and fortune. After all, with the technological prowess of Xing Hai Technologies, it was impossible for their stories to be made into bad films and thus destroying it in the process. Only classic after classic would be created.

Out of the trust for Xing Hai Technologies, he believed that many talented sci-fi authors would be willing to join this platform under “Xing Hai Entertainment.” The sci-fi literary culture of Z country would be cultivated thusly. The number of sci-fi enthusiasts would increase; the number of people who were inclined towards the sciences and delve into science would increase. These factors would eventually turn Z country into a sci-fi power. Chen Jin could also benefit from it. One aspect of it was economic; on the other hand, the process could also collect a lot of talents, and open up new ways of thinking for Nuwa and Alice… Sometimes the advancement of technology required a major shift in thinking, and some really good talents could even represent a glimmer of hope in their darkest hour.

As for the advertising department of Xing Hai Entertainment, this department had already been created long ago. They made hundreds of advertisements promoting Xing Hai Technologies’ products. Some of the advertisements had content that was funny, some were extremely interesting. Some had magnificent scenes and beautifully detailed graphics. Nearly all were classics.

“The second outstanding film and television company after Hua Yao Film and Television.” This was the evaluation given by the majority of netizens for Xing Hai Technologies’ advertisements. Now Chen Jin transferred the company’s advertising department into “Xing Hai Entertainment,” which was to allow the advertising department to continue to represent Xing Hai Technologies’ unacknowledged side business and produce more good advertisements.

After Chen Jin got his staff to release the news that “Xing Hai Entertainment Company” was about to be established, suddenly a huge commotion was created in the entertainment circle. Netizens exclaimed in surprise and clapped their hands.

“The entertainment circle is done for. Now that the strongest whale in history has entered the scene, the little goldfish are trembling!”

“Xing Hai Technologies should have entered the field long ago! I am fed up with the domestically produced shitty movies that are flooding the market!”

“The above comment is too harsh. There are many bad films, but there have also been a lot of good domestic movies made in the past few years. I can only say that it’s a mixed bag. It’s the same in foreign countries.”

“It is a good thing that Xing Hai Technologies is entering the field. The quantity of excellent film and television works will definitely increase. Personally, I look forward to it.”

“Welcome to Xing Hai Technologies for entering the entertainment field. I only have one requirement: I don’t want young hunks! I don’t watch any movies with young hunks! No exception!”

“To the above comment, +1”

In addition, shortly after the news was published, Chen Jin received several calls on his mobile phone.

Chapter 314 - Holding Onto A Support

“President Chen, are you going to enter the entertainment industry? Can I partner with you and invest a little money in your company?” The first one to call him was the most famous “30 billion director” in the nation who collaborated with Chen Jin many times, Shi Xiaotao. The purpose of her call was to invest in Xing Hai Entertainment. She wanted to seize this opportunity and have a slice of the profits.

Chen Jin was quite surprised. “Xiaotao, don’t you have a production studio of your own? Why do you want to invest in my company?” Taotao Studios was definitely the top film and television studio in the country. The studio launched six movies. There was none that had a box office sales of less than 3 billion. The total box office sales for the 6 movies was more than 30 billion. Therefore, Shi Xiaotao held the title of “30 billion director.” It was obvious that this number would be refreshed and increased in the future. The potential for profits was infinite. Such a talented and capable director did not want to make her studio bigger and stronger, but instead, she wanted to invest in other companies.

“Because your company has greater potential for profits,” Shi Xiaotao said.

This went without asking. Xing Hai Entertainment Company was backed by Xing Hai Technologies. Whatever the entertainment company wanted, it would get, including funds, technologies, movie box offices, video clicks, and TV ratings. It was as easy as pie. Even if it’s occasionally shot. Even producing the occasional bad film would have no serious impact. The company had a strong ability to withstand risks.

Her studio looked pretty good now, but to make those movies that required investments of hundreds of millions, even billions at every turn, she would still have to pull in a lot of investment for her company. Inevitably, a large number of profits would have to be divided. If you wanted to make more money, you would have to foot more of the expenses, but you also have to shoulder the huge risks.

When it came to the risks of making movies, as long as there were more than three large-scale production movies whose box office sales flopped, the production houses would face the risk of collapsing. This was true even for Hollywood’s eight major film companies, such as MGM and Warner Bros., who were film giants.

Shi Xiaotao was now the most successful director of Z country. She was worth a lot of money. But if she used her own money to shoot a big movie with a production value of 1 billion, she would immediately become a poor man once the movie flopped. Just one major production that turned out bad could destroy all her previous achievements. Her ability to take risks was only at a score of one. It was totally possible for an outstanding director to produce a rotten film. Moreover, good movies that could not rake in box office sales were everywhere too. Shi Xiaotao did not think that her luck would endure. Sooner or later, she would produce a bad film… She dared not stake all on one attempt.

However, there was a type of film company that could not only make movies as they desired, but they were also unafraid of poor box office sales. Even if they made 3 films that did badly in the box office in a row (or even 5 films and above), there was no need for them to worry about the company going bankrupt. Such film companies relied on large international companies and financial groups to back them up. They were extremely resistant against risk.

For example, Marvel Pictures and 20th Century Fox had the Disney Group backing them. Sony Pictures and MGM had Sony Group backing them. Warner Pictures had The Times Media backing them.

If there are no big international companies acting as a support behind the scenes, independent film and television production companies could easily find themselves falling into a major crisis because of one or two box office losses.

Xing Hai Technologies, which had annual revenue of more than one trillion, was undoubtedly a “supergiant enterprise.” With such a big company backing them from behind the scenes, Xing Hai Entertainment would not collapse even if they produced 100 bad films in a row. Their ability to withstand risks was extremely high. Of course Shi Xiaotao would want to invest in such a company.

Chen Jin nodded, he understood Shi Xiaotao’s considerations. Her meaning was simple: holding onto a support. “All right, Xiaotao, you can invest in my Xing Hai Entertainment. How much do you plan to invest?”

“You agree? That’s great!” Shi Xiaotao was overjoyed. After some thought, she tested the waters by asking, “I want to invest 1 billion in exchange for a third of the shares, is that possible?”

“1 billion?” Chen Jin’s eyes widened. “You are actually this rich?”

Shi Xiaotao’s family was not well-to-do. In order to raise money for the production of “Wa-wah 1,” the family nearly mortgaged the property to stake all on that one movie. The total assets of her family would not exceed 100 million. But only a mere three or four years passed and now she could so easily come up with one billion. Was this cash?

“Nah, this can’t be considered very rich. All liquid capital has been withdrawn. Fortunately, the “Wa-wah 3″ at hand is nearly finished. When the movie is released, money will not be so tight.” Shi Xiaotao looked like a rich woman carefully calculating her assets.

“Ok, you’ll invest one billion then.” Chen Jin shook his head. He had to take his hat off. He hung up the phone.

But in less than five minutes, the phone rang again. He picked up the phone and saw that it was from his little aunt, He Jia. He made a sliding motion with his finger and accepted the call. He immediately heard a gentle voice, “Xiao Jin, I heard that you are planning to open an entertainment company. This is a good thing…” This was wholly expected that He Jia also wanted to invest in his company in exchange for shares so that she could have a slice of the profits from Xing Hai Entertainment.

As he listened to her rambling, Chen Jin facepalmed. Helpless. He felt really helpless. He could not help but ask, “Little aunt, the assets you invested in my companies have exceeded 7 billion. You can’t use all that money even if you have 10 lives. Why do you want to earn so much? What is the meaning of making so much money?” He raised a spiritual question. Of course, he also asked himself this very same question. His own answer was this: he wanted to help more people live a happy life. So, he felt that he could pursue greater wealth.

But what about He Jia? She had so much wealth. But besides bringing happiness and satisfaction to herself, had she brought happiness and benefits to others? Obviously not much. He Jia was stunned by his question. She could not give a good answer for a while. After some time, she said, “Silly child, isn’t little aunt doing this to help you? If your company does well and grows big, I’ll benefit too. If you encounter difficulties or face cash flow issues, you can use the money that I gave you to tide you over… You are the one who has the skills. I don’t have any skills so I’ll entrust my money to you. Isn’t the meaning behind my having so much money your meaning too? Why are you asking me this kind of question?”

Chen Jin was stunned. He was a little entangled in her logic. After some careful thought, her argument seemed reasonable and true. “Ok, little aunt. How much do you want to invest?”

“One billion.”

“Ehhh… OK!” He ended the call with He Jia.

A moment later, his second eldest uncle also called, saying that he decided to sell his company’s film and television department. He then withdrew the previous investment of 100 billion and wanted to put everything into Xing Hai Entertainment. He must be involved in the dream production of first-class films and television works!

“Ok!”

By this time, it was not necessary for Xing Hai Technologies to foot the bill of the registered capital of 30 billion. But it was not over yet. Like a group of hyenas who smelled prey, he also received a number of phone calls in succession. They were from Little Brother Ze, Brother Lei, and many big VIPs. Their purpose was the same: invest in Xing Hai Entertainment.

Chen Jin could not refuse in good stead. He had the title of “Sole Devourer” in the investment circle. He did not allow others to touch his Xing Hai Technologies, but he allowed others to buy shares in the non-key subsidiaries of Xing Hai Technologies. Xing Hai Entertainment was akin to a newly opened channel of investment. Naturally, the majority of investors did not want to miss this opportunity; all of them were throwing money at him. Therefore, he attracted investments of 5.5 billion with little effort.

The last call was from Yuan Li. Chen Jin sighed in relief. It ended. The annoying and harassing calls finally stopped.

However, he heard Yuan Li saying, “Dear, I heard that you have opened a new company. Can I invest in it?”

Chen Jin’s head was about to explode. “Why are you like this too? Can’t you keep your money and spend it for your pleasure? What’s the meaning of going back and forth with your money?”

Yuan Li pursed her lips. “I can’t finish the money and I don’t know how to invest. I lost more than 1 million by speculating in stocks a few days ago. My heart hurts. It’s safe to park my money in your company. It’s best to invest my money in your company.”

He was speechless for a while. Chen Jin asked, “How much are you going to invest?”

“500 million.”

“Ok!”

The total investment he attracted reached an astonishing figure of 9 billion. Of course, Xing Hai Technologies itself had to invest some money into it in order to hold a certain percentage of shares. Chen Jin decided to round the figure up. The registered capital was changed to 10 billion. Including the investment in technology, talents, hardware, etc., the parent company, Xing Hai Technologies accounted for 30% of the shares. The remaining 70% of the shares would be allocated amongst the other shareholders according to the investment ratio.

To register a capital investment of ten billion was not a small move, but a move big enough to shake up the entertainment industry.

Chen Jin shook his head. “I only intended to do things on a small scale, not to make waves. Now, driven by capital, it can only be turned into a giant. The entertainment industry will be turned upside down.”

Chapter 315 - Releasing Many Small Updates Or One Major Update?

After 10 odd days, Xing Hai Entertainment was established with a registered capital of 10 billion. Xing Hai Technologies officially entered the entertainment field. Moreover, Xing Hai Entertainment took very fast actions. On the day of the company’s establishment, Xing Hai Sci-fi Novel Platform, Xing Hai Film and TV, Xing Hai Advertising, Xing Hai Music, and other websites or client servers had been launched on the internet in succession for the vast numbers of users.

Of course, these were all empty “skeletons.” There was not much content, and users could not see much of anything. The content had to be filled up as soon as possible.

In particular, the online novel platform could be described as the “core content production center.” A sufficient number of novels were the guarantee for Xing Hai Entertainment’s long-term development. Therefore, on the first day that the Xing Hai Sci-fi Novel Platform was established, in addition to recruiting a large number of authors to publish their works, the company also organized a literary competition where the first prize was as high as 10 million.

The name of the event was, “Wa-wah Robot Quality Sci-Fi Movie Literary Contest With Prizes Awarded.” It turned out that Chen Jin intended to offer the major IP of the movie “Wa-wah Robot” and let the majority of authors create quality sci-fi works on the basis of this IP. If the setting of their work was outstanding with a brilliant plot, it could be made into a movie. The winning writer would get a million-dollar prize.

There were a total of ten grand prizes, all of which had the possibility of being adapted into film and television. The minimum monetary amount of the prizes were at least 1 million. As for the smaller prizes such as the Award for Potential and the Creativity Encouragement Award, there were more than one hundred of those awards with a minimum prize amount of 50,000.

It could be said that for this literary competition, the wealthy Xing Hai Entertainment made use of its advantages to offer a large amount of real cash to the winners. It hoped to use this literary competition to make some quality sci-fi movies related to “Wa-wah Robot.” This was their way of sounding the first signal horn to display their power in the entertainment industry.

Thus, Chen Jin also realized his original dream of making a hard-core quality science fiction movie. Of course, Chen Jin could not attend to the specifics of the various operations and their processes personally. Professional tasks should be attended to by the professionals. It was enough for him to occasionally pay some attention to it. He would not focus all his attention on some small detail. Xing Hai Technologies was too big. Because he started too many projects beforehand, many breakthroughs were achieved around the same time.

For example, there were two major breakthroughs recently, which grabbed all of Chen Jin’s attention. One of the breakthroughs was not unfamiliar. It was not a totally new breakthrough, but a major upgrade based on an old achievement. But this major upgrade would transform the entire chip industry. It would lead to an unimaginably destructive impact on the traditional chip industry.

Chen Jin expected that once this product was released, the international chip manufacturing OEM giants such as Mossey Electrics, Samsin, etc., would see their stock price plummet by more than 50%. Even Zhongxin International, who was a close partner of Xing Hai Technologies, would also see its stock price fall by more than 30%.

That was right! The graphene CPU. The 45-nanometer process, whereby the heat generated was only one-thousandth of the traditional silicon chip. The graphene CPU had an operating frequency of more than 100GH.

Rong Weizhi, who was in charge of the project, said, “President Chen, the era where the graphene chips replace the traditional silicon chip has arrived. The reason why the traditional silicon chip releases a large amount of heat is because of the heat generated when electrons collide with the transistor wall during the process of moving back and forth between the transistors. Hence, the larger the size of the transistor, the more heat is generated; the smaller the size, the more energy-efficient it will be. But when the size of the transistor is compressed below 7-nanometers, electrons may pass through the wall of the tube due to the quantum tunneling effect, causing the transistor to leak power, which affects the normal operation of the chip. 5-nanometers is virtually the limit of the traditional chip manufacturing process. It is almost impossible to further reduce it. In addition, in order to control the heat generated, it is generally difficult for the operating frequency of the silicon chip to exceed 5 GHz, and for the mobile CPU chip to exceed 3 GHz. But the graphene chip is different! After the transistor of the graphene chip is charged, its energy distribution does not have the pattern of traditional parabolic linearity. Instead, its energy distribution pattern is like a Mexican hat that rises high up in the middle. The electron density near the ‘cap’ is almost infinite. So, we only need to exert a small amount of voltage and a large number of electrons will start moving at the same time. This will cause a rapid change in the current on the other side of the energy barrier. Not only does this greatly shorten the moving distance of the electrons, but the energy required to switch between the on and off mode is extremely small. The conventional silicon material transistors cannot match this. So even a graphene CPU with a 100-nanometer process can work at an operating frequency of 100 GHz. Now I have compressed the size of the transistor to 45-nanometers, so there is no problem setting the operating frequency to 250 GHz. If the size was further reduced, the operating frequency can be set even higher. But the 45-nanometer has reached the point where it can replace the traditional chips. Its performance at a 250GHz operating frequency is comparable to that of a 5-nanometer silicon chip with a 3GHZ operating frequency. However, its energy efficiency is more than 90% higher. If you were to use a 45-nanometer graphene CPU on your mobile phone, you can increase your battery life by at least 40%, and you don’t have to worry about heat dissipation. The temperature on the surface of the phone will not experience much change no matter how you use the phone. The so-called ‘reducing CPU overheating’ problem will never happen on graphene CPUs, so its performance will be more stable. Its overall performance of the 45-nanometer graphene CPU will definitely be better. Lastly, for its production cost, the 45-nanometer process graphene chips are not too difficult to manufacture. At least, the process will not be as complicated as the 5-nanometer silicon chip. The production cost between the two types of chips will not be too different. So, it is inevitable that graphene chips will replace the traditional silicon chips!”

Chen Jin nodded. But he was not particularly happy. On the contrary, his brows scrunched in a frown and his face showed a difficult expression. It was fast. Too fast. Logically speaking, graphene chips replacing the silicon chips that were even now on the road to obsoletion could become a reality only after a minimum of ten years passed. However, due to the existence of Xing Hai Technologies, this progress had been fast-forwarded ten years, and it became a reality in advance.

The manufacturing process of graphene chips was completely different from the manufacturing process of silicon chips. Traditional chip OEMs could not produce graphene chips. Production equipment and processes must be completely overhauled. They could only build a production line specifically for the graphene chips.

The problem was that Zhongxin International just expanded its business. Zhongxin already produced a third of their chip OEM orders that were worth hundreds of millions of dollars every year. It would soon take over the top spot of Mossey Electrics. They were in an excellent business situation.

The introduction of the 45-nanometer graphene chip now was equivalent to destroying the fortunate circumstance of Zhongxin. It was tantamount to taking its own life. The money wasted and the potential benefits that would be lost were at least 100 billion.

President Zhang of Zhongxin International and his executives would also howl in injustice and grief. So the choice before Chen Jin was this: should he divide this major update by squeezing out many small updates, or just release it as it was in one shot?

Chapter 316 - High Energy 1

Squeezing toothpaste. Digital product lovers despised these two words, including Chen Jin. He too regarded such behavior with abhorrence because it would mean that someone was sitting on their laurels, slothful and shiftless in their work, lacking sincerity, and never exhausted the greatest of their abilities.

This kind of behavior that disappointed consumers and was hardly acceptable. Chen Jin likewise could not accept this so-called “toothpaste-squeezing.”

But unfortunately, Chen Jin realized that he might be turning into the kind of person that he himself detested the most. That’s right! Chen Jin still decided to squeeze the toothpaste. He would not market the graphene CPU on a large scale right away and would delay it for at least one to two years to take some time for transitioning to buffer. It was tough to forgo wealth. Thinking about the tens of billions of dollars he invested, thinking about Zhong Xin International’s apparent market value of over 600 billion dollars, thinking about the trillion-dollar annual market of traditional silicon chips… Could he really bear to smash so many pots and pans all at once?

Indubitably, after graphene CPUs were promoted extensively, the money Xing Hai Technologies would earn was bound to increase, and also their brand-new pots and pans… in short, Xing Hai Technologies’ benefits would not sustain much damage. The whole world might even become theirs. New things wouldn’t come until the old ones are gone. If he were to erupt the entire toothpaste straightaway, the things he would gain and the scenery he would see might be completely different. In a word: awesomeness.

The problem was that Chen Jin would feel awesome, but what about Zhong Xin Internationals? What would become of all 20 thousand employees of that company? The stock value held by many of Zhong Xin International’s employees already inflated from a house to five. If graphene chips were to be announced just like that, five houses would shrink back to one, or even half, as if plummeting from heaven straight to hell. Some people might even want to murder Chen Jin. After all, Zhong Xin International was only just now going uphill. In a blink of an eye, rolling down into the abyss without even reaching the peak, who would be able to accept this?

Chen Jin could not bring himself to pour a bucket of cold water on their flaming youth. However, the traditional silicon chip was approaching the end of its path. Zhong Xin International also recognized this very fact. Therefore, at the same time they were expanding their own business, they were also seeking a changeover, grouping on the process technology of graphene chips. Chen Jin’s Xing Hai Technologies could also license the process technology of the 45-nanometer graphene chip to Zhong Xin Internationals, aiding them in completing their transitioning. In that way, after Xing Hai Technologies launched the graphene CPU, not only would it not cause too great of an impact towards Zhong Xin Internationals, but their stock price would also surge notably… this would be the best solution.

In spite of that, establishing a mass production line for graphene CPUs and tackling its process technology would at least require a year and above. Hence, the large-scale commercialization of the graphene CPU could not be done in a single move. It required a period of time in between.

“To avoid massive turmoil in the stock market, it is better that we keep this a secret for at least another year. After graphene CPUs attain commercial mass production, prioritize their usage on supercomputers that house large servers. It will help save a ton on electric bills. And use it in making higher performance, a hundred million billion supercomputers… our services should first be targeted towards large corporations before proceeding to normal civilians. This should buy us half a years’ time. When it cannot be concealed any further and the netizens were already outraged, it will almost be time for the civilian version ‘graphene CPU’ to be released. With all these, we could suspend it for about two years. People can’t call this ‘squeezing toothpaste’, after all, the performance of 5-nanometer silicon chips can’t be squeezed any further. Squeezing it any further will lead to graphene chips!”

This, of course, couldn’t be called a ‘fab fest’, but an immensely disappointing strip show. The consumers would all have their pants down but could only watch with their eyes drenched in jealousy. This could be considered as “being edgy.” How very unfulfilling. No matter what, civilian graphene CPU used on personal devices would only be launched after one to two years. Zhong Xin International was thus provided with a rather lengthy transitioning period.

…

After making those decisions, Chen Jin gave Zhang Wei Jin a call and told him about Xing Hai Technologies achieving major breakthroughs in graphene chips, including having made graphene CPUs with the 45-nanometer process technology with performances compared to traditional silicon CPUs made using the 5-nanometer process technology.

“What?” Zhang Wei Jin was taken aback at once. “You have broken through what that is meant to come 10 years later?” He lost his calm immediately. “How could you be so quick? Can you not be that fast? It’s only a year, no, it is still less than a year since we conquered 5-nm. Is our tech already going to drop behind? Is Zhong Xin International going to get eliminated?” Zhang Wei Jin wanted to cry but shed no tears. “Mr. Chen, we are close partners in our businesses, why are you suddenly carrying out a dimensionality reduction on us? This tech of yours really came at the wrong time.” He was not against the new technology; it was just that it came too quickly. It made it so that his high spirits remained in him for no longer than a year, and he would immediately be thrown into immense panic and depression.

“Relax Mr. Zhang, relax. Xing Hai Technologies can license the graphene chip process technology to Zhong Xin International. I hope that you would strive to take down this technology which represents the future within a year or so. If Zhong Xin International realized mass production for the 45-nanometer graphene CPU within a year, in the future, most of our graphene chip orders will still belong to Zhong Xin as you have successfully completed your transition and entered a new age. If one year is not enough for you to actualize mass production, I could only give you a portion of our orders and Xing Hai Technologies will complete the rest.”

Chip foundry was classified as a high-profit industry. If Zhong Xin International could not keep up, Xing Hai Technologies would not be lingering around for too long waiting for them, and would take matters into their own hands, establishing their own large-scale chip factory. They would produce graphene chips in batches, no longer small amounts in a lab environment.

“This is a challenge to prove Zhong Xin’s capabilities! If Zhong Xin has this ability, Zhong Xin will be the world’s biggest chip foundry group in the future, monopolizing the whole industry… it all comes down to whether Zhong Xin could accomplish this challenge.” Chen Jin gave Zhang Wei Jin a hard question.

“Okay!” Zhang Wei Jin nodded and replied with a strong and steady voice, “Zhong Xin accepts this challenge and we will definitely accomplish it!” He was full of confidence towards his own company. And so, the issues on graphene chip was principally solved.

Apart from that, Xing Hai Technologies had another breakthrough, which had significance on par with the graphene chip. Its area of usage might even be wider, and its value, even bigger. It could possibly reshape the whole automobile, aerospace, construction machinery, and the global energy industry.

Batteries. Batteries named by Xing Hai Technologies’ New Energy Research Center as “High Energy 1.” The energy density of this battery reached a whopping 1500Wh/kg. Compared to the state-of-the-art ternary material batteries with energy densities of 550Wh/g, it improved nearly threefold. It was equivalent to about one eighth the energy density of gasoline! This could be described as an astonishing advancement!

Chapter 317 - Blockbuster

In 1799, Idailian physicist Volt dipped a piece of zinc plate and a tin plate in saltwater and discovered that there was current flowing through the wires connecting the two metals. Therefore, he placed fluffed cloth or paper sheets soaked in saltwater between zinc sheets and silver sheets and stacked many of them together. A strong current stimulation could be felt when one’s hands were placed on both ends. Using this method, Volt created the world’s first battery; the “Voltaic pile.”

In that event, the battery had been around for more than two hundred years since its appearance. But two hundred years have passed. Unlike transistors in Moore’s Law, there was no significant improvement in the energy density of batteries throughout history. The earliest batteries which were widely used was carbon-zinc batteries. It had an energy density of about 30-100 Watt-hour per kilogram. The battery could only be used once but low pricing. The lead-acid battery that was invented subsequently was even more widely used. Its energy density was about 60-120 Watt-hour per kilogram but could be charged repeatedly. Paired with its cheap pricing, it swiftly became the mainstream and prevailed for almost a hundred years. Till now, it had yet died out. But the energy density of lead-acid batteries was too low. Hence, during the 1960s, Lithium batteries came into being. It had an energy density of 150-250 Watt-hour per kilogram, which was equivalent to twice that of lead batteries. Some high-performance lithium batteries even had an energy density of up to 300 Watt-hour per kilogram. Theoretically, they had the potential to reach 1000 Watt-hour per kilogram.

But a theory remains a theory. In actual scenarios, it was very difficult for the energy density of lithium batteries to go over 300 Watt-hour per kilogram. It could only be considered a “semi high energy battery.” Due to its technical complexity and some issues in safety and production costs, lithium batteries had not been widely promoted until the 21st century where they gradually became the mainstream. The development paths for batteries were in abundance. There were organizations working on future batteries with higher energy density, longer lifespan, and better safety.

For example, metal-air batteries. The representative for this type of battery was the zinc-air battery. The specific energy of a zinc-air battery was 4-6 times that of a lead-acid battery, and one time larger than a lithium-ion battery. Electric vehicles powered by such batteries could reach travel distances of 400 kilometers. The process technology for zinc-air batteries was simple and low cost. Its mass production cost was approximately 300 to 500 dollars per Kilovolt-Ampere Hour, even cheaper than lead-acid batteries. Moreover, the battery was safe and reliable. Even if the battery’s exterior was exposed to open fire, short circuit, punctures, or impacts, it would not burn off or explode.

But even with so many advantages, there were some fatal drawbacks for zinc-air batteries. Its cost of usage was relatively higher, and it had a complicated charging process. It had a short practical lifespan at about one to two years. It was not caused by the poor performance of the battery’s electrochemical cell, but the battery structure itself. The batch processing technology was not mature enough. The production of catalytic membrane and Teflon required semi-mechanical operations which had manual factors that would lead to deviations in battery performance. Hence, it was still rather difficult for metal-air batteries to be widely used.

Besides, there were also solid-state batteries, nanocrystalline lithium-ion batteries, fuel cells… and a few dozen types of batteries. Some declared that they attained energy densities of 500 Watt-hour per kilogram while some claimed that they went over 800. There were even some that broke through 1,000. People were hyped up as if they saw hope for the dawn of the high energy battery era.

However… it was just a white elephant. Lab performance was not equivalent to actual performance. Lab products might not become market products. The battery with the highest energy density attainable from the market at current times was a ternary battery using positive electrodes made with ternary polymer material combined with nickel cobalt manganese (Li(NiCoMn)O2). For this type of battery, a factory within the Z nation incorporated it with graphene technology, which boosted the battery’s energy density of 500Watt-hour per kilogram, the highest level in the world. During that time, it caused a worldwide sensation as it was deemed the dawn of an era of new energy.

But it might still be too early to be happy. The energy density of gasoline was a whopping 12000 Watt-hour per kilogram, while the best ternary battery only had an energy density of 4.58% that of gasoline, which was less than one-twentieth. The technology for ternary batteries was still miles away from replacing traditional energy sources. What people were seeing was merely a glimpse of hope.

The success of Xing Hai Technologies’”High Energy 1″ batteries, on the other hand, immediately actualized this hope. Within the research center, Zhao Chiang, the person in charge of this project, said excitedly, “Mr. Chen, we have made an astonishing leap in battery technology! Firstly, our ‘High Energy 1’ is not a traditional liquid or semi-solid battery, it’s a complete solid-state battery! A complete solid-state battery is the safest. It is shockproof, has high-temperature resistance, good stability, and can sustain more charging instances compared to other batteries. For example, the best ternary battery can be charged 1,500 times. After 800 instances, the battery’s capacity will fall to 80%. Our ‘High Energy 1’ can be charged 10,000 times. Only after 5,000 charge-discharge cycles will our battery’s capacity fall to around 80%. Moreover, the ‘High Energy 1’ battery is integrated with the most advanced graphene fast-charging technology. For instance, this 10,000 Milli-Amp-Hour battery that I’m holding. It supports fast-charging technology up to 100 watts. In just about six to ten minutes, this battery will be fully recharged, and you won’t have to worry about the battery overheating.” Zhao Chiang continued while holding the small battery, “For its energy density, as the battery is using a whole new nano-polymer material as its positive electrode, we measured it to be at 1,500 Watt-hour per kilogram. This is six to seven times that of normal batteries! Equivalent to one-eighth of gasoline. In practical usage, the energy utilization efficiency of gasoline in generators could at most reach 40%, commonly above 30%. While for batteries, its efficiency is generally above 90%. Therefore, from the perspective of energy utilization efficiency, the actual performance of our ‘High Energy 1’ battery is equal to a third of gasoline.”

One-third of gasoline! This could be described as fairly incredible. The potential of electric vehicles instantly surpassed traditional fuel vehicles. Compared to the engine of a fuel-driven car, the engine structure of an electric car was simpler, lighter, and was spared from many additional mechanical structures, which correspondingly reduced the total mass of the vehicle up to a hundred kilograms. Discarding additional complex transmission structures such as gearboxes, the vehicle’s overall mass reduction would be above 200 kilograms. Of course, in order to achieve the same traveling distance as fuel cars, the number of battery packs incorporated would certainly increase. In terms of a 50-kilogram gasoline tank, the car would need 150 kilograms of ‘High Energy 1’ batteries for it to attain similar traveling distance.

Even so, electric cars using the ‘High Energy 1’ batteries would still be more than a hundred kilograms lighter! Hence, its traveling performance would only be better. Due to the most advanced fast-charging technology, the large volume of batteries would be fully recharged within 30 to 60 minutes. The waiting time would not be exceptionally long. Pairing this with the 10-thousand charging instances and the superlative safety it provided… At least within the car industry, considering environmental protection, user-friendliness, travel distance, safety, cost, and other aspects comprehensively, people could hardly find a reason to reject electric cars with the advent of the “High Energy 1” battery.

Moreover, once these batteries were launched, it was hard to imagine how big of an impact it would cause. It would trigger a global turmoil in insurmountable fields and would inevitably expose Xing Hai Technologies to immense pressure. Therefore, the question presented before Chen Jin was: should he detonate this blockbuster?

Chapter 318 - Only Forty to Fifty Years Left for Oil Exploitation?

“Oh yeah, Zhao Chiang, how much would the High Energy 1’s production costs be?” Chen Jin asked after having thought about a question.

“Uhm, very high for lab production,” Zhao Chiang said after thinking. “About some 10 thousand dollars per kilogram. Nevertheless, the cost is expected to drop below 1,000 dollars in mass industrial production. Assuming that each electric car is incorporated with a hundred kilograms of high energy batteries, the cost of an entire car would only be around several ten thousand dollars. It is totally possible for consumers to buy an electric car with ‘High Energy 1’ batteries installed within a 200-thousand-dollar budget.”

In fact, Chen Jin’s question was a little extra. For all products that could be mass-produced industrially, their prices would plummet after a period of time no matter how high initial prices were. Hence, there was no need to worry about consumers not being able to afford “High Energy 1” battery products. Chen Jin nodded. Suddenly, something popped up in his mind. International Oil Price!

“How many dollars per barrel are international oil prices at? Have you been paying attention to the prices?” Chen Jin asked Zhao Chiang.

“You got the right person, Mr. Chen. We have been paying lots of attention to the international oil price trend. After the M nation established the regional economic alliance last year, while they are restricting the export of high-tech products to the Z nation, they also gathered several major oil-producing countries as they intend to raise international oil prices by reducing and limiting oil production. Within a year, the international oil price has surged from 70 dollars per barrel to over 140 dollars per barrel. Oil prices have reached their highest point in more than two decades.”

“140 dollars per barrel? It doubled?” Chen Jin did not follow the news every day, but he often heard complaints about the rising prices in malls, courier fees inflating, and troubles within the logistic field from the people around him. This was the most visible impact of rising oil prices. Oil was too closely interconnected to daily life. Oil was not only used as fuel in industries, but gasoline and diesel refined from it was also a necessity in logistics and transportation. If oil prices were to rise, in the people’s livelihood, the prices of everything would be inflated. It could be said that both were directly correlated as oil prices would directly affect the civilian’s quality of life.

“Mr. Chen, it is not only oil prices that are rising. International prices of iron ore, copper, rare metals, and food are all rising with inflations averaging at least 30%. The person pulling the strings from behind is without question the M nation. Many of the M nation’s big multinational corporations are exploiting their ‘country of origin’ entitlements and controlling the rise of raw materials according to their government’s demands. They are doing this to stop the Z nation from rising by increasing the cost of forward developments. Or you can put it in this way; the M nation is powerless against us and has absolutely no other way to stop us. So, they can only do this to give us some blockades. But we must admit, it does indeed yield some effects. Over the past year, prices of products within the country have risen by 15% on average. We can see a variety of news that urges to curb the rapid inflation of goods on television every day. But our country is so massive. With a 1.4 billion population, our demands in all aspects are also larger. With the prices of raw materials rising, our people’s quality of life has indeed reduced by a whole lot. Our days have indeed become harsher,” Zhao Chiang said with a depressing tone.

“Heheh, this is because they have no more tricks up their sleeves.” Chen Jin shook his head while sneering. The M Empire, forever that measly. He remembered a joke in his head: about 30 years ago, there were experts who warned that oil resources were depleting with only about 40 to 50 years of reserves left, and in the future, oil prices would definitely rise. About 20 years ago as well, there were also experts who warned that oil resources were depleting with only 40 to 50 years of reserves remaining. Even until a decade ago and recently, there were experts who were still going: oil resources are depleting, there will be gone by 40 to 50 years. It could even be concluded that, even if 40 to 50 years really went by, oil resources would probably still last for several decades.

This planet was just too big. When old resources depleted, new ones were found. When land resources were depleted, there was still a broad ocean floor. Hence, there was no need to worry too much about having insufficient resources… humans would find a way and get the resources they desired. Especially for oil. For the pricing of this raw material, the reasonable price range would be 50 to 100 dollars per barrel. Over 100 dollars would be unrealistic and would imply deliberate inflation. New products or technology would appear immediately to suppress the price.

For example, coal liquefaction technology would begin to become profitable. Domestic coal-to-oil plants could go all-out to convert coal into oil. Underwater mining for combustible ice would also become profitable. The associated drilling platforms could extract a large amount of combustible ice from the deep sea. Wind power, hydropower, solar energy, nuclear power plants, and other clean energy sources would also enter an era of fast development.

Besides, the development of electric cars would also hasten. Subsidies granted by the state would increase and the construction of supporting facilities such as charging piles would also speed up abruptly. All these initiatives had only one purpose: reduce oil consumption, gradually shed off over-reliance on oil products.

Zhao Chiang said enthusiastically, “Mr. Chen, this is an excellent opportunity, a great time for us to sell our ‘High Energy 1’ batteries in large amounts. The country launched a few guidelines a few years ago, which is to achieve 100% electrification of buses and taxis by 20X5, to realize complete elimination of fuel vehicles and to ban the sale of all fuel vehicles by 20X0. By then, all the batteries needed by the billions of automobiles across the nation, how scary of a number would it be? And how colossal is the market going to get? Our ‘High Energy 1’ battery is the most advanced, safest, and densest in energy among all batteries. Based on the ‘High Energy 1′ battery’s market competitiveness, we could at least take down half of the trillion-dollar battery market! Mr. Chen, Xing Hai Technologies will soon be an energy giant and become the world’s biggest energy carrier supply company!”

Chen Jin nodded. What Zhao Chiang said was true, the rising oil price was indeed beneficial for the promotion of High Energy 1 batteries. Billions of automobiles and the battery market of several trillion dollars; and this was not just limited to the automobile industry. Thinking about such humongous profits, was there a need to hesitate?

Announce it. Immediately announce Xing Hai Technologies’ breakthrough in the new energy field and reveal the power of High Energy 1.

Henceforth, on the 17th of March, Xing Hai Technologies held a product conference and launched their brand-new battery product: High Energy 1.

The blockbuster was detonated. Less than 30 minutes after the conference, news about High Energy 1 swiftly went viral on the internet, flooding social media platforms and forum websites. The huge waves that came after were beyond even Chen Jin’s expectations.

Chapter 319 - Continue Being Patent Hooligans

Following this announcement, there were many ramifications abroad. The response overseas was totally within Chen Jin’s expectations. As a repercussion to the announcement of Xing Hai Technologies’ High Energy 1, on the 18th of March, which was the following day, international oil prices plummeted! From the highest price of 140 dollars per barrel, it tumbled down to 120 dollars per barrel. It even fell through 100 a few days later, returning to the normal price range. Aside from that, many western powers couldn’t sit still any longer. They stated:

“Xing Hai Technologies achieving a breakthrough in the energy technology field has brought upon hope to mankind’s governance on the global environment. There’s hope for carbon emissions to be reduced and the greenhouse effect to be effectively curbed, all based on whether Xing Hai Technologies is selfish or not.”

“Protecting the environment is the duty of every country and every company. It is Xing Hai Technologies’ obligation to help and provide technical support to the others for a better world to be forged.”

“Xing Hai Technologies, help us save this devastated world!”

All in an instant, the environmental awareness of many western countries bloomed, suddenly realizing that they desperately need Xing Hai Technologies’ new energy technology to improve the ecological environment of the entire planet. For example, they were very much in need of the High Energy 1 battery’s technology.

“Such an advanced battery technology, they…they must have stolen it from us, despicable thieves.” Netizens of the M nation were basically still on the same thing. But for some reason, their momentum was no longer as powerful as before.

…

Chen Jin was more surprised by the local response. The response of local new energy enterprises, especially that from Li Shen Corporation, Biyadi Batteries, Amperex Technologies, Guoxuan Hi-Tech Company, and other local battery manufacturers, was to “protest” against Xing Hai Technologies.

“Can you calm yourselves, Xing Hai Technologies? We used 20 years to improve our battery’s energy density from 200 Wh/kg to 450 Wh/kg. The manpower and resources we expended are unimaginable. None of our R&D staff have slacked off for even a single day, they are even working overtime during the Lunar New Year. But what about you? Breaking the rules immediately, flipping the tables over right away, throwing our business at a dead end without any prior warning!”

“This is foul play Xing Hai Technologies, this is foul play! 1500Wh/kg, we would need at least another 10 years to attain this level. Making some small improvements is still okay, but a threefold increase instantly? You are literally taking our lives!”

“This is principally a replica of the ‘graphene technology’ some time ago. After Xing Hai Technologies entered the ‘graphene’ era of freedom, they’ve gobbled up the whole local graphene industry. After obtaining Xing Hai Technologies’ patent license, companies will have to hand over 50% of their net profit for 20 years straight! I thought that Xing Hai Technologies would stop there, who would have known that they still have their eyes on the battery industry!”

“Alright, since it has come to this, we quit! Xing Hai Technologies, all my 20 thousand employees, my factory and equipment bought with a couple of billion dollars of investments, they are all yours. I’ll sell them all to you at cost price and I’ll be done with the battery industry!”

“I have more than 30 thousand staff in my factory which associates with more than 30 thousand families. Many of them are still on house loans and still need to support their children’s school fees. I’m handing them to you Xing Hai Technologies, please take care of these workers who just want a stable life!”

“With great ability comes great responsibility. Xing Hai Technologies, the future of the Z nation’s new energy industry is all on you now!”

The local new energy manufacturers were fuming as they voiced out their grudge and dissatisfaction. A few manufacturers even gave up on themselves and called for Xing Hai Technologies to take over them. Nobody could ask them to not complain. Foul. This was really foul play by Xing Hai Technologies! Within the new energy field, did the local manufacturers not work hard? Did they invest too little? Were they lacking determination and perseverance to reform the world’s new energy field?

No. Their local manufacturers were trying their best to march into the new energy industry like they were in an arms race. They were accumulating each and every bit of minor breakthroughs and never once tapered off in their efforts.

In the end, they were struck by Xing Hai Technologies’ dimensionality reduction. All their previous efforts were all in vain and were thrown on the edge of being eliminated. It would only feel weird if they were still speaking in harmony. Afterall, Xing Hai Technologies was taking the whole cake away and severely harming their benefits.

Amongst the condemnations, Chen Jin abruptly became aware that the other’s cake should not be touched lightly. Previously, he also tried his best to not harm the benefits of others and not smash the livelihood of local manufacturers. Even if he were to smash some, it should be that of the foreigners. But this time around, the benefits of all domestic energy companies were being threatened by the High Energy 1 battery.

Dozens of factories, millions of associated workers, trillions of investments. Even the nation was looking for him for negotiations, hoping that he handled this appropriately… the nation had quite an amount of investments in these energy companies.

“We welcome all forms of advanced technology and will not hinder their progression! But considering the sphere of influence of this, do be cautious and handle this appropriately.” These were the words from the higher-ups for Chen Jin.

…

At Xing Hai edifice, in the executive conference room, Chen Jin had a discussion with the company’s executive members.

“Mr. Chen, at present, what we should do is to put more weight onto intellectual property than assets. We should not build our own battery factory. Instead, we should provide High Energy 1’s technical license and extract 50% net profit. In this way, the local battery manufacturers won’t have to shut down and their workers and factories could also be kept. It won’t trigger too big of a turmoil. This would also be the best solution,” said Ling Jundong, who was sitting in the first position on his left.

The other executives nodded.

Vice-chairman Ling Ying said, “Focusing less on assets is the way to go for high-tech enterprises to reduce cost and avoid risks. The reason is that building a factory requires investments, workers have to be paid, and taxes must also be paid to the state. For a good product that is profitable at first, not only will the return cycle be lengthy, but the company might even experience losses. By distributing technical licenses, it would be equivalent to diverting away costs and risks. Although only half of the profit belongs to us, from an overall perspective, it is still very well worth it!”

The other executives agreed. “I agree, we should place our focus on R&D! Technology is constantly iterating, focusing too much on assets might come back to burden us in the future.” Meaning to say that, Xing Hai Technologies was more suited to be patent hooligans.

However, Chen Jin shook his head. “We mustn’t leave assets all aside! We still have to build our own battery factory and satisfy our own needs. It doesn’t have to be too big, investing a hundred billion would be enough. With our own battery factory, we will get to know how our peers are doing in their business, how much are they actually earning, and get a rough number for ourselves. Or else, if we give out our technical license and the others are losing money every year and have no net profit to turn in, won’t we be messing ourselves up?”

This was also the drawback of profit sharing. Xing Hai Technologies was not completely new to situations such as this. Therefore, they had to take precautions and create an intuitive reference for themselves.

Ling Jundong and the others nodded. “Well said, Mr. Chen.”

…

And so, the solution was settled. Xing Hai Technologies agreed to provide technical licenses for the High Energy 1 battery. All local battery manufacturers were eligible for applications. But the local manufacturers were still not quite satisfied.

“50% profit sharing? Won’t we be working for Xing Hai Technologies in that way?”

“The ratio is too high; we can’t accept it.”

“30%, at most 30%!”

Chen Jin’s attitude was stern towards these dissatisfactions. “50% gain from the local market, no less. Xing Hai Technologies will not budge.” But he also left them with another path. “If you expand to foreign markets, we will demand less at 30%. The foreign market is nothing smaller than the local market, you can choose to expand your businesses abroad.”

Just 30% on foreign profits? The local manufacturers were immediately tempted. They couldn’t earn much from local markets, but they could from foreign markets. They could focus on expanding abroad.

“Alright! We agree for partnership.”

A number of partnership agreements came into being.

However, at this very moment, the military interfered unanticipatedly and gave out a stern warning: The sales of High Energy 1 batteries overseas was strictly banned.

Chapter 320 - High Military Value

“Why?”

Xing Hai Technologies and other companies were all shocked. Why would they ban the sales?

“This battery has an extremely high military value,” The representative of the military named Bai said with a solemn expression. “Once it is exported and it winds up in foreign military usage, it will severely impair our national security.”

Upon listening to this, Chen Jin and the others got a spark in their minds and were immediately elucidated. They instantly got the meaning in Representative Bai’s words. Military value. High Energy 1 batteries bore enormous value in the military field!

For example, conventional submarines. They were divided into diesel submarines and AIP submarines. Conventional diesel-electric submarines generally used lead-acid battery packs as a power source to provide power to the submarine’s propulsion, internal lighting, and the operation of its oxygen supply system. However, the energy density of lead-acid batteries was too low, only enough for diesel-electric submarines to stay underwater for around ten hours. If the submarine was in a fleeing state, at a speed of more than a dozen knots, the batteries’ power would be exhausted within a couple of hours. By then, the submarine would have to rise to the surface and be exposed to danger. The submarine could not go far within a few hours at the speed of some dozen knots.

The AIP submarine powered by fuel cells was obviously much stronger than the diesel-electric submarine. It could lurk underwater for one to two weeks and possessed better navigation velocity. Therefore, it bore the title of a “small nuclear submarine.”

Even so, in underwater environments, it was difficult for the AIP submarine to navigate faster without relying on the power of its aerodynamic system (AIP). Generally, it could go at only about eight to nine knots. In the short burst state, it could navigate at around 10 to 20 knots. At this speed, once surface ships equipped with anti-submarine sonar locked onto them, with the speed surface ships had, which was generally over 25 knots, AIP submarines would basically have no escape. Therefore, looking at this from a certain degree, conventional submarines belonged to the “full attack, zero defense” weapon class. Once it had been locked on, it was basically a goner.

But the High Energy 1 battery was expected to alter the situation that jeopardized conventional submarines. For diesel-electric submarines, fully charged High Energy 1 batteries would be equivalent to one-third of fuel and provided underwater endurance that would be ten times higher than that of conventional batteries. For the AIP submarines, fully charged High Energy 1 batteries could provide high-power energy output, which would greatly increase its underwater navigation speed.

In fact, in 20X8, Japan launched an AIP submarine equipped with lithium batteries. Despite the fact that lithium batteries were easily inflammable, explosive, had low impact resistance, and had lower safety levels, the mass media in the military still thought that that was a “breakthrough”… because lithium batteries had high energy densities!

What about now? High Energy 1 batteries, which had five times the energy density of lithium batteries, were invented; it was safer, more stable, and could be used on submarines. It would transform conventional submarines into underwater exterminators which could “attack and run.”

The world pattern on military might would thus be changed. The Z nation was a powerhouse in submarines, owning more than 60 conventional submarines. Now, they would just have to do some tinkering about these submarines by swapping all their batteries for High Energy 1 batteries. The deadliness of these submarines would instantly surge.

In addition, the High Energy 1 battery with “high output power” could also be used to power torpedo, allowing it to have a higher speed and a longer range. By incorporating them in submarines… the submarine’s lethality would be further enhanced.

Aside from the navy, if High Energy 1 batteries were to be installed on unmanned aerial aircrafts, the aircraft would stay in the air for two to three hours. When used in artillery models, their voyage distance could be boosted several times. Even large electric drones could be made. By incorporating them with High Energy 1 batteries, it could still sustain long distances while saving large amounts of fuel at the same time… the cost of usage would be reduced.

The cost of warfare was expected to decrease!

For ground military, electric-powered tanks or armored vehicles could be developed, thus “electrifying” the military equipment. This might sound a little exaggerated, but it was not completely impossible. For instance, electric tanks. The powering structure of traditional fuel tanks was too complicated. The power pack, gearbox, turbocharger, filter, and air conditioner combined was at least a few tons heavy. If all this weight were swapped into High Energy 1 batteries and electric motors, creating an “electric tank,” its permanence would not be a third of the prior, but at least two-thirds of it.

The tank’s internal structure, on the other hand, would be greatly simplified, significantly increasing internal space. The difficulty of maintenance would significantly reduce, as well as the pressure held by logistic support. If it appeared on the battlefield, the tank’s infrared characteristics would also be smaller than traditional tanks, paired with exclusive “generator vehicles” following the tanks as assurance. Electric tanks seemed very promising!

In short, in the field of military equipment, the advent of High Energy 1 batteries would bring forth an immense reformation. Whichever nation were to complete this reformation first, without a doubt, that country would gain an enormous advantage, acquiring even the so-called “generation gap.”

These were the reasons behind the military’s ban on exporting High Energy 1 batteries! These batteries could be used on civilian vehicles, but if it was not properly regulated and ended up in the hands of foreign military research institutions, they would use it in armament research, and could turn over and threaten the Z nation. This must not be allowed! The others must not be as advanced as Z!

“Wait a few more years. If the foreigners have broken through similar battery technology, only then can you export those batteries. And it must be strictly regulated. They must only be available for civilian use,” said Representative Bai.

Chen Jin couldn’t help but clean out his ears. Were these words a little… familiar? Weren’t these the words that the countries imposing a technological ban on us were always saying? Why is it our turn to say this?

“Alright Representative Bai! We will not export High Energy 1 batteries for now. We’ll wait a few years,” said Chen Jin. However… the military hindering him from doing such a big business move, they should give him something as compensation right? When High Energy 1 batteries realized mass production and when the initial price was still high, should the military give him more orders and help push the cost price down?

“That’s a must for us.” Representative Bai nodded. “It’s just that the country has plans to speed up our military’s combat effectiveness. We have launched a comprehensive replacement plan for multiple services in the military, such as our air, sea, and artillery forces. We plan to give our battery system a complete makeover. In accordance with the initial price of the first batch of batteries at approximately 7,000 dollars per kilogram, the military’s orders will be at least one hundred billion units.” Representative Bai winked, “How is it? Are we sincere enough?”

More than a hundred billion? Chen Jin and the others nodded their heads. Not bad, the military’s sincerity was not bad at all.

Although a hundred billion was like a drizzle compared to the civilian market which would be in the trillions, the first batch of High Energy 1 batteries would have a tremendously high cost and sales price, which only a small portion of consumers would be able to afford. Therefore, the early stages of product promotion would be more difficult, and it might even be unsalable. Now, with the military’s hundred billion orders, the cost price of High Energy 1 batteries was expected to fall below 5,000 dollars per kilogram. There was no need to worry about encountering a freeze in the market during the early stages.

The military did not lose anything as well. The combat effectiveness of the army would hike exponentially and the country’s deterrence towards foreign forces would be immensely boosted. Was the country’s benefit of peace worth only a hundred billion?

A win-win. Cooperative measures such as this could be considered a win-win situation.

Chapter 321 - Brain Drain

In reality, even without the disruption caused by Xing Hai Technologies in the field of new energy resources, the level of Z country’s development and technical strength were entirely worthy of being the first in the world. Whether it was a large wind power station or a photovoltaic panel. Whether it was hydropower or nuclear power construction, or the technology for a high capacity battery. The technology of Z country had always been the world’s number one, not just one amongst many. It was an absolute leader, leaving all countries behind.

Xing Hai Technologies entered the field of batteries and launched the “High Energy 1.” The role it played was merely the “icing on the cake.” It was not acting as a so-called “sanction breaker,” nor could it “fight for one’s dignity.” It had not attained that level of impact. It was only to help widen their lead again. What was certain was that amongst all the countries in the world, there was only one country that had the ability and technology to establish a nearly 100% electric transportation system by 20X0 year: Z country.

It was unlikely for other countries to do so. The country that had the ability to protect the environment, that had a way to restore the rolling green hills and crystal clear waters, that was sure to make this planet a better place, it was nearly only Z country. This was not blind optimism and self-confidence, but a conclusion that could be inferred.

In short, the future of Z country was certainly a bright and beautiful one.

…

Compared to this, the future of Merica was somewhat bleak and gray. Especially after the release of the “100% Science Lab” by Xing Hai Technologies, about more than three months ago.

Politicians in Merica could still maintain their calm and emotional stability. However, the scientific community in Merica was becoming increasingly unsettled and anxious. They sent joint letters to the President successively, demanding that the sanctions placed on Xing Hai Technologies be lifted immediately and to import the “100% Science Lab” as soon as possible.

President Dana Trump finally softened his stance and agreed to lift the sanctions after receiving the third joint letter. However, Congress still refused to give in. Most of the members were still calling for Xing Hai Technologies to be punished severely until the company returned all the “stolen” technology.

After another round of voting was vetoed… “S**t, s**t! A bunch of dog s**t, a bunch of brainless idiots!” Robert Simon, a famous scientist at the Academy of Sciences in Merica, could not help but swear loudly, “Merica is getting worse and worse in the hands of you idiots and it’s becoming even more hopeless! You are leading Merica straight to hell! You believe that Z country has stolen our technology; you are acting like a bunch of people who have been brainwashed, but you don’t know that there are thresholds to pass before mastering the technology. If you give a hammer to a monkey, do you think it can build a house? You’ve given thousands of tanks to the Middle Easterners but can they produce a counterfeit? Can the Filipinos build a nuclear power plant if you give them one? ‘The technology of the Z people was stolen from us’… only incurable idiots will believe this! The technology was not stolen. It was learned. It was through painstaking research! Without basic scientific literacy, they would not even be able to produce a simple tractor! People who still believe in lies like ‘Z people steal technology’ are humiliating their own IQ in addition to demeaning the ability of the Z people. It is time to let go of our prejudice and arrogance; we should be modest and be eager to learn. Z people are not only smart and diligent, but they have also already caught up with us in the field of science and technology. There are many scientific technologies that we have to start learning from the Z people! We must be conscious of this reality. We are not stronger than the Z people in all aspects. We are stronger than Z country in certain areas; but Z country is stronger than us in other areas. We should consolidate our strengths, and then learn from the strengths of the Z people! Implementing sanctions, slandering and tarnishing their image will not get the company from Z country to surrender the technology. It will only cause us to fall behind Z country even more while we hurl abuse at them in vain. Closing our doors to Z country and prohibiting interaction with them does not, in any way, protect the sectors where we have advantages in, in fact, those methods only serve to protect our backwardness. They are only protecting our laziness and lack of progress and motivation! The great and fearless Merica blessed by God has fallen to this level. I am very disappointed and angry. We should roll up our sleeves and fight against this trend instead of closing our doors and killing ourselves!”

These were the words that he wanted to express as he reached the end of his patience. Not only did Robert Simon complain in private, but he also wrote a special article and published it via his personal accounts across the various social platforms. In addition, he submitted the article to a number of media outlets in the hope that these media would publish his article.

But what surprised him was this! All the media outlets rejected the submission by this famous scientist. His article achieved more than 100,000 views in his personal social media accounts, but he received a ton of censure in the comments section. Many readers rebuked him in anger, saying that he was “a traitor who should die,””full of nonsense,” and “a lackey of Z country.” As his article was reported by many readers, it was deleted by the platform.

Robert Simon was stunned. He murmured, “Democracy? Where’s my freedom of speech? Am I really living in the great and noble Merica?”

And not only that, but Robert Simon was also examined and warned by a mysterious department the next day. He was suspected of being a “Z country spy.” Afterward, it was proved that this was, of course, nonsense. But his friends, students, and colleagues around him started to perceive him in a different light. They started to look at him weirdly. They placed some distance between them imperceptibly.

This made Robert Simon feel a little broken. Fortunately, his semi-broken state lasted only about a month before the situation suddenly turned around. In June, it had been four months since the international edition of “100% Science Lab” was released. Foreign scientists who were studying, working, and living in Merica were all leaving Merica. Foreign scientists who did not acquire Merican citizenship stopped what they were doing immediately and quickly returned to their home countries.

There were also many foreign scientists who obtained Merican citizenship who decided to give up their excellent quality of life and return to their roots to serve their motherland under the emotional rally of their respective countries.

In just one month, the number of foreign scientists applying for or filing their return visas exceeded 10,000. There were more than 2,000 British scientists among them, more than 1,800 German scientists, and more than 1,000 French scientists. There were also hundreds of scientific talents from countries such as Japan, Idaily, Spain, Husiky, etc. who chose to return to their motherland.

Amongst them, there was no lack of Nobel Prize winners, academic fellows from the Academy of Sciences in Merica, well-known physicists, and a large number of elite scholars. Some left while some were applying to leave. There were also some applying to give up their Merican citizenship. They did not know whether they would return to Merica in the future after leaving. In short, it could be summed up in one phrase: brain drain. The top scientific and technological talents who gathered in Merica began to return to their motherlands under the persuasion and call of their respective governments.

Merica lost tens of thousands of people in a month! The science community in Merica was shocked to their core. The Merican media was terrified. As for the Congress of Merica, it became even more chaotic and panicky. With various countries undermining Merica by seducing the foreign talents away from Merica, the most important asset of Merica became extremely unstable.

Chapter 322 - The Target of Public Criticism

What was the reason? What happened? Why did so many outstanding scientists want to leave?

Well, the “100% Science Lab” of course! This amazing software developed by Xing Hai Technologies allowed many overseas scientists who were pursuing their career in Merica to vote via their choice to migrate or stay.

In fact, outstanding scientists from all countries came to work, develop their career, and even settle in Merica, not to pursue the so-called Merican dream or to contribute to Merica. It was only because the research conditions of Merica were the best in the world.

Merica’s laboratories, scientific research equipment, academic environment, and other hardware facilities were unmatched by other countries.

“People aim for high places and water flows down to low places.” These scientists wanted to improve their professional standards and achieve some top scientific research results. Hence, they came to Merica to pursue their career ambitions. A whale could not grow in a small lake. If the scientific research infrastructure of one’s country was not up to par, if one had no stage and opportunities to display one’s talents, where could one go besides Merica or Z country?

Therefore, the “Matthew effect” could also be found in the scientific community. The strong became stronger and the weak, weaker. But the emergence of one thing had completely changed the status quo of this polarization.

Excellent scientists from the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, and other countries joined the “100% Science Lab.” They were engaged in “cloud research” for several months. They made shocking and delightful discoveries. It worked. This game really worked. It was useful. All the academic achievements made in this game had a probability of more than 99% to become an effective result in reality. Examples of successful results from these researches abounded.

For example, there was a British chip company who made a brand-new chip architecture in the “Science Lab.” It was not only energy-saving, but also had higher performance. The company then extracted the process and results from the game into reality. They found that the architecture’s performance in reality was exactly the same as it was in the game.

There were also a few French companies who prepared some materials with highly valuable application and physics properties. They then extracted the process and results from the game into reality. The performance of these materials was surprisingly amazing.

The achievements were even more brilliant in the field of biopharmaceuticals. Because the “Science Lab” had special features of “powerful computing” and “multiplying the speed of scientific research by 10 times,” companies came up with effective drugs to more than 30 types of diseases that were considered to be “terminal” or “incurable” within a few months in the “Science Lab.” There was the possibility of curing these terminal diseases now.

What was even more incredible was that the “Science Lab” could avoid ethical controversy by directly doing pharmacological experiments on NPC humans in the game. The feedback data was consistent with reality. The game eliminated a number of major obstacles in the medical field, making the development of medicine progress at a rate ten times faster than the past. People saw hope for the elimination of all diseases. There was no need to introduce more of the progress made in other areas.

In short, for scientists in the fields of physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, medicine, materials, etc., the “100% Science Lab” was an amazing software sent from the Heavens! For every country out there, the “100% Science Lab” was a shortcut to achieve the status of a “high-tech powerful country at a low-cost!”

This game allowed those countries with medium strength and abilities to just prepare a few computers that were only a few hundreds of thousands of dollars, and then recruit a group of top talents to enter the “100% Science Lab.” Online “cloud research” could then be launched. There was no need to invest in billions and tens of billions to build expensive laboratories. Suddenly, countries could become a “Cloud Research Power” in a game. Moreover, a “cloud research power” could totally become a “true scientific research power” in reality.

This was because the scientific research results in the game could be “extracted” and applied in reality. Moreover, the results were guaranteed to be more than 99% effective.

Hence, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Japan,etc., successively launched the “National Results Extraction Plan” to target those scientific research results that had high extraction-to-reality values. These countries would participate in the plan and find ways to accumulate the required “points” that were needed to extract the data from the game to reality. They used money from the state treasury to recharge the game points in order to bring the high-value scientific research results into reality.

Xing Hai Technologies also made a fortune from this. According to the quality of research performances, it allocated a quota of 100 million to 10 billion points to various government and also sold a large number of points… The company actually profited from the game via this method.

The countries were full of enthusiasm. After finding out that they had severely inadequate talents, they turned their eyes to Merica. At the same time, they were also seriously pissed off.

“I didn’t expect that there were so many outstanding talents in our country that all ran to Merica!”

“Come back, all of you come back! Go back and work for your country!”

“Don’t say that your motherland does not have a suitable research environment. We have the “Science Lab,” and the research facilities inside it are no worse than the top laboratories in Merica. Its research speed can even be accelerated by 10 times.”

“Come back quickly, the motherland has never needed you like now. Remember the blood in your body, remember your roots. Think about how the sky looked in your hometown, think about the loved ones in your hometown. Those who are wandering around in the world, come back home.”

The diplomats of various countries stationed in Merica were basically using the same method to seduce their people back home. Even literary works or songs like “The Clouds of My Hometown” and “My Patriotic Heart” suddenly became popular. There were more than a dozen language versions. The content and the melody were very similar, but the effect was amazingly good. After all, Merica was just an immigrant country. It was a blend of people from all over the world. The internal cohesion of the country was not as strong as they imagined. Now, diplomats from various countries were doing this. In just one month, tens of thousands of excellent scientists wanted to move away from Merica.

But for Merica, how could they survive this?! Technology, military, finance; these were the three pillars of Merican hegemony, of which technology was ranked as the most important pillar. It was the most important national resource! Once this resource became unstable, the hegemony of Merica would immediately falter and they would be relegated to a second or third-rate country. Losing their scientific and technological talents was equivalent to losing their most elite soldiers. They would soon become weak and insignificant.

“No, you’re not allowed to leave, not a single one of you!” The Merican government became extremely anxious. Uncaring of the international impact, it immediately shut down the visa application channel, forced many of flights to land, closed a number of exit channels, and requested that all scientists working in Merica stay.

As for those who were determined to go, the FBI was dispatched to arrest them. Action before any explanations. The government curbed the phenomenon of the brain drain at the very first opportunity. However, this hegemonic practice was immediately denounced by various countries through writing and speech. Merica instantly became the target of public criticism.

Media from various countries strongly protested:

“Release our scientists immediately.”

“This is kidnapping without a doubt.”

“Terrorist actions by a shameless country.”

“We are not ruling out the possibility of sending special forces to rescue them.”

“We should send warships to fetch our scientists back.”

The global anti-Merican sentiment was soaring. Merica stood in the heart of the struggle. It felt “loneliness” for the first time. Even so, they were not going to release even one of those scientists who wanted to leave. It could not go on like this either!

“If we do not lift the sanctions against Xing Hai Technologies; if we do not import the “100% Science Lab,” the outstanding scientists in Merica will still go. They will leave Merica using various methods. Other countries will exert more pressure together, including shutting down the overseas military bases of Merica, and expel Merica from this planet. Although we are strong, we cannot be enemies with all countries. Please revoke the sanctions immediately!” Under the leadership of Robert Simon, the scientific community in Merica wrote a joint letter asking the President and Congress to revoke the sanctions and import the “100% Science Lab.”

“Revok the sanctions? You mean you want us to admit defeat? The great Merica will be bowing down to a company from Z country?” The face of an extremist member grew red. He held up a fist and said, “Impossible! We will never bow to a thief, never!”

50.1% vs. 49.9%. The result of the final vote was in favor of continuing the sanctions. The hardliners still had a slight advantage.

“There’s no hope! You’re a bunch of foolish b******s.” Robert Simon felt utmost desperation at this group of brainless politicians!

But… a few days later, scientists from Merica still downloaded the “100% Science Lab” successfully and entered the game. Their solution was very simple. They pulled some network cables from their neighbor to the north, Cadana, and set their IP addresses to a Cadanian one… Hence, they could experience this game even without the politicians revoking the sanctions against Xing Hai Technologies. As early as a few months ago, Cadana stopped following the lead of Merica and gave up the policy of isolating Xing Hai Technologies. They imported some of the company’s products. It was warned and “beaten” by Merica.

And now, Merica actually had to freeload on their younger brother’s network like a thief to secretly download and use the “100% Science Lab.” This was all just to save their ridiculous face and dignity.

Chapter 323 - Recruiting The Second Batch Of Bootlickers

Nyoi-Bo Studio Nyoi-Bo Studio

Haierfa Base of Operations.

“Master, in the recent Science Lab, the number of players in the North Merica region has increased abnormally. The number of players in the region has suddenly increased from less than a thousand people a week ago to 10,000 all of a sudden. Many players are of a very high standard. They’re likely top scientists.” Alice reported a special situation.

“Oh—” Chen Jin was slightly stunned, but he immediately smiled. “Are they playing hide and seek with me? Their mouths say no, but their bodies are honest.”

Alice said, “Master, do you want to take measures to close all abnormal accounts and prohibit them from logging in?”

All the accounts from the North Merican region were managed by her. She thought about how Merica had repeatedly locked horns with Master and made preparations to ban all those accounts. When it came to any forces that opposed Master, Alice had plenty of ways to make the other party feel regret.

“It’s not necessary to ban their accounts.” Chen Jin shook his head. “We need more talents to join the game.

“But do close the function of extracting scientific results into reality in the North Merican region. Players in that region cannot extract the research results in the game for application in reality. They can only withdraw their points. Haha, I’m not that generous.

“Unless Merica revokes the blockade and sanctions, acknowledges their mistakes, and expresses their sincere apologies, the function of extracting scientific results into reality will remain unavailable.”

It was a hard-liner. Chen Jin’s attitude was very unyielding. There was only one purpose, one result that he wanted to pursue—for Merica to bow their heads. He wanted the warmongers of Merica to bow their heads.

He wanted them to express the cooperative attitude that they should have had, stop dirtying Z nation’s image and slandering the Z people, speak politely, act in a reasonable way, and keep their promises! Only with this could it be possible for the two sides to cooperate in-depth.

If they couldn’t do this, then forget it. Let them see who was the one who couldn’t afford this loss.

“Okay, Master.” Alice immediately shut down the function of extracting scientific results into reality in the entire North Merican region, as ordered.

…

Very quickly, less than two hours later, Robert Simon received a call from a student. “Professor, we were discovered by Xing Hai Technologies. They took restrictive actions, and now the button to extract scientific results in the game has disappeared; we can’t extract the technology in the game.

“All we can get from this game now is the accumulation of points and some theoretical knowledge. The real technical information and the specific technical implementation steps cannot be extracted.

“They’ve closed a door, and it was the most important one.” The tone of the student on the phone was helpless and despondent.

Robert Simon wasn’t surprised. “As long as those short-sighted and stupid politicians are still in power, Xing Hai Technologies will always be closed to us. In the culture of the Z people, this is called ‘an eye for an eye.’ Don’t expect the Z people to be as stupid as our politicians. They know how to fight.”

Moreover, it wasn’t just in the country of Merica where the function of extracting scientific results into reality had been closed.

Two neighboring countries of Merica, Cadana and Mexico, had also been implicated. They were innocents who had served as collateral damage. The function of extracting scientific results into reality had been made unavailable in their countries, too… With Merica’s die-hard little brother, Cadana, as an example, it showed that Xing Hai Technologies would rather hurt the innocent than leave a loophole for Merica to exploit.

Cadana’s government was immediately scolded by their scientific community. “We are an independent country. Why do we have to follow behind Merica’s *ss?”

Mexican netizens complained that Xing Hai Technologies was too overbearing. They sighed. “Why are we being punished too? Why is heaven so far away, but Merica so close to us?”

At the same time, the scientific community of Merica insisted on preparing a joint letter again untiringly. Many scientists had also voiced their opinions on various media platforms to clarify the necessity of cooperating with Xing Hai Technologies and criticize the ignorance of the theory of technical theft.

But the characteristic of the internet was this—”I believe only what I believe, and see only what I want to see.” Hence, there were feew netizens who were willing to listen to the opinions of the scientists from Merica and even fewer who could accept these opinions.

“Loyal advice jars the ears, but actions based on the advice will be beneficial to the listener.” But this wasn’t necessarily the case on the internet. Loyal advice was hard to accept on the internet, and it was even more impossible to make people take action based on advice.

Moreover, with the mad manipulation by hard-line politicians who pushed for the technical theft theory, those politicians had attained a higher public support rate. They became more popular amongst the people. Therefore, they were even more reluctant to change their previous stances. Instead, they would continue to strengthen and hard-line their attitudes, even if they knew that they were idiots in their hearts.

Therefore, rather than saying that the Merican politicians sucked, it was better to say that the people of Merica sucked. The type and quality of a flower were based on the soil it grew from. The “flowers” that were selected via election would cause the soil to worsen… This was a vicious circle.

For those politicians, the public opinion support rate was their number one concern! As for other things, who cared?

…

It was now August. The atmosphere of the entire earth began to become somewhat agitated. On the one hand, it was because of the hot weather in the northern hemisphere. On the other hand, it was because of this one thing that had attracted the attention of many national media outlets.

Just last July, Xing Hai Technologies had made a decision to go international and reached a strategic partnership with two countries.

After calculating the time, one realized that it had been a whole year since then. This was the promise Xing Hai Technologies had made last year: a few suitable countries would be selected every year and strategic partnerships would be formed… That meant that a new group of bootlickers would be recruited every year. Logically speaking, the second batch would be recruited in July and August of that year.

Various countries were also eagerly awaiting. They wanted to make it into the quota set for the number of partnership countries each year.

Diplomats from several countries who were stationed in Z nation were determined to win a place for their country. Their countries even issued a military order—if the diplomats couldn’t obtain a place on the quota, they would be shipped back to their home countries.

Many heads of state also took to their mobile phones and logged into their personal social media accounts. They had gotten their secretaries who were graced with literary talent to prepare hundreds of comments praising Z nation or denouncing Merica in advance. The literary quality of each comment was extraordinarily touching.

When the time came that they needed to publish a comment, they could post it on their account immediately. It was guaranteed to get them a high score. It could be said that countries who were eager to get a partnership with Xing Hai Technologies had let go of their concerns and prepared everything!

The Little Star learning machine, the Virtual Factory, and the Work Assistant: these three core products from Xing Hai Technologies made them so envious that all countries yearned for them. They could even be called the “three major engines” of a powerful country. If one could get these three engines, his or her country would have the hope of rapid advancement on all fronts.

Not too many examples needed to be given. This was the extent of advancement and development that the current Z nation had achieved. All the heads of state became stunned and lost for words when they visited Z nation… In just a few years, the Z nation had changed so much that they thought they had arrived on another planet.

“Z nation has already become stronger than Merica” became their consensus.

The first country to cooperate with Xing Hai Technologies, the UK, had experienced an average GDP growth rate of five percent in the past four quarters and recorded its highest growth in more than 30 years… This old empire seemed to have been rejuvenated.

So… there was no need to hesitate or wait any longer. If one didn’t hurry to seize the opportunity, one would fall behind and meet a terrible fate! However, Chen Jin wasn’t in a hurry to announce the second round of partnership plans.

He pushed his schedule back a little to pay attention to the latest results of an exam, the national senior high school and college entry examination held in mid-to-late August each year!

Chapter 324 - Four Places

The British senior high and college entrance examinations were quite different from their respective counterparts in Z nation. They were of two completely separate styles.

The British examinations on language, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and other topics were held at intervals of two weeks, giving the students ample time to rest, adjust, and review.

As for Z nation’s high school entrance examination, all subjects were required to be completed within two to three days.

In addition, the nature of Britain’s college entrance examination was such that it wasn’t “a one-time exam that determined your fate for the rest of your life.” Students had many opportunities to retake the exam. If one didn’t do well on this round of exams, one could apply for the next round. The highest score achieved from all the times one took the exams would be taken… Hence, one could truly see the maximum potential of every student.

But from Chen Jin’s perspective, “They’re treating it like a game!”

One could neither inspect the true potential of students nor witness their explosive power in the face of challenges. Although the British style of exams wasn’t enough to bury geniuses, it also gave way too many chances for the mediocre. There wasn’t much of a selective nature in the way the exams were carried out.

But even so, the specific performance of the Little Star learning machine in foreign countries could only be analyzed and most directly observed through the British sample.

This was because the other sample, Brazil, was too poor. There were only about 30 percent of parents in the country who had the ability to afford a Little Star learning machine. The coverage wasn’t very wide.

Britain had scoured their country and returned more than 50,000 pieces of Z nation’s cultural artifacts. As such, the price of the Little Star learning machine had dropped to 250 dollars per unit… This was mere pennies.

As for those parents who were so poor that they could not afford to pay 250 dollars, the government would foot the expenses and send one to the poor students for free. Hence, there were millions of British students from the first grade of primary school to the third grade of high school who had a Little Star learning machine.

They had been using the learning machine for close to a year. The scores from the senior high school and college entrance examination was the test for the results of using the learning machine, and the last exam was completed on August 25th.

The results of all the subjects tested were out on August 27th and compared with the previous year’s results.

Facing the cameras of the media from various countries around the world, the British Minister of Education proudly announced, “Amazing progress has been achieved!

“In the four science subjects of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology, the average scores of our students have increased by 31 percent, 24 percent, 27 percent, and 18 percent, respectively, compared to last year. The total scores have increased by more than 20 percent compared to last year!

“We are marching on the road to becoming a country that is strong and powerful in mathematics, physics, and chemistry. More geniuses will be born in this land! We are advancing on the road to a rapid re-emergence and further development!”

There was no doubt that this was of course due to the efforts of the Little Star learning machine. Wow… All the media outlets present were shocked and discussed the announcement with a buzz.

The domestic media reporters on the ground naturally had tears in their eyes. The news was so thrilling for them that they were rejoicing and spreading the word. “The strength of the youth will translate into the strength of their country. There’s hope now for the future of the empire.”

“A 20 percent increase in one year. What about three or five years from now? How much improvement will have been made?”

“The children are our future! If we had delayed importing the intelligent learning machine, our future would have remained the same!”

“We must reach a partnership with Xing Hai Technologies no matter the price we have to pay. This matter brooks no delay!”

A sense of urgency and crisis bloomed in the hearts of media reporters from other countries. There were reporters from Merica who had wanted to raise a few piercing questions and write some fake news to mock and ridicule them. However, as they witnessed the behavior of journalists from other countries, these Merican reporters became silent.

Indeed, for all other topics, their reports could be faked and their prejudice and acrimony incorporated into those reports, but could they do that for education? Could they label the intelligent learning machine as something undemocratic and then snort in derision at it?

Could they deceive and mislead the next generation of Mericans by saying that they were still the best even without the intelligent learning machines? Could they bear the responsibility for the consequences that would arise should such fake news be written?

Obviously they could not!

When it came to education, they still gathered up their measly consciences and objectively reported the strengths of the intelligent learning machine. At the same time, they cried out loudly in envy—Merica ha to launch their own domestic intelligent learning machine as soon as possible. They could not lag behind in this competition! The future of Merica would be over if they lost the race at the starting line.

…

After the exam results were announced, Chen Jin received a call from Ling Jundong.

“President Chen, the British King, Prime Minister, and Parliament just passed a proposal unanimously. They decided to grant you the title of ‘Honorary Citizen’ and ‘Honorary Earl.’ They hope that you will go to the UK personally to receive the award and attend a dinner prepared by King Charles for you… They hope for Britain to be the first country to be visited by President Chen and through this visit, strengthen the cooperation between the two sides.”

Title of an Earl? Visiting the UK?

Chen Jin shook his head. The British people had greater emotional intelligence. They were arrogant in their hearts but talked modestly. They had actually thought of such a good move to invite him to the UK.

With the cleverness and cunning of the British, there would definitely be a lot of traps waiting for him if he went. The ambushes would be unexpected, and he would be unable to defend against them effectively. He would even venture so far as to say that there was a trace of danger.

“I’m not going. Get someone to collect the award. I’m too busy with work and have no time to go.” He would send his robot double over there if there was a chance to do so in the future.

“Okay, President Chen.”

…

28th of August. Xing Hai Building.

Returning back to the scene of recruiting bootlickers, in the hall, Chen Jin, who was manipulating his robot double, looked at his surroundings. He did some rough estimating and found that there were at least 500 people standing at the scene.

The average number of people in a delegation was five, which meant that at least 100 countries had sent their diplomatic representatives.

There were average strong countries such as France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. There were also a large number of small countries with populations of only a few hundred thousand to a few million.

There were also a few surprising figures, as well. Japan, Gorea, and India had all sent diplomatic representatives to compete for a limited place as bootlickers, especially Japan. One Deputy Chancellor from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had already died last year, yet they still sent someone that year. They had set their lives aside in order to become bootlickers.

The situation of Gorea was similar to that of Japan. It was also Merica’s dog. Gorea was controlled to an even greater extent by Merica. Therefore, no one had been sent the year before. However, they sent people this year.

India had a very strong sense of self-respect as a country. It had always considered itself a powerful country, and there was never a possibility of it being a bootlicker. However, they came wrapped in a headscarf that year. All they lacked was crying out, “How attractive!”

After eliminating the two countries that they had partnered with last year, they had eliminated Merica’s two hardcore followers. They then eliminated the over 20 “friendly countries” that had already reached an agreement of partnership with Z nation’s government.

The delegations present represented more than one hundred countries. It was like all the countries of the world were in attendance. They were all geared up and amply prepared. They had put aside all their concerns and were eager to reach a strategic partnership with Xing Hai Technologies. They wanted to ride on the coattails of this rocket that was soaring rapidly to embrace a bright future.

Chen Jin stood on the stage and felt the burning eyes of these diplomatic representatives.

The first sentence Chen Jin said caused a loud rumbling. “I am sorry, everyone, you may be facing very fierce competition. This is because Xing Hai Technology is only providing four places for partnership this time around.”

Woah… The breaths of all the diplomatic representatives present suddenly became heavy and ragged. They couldn’t help but clench their fists. An intense close-quarter fight between the bootlickers was about to begin.

Chapter 325 - Falling Over Their Feet To Become “A Friendly Nation”

Four places and more than 100 applicants for partnership. One could already imagine how desperately and bitterly this fierce competition would devolve.

The first hurdle: pay the guarantee deposit! Half of the countries present could be expected to be eliminated.

The rules announced by Xing Hai Technologies were very simple. The minimum sum for the guarantee deposit was 10 billion. If there were too many countries who could afford this price, say, more than 50, then the more affluent countries could increase their deposit sums. Each price increase could not be less than 1 billion. Lastly, the top 50 countries that had handed over the highest amounts of deposit money would advance to the next level.

The rest would all be eliminated. This completely disrupted the plans of the smaller countries. It was hard for them to even get 10 billion. After that, they still had to increase their bidding amount for the guarantee deposit at each round with at least a one billion increase each time.

However, there were several countries who increased their prices very fiercely. Even if the poor countries behind them couldn’t keep up and had no choice but to give up, they still kept increasing their bids. Their main purpose was to create a good impression on Xing Hai Technologies.

Japan said, “We’ll add 8 billion for a total of 18 billion for the guarantee deposit.”

Gorea followed. “We’ll add 9 billion and pay 19 billion for the guarantee deposit!”

Singapore declared, “We’ll add 10 billion!”

Germany continued, “We’ll add 11 billion.”

The vast majority of poor countries could only look on enviously and think they’re really rich.

After multiple rounds of mark-ups, the top four countries that could pay the highest amounts of money for the guarantee deposit were listed as such—Japan at 30 billion, Gorea at 29 billion, Germany at 26 billion, Singapore at 23 billion … Generally, they were all paying more than double the minimum sum for the guarantee deposit.

However, Xing Hai Technologies wouldn’t choose their partners simply based on the money that the nations were willing to pay. After passing the first level, these countries would now stand on the new competition platform.

All the countries that had advanced to this point would have equal opportunities and be treated equally! Xing Hai Technologies wouldn’t be biased towards any country. The representatives of the countries that were eliminated left the hall in order. Suddenly, the number of people present was reduced by more than half.

The second round of competition had officially started. What was this round about? Chen Jin requested the staff to bring out 50 tablets. Every country’s diplomatic representatives received one.

He said, “Friends, do you still remember last year that Xing Hai Technologies had the various heads of state to make comments on their social media platforms to praise Z nation? Actually, this method of doing things is very inappropriate. To really praise someone, it needs to come from the heart. It’s necessary to truly understand a country’s particular history, customs, and culture before one can truly fall in love with it. To speak words of praise without understanding, these words are just a mere courtesy.

“So, I’ve gotten some help and prepared a test specifically to test all of you. Let’s see how much understanding you, as diplomats or heads of state, have of the Z nation.

“There are 100 questions on this set of questions. One point for each question and a total of 100 points!

“You have 60 minutes to answer. You can use 30 minutes of the allocated 60 minutes to make calls back to your respective nations to consult for answers.

“The test paper will be collected in an hour. No matter how many questions you have answered correctly or how many points you’ve accumulated, all test papers will be collected.

“According to the test scores of the countries, the top ten will advance to the final round of selection.”

The tablets for the test and the styluses were distributed. After, the language was set to that of the corresponding country, and the test began!

The various diplomatic representatives were stunned as soon as they saw the questions displayed on the tablet. This was because the questions were the following:

What are the eight major cuisines of Z nation?

Who were the emperors of the Sui Dynasty?

How many ethnic groups are there in Z country?

What is the “Scientific Outlook on Development”?

What are the specifics of the “Three Represents”?

What are the core values of 16 character socialism?

…

Even an ordinary Z nation would have difficulty getting a high score on these 100 questions, let alone these diplomatic representatives from foreign countries?

They could only call to ask for help from their respective countries!

However, they were only allowed half an hour to telephone for help. They still had to find scholars who really understood the culture of the Z nation, try their best to search for information online, and the like during these 30 minutes.

Even the most efficient country could probably only solve the questions at a rate of one problem per minute during this half an hour.

As for the remaining questions, it would depend on the performance of these foreign diplomatic representatives and whether they had sufficient understandings of Z nation.

…

After an hour, the fifty tablets were collected and the answers submitted. The system automatically marked the papers and presented the scores on the big screen on the wall.

Chen Jin shook his head, looking disappointed. There wasn’t even a single country who had scored 60 points.

Japan, who emerged as the top of this test, had only scored 59 points. The rest generally scored thirty to forty points. The lowest scores ranged from ten to twenty points.

From this, one could see that these countries didn’t really understand Z nation, let alone adore it from the bottom of their hearts. A cultural test had instantly exposed the archetype of these countries, indicating that they weren’t really willing to be bootlickers. How could they have such a superficial knowledge of their master?

Especially those who couldn’t even answer the “core values of 16 character socialism”; Chen Jin wanted to eliminate them straight away, but the selection could only proceed in accordance with the rules. The top ten countries with the highest scores were allowed to advance to the final round of competition.

So what was the last round of competition about? Chen Jin didn’t know what they should compete in either. Also, he was in a bad mood because of the second round of competition. After thinking about it, he wrote the words “woof woof woof” on a tablet and indicated that this round was limited to two hours. Whichever head of state could do these three words and earn themselves a partnership.

After that came a scene that stunned the entire world.

Within two hours, several heads of state did a performance on social media, one after another.

The Japanese Prime Minister’s acted the fastest. He was the first to release a short video. “Hello everyone. Recently, I’ve learned a bit of vocal mimicry. I can imitate the sound of an animal. I will give everyone a performance. Woof, woof, woof…” Japan had successfully won for themselves a partnership with Xing Hai Technologies.

The president of Gorea, who also posted a video soon after, was smarter. In the video, he held a puppy in his arms and said, “This is a pet dog from my home. It’s called Duoduo. Duoduo, say hello to everyone. Woof, woof, woof. Duoduo, follow me and woof.” Gorea also successfully passed this round.

However, Gorea’s follow-ups rapidly appeared. Singapore and Germany won the remaining two partnerships. The rest were eliminated! After this, the selection was over.

Besides the countries who had been eliminated, even those countries who had won for themselves a partnership with Xing Hai Technologies couldn’t stand it. It was too much. Xing Hai Technologies was too much!

This company had actually tormented them and humiliated their dignity! This was rage-inducing and unacceptable!

Could one do whatever one wanted simply because one had the technology? Well, it was true that one could do whatever one wanted if one had the technology, but Xing Hai Technologies had caused other countries to feel too aggrieved; it was unbearable.

However, there were a few smart countries who immediately discovered a new method that would allow them to preserve their dignity, gain a partnership, and collaborate on equal footing.

There were even a lot of benefits. This particular partnership was more than ten thousand times stronger than partnering with Xing Hai Technologies! And that was to find a way to become a “friendly nation” to Z nation.

The government of Z nation also had a company on their side that could provide intelligent learning machines, virtual factories, work assistants and other technical services. The threshold for a partnership wasn’t high. A country could become a partner with that government company as long as it was a “friendly nation” of Z nation.

Other than the tens of billions that a country wouldn’t have to pay in the form of a guarantee deposit, the country would even receive loan assistance provided by Z nation that was way more than tens of billions after becoming a “friendly nation.”

So what was there to hesitate over? Was there a need to continue comparing?

Therefore, many countries used Pakistan as a learning model. They applied to visit Z country one after another and set up the law of “Friendly Relations With Z Country.” They also announced visa exemptions for tourists from Z nation, protection of the personal safety of Z citizens overseas, and protection of the interests of Z country’s companies…

In an instant, “friendly nations” of Z nation sprung up rapidly like spring bamboos after rain.

Chapter 326 - 62,0 Square Miles

The second lapdog recruitment campaign had officially ended. Xing Hai Technologies was caught in a vortex of public opinion for a while.

Chen Jin, too, received a lot of criticism and scolding on the internet.

“You have absolutely no respect for others!”

“This is too arrogant of you!”

“If you continue like this, the others won’t respect you, and you’ll definitely fall in the future.”

“Please be a civilized person, not a hooligan. You’re disgracing our culture of comity.”

“This is very inappropriate!”

“I went from fan to hater.”

However, Chen Jin turned a deaf ear towards all those criticisms on the internet. Had he gone overboard?

Thinking about what the Japanese had done in the past and their denial of their crimes of aggression, the Gorean’s shamelessness, Singapore’s double-crossing and sly behavior, and Germany, which was even further away from being considered good.

Which of these countries hadn’t made people feel angry and infuriated? What was wrong with asking them to bark a few times? It couldn’t even compare to the interest of their treacherous acts!

Chen Jin shook his head. “The biggest weakness of the Z’s is that we forget our vengeance too easily! We forget our pain when our wounds heal! With a smile and a few compliments, we will forget what the others have done to us in the past and selectively erase our unpleasant memories. We think that by giving the others our courtesy, they will repay us with the same.

“We’ll wait until the white-eyed wolves mature, tear apart their disguises, and reveal their true cunning nature. By then, we will feel shocked, being punched in our own faces again and again and again. We’ll never know that no matter how we expose good to evil, they’ll never ever change.

“White-eyed wolves will remain white-eyed wolves. They will never become human! And lap dogs shall forever be lap dogs. There’s no need to regard them as humans.

“Besides, the ones Xing Hai Technologies are recruiting are just lapdogs! They should be conscious about their roles and act appropriately! If they don’t even have such consciousness, why are they still here, applying for partnership?”

Barbarians were no more than beasts. It was their nature to fear power and not possess any virtue or sense of gratitude.

It might not have been quite suitable to apply this phrase in the current civilized society, but Chen Jin thought that, towards most countries, this phrase was still applicable. Hence, Xing Hai Technologies had already prepared for the worst when they forged partnerships with other countries. They were taking the initiative firmly in their hands to avoid being overthrown.

“Xing Hai Technologies is a company that rules by force, and I’m a bad guy. Don’t want to cooperate? Then scram,” Chen Jin mumbled to himself. This was always his style, after all.

…

More than a month had passed, and it was the first day of October.

Recently, a large amount of valuable data had been uploaded to the cloud servers from the Virtual Factory 2.0 on a 100 million billion supercomputer that Xing Hai Technologies had sold.

The organization responsible for the upload was “the Z Institute of Plasma Research.” The analog scientific device that generated the high-value data was the EAST 3.0. This massive scientific device had another well-known title—The Artificial Sun.

…

In the virtual world, Chen Jin was in shock while he asked Nuwa in front of him, “Are you 100 percent certain that they’ve set up the technology?”

“Yes, I’m certain.” Nuwa nodded. “They have already found the few most crucial criteria. The probability that they would achieve success is over 99 percent.”

“Really?” Chen Jin wasn’t too convinced. He muttered, “Fumbling by themselves without needing our help, unveiling the hope of realizing infinite energy with just a ‘virtual factory’ in year 20X3? How is this possible?”

“Master, I also estimated that it would be 20X5 at the earliest that they would attain initial success, but we should never underestimate the work of a genius. In that team, there’s a young professor by the surname Lu. He alone tackled three core difficulties, directly igniting the flare of hope.

“I estimate that in at most a months’ time, after resolving those small insignificant problems, the age of infinite energy will dawn,” said Nuwa.

She projected the portrait of a young man in front of Chen Jin. The man could have been less than thirty, with profound eyes. He was very attractive. This man was professor Lu.

Chen Jin looked at him for a while. All of a sudden, he lifted his head and sighed. “Can’t underestimate the heroes of the world!”

He also heard from Nuwa that this man was a research fanatic and still single. This was to say that this single man would, a month later, allow the Z nation to announce the dawn of an era of infinite energy.

What did this imply? How would this affect Chen Jin, who had been so surprised? In fact… the effect was very very big!

Even Chen Jin, who was someone that used hacks, had to lend his halo to that professor Lu and his research team, granting them the center position of the stage. He let them become the focus of the world as the most dazzling sun.

Chen Jin was reduced to a sidekick that orbited around them. He would also have to grab the opportunity to expand a series of operations to maximize his earnings before the new age arrived.

“Thank goodness they used the virtual factory and uploaded a ton of high-value data onto it, making me aware about this beforehand. They also allowed me to acquire the advantage of a ‘prophet.’

“It’s impossible now for Xing Hai Technologies to enter the field. I can’t cross paths with that huge amount of electric bills anymore. I could only lay out my plans in advance to reap a large portion of benefits from the field using my ‘prophet’ advantage.”

What kind of benefits were considered big? After some thought, Chen Jin picked up his phone and gave Ling Jundong a call. The call swiftly connected.

Chen Jin said, “Old Ling, I have an urgent task for you. Set aside what you’re doing now and go to Kings City immediately to discuss a partnership with the Ministry of Land and Resources.”

“Uhm, what partnership might this be, Mr. Chen?” asked Ling Jundong.

“Acquiring land. Xing Hai Technologies would like to purchase large areas of land.”

“What would we need it for? How much should we buy? Is our company going into real estate? This is a marvelous idea, Mr. Chen. House prices and rentals in Shanghai have been surging over the past two years with house prices increasing from 50 thousand to 100 thousand on average and rentals rising more than 50 percent. It resulted in a significant increase in our company’s operating costs… We should indeed buy a few pieces of land and erect houses for our staff. It could save a lot of business costs.”

Ling Jundong began hurling out disses. He had publicly stated many times that the trend of Shanghai’s swelling house prices was driving Xing Hai Technologies out of the city.

Now that his boss seemed interested in going into real estate, he raised both hands in support. Any high-tech company not doing real estate wasn’t a good high-tech company.

“Old Ling, you’ve misunderstood what I meant. The land I want isn’t land in big cities; it’s the barren land in the Northwest Great Desert.”

Ling Dong Jun was stunned as he asked in confusion, “Barren land in the Northwest Great Desert? What would we buy land over there for?”

“Don’t ask so much. Just go to Kings City right now.”

“Okay then. How many acres of land do you intend to buy, Mr. Chen?”

“Sixty-two thousand square miles!”

Pfff— Ling Jundong’s saliva was spat out of his mouth.

Chapter 327 - High Tech Causes High House Price?

Sixty-two thousand square miles was more than one percent of the nation’s total land, larger than most provinces! Could one even acquire so much land?

Logically, it was impossible. The Z nation had a high population density but only a little land. Even the land owned by crop growing organizations seldom went over two and a half square miles, not to even mention 62,000.

But the land Chen Jin wanted wasn’t suitable land, like woodlands or grasslands or even just land where green plants could grow. It was a barren desert.

Statistics said that the total span of deserts in the Z nation was approximately 435 thousand square miles. Combined with the Gobi Desert, which was more than 310 thousand square kilometers, the total area would become 7.45 million square miles, which accounted for 13 percent of the country’s total land.

The Z nation’s dry northwest area was the area most concentrated with deserts, accounting for approximately 80 percent of the total desert area in the Z nation. The eight most famous deserts in the Z nation were the Taklimakan Desert, the Gurbantunggut Desert, the Badain Jaran Desert, the Tengger Desert, the Wulanbuer Desert, the Kubuqi Desert, the Chaidamu Basin Desert, and the Kumutag Desert.

There were so many desserts that they spanned over millions of square miles. There would be no problem if Chen Jin were to procure just ten percent of them, right? With that being said… why did he want so much land?

“Land is the foundation of all things and the source of all value.

“One half mile equals 2,300 mu, thus 62 thousand square miles will be equal to 241 million mu!

“With that much land, we can dedicate a portion to farming, growing crops and whatnot. Assuming that we have 50 million mu of farming land and the average economic value for each mu of land is 1,000 dollars, the annual revenue we will gain is 50 billion dollars.

“We can take out a third of that land to grow trees into economic forests. We’ll grow walnuts, apple trees, and other fruit trees that bear economic value. The return cycle of these plants is commonly five years or above, even decades for the lengthy ones, but they’ll still bear us a profit. Take lumber as an example; one mu of economic forest can generate over 100 thousand dollars’ worth of value in a three-decade period, not to mention the environmental value it can create.

“The remaining third can be transformed into plains where cattle and sheep can be bred or perhaps turned into fishponds while we build some factories and houses around. Xing Hai Technologies’ many research centers can be shifted over, and we can create a high-tech city amidst the Northwest Great Desert.

“On the periphery of the city, there will be Xing Hai Technologies’ farm, Xing Hai Technologies’ fishpond, Xing Hai Technologies’ ecological pig farm, chicken farm, cow farm, and spans of jungles, orchards, pastures… We’ll be able to attain self-sufficiency in our own food, clothing, and housing, minimizing all aspects of our expenditures.

“At that time, Xing Hai Technologies will be the most profitable company in the country, and at the same time, the company that is least likely to fall.

“Xing Hai Technologies will stand firm for a century, two centuries, and go on forever.”

Why did Chen Jin have to say so? With all the hacks he was using and the resources he had access to, was it even possible for Xing Hai Technologies to still crumble?

It was indeed true! Even with a full row of cheat codes, there was still a chance for Xing Hai Technologies to close down… although Xing Hai Technologies was earning lots of money currently.

High-tech companies like Xing Hai Technologies could meet their demise from various causes.

First, high-tech companies paid the most taxes, which meant that a considerable piece of their profits was taken away by the state… this was understandable, as it was their obligation.

But the benefits they enjoyed weren’t much. On the contrary, if someone made a good product that occupied a big portion of the market share, they would be accused of monopolizing and would face punishments and fines… One couldn’t do too good, or else one would find themselves restricted and suppressed.

Besides, technology was constantly improving. Competitions were harsh. Once a high-tech company slowed down on innovation, it would be overtaken. Even if it was a century-old enterprise, they could still plummet one day… but of course, Xing Hai Technologies didn’t have this concern.

Another thing was the high housing price issue. High housing prices were simply the “killer” of high-tech companies. Real estate, a low-tech industry, could actually defeat the high-tech field. There was even a law that said, “high tech leads to high housing costs.”

For all the places that high-tech industries were developed, none of them had housing costs that weren’t surprisingly expensive. For example, the M nation’s Silicon Valley, Z nation’s Shen Zhen, Shang Hai, Kings City, and so on. The housing prices in these places were unbearable.

High housing prices weren’t caused by high-tech companies; it was the savvy real estate agencies and investors that wanted to trick the big customers and let high-tech companies pay the bills.

Obviously, Xing Hai Technologies was a “big customer” in the eyes of real estate agencies and investors.

Judging from the high profitability of Xing Hai Technologies and the high pay their staff was earning, they could absolutely afford housing prices of 100 thousand dollars per square yard. There was no need to worry that no one would pick up the deal.

Xing Hai Technologies’s colossal amounts of honest earnings were fit to be reaped by those greedy speculators. Therefore, a huge portion of the blame that housing prices in Shanghai had doubled and rentals had hiked by fifty percent could be placed on Xing Hai Technologies.

This annoyed Chen Jin. He had once thought of imitating the Hua Yao company, who shifted a few of their research and development centers out of Shanghai, vacating the city, and let the speculators play on their own.

Xing Hai Technologies’ hard-earned money was taken away completely by the speculators while all they did was raise housing prices by two percent. Who could’ve tolerated this?

The problem was this: where could Xing Hai Technologies go?

According to the “high technology leads to high housing costs” law, wherever Xing Hai Technologies went, the speculators would follow, and the housing prices of that area would rise, then they would need to move again. Who could withstand being tormented once every few years?

Hence, another saying was born. “High-tech companies not doing real estate are not good high-tech companies.” The best solution was to take the firewood out from under the cauldron and go into real estate themselves, not giving the speculators any cracks to exploit.

It was just that Shanghai’s land was too expensive, with each mu costing a few hundred million dollars. With the size of Xing Hai Technologies, they would need at least a few thousand mus to suffice… Even acquiring land required an inconceivable amount of investments.

Chen Jin couldn’t afford it, nor it was worth it!

“What about the desert land in the northwest area? The price of land over there is basically free. We won’t have to spend much if we moved there, right?”

“Sixty-two thousand square miles over there might even cost less than a hundred mu in Shanghai.”

“The value for our money is simply much higher!”

Of course, development in the desert would certainly cost ten times or even a hundred times more than of that on regular land. Investments required during later developmental phases would be immense, notably water. The sheer cost of pumping and transporting water would be unimaginably hefty.

Fortunately, the era of infinite energy was on the rise. By that time, every kilowatt-hour of electricity might only cost ten cents. Energy resources in the northwest were also in abundance. By then, they could utilize these cheap energy sources to solve the water supply problem. The combined expenditure would still be within the acceptable range!

Acquiring large amounts of northwest desert land seemed highly feasible!

…

Three days later, Ling Jundong called, “Mr. Chen, Minister Shen has agreed to our request to purchase land. He has granted 31 thousand square miles of desert land to Xing Hai Technologies.”

“Thirty-one thousand square miles?” Chen Jin was slightly stunned, then immediately became happy. “Well, that’ll do!”

“But he has a few troublesome conditions for us to fulfill,” said Ling Jundong.

Chapter 328 - The Dumbest Investment in History?

“What conditions?” Chen Jin asked immediately.

“Minister Shen said that, of Z nation’s eight grand deserts, the only desert that spans more than 50 thousand square kilometers is the Taklimakan Desert. The other seven deserts are all below 50 thousand square kilometers. Hence, the only one they could grant for Xing Hai Technologies to develop and would fulfill our appetite is the Taklimakan Desert.”

“Uhm, fine, we’ll settle with that desert.”

“Mr. Chen, the Taklimakan Desert is the most remote and has the worst natural conditions. The annual rainfall over there is only a few dozen millimeters. It is the most difficult and most expensive desert to develop!”

“You don’t have to worry about the cost, it’ll be fine as long as you can get the land.”

“Land belongs to the state. It can only be rented and not purchased. We can only rent at most 50 years and besides, rentals are not cheap either. 50 thousand square kilometers of desert land for 50 years would require us 100 billion dollars… This is literally robbery in broad daylight! Who’d be willing to use 100 billion dollars to rent this type of land?”

100 billion. 50 years?

Chen Jin frowned. The price was too high. The duration was also too short.

“With only 50 years, our lease period may expire when we’ve just completed transforming the desert. The land’s ownership will once again be returned to the country. By that time, the authority to decide whether to rise rentals or not to rent will in the hands of the officials in entirety. Xing Hai Technologies will be like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered. They can cut our flesh however they want!”

All their hard work might become the other’s wedding dress.

“Old Ling, go back to that Minister Shen and tell him what I think. There are lots of deserts in this world, not only in the Z nation. The Sahara Desert in Africa spans more than nine million square kilometers. Xing Hai Technologies can contract up to a hundred million square kilometers of desert land in Africa for a very low price. Moreover, the development costs over there will be much lower and we could have permanent ownership over the land.”

“Xing Hai Technologies has a multitude of choices!”

“If they are serious about this partnership, first, the rent must not be over 50 billion. Second, the lease period must not be less than 100 years, and Xing Hai Technologies must have the authority to automatically renew the lease after it expires.”

“This is my bottom line. If he doesn’t comply, Xing Hai Technologies could only set our sights abroad,” Chen Jin said, expressing his attitude. He was even feeling a little irritated. It was only a god-forsaken desert. Before developments were done, it would be worth no more than a penny! And someone actually regarded it as a treasure, asking for a hundred billion dollar rental for a short 50 years lease period right away.

Honestly speaking, somebody was looking at himself too highly. With a hundred billion dollars, one could buy a whole country. Did he really think that Xing Hai Technologies would only set their sight within the country?

“Uh…” Ling Jundong thought that his boss’s attitude was somewhat overly tough, and it would not yield a good effect when used in negotiations. He said, “Mr. Chen, I’ll talk to Minister Shen again. If we can’t work it out, I’ll just renounce it.”

In fact, in his eyes, those desert lands were worthless. He thought that even 50 billion dollars was still too expensive! But he would still have to express it appropriately, or both parties might part on bad terms. Of course, Ling Jundong was the one responsible for the negotiations and he had the sense of propriety.

On the following day, he went to meet Minister Shen and negotiated with him once again.

“50 thousand square kilometers is equivalent to a small-sized province. 100 billion dollars for 50 years is not expensive at all. On average, it is just 2 billion dollars per annum. We can’t lower this any further.”

Minister Shen shook his head while he grinned on the inside, Xing Hai Technologies’s nose is so sensitive, they actually sniffed out such a big business opportunity and want to gobble up a portion in advance.

He really took them as fools.

Anyways, prices could not be slashed any further. It was already so cheap; he would be held responsible if his side so regretted it later on!

“Minister Shen, I’ve done some research. There are also lots of deserts abroad. The Sahara Desert in Africa is a whole 9.2 million square kilometers, almost equivalent to the whole Z nation,” Ling Jundong said indistinctly.

Minister Shen’s expression changed immediately!

…

Negotiations went on for another three days. With some concessions made by both ends, they had reached a final agreement:

Xing Hai Technologies is granted 50 thousand square kilometers of desert land located in the northeast region of the Taklimakan Desert.

The average rental price for each mu of land is 20 dollars per annum. Rentals will depend on how many mu of land that Xing Hai Technologies develops.

The lease period is 99 years. Xing Hai Technologies will be prioritized for lease renewal upon expiration.

If Xing Hai Technologies is capable enough, they can continue to expand their developments inwards. The additional land developed will belong to Xing Hai Technologies which will be rented at similar rates at 20 dollars per annum per mu.

And a few other terms.

Chen Jin was rather satisfied with this agreement overall.

Xing Hai Technologies won’t have to spend much during the early stages. After they achieved certain results and made a bigger cake, the country could also share a considerable amount of the profit they generate.

A win-win. Both ends would not suffer any losses.

“Old Ling, pass down a task to the ‘Robot Research Center.’ Let them strive to develop a type of robot that could replace humans in doing labor work within two or three months, then produce one million units of them and deploy them to the northwest desert!”

“Robots?” Ling Jundong’s eyes glimmered. “Yes Mr. Chen, I got it!” Using robots to reform the desert, hell of an idea.

“Besides, go establish a Desert Control workgroup and dispatch them to the Sahara Desert in Africa to inspect the land and set up a research site over there. It might come in handy in the future,” said Chen Jin.

Eggs cannot be placed in just one basket. With Xing Hai Technologies’s technical advantages, it was not hard to manage a mere desert. Hence, they should not limit their vision within just the country, doing it in other countries would be promising as well.

The Sahara Desert spanned across more than 9 million square kilometers of land. If it were to be transformed into a place full of life, then make a government, a military or so over there, another superpower might very well be born amidst the African continent.

Mr. Shen and the others couldn’t stay idle on this! Of course, Chen Jin would not do that just yet, he would still have to keep a low profile… unless the problem at the warp gate was completely solved.

…

5th of November.

The news of Xing Hai Technologies contracting 50 thousand square kilometers of desert land in the northwest region spread swiftly on the internet. The netizens and many companies were bewildered by Xing Hai Technologies’s actions.

“Contracting 50 thousand square kilometers of desert land at the Taklimakan Desert in the northwest? What are they attempting to do?”

“Could it be that Xing Hai Technologies plan to go plant trees in the desert and make some contributions towards environmental protection?”

“50 thousand square kilometers? Just how much money they must invest to completely transform the land? Let’s assume that it would be 10 thousand dollars every mu, their investments will be in the trillions!”

“All thanks to the speculators in real estate, haha, the high housing prices are driving Xing Hai Technologies into the desert, way to go speculators.”

“What’s the point of buying such a big area of god-forsaken land? What has gone into Xing Hai Technologies’s head? Have they gone nuts because of the high housing prices?

“Going into the deserts in the northwest is an investment with no return! Only those with extreme moral sublimity and are willing to end up on the streets will agree to do such things. Profit-seeking capitals will never resort to this kind of treachery!”

“But Xing Hai Technologies did it anyways. I can only say this is the dumbest investment ever made in history. I predict that soon after, Xing Hai Technologies will regret it and forgo this investment they made while they’re feeling the fever.” This person was very sure, and many netizens chimed in with him.

Chapter 329 - Freshwater from Lake Baikal

Just like what the netizens and investment analysts said, managing the desert was an investment with no return. Only saints or imbeciles would be willing to do so.

Commercial investment value was zero? Chen Jin was obviously no fool. He had conducted sufficient research beforehand, as well as simulations on the computer.

Commonly, these were the few main expenditures on managing desert land:

First would be the labor cost for flattening the desert land and the construction of roads and irrigation facilities totaling at about 2000 dollars per mu. Secondly would be the cost of purchasing seedlings, fertilizers, and agriculture machinery at around 1500 dollars per mu. Lastly would be water. Every mu of land would need more than a hundred tons of irrigation annually. The expenditure on the water for each mu of land would be at least a thousand dollars every year.

Moreover, it was compulsory to sustain efforts for 10 years and above to ensure some form of return. There would be no income generated in between. Comprehensively, according to traditional reforming means, transforming one mu of land would cost at least 15 thousand dollars and above.

After the reformation, the profit generated by plantations would hardly exceed 500 dollars for each mu of land. This would imply that the recovery period would be above 30 years. It would truly be more than 50 years before developers could expect some real income. Thus, this field was hailed as “the most unprofitable industry.” But if it were Xing Hai Technologies who was onto this course of action, the situation may be completely different.

Xing Hai Technologies’s contracted desert would not require any human labor as work would all be performed by robots, saving them more than 70% of labor costs. The costs of seedlings, fertilizers, and agricultural implements were basically the same.

Another thing would be water. The cost of water in the desert areas exceeded 10 dollars per ton with annual water consumption per mu of land at more than 100 cubic meters. This was the main expenditure that was almost impossible to cut short. However, Xing Hai Technologies have several ways to trim down this expenditure.

Lake Baikal, located in Russia, was the largest freshwater lake on the Eurasian continent and the deepest lake in the world with an average depth of 730 meters. The total freshwater resource that lake Baikal held was 23.6 trillion cubic meters, equivalent to the water volume of the five lakes in Northern M combined and exceeding that of the whole Baltic sea. The lake’s absolute reserves of clean water account for 20% of the world’s freshwater reserves and its water storage accounted for 85% of the total Russian lake water.

Based on 100 cubic meters of water per mu per year, 50 thousand square kilometers of desert land had water consumptions of not over 7.5 billion tons per year. Freshwater supplies of lake Baikal alone would suffice Chen Jin’s desert for 3146 years. Moreover, the water resources of the lake would be automatically replenished by rainfall, snowfall, and groundwater. Hence, it could be described as “inexhaustible.”

In addition, Lake Baikal was only some 1800 kilometers away from the northeast corner of the Taklimakan Desert. It was equivalent to pumping freshwater from water-rich provinces in the central region. Compared to siphoning seawater from nearby, it would still save on the cost of desalinating the seawater. Hence, Chen Jin’s sight was set on lake Baikal’s freshwater supplies.

“Go directly to the Russians for water. They should be fine with 10 cents per ton of water, I guess. 10 billion tons will be a billion dollars, a rather significant amount.

“For the construction costs of the 2000 kilometers pipeline, we will be using high-pressure carbon fiber pipelines which will cost us 10 million dollars per kilometer. 2000 kilometers would mean 20 billion dollars. Added up with high-power pumps, relay pumps, high-voltage cables and labor, manpower by robots, it would require us about 30 billion dollars comprehensively.

“The last thing remaining would be the electric bills generated during the water pumping process.” Pumping a ton of water should require a 10-kilowatt hour. Assuming that each kilowatt-hour costs 10 cents, the cost for pumping each ton of water would be one dollar.

“Summing them up with the costs of acquiring water and the pipeline construction fees, it is completely possible for us to push average transportation costs per ton of water to below three dollars! In that way, on water usage alone, Xing Hai Technologies will get to save 70% of the cost.”

In the end, the total cost held by Xing Hai Technologies for transforming each acre of desert land would only be at approximately 6000 to 7000 dollars. The cost was less than half compared to traditional methods.

At the end of the investment period and when the payback period dawned, with the technology in Xing Hai Technologies’s possession, there would be literally no difficulty for them to generate an average net profit of 700 dollars per acre of land. Hence, it would only take them ten years to expect a return. In only 20 years, Xing Hai Technologies would start to profit and become an agricultural giant.

“20 years. No other company would accept such a lengthy return cycle, but I can. I can afford to expend this little amount of time. I am willing to make a long-term investment and I can afford to play this kind of waiting game.”

Therefore, Chen Jin once again summoned Ling Jundong and dispatched him to Russia to negotiate about a “water purchasing” partnership.

Ling Jundong had his eyes wide opened. “10 cents for every ton?” He shook his head hard. “Mr. Chen, the Russians are no fools, they know the value of freshwater, it is impossible that they’ll sell them to us at 10 cents per ton. Mr. Chen, you are too oblivious about the Russian’s personality. They are not that generous!”

“I am wary of that.” Chen Jin said faintly, “With their personality, if they were to know that someone wants to buy their freshwater, buying it from them and them alone, they would definitely sell their freshwater at the price of oil. They will have no mercy for such a succulent lamb.”

“And you still want me to offer them 10 cents per ton? Won’t they directly throw me outside?” Ling Jundong shook his head. This was asking for trouble in the face of the battle-born!

However, Chen Jin was confident as he said, “Old Ling, the Russian’s economic development has been very fast over the past two years with a lot of achievements in science and technology. They’ve even come out with a genuine fifth-generation fighter jet. This means that they are using our intelligent learning machine, virtual factory, work assistant and other products I perhaps? And they manage to produce some results with our help.”

“Yes, the Russians are our biggest client. We have sold more than eight million learning machines and more than 100 virtual factories in Russia,” Ling Jundong nodded.

“There are more Russian players in the ‘100% Science Lab’ as well. Am I correct?”

“There are more than 2000 of them, closing in 3000. The best among them already has a C grade laboratory.” Ling Jundong was, too, very familiar in this matter.

“That’s why I think the Russians would agree to sell us their freshwater at 10 cents per ton.” Chen Jin said, “You’d just have to ask their leaders, would they like to buy the university level intelligent learning machine? Would they want the 99.99% simulation degree virtual factory?”

Speaking of the virtual factory, just recently, Xing Hai Technologies had successfully developed the million billion supercomputer “Supernova 3.” It was incorporated with the “Virtual Factory 3.0” and had simulation degrees of eight 9’s behind the numerator, which was more than two generations ahead from the previous four instances.

“Besides, about the ‘100% Science Lab,’ ask their leaders, are they lacking credits to extract their ‘technical data’? Now, they have another alternative to acquiring those credits. For every ton of water they sell us, they will be gifted 0.1 credits in game. 10 billion tons of water will translate into a billion credits… I assume that they are wary of the value of these credits.”

“One billion credits will definitely be more valuable than one billion dollars cash and they will definitely take this into account!”

“With these three trump cards, do you think they would comply with 10 cents per ton of freshwater from Lake Baikal?” Chen Jin asked.

“Uhm…” Ling Jundong had some thoughts. “I think any normal person would have agreed. But Mr. Chen, the Russians are not that normal. They can’t be on the losing end, if they were, some will riot and make things go south.” He still wasn’t that confident.

“If we can’t reach on a partnership, then we shall blacklist them! In the future, they will not be entitled to any upgrade services that other clients will get to enjoy. For the ‘Science Lab,’ hike their withdrawal prices to the maximum. We shall fulfill their wish and let them starve to death while holding onto all their treasure. It is not like we can’t get fresh water from elsewhere; it is just that it’ll cost more.”

“!!!” Ling Jundong’s face was covered in sweat. This was not simply asking for trouble; it would be them, pulling off a miracle. But who should the Russians blame that it was Xing Hai Technologies that had mastered the core technologies? They could do whatever they want with core technology at hand!

Chapter 330 - Golden Age

Ling Jundong embarked on a journey to Russia bringing along Chen Jin’s quest for him.

About one week later, after several rounds of talks and negotiations that were bestrewn in twists and turns.

On the 20th of November.

Ling Jundong called back, “Mr. Chen, I’ve fulfilled your orders. I’ve principally come to a done deal with the Russian leaders. They will provide us with water supplies at 10 cents per ton while we provide them our services to upgrade the Tree of Knowledge to the university level, sell them our Virtual Factory with simulation degrees of 99.99% and gift them 0.1 in game credits for each ton of water they sell us. The agreement has already been signed. The terms agreed on is not over the bottom line that you have drawn.”

In the call, Ling Jundong sounded awfully tired, frail, and unenergetic. Most certainly that, for him, the negotiations these few days was not easy, it could be described as immensely difficult!

The Russians were not easy people to deal with, especially on the negotiating table. Unless they were driven to a state of extreme distress, there was no possibility of them making concessions.

The negotiations this time around were as so. Ling Jundong took out various analyses, comparisons, stated various interests, and made all kinds of good promises, suggesting them to comply with the price of 10 cents per ton of water and that it would bring to them far more benefits than the water-selling itself.

“The water in Lake Baikal is the best water in the world. Its price cannot be lower than three dollars per ton. We will not sell any to them below this price,” said a Russian official.

Negotiations continued for another few days. The price went down to two dollars per ton, one dollar per ton, then it was stuck. They would not yield no matter what he said. The Russians firm attitude even wavered Ling Jundong, striking him with a sense of despair.

So how did Ling Jundong make things work in the end?

Bam! He slammed the table, stood up looking infuriated and said, “It is fine if you still refuse! You will lose your friendship with Xing Hai Technologies, enter our blacklist, and lose the opportunity to work with us in-depth! If you can bear with these consequences, I will return to the Z nation tomorrow.” Upon finishing, he stormed away tucking his sleeves, leaving behind a bunch of Russian officials looking at each other.

Subsequently, on the following day, while Ling Jundong was driving on the way to the airport, a Russian official halted him and said that matters could still be negotiated. At last, Ling Jundong got what he came for, attaining the partnership corresponding to his boss’s wish.

Via these negotiations, the truth came to light for Ling Jundong—negotiating with the others while bearing the attitude of a gentleman would only make negotiations difficult. If he were to show a ruffian face and threaten them right away, he would contrarily be able to save a lot of mouth work and time and attain the most desired purpose.

After all, Xing Hai Technologies could bear the consequences of not cooperating with them, could the Russians?

“I don’t have to be so polite towards wretched people! Instead of torturing myself, why not torture them. Being a despicable person is sometimes more fun and comfortable than being a gentleman!” And it was from this day onwards, Ling Jundong had changed, becoming a little sullen and no longer looking like some kind of “good guy.”

…

Merely a few days later.

26th of November, around 10 o’clock in the morning.

In Dong Guang Province located in the Z nation’s southern region, the interior of a large piece of scientific equipment by the name of “EAST 3.0” was illuminated! The light in the device lasted for more than half an hour without any signs of fading. It emitted more than 1000 megawatts of electricity, enough for a city with a one million population. The “fuel” that was burning in this device was the two isotopes of hydrogen: deuterium and tritium. They continued to “burn” at a high-temperature environment of more than 100 million degrees.

The “light of fusion” was ignited!

The arrival of the era of unlimited energy was declared.

11 o’clock in the morning.

The reactor test run was over.

The official media released a report with the title “Large scientific equipment “EAST 3.0″ has attained an experimental breakthrough. The Z nation has entered a new era of energy.”

Because the title was too boring and dull, the report did not immediately trigger a sensational outbreak.

More than 10 minutes later.

“The artificial sun is successfully ignited. Controllable nuclear fusion becomes a reality”

“Hot! Our nation’s artificial sun has just succeeded!”

“The sun of the Z nation! We now have infinite energy”

“Awesome! Scientists from Z have successfully ignited the light of fusion!”

It was only after the reprint by writers of sensational headlines that the netizens’ eyes were eyes lit up, instantly triggering a sensational ebullience!

“H-how is this possible?”

“Light of fusion, we’ve lit up the light of fusion so early on and has realized controllable nuclear fusion, am I dreaming?”

“Impossible, at our current technological level, I highly doubt that it’s possible!”

“The news release has said very clearly: achieved steady-state operation for more than half an hour, power generation is stable at 1000 MW, reactor is shut down under controlled conditions… If this can’t be considered a success, then what could?

“A scientist said in the official report: if the ‘East 3.0’ is used as a power generation device, the cost of ‘fuel’ for a day will be about 500 thousand dollars, but the maximum power generated in a day can reach 240 million degrees, which means that the cost of generating one kilowatt-hour of electricity is only 0.0021 dollars, and the cost per kilowatt-hour will only be two cents. The investment in power transmission and transformation facilities and the wages of electricians will, on the other hand, become the main expenditure.”

“Even so, the price of electricity that will eventually be used by households will be greatly reduced, possibly to 20 or 10 cents per kilowatt-hour. ”

“The era of low-cost energy has arrived. We are lifted from our dependence on coal resources. Carbon emissions can be greatly reduced. Driving electric vehicles will be far more cost-effective than fuel vehicles. Oil imports will be reduced by at least half, trimming down our cost of living immensely. The ecological environment and air quality will be better than before!”

“We are now entering a new, wonderful age!”

“Hahaha, this is great, this is so great!”

“My eyes are a bit teary. Over the years, what we Z’s buy will become expensive and what we sell will become cheap. Even just iron ore from the Australians can reap away hundreds of billions from us. As long as the buyer is a Z, the others will always want to charge us extra . Especially since last year, under the instigation of the M nation, the prices of various raw materials have skyrocketed, oil prices have doubled, and food prices have risen by 50%. What they were doing is that they do not want us to live a good life!

“Now, we will suffice with just one-third of our previous oil imports. We can now engage in indoor stereoscopic agriculture or hasten up the development of desert areas in the west, opening up large areas of fertile farmland… the oil crisis, food crisis, all of them are solved in an instant.

“From now on, nobody can stop us from advancing in the path towards a wonderful life!

“We must live a great life which they will envy and hate us until the roots of their teeth itches.

“All of this is made possible by our hardworking hands and clever minds. We did not steal, we did not rob, we struggled with our feet down the floor! We must enjoy our blissful days to come and take it for granted!”

“…”

Anyways, on this day, the 26th, in the whole Z nation, in every corner of the Great Divine Land, there was joy, excitement, pride, and exuberance. The whole of the Hua Xia Peoples’ sense of self-confidence, self-reliance, and pride had heightened unprecedentedly. Hence, aside from igniting the artificial sun, the light of fusion had also flared up the country’s golden age.

Chapter 331 - Earning 500 Billion In A Day

On the morning of the 27th.

Inside a stand-alone office suite in the Xing Hai Edifice, Chen Jin, Ling Jundong, and several other senior company executives came in.

Hearing the movement, the young man in a light gold colored suit, who was working in the office, turned around. When he saw the people who had arrived, he quickly collected his expression and stood up abruptly, giving a 60-degree bow.

“President Chen, CEO Ling, good morning. Everyone, good morning.” The man in the suit was extremely respectful.

“Let’s do away with the pleasantries.” Chen Jin waved his hand. “Return to your position and tell us about the international crude oil futures market.”

Next to him, Ling Jundong also said, “Yurui, simply tell President Chen how much money the company made from yesterday till today?”

“Yes.” Yurui returned to his seat and adjusted the direction of the computer monitor. He used the mouse to call up a red and blue K-line chart. This K-line chart was a dynamic chart of the oil price changes in the international crude oil futures market. He put his palm on the far right side of the K-line chart that was like a vertical cliff. He gesticulated excitedly.

“President Chen, CEO Ling, this is the change in the price of oil from yesterday to today in the international crude oil futures market. It can be clearly seen that the price of oil has dropped from a high point of 95 US dollars per barrel to 40 US dollars. The price is lower than yesterday!

“Our company’s short-selling fund entered the market at a price of 90 US dollars per barrel. We’ve spent a total of 100 billion and have increased the leverage on our futures contracts to 10 times the original price!

“Originally, we had made a loss of more than 50%. Our company was definitely not a match for the big international financial institutions. If oil prices rise to 100 US dollars per barrel, we will have lost all of our initial 100 billion!

“But how could they know that Z country had ignited the artificial sun and achieved controlled nuclear fusion? We have embraced the era of unlimited energy! So, they have fallen headfirst and collapsed thoroughly. There are at least dozens of international investment funds that have gone bankrupt.

“As long as the price of oil drops to 90 US dollars and below, For every US dollar decrease in oil prices, we will make a profit of 10 billion. Now that oil prices have plunged to 40 US dollars, we’ve earned 500 billion!

“President Chen, in just one day, we have earned what is normally a year’s worth of profits in the crude oil futures market! And I estimate that oil prices still have room to decrease. It is entirely possible for it to fall below 30 US dollars, we can earn at least another 100 billion!”

The total would 600 billion! Chen Jin could not help but take a deep breath.

He quietly thought to himself, Speculation; it’s no wonder that some people like to speculate so much. When the money you earn in one day exceeds what you can earn working normally for one year. When the money that you are dealing with in a year exceeds what you can earn doing honest work for a lifetime. Then, even the most down-to-earth person who takes his labor and duty seriously would no longer be content with their lot. From this point on, even they would hope to get rich overnight.

This was the reason why many people were obsessed with gambling and speculation. They seemed to think that they could own the whole world once they have experienced luck once.

Chen Jin was not good at gambling. He looked down on the various kinds of speculation. He was also not interested in speculating stocks. As for lotteries and their ilk, they were even more of a cancer to this society. They could only breed the love of ease and comfort, and at the same time, the abhorrence of work. This would destroy the spirit of hard work and struggle in a nation.

The leverage of future contracts could readily go up or down three times, five times, ten times or a hundred times. Thus, he had even less of a desire to understand the fickle changes of futures leveraging in-depth. Besides the lunatics and the fools, who would play with this?

But it was also because of this that he had missed a chance to make a fortune.

That opportunity had come around in the past when Xing Hai Technologies had released the “High Energy 1” battery. At that time, the international price of crude oil had plummeted from 140 US dollars to 100 US dollars, and it had never returned to above 100 US dollars ever since. The opportunity to short 40 US dollars per barrel of oil was wasted like that.

At that time, Yurui was very upset and had lamented this loss. He thought of ways to convey his point of view to his boss, Chen Jin.

“What?” Chen Jin slapped his head. “At least 400 billion of income and I missed it?” He felt a little regretful. If only someone had told him earlier. He did not know that one could actually make such a fortune on the futures market. Moreover, the initiative to do so was completely in the hands of Xing Hai Technologies. The probability of making money was 100%.

Also, this could not be called speculation, it was straightforwardly, “picking up money.” He had actually not seen the opportunity to make a whole 400 billion and had completely missed it.

Chen Jin immediately reassessed the situation and came up with a conclusion—many things could not be viewed subjectively. Its existence was namely reasonable! Even if it brought about all kinds of disadvantages, it also had great benefits. As long as one used it well, it could bring huge benefits to oneself. If it was possible to achieve man-made control, the risk could even be reduced to zero, and the probability of making money would be 100%. Hence, after summing up the lesson that he had learned, he did not miss this opportunity.

Perhaps it was due to his conservative and cautious character, but Chen Jin felt that it was time to stop after earning this 500 billion. He did not think that his heart would be able to stand it if he were to continue playing in the market.

“Ok, President Chen, I, too, think that we can stop.” Yurui nodded and returned his gaze to the computer screen. He exclaimed in surprise, “Oil prices have fallen to 37 US dollars.”

Just in the time that they had a little chat, the price of oil had fallen by 3 US dollars per barrel. Xing Hai Technologies made another 30 billion. However, Yu Rui did not dally too much and quickly sold the oil futures in his hands. After the successful sale operation, the platform deducted a transaction fee, and Xing Hai Technologies made a profit of 500 billion.

After some time.

Yurui intended to enter the market again to buy 10 billion of futures to earn a little money but was surprised to find that the international oil futures platform was frozen and short-selling could not be carried out. This meant that in the entire platform, the money that had been used for one last transaction had been removed; and the speculators who had made that one last transaction had lost everything.

Yurui was dumbstruck. “The funds in the international oil futures platform total tens of trillions. Who is it that has earned trillions of dollars in an instant?”

He shook his head.

In short, many of the Western financial elites would be on the roof today!

…

Z country’s “artificial sun” device achieved great success that was akin to breaking through a wall of defense. In addition to causing the international crude oil price to plunge, it also caused a great sensation and repercussions internationally.

“This is a technology that should benefit humanity. Z country should not monopolize it.”

“Z is a big country that has big responsibilities! Please bear the responsibility that belongs to you and share some key technology.”

“We are willing to spend 100 billion for Z country to help us build an ‘artificial sun’. We’ll spend money to buy it!”

“Z country is a kind and friendly country. I believe the Z people will not abandon us.”

Most of the small and medium-sized countries were more restrained, and even their tone had become respectful and polite. They had published many reports that seemed to be about currying favor with Z country.

But Merica was almost going crazy! They put on a show of military exercises, nuclear weapons test drills and announced that they had entered the state of maximum readiness. Merica made tough statements on television every day and even issued an ultimatum—Z country was to surrender the “artificial sun” technology within 24 hours or they would have to bear the consequences.

…and etc. It was a series of domineering performances.

The whole world was holding their breath and watching with rapt attention. The days passed in a state of extreme nervousness.

This lasted until 20X4 in January when Merica finally abated. This was because the final year for the incumbent president’s office was nearly over. The new presidential election was about to begin. At this moment, the election was still the most important.

The whole world was relieved.

And in Z country.

The close attention that the “artificial sun” had garnered finally fell away. There were some media outlets who started casting their sights on Xing Hai Technologies. Suddenly, they made many shocking discoveries.

Chapter 332 - The Wise And Sensible Xing Hai Technologies

In these two months, the focus of the domestic media was on the “artificial sun” and the young Professor Lu. The media was highly nervous about the crazy displays of Merica. Other things in the country were ignored.

In the end, after what seemed to be an instant, Xing Hai Technologies had actually become the biggest winner and had quietly seized huge benefits for themselves. First, it contracted to undertake an area of 50,000 square kilometers in the northwest desert. Then, it had earned 500 billion in the international crude oil futures market.

It could be said that with the money earned, the company was rolling in cash and had oil spilling from its lips. With this, the massive media could not sit still any longer!

A certain media outlet even remarked in an envious and resentful tone, “We are the stupidest fools in the whole world! Two months ago, when we laughed at Xing Hai Technologies’ land-buying behavior and thought that they were making the stupidest investment in history, Xing Hai Technologies had already won.

“The company had very easily acquired a piece of land of 50,000 square kilometers to become the largest ‘landlord’ in the country. Fools like us only know how to laugh at others, thinking that we are smart. Others are merely the ‘stupid sons of the landlord’.

“But no one has noticed that from Xing Hai Technologies’ establishment till today, every investment the company made had a profit probability of 100%. It had never made a mistake. The majority of Xing Hai Technologies’ investments, whether it’s a chip or an operating system, always had far more pessimists than optimists.

“This is why Xing Hai Technologies is becoming more and more successful and is making more and more money. There are too many smart alecks. The people who are truly smart naturally have the opportunities to make a fortune.

“So, never underestimate Xing Hai Technologies! Never try to impose your ‘stupidity’ on the company. This is a company that has mastered ‘truth’; a company that has a ‘predictive’ ability. This company will always make money and be successful forever. No matter what Xing Hai Technologies does in the future, we don’t have to come up with our own thoughts. We just have to believe in one sentence.”

“Xing Hai Technologies is right; Xing Hai Technologies can profit from anything! As long as you keep up with the pace of Xing Hai Technologies, you may be able to profit from the process.”

The conclusion summarized in this report would go on to become the famous “Xing Hai Technologies will certainly profit theory” in future days.

This conclusion led to voices of approval all around.

“Well, I admit that I have condemned Xing Hai Technologies many times and I have been beaten by the facts an equal amount of times. So, I will shut my mouth in the future.”

“Xing Hai Technologies has dozens of supercomputers and intelligent learning programs. It has mastered the essence of the whole world! Can such a company make a wrong decision? This probability should be lower than winning the five million dollar prize in the lottery.”

“If one was hoping that Xing Hai Technologies would make a wrong strategic decision, it would better to hope for the end of the world.”

“I’ve decided! No matter what decision is made by Xing Hai Technologies in the future, I won’t comment or express any opinions. I’ll be a person who stops thinking! At most, I’ll make a post saying ‘Awesome’. If you have a little money to spare, follow whatever Xing Hai Technologies does.”

But there were also some netizens who were utterly humiliated and angry. They resolutely rebutted.

“I don’t agree! Inside information. Xing Hai Technologies must know some insider information in advance. That’s why everything it does seem wise and sensible. If it was me, I could do it too.”

“Project categories like the artificial sun is top secret. It is impossible for ordinary people to know about it. How did Xing Hai Technologies get that information?”

“The Z Institute of Plasma Research has purchased a supercomputer installed with a ‘virtual factory’. Is it possible that…”

“Ah, and it was merely five years or so ago. The brave man of justice has become the most powerful devil. And an undefeatable devil at that! There is almost no possibility of defeat.”

…

Netizens had mixed feelings.

As for the vast business community and the large number of investment institutions, it was at this moment that they realized the truth of the situation. Widespread voices of envy, jealousy, and hate abounded.

“F*ck, acting like a pig eating a tiger! Making a fortune in silence!”

“With the success of the artificial sun, the electricity bill is expected to drop to one cent per watt. The cost of transporting water resources will be greatly reduced. No wonder Xing Hai Technologies fixed their sights on the Northwest Desert.”

“50,000 square kilometers; equivalent to 7.5 billion mu. After the completion of the transformation, even if the company only earns $100 per mu, it would still add up to 7.5 billion a year. Moreover, the agriculture industry is tax-free in this country; our government even gives subsidies. When one undertakes a sufficiently large area of land, it becomes absolutely profitable.”

“Let’s go! We’ll take our money to the northwest! We want to contract and undertake tens of thousands of square kilometers of the desert too!”

“I want to go to the northwest too. How could a mere million square kilometers or so of desert be large enough for several companies to divide amongst themselves? There wouldn’t even be dregs left for you if you’re late to the feast!”

For a period of time, the presidents of many domestic companies and the leaders of many investment institutions collectively turned their eyes to the northwestern desert. A wave of hot money worth more than tens of billions, even hundreds of billions of dollars poured into the rolling yellow sands of the northwest.

The portion of the Gobi desert within Z country’s borders measured only a million square kilometers. It was a place where an inch of grass could not be found; where even the birds did not crap. It was predicted that this desert would be divided by the capitalists until there was nothing left.

However, after Chen Jin heard the news, he simply shook his head. He even though that this would only devolve into a short-lived capital farce, leaving only a mess behind.

“Just because the electricity bill has dropped does not mean that clearing the desert for cultivation will be profitable. Electricity charges only account for part of the cost, and other expenses will not be small! The cost of reclamation per mu of sand still exceeds $6,000, which is several times that of areas that are not water-deficient.

“Now, even for large-scale agriculture industries in the eastern provinces that do not lack water, their profits are still quite low. Many large farms rely on state subsidies to achieve profit. Not to mention that we are talking about the northwest desert here.”

“While the artificial sun can generate a lot of cheap electricity and the cost of agricultural development in the West is declining, the electricity bills in the eastern regions without water shortages will also fall. Hence, the cost of agricultural production will also decrease.

“In addition, there is a very popular urban-based three-dimensional agriculture nowadays. Melons, vegetables, rice, wheat, and corn could be planted indoors. Three or even five stories of such crops could be planted at an extremely high-density rate. Crops could grow 365 days a year. After the drop in electricity prices, it would become more efficient to engage in indoor three-dimensional agriculture than going to the northwestern desert.

“So many capitalists go to the northwestern desert, spending large amounts of money. It is estimated that there is only a handful who could endure until the end to produce results.”

So, why must Chen Xing’s Xing Hai Technologies go to the Northwest Desert? The reason was that Xing Hai Technologies could do this and only Xing Hai Technologies could do this!

Reason one—robots.

A robot equipped with the “High Energy 1” battery had a working performance that was undoubtedly better than that of a strong adult man. Moreover, the robot did not need to eat, drink, or receive a salary. It worked for more than 12 hours a day. First of all, this would save countless money.

Reason two—fresh water from Lake Baikal.

Not all companies had the skills of Xing Hai Technologies and were able to buy fresh water from the Russians’ Lake Baikal. Moreover, the company had managed to buy fresh water at a very cheap price.

But, even though the company had solved the two problems of “man-made” and “freshwater” at a very low cost, Xing Hai Technologies still had to wait another 20 years if it wanted to make any profit from the desert, much less other companies that did not have the capabilities of Xing Hai Technologies.

Those capitalists who wanted to go fishing for profits in the desert could only be described as fools and their pipe dreams.

The reason why Xing Hai Technologies had figuratively run to the northwestern desert was not to plant trees and raise pigs and fish… These were the sideline businesses that did not make much money.

The main business of Xing Hai Technologies would always be high technology.

This time around, what he really invested in was something equally as priceless—land.

Chapter 333 - Living Space

In reality, the more vicissitudes that one experienced in Shanghai as one rose to be the “top dog” in the business world, the greater the understanding of this principle became.

Land was the foundation of many things. Mastering the land meant that you would be in control of everything. You could grow grains, fruits, vegetables, a variety of food would be available for harvest. Land could also provide mineral resources.

It was common knowledge, of course, that land could also bring about companies, factories, toll stations and taxes that must be paid on the land. Many things could not be avoided.

Xinghai Technologies was no exception. Chen Jin’s company, to a certain extent, produced a class of high-value “crops.” The company was very profitable, with annual revenue exceeding one trillion with a net profit of more than three to four hundred billion.

Excluding employee wages and all necessary expenses, at least one or two billion of that money belonged to Chen Jin alone. Could this money go into his personal account? Could this money be placed on his bank card in its entirety?

That was impossible. Most countries adopted a taxation strategy that “robbed the rich to help the poor.” The upper class was heavily taxed and the majority of their income had to be turned over once it exceeded a certain amount. Even if every penny earned was through honest means, the tax rate was the same.

Chen Jin’s profits could only be placed in a company account or spent in the form of investments. Therefore, in recent years, Xing Hai Technologies had maintained a state of expansion. The company increased and swelled like a snowball, getting bigger as it continued to roll.

This state could not last forever. Chen Jin also hoped to stabilize the company and maintain a controllable pace. After all, Xing Hai Technologies had completed its most profitable projects. There was no need to take on any remaining projects that would not make much money. An organization should not become overinflated.

This meant there would be a day when Xing Hai Technologies would have to make a “landing” sooner or later. Xing Hai Technologies’ cash flow would increase rapidly, and investment projects would be reduced. Corporate actions would be conservative. The company would begin to rely on the “mountain of treasures” that it had achieved and rest on its laurels.

This could not be allowed! Investors would not be happy because Xing Hai Technologies stopped exploring new ventures and taking them along on the ride to more riches.

The government leaders would not be happy that Xing Hai Technologies had become a scrooge. As a scrooge, it would not contribute to economic growth, and the social value brought about by the company would be reduced.

When that time came, whether it was intentional or not, Xing Hai Technologies would become the target at which everyone aimed their fire because the “conservative and selfish” company had blocked the way for their interests to expand. Xing Hai Technologies wanted to land smoothly. Unfortunately, that was not only unlikely, but it would also be short-lived.

What could Chen Jin do? He could only think to make some high-value investments that would bring about long-term benefits.

Land. The one last thing that was worth investing in was land.

Of course, Xing Hai Technologies could not get its hands on good land that cost hundreds of millions per acre. It would not be worthwhile. Chen Jin was reluctant to spend too much money. Instead, remote, overgrown, almost worthless land entered his sight.

This type of land had very large areas and there were millions of square kilometers of those lands in Z nation. There were even more in foreign countries. For example, the Sahara Desert in Africa had expanded to 3.5 million square miles. Another example was the Arabian Desert in the Middle East, with an area of more than 800,000 square miles. Deserts in other regions also encompassed areas of several million square miles.

All these deserts had become “business opportunities” in Chen Jin’s eyes.

“According to statistics, the global population in 20X3 was approaching 8 billion. This year, it will exceed 8 billion, and next year it will reach 8.1 billion. By 20X0, after 25 years, the global population will exceed 10 billion,” Chen Jin mused out loud.

“At that time, the scarcest resource that mankind needs will no longer be energy, food or water. The most likely scarcity will be precious living space! Land is living space! Land is the most precious resource.”

A huge ambition suddenly appeared in Chen Jin’s mind. He wanted to be a landlord. The world’s largest landlord!

“Technology is not a very good commodity. No matter how you play around with it, it is possible that it could become the possession of others in the end. It’s best to be an evil landlord!” Chen Jin continued to speak his thoughts out loud in excitement.

“Landlords have their own houses, fields, hordes of servants and tenant farmers. They live a carefree life and can experience boundless joy.”

It was no wonder that many people wanted to travel back to ancient times and become a landlord. It would be great to be a landowning young master!

Z people had a disposition towards farming because of this. No matter what they did, nothing was stable and it was difficult for anything to last. Only farming could last for thousands of years continuously.

The consciousness of the little farmer in Chen Jin’s mind had been awakened, and he fell into the desire to become a big landlord. He planned to enter the desert treatment industry, which was only of interest to a few companies around the world.

He decided he would invest 10 million dollars for every square kilometer. Multiplied by 10 million square kilometers, Xing Hai Technologies’ future investment could reach as high as 100 trillion. The investment cycle was over 50 years, based on the current volume and profitability of Xing Hai Technologies.

“It’s over, this is the next step of expansion for Xing Hai Technologies,” Chen Jin said. “No problem here, Xing Hai Technologies is a pioneering company that never stops. No one can say that my company is not continuing to make progress. To say that would be slander!”

Of course, that was not quite right. Something was a little off. It seemed like Chen Jin had forgotten his biggest dream. He’d only thought about struggling for his ambitions here on the Earth and forgotten his original intentions for setting up his company.

In reality, Chen Jin had not forgotten. That plan had been in his mind all along. Xing Hai Technologies would go towards the sea of stars in the future!

It was just that the cost-effectiveness of engaging in interplanetary colonization was not too high right now. Thinking about the Mars Colonization that the planet of Haierfa had once given up, it was apparent that entering the interstellar exploration field too early was an extravagant, money-wasting behavior.

Chen Jin decided to wait and see.

When the cost had decreased dramatically and the time was ripe, it would be the right moment for him to release the ultimate move that he had been preparing for a long time.

By that time, he would not only the biggest landlord on Earth, but also the biggest landlord in the entire solar system!

The next day, Chen Jin called Ling Jundong and briefed him on several arrangements.

“Establish the ‘Desert Administration and Research Center’ and allocate a supercomputer with a computing speed of 100 billion Flops. Recruit a large number of relevant talents and conduct in-depth research on desert governance.”

Chen Jin’s voice was passionate and conveyed his excitement as he spoke.

“Acquire all the desert research institutions and sand control materials companies in the country. Recruit relevant expert teams. Get all the outstanding desert management talents over to our company. Also, acquire some sprout companies and seed companies, and purchase a large amount of agricultural machinery. Xing Hai Technologies will enter the field of desert governance with our best effort!”

Ling Jundong was rather surprised. He answered with a nod.

“Yes, President Chen!”

Chapter 334 - What Just Happened?

March of 20X4

After the land contract was signed and the Russians had been dealt with, Chen Jin found himself with the addition of a $500 billion windfall in his possession.

The weather was getting warmer and the snow was gradually melting. It was a season suitable for construction out in the field.

Xing Hai Technologies’ Desert Reconstruction Engineering Department began working in full force. Nearly a thousand human engineers, hundreds of engineering machines, and tens of thousands of robots began construction from the starting point of the northeast corner of the Taklimakan Desert.

The team began to excavate the tunnel and buried lengths of high strength carbon fiber tubes with a diameter of 10 feet. The tubes were then joined together.

The construction team was highly efficient. They were divided into smaller teams and assigned tasks by the supercomputer so that the construction work was divided into segments for the smaller teams in a modular style.

Every day, the task of constructing and laying down a 3-mile water pipeline was completed. Also, there was a construction team of a similar size that had entered Russia and set up camp at the southern end of Lake Baikal to prepare their supplies.

When April arrived and all the snow had melted, construction would be carried out in full force from the other end as well. The speed at which the pipelines were laid down would not be slow. With two ends, it would be a total of 6 miles laid down per day.

The water pipeline project that was less than 1,100 miles was expected to be completed within one year. The speed was amazing.

The netizens were even more surprised that Xing Hai Technologies had dealt with the Russians successfully and bought the water in Lake Baikal.

“How did Xing Hai Technologies do it?” Everyone was very curious about the answer to this question.

“The Russians never had a trustworthy reputation,” warned some people. “They cut off the oil supply whenever they decide to. Same with the gas supply. They will not be too polite about the water that they sold to Xing Hai Technologies. They will stop supplying if they want to raise the price.”

“Yeah, why did Xing Hai Technologies think of buying water from the Russians?” others agreed doubtfully. “Isn’t our domestic water supply enough? For example, the water in Yalucangbu River. Not only is the volume sufficient, but it’s also closer. We don’t have to spend money to buy it. Why not use domestic water?”

Others answered these questions.

“The water in the upper reaches of the Yalucangbu River is not abundant. The amount of moving water in the middle and lower reaches is large, and the amount of water supplied by the upper reaches is only 35 billion cubic feet. It is impossible to allow Xing Hai Technologies to withdraw all of it. Besides, the river has a dry season and a flood season. While there is not enough water in the dry season, there’s too much in the flood season. In the winter, there are two or three months when the ice seals off the upper reaches, and water cannot be extracted at all. The Yalucangbu River cannot provide a stable supply of water.”

“It is indeed the best choice for Xing Hai Technologies to work with the Russians for this project and pump water from Lake Baikal,” agreed another netizen. “Xing Hai Technologies will never have to worry about the depletion of Lake Baikal. They can pump as much water from the lake as they like and whenever they like. This advantage is irreplaceable.”

The water supply from rivers was unstable. The water resources in the central and western provinces of the Z nation were not sufficient to administer and control the water consumption in tens of thousands of square kilometers of desert. It was also difficult for the central and western provinces to make available billions of cubic feet of freshwater.

If the water resource was located farther away than Lake Baikal, then it would not be cost-effective anymore. Therefore, the water in Lake Baikal was indeed the best option.

“It is impossible that the Russians would stop the water supply to Xing Hai Technologies. They may have the guts, but they can’t bear the cost of doing so. Do they not want the service of the intelligent learning machine anymore? Xing Hai Technologies could simply embargo the sale of the virtual factory to Russia, and then activate the back door to paralyze the program. Don’t they want to extract the research results from the Science Lab? If they give up all these for the water in Lake Baikal that has no value, there must be something wrong with their brains.”

Some netizens analyzed and concluded that the Russians would not stop supplying the water.

“Yes, the Russians may be a bit illogical, but they’re not that dumb.”

“No country can bear the cost of offending Xing Hai Technologies!”

“With the technology and resources of Xing Hai, even after the Russians cut off the water, the problem can be solved within six months. Moreover, Xing Hai Technologies has mastered a technology that can carry out large-scale artificial rainfall based on meteorological changes. It has achieved very good results in Hanxi Province, where there was a severe drought last year. The shortcomings of implementing this technology are the higher costs. Large transport planes have to be mobilized and each mobilization cost hundreds of billions! But in an emergency, the money still has to be spent.”

“If the Russians cut off the water supply, Xing Hai Technologies could immediately cut off their network in retaliation and stop all services. Can the Russians endure that for six months or more?”

“They hold a hand full of good cards. Now, some companies and even some countries dare not offend Xing Hai Technologies or reject the request of the company.”

Some netizens lamented.

“Who said so? Didn’t Mongolia reject the request of Xing Hai Technologies, and did not allow the water pipeline to pass through their territory?”

April 15th

The construction team of Xing Hai Technologies began to lay the water pipelines at the southern end of Lake Baikal. They advanced southwest at a speed of 3 miles per day. They quickly crossed the Russian border and entered Mongolian territory.

According to the “nearest straight-line principle,” a section of 608 miles of this 1,100-mile water pipeline had to go through the territory of Mongolia. They had to borrow a little space.

Of course, Chen Jin had also sent people to Mongolia with a 5 million dollar check for the president of the country. Thus, the two parties had reached an agreement and Mongolia agreed to partner with Xing Hai Technologies in the field of education. The president of the country quickly allowed the issue to pass and the water pipeline could proceed.

However, after a mere few days had passed, the other party felt that 5 million was too little and asked for extra money in private. Otherwise, they would not let the water pipeline pass through Mongolia.

Xing Hai Technologies refused and did not give one extra penny.

The other party was angry. A ban was issued and the construction team immediately stopped working.

Chen Jin was even angrier.

“Don’t you know your position? How dare you try to pull a scam right in front of Xing Hai Technologies? You’re courting your death!” he shouted.

A series of actions went into effect.

Two Weeks Later

Xing Hai Technologies had restarted the construction of the water pipeline. To prevent the team from getting harassed by the grassland wolves, they were also protected by the Mongolian army.

Netizens were very surprised.

“What just happened?”

“The corruption of the former president was exposed on the Internet. How much money he received and how many women he was involved with. Even things like how his son was a bastard from his wife fooling around with the neighbor. All these bits and pieces were enough to compose a 50 episode TV series. It’s a big surprise,” explained one man.

“He was successfully impeached and stepped down,” said another. “In a few days, he decided to take his assets and run away, but he was stopped by the vice president with several soldiers. The vice president single-handedly killed more than 20 presidential guard soldiers. Not a single bullet missed its mark. Nearly every bullet was fatal. He boarded the plane unaccompanied and burst the head of the former president. In the process, he also seized 1,700 pounds of gold and countless cash currencies. This vice president soon became an anti-corruption hero and was elected to be the new president with a high number of votes.”

“What is even more surprising is that this new president used to be a very unfriendly person,” chimed in another voice. “He had made a lot of extreme remarks to us. But this time, after he took office, his attitude changed 180 degrees. He said that Z nation was their father and they are the son; the two sides must be friendly…”

“I don’t understand, this turbulent situation is completely incomprehensible. It’s even more exciting than a movie. Strangeness seems to permeate every aspect of this situation.”

Netizens had a ton of speculations.

As for Chen Jin, he suddenly discovered that the world was not that difficult to master or control. However, he liked the warm sunshine more than being the dark mastermind behind the scenes.

He would try his best not to do such things in the future unless it was necessary.

Chapter 335 - Bruce’s Senses

Montana, Merica.

It was a warm, pleasant day in May in the hometown of Tom Bruce. He lived in the quiet and beautiful state of Montana.

The town was very close to the neighboring country of Cadana, less than ten miles from the border. It took only ten minutes by car to enter the territory of Cadana.

Tom’s great grandparents were all Cadanians. When he was a child, he followed his parents, who’d emigrated to Merica, and had become a Merican citizen. After all, Merica had more opportunities for development.

Tom Bruce was also proud of his identity as a citizen of Merica. He could not bear it when he saw people criticizing Merica online, claiming that other countries were better. He often expressed his own three outlooks and was even labeled as a “redneck.” He was not angry, though. He even liked the label and believed that only the rednecks could save Merica.

However, Tom was a gentle and polite young man in real life. He had no bad habits. He did not have many crooked or good-for-nothing friends. He had a very good reputation among the elders. He was an “obedient darling” in the eyes of his parents.

On this day, the 10th of May, he thought about the frozen lake melting. Fishing activities could begin. He thought of the invitation sent by his cousin, Lugers, a few days ago.

After greeting his parents and getting their consent, Tom Bruce took his fishing gear and drove to Cadana. He planned to go to his cousin’s home in Calgary to enjoy a pleasant week.

This was very common in the West. In the 365 days a year, more than 150 days were spent on holidays for “spring break,””winter break,” etc. People had a rich life outside of work. Everyone had one or two hobbies that alleviated mental stress.

A warm breeze was blowing. Looking at the blooming mountain flowers and green forests on both sides, Tom Bruce was in a good mood. He drove for a few hours.

A beautiful, three-story, white-colored villa appeared in front of Tom’s eyes. Seeing the large swimming pool at the entrance of the villa, the large garden at the back that occupied a few acres and the castle-style house which was still under construction, an envious look came over Tom’s face.

“Uncle Philip has more money than before,” he said to himself.

Uncle Philip was a trader. He did business in imports and exports. He mainly bought goods from Z nation and shipped them to be sold in Cadana, earning a middleman’s fee which was the difference between the buying and selling price.

“Z nation’s products are of the best quality and lowest price. There is no substitute.”

This was a phrase often spoken by Uncle Philip.

A part of Tom just did not agree. Were they really irreplaceable? How would you know if you didn’t try? Of course, this was only an unspoken criticism in his heart. He did not speak about it in public.

Moreover, Uncle Philip was so rich, his words could be trusted. He even spurred a few relatives of the family to follow in the trading business. In the end, those who went to Z nation for their batch of goods had profited, while those who went to buy goods from other countries earned peanuts. Some even suffered a loss. This proved that Uncle Philip was right.

Tom entered the villa.

“Dear Tom, cousin, you’re here, I miss you so much!”

His younger cousin, Lugers, was very enthusiastic when he saw Tom and gave him a warm hug.

Tom felt the weight of his cousin hanging onto him. He was very surprised. He could not even fully recognize him.

“My dear cousin, the earth’s gravitational pull is obviously stronger for you now. What is going on? You were still quite nimble last year.”

This statement was very euphemistic, but it still stabbed at Lugers’ sore spot. His face became furious and painful.

“It’s all Xing Hai Technologies’ fault!” he said hatefully.

His radish thick fingers pointed at a spot in the corner of the wall.

“That is the Wa-wah 4.0 cleaning robot. I’ve never helped my mother with cleaning after I got it.” Pointing at the direction of the kitchen, he said, “I also blame the Kitchen God 1.0 robot that can make more than 10,000 dishes. The food it makes is too delicious. It is ten thousand times stronger than the junk food made by mom. It caused my food intake to increase by more than 50%. My weight has also increased uncontrollably. And there’s this!”

His cousin pointed to the robot beside him. Its mouth was sealed with tape.

“It is the most hateful of all robots. It reminds me every day that I am overeating and how overweight I am. If I don’t control my weight, I might die of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases at the age of 40. It suggests that I exercise more and even gives me a set of healthy recipes.”

“Then you should listen to it. Don’t you want to live longer?” Tom asked.

“I am listening, so I play games every day and carry mental labor. I feel that one meal portion from the healthy recipes is not enough, so I eat two portions for every meal! I thought I would lose weight quickly. I didn’t expect to get fatter!”

Lugers delivered a ruthless kick to the robot.

“Liar, you are a liar!”

Tom was exasperated. Eating one portion made based on a healthy recipe was healthy, but that was not necessarily true when one ate two portions. His cousin’s IQ made one feel anxious for him. Tom still comforted him.

“Don’t be sad, my cousin. I will take you fishing tomorrow. We’ll go outdoors for some exercise. Follow me and you will be nimble again.”

“Okay, let’s go fishing tomorrow!”

…

The Next Day

They fished outdoors for only about a short half-day before Lugers was panting heavily and arguing to go home.

“This is not fun at all. We only caught two small fish in two hours. I want to go home, I want to fish in my game. I can catch a big fish in five minutes in the game!”

In the end, Tom had no choice but to follow his cousin’s home.

For the remaining six days, he followed Lugers and played six full days of games on the “Xing Hai Second Generation” computer with its premium configurations. Even Tom Bruce himself was deeply addicted to it.

The games developed with the Star Game Engine were so fun to play. The graphics quality was so beautiful that one could be completely immersed. Then, they would eat the food cooked by the “Kitchen God” robot. They drank cola and enjoyed the convenience brought about by a variety of robots.

Tom felt like he was living in paradise for those few days. His weight increased by 11 pounds. He felt a little like he was indulging in pleasure and forgetting his home and duty.

When his cousin mentioned that he hoped that Tom would stay here and play for a few more days, Tom Bruce almost nodded subconsciously.

But this was not his own home after all. His home was in Montana, Merica. He still had to go back or his parents would worry about him.

A flash went through his mind.

“It seems that there is no product from Xing Hai Technologies in my home. Not only are Uncle Philip and his family fans of Xing Hai Technologies, but they also have many products from Xing Hai Technologies in their house,” Tom muttered. “Those products are very great, very convenient. I bet that I would become like my cousin if I lived in that same condition for half a year. Why is there no Merican company that develops products that have similar functions as those products from Xing Hai Technologies?”

He thought about the rumors and negative whispers he’d heard about the Z nation company.

“If Xing Hai Technologies is a ‘tech thief’, how could they steal to this extent? They seem to have stolen a lot of things that we don’t have…”

This was impossible! It was also illogical.

Common sense told Tom Bruce that those good products could not be achieved merely by stealing. The products carried out their work based on data in the big data systems. The data could only be collected through daily use of the products, and only in trickles.

In the seven days he had lived with his cousin’s family, all that he’d seen and heard with his own eyes and ears was battering the belief in his heart that had remained steadfast up until this point. He gradually realized that he might be living in a huge lie.

After going home, he combined this seven-day experience into a post that was thousands of words long and published it online.

“I lived in my cousin’s home for seven days,” began the post.

No one could’ve predicted the reaction it caused. The post very quickly set off a huge wave on the internet.

Chapter 336 - Manned Landing on the Moon?

Vituperation. Overwhelming negativity and outrage. Almost no comments were made by normal, rational beings. Tom Bruce never thought that there would be so many people pointing fingers at him. He felt terrible, hit by displeasure and sadness.

Xing Hai Technologies stole our core technology. Are you actually defending those thieves?

That story sure sounded true enough. If that’s the case, you should move to the Z nation and so should that cousin of yours. Both of you should go to hell!

If such advanced technology wasn’t stolen, with their intellect, they would at least need another 10 thousand years to come out with such things.

Since Xing Hai Technologies’s products are so good, why don’t you leave and go back to the Z nation?

I suspect that you’re not an M, but a spy sent from the Z nation.

Scram you filthy bastards! You’ve already stolen everything from us and now you want to steal the truth as well? Nice wishful thoughts you have there!

Tom Bruch who couldn’t bear any of it and refuted these extreme remarks immediately. refuted immediately. He replied to many comments, expressing that he was not a Z but an authentic native from Montana! He even posted his photo and house address, saying that he could bring the skeptics to his cousin’s home.

Lies, I won’t believe even a single word from you.

Oh, this is your address? Very well you little punk from Z. You’re dead meat. I will smash your face open with my bare fist.

You bastard! Just wait, I’m on my way to your place, I’ll whack the sh*t out of you!

I will wipe you off the face of Earth you little Xing Hai Technologies spy.

Many netizens posted relentless threats, causing Tom Bruce to fear for his life for several days. He waited, but nobody came to smash their fists on his face.

Tom was struck by a feeling. It seemed that not long ago, he too acted this way, often squabbling under those posts that spoke badly about the M nation. He had also waved his fist, expressing, via the keyboard, that he would hurt the person in question. In the end, of course, he punched no one.

He had also once sworn to not buy any products incorporated with Qualcomm chips, but in no more than a few days, he gleefully bought a new phone incorporated with the most advanced Qualcomm Xiaolong 8550 with running scores of over 600 thousand points. It would greatly improve his gaming experience.

Tom Bruce remembered a term he’d heard. Keyboard warrior.

“So, I’m a keyboard warrior as well,” he thought.

Keyboard warriors were commonly timid and fearful in real life, but on the internet, their language would become extreme. They would bear no scruples as they spoke cheerfully and wittily on the internet, delivering their judgments on every aspect of society. They would become impassioned as they followed trends blindly, dancing along with the rhythms played by the others. For these reasons, keyboard warriors were often recognized as losers.

Tom Bruce kept his head down. He had to admit that he was a keyboard warrior and a loser, but he had his judgment and his own independent mind. News reports could blind him for a while, but after having experienced several of Xing Hai Technologies’s products, he could no longer be blinded.

“The Z’s can never steal something we don’t have! Besides, scientists from the M nation are so smart, why can’t they launch similar products immediately? Even if it’s just an imitation, we could also come out with a few similar products. As long as we have them too, even if the Z’s were a little earlier, we cannot rule out our suspicion of them stealing our tech,” Tom said to himself. “The problem is that we have no similar products, neither are we as advanced as them. This cannot be justified.”

Although Tom Bruce was a keyboard warrior, in the end, he was not a brainless person. If nobody could answer his questions and convince him thoroughly, he would always doubt those opinions reported by the news media.

It was already May now. The final vote of the presidential election would be held in a few days. There were only two presidential candidates left, Lanfelord from Party A and Jefferou from Party B. Lanfelord was from the Academy of Sciences of M. He was a scientist and a representative of the elite. Jefferou, on the contrary, was a Cuban refugee. He had a low status and was a representative of the lower class.

Originally, Tom Bruce supported Jefferou and intended to vote for him in the final election because he’d promised to find ways to expand the nation’s armament and build 15 aircraft carrier battle groups. Not only that, but he’d also promised that the M nation’s hegemony would never falter. He vowed to exert more pressure to get back the technology the Z’s had stolen from them! If he failed to do so, he would end his life!

These hot-blooded words had won Tom’s heart back then. He’d immediately decided to cast his vote for Jefferou. Besides, on the internet, almost all the keyboard warriors were inclined towards Jefferou, believing that he would find a way to make justice prevail. According to online polls, Jefferou’s support rate was over 75%.

As for Lanfelord, his act had utterly disappointed many of the younger generation. They even called him “a coward without balls.”

“We should abandon our global hegemony, shrink our influence, reduce our army and give up on interfering with the internal affairs of other countries,” Lanfelord had said. “We should forgo the responsibilities that we could not take and live our own life. We have vast territories with enough oil, shale gas, coal, etc. to live off of our own resources. We are the world’s largest agricultural producer. Our farmers produce enough food to feed a billion people. We can earn a lot of income by simply exporting food.”

Lanfelord had continued, urging the people to consider worrying about themselves instead of interfering with others.

“We have the safest surrounding grounds. We can cut more than half of our army and shrink military funding to below 400 billion dollars while still ensuring that no one can invade us. We should also cut down our expenditures on unnecessary foreign operations and divert the funds into the fields of science and technology and infrastructure. Only in this way can we improve the lives of our people, reduce the unemployment rate, realize fiscal surplus, reduce our national debt by more than 300 billion dollars each year, and slowly pay off our 30 trillion dollar national debt. Our focus should be on ourselves! The M nation is not the savior of the world. The more we take on our shoulders, the more the countries will despise us. The more enemies we will make, and the more we will need to spend. Ultimately, we will become the second empire that collapses onto itself.”

He was a smart, well-rounded man.

“From now on, give the position of the hegemon to the Z nation. We should now just live our own life. What we need now is to recover, not continuing to tear our wounds apart!”

Lanfelord’s speech had gained the approval of many.

It was indeed as so. It was too easy for the M’s to live a good life. Their vast land, abundant resources, powerful technology, non-threatening boundaries, relatively light population burden, once they gave up the hegemony, retracted their fists and reduced military expenses, they could immediately turn losses into profits and ease their debt crisis. Even if they lost their hegemony, the life of the M’s would still be several times better than the Z’s in the next few decades. It all came down to whether they were willing to let go.

Lanfelord’s public support rate, however, was less than 30%, and his words only reached a small number of people. The keyboard warriors on the internet, who held the mass majority, would rather forsake a good life to get the vile breaths out of their system.

As for Tom Bruce, who had gone to his cousin’s house and had gone through cyberbullying after his primary awakening, he was added into an organization called the “House of Truth.” Not only that, but he became a supporter of Lanfelord and was tasked with a special mission.

Wake up those keyboard warriors who are kept in the dark by the media.

It doesn’t matter if they make any drastic comments on the web, but don’t let them be taken with the rhythm, don’t let them vote for Jefferou!

Once Jefferou is elected, the M nation will be destroyed, and we will have no hope at all. We must spread the truth as much as possible, and we must not let our country be destroyed by the hands of the keyboard warriors!

Tom Bruce accepted this difficult and sacred task.

Unfortunately, regardless of how hard the truth works, lies always prevailed because lies were more enticing and desirable.

May 25th, Three Days Before the Final Vote

Laughter erupted. Presidential candidate Jefferou smirked in triumph. His public support rate was still maintained at around 70%. There would be no suspense in the outcome of him securing himself a steady win.

Then, news from the East caught the entire M nation off guard. Jefferou was also in immense shock. The Z nation had suddenly announced the launch of their manned landing on the moon! There were only ten minutes left in the space shuttle takeoff countdown!

Chapter 337 - : Rapid Moon Landing

It came too suddenly.

Before the delta-winged space shuttle took off, the Z nation had never made any official announcements about any plans to perform a manned landing on the moon.

According to the established plan, the first step to establishing a moon landing was to realize the orbit of the detection satellites around the moon. This step had been accomplished in 20X7, 17 years ago.

The second step was to realize the unmanned probe’s landing on the lunar surface, deploy small lunar exploration vehicles and let it roam about the surface of the moon. This step had been accomplished 11 years ago through the launch of “Chang’e 3.”

The third step was to launch a large, unmanned detector, land on the lunar surface, use robots or mechanical arms to collect lunar soil, put it into the return capsule, and launch the return capsule carrying the lunar soil back to Earth. This step was attained in the year 20X0.

These steps had no affiliation whatsoever with human astronauts, however. Even a rover bringing back lunar soil was still classified as an unmanned landing operation. The true “manned moon landing” operation was arranged after the year 20X0.

The Z’s were too pragmatic, they would never engage in things that would make them lose money. During the M-Russia Cold War in the 1960s, the M nation had conducted manned moon missions of 10 billion M-dollars per instance, seven times in a row. Only the M’s could afford to be so capricious with their wealth. Converting the purchasing power of 10 billion M-dollars into current Z-dollars, it was roughly equivalent to 300 billion Z-dollars.

Of course, technology was advancing and the cost of space launch activities was constantly decreasing. If a manned mission to the moon was to be implemented at the current stages, the Z nation could send a group of astronauts to the moon at approximately 100 billion Z-dollars per instance.

This wouldn’t cut it for the Z’s. It was still way too expensive. Paying a hundred billion bucks just to bring a hundred pounds of lunar soil back to Earth was uneconomical. Any expert would criticize that course of action for being a waste of resources and a vanity project.

For this reason, the manned moon landing was a plan that had always stayed in the mouth. It had never even been implemented on paper. It was only possible that the Z’s would launch such projects when the time was ripe.

This time, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of Z had suddenly begun building the “Celestial Maiden” space shuttle and announced the manned moon landing mission, catching everyone off guard. Was this fake news? How high was its credibility? Was it true that there were astronauts from the Z nation landing on the lunar surface? Everyone was full of doubts, it was only 20X4 after all.

But this was indeed concrete truth.

After the Celestial Maiden had entered outer space, the space shuttle swiftly connected with the “Tiangong-3” space station. The space station replenished the “Celestial Maiden” with fuel and supplemented her with some resources. Immediately after, the Celestial Maiden accelerated and escaped Earth’s orbit, thrusting straight towards the moon.

On a live television broadcast, an aerospace expert explained.

“We are 100% confident that the Celestial Maiden’s manned mission to the moon will be successful. For traditional manned moon landing methods, we would have to launch a large spacecraft with a weight of hundreds of tons to the moon. The spacecraft would consist of a lunar orbital module, a landing cabin, and a return capsule. It would carry mostly fuel. Astronauts could only conduct activities about the surface of the moon for two to three hours, bringing back less than 100 kilograms of lunar soil. It would cost two to three billion dollars to do so.”

Here the expert paused, then continued with a smile.

“The Z nation could not afford a moon landing with such a high cost. We can’t afford to play expensive games. The reason we dare launch the manned moon landing mission now is that we found some ways to save costs. We are saving money by allowing the Celestial Maiden to land directly on the surface of the moon, commence scientific experiments, collect lunar soil, then perform a vertical takeoff and return to Earth. Logically, this way of landing on the moon is difficult to achieve from the technical aspect, but we can accomplish it because the detonation engine installed on the Celestial Maiden has three times the fuel utilization efficiency than that of rocket engines. The 20 tons of fuel carried by the Celestial Maiden is equivalent to the 60 tons of ordinary spacecraft.”

The expert smirked.

“Moreover, the Celestial Maiden is bringing along with her ‘High Energy 1’ batteries that have the highest energy density. The huge energy storage can supply energy for several ‘Hall effect thrusters’ at the shutter’s rear. Hall effect thrusters are also known as ion thrusters. They use an electric field to accelerate particles which will then be ejected at velocities of more than 100 kilometers per second. Compared to other engines, it saves up to 90% energy while producing the same amount of thrust.”

Audiences watched their televisions in awe, listening to the expert speak with their mouths wide open.

“The Celestial Maiden is carrying the most efficient solar panels to charge the batteries within space shuttle. Just the electricity generated by the solar panels alone can save us up to one ton of fuel. For landing and leaving the lunar surface, we will be adopting vertical landing and takeoff, realizing them through the small thrusters at the bottom of the Celestial Maiden. The Moon’s gravity is only one-sixth of Earth’s, so the Celestial Maiden can perform takeoff without requiring too big of a thrust. The two astronauts can stay on the moon for more than 12 hours and return with more than a ton of moonstone and lunar soil. The comprehensive cost of this mission will be no more than a billion dollars. We have 100% confidence in this mission.”

30 Hours Later

Under the watchful gaze of billions of witnesses around the world, the Celestial Maiden descended, gradually decelerating, and at last landed firmly on the lunar surface. Opening the hatch, two astronauts from the Z nation walked off the space shuttle and planted a five-star red flag on the surface of the moon.

“We’ve succeeded! We have successfully landed on the Moon!” yelled Z nation citizens.

“Unbelievable, I dare not believe that this is real”

“For thousands of years we have dreamt to land on and explore the moon, has it just been achieved that easily?”

The whole of the Z nation was smeared in jubilance. Some were cheering, while some could not believe what they were seeing. Many had faces covered in tears.

On the internet, some netizens were unable to react in that particular instance.

I’m feeling nothing at this moment, just puzzled.

Yeah right, it all happened too suddenly! Accomplishing a manned landing on the moon without any prior notice, I didn’t even have time to brew my tears.

I too wasn’t mentally prepared for this. I have yet to establish any feelings. I feel that this is very awkward.

It feels so very rushed!

I’ve only heard of rapid firing, I’ve never heard of a rapid moon landing.

With countless netizens spreading and spoofing the news, the Z nation’s significant and grave mission to the moon was branded as “a rapid moon landing” by the mass majority. Watching the live TV broadcast, looking at the Z nation’s astronauts playing and jumping on the lunar surface, all the M’s were dumbfounded and had collectively suffered a major blow.

Chapter 338 - The Final Comeback

The Z’s sudden landing on the moon had abruptly quieted down the bustling election in the M nation. Everyone had their eyes set on the moon.

For the M nation’s scientific community, this was a rare opportunity to speak out and bring their people into the light through the media. Many well-known scientists and aerospace experts used this chance to explain some things to the public.

“Honestly speaking, we would need another five to ten years to build a space shuttle comparable to the Celestial Maiden,” said one scientist. “We have yet to tackle the high-thrust detonation engine technology. We are far behind in high-energy battery technology. As for the high-thrust Hall engine technology, we are only on par with the Z’s. In short, we are yet unble to create such an advanced spacecraft.”

“We have to admit that the Z’s have surpassed us in science and technology,” admitted another expert. “This is a cruel fact and a shame to the scientific community of the M nation. We should increase our investments in research and development and strive to recapture our moon in three to five years! We should not be rattling, and in the end, realize that we are not moving forward.”

“In the last century, our Apollo mission to the moon successfully landed six astronauts on the moon and brought back hundreds of kilograms of lunar soil,” said a technology expert. “This time, the Z’s Celestial Maiden could return a ton of lunar soil in just a single trip. Their expenses are only equal to a thousandth of the cost of all our past missions combined. Their success has disgraced us. What is even more heart wrenching is that as of now, we still can’t accomplish this same feat.”

“Enough! Do not deceive yourselves any longer! Their technology is not stolen from us,” a Merican scientist said passionately. “Even if we were given the information of an alien spacecraft, we would still need a few decades to build a similar spaceship. Let us just admit that the Z’s are excellent. Now they are stronger than us and we should start learning from them! Our technological development has been stagnant for more than 30 years. We even lost the ability to land on the moon. If we continue to be unrepentant, we will lose everything.

“The Z’s are already far ahead of us. We must not numb ourselves with lies any longer! We must concentrate our strength and strive to catch up to them!”

In the television media, scientists were using a very solemn tone to express the grimness of the current situation. On the internet, Tom Bruce and others seized the opportunity to carry out their operation, throwing out a variety of thought-provoking questions:

Can someone who only knows how to copy obtain a full score on an independent exam?

Look at that Z nation’s space shuttle, can we make one immediately?

Would you rather believe a scientist or a politician with a mouth full of lies?

Is defaming others just an excuse for us not to work hard?

In the discussions, a wave of rational voices began to rise, bringing truth to many people. What ultimately swept across people’s minds was a speech by Presidential candidate Lanfelord.

“I know that one thing above all is the most painful for people in this nation, and that is admitting that we are inferior to others,” he said with a heavy heart. “I too am in immense pain. Every night, I lay in my bed restlessly, not wanting to recognize the rise of the Z nation. But the truth will not be altered by will. There’s a reason behind the rise of the Z nation. For decades, they have been focusing their energy on the development of their economy. They have invested a lot of resources in their infrastructure and scientific research. They have been persevering and working hard throughout the years and have not wasted their national power anywhere. Eventually, the fruits of their labor blossomed.”

Here Lanfelord paused, shaking his head before straightening his shoulders and pressing on.

“Of course, we’ve also worked very hard. My colleagues and friends around me are all working hard. Our efforts are no less than the Z’s. But look at what we’ve done over these years. War! The M nation is involved in warfare all around the globe. We burnt trillions of dollars and in turn, we harvested hatred. We stormed into a country and silently withdrew, gaining absolutely nothing in the end.”

He frowned, his brows furrowing over dark eyes.

“We should increase our investments in science and technology, but instead the money is transformed into guns and shells. We should improve our infrastructure, but the money is used to intervene in the affairs of other countries. We have been dealing with international affairs incongruously, using an 18th-century mindset to hold on to our hegemony. Because we have done too many stupid things, we have expended too much national power. It is because of this that the Z’s had surpassed us.”

Lanfelord looked into the camera and the eyes of his country.

“The weakening of the M nation’s hegemony, our new status as second in the world, all of this is our fault. Even at this time, there are still people who wish to use their fists and hurl our precious resources into tanks and cannons to ‘take back what we have lost.’ The problem is, we can’t even settle a small country, how could we have the confidence to bring down such a big nation? What’s more, the Z nation now has many friends. The whole world is now trying to please them. Our friends are dwindling. Our most intimate allies are leaving us one after another. Now, who is lying to you and saying that we will win for sure? Please stop going down the wrong path! There is no everlasting empire, no sun doesn’t set. It is more important than everything else for us to divert all our resources back to our country, boost our economy, increase our investments in science and technology, improve our infrastructure, and live our own life!”

It was the 28th of May. After the speech ended, the polling began.

…

May 29th, Xing Hai Edifice Recreation Area

“The M nation’s polling results are out!” yelled an executive who’d been scrolling through his phone.

“Oh? Who was elected?” asked Chen Jin as he lifted his head slightly.

“Lanfelord was elected with a 50.6% vote, pulling off a final comeback!”

“How is that possible?” Ling Jundong asked and stood up in shock. “Winning more than 20% of public support in such a short time, doubling his previous amount of supporters, this is impossible!

“The article implies that Lanfelord’s last speech moved the hearts of many. Even I thought that it made a lot of sense,” replied the executive.

Chen Jin shook his head.

“In the history of the M nation, they have experienced many major setbacks. They have an economic crisis on an average of once every decade and have experienced several depressions. They almost tumbled down into the abyss, yet heir national power continued to rise, and their hegemony lasted for a hundred years.”

“Why would that happen?” asked the executive.

“I presume that they are just like us,” Chen Jin replied. “The M nation also possesses a strong ability to correct its own errors. They can correct their mistakes in time and will not go all the way down the wrong path. In this election, I’ve witnessed the ability of the M nation to correct their own mistakes. They are still a nation that must not be underestimated. Their hegemony may have been lost, but they will remain strong. They will always occupy an important place on this planet.”

The others nodded. What Mr. Chen said made sense.

After only ten days, Xing Hai Technologies would be ushering in an important visitor – the President’s chief aide, dispatched by President Lanfelord himself!

Chapter 339 - Saving World Peace?

Malton Raphael was an insightful, middle-aged man with a tough face. He was the chief adviser to the newly elected President of the M nation, Lanfelord. He made great contributions in the election and was deemed the President’s right arm. He was also the most trusted and important confidant of President Lanfelord.

At this moment, he was sitting opposite of Chen Jin. His expression was stern, and his profound eyes were full of worries.

“Mr. Raphael, may I know the purpose of your visit?”

After some simple greetings, Chen Jin went straight to the point.

“To resolve and cooperate,” Malton replied. “We will push Congress to lift the sanctions against Xing Hai Technologies in the hopes that both sides can initiate cooperative measures. I have come here out of the greatest sincerity and I’m eager to reach an agreement with you as soon as possible.”

“Cooperation?” Chen Jin shook his head. “The M nation is a good consumer market which bears certain appeal to Xing Hai Technologies, but your business environment is not friendly to us. You have driven away many excellent companies from the Z nation like ChinaSat, Hua Yao, Da Mi, and many others. The M nation is not welcoming towards enterprises from the Z nation. Why are you now inviting Xing Hai Technologies back?

Chen Jin found this proposal to be out of line with M nation logic.

Malton realized the sarcasm within Chen Jin’s words, but he replied seriously.

“We cannot lose our shared future! Xing Hai Technologies is the future. If you are shut out, the gap between the M nation and the mainstream world will soon expand to 10, 20 or even 50 and 100 years. If the gap widens to the extent that the threat of nuclear weapons can be ignored by other nations, the M nation will be wiped out. We cannot continue to trail behind.”

Chen Jin looked at him with surprise. Malton continued.

“This time, I have brought along with me three guarantees from President Lanfelord. First, we will push to lift sanctions against Xing Hai Technologies. Second, we will improve the business environment and protect the legitimate interests of all Z enterprises in the M nation, including Xing Hai Technologies. We will provide the most friendly and considerate services and will not allow any of our government departments to harm the interests of tech companies from the Z nation for no reason. We will no longer use security as an excuse to willfully conduct investigations. Third, we will give Xing Hai technologies special treatment, providing certain taxations and land concessions. In short, Xing Hai Technologies will enjoy our utmost preferential treatment. We are willing to give our green light and provide any back-door services for Xing Hai Technologies, even immunity to the law!”

Malton Raphael looked to Chen Jin was a solemn expression.

“Mr. Chen, we have offered all the sincerest measures we can come up with and we only hope that both sides can reach an agreement.”

Chen Jin shook his fingers.

“This is far from enough. You still owe us a sincere apology. Apologize for your politicians that slandered Xing Hai Technologies. Wash away that despicable sewage and return us our innocence. As for the rumor-mongering media in the M nation, Xing Hai Technologies hopes that they will be severely punished by law! It would be best to shut them down altogether and let the upstanding media sources reveal the truth.”

Malton’s face grew dark, but Chen Jin continued.

“Mr. Raphael, my request is not over the top. Xing Hai Technologies has a notorious reputation in the M nation. If we expand our business to the M nation, what would the ignorant M’s do to a company they consider a ‘thief?’ They might pull out guns and shoot down our employees! How exactly in this an environment in which we could grow? Make an official apology, punish some media outlets, and return Xing Hai Technologies our innocent name. Only after doing this could it become possible for us to cooperate. Otherwise, we will not step foot in a country with more than 300 million guns.”

Upon hearing Chen Jin, Malton’s face clouded even more.

“Mr. Chen, I know that Xing Hai Technologies has suffered a lot of defamation. I would like to personally apologize. President Lanfelord is also willing to give you a call and sincerely apologize to you in that matter, but the M nation cannot apologize on behalf of all the M’s. The M’s are divided into two factions, one is the rational M’s, composed of intellectual elites who are willing to apologize to Xing Hai Technologies. The other faction is the sensitive and irrational M’s, composed of ignorant madmen. They will not apologize and will stop the other faction from doing so. They might even become extremely outraged and riot.”

Malton did his best to remain composed.

Mr. Chen, President Lanfelord just barely won with 50.6% of the votes. The opposition still consists of half of our voters. President Lanfelord’s seat is very fragile. If he makes a move that is detrimental to the dignity of the M nation, the supporters of the opposition will quickly rise to more than 70%. He will lose power and even his life. Apologizing to Xing Hai Technologies is by no means a small matter of saving face, it is a matter of life and death.”

Listening to Malton Raphael, a word popped out in Chen Jin’s mind: populist. In the Western democratic world, public support rating was the root of life. To maintain the support of the people, politicians could only do the right things and not the wrong things. If they made even the smallest of mistakes, it would be greatly exaggerated by the media, their public support rating would plummet and they would be forced to resign.

Apologizing to Xing Hai Technologies at this moment in time would be the wrong thing to do. If Lanfelord did it, it would be tantamount to political suicide. An apology was impossible.

“In that case, Xing Hai Technologies cannot enter the M nation. We dare not risk putting ourselves into a dangerous country.”

Chen Jin spread his hands. Accommodating voters was what politicians should do, but he was a mere businessman, so he had no reason to accommodate the voters. Why should he even do so? Xing Hai Technologies would not enter the M nation without the promise of clearing their name!

“Mr. Chen!” Malton stood up abruptly with his hands on the table. “In the name of God, please help the M nation! I’ll just be frank with you, if Xing Hai Technologies is not willing to help us, the M nation will be thrown into living hell. The very planet will be destroyed!”

Malton Raphael’s face had gone from solemn to desperate.

“Jefferou is not satisfied with his loss in this election. He is preparing to mount a comeback. He acquired the support of the military, the military-industrial groups, and most of the media. His supporters are still above 50%. After Lanfelord took office, the military-competitive complexes, which made a fortune through war, lost the most since our military expenses will now be cut in half.”

Malton’s hands shook slightly as he spoke.

“This is a tumor that is growing on the M nation. President Lanfelord is going to eradicate this tumor and abolish those war groups, but they also intend to get rid of the President. If President Lanfelord hurts their interests, they will find a way to exterminate him. This tumor must not stay! The President is ready to sacrifice his life, but once Jefferou takes office, war will inevitably erupt and the whole world will plunge into darkness. Nuclear weapons are within their arsenal.”

At the thought of nuclear war, Maton shuddered.

“We need help from Xing Hai Technologies. We need your products to improve our education, improve our work efficiency, increase our economic growth rate, and divert our people’s attention to outer space. As long as everything is improving, the high support rate from our people will be enough for us to hold off any demons. Mr. Chen, please help us! Please save the M nation and the world!”

Malton bowed to him deeply. Chen Jin was stunned. At the moment, he was dumbfounded. The mission of saving the M nation, saving the world, and maintaining peace on this planet had fallen onto his shoulders. Was this a joke?

Chapter 340 - Sales Agent

Benefits. The essence of this world was still ultimately built on benefit.

Anyone would participate in a project that actively benefitted them, but if it didn’t they wouldn’t participate and if it harmed their benefits, they would do just about anything to protect their own self-interest.

It was waging war that benefitted the military complex of the M nation.

This group did not care about how many soldiers died or how high military expenditures would be. All they cared about was how many weapons they could sell and how much money they could make. They dispatched lackeys to take the heads of anyone who got in their way. As weapons manufacturers and wholesalers, it was too easy for them to take a life.

It was very difficult to eradicate this group. However, if Xing Hai Technologies agreed to help, it would not be completely impossible to stamp them out!

The use of several of Xing Hai’s core products in the information and technology field could save a country up to 90% of their research and development costs, and 80% of their time, increasing work efficiency by several times in many fields.

Countries that imported a full set of Xing Hai products saw an annual GDP growth rate of more than 5%. The more time the products were used, the better the effect. This implied endless business opportunities!

Ordinary people could also acquire a substantial amount of opportunities and benefits as well as see significant improvements to themselves. This would be enough to stop people from supporting a military devil that, in the end, would only toss them into the abyss. Normal civilians were mostly irrational and short-sighted. The so-called “ideal democracy” could only be realized by people with excellent upbringings and independent personalities. Otherwise, they would only be manipulated by those possessed by tyranny and lust.

Of course, this did not have much to do with Chen Jin. He did not care about the fate of the M’s. The problem was that the M’s possessed nearly 10 thousand nuclear weapons which posed a severe threat to world peace. The nuclear button might be snatched away by madmen at any time and be exploited by war traffickers.

Chen Jin had a disturbing thought.

Is it possible that Earth could become the second planet Haierfa?

He shook his head.

“Try if you dare lunatics! I’ll let my Killer Robot’s slaughter you before you can act!”

With the monitoring prowess of AIs Nuwa and Alice, every move the M nation made was on his radar. If he detected abnormal movement, he could swiftly alter history. He would not have to live in a future full of regret, contemplating space-time gates or other silly hopes for changing history. Chen Jin had many approaches in his arsenal.

However, the side effects would be immense. His potential interference could not withstand long-term investigations. When it came to things that might make him the target of public criticism, it would be better for him not to intervene.

He thought long and hard.

For the sake of world peace, should I agree to Malton’s request?

He felt inexplicably disgruntled.

After contemplating this dilemma Chen Jin turned back to Malton Raphael.

“Why don’t you bring your concerns to the Z nation government? Xing Hai has licensed many of our technologies with them. If you tell them your difficulties, I’m sure they will help for the sake of world peace.”

Chen Jin thought of the Z nation. He was sure that the country would be willing to tend to this matter. The mission of safeguarding world peace could only be shouldered by something as big as a whole county, he alone definitely couldn’t cut it.

Malton rejected his idea.

“We do not wish to cooperate with a state-owned enterprise, only Xing Hai Technologies. Your company is our only target.”

Chen Jin was a little baffled.

“Isn’t it the same?” What the heck is this guy thinking?

“It is not! The core technologies are in Xing Hai’s possession, the government is nothing but a shell. Based on our shared values, we prefer autonomous companies.”

Chen Jin rolled his eyes.

“From where can you tell that we are autonomous? How is Xing Hai Technologies autonomous?

To hell with your “shared values.”

“It’s the shares. You alone possess 100% of Xing Hai Technologies’ shares. From this, we’ve seen your persistent autonomy This is the same as the M nation. This is where I admire you the most, and it is this that makes me think that Xing Hai Technologies will be successful in our country.

Malton seized the opportunity to reiterate his idea and dished out dozens of compliments.

Chen Jin was rendered speechless. What is going on?

“So what you mean is, you’d rather be Xing Hai Technologies’s tiangou than cooperate with our country?” Chen Jin asked abruptly.

“Tiangou? What does that mean?” Malton asked.

Chen Jin asked his translator, who looked stricken, to explain the word.”

“It means lapdog,” the translator said uncomfortably.

Malton coughed. His face was flushing as the situation settled into awkwardness.

After a brief moment, he spoke again.

“Mr. Chen, I’m offended by this term of yours, but I forgive your offense. At the same time, I wish you could put this in another way. It is better if you call this a unity for freedom. This is a mutual partnership. I do hope that Xing Hai Technologies will enter the M market to empower freedom and create a better future.”

“Fine!” Chen Jin was finally moved by Malton Raphael’s words. “You can return and tell the companies in your country to dispatch their respective business representatives to the Z nation along with cash deposits, the more the better. There will also be tests on Z nation culture. Ask them to send people who know us best.”

Chen Jin sighed.

Xing Hai intends to recruit local M agents to promote the Wa-wah robot, Bang Bang robot, Kitchen robot, Star Cloud system, Xinghai computer, Little Star learning machine, Virtual Factory, Work Assistant, etc. This is the best way I can think to do this for now. We will not set up a branch in the M nation for the time being. At our current state, we should seek cooperation with agents. Once the time is ripe, Xing Hai Technologies will move over.”

The word agent had a slightly ambiguous synonym – comprador. Xing Hai Technologies intended to recruit a batch of M compradors to promote their products.

“Sure, sure!” Malton was instantly overjoyed. “Mr. Chen, thank you for cooperating with us, thank you for saving the M nation!”

He almost cried out of joy after having completed his mission.

“And another thing!”

Chen Jin was not finished.

“Honestly speaking, I do not like the M nation’s media. If it is possible, Xing Hai Technologies wants to establish a media company over in the M nation that broadcasts more accurate information and improves your people’s intellect. I wonder if there’s an issue with this?”

Malton shook his head.

“Our press law is very strict. It disallows any foreign enterprises from owning local media. If the public support rate of President Lanfelord rises, we will amend this law and open a door for Xing Hai Technologies.”

“Alright, I hope you can do so.”

Those M media that deliberately tarnished Xing Hai Technologies must pay the price. Chen Jin decided he would find a way to bring them down.

Malton hopped away in glee.

Watching him depart so cheerfully, Chen Jin shook his head.

“Are the brains of the M’s more or less problematic?” he murmured to himself.

Chapter 341 - Investment

Chen Jin agreed to the partnership. Many of Xing Hai Technologies’ products were about to enter the Merican market.

There were three reasons why Chen Jin had made this decision.

One, the technologies behind the various core products of Xing Hai Technologies, such as the Little Star learning machine, the virtual factory, and the work assistant, had progressed to the fourth or fifth generation. To buy up the Merican market using the relatively backward first-generation products was not impossible.

Two, the “Manhattan 2” project had recently made significant progress and produced a glimmer of hope. The project was established by the Merican government and involved hundreds of high-tech companies and universities. Its purpose was to achieve the technology of intelligent learning. It was likely that “Manhattan 2” would achieve a breakthrough in this core technology in about two or three years. This was a threat to Xing Hai Technologies and measures must be taken to shoot it down.

Three, money. Chen Jin intended to make money, he would earn as much as possible.

The moment he had decided to become the biggest landlord on the planet, he had felt that he should earn more money. It was difficult to earn a lot of money by relying solely on the Z nation’s market. Only with the addition of the Western market or even the world market was it possible for him to profit so largely. Compared to the idea of eternal wealth, the narrow mindset must be adjusted. Money was still more important.

After all, people were flexible creatures that could adjust themselves to the changing environment and adapt to new interests. Countless environmentalists had seen how Xing Hai Technologies, a high-tech company, was progressing further into the area of desert environmental protection and was loudly praising the company for its actions. Those environmentalists cheered the company on very enthusiastically.

Some savvy businessmen in the country could infer the real plans of Xing Hai Technologies. They quietly said to themselves that Xing Hai Technologies was brilliant indeed. No companies were immortal, but land was forever.

Xing Hai Technologies wanted to break the cycle of the rise and fall. The company was scheming to allow their prosperity to continue for decades even centuries to come. Their ambition was shocking.

The company was wealthy and imposing. It was the world leader in relevant robot technologies, desalination technology, desert anti-evaporation technology, intelligent drip irrigation technology, sand-fixing technology, special materials technology, and many others. With these achievements, the company had reduced the cost of desert governance to an impressive degree.

Some people had calculated the costs.

Xing Hai Technologies’ cost of managing 1 square kilometer of the desert was about $10 million. In the future, with the maturity of various technologies, the cost might be reduced to less than $8 million.

Even if it remained at $10 million, $100 million could make Xing Hai the owner of 10 square kilometers of land in the future. This was equivalent to a small town. $1 billion and they would be the owners of 100 square kilometers of land. This was a small city. $10 billion was 1,000 square kilometers of land and that was a small country.

Buying a small country for $10 billion and getting to inherit it forever was a true value for money.

Of course, many others could afford a small city costing $1 billion, so Chen Jin had received a lot of calls recently.

“Xiao Jin, I see that your company has invested a lot of resources in desertification control,” said Aunt He Jia. “Everyone on the internet says that it is good for the country and the people. The predecessors will plant trees so that future generations can enjoy the shade. This would benefit the people through the ages and protect the future of the planet at the same time.”

Chen Jin was not sure where her call was going, so he waited.

“Xiao Jin, your little aunt here has recalled that last question you asked me. You asked me what the meaning was of making so much money. I don’t know what meaning there is, I even felt a little ashamed. The Master of Steel, Andrew Carnegie said, ‘it is a shame to die rich.’ I have so much wealth, but I made little contribution to this society. I feel very ashamed.”

Chen Jin still waited.

“I have found it now! I’ve found the true meaning of having wealth, that is, to devote myself fully to environmental protection. To combat desertification and protect the environment, I will make a little contribution. I intend to take out the money that I have given to Xing Hai Investments and use it to invest in Xing Hai Desert Management Company instead. All that money will be used for environmental protection! I’ll do a good thing for this planet. Xiao Jin, this is your little aunt’s current wish. I hope that you can fulfill my wish.”

Aunt He Jia’s voice over the phone was passionate. She sounded so pure and holy, like an angel. Chen Jin did a facepalm and looked around. Where was the Oscar trophy? He was completely bowled over by this performance.

After muttering to himself for a short while, he replied.

“So, little aunt, you intend to donate your funds of over $15 billion to Xing Hai Desert Management Company for free? There are no other requests? If so, thank you, little aunt. This time around, you’ve changed my mind about you.”

“Hey, hey…” Aunt He Jia started panicking over the phone. “Xiao Jin, I didn’t say that. I still need the land. I want to open a private winery that belongs to me. After that, I will grow grapes and learn how to brew wine. When I’m old, I’ll have a place for retirement. Xiao Jin, I do want to contribute to environmental protection, but I also have this tiny selfish interest. Ah, Xiao Jin, even my face is turning red, can’t you understand the dream of a woman?”

Ah, so her true intentions were finally revealed.

She spoke in a tender voice. “Xiao Jin, don’t joke with your aunt again, ok?”

“Oh, I see,” Chen Jin shook his head. “Then, this is called investment. But we do not accept investment in this area currently. We have to wait until the transformation of the 50,000 square kilometer desert is completed. Then, we’ll consider an all-around expansion. When that time comes, I’ll be willing to accept this investment. We do not lack money now; we also intend to complete this project independently and evaluate our follow-up plan. Little aunt, I suggest that you wait for a while if you want to invest.”

“How long do I have to wait?”

“Three to five years.”

“Ok, I can wait! Please let me know in advance when you have plans for expansion.”

“Ok.”

Chen Jin nodded and hung up the phone.

“Little aunt, you’re a poisonous person,” he said to himself.

Of course, this was not over yet. He Jia was only the opening act!

Next was a phone call from his second eldest uncle, He Guo Fu. Chen Jin dealt with him using the same attitude. He received successive phone calls from the business bigwigs in Z nation including Jie Kema, Xiao Mage, Brother Lei, etc. All of them had a strong interest in Xing Hai’s desert management plan. They were willing to put forth a little money for a long-term investment.

Chen Jin refused all these investment requests. He told them to wait three to five years as well when Xing Hai Technologies had achieved some results.

“Three to five years?”

All the bigwigs shook their heads. Forget about it. How could they wait for so long? By now, the deserts in the country had been split between the capitalists until there was nothing left. Instead of waiting for Xing Hai Technologies, it was better to increase investment in other sand control institutions and thereby increase the influx of “hot money” into the desert, so they did not call Chen Jin.

The last call was from Little Brother Ze.

“Little Brother Ze, your dad wants to invest money to participate in the desert governance too? Don’t talk anymore, ask your dad to wait for another three to five years. I don’t need investments now, we can talk about investments in the future.”

Chen Jin said this subconsciously and without thinking. He had repeated this speech dozens of times.

“No, Brother Chen, I am not calling to talk to you about that,” replied Wang Zeyu. His voice was gloomy. “I…I am dying, Brother Chen.” He started to sob. “I have AIDS. Everyone has abandoned me!”

What?Chen Jin was shocked

Chapter 342 - An Incurable Disease?

“Little Brother Ze, you have AIDs?”

Although the fact was a little shocking, Chen Jin was not entirely surprised.

“I reminded you to pay attention to safety, but did you listen to me? Money cannot help to repair this disease.”

“Brother Chen, how can you say this to me?” asked Wang Zeyu. “You make it sound like I couldn’t wait to get AIDs. Can’t you say something to comfort me?”

Wang Zeyu was about to have a breakdown. The whole world had abandoned him, but he’d never thought that Brother Chen would do the same.

Chen Jin coughed a couple of times. Due to the surveillance system, he knew very well how many women Wang Zeyu had slept with, including many female celebrities. The number of short movies that he had saved in the past few years numbered, at the very least, in the thousands. Wang Zeyu had been with more than 100 women, and some of them were even very popular female leads in movies. It could even be said that he’d slept with half the entertainment industry.

This was somewhat related to Chen Jin. Wang Zeyu was one of his few friends. They referred to each other as “brother.” Wang Zeyu often told women that the rich and famous Chen Jin was his brother, which made him very popular as a result.

“Little Brother Ze, don’t be too sad. Nowadays, AIDS is not that terrible. As long as it is properly treated, your life expectancy can be extended by at least 20 years,” Chen Jin comforted him.

There were many treatments for AIDs. The most advanced treatment methods were said to extend the life of patients for more than 30 years. An AIDs patient could have a lifespan that was nearly the same as that of an ordinary person.

“I know, I have checked this information.” Wang Zeyu said as he grabbed his hair. “But I might as well be dead now! Everyone looks at me like I’m a ghost. My friends have left me. My siblings hide when they see me. Even my parents are not willing to see me. They want to deprive me of my inheritance and disown me!” He gritted his teeth. “I was abandoned by the whole world. It is better to die than to live like this!”

Human relationships changed daily, and the world was filled with hypocrisy. Only in times of danger could one see the hearts of men. Of course, part of this situation was due to his own actions. He could not imagine how the pure sweet girl he’d known could have been a carrier of such a horrid disease. When he thought of the girl’s departure and the weird smile that she’d flashed in his direction, filled with all sorts of meaning, Wang Zeyu felt chilled to the bones. He had fallen. The goose-hunter had been pecked and made blind by his prey. He could not deny that this was a kind of retribution.

He did not deserve to be reduced to such a tragic end, however. He just liked to play around with women. He did not do any other bad things. He did not do drugs, in fact, on multiple occasions, he had reported others anonymously for taking drugs. He’d even received several prizes because of this. That was a suitably good thing, right? How could a good person like him receive this terrible retribution? He could not accept this. He really could not.

“Little Brother Ze, don’t be agitated. Think about your age, you’re only 30 years old. You’re not married, you have no children. There’s a lot of happiness that you’ve not yet experienced. You still have a long life, do you want to die like this?” Chen Jin asked.

“I don’t want to, Brother Chen, I don’t want to.” On the other end of the phone, Wang Zeyu wailed loudly. “Brother Chen, I’m scared, I’m really scared, I don’t want to die!”

At this moment, he was helpless, like a child.

“How about this,” Chen Jin replied. “You could come to my villa in Junting Grand Court. I’ll get the best doctor to look you over and see if he can cure this.”

“What?” Wang Zeyu was stunned. “Brother… Brother Chen…you’ll let me go to your place?” he stuttered. “You are willing to take me in? Brother Chen, you’re not abandoning me?”

“We are brothers,” Chen Jin said calmly. “And since we’re brothers, how could I abandon you?”

Wang Zeyu’s tears rolled down his face like he was about to die.

“Brother Chen. You are the person who treats me the best in this world. After this, my life will be yours, I will obey you forever!”

The mounting despair that Wang Zeyu had felt since he received the news was eased slightly. Everyone had ridiculed or attacked him. They’d rubbed salt in his wounds and abandoned him. Only Brother Chen had shown him some warmth and kindness. He was the only lamp in Wang Zeyu’s endless darkness. He was so touched that his cheeks streamed with tears.

“Ok ok, stop being mushy. Come over, I will help you think of solutions,” Chen Jin said.

…

Junting Grand Court, Two Hours Later

Chen Jin’s robot double saw little brother Ze. He looked absent-minded, unkempt and unshaven; his overall image was that of a beggar. Chen Jin’s eyes swept over his left wrist. In his heart, he was sure that the watch was still on his hand. He nodded slightly. It looked like things could be settled this time. He stepped forward and patted Wang Zeyu’s shoulder. The first sentence that Chen Jin spoke made light shine from the sick man’s eyes.

“Little Brother Ze, you can rest assured. I have a way to cure this disease!”

Doubt and disbelief immediately clouded Wang Zeyu’s face. How was it possible to cure AIDS? This was an incurable disease! There was practically no cure.

In reality, medical institutions had explored dozens of treatment programs since the birth of the AIDS disease. However, most treatment options could only offer effective relief; they could not completely cure the disease itself.

HIV was very fragile. There were many ways to kill it. For example, there was a kind of red wine that could kill up to 70% of HIV in the body after ingestion. Also, AIDs medications like Tivicay, Truvada, etc could kill HIV in the human body. However, the power of HIV was in its ability to make a comeback. Even if 99.9% of the virus was killed, as long as there was one cell remaining, the disease would return.

HIV was very smart. After experiencing danger, it would hide in T cells and go into a dormant state. It would erupt again after a while. It was very difficult to remove its roots.

Also, due to the virus’ increasing resistance to medication, many drugs would gradually become ineffective against HIV. Patients would eventually die from various complications flaring up. AIDS was one of the most difficult diseases to overcome.

Of course, the most terrible thing about AIDS was the various social and ethical issues it brought on. Besides, the patient had to face public criticism, alienation by family and friends, intangible isolation, etc. These mental wounds were far worse than the physical symptoms of the illness.

However, in Chen Jin’s book, AIDS was not even worth mentioning. Based on Haierfa’s level of medical technology, there were at least five or six ways to cure AIDs. There was genetic engineering, nano-robot removal, drug blocking, etc. It was as easy as dealing with a cold.

“Brother Chen, are those only words of comfort? I’ve checked a lot of information. AIDs is difficult to cure!” Wang Zeyu said.

“Little Brother Ze, this is a surprise that I want to give you,” Chen Jin explained. “Even I have just learned about this. A biological research center under Xing Hai Technologies has developed a brand new drug that cuts off a certain gene on human T cell DNA. This would prevent the disease from identifying a target for invasion. After the virus has been cleared out, another drug can be used to repair the gene. This will achieve a perfect cure for AIDS.”

Chen Jin had done his homework beforehand.

Wang Zeyu’s eyes finally lit up, his face was filled with hope.

That’s great! Really great!” he exclaimed with great emotion.

Chen Jin’s professional tone comforted Wang Zeyu. He was probably not lying, there was a cure!

“Little Brother Ze, I can give you the cure. However, you have to pay a little treatment fee by giving me something,” Chen Jin said.

“Ah, what do you want, Brother Chen? If I have it, I will give it to you right away!”

Wang Zeyu was a little nervous. He was only left with a few thousand dollars as spare change. His family had frozen several of his bank accounts and he could not withdraw much money.

Chen Jin smiled.

“Give me the watch on your left hand. I’ve always wanted to collect this watch,” he said.

“Ok, Brother Chen, I will give you this watch!”

Wang Zeyu took off the watch on his wrist. Compared with his own life, what was the value of a mere watch? Chen Jin reached out to receive the watch and gave a silent sigh. The last atomic watch had come back to him.

“Little Brother Ze, please believe in the technology of my company. The next few weeks will be your journey of resurrection! You will get a new life.”

“Ok!” Wang Zeyu nodded.

…

In Junting Grand Court, Wang Zeyu actively cooperated with the various treatments that Chen Jin had arranged for him.

On another side of the country, chaos was occurring. Nobody knew who it was, but someone had exposed the news that Wang Zeyu (Young Master Wang) had contracted AIDS. They shared the medical report, which was akin to a fatal blow.

In an instant, a bomb had been dropped on the entire entertainment industry!

Chapter 343 - Rescuing The Entertainment Industry

Panic.

The entire entertainment industry was in a panic. It had suddenly become a great mess.

Right after the news was released, countless celebrities, directors and producer, put on their masks and went to the hospital where they queued up for medical examinations. Their eyebrows were scrunched in worry.

The starlight and glitz emanating from those starlets who had a thing with Wang Zeyu had dimmed. They were only left with endless terror.

This storm had only been raging for a few days, but netizens were surprised to find that many of the stars, directors, and celebrities who used to be rather active had suddenly dropped off the face of the earth. They were no longer publishing any news of their activities. In turn, this caused netizens to speculate and rumors to spring up everywhere.

Some people calculated the statistics and were surprised to find that there might be more than half of the celebrities who had suddenly fallen into “a state of quietness”. All the netizens were in an uproar.

“Wow, f*ck. Half? That’s so over the top? Is the entertainment industry really in that much chaos?”

“How formidable! One person alone has killed half of the entertainment industry. He is powerful indeed!”

“So this means that more than half of the cast of the popular drama I’m watching now might have AIDS? F*ck!”

“Saying that half of those in the industry have AIDS is an exaggeration. At most, it’s only a small portion of them. The rest of them must still be waiting for the results.”

Even if it was only a small portion, it was enough to have a devastating effect on Z country’s entertainment industry.

From the 8th of June, the stocks of all the entertainment companies on the A stock exchange had plummeted. Some were even falling continuously. The market value of those stocks was drying up rapidly.

The capitalists had withdrawn their funds in succession, and the entertainment companies were hit by heavy damages inflicted by various groups.

Even the government regulatory authorities had to step in and formulate a more stringent “Code of Conduct for Public Figures”. This new law would target those artists who led a disorderly private life and were plagued by negative news. They would be thoroughly vetted in future.

That meant if you contracted AIDS, you could forget about being a star. From that moment on, you would have to say goodbye to the screen and the stage. To some extent, this was equivalent to delivering one last hit to the affected stars. But netizens across the internet were singing its praises.

One netizen said, “This is a wise decision. Nowadays, these fanatical fans can be unimaginably terrifying. They hear about their idols contracting AIDS, then, in order to be the same as them, they would deliberately expose themselves to HIV and infect thousands and hundreds of thousands of people. Although those crazy fans will not be missed, the harm to society is too great. The innocent could very easily become infected. It is better to isolate those celebrities who have AIDS.”

“It’s the end. Our nation’s entertainment industry is over. This is an unprecedented hit!”

“I can’t wait for all of them to die! Heroes like Young Master Wang are saving our entertainment industry! It’s such a dirty industry. How could we welcome the rebirth of the industry if we do not destroy it and do a big cleanup?”

“That’s right. The above comment makes sense.”

…

Junting Grand Court.

As he read the relevant news and comments on his mobile, Wang Zeyu’s face grew dark. He was so angry that he trembled all over.

“Wang Zeting, you son of a b*tch! You b*stard!”

Bam! He threw his phone against the ground with all his might. The phone was immediately smashed into pieces.

“What’s wrong? Who is Wang Zeting?” Chen Jin asked from one side of the room.

Wang Zeyu gritted his teeth. “He is my father’s illegitimate child and two years older than me. He used to be my lackey! Every day, he would fawn on me and curry my favor. I thought he was very loyal to me, I didn’t expect him to be an ungrateful wretch! He must have exposed my medical examination report to others!”

Wang Zeyu’s heart was filled with hate. That ungrateful wretch must be planning to blacken his name and make him fall from grace! This was so that he could easily take away his right to the family inheritance.

That b*stard. If he saw him now, Wang Zeyu would give him a ferocious bite. They could play this game till both of them were dead!

Of course, it was not only his elder brother Wang Zeting who had let him down. Even his elder sister, who usually treated him well, and his parents had all disappeared from his side. He could not do anything against them when they were not even there!

Chen Jin was sweating profusely. The internal affairs of rich and powerful families could only be described in one word—melodramatic. They were way more melodramatic than a TV show!

However, Chen Jin was part of a rich and powerful family now. He also had quite a few children. He could not predict if there would be such melodrama in the future.

After all, personal interests were greater than everything else. In the face of personal interests, even family ties would collapse with the first blow.

Chen Jin shook his head. He was not going to think so much.

“Little Brother Ze, the level of HIV in your body has been reduced by 60%. These days, the disease can be cured after another treatment period. When you’ve recovered, your right to your family inheritance and everything else will be returned to you. Your brother will come to you, admit his mistakes and beg for your forgiveness.”

“Return to the past?” Wang Zeyu shook his head. At this moment, he seemed to have seen through everything. He smiled bitterly. “I can’t go back. I can never go back. When I recover, I will break all ties with them. I will take out a sum of money and work on my own projects. I have to make a name for myself. I want them to feel regret!”

“Um… It’s good to think like this.” Chen Jin nodded. This could be considered as the return of a prodigal son.

…

Another half month had passed. It was June 22nd.

The amount of HIV in Wang Zeyu’s body could no longer be detected, even with the most advanced instruments for the testing process. The amount of HIV in him was zero. In theory, his disease was completely cured.

“Congratulations, Little Brother Ze. You have a new lease of life.”

Chen Jin took out a watch from his pocket and handed it to him, “This is an ordinary mechanical watch. It’s not as fancy as the one you used to wear: it’s plain and ordinary. This is my expectation for you, that is, for you to make a fresh start, a new life and become a useful person!”

Wang Zeyu’s eyes were full of tears as he looked at the silver-gray watch made from a tungsten material. He received it solemnly and put it on his wrist. He gave off a different vibe immediately.

He clenched his fists. “Brother Chen, I swear that I will become a decent person in the future no matter what. I want to make those who look down on me now look at me again with brand new eyes!”

He had suffered this blow that had thrown him from heaven to hell. Now, he had been lucky enough to climb back to the world of the living. The changes that had occurred to him had completely remade him.

“That’s good.” Chen Jin nodded in gratification.

However, there was still a huge crisis that remained unsolved. That was the entertainment industry crisis caused by Little Brother Ze. It had now developed to the point where the stocks of all the entertainment companies were reduced to junk stocks. General public opinion was that the entertainment industry had died.

Actually, this was not particularly relevant to Chen Jin. He did not have any reason to care if the entertainment industry lived or died.

The problem was that Xing Hai Entertainment was also now caught in this cold winter. Before this incident, its development outlook had been very optimistic. However, many male and female artists contracted to Xing Hai Entertainment had unfortunately been found to be suffering from AIDS and this had had a bad impact on Xing Hai Entertainment.

“One person has killed off half of the entertainment industry”: this description was not exaggerated at all when applied to Wang Zeyu.

Therefore, seeing that Little Brother Ze had healed, and how his body was full of fighting spirit, Chen Jin patted him on the shoulder and said, “Little Brother Ze, as the saying goes, you have to get up from wherever you had fallen. If you destroy something, you need to rebuild it yourself.”

“So I have a very difficult task that I will be entrusting to you. I need you to save this nation’s entertainment industry!”

Me? Wang Zeyu was instantly stunned.

Chapter 344 - Ultimate

“Me? How can I save the entertainment industry? I don’t have that kind of ability,” Wang Zeyu said.

He could have fun and amuse himself in the entertainment industry, but to rescue said industry? What means or abilities did he have would allow him to do that?

“Don’t worry, I will teach you how to go about doing it.” Chen Jin whispered his plan in Wang Zeyu’s ear.

Wang Zeyu’s eyes widened as he listened to Chen Jin’s explanation. A few moments later, he found himself admiring the plan so much that he was praising it to high heavens.

Chen Jin intended to invest $50 million and support Wang Zeyu in setting up a new entertainment company with a 50% share. The name of the new company was to be “Heaven of Love” and it would simply be referred to as “Tianai”. Wang Zeyu would be its Chairman.

After the establishment of “Tianai”, the main targets to be recruited were those celebrities who had unfortunately “won the prize”.

“There is no doubt that the value of these artists had fallen to the level of rubbish by now. Little Brother Ze, your company can recruit them at very low prices. Before they developed AIDS, those stars were worth tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions. But now, you can get them to sign on for only tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands.”

“We’ll sign all of them to Tianai and Xing Hai Technologies will provide the relevant drugs for treatment to cure their disease. Once healthy, they will make movies, sing, and participate in various commercial performances to bring profit to the Tianai company.”

“Because Tianai has given them a new lease of life, they will certainly not be able to make selfish demands as and when they like when it comes to their salaries. A monthly salary of $100,000 would be enough with some bonus issued at the end of the year. It will become very cheap to use them.”

“In addition, this will also be a good opportunity to do some advertising. Xing Hai Technologies will soon launch a drug to cure AIDS completely. After the stars have trialed the drugs, and their fans have spread the news, there will be no need for Xing Hai Technologies to spend money advertising the drug. It would be fully promoted via the celebrities’ effective use of the drug.” This was the second advantage.

“Finally, after having experienced this rollercoaster ride, the celebrities who felt their life was over and then got a second chance will cherish their lives, restrain their actions and wash away the ditziness and ostentation that they had been living with. They would be purified into the cleanest artists. Their entire focus will be on producing excellent works of artistic merit. This will definitely help the development of Z country’s entertainment industry.”

“Of course, I can’t guarantee that this is how things will turn out, but Tianai should put all its energy into producing excellent pieces of work and use their productions to prove themselves. This is also the only way they can change the public’s impression and regain validation from the public.”

“This includes you too. The more the public discriminates against you, the more you have to prove yourself! The flowers that bloom in the mud are the most beautiful; only falling stars can collide with the atmosphere to create sparks. There can be no rebirth without destruction. By holding onto this belief to create art, how could Z country’s entertainment industry not be rescued?”

Listening to Chen Jin’s words, Wang Zeyu became fired up. He nodded fiercely. “Yes, Brother Chen, you are right! Others say that Z country’s entertainment industry is dead. I will save it! Let it be transformed and bring hope to people again! They said that I, Wang Zeyu, had killed half of the entertainment industry. If so, then I will use all my time to rebuild a new entertainment industry! I don’t want it to be filled with money and depravity, but art and culture.”

At this point, Wang Zeyu knew the responsibilities on his shoulders and clearly saw the path that he should take.

Hence, after leaving Junting Grand Court in his recovered state, Wang Zeyu took the $50 million given to him by Chen Jin. He also demanded another $10 billion from his family as his fee for “breaking all ties” with them. He put all these funds into the Tianai company, and in accordance with the ideas provided by Chen Jin, began the rescue of the “half-dead” entertainment industry.

But less than two days after the company was founded, Wang Zeyu came to Junting Grand Court hugging his arm and screaming his head off. “Brother Chen, save me! I was bitten by a female artist. She came to our company’s interview today but it was just to attack me. As she bit me, I said that I had recovered and that just made her bite down even harder, saying that she must pull me back down to suffer the same fate. I have lost a piece of flesh on my hand. I must have gotten AIDS again; give me the treatment again.”

Chen Jin folded his arms and shook his head. “Ah, who made you pass the disease onto her in the first place? It’s your own sin.”

A few days later, Wang Zeyu ran screaming to Chen Jin again. “Brother Chen, I was bitten again!”

It wasn’t long before Wang Zeyu was running to Chen Jin every two or three days. After some time, he became too lazy to do so. He had already gotten used to being bitten. Every female artiste who joined Tianai had bitten him. He no longer feared any poison.

However, his medical report showed that the amount of HIV in his body was always zero. He was a normal, healthy person. Xing Hai Technologies had achieved a complete cure for AIDS!

This gave hope to the artists who joined Tianai company. They complied with the arrangements, did their best in filmings, and work hard for the opportunity of priority treatment.

Wang Zeyu called Chen Jin excitedly.

“Brother Chen, I don’t know why, but the artists in my company have become pretty good at acting. Their films are very emotive and have deep, meaningful qualities. Their acting skills have improved significantly, especially this teen idol called ‘Jia Tao’. Everyone used to call him ‘Jia-facial paralysis’. Now, whenever he’s called to act in a crying scene, he can enter the state in 5 seconds and cry in 30 seconds. When he has to act like a madman, he becomes remarkably like a madman. He is showing signs of developing into a veteran actor even at this young age. This is a very pleasant surprise. I plan to push this fellow with all my resources. He will definitely be a superstar in the future!”

Chen Jin rolled his eyes. “Just this little bit of talent and you think he will be a veteran actor? I don’t think that you will be too bad at acting either. If you want to act in a crying scene, you just have to think about the indifference of your family when you suffered from AIDS. I’m certain you would start tearing up immediately. If you want to act like a madman, simply think about the despair you felt when you were abandoned and reviled all over the world. I’m also certain you would become like a real madman.”

“Yeah!” Wang Zeyu’s eyes lit up. “Brother Chen, what you said makes sense. I suddenly want to act too. I want to see what my acting skills are like.”

Chen Jin said, “Little Brother Ze, I’ll put it this way. The artistes in your company will definitely be the best performers in the country. There is no other reason. It is because all of them had AIDs. They have experienced the deepest hatred and despair possible in this world. This has more effectively improved their acting skills and sharpened their mentality than enrolling in a hundred famous schools.”

“Getting AIDS can improve one’s acting skills?” Wang Zeyu suddenly marveled at the revelation. “So this is what Brother Chen means! The hope of Z country’s entertainment industry.”

Chen Jin nodded. “Yes. Moreover, after AIDS has been completely removed in the future, it will not be possible to experience such despair. The artistes in your hands will be a rare treasure.”

Wang Zeyu was so overcome with admiration that he prostrated himself. “Brother Chen, I understand your plans fully now! You are a genius!”

Chen Jin smiled and shook his head. His plan had just begun. His main purpose was to sell the medicines developed by Xing Hai Technologies that could be used to treat AIDS.

This medicine had created a sensational impact after it was featured on the TV series, ” Love in Heaven”, launched by Tianai Entertainment. With the actors’ superb acting skills, the TV series achieved a total audience in the billions and an excellent word of mouth reputation amongst the audience.

The news that Xing Hai Technologies had completely conquered AIDS spread across the whole country, and even the whole world, extremely quickly.

According to statistics, there were more than 50 million people living with AIDS worldwide. A considerable portion of them were wealthy people with high social status. Because of their wealth and with some “universal love”, they had a higher probability of getting sick than ordinary people.

Now that they had seen the hope of survival, all of them made requests in the hope that Xing Hai Technologies will save their lives.

Faced with the calls and pleading of so many patients, Xing Hai Technologies let it be known that the current production of the therapeutic drug was extremely limited. Only 500 people could be treated each day, although that number would increase later. According to the registration order on the official website, the total cost of treatment for one person was $300,000. There was also a long queue for the treatment.

What if you urgently need the treatment and did not want to wait in line? Then you could donate all of your property to support Xing Hai Technologies’ desert management business. The donation must be no less than 5 million USD.

“Why do we have to donate all property? Can’t we donate only part of it?” Some patients expressed dissatisfaction and raised their own doubts.

“Only when you have given up all your property will the patients lining up behind you not complain. If you only donate part of the money and enjoy the treatment in advance, the poor will feel that it’s very unfair, and they will be very angry!”

“Moreover, the money you donate will be used for desert management. It is used to protect the earth! So not only will you be saving your own life, but you will also be saving the planet. This has such great significance and meaning. How can others remain dissatisfied?”

Alright! Alright!

No matter what was said, Xing Hai Technologies always made sense!

Hence, countless wealthy AIDS patients who could not wait for their turn in the queue, divested all of their assets to save their lives. They had used all the money that they had in exchange for a healthy life.

And just like this, in at most a day, Xing Hai Technologies earned billions.

First, was the entertainment industry, then the group of patients. Chen Jin had made ultimate use of these two groups.

Chapter 345 - Acquisition

Curing AIDS was just the beginning of Xing Hai Technologies’ entry into the medical field, and it had made a lot of money from it already.

In the following two years, Xing Hai Technologies overcame terminal illnesses such as motor neuron disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), cancer, leukemia, rheumatoid arthritis, and others, using their excellent technological advantages. Th

Including AIDS, every single one of the “5 major incurable diseases” identified by the World Health Organization had been conquered by Xing Hai Technologies.

Ten branches of Xing Hai Hospital, which were under the control of Xing Hai Technologies, had been opened worldwide to specially treat those terminally ill patients. However, there were very few patients who were eligible to enter Xing Hai Hospital. There were only a few hundred thousand patients admitted each year. It was because the fees were too expensive!

The $300,000 needed to treat AIDS was considered to be on the cheap side. Charges for other terminal illnesses readily increased to $500,000, $1 million, $5 million or even higher … Only the rich could afford it.

Of course, Xing Hai Technologies did not only serve the rich, but the company also had to leave some room for other hospitals to survive! The medical industry was a windfall industry. Xing Hai Technologies had eliminated all the terminal illnesses and in the process, destroyed a large piece of the pie. It would be strange if those remaining businesses in the medical industry did not go crazy and start creating trouble for Xing Hai Technologies.

If not for the huge size and influence of Xing Hai Technologies, it could be expected that some medical organizations would use underhand tactics to bring down the company.

Chen Jin could only raise the hospital’s prices to leave some business for other organizations and reduce the conflict.

In addition, since the establishment of Xing Hai Hospital, employees and their families working for Xing Hai Technologies could receive free treatment if they were struck with a terminal illness. This was a major welfare benefit and had greatly increased the loyalty of Xing Hai Technologies’ 200,000 plus employees. It had also greatly reduced the job-hopping rate, which was now almost zero.

Employees from other companies were infinitely envious. Countless talented workers did everything they could to gain a position at Xing Hai Technologies.

“The company that provides the best benefits in the world”: this was everyone’s evaluation of Xing Hai Technologies.

However, the energy and attention of Xing Hai Technologies had only been focused on one thing in the past two or three years, and that was desert administration. Xing Hai Technologies was very interested in this cause.

The company had invested nearly one trillion worth of funds into the 50,000 square kilometer desert in just three years. Its huge profits were all invested in that project. All the best desert transformation technologies had been applied to it, with almost no cost considerations. After all, it was said that miracles were born from huge efforts!

With such crazy investments, Xing Hai Technologies achieved in three years what other desert management institutions would take 30 years to achieve.

Green.

A large expanse of green had appeared in the northeastern part of the Taklimakan Desert, which had previously been named “The Sea of Death”.

It was just like a miracle. No plants had grown in this desert for thousands of years, yet large areas of grassland had now appeared, together with rows and rows of trees. It was as if a carpet had been spread across the desert as greenery overflowed.

The comparison photos taken by the satellites made netizens exclaim. Had some sort of spell been cast on the land?

It was green.

Although it was far from the completion date of the transformation program, Xing Hai Technologies had basically greenified the entire desert of 50,000 square kilometers in just over three years.

This gave all environmentalists great confidence. With the efficiency and technology of Xing Hai Technologies, eliminating the deserts of the world was just around the corner!

But it also caused other domestic investment institutions involved in desert management and governance to become envious and resentful. They even launched complaints against Xing Hai Technologies and denounced the company.

“This is not fair!”

“Xing Hai Technologies, you have used millions of robots in your transformation of the desert. But what we’re using is human labor. Robots don’t need to eat, drink, sh*t, p*ss or sleep. They don’t expect to be paid. We have to spend money on all aspects when we hire humans. The cost is at least triple that of using robots.”

“In addition, there’s the electricity bill. Xing Hai Technologies has its own solar and wind power plants. They can solve any power issues on their own. We can only buy electricity at 35 cents per watt (the domestic artificial sun has been put into use, but its current power generation only accounts for 15% of all electricity used) The cost of electricity also contributes significantly to the cost difference.”

“The other key area is water. Our water is pumped from the central area of the province of Tibet. Not only is the supply unstable, but the construction cost of the pipeline is very high. Although we don’t have to pay for the water, the comprehensive cost of pumping the water is more than twice what Xing Hai Technologies pay!”

“To sum up, Xing Hai Technologies needs $15 million (the initial cost is very high) to transform 1 square kilometer of desert. We must invest at least $50 million.”

“Compared to Xing Hai Technologies, we are not competitive at all! So this is very unfair!”

“Xing Hai Technologies should sell some of their robots and a portion of the fresh water from Lake Baikal to us! Only with that will we be at the same starting point in this competition! Otherwise, we will never be a match for Xing Hai Technologies.”

Many capitalist organizations grew angry and jealous. Xing Hai Technologies had too great an advantage. How could they compete with Xing Hai Technologies in terms of desert transformation?

Moreover, Xing Hai Technologies was not sharing the fresh water from Lake Baikal, or their robots which could be used to replace human labor. They were too selfish!

Xing Hai Technologies had its own explanation.

“The Worker 1 robot is a product developed by Xing Hai Technologies that cannot be introduced to the mass market for the time being. At present, people have certain fears and doubts about ‘humanoid robots’. There is a certain risk of improper use, so it must be well supervised and subjected to long-term testing. It’s not convenient appropriate to sell them to other companies. Actually, Xing Hai Technologies wants to make money from selling this product but what if there is a problem?”

Hence, the company could only perfect them as they used them.

“With regards to the freshwater from Lake Baikal, the diameter of the pipeline we laid is 3.5 meters. It can only pump a maximum of 15 billion tons of water per year which is just enough for ourselves. If you want to use it, then go to the Russians to talk about it and lay down another pipeline. Xing Hai Technologies can help you lay the pipeline, and we will only charge $30 billion.”

However, many capitalists could not accept these two explanations by Xing Hai Technologies at all. Instead, they felt even angrier and more dissatisfied.

“I have never seen such a thick-skinned and brazen company!”

“They are secretly using robots and they don’t want to sell the water either. They even told us to go to the Russians for negotiations. It would be a miracle if the Russians sell the water to us for less than $10 a ton!”

“Xing Hai Technologies, why are you so selfish? Everyone here is contributing to the cause of environmental protection. Why not help us so that the desert can be treated and managed at a faster rate?”

“Hypocritical! Very hypocritical! I bet that Xing Hai Technologies are acting on their own selfish interests. Protecting the environment is an excuse. The truth of the matter is that this is a futile attempt to loot the land for the sake of their own interests. For their own interests, they are even preventing others from engaging in real environmental protection.”

“Xing Hai Technologies is a hypocritical liar!”

In opinions expressed by the public, some even directly exposed the true nature of the company and the secret selfishness and purpose of Xing Hai Technologies.

This caused an uproar and forced Xing Hai Technologies into a passive position in this situation.

…

In the Xing Hai building, Ling Jundong frowned. “President Chen, those investment organizations are hitting us very hard. Every day, they are trying to scam us by demanding compensation for nothing and blackening the company’s reputation. Should we send a lawyer to sue them for libel?”

“For three years, we put in the investments but saw no results. We’ve thrown three years of money into the desert. Those capitalists only want to earn a quick buck, so of course, they can’t stay silent.”

Chen Jin shook his head. “It seems that must be a problem in their funding chain. They can’t continue with their expensive projects anymore. It’s almost time for us to make our move. We’ll acquire them since they look so pitiful. Xing Hai Technologies will be picking up their messes. Surely they won’t complain about that?”

Chen Jin spread his hands. He had already seen through the nature of the capitalists and how they do things. Three to five-year investments were their limit, and they had no interest in a long-term investment of 20 years. They could never achieve anything great.

“Acquisition?”

Ling Jundong’s eyes lit up. So his boss had expected it.

With regards to the desert in the northwest, the capitalists were mere guests. Only Xing Hai Technologies would be the final master.

Chapter 346 - Assassination

Xing Hai Technologies intended to clean up the mess and absorb the chaotic capital market.

For those nearby desert management institutions that continued to complain, they sent all of them an application of acquisition in an attempt to directly stop their protests.

Xing Hai Technologies wasn’t a dim-witted person with too much cash to spare. For desert lands that were already developed. Xing Hai Technologies’s offer was 3000 dollars per mu. For undeveloped desert land, the acquisition price was set at 200 dollars per mu. In the eyes of the investment institutions, these two price tags could be best described as “bottom-fishing”.

Obviously, their offers were turned down!

“Are you trying to buy off beggars with that little money? The price is really too low!”

“Developed land must not be lower than 10000 per mu and undeveloped land must not be lower than 3000 per mu. Either that, or we won’t sell them to you!”

“Under the terms of our contract, our authority over the desert land lasts for 50 years. In that time, its value can be increased several times or even hundreds of times. It will be even higher than real estate speculation. Don’t think that we don’t know what you are planning to do, Xing Hai Technologies! There’s no way I’ll accept this cheap price.”

The investors’ attitude was extremely firm. They were unwilling to sell their land at a marked-down price.

“Hahaha!” Xing Hai Technologies’s negotiator let out a chilling laugh. With a few remarks, he extinguished their fantasy and threw them into the abyss.

“Have you have ever heard of indoor vertical farming? It has developed very quickly over the past two years and is one of the top ten hot technologies of the future. Once electric bills drop below 25 cents per kilowatt-hour, the production cost of indoor vertical farming will have not much of a difference with that of traditional farming.”

“In indoor environments, pests are non-existent, and management will be much easier. And as the farms are close to the city, large amounts of transportation costs can be slashed. When all of these considerations are combined, a surplus is already secured.”

“Besides, after the relationship between the Z and M nation has improved, the Z nation can import agricultural products from the M nation in abundance. Not only will prices be cheap, but the quantity will also be astonishingly large. In this way, the food deficiency issue will thus be tackled.”

“As for us transforming the deserts in the northwest and developing the agriculture industry over there, firstly, the cost of managing desert land is extremely hefty, averaging at above ten thousand dollars for each mu of land.”

“After environmental transformations are completed and the once barren deserts are flourishing with fruits and vegetables, the produce can be transported to the eastern provinces two to three thousand kilometers away. Then, just how intense will competition on prices be and how much economic value will they actually bring? We can’t really bring ourselves to give this course of action an optimistic estimate. All we know is that agriculture is always among the industries with the lowest rate of return.”

“It is similar to animal husbandry and aquaculture. Neither industries’ gross profit is high. None of these industries are profiteering industries.”

“Therefore, to say that investing huge sums of money in the northwestern deserts will bring forth several times, and even dozens of times of return, is only daydreaming. Sand is still just sand: it cannot be turned into gold. It is impossible for us to gain a fortune from it all in an instant.”

“Of course, you are spreading rumors on the media saying that Xing Hai Technologies intends to move to the desert, shifting all our research centers, production bases, headquarters, everything, into the desert, then engage in real estate within and make money via speculation. I have to say that your imaginations are indeed brilliant.”

“Try asking the youngsters on the street if they are interested in migrating to the northwestern deserts? Or try asking your brains! Are you willing to move to a remote area in the northwest?”

“Xing Hai Technologies is committed to protecting the ecological environment, but we are constantly being smeared and misunderstood by so many people and even slandered by some lowly thinkers. People are not even thinking about the feasibility of our endeavors.”

“You even said that we will be dealing in real estate in the desert? Let’s imagine if Xing Hai Technologies really did so. A house of ten thousand dollars per square meter. Would the others buy it? Would you buy it?”

“You actually judged noble people such as us with your despicable minds. You invested in the desert along with Xing Hai Technologies and now your wallets are all burnt just three years in. How will you live for the next, five, ten, and twenty years? It will be another 30 years before you can achieve a balance of payments or make a little profit. How will you survive through these few decades?”

“Would the investors that bankrolled your services like to cash out? Could they wait so long?”

“Better stop their wallets from bleeding now! Desert management is really not suitable for capital investments. 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, I’m afraid that only companies like Xing Hai Technologies, whose heart in concerned with the future of humanity can remain committed to this. So, why are you sticking your heads into this?”

“I advise all of you to accept Xing Hai Technologies’s quote before it’s too late. In a few years, our offer will be much lower! Your clients will lose the least amount of money if you pull out now,” Xing Hai Technologies’s negotiator said earnestly, putting forward several harsh facts for the capitalists.

Their minds were disrupted at once.

Flawless.

There were no flaws in his analysis.

There were no benefits of engaging in agriculture in the northwestern deserts. Its location was far, and transportation was inconvenient.

Dealing in real estate? Which dumdum would be willing to live in such remote areas? They won’t even settle with 3000 dollars per square meter. Besides, how would the desert be better than the teeming cities in the eastern region?

Rather than investing their money in the desert, those capitalists should just continue speculating in the land of cities in the eastern region or get into indoor vertical farming. Lingering around the northwestern deserts would be completely worthless. The longer they stayed, the more they would lose.

Forget it: it was better to withdraw now. We’ll let Xing Hai Technologies make a meal off us this time around.

After analyzing the trade-offs, some slightly smarter capitalists decided to transfer the rights of their contracted desert land to Xing Hai Technologies at a cheap price.

Two months later, the area of desert land held by Xing Hai Technologies had increased from more than 50000 square kilometers to 300000 square kilometers. They held more than 30% of the country’s desert areas.

The remaining 70% of the investment institutions were still holding on and still refusing to accept Xing Hai Technologies’s quoted price. Just like gambling, they wanted to continue increasing their wagers.

Chen Jin made it clear that he welcomed all resistance. He was even hoping that they would hold out longer so that Xing Hai Technologies could save more money in the future.

If there were really people that persisted till the end, Chen Jin could only give them a round of applause and a big thumbs up, because they would be deemed as true visionaries and truly amazing people.

But in short, Xing Hai Technologies would become the “King of the Desert” in the future.

However, on a day in September 20X7, something unanticipated happened and left the world in shock.

President Lanfelord from the M nation was assassinated!

During his visit to a city in the south, he was attacked by a powerful bomb. The bullet-proof car he was in flipped 360 degrees in the air, slammed heavily down on the ground and rolled another three and a half times. Then it slid down a steep hill for more than 30 meters.

Lanfelord was severely injured and was quickly sent to the best hospital.

The forums were in chaos as countless netizens expressed their anger. Who was it? Who wanted to kill off President Lanfelord, who had led M nation to economic recovery and had more than 70% of public support? Why would they do this? Hasn’t he done well enough?

“Oh Lord, please protect President Lanfelord and save his life.”

“We must hunt down the murderer!”

“They are not allowed to kill my most beloved president!”

…

At a mysterious corner, a few voices of hatred were being vented.

“He has already escaped 13 assassination attempts. He cannot survive this time!”

“Military funding has been slashed by half. We only have 30% of our previous weapon orders. Tell me, how could we even survive?”

“The most important thing is that we have lost our hegemony. That b*stard! He wiped out all of our former glory! He deserves to die!”

“We shall forever be rulers of this planet! We must govern this whole world! We cannot be lambs cowering at home; we should be lions that rule over the jungle! If we lose our crown, we would rather go to hell!”

…

On this day, Chen Jin received a stranger’s call.

It was from Malton Raphael.

“Mr. Chen, President Lanfelord has stopped breathing. He… he’s gone,” said Malton in a mournful tone.

“Uhm… what this has to do with me?” Chen Jin was baffled.

“The President is currently in Xing Hai Hospital. We believed in your medical technology. But now, he’s lying dead in your hospital…”

Xing Hai Technologies still didn’t have a good reputation in the M nation. There were still countless examples of media outlets criticizing Xing Hai Technologies every day. With Lanfelord’s passing, Xing Hai Technologies would definitely be in some trouble.

Just then, an idea emerged in Chen Jin’s mind.

Chapter 347 - This is Impossible!

“Mr. Malton, President Lanfelord is not dead. The person who was assassinated was his substitute,” Chen Jin said suddenly, an unnerving smile on his face.

Malton was stunned and he shook his head vigorously. “No, the President is dead. He has no substitute. The person in the hospital is him.”

“It’s really just a substitute. Apparently, the President is somewhere on holiday. We need to find him and let him retake control of the situation to avoid further turmoil in the M nation,” said Chen Jin faintly.

Malton took a deep breath. With his eyes wide open, and in a tone that showed he had fathomed something incredible, he said, “Mr. Chen, are you telling me that…” He was a smart person and immediately understood what Chen Jin was trying to convey.

“Xing Hai Technologies has monitoring technology that can tap into 70% of the world’s camera systems. Give us three to five days. I’m confident that we can get the President back. Of course, the president may be a little thinner or fatter and there might be some changes to his voice, but Xing Hai Technologies has the most advanced voice-altering technology. The president will remain almost the same, but his memory may be affected. You’ll need to provide some information about the President’s daily life to guide his behavior.”

“Oh my god.” Malton’s eyes were filled with shock. Stunned, he took a step backward. “I seem to have heard the devil talking to me.”

“No no, you’re talking to an angel, an angel that will save the M nation,” said Chen Jin.

“What if it fails? No lie can completely deceive 400 million people.”

“If it fails, you will either die or become a fugitive. You can decide whether we should proceed.”

“Yes! Of course, we must. If the M nation falls into their hands, I will be killed anyway. The whole M nation and even the world will be blasted into ruins by them… we must not let those demons back. We must stop them!” Malton clenched his fist, a determined expression on his face.

Chen Jin snapped his fingers. “We have the go-ahead then.”

…

During the next few days, no one knew whether the President was dead or alive and the M nation plunged into chaos. All kinds of rumors transpired, imparting fear upon the people.

On the internet, a multitude of discussions appeared out of nowhere. They criticized President Lanfelord’s ridiculous initiatives that had caused the M nation to experience tremendous loss:

“We have lost our supremacy thanks to Lanfelord. Our potential losses exceed 100 trillion dollars”

“Lanfelord made us lose our military dominance. Our potential losses exceed 50 trillion dollars”

“That idiot Lanfelord has allowed so many enterprises from Z in, our annual economic loss exceeds 500 billion dollars”

“Although we have maintained a 5% economic growth rate in the past three years, the price we paid will require at least one hundred years to recover.”

“Lanfelord deserves to die! He is our nation’s biggest traitor!”

“This b*stard must step down. We need a tougher president”

After these articles spread across the internet like wildfire, public opinion shifted dramatically.

Within just a few days, there were a myriad of voices criticizing Lanfelord. Although there were voices that supported him, they were quickly outnumbered and subsequently banned and deleted by the platform.

His public approval rating swiftly plummeted to 40%.

….

In a mysterious place, a party was being held.

Standing in front of the microphone on the stage, a middle-aged man holding a wine glass in his hand looked at the audience below him and enthusiastically said, “Ladies and gentlemen, we have already expunged Lanfelord! Soon, the great M nation will be back in our hands. My promise to everyone will be honored.”

“Mr. XXX, our weapon orders from your company will increase by at least 10 times. General XXX, you said that you wished for war; you wished to teach some countries a lesson; you wished to become the M nation’s hero and be as celebrated as the god of war in our history books. Okay. Advanced weaponry, brave soldiers, an excuse to wage war… I will prepare all of them for you. It is time for you to render meritorious service.”

“And the few bankers over there, please have faith in me. The M-dollar’s hegemony will be back. I will strive to control the global oil production and blow up the Z’s artificial sun! The M-dollar must regain its place as the main circulating currency in the world. We must regain our right to print bills for the world.”

“For the few brilliant tech company founders over here, when I take office, for those techs that Xing Hai Technologies had stolen from you… Oh, I’m tired of the word stolen. I hope that you can do the same to them. But I will get those technologies back at all costs.”

“In any case, this world is ours. Everything is ours. It is imperative for us to get everything! For our common cause, for the greatness of the M nation, let’s have a toast!”

Jefferou’s words spoke to everyone present at the party as they all continuously nodded their heads. Together, they raised their wine glasses and said cheers to each other. Their faces were full of anticipation for a wonderful future.

But they did not realize the uproar they were causing across the whole of M nation. They were part of a live broadcast.

Everything that was happening at the party was being broadcast live to all the M’s. The hundreds of millions of viewers could not even change channel. All networks, including the advertising screens on the bustling commercial streets and public televisions, were all playing the same picture.

Every sentence that Jefferou uttered was heard by tens of millions of M’s. Many familiar faces that were at the party were identified. What they were saying caused extreme shock.

“Military costs will increase by at least 10-fold.”

“At least three to four wars will be waged.”

“There’s too much trash in this world. We should develop a virus weapon to kill off at least four billion people…”

“Petrodollar has already become unreliable. Why not seize the gold from all around the world and revert to the Gold standard?”

After hearing these comments, every normal person would feel the situation was too fantastic and improbable to be real. Lunatics, idiots, maniacs, a house full of psychotics… these were the adjectives they could think of. These people actually wanted to control the whole M nation.

Boom!

Just as a portion of the M’s were immersed in a heated debate, the front door of the mysterious meeting place blew up following a loud bang. A squad of special forces rushed in upon the event.

“Don’t move! Hands in the air!”

“You are all under arrest!”

“All of you better behave yourselves!”

Jefferou began to protest but was the butt of a gun slammed down on his face, sending him slumping to the ground. He screamed out in pain with a pathetic look on his face.

At this moment, the picture on the television screen finally changed and another figure appeared on the screen. It was President Lanfelord! He looked unscathed and exceptionally energetic.

He waved to the camera and said, “Hello everybody! For the last few days, I’ve been somewhere secret to learn about learning about hacking techniques. I have decided to make my return in this fashion.”

“Evidently, I am not dead. My substitute suffered the catastrophe on my behalf. Who is the murderer? Who is the one behind the scenes? I believe that every single one of you has witnessed with your very own eyes. Is anyone willing to be my witness and help me accuse them of committing murder?”

“This time, I’ve emerged victorious. Hereupon, I swear, as long as I am in office, I will never let those demons destroy the M nation! I’m Lanfelord. Your guardian and your protector.”

He gave a “V” gesture and disappeared in the screen while smiling.

Instantly, countless screams began to sound all over the M nation.

“He’s so cool!”

“He pulled off a feat that Lincoln and Kennedy couldn’t! He staged a perfect counterattack!”

“This is too awesome! I think this can be made into an amazing movie!”

“We are lucky to have a president whose wisdom is off the charts. He withstood the forces of evil and vanquished their vile intentions.”

“I am so charmed by him! He will certainly be able to accomplish what our previous presidents couldn’t! I will vote for him forever!”

“I’ll be his die-hard fan starting from now.”

As for the few evil backstage manipulators who had not been arrested, their faces solidified as they exclaimed in shock. “Th…this is impossible!”

Chapter 348 - Reformation, Layout

Chen Jin turned off the projection screen in front of him.

“Have I gone a little too far?”

Chen Jin shook his head. Even he thought that this was somewhat absurd.

It seemed that the colossal M nation had fallen into his grasp.

In fact, this was never his original intention. Politics was completely different from business. He wasn’t familiar with political affairs and was unable to run an institution with a mass of several hundred million people.

But Lanfelord had indeed been assassinated. He had offended the benefits of too many. He had also, unfortunately, died in the Xing Hai Hospital. Xing Hai Technologies was often targeted by the M nation’s media and they might very well get into big trouble.

When Jefferou and the other members of the opposition mounted a comeback, the whole world would become their target, not to mention Xing Hai Technologies.

For the sake of Xing Hai Technologies, and for world peace, Chen Jin had to act.

“Well, I could only call this inevitable.” Chen Jin realized he would have to try to manage a large institution and improve his abilities in big-picture thinking.

Most certainly, artificial intelligence Alice would be his right arm, providing him with data and suggestions for the various decisions he would need to make. Alice might even be able to settle many of the trivial matters all by herself. After all, Alice was born of the town managing system.

Chen Jin asked a few questions that he had the most interest in.

“Alice, try analyzing this. What if we prohibit the usage of guns in the M nation? What would happen if we imposed a comprehensive ban on the private possession of firearms? ”

“Comprehensive ban on guns?” Alice processed the request for a few seconds and replied, “If we did so, Lanfelord would encounter great resistance. He would be subjected to more than 100 assassination attempts and lose the support of more than 500 million voters. But his support rate would still remain above 50%. More than half of the voters would still support him. If this implementation is successfully executed and the people got to enjoy the security of a gunless environment that is more thrilling than they themselves owning a gun, Lanfelord’s support rate would hike above 90%.”

Chen Jin’s eyes brimmed with excitement. “Do you mean that banning guns is actually feasible?”

“It is doable, but the risk involved is very high. It would cause election contributions to plummet. Immediate implementation is not recommended. I would advise you to do it after next year’s election.”

Chen Jin nodded. ” We could only drag it backward then.”

He asked a different question. “What about banning drugs? We could strike a serious blow on the usage and selling of drugs and strive to turn M into a drugless nation. There won’t be many objections to this operation. How would this affect the president’s level of support?”

“Negative, master. By inputting more funds and increasing the size of the police force, drug crime would swiftly shrivel up. But considering the M nation’s environment which is overflowing with firearms, this would be an immensely dangerous operation and would require the participation of brave and fearless police.”

“But in my database, I have the tech for police-use robots. If we produce these robots and let them assist the police, not only will that greatly reduce the risk factor, the strike will also become very effective. If we were to let only the police robots to carry out the enforcement, the influence of moles can be avoided. Once large amounts of those are put into use, drug crime will be reduced by 70% or more.”

“Lanfelord’s support rate will also increase to at least 80%. Drugs are classified as harmful substances in any country. The entire mainstream media will support their eradication.”

“Good!” Chen Jin nodded. “Then we shall produce a batch of police robots to tackle drug crime and increase Lanfelord’s support rate.”

Chen Jin then thought of something else, which was health care reform.

The nation’s medical institutions were entirely privatized. In other countries, one might encounter problems such as “can’t afford to support” and “can’t afford to die”, but in the M nation, one would bump into a problem called “can’t afford to get sick”.

The various medical fees were too hefty. If an ambulance was called the costs would be around 2000 to 4000 M-dollars. Spend a few days in a hospital, and costs would begin to rise from a 10000 M-dollars minimum. Having a few kids would require the family to have at least 10000 M-dollars.

If one were to contract a serious illness and they have not purchased any insurance, they could only go home to die or go seek medical attention in other countries. Otherwise, the medical fees would be completely unbearable.

Therefore, in the M nation, if a person from an average family was beaten and couldn’t stand, even if their consciousness was a little blurry, it was still imperative for them to tell the people near them to not call an ambulance.

However, Chen Jin mumbled, “Let Lanfelord solve the M’s ‘can’t afford to get sick’ problem.”

“Xing Hai Technologies will form the basic infrastructure and will build 100 Xing Hai Hospitals. They will be situated within the M nation’s boundaries which covers all cities with a population of 100 thousand and above. The number of sickbeds will be no lower than 100 thousand units.”

“We will then cooperate with Lanfelord and provide ordinary citizens with affordable health care. For ailments like flu, the robots will tend to them and give them prescriptions while striving for their complete recovery at a cost of fewer than 100 M-dollars. A single robot doctor can tend to thousands of patients every single day.”

“For moderate illnesses that require surgery, such as appendectomy and extracting gallstones, these shall similarly be conducted by robots. The comprehensive medical fee will not exceed 10 thousand M-dollars.”

“Lastly will be the severe illnesses like AIDS, cancer, leukemia, and others. Treatments will not be costly at Xing Hai Hospitals. Fees will commonly be at around 50 thousand to 300 thousand M-dollars. If one has purchased the Xing Hai medical insurance, at least 70% of the fees will be reimbursed. Even if the patients are from normal families, it will still be entirely possible for them to get their life back.”

“Besides, this will be Xing Hai Hospital’s promise: if the patient’s sickness cannot be treated, half of the medical fees will be returned. Xing Hai Hospital will not provide someone with treatments for illnesses that we are uncertain of.”

“These will be the standards at Xing Hai Hospitals. This is a gospel for the M’s and Lanfelord’s brilliant political legacy. If the ‘can’t afford to be sick’ problem is solved, there will be no problem at all for Lanfelord’s re-election!”

Certainly, the ones that would sustain the highest damage to their interests would undoubtedly be M nation’s existing medical groups. Their good days would never return. They would despise Xing Hai Hospitals to their bones and might even take intense measures to stop Xing Hai Technologies from snatching their cake. However, most of the M’s would have only positive feelings. They might even resent the massive medical groups that imposed hefty fees.

The M’s would definitely welcome Xing Hai Hospitals’ interference and their provision of extremely low-priced medical services. In fact, all of Xing Hai Technologies’s products were popular in the M market and had amassed countless buyers.

The media was slandering Xing Hai Technologies every day and the keyboard warriors were calling for everyone to boycott their products, but once Xing Hai Technologies’ products reached their hands, their faces would involuntarily be full of glee and their hearts would give thanks.

It would be extremely difficult for them to find a reason to boycott Xing Hai Hospitals that would provide them with low-priced medical services. Who doesn’t want to live a healthier and longer life?

Health care reforms, ban on drugs, ban on guns… What exactly was Chen Jin thinking?

In fact, Chen Jin was still planning things. His intention was to push Lanfelord’s public support rate above 90%, making him a god in the eyes of the M’s and their greatest president of all! Then he would use his highly exalted reputation to conduct a few affairs that would change the world, benefit the planet, and most of all, bring him massive benefits.

This was also the shocking plan that was brewing in Chen Jin’s mind.

Chapter 349 - Planning Ten Steps Ahead

It was now 20X8.

In this particular year, a total of four “Artificial Suns” were put into operation, each of them generating 15 thousand megawatts of power. Together with the previous two “Artificial Suns” with power of 10 thousand megawatts on the land of the Great Z, the number of “Artificial Suns” had increased to six. They had a combined power generation of 80 thousand megawatts which accounted for about 55% of the country’s total power generation capacity.

There was also the third-generation nuclear fission power generation which made up 15% of the comprehensive power generation and another 17% comprising of hydraulic, wind, solar, and geothermal power generation.

The total proportion of clean energy had increased to 87%.

Traditional thermal power generation was left with only a 13% share. It had not been completely eliminated because it was still essential in certain industrial production.

Correspondingly, the price of domestic electricity had also slumped by a significant margin. The tariff rate for ordinary residents was 25 cents per kilowatt-hour, and cheap industrial electricity was provided at 20 cents and 15 cents per kilowatt-hour. 15 cents was the lowest price available. The tariff rate for urban indoor agriculture was apparently at 20 cents per kilowatt-hour. The government was currently supporting this industry to save for traditional agricultural land.

In the northwestern desert, electricity would only cost 15 cents per kilowatt-hour. The intention here was to encourage individuals or enterprises to contribute to environmental protection.

Regardless of that, after April 20X8, the capitalists who had swarmed into the northwestern desert had almost all withdrawn as they were unable to stick it out any longer.

No future.

There was indeed no future at all.

Rather than investing billions of dollars in the desert, it was better to speculate in building land in first and second-tier cities in the eastern region. Once indoor agriculture had become widespread, a wide span of agricultural land had been cleared. With policies getting better and better, large numbers of houses could once again be built.

In recent years, the country was also frantically encouraging childbirth. In many places, authorities were not only giving out money, they even introduced a policy called “A free house along with a second child”. This was literally a free giveaway! One would only have to pay for the renovation.

Many areas truly went the whole nine yards to increase their population.

The policy was successful. The population which originally had a negative growth rate was now in a state of equilibrium, providing much relief to the upper levels of the population pyramid.

Population growth would directly translate into economic growth. The root cause of the stagnation of the economy of many countries was their insufficient population Once a country’s population stop growing, their economy would begin to stagnate.

If there was a negative growth in population, the economy would begin to shrink. As the number of consumers dwindled, no matter how fast the technology of a country was developing or how high their productivity was, with no one spending money, they would all be merely decorations.

Therefore, population would definitely be the most important issue that all countries would confront after reaching a certain stage in their development. Nothing could be achieved without having a high enough population!

“Giving free houses” was just the beginning and definitely not the end. In the future, there might even be “18 years free education”, “free medical care”, or even “free car”, “free money”—people would be offered anything to make them willing to have a child!

Was this really possible or was it all a pipe dream? Chen Jin, however, thumped his chest and guaranteed everything would be possible in the future.

Since the beginning of 20X2 six years ago, the number of deaths that occurred in the Z nation annually had begun to exceed the number of births. In the beginning, it was only a few hundred thousand. But in the past two years, there were more than one million… all these bring about a net loss in population!

With accordance to this trend, fifty years later, the total population of the Z nation was estimated to only be at half of the peak period, leaving only six to seven million people.

Indeed, the people at the bottom of the hierarchy were just lambs and leeks. There were many ways to harvest and use them. Ordinary people have no ability to decide their own destiny. They could only follow the trend, obey all kinds of arrangements, and resign themselves to adversity.

Only in the case of childbirth could make their own decisions.

To make or not to make.

To make one or two.

The decision was entirely in their own hands.

So, when lambs were going missing and leeks were not growing, who would be the ones panicking the most?

Therefore, this world would always be dynamically balanced. One’s generation may be classified as “inessential”, but after several generations, every child would truly be the future of a country.

But there was one rule in population: once it goes down, it would never rebound.

None of the countries that had fallen into stagnation or negative growth could pull back their population growth rate. It was almost irreversible.

No country had succeeded in getting out of this predicament for the time being. No matter how good the welfare benefits that a country may provide, their people would still choose to enjoy their own life.

After a few decades, with the development speed of science and technology on Earth, no technical problems would exist for earthlings to enter the era of the Star Colony. But the problem was that the planet’s population had been reduced by half. With more room for living and with each person having two suites on average, Earth alone would suffice for all of mankind. Why would interstellar colonization be necessary?

Except for a few adventurers, who would want to settle down and live in a strange alien planet? At most, people would travel to the moon and stay in space hotels for a few days. Most people would not consider immigration. What place would be more comfortable than Earth?

If the population issue was not tackled, even the meaning of advancing forward in science and technology would be lost. But in Chen Jin’s hands lay the key to undoing this deadlock!

Besides, it was not that difficult to solve it. He could take a two-pronged approach to this matter. One strategy would be to introduce life-prolonging medical procedures, which would increase human life expectancy to over 200 years old. This would greatly reduce the mortality rate. Secondly, technology for extracorporeal pregnancy would be introduced. This would imitate maternal conditions in a nutrition compartment, provide nutrition to the fetus, and let the baby be “born” from the artificial womb. This would eliminate women’s fear of having babies and avoid any forms of damage to their body. Moreover, by preserving egg cells in cold storage, one could have a child whenever they wanted to, even if one had been through the menopause. This would ensure an increase in the birth rate.

Once these two technologies become widespread, the population problem that was thought to be “irreversible” would be solved.

With the negative population growth issue resolved and the economy experiencing re-growth, it would become necessary for science and technology to continue moving forward.

Chen Jin’s act of investing huge sums of money in the desert would gradually not be seen as “being whole-heartedly for environmental protection” and “really doing it for the future of mankind”.

“Now, the desert area in the hands of Xing Hai Technologies has increased to 500 thousand square kilometers. The entire Taklimakan Desert, Gurbantunggut Desert and the other deserts in the western region are all controlled by Xing Hai Technologies.”

“After twenty years of transformation, these deserts will be flourishing with greenery and will have become an oasis that can accommodate humans.”

“By then, I will shift all of Xing Hai Technologies’s dozens of research centers and hundreds of laboratories there, transferring over more than 200,000 technical talents. We will build ten technological cities, each accommodating up to 100,000 high-quality citizens. A million people will live there in total.”

“We will then build another 20 immigrant cities, each with a population of 500,000. The number of immigrants will total 10 million.”

“I’ll also have to build a very large spaceport and a large electromagnetic orbital launch center in the Tianshan Mountains. In the northwestern deserts, I’ll have to create a technology center and private space activity center.”

“Then I’ll do begin to deal in real estate and attract people to buy houses there. Of course, it is okay if people are not interested in buying them. But if they want to enjoy the services of life-prolonging medical procedures, they can only come to the northwestern desert and receive treatment at Xing Hai Hospitals. People will have to come if they wish to extend their life. If the patient is a local immigrant, they will be prioritized for treatment with its price halved.”

“If I turn this desert into a ‘life charging station’, would you come?”

“In the later phases of the plan, I’ll develop space tourism and space medical services, and people shall walk into the sea of stars from this very desert.”

The perception that outsiders had of Xing Hai Technologies were all wrong. They could only perceive one or two small steps ahead of them and draw false judgments out of it. Chen Jin, however, had already planned out ten steps into the future.

Chapter 350 - Seawater Desalination

Chen Jin’s plan was good, and it was certainly feasible.

However, he did not intend to reveal the technology for the life-prolonging medical procedure right off the bat. The nutrition compartment technology for cultivating infants in vitro was still ethically controversial and a lot of people would find it difficult to accept. It could take thirty to fifty years for people to get used to the idea.

The life-prolonging technology, on the other hand, would not encounter much resistance.

Five years.

Chen Jin decided that he would disclose the life-prolonging technology to the public in five years, once the first Xing Hai Hospital had been established in the desert,

One other consideration was that once the desert area controlled by Xing Hai Technologies had reached 500,000 square kilometers, Xing Hai Technologies would no longer be allowed to take control of the remaining desert areas no matter how much money they could offer. This was the upper limit of the land area that Xing Hai Technologies could hold.

This was all within Chen Jin’s expectations and he did not express any dissatisfaction whatsoever.

“500,000 square kilometers is enough. It is impossible for me to take control of all desert areas; the higher authorities would never allow it. I already have the equivalent of the area of several provinces, and it will cost five to ten trillion dollars to fully transform all of them.”

“Most of the revenue that Xing Hai Technologies earns in the domestic market will be invested in these desert land. It should just be enough.”

Chen Jin shook his head.

A few years ago, when Xing Hai Technologies had just entered the desert, his aunt He Jia had shown great interest in the plan, saying that she had found the meaning of life and wanted to contribute to the cause of environmental protection. Now that the market had encountered a breeze and with capital constantly being withdrawn, her passion faded, and she never once brought the topic up again.

“Aunt He Jia should have more than 20 billion dollars in her hands now! It’s time now for those idle funds to strike the metal.”

But those funds were not to be used in the local deserts.

…

May of 20X8.

Africa, the Sahara Desert.

On the eastern coast of Morocco, there was a research institute for seawater desalination, the Xing Hai Desalination Research Center.

Chen Jin made a video call to the center and asked about their recent progress.

“Professor Bi, how is your research on the nano-molecular permeable membranes going? Have you found a better way of extracting freshwater compared to other methods of desalination in terms of production efficiency and cost?” asked Chen Jin.

There were several alternative ways to desalinate seawater.

There were common distillation methods classified into high-temperature and low-temperature distillation. The high-temperature distillation would yield higher production efficiency while low-temperature distillation was more energy efficient.

Alternatively, the freezing method allowed freshwater contained within seawater to be separated using low-temperature freezing.

There was also solar desalination. This method used a simple solar distiller constituting a water tank and a black porous felt-filled floating hole. The top of the tank would be covered with a transparent glass lid with edge closure. Sunlight would penetrate through the transparent cover into the black insulated bottom and be converted into heat energy.

There was also the multi-stage flash distillation. Flash distillation referred to the phenomenon where a portion of seawater evaporated rapidly when the pressure of seawater at a specific temperature was suddenly lowered. Multi-stage flash distillation would evaporate heated seawater within a series of flash chambers in which pressure was gradually reduced and the steam would then be condensed to obtain fresh water.

Lastly, there was also the membrane osmometry, which was more commonly known as “ultrafiltration.” This method separated freshwater from seawater via the means of a semi-permeable membrane that would allow only solvents to permeate it. Under normal circumstances, freshwater diffuses through the semipermeable membrane to the side of the seawater, causing the liquid level on the side of the seawater to gradually rise until it stops at a certain height. This was the infiltration process. If an external pressure greater than the seawater’s osmotic pressure was applied to the end containing seawater, the pure water within the seawater would undergo reverse osmosis and permeate into the freshwater.

The biggest advantage of membrane osmometry was energy saving.

Of all the methods stated above, the one that Xing Hai Technologies was focusing on was membrane osmometry.

The reasons were obvious. First was cost, and the second was efficiency. Other seawater desalination methods would all have some drawbacks, but membrane osmometry could take care of both of these aspects simultaneously.

“We have attained the standards for large-scale operations, Mr. Chen,” Professor Bi Yongfu said. “I have been striving in this field for nearly 20 years and now, I see the hope of eradicating our planet’s sickness—deserts.”

“A large desalination unit incorporated with Xing Hai Technologies’s ‘Bi’s nano-permeable membrane’ can extract 12 tons of fresh water per second and produce more than 1 million tons of fresh water per day. That is enough for a city with a population of one million.”

“By building 100 such desalination facilities, we will be able to tackle the needs of 100 million people. If we build 1000 of them, the whole Sahara Desert can become a land full of vitality.”

“The cost of building a desalination plant is around 1.5 billion dollars. In the process of producing freshwater, the average electricity consumption per ton of water is about one kilowatt.”

“If we assume that the cost of electricity is 30 cents per kilowatt, then adding that to the cost of pipeline construction, management, and maintenance, the average cost of desalinating one ton of water will not exceed three dollars.”

“This costs a little more than directly pumping water from Lake Baikal, but not that much. It is still within our affordable range.”

“Mr. Chen, I would suggest you buy the deserts over here and develop them with the company’s most advanced desertification control technology. I believe that in just one or two decades, we will have large oases in our possession!”

“Xing Hai Technologies will become the world’s largest land contracting company, and these lands alone will bring huge profits to the company.”

Chen Jin nodded.

Freshwater at three dollars per ton; all fees included. This cost-performance ratio was truly satisfactory and had reached the standards of mass production.

During this time, Xing Hai Technologies had dispatched representatives to conduct commercial negotiations with North African countries such as Morocco, Libya, Algeria, Niger, and had purchased 1.5 million square kilometers of desert land. The total cost was about 150 billion dollars. All the money was Xing Hai Technologies’s revenue generated from business activities overseas.

All contracts that were signed were permanent contracts.

Now that the desalination technology had matured, Xing Hai Technologies could spread their wings and have a big go at the Sahara Desert.

But the timing was not quite right just yet.

…

On the 29th of May.

In the virtual world.

“Alice, how are the polling results? Any problems with the president’s re-election?” Chen Jin asked while crossing his arms.

“His share of the vote is 82.17%, and he will be re-elected without any need for anxiety. He has also broken the record for the highest number of votes to be re-elected in history,” said Alice.

“But from what I see, the media was rather aggressive. Almost none of the mainstream media supported Lanfelord and the criticisms were completely one-sided. They have also conducted a lot of online polls and claimed that the probability of Lanfelord’s re-election was less than 1%…”

“Fake news master! Those are all false reports. The final polling result is true. This is the only merit of this government system,” Alice added. “Besides, master, we must increase Lanfelord’s guard robots. We had better double them. Since the beginning of last year, Lanfelord has faced 187 assassination attempts, on average more than once per day. I believe that the numbers will further increase in the future with the attempts becoming more intense and extreme. We must be better prepared.”

Those who have suffered loss to their interests would never let it pass.

“What in god’s name? 187 assassinations?” Chen Jin shook his head. This was only the beginning. It would become even crazier when the next phase of the operation began.

It seemed that aside from Avatar robots which could not die, in normal conditions, even God could not deliver the M nation.

Chapter 351 - Domed Bases

In reality, the desert environment was not as easy to manage or administer as one might imagine. This was particularly the case in large deserts where the climate often changed rapidly. Sometimes, a sandstorm would make all your efforts go to waste.

Even if there was enough fresh water, things could be useless. The wind would rip up newly planted saplings, and the moving sand masses would drown newly built houses. A grain of sand might look tiny but large amounts of them could swamp anything. However, Xing Hai Technologies was not helpless against this.

Xing Hai Technologies had simulated an effective transformation program in its supercomputers for the deserts like the Sahara. The program was called the “Domed Base”.

They would use a high-strength graphene material to construct a semi-ellipsoidal transparent cover with a diameter of 1.5 kilometers and a height of 150 meters in the desert. Hence, it was called a dome. This massive transparent cover was very sturdy and had a smooth and glossy surface that could resist sandstorms above level 18.

In addition, considering that the sunlight in the desert area was ample and strong, the surface of the transparent cover was coated with a thin layer of material that could generate power from solar energy. The electricity generated was enough for tens of thousands of households.

A large and deep pool would be dug inside the dome to accommodate the freshwater drawn from the seaside.

Some palm trees were planted around the pond. Some houses, warehouses, and factories were also built. These were enough for 100,000 people to take refuge in when a sandstorm arrived.

But the Domed Base was not for people to live in. It was to facilitate the transformation of the desert.

After each Dome was built, an unmanned aircraft sprayed a special glue evenly into the desert area around the base. The glue would solidify the fine sand together. Thus, the sand would lose its mobility and would no longer be blown away by the wind.

Every Domed Base would be fixed as a core from which it would be responsible for the transformation of a desert area of 31,400 square kilometers. This area was based on a radius of 100 kilometers extending from the core of the Domed Base. The entire Sahara desert could be settled with 300 of such bases.

With sufficient equipment and staff, the transformation could be completed in about ten to fifteen years.

There was one deadly drawback— the high cost.

The construction cost of a single Domed Base and its supporting facilities exceeded $100 billion. $30 trillion was needed to build 300 bases, and this was just the cost of construction.

When all subsequent costs were included, it was estimated that over $100 trillion was needed to transform the entire Sahara desert. Based on the financial resources of Xing Hai Technologies, it was impossible to complete such a huge project. Chen Jin would not consider spending so much money anyway.

So what should the company do? It needed to seek to collaborate with other countries and invite private capital ventures to join.

“A Domed Base means the transformation of 31,400 square kilometers of desert. With a density of 100 people per square kilometer, it can accommodate at least 3.14 million people. 300 bases can accommodate at least 900 million people.”

“Now, the world’s population has reached 8.3 billion. Many countries with outdated economies and small land areas have reached the point of explosion. Their land cannot accommodate such a huge number of people. There will be immediate unrest once their economic situation deteriorates.”

“The populations of most developed countries have stopped growing and some are even experiencing negative growth. They don’t have to think about this issue at all. For survival, for a better life, they know where to run.”

“Hence, the world has become peaceful. The powerful countries do not have to strike the weak countries. Developed countries do not have to bully the backward countries. Striking a poor country is equivalent to a prodding a ‘population bomb’. Countless refugees will run to your country in an instant. If you strike me again in any way, the more I will integrate with you. I will come and enjoy the welfare of your country.”

“The poorer the place, the higher their birth rate and the faster the population grows. This is simply a natural law. So the rich lands are inundated with the poor, the developed countries are overwhelmed by the backward and the civilized are overwhelmed by the ignorant. This is entirely possible in the future. The powerful Roman Empire was wiped out by barbarians. It is possible for the history of civilizations regressing a millennium to repeat itself again.”

“If the economies of developing countries do not develop sufficiently and they continue to lag behind, their populations will increase. The number of global refugees will increase in the future too. From the current two or three hundred million, it will increase by 500 million, one billion, two billion and even more. They will flood into the developed countries at an accelerated rate. If that happens, they will need a savior who can solve the problem.”

“This savior may be a tyrant, a master at extermination. They might advocate to eliminate half of the population and solve the crisis of survival. But it is also possible that it will be me.”

“The big business that Xing Hai Technologies proposes to do will be related to this. And I believe it will be supported by all the developed and developing countries.”

“One billion people, two billion or even ten billion, we have ways to ‘digest’ them and profit from the process.”

“It would also lay a solid foundation for the implementation of Xing Hai Technologies’ final plan.”

“It may be really possible for that boundless sea of stars to emerge from what used to be a desert.”

…

5th of June.

Shortly after Lanfelord was successfully re-elected.

Chen Jin sent his robot double on a flight to Merica. It entered the White House and had a secret meeting with Lanfelord that lasted for four hours.

A strategic partnership was reached. The main content of the agreement was a commitment from the Merican government that they would spend 50 billion USD to support Xing Hai Technologies’ building of three Domed Bases. The government would also provide the relevant facilities and support needed for this process.

After the three Domed Bases and the transformation of the surrounding desert environment were completed, Merica was willing to provide more than 10 million people to live happily forevermore in those lands that would be full of vitality.

Boom!

The partnership was announced. Once the news had been reported by several media outlets, Merican netizens were first shocked, then immediately impassioned!

“Oh God, I know that voting for Lanfelord was the right thing. He has found a way to save us!”

“A population of ten million. 50 billion USD is only a year’s expenses compared to the welfare that they have devoured and the benefits they have enjoyed. But, we can send them away now. This is such a good deal!”

“I used to have misunderstandings about Xing Hai Technologies, but I want to apologize now. This time, you have done a very good thing. I am very grateful.”

“Now, I am very fond of Xing Hai Technologies. All media, please don’t criticize this great company again. They are our saviors!”

“Yes, we should be more lenient towards Xing Hai Technologies and show them a little tolerance. But, the main thing that we have to be grateful for is Lanfelord’s brilliance. He is the greatest hero in my heart.”

“Why don’t the government give Xing Hai Technologies a little more money? For example, 100 billion USD. I think it will cost more than ten million to support the extra population.”

…

News of the partnership between Xing Hai Technologies and the Merican government had spread to Europe. The whole of Europe was astir.

Germany, Britain, France and other countries immediately issued applications of partnership to Xing Hai Technologies! They all wanted to donate some funds and play their part in contributing to the company’s “Domed Base” project.

Chapter 352 - Countries Jumping Eagerly

Giving money. They were all giving money to contribute to the construction cost of $100 billion for each Domed Base. The German government was willing to donate the cost of three Domed Bases. France was willing to donate enough money to build two, and the UK’s donation would cover the cost of one and a half bases. Spain, Italy, Switzerland, and other countries were willing to donate a third or half the money it would take to build a base.

After adding everything up and taking Europe as a whole, the construction costs for a total of eight Domed Bases were covered. Most of the developed countries in Europe offered to bear the costs.

That meant that more than 100 billion euros had landed in the pocket of Xing Hai Technologies of those countries’ own accord.

But it was unknown why European netizens were so happy about their governments giving such a huge amount of money just like that to Xing Hai Technologies. More than 80% of netizens across Europe were extremely pleased to see those donations.

They were so thrilled that they rejoiced and spread the word on the internet. Some even cried tears of joy.

“Oh God, this is awesome! We are saved!”

“Thanks to Xing Hai Technologies for saving us!”

“They should go, let’s quickly send those arrogant idlers away. We’ve had enough!”

“I am a gentle and peace-loving person, but many times, I’ve wanted those people to die. I hope they will get out of our homes. Those fast-growing cancer cells will ruin everything we have.”

“I would like to ask if Xing Hai Technologies needs volunteers. I am willing to go to Africa to help you; I want to help speed up the work efficiency and strive to complete the transformation of the desert as soon as possible.”

“12.5 billion euros for a permanent solution to those 3 million cancer cells; this is really worthwhile!”

Netizens all over Europe were caught up in joy and excitement. They were full of praise for Xing Hai Technologies and their fondness for the company was skyrocketing.

…

The news also quickly spread to Z country.

On the Internet, the netizens from Z country were very surprised. They were in uproar.

“What in the world is Xing Hai Technologies thinking? They’ve been obsessed with desert transformation for these past few years, fine. Now they are actually entertaining the idea of doing business that involves refugees. Just what does Xing Hai Technologies want?”

“Not only do they want to protect the environment, but they also want to engage in charity. They are simply throwing huge amounts of money away like fools. If you don’t want the money, give it to me. I’m short on money now.”

“Refugees are difficult customers. They all love to take but don’t give anything in return. They just enjoy life and don’t work! And Xing Hai Technologies wants to deal with them? They should get ready to be picked clean!”

“I really can’t understand what Xing Hai Technologies is doing. This feels like their final act.”

“Don’t they want to offer shelter to some clean, diligent and high-quality immigrants instead? Instead, they are sheltering refugees. Xing Hai Technologies, are you crazy?”

“This is a really stupid move. For unknown reasons, the ‘Xing Hai Law’ has involuntarily appeared in my mind. Everything that Xing Hai Technologies does is right. I think Xing Hai Technologies has more moves up its sleeve. Xing Hai Technologies is savvy. It never gets involved in any business that results in a loss.”

“Maybe! But it’s only a group of refugees! What benefits could they be getting? I still can’t accept it.”

“Does Xing Hai Technologies want to turn garbage into treasure? Is this possible?”

Most of the netizens found it hard to understand. Many blasted the company for being a rich fool.

…

After June 6th.

Xing Hai Technologies had once again received donations from charitable organizations in succession. The proportion of funds from by these charities were enough to build a Domed Base.

In addition, there were more than 10,000 volunteers who were willing to work for the company for free to help complete the transformation of the desert environment.

Together with funds donated by various western governments, that meant a total of 12 Domed Bases could be built.

One could see that western countries were very enthusiastic about Xing Hai Technologies’ “Dome Plan.” It could be said that they contributed whatever they could, be it money or labor. They actively cooperated with Xing Hai Technologies’ desert transformation work.

However, there was a country that had been unanimously attacked and criticized by western public opinion.

“A certain big country should bear the responsibility that belongs to her.”

“You should donate enough for at least 10 domes to be built.”

“We have done what we should do, but you’re not doing anything.”

Some media simply named the country. “Z country, you should be ashamed.”

After these sharp criticisms reached the ears of Z country, the majority of Z country’s netizens made their disagreement clear and fired off their refutations.

“Scram! The refugee problem was caused by you and has nothing to do with us!”

“Whoever caused the trouble is responsible for its solution. We’re not carrying this burden!”

“You can blame anyone except Z country. You don’t have the right.”

“It’s none of our business. We won’t spend a single cent. Our conscience is free from guilt in this matter.”

The netizens of Z country snarked back unceremoniously.

However, on the 10th of June, Chen Jin received a call from Ling Jundong and what he told him was very surprising.

“President Chen, I just received a call from the government. They have agreed to donate $200 billion to support Xing Hai Technologies’ Domed Base Plan. They will also give certain discounts on the relevant taxes to reduce the construction costs of the Domed Bases.”

“How is this possible?” Chen Jin was shocked. “There is no need for the country to spend this money. Why are they doing this?” He was extremely puzzled.

“I feel that it’s because of two reasons,” Ling Jundong said. “One, you may not know this very well President Chen, but more than one million illegal immigrants have entered Z country in the past few years! And the number of illegal immigrants is increasing at a rate of more than 100,000 per year. Foreign refugee groups are also targeting us. There were three international refugee groups with more than 50,000 people each who have gathered at our borders last year, intending to enter Z country.”

“Although our lifestyles have been improving these past few years, we still can’t be considered a developed country. But some western media have described Z country as a paradise. They even sponsored the travel costs for refugees to walk thousands of miles to Z country. Their sinister motives are infuriating.”

“Our media has refuted this, saying that the developed countries in the West are better than Z country. But the refugees find the words by the west to be more believable. Currently, with the exception of Merica, Z country has become the country that the refugees are most looking forward to entering. The mess was made by the west, but they’ve really thrown a part of that mess onto us.”

“So the government has no choice but to solve the problem with money, hoping our company can solve it.”

“Two, our country’s current comprehensive national strength is undoubtedly the world’s first. Our total GDP is more than $200 trillion. Our military power is so strong that Merica can’t match up to us. The only thing lacking is prestige and influence. We need to do something to enhance our popularity. This is where the dome plan comes in. If the government spends some money to provide a certain level of support, the western media will end its criticisms. Those smaller countries will also certainly have more confidence in Z country. For this reason alone, they have to spend some money to create a good reputation. This is probably the price of being a big country.”

Chen Jin nodded. Old Ling’s analysis was right. It was difficult to be a good person! A big country had its own big issues to deal with!

If you wanted to have a group of obedient “little brothers” surrounding you, it was inevitable that you would have to give some benefits as and when appropriate.

Moreover, this was also for the purpose of solving future troubles. Except for Merica, Z country was now the most desired country among the refugees. This was something that could cause every Z citizen’s blood to run cold.

It was actually within reason for the government to give a little money to support Xing Hai Technologies.

But even so, the company had only managed to raise construction funds for 14 Domed Bases. The number planned was about 300, so less than 5% of the funding issue was solved. Where would the remaining 95% of funds come from?

In fact, Chen Jin had never expected to get too much help from the government on the issue of funding. He was already very satisfied with 5%. What he needed most was the support of various governments for the Dome Plan.

This was within his expectations. The western countries strongly supported it, and Z country’s government had also expressed their support… This had eliminated Chen Jin’s apprehensions.

“Since the whole world supports me, how could this project fail?”

Moreover, there was no need to worry about funding. As for the 95% shortage in funds, Xing Hai Technologies would only bear a maximum of 10%. The remaining 85% would have countless capitalists fighting to finance a piece of it until there was nothing left.

This was also the last phase of the Dome Plan.

Chapter 353 - : Profit Model

Investing huge sums of money, transforming the desert environment and taking in a large population: what was the purpose of Xing Hai Technologies? Countless people were full of doubt, especially in the business world. The elite of the business world, including successful entrepreneurs and shrewd managers, were all racking their brains in an attempt to solve the riddle.

In the end, they shook their heads.

In their view, both desert management and taking in refugee populations were total loss incurring businesses. There was no profit! It was impossible for those two avenues to be profitable.

However, Xing Hai Technologies was very obsessed with these programs. There was a sense of not being able to pull an obstinate yak back from its momentum.

On the other hand, based on the savviness of Xing Hai Technologies and how it seemed to never do any business that would result in a loss…

“There must be a devil, hidden in the details.”

But it was difficult to catch that devil with the intelligence of an ordinary person. Xing Hai Technologies took a far longer view than all the smartest people put together.

…

June 15th.

A bald middle-aged man alighted from a luxury car was parked at the front of the sci-fi-like building of Xing Hai Technologies.

Liu Guoqiang, aged 58, was the president of a large domestic real estate company. He had a net worth of more than $100 billion and was a very well-known entrepreneur.

After receiving the invitation from CEO Ling of Xing Hai Technologies, he nodded in the affirmative without much thought to the matter. He would attend this particular product launch event.

And this event was very special.

Liu Guoqiang had made discreet inquiries among his friends and received two pieces of shocking information.

Firstly, those who had been invited to participate in this event by Xing Hai Technologies were all rich people. Each of them had a net worth of more than $10 billion. Invitations had been issued to fewer than 1,000 people.

Secondly, Xing Hai Technologies would be launching a major project this time, it was a super project with funding capital of more than $100 trillion! There were countless benefits associated with it and countless opportunities for making money!

This shocked Liu Guoqiang to his very core. When the 15th arrived, he immediately set off for Shanghai

…

He entered Xing Hai Edifice.

In the large conference hall on the third floor, Liu Guoqiang saw many familiar faces and business leaders. He greeted several of them.

“President Li, you’re here too?”

“President Yang, aren’t you always saying that you are busy, yet you’re here today too?”

“Jie Kema, President Ma, you can be considered the richest one here out of all of us. Are you interested in this project too?”

Liu Guoqiang gave a heavy sigh in silence. Personally, he acknowledged that he was a bigwig. But there were many bigwigs here in the hall who were even richer than him.

He even saw several people who received low media coverage. They had very low-key lifestyles in their day-to-day lives but had also come for this particular event.

Liu Guoqiang silently observed the room. The wealthiest group of people in the country had all come here.

…

In a corner of the conference hall, He Jia was surrounded by a group of female entrepreneurs. They tried to make inquiries of her in rapid succession.

“Big Sister He, you are President Chen’s little aunt. You must have the most information regarding any inside story?”

“Big Sister He, please reveal a little information! Let us know what this project is about.”

“President He, tell us something about it.”

The female entrepreneurs asked a range of question in their delicate voices. Their faces were full of curiosity.

“I don’t know,” He Jia said, shaking her head and giving a bitter smile. “I really don’t know. I’ve called and asked my nephew but he didn’t give me too much information. He only told me to prepare more money, the more the better. He didn’t say anything else.”

The eyes of all the female entrepreneurs brightened. The more money they had prepared, the better? In fact, this information was more or less sufficient.

At this moment, a female entrepreneur called, “President Chen is here!”

Some of the group had stars in their eyes, and they whispered, “Not even 35 and he has already attained this level of success. He’s so young and handsome too. He looks so confident as if he has already mastered the whole world. He gives off the aura of a monarch surveying his realm.”

…

Chen Jin’s robot double arrived on the scene.

It scanned the fewer than 1,000 attendees and consulted with the intelligent brain system. After getting the information that everyone was present, “He” walked to the center of the venue, and after a few opening words, the product launch began.

Beams of lights on the ceiling lit up. A holographic image was presented to everyone as it hovered in the air.

In the holographic image was a model of a city. There were many high-rise buildings and transportation facilities. It was a dynamic display with heavy traffic and people going about the hustle and bustle of their daily lives.

Faced with this holographic projection, the first words from Chen Jin’s mouth shocked everyone. “Everyone, this is the product being launched by Xing Hai Technologies – the smart city management system.”

“The smart city management system can be used for all functions of municipal administration, education, transportation, health, medical care, security, fire protection, etc.”

“In the future, every city that Xing Hai Technologies has built in the Sahara Desert will be equipped with this system. The most powerful aspect of this system is its realization of the unmanned management of a city.”

“Even if it is a large city with a population of more than 5 five million, the smart city management system will also be able to cope easily. The system can sustain an upper limit of 20 million people.”

“The system’s operation is completely automatic; it can automatically adjust itself during operation without any human intervention. That also means that after the construction of the smart city management system, there is no need to elect a mayor, deputy mayor and the management of the government departments of transportation, education, courts, police, etc. All of these will be the responsibility of the city management system.”

“The smart program will manage humans. The police who fight crime; the traffic police who guide traffic; the fire police who are responsible for fire safety; all these will be handled by robots. This includes the workings of the court, which would be the responsibility of the legal program. In short, all public jobs will be handled by robots or intelligent programs. This will greatly reduce the cost of managing a city.”

After all, robots did not need to receive wages; they could not become corrupt. They do everything according to the rules.

“In addition, the taxation subsystem of the smart city management system is very simple. It does not have personal income tax, business tax, inheritance tax, etc. There are only two taxes. One is the goods and sales tax. No matter what product is purchased, a certain percentage of the sales tax will be charged. For example, if you buy something that cost $1 you will have to pay $1.10.”

“The second is the land use tax. As long as you rent public land from the city, you have to pay a certain amount of rent. There will be no other taxes except for these two.”

“There is no doubt that this city is both a paradise for the poor and a paradise for the rich. The poor can easily support themselves and their families, and the rich can accumulate wealth without any limits. The owners behind the city can benefit themselves by adjusting the two tax rates of the tax system.”

“If there are more middle-class residents, then the owners can increase the sales tax as and when appropriate to increase the income of the city; if the rich in the city occupy too much land and wealth, then increase the land use tax and limit the excessive expansion of the rich.”

“Because the entire city is managed by intelligent programs, at least 80% of administrative expenses will be saved. The owners can also earn revenues and profits by collecting taxes, adjusting water prices and electricity prices, and by collecting education system fees and medical system charges. ”

“I have simulated the operation on a supercomputer with a city of 31,400 square kilometers and a population of five million. Under the most ideal circumstances, 40% of the GDP created by the city can be converted into net profit. Even if business and luck are bad, I can easily guarantee a profit of about 5% of the city’s GDP. This is our profit model and it is also the ultimate profit model.”

“Of course, I know your worries. Can a refugee population create GDP? I got the supercomputer to simulate this aspect, and this is the conclusion: even a refugee population must do some work if they want to survive. Even if the work they do is the easiest and lowliest of labor, it will also generate value and allow them to strive to meet the needs of survival.”

“When people live, they have to consume. They have to undergo education, buy medical services. All these will produce value.”

“Enjoying life without working and fruitlessly hoping that food and welfare will drop from the skies is something that will never happen in a city of Xing Hai Technologies. The city management system will have ways to ensure that they must work. If they try to resist or destroy, the robot police will dish out the fairest treatment.”

“And for those in the population who are truly hopeless, they will doubtless be eliminated.”

“Everyone, please believe this. The order is the law, and by operating in an orderly manner according to the laws of nature, our city will never lose money.”

“So, are you interested in investing in such a city?” Chen Jin asked as he looked around at the audience below the stage.

Wow!

At this point, everyone had been struck dumb. They were overwhelmed by shock.

There were quite a few people who were red-faced. Their hearts were pounding vigorously, and their breathing had become extremely heavy!

This was not any sort of decent or proper business at all. It was the ultimate business model!

Chapter 354 - The Biggest Winner

The business bigwigs in attendance had finally gotten a taste of the ambitions of Xing Hai Technologies.

It turned out that Xing Hai Technologies’ scheme was a business model that was more advanced than monopolistic capitalism. Its business targets were no longer companies. They were cities and small countries.

Tax was profit, and population was a capital resource. Was this not the ultimate business model?

The business bigwigs in attendance were stunned. At the same time, their minds were whirring at crazy speeds.

“Making money from this is too easy. There’s almost no need to exert much mental and physical work when it comes to this business model. It’s like collecting money in your sleep.”

“What’s even better is that we used to be sheep and were bound by rules. Now we are the rule-makers. No one can limit and restrain us. We will now stand in a higher dimension.”

“Wealth cannot span three generations! Even the greatest companies cannot maintain their status quo for a hundred years. A company cannot escape the cycle of rise and fall. But a country can easily maintain its status for a hundred years, even for three hundred years. If you don’t make a mess of things, it will not go bankrupt easily. It will be very stable.”

“And this city management system saves 80% of administrative expenses. There is no need to maintain an army. We will be collecting charges for the medical and education systems. One innate feature of this system is that it is very economical. If done well, 40% of the city’s GDP can be converted into net profit. Assuming that GDP is $1 trillion, the profit will be $400 billion. Is there even a more profitable business than this?”

“Even if the construction cost of the city exceeds $1 trillion, we will breakeven in three or four years.”

“Brilliant! Xing Hai Technologies is really brilliant. Although the cost is high, the potential benefits are limitless.”

Immediately, they were tempted. All the business bigwigs were caught up in a strong impulse to invest.

Chen Jin talked about the investment method and return model.

“The construction cost of each Domed Base is $100 billion. Including the cost of subsequent renovation and basic infrastructure, the total for one dome is around $300 billion.”

“It’s very simple. As long as you invest the entire $100 billion, you get the right to a city’s income for 99 years. All of the net taxes generated in the city’s 99-year operation belong solely to you.”

“If you don’t have $100 billion, and only have a few billion or tens of billions, then the earnings from taxes will be divided by a thousand and the percentage you get is your dividend ratio.”

“If you spend $300 billion in a one-off payment to buy up the rights to the tax earnings of a city, you will enjoy a permanent income from the city’s tax earnings.”

“Of course, it is impossible for all of you here to come up with hundreds of billions in liquid capital. But, the construction period of a dome is a minimum of two years. The transformation period of the whole city is ten years. It’s a total of more than ten years. In that time, you can continue to inject capital and increase investment. After about 15 to 20 years, the city will generate revenue and you will get a return.”

“This process is indeed long, but I believe that you will make the smart decision. What you are investing in is permanent wealth and the future, which is long-term. This is something that will not weaken even after a millennium. You will evolve from a simple businessman to a wholly different class.”

Hearing what Chen Jin had to say, the heartbeats of the business bigwigs sped up significantly. They could not help but nod repeatedly, but there were also those who had concerns.

Someone raised his hand and asked, “President Chen, if Xinghai Technologies carries out this project, will the government approve of it? This is not a normal business activity.”

Chen Jin nodded in acknowledgment. “This is a very good question, but the population of this planet is exploding, and many countries are in disarray! How can these problems be solved? Can they be solved by humans? Does the government have the ability to handle it?”

Z country’s guiding diplomatic principle was the non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs. No matter how terrible other countries were, Z country had no reason to intervene.

Moreover, many governments were totally incompetent and extremely corrupt. Every day, they were slipping further into the bottomless abyss. Even so, outsiders could not do anything about it. Those governments would not welcome others pointing fingers and calling attention to their issues. They were simply hopeless.

But no matter how hopeless they were, Z country would only send some money and technology to them occasionally to help them to get through a difficult time. It would be very difficult to directly guide them on how to govern their country. They would not know how to do it even if they were taught. They would never get used to it.

What could be done? They could only use technology to solve the problem.

“According to statistics, the number of refugees worldwide has increased to 270 million this year, and it will increase to 500 million in the next ten years, and one billion in the next 20 years. If the government has the ability to solve this refugee crisis, Xing Hai Technologies is willing to give up on the Domed Base plan and do proper business. If they don’t have that ability, Xing Hai Technologies is willing to give it a try.”

“However, a few days ago, the government gave Xing Hai Technologies $200 billion and granted us certain tax concessions. I think this should dispel your concerns. What Xing Hai Technologies is doing is creating a win-win situation for the world! We are eliminating the deserts and poverty! If there is opposition, it means that all parties disagree. After all, we are doing what is beneficial to all.”

Chen Jin was telling his audience that there was no need to worry too much. You could rest assured and just throw money into this project.

Thinking again about the one billion refugees made people terrified. That number was enough to drown a superpower; all those people of extremely low average quality devouring countless welfare and benefits… It was unthinkable!

In addition, if the government looked favorably upon this Domed Base plan of Xing Hai Technologies, they could also invest money in this project…

The business bigwigs were all nodding.

The savviness of Xing Hai Technologies was not a false rumor. It had taken everything into consideration and had the support of all forces.

Invest!

They immediately made a decision in their hearts. They would try their best to get all the liquid capital that they could and invest in this project.

So what about Xing Hai Technologies? What benefits would Chen Jin’s Xing Hai Technologies get from this project?

If the “tax rights” of 300 cities were all sold, the taxation earnings of each city would become unrelated to Xing Hai Technologies. A large piece of the pie had been given out. What could Chen Jin earn from this?

But in reality, Chen Jin was the biggest winner. This was because the distribution rights of the currency were in his hands. The currency circulated in the markets of more than 300 cities and the financial subsystems of these cities were all controlled by Xing Hai Technologies. How much money would be printed, the fixing of the level of deficit, the deposit and loan business: these were all monopolized by Xing Hai Technologies.

Xing Hai Technologies intended to build ten nuclear fusion power stations for the cities’ power systems. The electricity generated would be sufficient for the usage of all cities. There would be another unknown amount of profit collected every year from the electricity costs.

For a long time, Xing Hai Technologies had also been building a desalination plant on the seashore as part of the water supply system. The plant would be the main source of fresh water in all cities, so the company could also profit by selling water.

Hence, the financial system, water supply, power supply, and other systems were all controlled by Xing Hai Technologies. It was way too easy for Chen Jin to profit from this. He had managed to cut for himself at least a third of this large pie.

…

After the launch event had ended, every one of the almost 1,000 top domestic business bigwigs in attendance had filled out a Collaboration Agreement Form. They pledged nearly $10 trillion for the investment.

After the bigwigs returned from the event, they made an average of more than 10 calls each. Soon the domestic investment circle exploded in a flurry of activity!

Numerous businessmen waved banknotes in their hands, issuing investment requests. Although Xing Hai Technologies had set an investment threshold of no less than $100 million, it raised trillions of funds in just two or three days

…

When the overseas investment circle, with their eyes and ears relaying information rapidly to them, learned the true purpose of Xing Hai Technologies and that shocking plan, foreign investment circles also went insane. Countless foreigners waved banknotes in their hands too and requested a collaboration, hoping to get a piece of the pie.

The global capital market became extremely frenetic in an instant.

Chapter 355 - Taking Out 2%

It was as if a war mobilization command had been issued. The behemoth of a beast called “capital” was awakened.

Domestic capital, foreign capital, established capital institutions, new capital consortia… Xing Hai Technologies received countless investment applications in a short time.

Xing Hai Technologies did not reject any applicant. For that purpose, it had opened a global trading platform and placed the taxation rights of 300 cities on the platform, thus allowing capitalists to buy, sell, transfer or donate those rights.

Each city was divided into 1,000 “blue tax stocks” with a holding period of 99 years and a price of $100 million per share. Alternatively, it was divided into 1,000 “red tax stocks” (also known as permanent tax stocks), with a perpetual holding period and a price of $300 million per share.

Among the 300 cities, 200 were fixed as “blue tax stocks” and the remaining 100 were fixed as “red tax stocks”.

As a result, after the trading platform went online, and with the inclusion of interested VIP investors who had paid a sum for insider trading, the total investment of $60 trillion had been cleanly taken up by countless investment institutions around the world in about two weeks.

Chen Jin’s Xing Hai Technologies did not need to spend any money to solve the funding problem.

It could only be said that the power of capitalists was terrifying. But unfortunately, there were too few deserts on the earth. Otherwise, even if $100 trillion was needed, global capitalists could come up with the entire sum.

For the ordinary people who could only stand by and look at the situation, the agitated motions of capital seemed incredible to them.

“Even if the desert transformation was completed, isn’t it better to get some high-quality people to emigrate there? What is the use of refugees? What value can they generate?”

“Yeah, the refugee population is just a burden. The investors will be losing money, much less making a profit from them.”

“It is very difficult to improve the quality of the population. At least 20 years is needed to convert the base numbers of a population into something that can produce bonuses.”

“This is only a capital bubble. Xing Hai Technologies has been very good at publicizing this investment. The actual effect is very likely to be dashed to bits by reality.”

“Haha, those refugees are arrogant loafers. Xing Hai Technologies expects those gofers to work? stop dreaming!”

“Yeah, I also think it’s excellent if those refugees are willing to grow enough food for themselves to eat. It is impossible for the capitalists to exploit them.”

“But why are the capitalists still throwing money fanatically into that investment? They seem to be very optimistic about it.”

“I feel that that the “Xing Hai Law” may be in play. Those capitalists are just blindly following the company.”

“Xing Hai Technologies never gets involved in a losing business. You think that you can’t squeeze anything out from those refugees. That’s because we are too kind as humans, and we have spoiled them. Morality is always sabotaging the law. Hence, we are helpless in the face of the refugee crisis. But computer programs and robots don’t debate ‘humanitarianism’. If you don’t work, then they’ll starve you until you die. Humanity, kindness, compassion, and so on, can all go to hell! This is probably the greatest strength of and the reason for the confidence in Xing Hai Technologies.”

“Oh, it sounds a little cruel. But why do I think that this is a very good idea, especially for those refugees?”

“Managing humans with computer programs and robots to build a utopian society with no corruption, no humanity and no pity. Is this good or bad? Can it last long-term? Will it be overthrown by rebels in the future?”

Some people raised a series of questions.

…

The market was in a frenzy. The capitalists had seen a window of opportunity to untold riches.

But many countries in Northern Africa could not sit still. Countries such as Morocco, Algeria, Libya, and Niger protested and made their dissatisfaction clear.

“Xing Hai Technologies, you can’t do whatever you want on our land.”

“You can carry out business activities, but don’t regard this as your own land. This is our homeland! It is not a place for refugees.”

“Xing Hai Technologies, the use of the desert that you have undertaken has gone beyond the permitted scope of your contract. It has become invalid and we will take back all the land. Since you have gone against the contract, we will not refund a penny.”

“Even if it is a desert, you can’t do what you want with it! We sold our land, not our sovereignty. Xing Hai Technologies has no right to implement the so-called “Domed Base” plan on our land. We firmly oppose it!”

Many small countries protested and tore up their collaboration agreement. They asked Xing Hai Technologies to leave their country as soon as possible.

However, less than a few days later, three aircraft battle groups from Merica entered the Mediterranean Sea to conduct live-firing exercises.

Many European countries also held joint military exercises on the northern shore of the Mediterranean Sea that involved more than 50,000 troops. It was a very large scale exercise.

In terms of diplomacy, they exerted tremendous pressure on those small countries. Public opinion was very severe and their governments were wielding the threat of sanctions.

They even threatened the North African nations. “If you don’t cooperate, we will not rule out the use of force and may support new forces to take power.”

Faced with threats and intimidation, the small countries trembled.

They helplessly looked to the international community, especially looking to Z country to preside over justice and to say a few words in fairness. But they only received silence in exchange.

They chose to give in in less than two days and contracted all the deserts to Xing Hai Technologies.

The comments by netizens regarding this incident hit the nail on the head.

“They overestimate themselves. Xing Hai Technologies has the support of Merica and all of Europe. They also have the support of $60 trillion worth of global capitalists. You’re just a few small countries. What are you bringing to the fight against such a combination?”

“Don’t be like ‘a mantis that tries to stop a chariot’ when faced with a mighty force.”

“The government is really acting like a gangster this time round. They’re not even saying a single word in fairness. They’ve chosen to turn a blind eye.”

“$1 trillion in state-owned capital has been invested in the ‘Dome Base’ plan. It’s already a good thing that our government is not actively pressuring them with the European and Merican governments. And the African countries are really expecting us to speak on their behalf?”

“Ah, a bunch of small countries facing a desperately difficult fate. They occupy the lowest rank among all the countries in the world, but they are challenging a group of gangster champions, all in vain. Just what are they bringing to the fight?”

“A wise man submits to circumstances. What can they do with the deserts in their hands? It will still be the same in 10,000 years. It is better to give the land to Xing Hai Technologies so that they can use it to benefit the whole world. Sometimes, incompetence is a sin.”

With that being said, Xing Hai Technologies could not really act like that much of a gangster to the extent of taking away their sovereignty with the sale of the land from those countries.

Land did not equal sovereignty. Chen Jin was very clear about this point.

In order to avoid creating potential hidden dangers, he would block the mouths of those small countries.

After some discussion, Xing Hai Technologies came up with compensation measures. After construction of the city was completed and income was generated, 1% of the annual net income thereafter would belong by the sovereign state where the city was located.

In addition, another 1% of the net income would be paid to the United Nations as membership dues. These dues would be used as contributions to everyone in the world.

When this compensation plan came out, the response was positive.

“Well, we accept.” Of course, those few small countries thought the compensation was too low. But even if mosquitoes were tiny, they were still meat, and they were better than nothing. They were definitely better than getting “beaten up” again.

Other countries also nodded in praise. Xing Hai Technologies had not forgotten about the United Nations and had taken the initiative to provide 1% for humanitarian services across the globe. This showed that Xing Hai Technologies was very dependable and had a heart that cared for the world. It was indeed commendable.

However, nobody knew that a shocking plan was hidden within Chen Jin’s decision to take out 1% of the profits for the United Nations.

Chapter 356 - Virtual Technology

Within a few years, Xing Hai Technologies was going full throttle into the deserts. They had slowed down their investments and explorations in other scientific fields.

In fact, due to the rapid development of science and technology, the GDP growth rate of the Z nation had been above 8% for five consecutive years.

Many new industries had sprung up and numerous vents had erupted. Amongst the industries were “indoor stereoscopic agriculture”, “new energy”, “quantum computer”, “artificial intelligence and robots” and “virtual reality”. Amid these vents, Xing Hai Technologies only invested meager amounts in “indoor stereoscopic agriculture”, having decent technical capabilities in the field and occupying less than 5% of the industry’s total market shares.

They showed absolutely no interest in “virtual reality” and completely ignored any opportunities it may have presented.

“Virtual reality” was no longer considered a new industry but it had welcomed its second spring in the past couple of years.

Currently, VR games occupied 60% of the gaming market. VR social, VR education, VR shopping, VR streaming, VR concerts and various other VR applications sprouted like mushrooms after the rain. Its global market scale had exceeded a whopping one trillion dollars. In the future, the industry had hopes of breaking through three trillion dollars barrier or even making more than five trillion dollars. Many capitalists were increasing their investments in this industry.

In fact, the outbreak of the “VR industries” had certain conjunctions with Xing Hai Technologies.

Firstly, graphene chips had become widely used. Their performances were several or even dozens of times higher than that of traditional silicon chips, with their smaller volume and lower power consumption. They satisfied the requirements of running VR applications as the chips were able to provide the hardware basis.

Secondly, one of Xing Hai Technologies’s research centers had made a breakthrough in holographic projection technology. The size of the device could even be reduced to fit into a helmet. The image generated attained 8K HD standard and had totally knocked out the concept of frame rates. The reason was that there was no frame rate in holographic projection, or in other words, it had infinite frames per second. The imagery perceived was consistent with reality. This solved the problem where people were prone to dizziness after putting on a VR helmet.

Added to the completeness of other sensor technologies, the several obvious defects of VR devices had been entirely solved. Hence, the industry welcomed its second wave of popularity.

But Xing Hai Technologies had no interest in this field. The investment that Xing Hai Technologies placed in the field was almost zero. This had attracted the attention of many critics and professional netizens within the local technology circle.

“Strange! Xing Hai Technologies has absolutely no interest in doing investing in VR and has completely shut themselves out this vent.”

“Currently, high spec VR devices can be sold at more than 50,000 dollars on the market. Even the low spec ones are tagged at 10 thousand dollars and above. Even so, supply is still overwhelmed by demand. Global shipments have exceeded 10 million units in 20X7. This year, shipments should be able to exceed 15 million units. Everyone is desperately trying to profit from VR and Xing Hai Technologies is actually indifferent towards it.”

“Have they gotten the large-scale enterprise defect? Have they become conservative and lost the motivation to move forward?”

“I don’t get what are they thinking either. I’ve left a post on Chen Jin’s Weibo calling for him to get into VR. I’m a hardcore Xing fan and am already used to Xing Hai Technologies’s products. I always feel that Xing Hai Technologies provide the best product experience and make products of the highest quality. If Xing Hai Technologies does VR equipment as well, I believe that theirs will be the best among all.”

“True, an industry without Xing Hai Technologies feels a little immature and incomplete.”

“But the tycoon is all in environmental protection now. He didn’t even look at the trillion-dollar VR industry which will potentially bring him hundreds of billions of revenues every year.”

“Uhm, things aren’t necessarily as they seem.. I feel that Xing Hai Technologies might be holding on to something big. They might be in the process of inventing something even more advanced than the VR helmet. This is a future industry that could possibly eliminate the PC. It is impossible that Xing Hai Technologies would stay out of this,” some netizens analyzed.

…

Some netizens had really hit the mark.

A big move.

Xing Hai Technologies was indeed preparing to make a big move.

August of 20X8.

At Xing Hai sixth R & D Center, Chen Jin himself and some of the company’s executives came to have a look at one of their new products.

In the product test room, they got to witness the brand-new product by the name of “Fantasy 1st Gen.” The product consisted of a helmet with a whole lot of induction wires sticking on it, a metal chair and a capsule-shaped experience cabin.

Liu Yuankai, who was responsible for the development of this system, explained it to Chen Jin and others:

“Mr. Chen, Mr. Ling, everyone, the development of this device has taken us six long years!”

He picked up the helmet full of wires and sighed. “Such a device can simulate 40% pain, 55% touch, 14% smell, and 10% taste. It can use brain waves and eye movements to manipulate characters in the virtual world to perform permitted arbitrary actions.”

“Adding up with the 99% visual and 96% hearing simulation, the comprehensive simulation of this virtual helmet should be at 50%.”

“Its simulations are nowhere close to reality, but compared to other VR products on the market, it is definitely an era-defining leap. Before the Fantasy 1st Gen, those other products will have nothing that can compete.”

“Once the Fantasy 1st Gen is released, I believe that it will set off a storm and sweep all existing VR products into the trashcan of history. “This is the real future.”

As he spoke, Liu Yuankai felt that he had become fortune’s tool. He was not a programmer. He couldn’t even type a line of the so-called programming codes. He was a pure amateur in the programming field. However, the “Virtual Helmet” project had still been handed over to him. Xing Hai Technologies’s Ling Jundong had approached him numerous times and headhunted him, offering him a superb welfare package.

It wasn’t because he had some halo on him, but because he was the world’s top expert in human brain research.

In the project team, there were more human brain research experts like him than programmers. Moreover, the programmers had to obey their scheduling in entirety, seemingly only playing the role of a handyman.

The “Virtual Helmet” was all about the human brain. The human brain was extremely complicated and mystifying. Only human brain experts had some slight understanding of the connotations of brain waves and were able to decipher some of the brain’s mysteries. Hence, their knowledge was essential in developing a functional virtual helmet.

If this kind of work was left to the programmers or hardware engineers, they would find themselves at a loss right away. Therefore, in a strict sense, the “virtual helmet” was a product of human brain biology, not a simple digital product.

It was conceivable that, compared to a VR product that did not provide sensations such as pain, touch, smell, and taste, this “virtual helmet” could literally be deemed as a magical object.

Moreover, one could experience the virtual world by manipulating their characters through their minds. One did not have to get their feet on the VR treadmill, hold operating handles in their hands, or perform any physical movements. It was self-evident that their new product would provide a better user experience and convenience.

“Speaking of which Old Liu, what is the production cost of the Fantasy 1st Gen?” Chen Jin asked.

“Uhm, about it costs about a hundred grand per unit. It uses a lot of high-purity rare earth metals to improve the detection sensitivity of brain waves.”

“What if it were to be mass-produced? How much could it be reduced to?”

Liu Yuankai shook his head. “Not much. It would still cost above 70 or 80K. The number of rare earth metals in each helmet cannot be reduced. Otherwise, the simulation degree will drop below 50% and mind-controlling will become inaccurate…”

Ling Jundong frowned and said, “Not many people will be able to afford the cost if it is priced at 70 to 80k per unit. Could only the rich be entitled to our product?”

“Relax, there will be a way to reduce costs.” Chen Jin was not at all worried. “In about five years, its cost can be reduced to around 30 thousand and in 10 years, it will cost even less than ten thousand dollars.”

Everyone looked at him with doubts on their faces.

The reserves of rare earth elements on earth were very small. Both the cost of mining and refining them was staggering. With rare earth elements being a must for virtual helmets, where did their boss’s confidence that the cost price would reduce to a third and even a tenth come from? Could there be some new material or new technology that could reduce the usage of rare earth elements?

Liu Yuankai still shook his head. The effectiveness of the rare earth elements was absolutely the best. No material could ever replace it.

Chen Jin, however, gave off a mysterious smile. He lifted his head slightly. His lifted his eyes to the ceiling of the room as his mind roamed into the profoundness of outer space.

Chapter 357 - Space Mining Industry

Chen Jin had his eyes set on the space mining industry.

The earth’s resources were limited, especially those scarce mineral resources. It would only take a few years of mining and they would be at the brink of exhaustion. The content of some elements in the earth’s crust was only some ten or hundred thousand tons, which would make them even rarer than gold. For instance, the proven global reserves of a metal called Rhenium was only 2500 tons, but it yielded very high value when used as an industrial catalyst for the manufacture of aircraft engines and rocket engines.

As for rare earth resources, their global exploitable amount in 20X8 was about 50 million tons. The remaining reserves of Z nation were less than ten million tons and could at most be mined for another ten years. Together with the rare earth metals stored in warehouses, there was only enough for another 20 years of usage. That implied that in 20 years, there would be no rare earth metals available in the Z nation. They would have to rely 100% on imports.

If no new source was found, the price of rare earth elements would inevitably rise.

But Chen Jin thought of a marvelous solution— space mining.

“The first trillion-dollar tycoon of the next millennium might be born from the space mining industry.” This was the prediction made by the M nation’s Goldman Sachs Group.

“Mining an asteroid with a diameter of 50 meters could yield 500 billion M-dollars of revenue.” A private company estimated.

The most authoritative organization in the M nation, NASA, had confirmed that there were more than 15,000 asteroids of different sizes within a 50,000,000 kilometer radius of the Earth. Most of these asteroids were rich in iron, nickel, copper, gold, silver and other metal elements. There were even asteroids that had metal contents greatly exceeding that of Earth.

If these asteroids were all measured by the vulgar unit of money, almost every asteroid would be worth a billion M-dollars.

In addition, the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter’s orbit included more than 500,000 asteroids. The moon, which was only 360 thousand kilometers away from earth, could also be regarded as a huge “resource planet” that harbored an insurmountable amount of minerals.

The resource issue that might be an increasing problem on Earth would vanish at once when the minerals available in space began to be used.

Chen Jin intended to enter the space mining industry. He felt that the time was ripe and space mining had begun to become profitable.

He had two advantages that others did not possess.

“Recently, the New Energy Research Center has successfully developed the ‘High Energy 2′ battery. Its energy density is 2.6 times greater than the High Energy 1 battery, attaining an astonishing 4000-watt hours per kilogram, which is equivalent to a third of the energy density of gasoline.”

“What’s more, batteries generally have more than 90% energy utilization efficiency. On this account, the High Energy 2 battery is actually equivalent to gasoline.”

“By using High Energy 2 batteries as the energy source for mining spacecraft and further equipping them with solar arrays and high-thrust Hall engines, a mining spacecraft will have almost unlimited navigation capability in space. The small amount of thrust medium, on the other hand, can be replenished when the vehicle is on the asteroids.”

“I have another advantage that no one else has. I know where the valuable asteroids are and have learned about the location of the high-value rich mines on the moon in advance. For instance, I know of a mine site on the moon that has more than 50,000,000 tons of open-pit rare-earth elements that are of a high grade and are very easy to mine.”

On planet Haierfa, the minerals on the moon had been mined for hundreds of years and a great deal of valuable information about the asteroid orbits was kept in Nuwa’s database. There was no institution on Earth that knew about this information.

Knowing the specific location of the treasure in advance meant making money was as simple as taking something out of a bag.

Other companies were not yet ready to enter the space mining industry, but for Xing Hai Technologies the opportunity had arrived.

However, Chen Jin still planned to cooperate with the state for a joint plan regarding space minerals. Even with the current repeatable low-cost launching technology, the cost of launching a spacecraft was still above 20,000 dollars per kilogram. Assuming that a mining facility with a total weight of ten thousand tons was to be launched into space, launching alone would cost more than two hundred billion dollars. In later phases, the transportation of further addons, construction of the communication system, maintenance services, space smelting, round trips… everything would require a cost. It was somewhat unbearable that even with Xing Hai Technologies’ strength, the cost was rather high.

Co-operating with the state would allow them to use the national launching system and the measurement and control system for the purpose of serving themselves. It would mean they were sharing a portion of the cost and speeding up mining efficiency. Chen Jin estimated that in approximately three years, the first batch of space minerals would be transported back to Earth on cargo spaceships.

Therefore, Chen Jin set the wheels in motion. He let Ling Jundong file a cooperation application with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of Z.

“Alright! We agree to co-operate. Both of us powerhouses shall work together to solve the issue of resources completely.” The space agency gave a quick, positive response.

However, before the cheap space minerals could arrive on the Earth, the production cost of Xing Hai Technologies’s “Fantasy 1st Gen” virtual helmet would need to remain high. It would still be difficult to widely promote the product. At ten thousand dollars per unit, there were not many users that could afford it. However, the Fantasy 1st Gen was not a product that would be pushed to the civilian market. Neither did Chen Jin intend to sell it publicly.

There would only be a maximum of a few hundred units of “Fantasy 1st Gen” virtual helmets made solely for the advanced players of the 100% Science Lab. It had been six years since the game was released and it had caught on faster than Chen Jin had expected. There were already 112 players, consisting of top scientists in various fields across the world that had upgraded to the SSS-tier laboratory. They had probed into the most cutting-edge technology which prevented them to withdraw their technical data because their findings were too advanced compared to those available on earth.

There were also a few scientists whose credits were close to obtaining the “Supreme Laboratory”.

When players attained the supreme level, the gameplay would change. The “Fantasy 1st Gen” virtual helmet would be distributed to them, and the “Supreme Laboratory”, the ultimate pantheon of science established in the lunar base, would be open to them. By then, those players could start making contributions to the technological development of Planet Haierfa.

Chen Jin was also very much looking forward to seeing players entering the pantheon.

…

That night, in the virtual world.

Artificial intelligence Alice reported a situation. “Master, the player that has the most credits in ‘100% Science Lab’ and is only 2000 credits away from gaining access to the Supreme Laboratory has been online for two consecutive weeks. Previously, he would log in to the game every single day.”

“Are you talking about Edward Vuitton who had come out with the String theory and the M theory? Why hasn’t he been online?”

Edward Vuitton was the most famous physicist and mathematician of the generation. He was recognized as the cream of the crop in the scientific community. In the citation statistics that Stanford University published, he was the one with the highest H index. Even the renowned Hawking was only ranked 24th. He was the person with the highest number of credits in “100% Science Lab.”

“Perhaps it is because of health issues? He is already 88 years old and is suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure. Could something have happened to him?” said Alice.

Chen Jin’s heart thumped. He was such a notable figure that was only half a step away from the Supreme Laboratory. If something were to happen to him…

“Alice, boot up the global surveillance system. Try and locate Edward and have a look at how he is doing.”

“Sure, ma…” Alice stopped abruptly and said, “That will no longer be necessary, master. Edward has come online.”

“Oh, he’s online?” Chen Jin sighed out of relief.

“He sent a message to the system wizard, master.”

“What did he say?”

“He said he is sorry but he will no longer be able to continue his explorations on the path of truth. He has systemic organ failure and has at most seven more days to live.”

Chen Jin was shocked.

Chapter 358 - Renowned Scientist Mysteriously Disappears

Systemic organ failure was the same as being up the creek without a paddle.

This was no cancer nor any terminal illness. This was an indication of human life reaching its end, just like computers executing the last line of coding. He was basically lying within the grim reaper’s embrace. Even a god could not save him from his fate. But how could things have happened this way?

“Isn’t it a little too soon for a top-notch scientist to die at only 88?”

Chen Jin had to admit that 88 could certainly be considered as old age. He wasn’t at the bottom of the list of scientists with high average lifespans either.

The problem was that such a great scientist was extremely rare. The cost of whipping them into shape was immensely high. The rarity of their existence could be compared to that of a phoenix’s feather or a unicorn’s horn. Albert Einstein, for instance, was a scientific genius the kind of which would only probably appear once in a century. A genius like Edward Vuitton would not appear again for at least another 30 years.

To find a scientist of the same caliber or even a higher tier, they would need to scour the world and wait patiently within the ever-flowing river of time. After all, geniuses would always be an extremely scarce product, especially in the field of science. Great leaps in science and technology were often made possible by a single genius who would single-handedly carry the whole scientific community.

“Alice, is there any way to save Edward Vuitton and lengthen his lifespan?” Chen Jin asked. He thought that top scientists should be given a longer lifespan. Even if they were to live until 100 under natural conditions, it would still seem too short.

The threshold within science was particularly high. Basic education would take 20 years, becoming proficient would take another 20, and doing in-depth explorations while they were still indefatigable would take approximately another 20 years’ time. By then, a scientist would be in their 60’s. For the rest of their days, they would most likely be meandering through their past achievements, too decrepit to attain any further breakthroughs.

However, a genius would still remain a genius. With the assistance of the immense operating powers of the “100% Science Lab”, via attempting on various ideas, Edward Vuitton had attained a crucial breakthrough in the field of mathematics – the Riemann hypothesis. This earned him 50 million credits in the game and triggered a commotion across the entire scientific community.

The next big question he intended to tackle was the ultimate question in the field of physics – the Grand Unification formula. He was already fumbling at the edge of a breakthrough. If he was given sufficient time, it would be possible for him to derive the Grand Unification Formula.

It would be a great pity if such a great scientist were to pass away.

“Master, judging by his condition, it will be extremely difficult to treat him. We will need to transplant an artificial heart, kidney, liver, and two lungs, as well as injecting life-extending medications. Besides, the procedures are highly sophisticated. We will need to bring him to the Xing Hai Hospital in Shang Hai to be able to perform them,” said Alice.

“Do you mean that he could be saved?”

“Yes. But you must hurry and bring him to the Z nation.”

“That will be no problem.”

…

The next day, in an intensive care unit of a Maryland hospital in the M nation.

There was a frail old man wearing a ventilator half-sitting on the bed. His face was thin, and his body was a bag of bones. His heartbeat was also low.

In front of him was a laptop. He frowned as he thought deeply about something. Occasionally, he would lift his fingers and tap on his keyboard with difficulty. His eyes were focused on the mathematical equation on the screen. It looked like a heavenly book as he continued to consider a problem.

His family members were there. Some of them had expressions engulfed in sorrow, while some had their heads lowered as they wiped away tears. The atmosphere was extremely somber.

Just then, there was a commotion in the corridor outside the ward.

A group came to the door of the ward and knocked, requesting permission to enter.

With an unpleasant expression, the old man’s son, George opened the door and said, “Please do not disturb my father’s rest. He has seen too many people in the last few days. He would like some time alone to think.”

“George, an important person wants to meet your father.” The hospital director extended his hand respectfully as he presented a man in a tuxedo.

George was instantly shocked and his jaw dropped in amazement. He muttered, “M…m-mister President?”

The man in a tuxedo smiled and said, “George, may I visit the master craftsman of the scientific pantheon and the outstanding contributor to the human civilization?”

“Y-yes you can, please come in Mr. Lanfelord.”

…

The President’s personal visit was the family’s greatest honor.

However, Edward Vuitton was too weak to speak as he lay on his sickbed. He could only blink his eyes and nod slightly. Moreover, he wasn’t in the mood to talk to others. Even if it was the president that was standing beside him, his attention was still channeled towards the computer screen. He only had a few days left to live and time was of the essence. He would rather struggle even a few inches forward on the path of truth.

But as Lanfelord stood close to him, the President said something that caught his attention: “Mr. Vuitton, the truth is I’ve come not to visit, but to save you. With your talents, you should continue to serve humanity and make an even greater contribution to science. You must not go this early.”

“Medicine is very well developed now. I believe that you are aware of this. It is not technology that is limiting human health and lifespan, but morality and the law. In ‘100% Science Lab’, the biologists who are researching longevity can easily extend the lifespan of humans to over 200 years.”

“It is only that most of the life-prolonging techniques violate our ethics and taboos. Even if some non-violating life-prolonging procedures are withdrawn from the game into reality, human experiment periods with over a 10-year span is also outlawed. You cannot wait that long and must immediately be given the most advanced treatments. Such a treatment cannot be conducted within the M nation, but you could procure it in Z nation.”

He introduced him to an expert in white robes who stood beside him, “This is Doctor Zhou, the top specialist at Xing Hai Hospital. He tells me that Xing Hai Hospital has a state-of-the-art life-prolonging treatment plan with a success rate of over 90%. It could extend your life by about 50 years. If you are willing to make a greater contribution to science, you could opt for treatment in Z nation.”

He extended his hand. “50 years Mr. Vuitton. It will be enough for you to solve five major difficulties in science.”

As he heard what they had to say, Edward Vuitton saw the last light of the setting sun as his eyes rekindled. His heartbeat accelerated significantly.

When he was asked: “Are you willing to go to the Z nation to receive the treatment?”, he moved his eyelids and nodded his head several times. Who doesn’t want to live longer?

All scientists like him wished to live for 500 or even 1000 years. In that way, they could witness more obstacles being overcome and amass for themselves more unvarnished truth, instead of dying early with regrets.

The rest was left for his family, which was then carried out in a relatively easy manner. They signed an agreement consenting to treatment and a confidentiality agreement, vowing to not disclose any information to the public within five years. They also accepted that if such events were to occur, they would have to take full responsibility for the problems they caused. It was still ethically controversial to greatly extend life expectancy, so it was better not to cause too much of a repercussion.

All the arrangements were made.

The same day, Edward Vuitton was discharged from hospital and he boarded a plane to fly to the Z nation thousands of miles away.

From that day forward, Edward Vuitton, the most renowned scientist of the generation, vanished. Almost nobody knew about his movements. It was as if his existence had evaporated from the mortal realm. Only a few people know whether he was dead or alive.

His whereabouts and fate had become a mystery in the scientific community.

Chapter 359 - Complicated Family

“Alice, how is Edward Vuitton doing? Is he still okay with the new environment?”

“He is doing very well in Base No.1, master. He is spending almost all day every day in the ‘Supreme Laboratory’ uncovering the truth.”

“He’s the only player in the ‘Supreme Laboratory’ as of now?”

“Yes. He’s the only one for the time being.”

Chen Jin shook his head, “I hope that the last level of this game will not remain as Edward Vuitton’s solo game. Some inspirations are engendered by communication. There should be a group of players in the Supreme Laboratory so that it includes all kinds of geniuses.”

“That will happen, master. There are plenty of high-level players. The Supreme Laboratory will become dynamic very soon.”

Besides, it was not only in the ‘game’. In reality, once the high-value scientists got old, or when their health dwindled and their life was endangered, Xing Hai Hospital would lend a helping hand and provide them with life-prolonging medical services free of charge. The premise was that one would have to go the Xing Hai Hospital in the Desert Transformation Zone located in the western provinces to receive the superior treatment.

Base No.1 was located not far from the Xing Hai Hospital.

For the scientists who regained their vitality and youthfulness after receiving treatment, it was believed that they would never want to leave Base 1 even if they just had a brief look around. They would have found the place that shone in their hearts. More and more well-known scientists would mysteriously disappear into the Desert Transformation Zone in the northwest.

This was also the effect Chen Jin wished to attain.

…

“Daddy, daddy!”

Chen Jin felt someone pulling his pants and heard a childish voice.

He removed the virtual helmet and looked down. Her daughter, Chen Xing Yue, who was almost five was looking at him with her beautiful eyes. “I want to play games! Gimme the helmet.”

She pointed at the helmet Chen Jin was holding.

“Uhm. Alright…”

Chen Jin handed over the helmet but then immediately took it back. “Before I give it to you, come give daddy a kiss.” He put his face in front of her.

“Mwah!” Chen Xing Yue swiftly pecked him on the cheek and grabbed the helmet.

“Hubby, don’t let her play too many games. She’s still so young. It might affect her learning.”

Su Yun came towards him holding a child in her hands and rebuked him. “You really dote on your daughters too much. What if you spoil them?”

“Aren’t daughters supposed to be spoiled?”

Chen Jin smiled as he took his youngest daughter from Su Yun. He kissed the cheeks of his one-year-old daughter a few times and teased her.

In five years of marriage, Su Yun had born him two daughters. The elder one, Chen Xing Yue, was almost five, and the youngest, Chen Xiao Yue, was now 14 months old.

A couple and two daughters. This family composition was the one with the highest happiness index among the six family combinations. Chen Jin was absolutely satisfied and even considered it a dream come true. He lived every day with his happiness index of the scale.

Girls were generally more sensible than boys. They matured earlier, were more filial when they grew older, and were the apple of their parent’s eyes. Chen Jin was especially fond of his mischievous eldest daughter. He would often play with her, and together get lectured by his wife for it. For that reason, his mother often mocked him for being a “big child”. His younger daughter Chen Xiao Yue would also become very cute as she grew older.

In private, Su Yun often gave him a worried look. She felt very anxious.

“Hubby, I wished for our second child to be a boy. Why is it a girl again? I…”

She blamed her body for not living up to her expectations. In fact, she was not the kind of person who had a traditional mindset. For her, a son or a daughter were the same, but considering her husband’s colossal possessions, would two daughters really be enough to fill the bill?

“Two daughters are excellent honey.”

Chen Jin patted her shoulders. “Male and female have equal rights,” he said. “A girl or a boy is totally the same. If we raise them properly, they can inherit my company in the future, and if our sons-in-law are willing to take our surname, it will almost be the same as having sons.”

“But it will still be better for us to have a son. We should play it safe,” his wife said while frowning.

“It’s the same, honey. Whether it is safe or not all depends on chance in the end. They might grow up to be excellent, or they might become wastrels. It’s fifty-fifty.”

“No! We must have another! Our third child will be a boy! My parents also had two daughters before having Little Peng. Our third child will not be another girl,” said the woman. She grabbed Chen Jin’s arms as if she was possessed.

“You’d better forget it. You’re not the kind of woman who can get pregnant easily. Let’s not talk about Yue Yue. Did you forget how hard it was to get Mini Yue out? Besides, you and I are both 35. The chance of you getting pregnant is now even lower. A cesarean section will really hurt your body. We’d better not risk it.”

Chen Jin shook his head.

Su Yun’s eyes dimmed. She bit her lip as she felt bitter on the inside. Chen Jin could only continue to comfort her and try to dispel her concerns.

The truth was that Chen Jin was not at all worried. He even thought that he was somewhat being played with by fate. Over the years, his wife had given him two daughters and showered him in infinite blissfulness. Meanwhile, Yuan Li had three boys one after another. Their names were Chen Bufan, Chen Feiyu, and Chen Yuanchao.

After Chiu Wanting from Forever Jewels applied for retirement, Guo Yan took her place as the store manager. Under her care, the jewelry store was well organized. She had also conducted some reforms that significantly improved the revenue generated by the jewelry store. It could be said that she was wholly devoted, and Chen Jin was very confident in her. But for unknown reasons, Guo Yan was already in her thirties and yet she had not married. She didn’t even have plans to look for a partner. Additionally, she had depleted all her assets and severed her ties with her family. She had been on her own since. The jewelry store became her home and she never returned to her hometown ever again. In spite of that, she felt content. Chen Jin knew the reason behind her persistence and felt pity for her. Hence, after they opened their hearts to each other, Chen Jin took her in.

A year later, Guo Yan gave birth to a boy who was later named Chen Xinghang and this gave her a family.

In total, he had four sons and two daughters. Chen Jin thought that this was absolutely enough.

Moreover, his sons were all away from him while his daughters were all by his side. Chen Jin was unaware whether the heavens had willed things to be so, but he thought that it was okay anyway.

With the assistance of his avatar robot and his mother, he could just about cope with such a complicated family.

“Actually, I don’t like myself being this way. But when you have a huge interest and wish to grasp it firmly, you will do something that is involuntarily, and opt for the ‘correct’ choices. In terms of morality, you might become riddled with a thousand holes, but interest wise, you are basically well secured and fortified. All your worries about the future will be cleared…”

“Perhaps that, after I settle things on earth, I can go stay at Planet Haierfa for the long- term, excavating a brand-new future and welcoming brand new challenges.”

…

Later that night, in the virtual world.

Alice reported, “Master, the construction of our first Interstellar battleship has been completed. We now officially have a more reliable military defense capability.”

“Good!”

Chen Jin nodded and said, “Take me to the dock right now.”

Chapter 360 - Ten Years
s

Planet Haierfa, Qiongya Island.

Wenjing Aerospace Launch Base.

After some minor renovations, the starship’s construction dock had been set up at this location to save time and energy.

The dock was a giant oval structure which had a maximum diameter of over 5000 meters. Excessive facilities had been completely cleaned up. A lone spaceship lay on the dock. It was coated in light gray with edges as sharp as wide blades and daggers.

Via the images captured by cameras at every corner of the dock, Alice introduced various parameters of the spacecraft.

“Master, the spacecraft has a length of 860 meters, an average ship width of 102 meters, a ship height of 55 meters, and an unloaded weight of 2.45 million tons.”

“It is powered by a third-generation nuclear fusion reactor with a maximum output of 1 million megawatts and a rated output of 250 thousand megawatts, which is a huge energy source enough for 200 million people.”

“The sturdy energy system is paired with the latest ion propulsion engines. Under extreme scenarios, it can generate up to 15 million tons of thrust, allowing the spacecraft to accelerate to speeds greater than that of 6G. The robust power system has granted the spacecraft exceptional maneuverability.”

“But most certainly, the highlight of this spaceship is still its colossal attack power. The vessel is equipped with a high-power laser cannon, electromagnetic cannon, large amounts of nuclear missiles and enormous nuclear torpedoes. Aside from that, there is also a particle-beam gun three meters in diameter installed at the middle portion of the ship’s bow.”

“The firepower of the particle-beam gun is simply astonishing. It can emit high-energy particle streams up to 20% the speed of light and disintegrate everything in its way.”

The downside was that its recharging time was rather long, thus it could only be fired once every five minutes.

In short, in terms of combat power, this spaceship was a force to be reckoned with.

However, the spaceship was awfully fragile in terms of defense. It had no energy shield nor force field alloy, only meager amounts of high-strength nano-alloy armor whose thickness did not really make the grade. If the spaceship were to be blasted by a massive nuclear bomb or suffer a direct hit from the enemy’s particle-beam gun, it was basically a goner.

According to Alice’s evaluation, due to the spacecraft’s excellent maneuverability and attack power, its comprehensive combat power was about 15, reaching the level of an E-class battleship.

“Just 15 combat power?” Chen Jin shook his head. If this seemingly ferocious object in the dock were to be brought to Earth, it would definitely be deemed as a totem which could wipe out everything in existence. But on a universal scale, with a combat power of merely 15, it would still fall under the “fodder” category, unable to secure even a spot in the elite class.

“Alice, you should correct your statement. We still do not possess formal military defense capabilities, only the ability to delay our enemy’s pace just barely and slightly setback our doom timer.”

“Master, what is your definition of a capable military defense?”

“A C-class battleship. Create a C-class battleship with a comprehensive combat power of above 1000, or even a more powerful B-class battleship. Only then will I consider us to have the capability of self-protection and formal military defense capabilities.”

“Oh…” Alice nodded.

Had the E-class battleship been created just to waste resources?

Of course not. Firstly, it could be used as a test battleship to analyze various systems and provide actual data. Secondly, for all the myriads of space junk floating around planet Haierfa, they now had a designated cleaning tool.

“All the space junk shall be handled by this spaceship. Perhaps it won’t take too long until we’ll get to see the clear and translucent starry sky on planet Haierfa.”

Chen Jin even gave this interstellar battleship a name. It was to be known as “The Cleaner”, a name of the utmost relevance.

Considering that E-class battleships only had regular combat power, there were only plans to build one unit of this class of battleships. In addition, Alice was required to develop a type of interstellar battleship with a comprehensive combat power of 50 or more within around 10 years. By that time, perhaps more battleships at least 10 units or above would be constructed,

…

After visiting the Starship Dock, Chen Jin linked up with artificial intelligence Nuwa to question her about some issues.

“Nuwa, how is Planet Haierfa’s environmental transformation going? When I looked at the planet two days ago, I realized that much of the land was already covered with lush greenery. The whole of Mi, Europa and Asia have almost all turned green.”

“The sea is filled with big fishes and shrimps, and their numbers are so immense that they simply can’t be counted. The sky in most regions is blue, as gorgeous as a precious gemstone. It even made me think that you are extremely efficient and you have accomplished the task I gave you very quickly.”

Nuwa, however, shook her head. “My task is not yet accomplished. It is only half complete.”

“I have named the grass you have seen the Everlasting Grass. It is characterized by its drought tolerance and resistance to both high and low temperatures. Its roots can spread 30 meters below the surface, and it can survive from low to high altitude. Once this species of grass has taken root, it will release a corrosive liquid from its roots that can turn even the most solid granite into soil.”

“The everlasting grass tends to grow as a single, large body. Through their connected root system, they can transport water and nutrients to each other even up to 100 kilometers away. No matter what the landscape, once it is planted with the everlasting grass, they will all be covered in it.”

“For a 45 million square kilometer continent, it will only take five years for it to be overgrown with everlasting grass.”

“By planting everlasting grass and further accumulating about five years of green manures, the everlasting grass can be removed to make space for other species.”

“The situation in the sea is similar. Lots of seaweed and herbivorous seedlings will be thrown into the sea in earlier phases and other fry will follow at later stages.”

“In short, it will take at least another decade or so for us to build a rich and diverse ecosystem and let the system run smoothly on its own without requiring external intervention. Only then can the transformation be considered complete,” Nuwa explained. The transformation of the ecological environment was a systematic project and was not as easy as imagined.

Okay then. It would be at least another decade before Chen Jin could have a truly habitable new planet with a spectacular environment. It was if a house was being renovated, and he had to wait patiently.

Of course, it wasn’t that he was very eager to visit. He just thought that this unit called time was much like a progress bar, sometimes you would want it fast, and sometimes you would want it slow. Sometimes it would cause you to panic, sometimes it would make you groggy.

Chen Jin felt that there was not much challenge back on earth. Everything was under his control and his goals and plans would unquestionably be realized. But he still could not take relax.

“10 years, exactly 10 years.”

“There are probably three major things left on earth that I’ll need to smash a record to achieve. I will level out the obstacles of the future, ensuring that Earth and Xing Hai Technologies are guided towards a bright roadway.”

“When I’ve successfully conducted all those big things, the focus of development can be shifted towards planet Haierfa, and in turn, Earth’s resources shall be used to serve planet Haierfa.”

The first big thing would have to begin with the ban on guns in the M nation. He would need Lanfelord to completely eradicate the special interest groups. However, as soon as this reform began, the opposition and madness of these special interest groups left every single soul in shock. Their reaction was also light years away from what Chen Jin expected.

Chapter 361 - Crazy Assassination Attempts

There was something that was very difficult to accomplish in a democratic type of country.

That thing was reform. If the public will was catered to with no restrictions and benefits were given excessively, it would be easy to overdraw the national treasury, leading to the country’s bankruptcy.

If adjustments and reforms were made, they would inevitably damage the interests of a portion of the public and interest groups. This would lead to dissatisfaction and even fierce opposition.

No matter how the reforms were carried out, there would always be opposing forces and voices. The only difference was the size and strength of those opposing.

The most difficult reform in Merica was probably the ban on guns. It was a task with a “hellish” level of difficulty. It was impossible for the average person to do this, and it was often left unsettled. This was despite the fact that various kinds of shootings occurred frequently and tens of thousands of Mericans died every year from gunshot wounds.

Some politicians had even taken the opposite direction, supporting the idea that it would be safer for everyone to own a gun.

And Lanfelord was determined to do the hardest thing – to build a gun-free Merica.

When he announced his decision, Merican public opinion was very surprised. Most of them then clapped and praised the decision.

“The most courageous decision.”

“There are more gun shops in our country than there are supermarkets. On average, a person owns more guns than they do mobile phones. There are more people who die every year from gunshot wounds than traffic accidents and acute heart disease combined. Everyone is living in a dangerous situation; gunshots can be heard almost every day.”

“It is necessary to take measures that tackle and control our natural instincts. The safest environment is where everyone has no guns. The most dangerous environment is where everyone has a gun.”

“We have entered modern civilized society; we are not in an era where we hunt in the jungles. There are no prey and beasts in the city. Moreover, we belong to the same species and should not have to be wary of each other.”

“I support this! We can’t go on like this anymore.”

“I am willing to hand over the guns that I’ve bought, but only if others hand them over too.”

78%.

78% of online users supported the ban on guns. The rest were not entirely against the decision, but they hoped for a limited prohibition where one could not carry a gun in public; they could only hold guns privately. There were still many who love to play with guns in Merica.

So there was a paradox. If the ban was not thorough enough, an unclear situation would be the result. Most people would not have a gun, but a small portion of the population would still own one. What if one or two demons appeared within that small number of gun holders and went on a shooting spree? Wouldn’t that mean that those without guns had no means of self-protection?

Therefore, in order to be absolutely safe, the prohibition of guns had to be thorough and complete. It must be ensured that everyone had no guns.

This was just the beginning of the reform.

Lanfelord faced tremendous resistance. Even though the support from the public exceeded 80%, only 55% of the members of Congress expressed support for him. This did not meet the requirement of approval from two-thirds of Congress, which was needed as it involved amending several clauses in the Constitution.

The ban on guns was not passed.

Therefore, Lanfelord spent half a year and made countless speeches to persuade as many members of Congress as possible. Still, the support rate was less than 60%.

Seeing that the plan was going to be dead before it was even born, Chen Jin had to send 30 human replica robots to replace 30 important opposition representatives… The comprehensive ban on guns was finally passed.

Finally, Lanleford could open his arms and commence the big job. Actual measures to carry out the ban started. In just two months, more than 10,000 gun shops were shut down, and more than 30 million private guns and countless ammunition were seized. Not only did they move fast, but the results were quite gratifying.

It was for real.

Lanfelord was for real!

The opposition and the special interest groups were taken aback. Then they immediately became anxious and launched a series of actions.

It was advice at the beginning. Then bone-chilling warnings started. After these came threats via envelope bombs. Threats were also made to family members.

In the end, the opposition could not bear it any longer. They could only undertake the most extreme action—assassination. They wanted to get rid of Lanfelord

After all, the Merican gun market was similar to the mobile phone market. The value of the market was more than hundreds of billions and even trillions of dollars.

This industry was disappearing. The number of unemployed was in the hundreds of thousands. The interests of countless arms suppliers were harmed.

Breaking one’s stream of income was akin to killing his parents. It was a hatred between irreconcilable enemies. In addition, they had countless firearms and ammunition in their hands.

“We can’t allow Lanfelord to live!”

“Get rid of this b*stard.”

“What else can we do besides the weapons trade? Is there a more profitable industry?”

“Lanfelord, I respect you very much, but you are blocking our way!”

The sound of grinding teeth could be heard from countless corners of the country.

In the next few months, the most insane assassination attempts came at Lanfelord like an unstoppable tide. There was an average of more than ten attempts a day.

The assassination attempts became more exaggerated and insane.

One person brought several Gatlings and began a shooting spree at Lanfelord’s team of escorting cars. Many cars were shot until they resembled nothing more than sieves. The attacker was quickly shot down and died.

There was another person who drove an old-fashioned tank into Lanfelord’s official residence. The tank ran rampant and the driver blasted anyone he saw. Later, the tank was blown up by anti-tank missiles.

Then, there were attackers who drove a helicopter or fighter jet to bomb the site where Lanfelord was working.

There was also an old-fashioned ballistic missile, which was shot straight at Lanfelord’s location at ten times the speed of sound.

The special interest groups launched a powerful money based offensive. They bought over the most trusted assistant of Lanfelord as well as his relatives and friends. Even the vice president had surrendered under the temptation of money. All of them took out their black market guns and shot at Lanfelord’s vital parts.

In the end, after hundreds and thousands of assassination attempts, Lanfelord remained unscathed. He was still alive and kicking.

Those special interest groups almost collapsed.

“Impossible, this is impossible!”

“How is he still alive even with all these attempts?”

“Is he human? Is he the god of death, or is he undead?”

Each failed assassination attempt caused them to have a mental breakdown and to question life itself.

Internet users from other countries also found this incredible.

“An average of ten assassination attempts a day; your family, colleagues, and friends have been bought over with money. Is it possible to stay alive?”

“Besides nuclear weapons and bomber aircraft, they’ve used all the high-tech weapons that can be could be used… Their capabilities are simply amazing.”

“If it was me, I’d have probably died dozens of times.”

“A cockroach can’t be killed; a Lanfelord can’t be assassinated!”

“It’s creepy. They are people with money, guns, and manpower. Can an ordinary person fight against such interest groups? I think that if a motion opposing their interests had been proposed, their target would die the very next day even before their interests had actually been touched.”

“I am changing my views. This is such a bold reform; it is quite unlikely that our country to accomplish this.”

Chen Jin was also shocked.

But not because the special interest groups used Gatling, tanks, aircraft, ballistic missiles and other weapons in their assassination attempts.

He was shocked because he was seeing this great momentum that could not be stopped. The ban on guns was really possible. Desperate, the special interest groups had sent hundreds of attackers, carrying countless weapons and ammunition. They were scattered around the country to create shooting incidents and crazily slaughtered innocents. Tens of thousands were killed or injured.

It also angered all the people. Lanfelord’s support rate skyrocketed from a low of less than 40% to 80%.

Faced with the rage of the people, the special interest groups perished in their madness.

Chapter 362 - City No. 9

It took just over a year.

Lanfelord had closed down tens of thousands of gun shops and seized nearly 300 million guns.

Civilian held guns in Merica had been reduced by more than 95%. Violent crimes related to guns had been reduced by 80%, and many cities with disorderly public security had recorded zero gunshot sounds for ten days, then thirty days, and then eighty days. The records were constantly refreshed and new records were made.

“Gun control is a success!”

This was the media’s inspiring conclusion.

Many people were so happy they cried tears of joy and partied all night.

Considering that there were three years left in Lanfelord’s term of office, the high-pressure strike against guns would probably be maintained during this period; the strike would not be relaxed. A “gun-free country” may indeed become a reality in the next three years.

In addition, in order to completely eliminate special interest groups, Lanfelord had ordered the closure of several domestic firearms and weapons production plants. He had also nationalized several well-known military-industrial groups. Weapons production was fully controlled by the state and only a small number of orders were given. These orders were just a sufficient amount so that the industry would not go bankrupt.

The country had even made an unprecedented purchase request from Z country in order to save on equipment procurement costs. Hence, Merica had bought a batch of cheap but not backward weapon systems from Z country.

There were also plans to reduce the number of nuclear weapons to less than 500.

These had led to a lot of criticism and opposition, but Lanfelord was still doing his own thing.

It could be said that Lanfelord was never going to stop fighting against the special interest groups until he had killed off all of them!

Why did Chen Jin have such meticulous plans regarding this issue? He could have let Merica rot and sink into greater depths with each passing day. Why was he bothering to do so much for that country?

Actually, Chen Jin was also trying to remove a detonator and thus get rid of an unpredictable bomb.

“Merica is an unpredictable bomb that jeopardizes the safety of the planet at all times.”

“When physical industries become hollow and the competitiveness of high-tech industries weakens, the military industry will gradually become the pillar of industry. Those special interest groups will collude with the media and politicians, constantly exporting turmoil around the world and increasing their arms sales.”

“If they can’t stir things up on a small scale and if the money earned can’t satisfy their expectations, it is totally within their plans to tie the whole of Merica to the war tank and export a full-scale war.”

“They are private arms dealers. Unrest is their business opportunity. War is their busy season. Their position and nature have determined that they will never bring peace and harmony to the world. Peace is their nightmare.”

“If these interest groups are not eliminated, it is unlikely that human civilization will go beyond earth as it will be destroyed by them.”

“Earth will become the second Haierfa even without the aliens’ intervention.”

Chen Jin never wanted to witness that scene. So he had to kill the threat while it was still in the cradle.

However, the drawback of democratic countries was that the people could not resist the insincere rhetoric of politicians. Today, they might support this character to come to power and approve his administrative program. Tomorrow, they might support another character to come to power, and like his policy program instead… This happened repeatedly and changes were frequent.

Continuity of policies was very poor.

When Lanfelord stepped down after 3 years, the newly-elected president could publish the benefits of holding guns again and push for the ban on guns to be lifted. Most citizens would suddenly feel that it was safer to have a gun in their hands, and countless gun shops would open again. Gunshots would again resound all over the country every day. All of Lanfelord’s efforts would be in vain. In that case, what should be done?

After all, one could not overestimate the judgment and intelligence of the people. The eyes of the masses were sharp, but once their own interests were involved, once they were deceived by the wonderful promises of politicians, it would be too late to regret things after two years.

It was difficult to determine if Lanfelord’s reforms would last for five years or ten years. It might even be possible that his reform measures would be overthrown once he stepped down. Things would quickly return to square one or even regress into a worse situation.

If faced with such a situation, how should one deal with it?

Chen Jin had prepared a plan for this. He had no hope that the reforms could be maintained for that length of time.

“Ten years; it will suffice to just maintain it for ten years. After ten years, no matter what kind of madman comes to power, no matter how crazy and arrogant he is, haha, there would be a way to teach him how to act like a decent human being.”

“Merica still have certain value in some major events. After the completion of these major events, it would be fine even if we didn’t have any assistance from Merica. Xing Hai Technologies would be unstoppable by then.”

Merica was just a stepping-stone and a tool.

…

The reforms by Lanfelord in Merica were basically successful.

Elsewhere in the world, in the Sahara Desert in Africa, Xing Hai Technology’s “Domed Base” Plan had entered the stage where it was going full steam ahead. During the past two years, from 20X8 to 20X0, the company had invested more than 10 million robots of different varieties into this project. More than a million engineers and volunteers from all over the world were participating in this project. Work had started on more than 50 domed bases. There were more than 100 desalination plants by the seaside. Two nuclear fusion power stations that could generate large amounts of power were built. Both were put into the full use of power generation. Numerous funds and resources had been invested.

In May of 20X0, the first batch of 10 “domed bases” was successfully completed and could be put into use.

Moreover, a group of “immigrants” could be arranged to live in the dome and adapt to life in the base in advance. A large amount of manpower was needed for the environmental transformation work around the bases, and this provided numerous jobs.

The recruitment announcement made by Xing Hai Technologies attracted a great deal of attention.

“The preliminary completed dome base can accommodate up to 500,000 ‘immigrant workers’. The first batch of immigrants can enter the future ‘desert free city’ as ‘workers.’ As long as you are willing to come and work hard, you will get a considerable salary that is enough to support your family. The place that you personally build will become your home. The harder you work, the faster the transformation will be. You may need ten years, but you could create a beautiful new world in seven or eight years.”

“As the first batch of pioneers, you will have benefits that future immigrants will not get. You have priority to rent a piece of land that you like. You can buy your own house at a lower price in the most prosperous city center. If you have a unique vision and a sharp sense for business, you can apply to get involved in some promising industries.”

“It is true that it’s just a wide land of yellow sand right now, but in the future, it will be a place full of opportunity and hope!”

“We sincerely invite you to come. We welcome every brave, diligent, open-hearted and hopeful person to come here and contribute your value and sweat. We guarantee that each contribution will have a ten-fold return. If you are eager to change your destiny, then this is definitely the best place.”

Xing Hai Technologies translated the announcement into hundreds of languages and distributed it on a global scale. It was like a virus. The announcement was distributed by means of video, radio, TV commercials, and paper flyers, among others.

There were more distributions among the refugee groups in developed countries. It was also aimed at some international refugee groups and so on.

The company even organized a large number amount of volunteers to trumpet this information in an attempt to brainwash their targets and get them to go to the domed bases.

However, not that many people responded. Only 500,000 plus strong men and women were recruited in a month. They were the only ones willing to work in the “Desert Free City”.

No matter how brainwashing was done, the rest of the refugees remained indifferent. Even though the “Desert Free City” was portrayed as a paradise, few were tempted. After all, they were already living in “heaven”. They did not believe that there was a better place than developed countries.

Helpless, the developed countries in the west could only resort to tactics that were equal parts cajoling with lies and strong-arming. The governments organized more than 4 million strong men and women from the refugees as pioneers of the immigrants. Their entire families would pack up and move after the transformation of the desert free city had been completed.

In the end, there another 500,000 plus “workers” who were not refugees. Some were not even poor, but they accept the arrangement of “settling after work” and actively participated in the “domed base” plan.

Moreover, nearly 70% of these 500,000 plus people were Chinese. Some were from the undeveloped provinces in the central and west of Z country, while others were Chinese migrants in Southeast Asia. They were very interested in the “dome base” plan and smelled the opportunities within, so they took the initiative to apply to join. Many of them had bright lights flashing in their eyes and desire written across their faces.

Chen Jin gave instructions to approve their applications to join, and all of these applicants were placed to live in the No. 9 free city.

Xing Hai Technologies had priority to 14 cities. Chen Jin placed City no. 9 under his name, and it was owned by him.

“500,000 immigrants who took the initiative to apply; nearly 70% of them are Chinese, and they are all resettled to the No. 9 city. Obviously, I believe that the future development of this city will be ahead of others.”

After all, there seemed to be only one race in this world who was known for its endurance of hard work, intelligence and diligence.

“The existence of City No. 9 is similar to that of a winning hand in poker.”

Chapter 363 - A Major Relocation

July, 20X0.

The focus returned to the country.

In the northwestern desert region of Z country, Xing Hai Technologies was carrying out the transformation of 500,000 square kilometers of desert land at a faster and more efficient rate.

This was especially the case in the northeast corner of the Taklimakan Desert. Xing Hai Technologies had been carrying out the transformation in the 50,000-square-kilometer region for seven years non-stop.

There were countless investments, including a large number of incredible high-tech applications.

A miracle happened.

A few years ago, it was a desert where there was not even an inch of grass. Now, there were contiguous forests, grasslands stretching for miles, a flowing stream, birds singing and the scent of flowers. What filled the eyes observers had changed from a monotonous yellow to a continuous green.

“We have completely reached a standard suitable for human survival. Even the pollution index is small, which is good for your health.” This was the evaluation given by the United Nations Environment Programme after testing the composition of the water, air, and soil.

Since that was the case, I seemed better to just move to the desert redevelopment area.

Dozens of research centers, laboratories, large-scale equipment, and tens of thousands of employees of Xing Hai Technologies could be relocated to the Technology City No. 1. The city had already been completed and spanned 100 square kilometers.

The relocation arrangements made by Xing Hai Technologies were very simple. They were completely linked to real estate prices. If the average price of the real estate surrounding the company facility exceeded $100,000 per square meter, it would be included in the first batch of facilities to be relocated. If the average price of surrounding real estate exceeded $80,000 per square meter, it would be in the second batch to be relocated. If the average price of surrounding real estate exceeded $50,000 per square meter, it would be in the third batch to be relocated.

As for those buildings where the surrounding real estate prices did not exceed $50,000 per square meter, no transfer would be considered for now.

Using this standard as a reference, the company’s research institutions and office centers located in first-tier cities such as Shang Hai, Su Hong, Shen Zhen, Hang Cheng, Yang Cheng, and the capital city would all be relocated. Some would be relocated in the first wave, some in the second and some in the third. Eventually, they would all be transferred.

The facilities in Shang Hai were a particular priority. Xing Hai Technologies’ 12 large research centers, 5 office centers, hundreds of enterprise laboratories and nearly 100,000 employees would all have priority in the relocation arrangements, except for a very small number to be left behind. The facilities would be transferred to the northwest desert reconstruction area more than 3,000 kilometers away.

The move was extremely rapid. Xing Hai Technologies rented ten large passenger planes and ten large cargo planes to transport people and goods all day and all night. The relocation was done at a rate that was equivalent to flying more than 2,000 employees and more than 1,000 tons of materials out of the metropolitan city of Shang Hai every day. With this speed, the relocation could be completed in about three months or so.

Wow…

Although this relocation was not publicly disclosed, the company’s action had alarmed the media and caused widespread panic and shock. A variety of thrilling and eye-catching news headlines came out.

“Xing Hai Technologies escapes from Shang Hai for several nights in a row.”

“Quickly stop Xing Hai Technologies! It is abruptly withdrawing at the speed of light.”

“Without Xing Hai Technologies, the lights in Shang Hai will dim immediately.”

“Haha, congratulations to real estate prices, you have won.”

However, the majority of netizens was not surprised by the move.

“Real estate prices in the city center are $180,000 per square meter. The prices of real estate in suburbs outside the five rings are generally between $80,000 to 100,000. What high-tech company would not flee from such prices?”

“Xing Hai Technologies has also been hoisted by its own petard. Ten years ago, the company put forward the concept of ‘absolute wages’ and promised to pay the rent of their employees. As a result, landlords began to see Xing Hai Technologies as a company with more money than sense. Rental prices were frantically increased, especially for properties near Xing Hai Technologies. A simple furnished two-bedroom apartment of 50 square meters cost $10,000 per month. And this was considered cheap.”

“I’ve heard speculators shouting that reasonable housing prices in Shang Hai should be $200,000 per square meter. It’s because the city has Xing Hai Technologies. I don’t know if they still have the confidence to say this now?”

“Xing Hai Technologies is not a company with more money than sense. It will not pay for their speculative behavior. If you make the company anxious, it will move straight into the desert. I didn’t think it was possible before, but they have actually done it in! Ruthless, I can only say that they are ruthless!”

“I’m curious about this. How did Xing Hai Technologies convince tens of thousands of employees to get on the plane and agree to go work in the northwest desert? How did Xing Hai Technologies do it?”

“I am also very curious. If it was me, if I had to leave my friends and family, leave a lively environment that I had gotten used to, all to go work in the desert thousands of kilometers away, where life is far less convenient than Shang Hai, where education and facilities are less than excellent… If it were me, I might resign rather than be relocated. I wouldn’t be able to get used to it.”

“The above comment is too ridiculous. The benefits and salaries given by Xing Hai Technologies are one or two grades better than what civil servants and state-owned enterprise workers enjoy. Who is willing to give up such good treatment? If it were me, I could only follow the orders.”

“In reality, most of their employees are not locals from Shang Hai, but migrant workers. To them, coming to Shang Hai to work is not too different from going to the northwestern desert. Changing the location of the workplace has little effect on them.”

“No! The impact on most people is actually very big. In these past ten years or more, most employees who have already worked for Xing Hai Technologies for more than three years would have been able to buy a house and settle in Shang Hai. They would even have the ability to bring their wife, parents, and children over to Shang Hai and support them. At least 50% of Xing Hai employees have become Shang Hai residents. Most of these employees are also included in the move to the northwest desert. They may not be happy to leave.”

“How did Xing Hai Technologies eliminate the employees’ concerns? It is not known at the moment.”

Solving the real reasons behind this problem was actually very simple. Chen Jin had proposed three solutions.

One, if the whole family migrated to “Technology City No. 1”, the company would provide free housing and arrange work for the employees’ families. Professional kindergartens, schools, and hospitals were built. The facilities were perfect, and the immigrants would not be too inconvenienced.

Two, they could choose the “two-week rotation work system”. Under this system, employees worked one week in Shang Hai, flew to work in the Technology City next week, and returned to Shang Hai the week after.

Three, complete working freedom. Under this model, employees did not have to go to the company or the Technology City. They worked from home every day. It was enough to complete the tasks assigned by the company. Their salaries were linked to the number of tasks completed. The more work completed the higher the salary. The less work completed the lower the salary. If there was no work, then there was no pay. The related benefits were also reduced. Thus, employees under this model would become a freelancer. This was more suitable for groups like “programmers”.

The majority of Xing Hai employees had chosen the first or second option. Employees who chose the last option were rare.

In the end, there were only a scant few who felt they had no option but to resign. They did not accept any of the three programs and also refused to stay in Shang Hai.

The overall progress of the relocation was going very smoothly.

But there were some people who were in an utterly frantic state. They called Chen Jin one after another.

“President Chen, don’t go, I’m begging you to please not go!”

“We will provide some tax concessions and 60% off land rental! We have issued countless policies in response to real estate prices. We are determined to keep the prices down. I promise that not only will housing prices not rise for the next year, but they will fall by at least 5%. We are doing our best to protect the real economy!”

“President Chen, don’t go! Please believe in our determination and abilities!”

Chen Jin was silent for some time. Then he said, “I believe what you say. Whether prices fall by 5% or rise to a new record of $200,000, it all depends on you. So don’t call me again. I will not keep you company any longer.”

…

Three months later.

The first batch of personnel and equipment was transferred, and Xing Hai Technologies had their first core base in the northwest desert.

Because the land was cheap and there were large numbers of farms, pastures, and fish ponds that were directly subordinate to Xing Hai Technologies, the products are rich in quantity and excellent in quality. These were completely sufficient for human consumption.

The rows of bungalows and villas in the Technology City were also owned by Xing Hai Technologies.

For the 80,000 Xing Hai employees and 200,000 plus family members of those employees, they had saved huge amounts in all aspects, including clothing, food, shelter, and transport.

The financial situation of Xing Hai Technologies had improved significantly in an instant.

The only price was this. The real estate prices of Shang Hai, which had always been very strong, plummeted by 15% in three months. The real estate investment circle was in chaos. Even Chen Jin did not expect Xing Hai Technologies’ departure to have such a tremendous impact. Its departure had caused the property market to lose several trillion.

In the desert, Technology City No. 1 experienced a wage/price reform which set off a huge storm. The impact of this storm was even greater than the company’s speedy withdrawal from Shang Hai!

Chapter 364 - Free Cities

Re-establishing real estate prices in a first-tier city was not enough!

In order to save money and improve corporate profits, Xing Hai Technologies had done something even more daring—a major reform of wages and benefits.

Employees who worked in the Technology City No. 1 received some wages but their welfare package was changed dramatically. Any employee who moved to the Technology City with their entire family would have their wages cut by at least 90%. They would only receive up to 10% of their previous salary. For those employees who were in the “half-migration” state, wages were reduced by at least 50%, and disposable income was halved. Only employees whose work was not location dependent did not experience any changes to their income. There were no adjustments made.

“The income is cut by 90%, and 50%. If it were me, I’d resign immediately and change jobs.”

“They’re courting disaster! Is Xing Hai Technologies crazy? They’ve exposed their ugly capitalist’s face much too fast. Isn’t it too ugly?”

“Those employees responded to the management’s request and went to work in the desert thousands of kilometers away. It’s just about tolerable if they chose not to increase the salaries a little. But to actually reduce the salaries? Is it really necessary?”

“They are destroying the bridge after crossing the river and killing the donkey when the grinding is done! I feel sad for those employees.”

This was the initial reaction of ordinary people regarding Xing Hai Technology’s sharp cut in wages.

But a few days later, once Xing Hai Technologies had introduced their welfare policy, everyone suddenly realized the truth. They were shocked and found it incredulous. Xing Hai Technologies’ welfare system exceeded everyone’s imagination. The package was especially generous for the Xing Hai employees who had moved with their entire families to “Technology City No. 1”. The benefits that those employees and family members enjoyed stunned everyone.

Firstly, they were free. All goods in Technology City No. 1 were free. This included grain, oil, rice, noodles, fruits and vegetables, all kinds of poultry and eggs, river fish, seafood and all kinds of dairy products, dried fruit, and snacks. It was all free.

Houses were freely distributed and renovations and furnishings were free of charge.

At least one car was allocated to each family. If that was not enough, they could apply for one more. The cars were all free.

In addition, clothing and all kinds of daily necessities could be procured anytime for free.

There were also educational services, medical services, culture, and entertainment, which were of course, free.

In short, as long as you moved to Technology City No. 1, the food, clothing, housing, and transportation inside this city were completely free. The company took care of everything and footed the expenses for everything. There were hardly any areas on which one had to spend. Even if the wages were cut by 90%, it would not have any effect on the quality of life.

Xing Hai Technologies had established an “everything is free” city in the northwestern desert. While the vast number of netizens were shocked, they also expressed their views.

“Is this the fledgling form of future socialism? People would have a very rich material life, but all food, shelter, and goods are free to use and consume. Is Xing Hai Technologies the first to enter this stage?”

“I still remember that the junior high school books said that we must enter the advanced stage of socialism in 20X0 and build a beautiful common society. Nowadays, these sort of sentences can hardly be found in books, and it is also unlikely to become a reality. I didn’t expect Xing Hai Technologies to take this step and demonstrate how it would work to us all.”

“We’ve misunderstood Xing Hai Technologies. Xing Hai Technologies is not exploiting employees but providing better treatment!”

“I’m so envious I’m drooling! A city where everything is free. It would be awesome if I could enter that city.”

However, there were also many pessimistic voices.

“They’re just messing around. They’re going back to the era of collective ownership where everything was free; people would take all that they could and slack off on their work. Hundreds of thousands of people will consume as much as they can. At the same time, they would not put any effort into their work. No matter how much money Xing Hai Technologies has, they will still go bankrupt at the speed of light.”

“Actually, many people have conducted this form of Utopian social experiment in history, but all have ended in failure. By doing this, Xing Hai Technologies is killing people’s enthusiasm, breeding laziness and greed, I dare to guarantee that this will 100% end in failure.”

“Xing Hai Technologies is too naive. Do they actually dare to test human nature? The starting point may be very good, but they could only maintain this for at most one year.”

But some had seen the devil in the details and put forward a different view.

“Most people think that Xing Hai Technologies will make a loss. They are saying that the company is very stupid and naïve. I don’t agree. Xing Hai Technologies must have calculated things in a very savvy manner.”

“I will roughly calculate their books for you. At present, the salaries of Xing Hai Technologies employees are the highest in the country. Including bonuses and various types of benefits, the average median monthly income for an employee is about $120,000; including other expenses such as tax payment, money spent on staff should be around $150,000. If you multiply this by 100,000 employees and then multiply it by 12 for the months in a year, the annual labor cost is $180 billion.”

“The total number of Xing Hai Technologies employees has reached 300,000, so the annual expenditure on personnel is around $500 billion. This has swallowed up a large portion of the profits.”

“What’s the purchasing power of $500 billion?”

“This is about equal to the construction cost of 1 million houses with elaborate furnishings. Alternatively, it is also equal to 2 million medium-sized electric vehicles, or to the per capita living expenses of 5 million middle-class citizens. This expense should have been spread across 300,000 people.”

“Now, Xing Hai Technologies has used the $500 billion to build 300,000 houses in the northwest desert, bought 300,000 cars, and provide high-quality living services for 300,000 people in accordance with ten times the consumption standards of the middle class. The annual expense is only $525 billion.”

“There is almost no difference between the two.”

“But in reality, the company only had to build one house and allocate one car for each employee. In the second year, it will spend $225 billion less. The net savings is $200 billion.”

“In addition, it also spends less than $300 billion in living expenses for the employees. Xing Hai Technologies, which has contracted a large area of land, can grow fruits and vegetables, enough to meet the needs of millions of people. They can raise tens of millions of chickens, ducks, pigs, and sheep. Power will be generated by their own power stations and the water will be pumped from Lake Baikal. This is all extremely cheap.”

“At least hundreds of billions can be saved in all aspects of living costs. Taken alongside the previous $200 billion that was saved, the total saving is $300 billion!”

“$300 billion has been saved from the annual expenses and it has all become the net profit of the company!”

“If it was me, I would also be willing to build a completely free city for my staff.”

“As for the increase of $300 billion in profits, it is also the rent lost by the landlords in the first-tier cities. It is the high cost of living in first-tier cities. More importantly, after the employees’ wages are cut by 90% and 50%; the income tax that they have to pay will be drastically reduced too. They don’t have to pay a penny towards insurance or pension. Everything in ‘Technology City No. 1’ is free, so the value is zero. Hence, no business tax, consumption tax, or property tax has to be paid at all.”

“So, after this calculation, what do you think is the purpose of Xing Hai Technologies? What they are saving is money; this should be clear to everyone at a glance.”

“Whether Xing Hai Technologies is making a profit or a loss, everyone should answer the question of what they would do truthfully. If it was me, I would also build several free cities.”

Wow…

As soon as this analytical article came out, everyone’s eyes widened. A phrase appeared in their minds—going against the natural order. Xing Hai Technologies was trying to go against the natural order of things!

Chapter 365 - A Three-Pronged Approach

To save money.

The adjustments made by Xing Hai Technologies in terms of salaries and benefits were mainly to save money. Moreover, the free policy in the Technology City was, in fact, inconsistent with so-called “socialism.” It was not a system that rewarded everyone equally, regardless of merit. Absolute egalitarianism was clearly the road to certain death. It was absolutely unaffordable, even if the company was sitting on a gold mine.

While designing the welfare system, Chen Jin had answered the key questions raised by some senior company executives.

“President Chen, is it true that all goods are free?” a senior executive asked. “Including expensive luxury goods? Does the company have sufficient ability to supply unlimited luxury goods? You must know that the price of some bags and brand-name clothes cost tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands. Can we afford to supply these things for free?”

“Of course not.” Chen Jin shook his head. “It’s like a buffet restaurant,” he said. “You pay an entrance fee of $200 to $300. It is impossible for the restaurant to only provide foods such as top-grade steaks and expensive seafood for consumption. Most of the foods are common home-cooked dishes. Fruits are also mainly cheap fruits. The most expensive types of foods are only available in very small quantities.”

“Our Technology City is operating in the ‘buffet restaurant’ model. The most common cereals, vegetables, pork, beef, mutton, bananas, apples, oranges, and other common fruits are available in unlimited quantities. Even if you eat 50 kilograms of such foodstuffs a day, it will only cost a few hundred dollars. It won’t bankrupt the company.”

“Xing Hai Technologies will still provide seafood that costs a few hundred dollars for half a kilogram, tropical fruits, expensive cosmetics and clothes, high-end cars and other highly-priced products, but in small quantities. You need to card the time to grab it before others.”

“Of course, if the employee is of a high rank or position, he could get a quota for high-quality ingredients, or selection cards for other luxury goods. He could choose all the luxury goods he wants. The higher the rank of the employee, the more quotas he can get for high-quality ingredients and the more card choices for luxury goods. This is also a mechanism to encourage progress.”

“But in any case, a technology city with a staff of about 100,000, together with their families, will not spend more than $150 billion a year. The company’s artificial intelligence will be precisely controlled. If the budget is sufficient, it will provide a better quality of life; if expenses are high, it will reduce the proportion of luxury products supplied and shrink the quotas. It will regulate things dynamically, and there will be no loss of control.”

That also meant that, if one budgeted carefully, he could have fish and meat for every meal and still be able to dress nicely.

But if he stuffed himself with food and lived extravagantly for the first half of the month, he will be eating vegetables and radishes every day and wearing $10 clothes from a poor street stall.

The total expenses were the same.

“But President Chen, we are just a company. We will be bearing all the employees’ burdens, and we even have to support the elderly and take care of them for their entire lives. Can we afford to bear this burden?” another senior executive asked. “It seems like we are saving money now. But in 20 or 30 years, the employees will be retiring one after another. When that time comes, the company’s burden will increase, and we will not be saving money.”

“Of course, Xing Hai Technologies will not take care of the employees for the rest of their lives. The company will only care for them for a maximum of 50 years. After 50 years, the employees will not be able to work anymore. When they retire, they have to leave the Technology City and move to an immigration city or another city to live. Xing Hai Technologies will provide them with a new house and allow them to drive away in their cars. In addition, they will be paid a monthly pension based on their job position and rank. The higher the position, the higher the pension payment. The maximum number of consecutive pension payments is 50 years. The sum of two 50 year period is 100 years. Xing Hai Technologies will care for the company’s employees for a maximum of 100 years.”

All the senior executives were taken aback.

100 years? What was the difference between this and caring for them for the rest of their lives? Why didn’t the boss directly say that the company would be caring for the employees for the rest of their lives? Who could live for such a long time?

In short, the company would be faced with a very huge burden in later years. A big mine had been buried.

There were also senior executives frowning. One of them anxiously said, “President Chen, the company will now be taking care of everything. The employees will have no worries. Naturally, they will have no motivation to work hard. Will they work hard to get higher salaries and achievements as they did before? This will greatly weaken the competitiveness of the company, and the seeds of weakness will be buried. Mr. Chen, this model of rewarding everyone for free is really not desirable! We will be saving money, but where will the motivation come from when there is no pressure? Life in a big city is their motivation.”

“Rest assured, I have also considered this point.” Chen Jin smiled. “Technology City is not purely a welfare organization,” he said. “Employees must create value for the city. The performance scoring system will calculate and add up the work done by each person and record in detail the value created by him or her. The elimination-of-the-worst-employee system will eliminate all those employees who are inactive or slacking off. The company will not keep even one slacker here. Xing Hai Technologies is neither a charity nor a nursing home like some people think. Those who have their minds fixed on this idea and start to think in this manner will leave the city.”

After an employee was dismissed, his whole family, including any elderly or young children would be chased away. This would not be, however, without a penny to their name. Xing Hai Technologies would provide a certain amount of compensation according to their performance points. Of course, compared to the loss incurred from leaving the city, that little bit of compensation was just like a sesame seed next to a watermelon.

Employees who chose to resign would also face similar treatment, in addition to the performance scoring and the elimination of the worst employee system.

Chen Jin said, “I also intend to introduce a new system of reward points to the company. Its name is ‘gold coin.’ It’s not difficult to get a gold coin. If you put in your full effort for the entire year, you will get 1 gold coin as a reward.”

“If your performance score reaches 100%, you will also be rewarded with 1 gold coin. If you work hard and increase your performance scores to 150%, you will be rewarded with 2 gold coins; if you give your all and more to create a performance score that is the stipulated 200% and above, you will get 3 gold coins.”

“In addition, a model employee with a serious work attitude, who upholds the company system, make outstanding contributions to the company’s interests, has high moral values, and is a good Samaritan will be rewarded with gold coins.”

“When the employees have accumulated 100 gold coins, they can spend their points to redeem a special medical service.”

“If the accumulated gold coins are more than 200, 300, or in multiples of 100, they can exchange them for special medical services for their family or donate the points to a designated person in addition to redeeming their own medical services.”

“But unfortunately, if you voluntarily resign and leave Xing Hai Technologies, or be fired from the company, the gold coins in their accounts will be automatically cleared. They will not be able to enjoy special medical services. This is equivalent to giving up completely.” Naturally, this would be a huge loss for the employees.

Chen Jin also believed that in order to get more gold coins which allowed them to enjoy special medical services, the majority of Xing Hai employees would work hard. They were unlikely to become inactive or slack off. After all, they all had new hopes. That hope was the motivation for their struggle.

So, with this three-pronged approach, Xing Hai Technologies not only saved money, but its competitiveness remained unchanged.

In short, everything was under Chen Jin’s control.

…

More and more media and financial experts could make out the sagacity and true intentions of Xing Hai Technologies.

“Xing Hai Technologies’ idea of saving money has taken aim at the government.”

“With this move, everything in the Technology City is free. Most employees’ wages are set below the tax threshold. The business tax is zero, the consumption tax is zero, the property tax is zero, and the tax an individual has to pay is now reduced by half. The government can hardly collect any taxes from the Technology City even though its residents number in the hundreds of thousands. The company saves more than $100 billion every year.”

“In theory, this is completely legal. It is a type of tax avoidance method that is brilliant and reasonable. No loopholes can be found. The money saved is fully invested in the desert transformation and becomes a deficit.”

“The problem is this: can the government tolerate this sort of behavior? It will be a mess if all the companies do this.”

“How daring! Xing Hai Technologies is too gutsy!”

“I can’t understand the moves or overall strategy of Xing Hai Technologies anymore, but my instinct tells me that the company will be in trouble if it goes on like this.”

The speculation by the media was correct.

After only a few days, Xing Hai Technologies became the target of an anti-monopoly investigation for the first time.

Chapter 366 - Warm Up

Nyoi-Bo Studio Nyoi-Bo Studio

The product under investigation was the Xinghai Computer.

At present, the Xinghai Computer’s domestic market share was about 90%, exerting absolute market dominance.

Of course, Xing Hai Technologies was not producing entire computers. They were mainly selling CPUs. As the Qinglong, White Tiger, Susaku, Xuanwu and other CPUs had exceptional performance and were reasonably priced, they were very popular and favored among consumers.

On that account, the CPUs were dominating the market. CPUs of other brands held less than 10% of the market share. Hence, Xing Hai Technologies were suspected of monopolizing the market and were subjected to antitrust investigations.

Swiftly, investigations ended. Xing Hai Technologies was penalized: they would need to pay a one billion dollar fine. They would also have to provide the technical license of the most advanced CPU architecture to Loongson Corporation free of charge. This would increase the market competitiveness of Loongson CPUs and prevent Xinghai Computers from running the show all alone.

Yes, Loongson was still alive.

After many years of development, Loongson CPUs had occupied 5% of the domestic computer market and 30% of the foreign computer market. Their development was rather good. They could be considered to have opened up a world by themselves.

Before Xing Hai Technologies, however, they seemed a little overwhelmed They could barely amass some low-end customers courtesy of their low pricing. They did attain a rather outstanding performance in the foreign market which Xing Hai Technologies did not place much value on during the earlier phases of their development.

They are the Z nation’s AMD: this was the netizens’ evaluation of Loongson.

Loongson also had a big group of fans.

However, the position of Xinghai Computers in the market didn’t budge. Loongson’s product performance was always lagging behind by half or an entire generation, no matter how favorable their product’s price tag was. Only those who had a sentimental attachment to the company would pay the bill. Most rational people would still opt for a Xinghai Computer.

With more than 90% market share, Xinghai Computers were a hair’s breadth away from “monopolizing”. Hence, for the consumers benefit, Xing Hai Technologies had to license the most advanced CPU technology to Loongson. In addition, the government had increased its support for Loongson, giving large amounts of purchase orders to Loongson Computers.

But as the PC market was apparently sluggish and it was the VR devices that were in favor, these penalties only had a meager effect towards Xing Hai Technologies.

However, anyone with common sense could sniff out the warning hidden within.

Many advising voices sounded:

“Stop playing with fire. Just play your part earnestly.”

“First of all, a city free of charge is not at all practical. This kind of human experiment will only cause Xing Hai Technologies’s competitiveness to plummet. Your wish to legally avoid taxes could be justified, but if more than a hundred billion dollars evaporates in an instant, it will be detrimental to the development and the prosperity of first-tier cities. Taking in the whole portion for yourself and totally forsaking mutual benefit is something that nobody would allow!”

“Planting trees in the deserts would be enough. Why move the whole company and all your employees over? Everything is so convenient in prosperous Shang Hai. Why would you even consider moving to the cold and cheerless desserts? Mr. Chen, I can give you a 20% discount on my building. Could you move everyone back quickly? Please?” the housing developer said. He was an acquaintance of Chen Jin and had made the phone call in desperation.

“Better put on the breaks while you still can. Stop standing against everyone. Some institutions cannot be offended.”

Gentle criticism.

Meaningful advice.

Subtle warnings and so on.

This time, Xing Hai Technologies had disturbed the benefits of too many, thus provoking lots of dissatisfaction.

The mainstream public opinion was all hoping that Xing Hai Technologies would alter their course of action and stop straying further and further in the wrong direction.

Chen Jin nodded.

He knew that the “Tech City” erected in the desert had obviously harmed the benefits of many. It had led to a decline in GDP in many places. It had caused a myriad of high-priced houses to remain unsold. Tax revenue was also severely trimmed down.

Even if Xing Hai Technologies’s course of action was reasonable, legal and indisputable, once you damaged the benefits of others, you would be the one in the wrong. People would instantly become displeased or even turn on you. They would no longer be putting up a friendly face.

Furthermore, Xing Hai Technologies itself was not without loopholes. Aside from Xinghai Computers, Xing Hai Technologies held market dominance for a bountiful collection of core products that would generate for them an even higher revenue while having absolutely no competent rivals. If the field of those core products were also subjected to antitrust investigations, Xing Hai Technologies would be severely injured if not dead. Thus, they would have to be cautious in their actions so that they would not sacrifice the bigger benefit for the sake of such trivial amounts of cash.

However, Chen Jin was not a reckless, harebrained person. He would never commit to something that he had no confidence in. Everything he did was carefully considered, including the great migration and the free city. He had considered all the risks and their corresponding solution.

…

October 20X0.

Xing Hai Hospital, Northwest Desert Transformation Zone.

A medical experiment of grave importance had reached its final stage.

Through remote video communication, Chen Jin inquired about the latest results of the experiment. “Mr. Lee, how is the medical effect? Is it in line with the deductive results of the supercomputer?”

“It matches completely!” Medical expert Lee Khang was overseeing the experiment. “We have found 10 elderly people who are over a hundred years old on average. We have administered various courses of recovery treatments to them. All the treatments are yielding excellent effects.”

“The ‘Life 1’ agent we developed greatly extends the DNA telomeres of the human aging cell. It increases the number of the cell’s divisions by 30 instances in which each cell division is at least equivalent to a one-year life cycle. We can vaccinate people with the ‘Active 1’ which enhances cell activity. It revitalizes the body cells to that of youngsters in their twenties and thirties. There is also the ‘Antioxidant 1′ vaccine which possesses exceptional antioxidant capabilities. The effect of this concoction is spectacular. It can make your skin as tender as a baby.”

“Mr. Chen, have a look at these recent photos of these elderly and compare them to the photos taken at the beginning of the experiment. The effects are astonishing, aren’t they?”

“By the way they look, I would say they seem to be in their thirties at most.”

“Their physical age, and the functionality of their internal organs like the heart, kidneys, and liver, is roughly equivalent to that of a 50-year-old middle-aged person. It means that our life-prolonging medical techniques can make people look 70 years younger and allow their internal organs to function as they did 50 years prior to the treatment. After treatment, these elderly people can theoretically live for another 50 years.”

“If people keep opting for the life-prolonging treatment for a second or third time, the effects should still be there. But considering the weakening of internal organs and the deposition of heavy metals in the liver and spine, the effects of the treatment will definitely lessen. Overall, however, wealthy people with resources to expend will not have too much of a problem in prolonging their lifespan by 80 to 100 years.”

In short, 50 years was the base and 100 years was the crest. Xing Hai Technologies’ life-prolonging technique could extend human lifespan by 1.5 to 2 times.

Chen Jin nodded and asked again, “How about the technology’s maturity and reliability?”

“The treatment on our first 10 test subjects all ended up in success. The computed reliability is 99.99%, but we dare not assume it to be exactly as so in reality, unless we can perform the treatment on more than a million test subjects.”

But this would require approval from the relevant authorities, and using one million test subjects would inevitably encounter massive resistance. After all, humans were not lab rats, even if the reliability of life-prolonging technique was very high.

“Let’s announce it first then!” Chen Jin said after some thought, “It is not possible to promote the treatment within the short term, but the time is ripe for the preliminary warm-up phase to begin.”

Prolonging lifespan for at least 50 years! He refused to believe that those few figures out there would be able to turn a blind eye towards it.

Chapter 367 - Without Delay

A few days later…

“Xing Hai Hospital Achieves Major Breakthrough in the Life Prolonging Medical Field”

“Human Lifespan Can Be Prolonged By At Least 50%”

“Immortality Is No Longer A Myth!”

“Over 99.99% Reliability, Only Hindered By Law and Ethics”

“The Quest of Ancient Emperors Now Made Possible by Technology”

It was like a blockbuster.

Xing Hai Hospital immediately became the focus of both the local and foreign media and received unprecedented attention from billions of people worldwide. It swiftly triggered discussions among netizens all around the globe.

“Marvelous! We can live for another 50 years at least! That is almost half of our entire lifespan! I can live to see the next century now.”

“After treatment, you will gain the appearance of a thirty-year-old. Your grey hair will become black once again and walking sticks can be cast aside. You will be revitalized as if you were reborn… this is even more exciting than simply prolonging lifespan. Everyone wishes to stay young forever.”

“The structure of the human body is very complicated, and there are many factors that affect life expectancy. All of these cannot be easily manipulated. Theoretically, medical science would only achieve an initial breakthrough in the mystery of human lifespan in about a decades’ time. The fact that Xing Hai Hospital is able to make a breakthrough now is truly amazing.

“Huh-uh, it’s too soon to be happy. The privilege to experience any high-end technology firsthand will be with the rich and powerful. The poor will be at the back of the queue and might not even be able to afford the hefty treatment fees, not to mention getting to enjoy the technology. The wealth gap between the rich and the poor is also constantly expanding. Now, the rich will be able to live for another 50 years, and the poor will still kick the bucket when the time’s up. The poor will never be treated fairly.”

“In the past, a wastrel might appear in a rich household and wither away every single advantage he or she is born with. What about now? The jewels will always stay with the wealthy. The poor are not entitled to even the slightest chance now.”

“True, if the cost of the life-prolonging treatment is too high and the poor can’t afford it, I would rather it not exist! Everyone dies together. This is the only fairness left in this world and the bottom line of humanity!”

“I hope that the treatment cost stays under 500,000 dollars. I’m dirt poor. This is the most I can afford.”

“Are you dreaming my friend? 500,000 in exchange for 50 years to live. On average, that would be ten thousand dollars a year? How will our precious years to live be so cheap? Nowadays, even a regular sanitary worker earns more than 5 to 6k a month. Assuming that the treatment costs 2000 dollars per month, multiply that into 50 years, the treatment will cost a million dollars by the very least! Xing Hai Technologies is not a charity. They will most certainly be aiming for the highest profitability.”

“That’s easy for you to say. Income might have increased, but the cost of living is rising as well. A simple house loan will put you in debt for 20 to 30 years, and you still have a whole family to care for. Even one to two thousand dollars of extra cash every month is considered good enough. If the life-prolonging treatment costs over a million, I’m afraid that there won’t be much that could come out with that hefty amount at one go!”

“After scrolling through all the comments, I think I might just be okay with it. Although it is all about profits for Xing Hai Technologies, their product pricing is more towards taking care of the middle class. Anyone would be able to afford the treatment by grinding their teeth a little. Furthermore, I’m a happy single man that can save up five grand every month! If I spend less on games, I can definitely get to enjoy this wonderful world for an additional 50 years.”

“Haha, I can relate to you.”

But there were also a small number of local netizens and a portion of the foreign netizens that heavily criticized Xing Hai Technologies’ life-prolonging experiment.

“Such experiments should not be allowed! They are literally toying with people’s life and death. They should be punished by law!”

“Xing Hai Technologies, where did you get those 10 elderly people? Do they know about the experiment’s risks? Were their family members made aware of the situation? Has this illegal experiment been approved by the relevant authorities? Are all procedures of the experiment compliant? All of these should be investigated thoroughly!”

“The ten kind old people have become poor lab rats. If the treatment fails and they are declared dead, this can be classed as murder!

“Life and death is the law of nature and lifespan itself is decided by the Heavens! How could you go against Heaven’s law? The Heavens will punish you for this.”

“Xing Hai Technologies is being too sloppy. If one day my grandfather suddenly becomes young again, even younger than myself and has almost the same time to live as me, I will not be happy. Instead, I’ll be at a loss! I don’t even know how I would then look at the relationship between us. I won’t even feel that he’s my grandfather because he will no longer have that kind face on him, but I would still have to fulfill my duties as his grandchild. Should this kind of obligation last for another 50 years?

“Sweet lord, my grandfather is a stubborn old fart! He has been reluctant to relinquish control of the company. For each day that he stays alive, we will never get the chance, and now there’s medical technology that could let him live for another 50 years. Why can’t such technology appear at a later time?”

“Honestly speaking, I do not wish for those relatives of mine who are three to four generations above me to live on forever. They should take the initiative and let go of many of the resources they possess. You may call me selfish, but an environment without a metabolism is completely terrifying! The procedure should be carefully studied for another one or two decades before being promoted to the public.”

“Yes, the time is still not ripe. The tech must wait for, uhm… at least another three months!”

Among the netizens, some questioned the procedure’s compliance, some firmly defended the law of nature, some accused Xing Hai Hospital of deliberate murder, and some did not wish for the life-prolonging technology to be released so soon for their own various reasons.

But in point of fact, Xing Hai Technologies’ experiment was approved by the relevant departments and was classified under the “health care” category.

Most of the ten old people were experiencing difficulty in mobility or were suffering from various diseases. All of them had heart and kidney failure and already had one foot in the grave. It would be expected that some of them might die during the treatment. It won’t even be considered “medical malpractice”. Moreover, all of them were gathered from various nursing homes across the nation. They had no family. Only they had to sign and agree to the treatment.

In terms of procedures, Xing Hai Hospital was legal and compliant in their doings. There were absolutely no problems that existed.

Besides, according to domestic media and public opinion, more than 90% of people possessed a welcoming and anticipating attitude towards the life-prolonging technology with the vast majority expressing their support towards the tech.

Why?

Aging.

Severe aging!

Some netizens expressed their feelings anxiously.

“According to statistics, the number of elderly people over 60 years old in Z has reached 350 million in the year 20X0. This accounts for about a quarter of our total population. That would mean that one out of every four people in Z is over 60 years of age.”

“By 20X5, the elderly population in Z will reach its peak at 400 million. One person out of every three will be over the age of 60. Most people will be middle-aged and elderly people!”

“This is a serious problem. There is no conventional solution. The state’s financial pressure is getting bigger and bigger, economic growth is stagnating, and our whole society is shrouded in gloominess and has no vitality at all! In the long run, our so-called revival will be no more than a bubble. After a few decades, the Z nation will most likely be outrun by other young countries.

“For various reasons, it is very difficult to improve our country’s fertility rate.”

“The best solution now is to extend human lifespan and break out of our current predicament!”

“Therefore, it is not necessary to ask Xing Hai Hospital about whether their experiment was compliant or not, and there is no need to confirm whether the treatment’s reliability is truly 99.99%. As long as it is effective for more than 80% of the elderly, and the side effects of the treatment do not lead to a large number of deaths, the treatment will be worth promoting!

“And it must be done without delay. We must not wait for a single second! We must terminate our country’s aging issue with the fastest efficiency possible!”

“Population! A young and energetic workforce is the resource we need the most now.”

Chapter 368 - Great Value

Some netizens were worried about the Z nation’s population demographics.

Now, the current Z nation was just a bigger version of Japan, and that nation was deteriorating at an even faster pace and facing an all the more terrifying ending!

Was it just some netizens that were anxious about this problem?

As a matter of fact, there were some very anxious people that were panicking intensely.

…

21st of October.

An important guest arrived at the Xing Hai building.

Xie Linze, a middle-aged square-faced man in his 50s was currently sitting opposite of Chen Jin in the board room.

“Minister Xie, my company’s life-prolonging technique can indeed extend life expectancy and restore the human body to a young state. I know that some medical institutions also have the technology to significantly extend the lifespan of animals such as mice and monkeys, but it is very difficult to restore a worn being’s youthful vitality. In this field, Xing Hai Technologies is at least 15 years ahead of others.”

“Theoretically, the treatment’s reliability is over 99%, but we dare not promise that it is perfectly safe. To ensure it is, I think we will need another 20 years conducting experiments on a large number of subjects. At the same time, we will also require policy support to bring in millions of elderly people into this experiment The resistance to that will certainly be immense. All of this depends on the government’s attitude,” said Chen Jin faintly. He put the ball firmly back in Xie Linze’s court.

Xie Linze glanced at him as thousands of expletives cruised through his brain. But he still maintained a smile on his face and said, “But you’ve still done what you should, haven’t you? Our attitude is less important in this matter. Besides, my side must not hinder the progress of technology.”

Chen Jin’s expression changed slightly as he quickly waved his hands and said, “Please do not say that Minister Xie. Xing Hai Technologies is a tech company. Our core values and corporate culture is to bring good to the world! But there is also a premise, and that will be being legal, compliant, and not to cause trouble.”

“Oh? Not causing trouble?” Xie Linze shook his head while even more expletives bombarded his brain. No longer mincing his words, he said, “Towards your company’s life-prolonging technology, our attitude can be summarized in one word—support. We support the all-out application and promotion of this technology.”

He pointed a finger, “One year. We will give your company a years’ time to conduct tests on a million test subjects. If the reliability is above 90% and the mortality rate due to accidents is less than one in ten thousand, the treatment will be promoted beginning from next year and made an ordinary medical service available for all citizens.”

Chen Jin was shocked.

“One year? You are not kidding me right Mr. Xie? A one-year experimental period and large-scale promotion by next year, isn’t it a little too rushed? Besides, even if a few dozen out of the million die accidentally, Xing Hai Hospital will still face tremendous public pressure and will be harassed by a horde of hospital violators.”

“Five to ten years will do Mr. Xie, five years at the very least. One year is really too hasty, and the risks will be great as well!”

Xie Linze, however, shook his head hard. “No, we can’t afford to give you five years! Three years at the max. The life-prolonging technology must be released as soon as possible!”

From next year onwards, the Z nation would enter the period at which the death rate was at its peak. Many people born in the fifties and sixties of the previous century were now in their 70s or 80s. Z nation had arrived at the so-called “elimination period”. The nation’s net population loss would be terrifying.

Hence, Xing Hai Technologies’ life-prolonging technology appeared very timely. The treatment could be introduced before the situation worsens.

The treatment was a kind of life elixir. Of course, it must be delivered in a timely manner.

Even if its reliability was only 80% and the accidental death rate was as high as 10%, in the face of the cliff-falling population, its full-scale introduction would still be valuable! There was no time to delay!

Chen Jin was now truly shocked. He had not expected that there was such urgency and that the nation could not even wait for five years.

The life-prolonging treatment would be best promoted by next year. Besides, from Minister Xie’s attitude, one could tell that, even if Xing Hai Hospital’s life-prolonging technology was not mature and bore a certain amount of risks, it wouldn’t matter as the higher authorities would deal with any problems for them. In short, the service must be launched as soon as possible.

“Mr. Xie, it is unlikely that we will be able to finish it within a year. The Xing Hai Hospital is lacking in both production capacity and professional staff. I will have to discuss with my management team and the experts to see whether we could finish the experiment on a million test subjects within three years. I’ll give you an answer tomorrow.”

“Very well then. I hope for a positive answer from you!”

Xie Linze nodded, stood up and left the discussion room.

…

Shortly after Minister Xie’s departure, Chen Jin quickly summoned the company’s core executive members and held a meeting at the strategy conference room.

Chen Jin frowned as he said, “Minister Xie’s reaction was beyond my expectations. He is more anxious than I thought. He’s giving Xing Hai Technologies at most three years to introduce the life-prolonging treatment. Why is he in such a hurry?”

“Could there be some VIPs that want the service immediately?” vice manager Liang Ying guessed.

“Uhm, this should not be the main problem,” Ling Jundong said after some thought. “Perhaps the main reason is that our country’s population demographic has really worsened to the extent that it needs to be rescued.”

“Mr. Chen, everyone, I have an economics background and have recently researched a great deal on demographics. After an in-depth study, I have come to a conclusion: population economics is definitely the most accurate economic theory.”

“With population comes consumption. With labor comes production. Even education, the medical industry, automobile industry, real estate, catering, tourism, entertainment… all industries must be supported by a population.”

“Without population, no matter how strong a nation’s strength is and how well their technology might have developed, nothing will help. That nation will only weaken and gradually die off.”

“In the demographic composition, children are not the main consumers because they are not producers; the elderly are not the main pillars of consumption because they are old and more or less have some inconvenience in their movements and thus, are unable to enjoy many things. They can’t work, can’t generate economic value, and are haunted by illnesses. They use up a large amount of public medical resources and is a huge burden to society.”

“Only young people are both producers and consumers. They must support themselves and support their families and at the same time. They bear many social obligations. They belong to the class with the most stress and most disbursements.”

“Of course, if a society is made up of mostly young people in their 20s and 30s, the labor force is sufficient and we will get to enjoy a demographic dividend. Society’s burden on all aspects will be minimal, and a lightly loaded country will translate into rapid development.”

“If most of the society consists of the middle-aged and elderly, the labor force will be severely lacking, and what we will get to enjoy is negative profit. The whole country will be dragged behind and its development will be hampered.”

“It is true that, nowadays, technology is well developed. The wide-scale application of robots has saved us insurmountable labor force. But with weak consumption powers, no matter how high productivity is, economic growth will remain stagnated. In the end, humans will still be needed.”

“Once our life-prolonging medical treatment is launched, human lifespan will be extended by at least 50 years and human bodies will be reverted to their 30s and 40s. This means that all of our elderly people will be transformed into labor force and consumer population.”

“For each elderly person we treat, we will create a labor force that can go on operating for around 30 years and generate a labor production value of not less than 3 million.”

“At the same time, we will also create a consumer who will continue spending for another 50 years. Within those 50 years, his or her consumption should not be less than two million dollars.”

“Besides, we will greatly reduce our country’s burden by saving them on pension expenses and medical expenses. The country will thus have a more adequate and healthier budget.”

“As an approximation, the comprehensive value for each elderly person will be at least five million dollars. We will treat people based on the value they will provide to society.”

“Multiply that by 350 million…”

Ling Jundong took a deep breath and said, “Mr. Chen, our life-prolonging technique has altered our country’s future.”

Everyone took a deep breath and finally understood the great value that dwelled within their program.

Chapter 369 - Bargain

Treating an elderly person would bring at least five million in value and at least five million in GDP.

This was the thrust engine of the Z nation’s future economy, and a guarantee for comprehensive recovery and maintaining national power. It was the reason for Xie Linze’s desperation.

Chen Jin nodded. “Old Ling’s analysis makes a lot of sense. Five million for each elderly person. If I were in his shoes, I too would be hoping that everyone would live 50 years longer. That would allow the massive benefits to roll in.”

“In that way, our economy, consumer market, real estate… all problems will be solved.”

It was such a supreme medicine, that the sooner it launched, the better.

Chen Jin looked at Lee Khang’s face on the screen and said, “Dr. Lee, based on you and your team’s efficiency, how many people do you think you can treat every year? What is the minimum time it will take to finish treating a million test subjects?”

Lee Khang thought for a moment and said, “The treatment period for each patient is around three months. Our hospital only has 3000 beds, and so we can treat a maximum of 12,000 people per year. Logically speaking, treating a million people would take eight to nine decades. However, we can expand our hospital and try to increase the number of beds to 10,000 units in one year and to 100,000 units in three years. Even then, we would only be able to complete treatment on 100,000 people within three years.”

“I would say that it is unlikely for us to be able to treat so many people within three years. Five years would be the minimum… this can’t be rushed.”

An idea popped into Chen Jin’s mind. “If we opt for half a million test subjects, reducing the numbers by half, won’t we be able to officially commercialize the treatment by the fourth year?”

“That will do. 500,000 will already be a considerable representation. As long as we get the green light from the chiefs, half is actually doable.”

Besides, it would save a lot of money. After all, for every single treatment, the consumption of funds would be at least at 100,000 dollars. The experimental nature of the practice also established that Xing Hai Technologies would be one to bear all the costs. The whole process would burn them at least tens of billions of dollars.

500,000 fewer would be an enormous saving. More than a years’ time could also be saved.

…

The next day.

Chen Jin met with Xie Linze once again and gave him his reply. “Introducing the life-prolonging treatment within three years would be feasible, but the number of subjects must be halved to 500,000. If you still wish to go for the full amount, we’ll need five years.”

“500,000? Let me ask.”

Xie Linze grabbed his phone and made a call. After receiving the answer, he said, “Scientifically speaking, it is more secure to conduct a million cases, but as our current situation doesn’t allow us to do so, we can make an exemption for you to do half of the full amount.”

“Okay.” Chen Jin nodded.

“Besides, I have another question.”

“Ask away.”

“How much will the cost of the treatment be? How much does Xing Hai Technologies intend to charge?”

“Uhm… it hasn’t been decided just yet, but I assume that it wouldn’t be less than 500,000 dollars. We are talking about a 50-year lifespan, after all, so 10,000 per year isn’t too much, is it? Xing Hai Technologies has always been a kind company. Our pricing will not exceed what the average consumer could afford,” Chen Jin said.

“500,000?” Xie Linze frowned, “Can you tell me the cost price of the treatment? How much is the cost per individual?”

“This is confidential, but since you’ve asked, I’ll give you a rough amount. I hope you can keep it between us.”

Chen Jin crossed his index fingers and said, “It’s more than a hundred thousand. The treatment cost for each individual is above a hundred thousand as of now. As quantity increases in the future, the cost will drop below 100,000.”

“In that case, you’re charging too much.” Xie Linze shook his head. “Most elderly people will be unable to afford such a hefty price. Tune it down a little if possible.”

500,000. Of the millions of elderly people in the country, could the number of people able to take out this amount of money even exceed 20%?

“Mr. Xie, this price is truly not expensive at all. Buying just any house in first and second-tier cities could pay for the treatment for ten or even twenty old people, sufficing for even an entire family. People can exchange a house for a few centuries to live, then use that few centuries of time to earn back a house. Couldn’t people commit to this?”

“If the housing prices in some places are not high and people couldn’t garner enough even after selling their houses, they can also mortgage their cars, borrow money from their relatives, opt for bank loans, etc… there are many channels of getting money. A mere 500,000 would not be difficult for most families.”

“The most precious thing in this world is time. Now at Xing Hai Hospital, time is offered at such a cheap price of 10,000 dollars per year. After someone gets their precious time, they could then find a job to earn back the money they used for treatment. I believe that this will be an easy thing to do.” In a nutshell, 500 thousand per person was truly very cheap.

“No!” Xie Linze still shook his head, “The price is still too high. Many people won’t be able to afford it, and people from the lower class will be infuriated! It should be 300,000 at most. You will also have to further lower the price after the cost has dropped. You shouldn’t be aiming for huge profits in this.”

“Huge profits?” Chen Jin’s eyes widened, “Mr. Xie, what huge profits are you talking about? The various taxes that Xing Hai Hospital has to pay are the highest among all hospitals. About 35% of our income has to be turned over to the national treasury. Equipment purchases, paying our specialists and physicians will take up 15%. Further subtracting these with the treatment cost of more than a hundred thousand, even if the treatment costs 500 thousand for each elderly, Xing Hai Hospital would still profit about only a couple hundred thousand. How is this considered ‘huge profit’?”

At best, it was just a small profit with a quick turnover.

If the pricing was tagged at 300,000 per person, Xing Hai Hospital could only make a profit of about 30 to 50,000. That would make their gross profits astonishingly miserable. If foreign medical institutes were providing the 50-year life-prolonging medical services, it would be considered cheap at any price lower than a million. Even prices of five or ten million would not be exaggerated. Time was priceless. Some people were willing to sell everything they had for a few years to live, not to mention 50 more years.

“Ahe-ahem~”

As he listened to Chen Jin, Xie Linze coughed out of awkwardness. He was able to read between the lines and understood that Chen Jin was actually complaining about the high taxes.

In fact, there was a reason that heavy taxes had been imposed on Xing Hai Technologies. In recent years, Xing Hai Technologies went a little overboard. They actually threw a ton of hard cash into the deserts and initiated a few trillion-dollar projects in the Sahara Desert. It had caused huge amounts of hot money to gush out to foreign countries and had affected the domestic economic growth. In short, the fact that they had engaged in all kinds of irrelevant businesses was truly getting the country into a lather. Hence, the country could only ask them to pay more taxes.

Xing Hai Technologies however quickly took a drastic measure to address this situation.

Back then, the country’s leaders were incensed. They laid down antitrust investigations and gave them a small penalty for them as a warning. They never expected Xing Hai Technologies to immediately come back with a bang.

Xie Linze perceived that Chen Jin’s intentions were to negotiate and discuss the distribution of interests.

An elderly person could bring at least five million dollars’ worth of benefits. Without question, the country would be the one whom it will benefit the most. Xing Hai Hospital earning 300 to 500,000 dollars was not too much to ask. There was nothing wrong with their thinking. It was just that only 50 to 60% of elderly people at most could afford the treatment, which would not bring about the maximum interest. From the country’s point of view, they would certainly hope for every single elderly person to regain their youthful vitality and for everyone to live 50 years longer. But Xing Hai Technologies, on the other hand, wanted to gain huge profits from this, and this would affect the country’s revenue. After all, for each elderly person who missed out on treatment, Xing Hai Technologies’ potential loss was around a hundred thousand while the country’s potential loss would be a couple of million.

Both of them went silent for a moment as they were wracked their brains for a solution.

Out of the blue, Chen Jin said, “Mr. Xie, I have just come up with a plan that you might be interested in. Tax exemption! If the country is willing to provide tax exemption on matters revolving the treatment services, Xing Hai Hospital will only charge each patient 200,000 dollars as a treatment fee. That is a price that anyone can afford. Deducting the cost price, Xing Hai Technologies would at most profit by around one hundred thousand dollars.”

“Besides, the country could also launch a ‘medical insurance plan’. Those elderly people who are entitled to pensions will not have to pay even a single penny for the treatment. All the cost shall be paid by the country. The expense will be that, after treatment, the patient’s old-age pension could either be canceled or their pension amount and duration could be reduced. The country will only have to pay 200,000 dollars to get rid of a burden and gain a unit of labor force.”

“This is a wonderful deal!”

“Moreover, the country can make something out of this. $200,000 is just the price for the elderly people of Z nation. If foreigners come to the Z nation requesting life extension, treatment could be provided starting from a million dollars without an upper cap.”

“Xing Hai Hospital wants to take the money of foreign customers, and the nation can make some revenue as well. For instance, net profit could be divided fifty-fifty. After subtracting all the involved expenses, Xing Hai Hospital would take half of the profit while the country takes the other half. We can earn money together.”

“The foreign population is obviously much bigger than that of the Z nation alone. Their market is much larger than our domestic market as well. Assuming that we would earn a million from each foreigner, multiplying that by 100 million…”

Chen Jin heard Xie Linze inhale deeply.

He spread his hands and said, “Mr. Xie, are you able to comprehend what I’m saying? Xing Hai Technologies is taking out a super massive cake. The life-prolonging treatment will only be provided in Xing Hai Hospital within our country. The foreigners won’t get any slice of our cake while we at the same time tackle the issue of our severely aging population. I believe that those little unpleasant encounters we both had previously should have vanished by now. Compared to the super massive cake before our eyes, those are merely petty profits.”

Xie Linze nodded continuously while his eyes glowed brighter and brighter.

Chapter 370 - Blacklist System

Tantalized.

The cooperation plan proposed by Chen Jin was indeed very tempting. Both sides stood to benefit significantly.

However…

Wasn’t it a little obvious that Xing Hai Technologies was somewhat at a disadvantage?

The price of 200,000 dollars per treatment per person was truly beyond just cheap. Nowadays, even a slightly high-end car could sell for more than 200,000. Was 50 extra years of life worth less than a car?

In addition to the cost of treatment, Xing Hai Technologies’ total R&D investment in the life-prolonging medical technique was expected to exceed 300 billion. If they were to share the cost to the millions of elderly people, each customer would have to pay an additional 300,000 dollars. 200,000 dollars would be literally selling hens on a rainy day!

In fact, under normal circumstances, the treatment cost was indeed 200,000 per person. However, Chen Jin had already prepared a handful of schemes to allow more money to be made.

The “Registration queuing system” was one of these. All elderly people over the age of 75 could apply for the treatment. Subsequently, the system would sort them according to their age. The older they were, the more priority they would be given and vice versa. People over 100 would be treated first, followed by people in their nineties and so on. The treatment would follow a very unprejudiced pattern.

And if some wealthy people were not willing to wait and wanted to enjoy the life-prolonging treatment service in advance, it would cost them five million.

With five million, one could enjoy the “express train” treatment. They could go straight into the operating theatre without having to queue.

If a person did not have that much money and their elderly relative ran into an emergency and needed to extend their lives immediately?

They could spend money to “cut the queue” at a dollar per advancement. One million dollars would mean one million advancements. If there were more than five million people in front of them in the queue, people would be better off opting for the express train. For the sake of fairness, each elderly person would have only one chance to “cut the queue”.

If a person was very unlucky, and there were too many people in the queue ahead of them and they did not have the money to spare, Xing Hai Technologies could only express their deepest regret. It was not the case that no elderly people would ever die after the life-prolonging technology was introduced. Xing Hai Hospital did not have the capacity to handle so many patients at this early stage. They could only provide services for a few hundred thousand people every year and more than 10 million elderly people of the Z nation would die annually.

Xing Hai Hospital had limited capacity. They could not take care of everybody and could only prioritize premium customers. In addition, old people mostly suffered from diabetes, rheumatism, high blood pressure and other diseases. The treatment of these diseases was not included within the 200,000 dollars. It would be necessary for them to spend extra money to cure all of those as well as prolonging life.

The information on the life-prolonging medical technology was brought over by Chen Jin from planet Haierfa. At the same time, the low-cost production technology of related drugs had long been available, further reducing costs.

Hence, as long as the number of elderly people treated exceeded ten million, as quantity increased, the average treatment cost per person would be reduced to 20,000 dollars. It would create a greater profit margin. Finally, adding that profit to the money made from foreign customers… whatever way you looked at it, Xing Hai Technologies would make a crazy amount of money.

Another thing that needed to be done was to repair relationships and eliminate previous misunderstandings.

Those real estate speculators in Shang Hai, the landlords and merchants in first-tier cities, and the others would no longer hold a grudge against Xing Hai Technologies. When the 300 billion dollars that Xing Hai Technologies would save for themselves each year was brought into comparison with the millions and trillions of benefits they would generate, that tiny amount of thriftiness was small enough to be neglected.

After this card was played, the wariness and resistance of the public towards Chen Jin’s next scheme and other plans in the desert would be eliminated in an instant. People would not be focusing on his course of action for the time being.

…

Xie Linze left the discussion room to make a phone call outside.

Upon returning, he said to Chen Jin, “Mr. Chen, the leaders have agreed to your proposal, but specific details still have to be discussed.”

“Okay, no problem.”

For the next three days, both sides discussed the specific cooperation terms.

The final agreement reached was similar to the one proposed by Chen Jin. The treatment fee was set at around 200,000 dollars for locals and at least a million for foreigners. The medical insurance reimbursement system, pension deduction system, division of the net profit gained from foreign customers into fifty-fifty and many other things were agreed. They contentedly reached a deal.

But before signing the contract, Chen Jin made another suggestion:

“Mr. Xie, I think we should establish a blacklist system. Prolonging lifespan is not simply a medical technique. It shouldn’t be a service that people could acquire just by using money. It should be made a right, but not everybody has the right to prolong their lifespan. Devilish criminals, corrupt officials, people with a notorious reputation, and superstitious people who oppose science… these people should be blacklisted and therefore be eliminated by nature.”

“It is not necessarily a good thing for these people to have long lifespans. They represent chaos, greed, selfishness, ignorance, and backwardness. These traits don’t need to stay around. We should separate the wheat from the chaff, eliminate bad characters and retain the good ones. It will be greatly beneficial to the orderly development of our society. Xing Hai Technologies is a responsible company and we hope for this world to become better.” Chen Jin expressed some of his thoughts.

Xie Linze fell into deep thought. After quite some time, he said, “I have to admit that what you said is somewhat reasonable. The world consists of two forces. One represents order, while the other represents disorder. Although the world as a whole is orderly, the power of disorder is currently growing stronger and stronger.”

“Wicked criminals, corrupt officials, narcissistic people who possess no morality that you’ve mentioned… these people do exist in large numbers, and that leads to some greater challenges. These people bear a lot of destructive power.”

“The life-prolonging medical technology is like an amplifier that amplifies both order and disorder. This tech must be properly utilized. I will discuss it with the leaders. If possible, I am supportive of the blacklist system. I support the establishment of a protective wall to make the world a better place.”

Xie Linze returned to Kings City along with the agreement.

…

In a weeks’ time, Xie Linze messaged his reply. The establishment of the blacklist system would be allowed. Criminals, corrupt officials, and people with bad reputations would be blacklisted. As for the morally corrupted and the superstitious… Xing Hai Hospital would handle them on their own. The decision of whether to provide treatment was completely in the hands of Xing Hai Technologies.

Chen Jin became infuriated immediately. “There are tossing their responsibilities to us once again. I can’t even see the slightest of courage in them. They could be a mature approach, but Xing Hai Technologies is, after all, only a company.” There were billions of superstitious people in this world, how could Xing Hai Technologies stop all of them?

Chen Jin shook his head. He couldn’t count on the others in major things, only himself!

Luckily, he had anticipated this and knew how to solve this problem.

“Give the people question papers. Let them answer questions like `Is it science or religion that brings eternal life?’ and ‘Do you believe in god or Xing Hai Technologies?’ Those who fail shall go home.”

This was bound to offend many people, but the life-prolonging medical technology was a miraculous technology itself and Xing Hai Technologies was a god-like company. With such solid capabilities, why would they need to fear those deceiving witchcrafts?

Facing the temptation of true “everlasting life”, some things would just become weak and fragile.

Chapter 371 - A Millenium Of Peace

After talking with the government and reaching an agreement, Xing Hai Technologies disclosed some parts of their deal to the media.

“The Life Extension Medical Service is expected to be officially introduced and applied in three years’ time.”

“More than 90% of families will be able to afford treatment”

“By incorporating the medical insurance plan and the pension deduction plan, some elderly people can enjoy treatment without paying a penny.”

“Our country’s average life expectancy will be extended to at least 150 years old in the future.”

“The aging crisis is solved. Population growth has recovered to a positive rate. The labor force is increasing by millions each year.”

When these articles came out, many netizens debated them. Some were happy and some were upset.

“It will be introduced in three years. That is awesome! I can spend another 50 years with my parents.”

“My grandfather is 98, it seems that he has to make the extra effort to live to over 100 before he can experience a new spring.”

“Haha! With this, there’s hope for our economy, the consumer market, and real estate. Population is everything. The elderly will not die; they will be transformed back into the young and middle-aged population. This means that the country will have consumption power, a labor force with a greater ability to work, and enhanced economic vitality.”

“It seems that I have to buy another house. I could have inherited two houses from my parents, my in-laws, and I also have a house of my own. I would have a total of three houses, which is way too many. Now that members of the older generation have their lives extended for another 50 years, how can I not buy a new house after my son has his own family? Ah, Xing Hai Technologies, you are giving me more pressure.”

“This is very good! In the next 50 years, the domestic population will grow by ten million per year. The prime period of real estate will come, and there will be room for housing prices to at least triple.”

“Let’s hurry and buy land! Our opportunity has arrived! Thank you, Xing Hai Technologies!”

Countless voices were raised in excitement and laughter could be heard from all corners of the nation.

Domestic real estate companies were gearing up. They had pumped themselves full of excitement and energy for this prospect. The entire real estate industry was in a frenzy.

It was foreseeable that the pressure on young people would increase a lot.

…

Over the next few months, Xing Hai Hospital gathered centenarians from all over the nation and, after obtaining their consent, sent them to the Northwest Desert Reconstruction Area to participate in the life extension medical experiment.

The experimental process was transparent and open. Netizens could follow the treatment status of each elderly person every day.

The effect was miraculous.

The hair color of an old man with a full head of silver hair began to turn black. The wrinkles on the faces of the elderly patients gradually dissipated, and their bodies were enriched by fresh muscles; their complexion also changed from a yellow-brown or a sallow shade to fair and ruddy.

People no longer needed their crutches because they could gradually move with ease. They became physically strong and healthy and walked like they were flying.

It was like time was being magically reversed. Each centenarian shed the effects that time had taken on their looks. The clock had been turned back to the time when they were about 30 years old, with the looks of those in the prime of their lives.

In just three months, time had been turned back 50 years.

Even changes that happened today could be compared to the changes that occurred yesterday; it could all be seen with the naked eye.

Countless people were stunned. Some experienced an unprecedented spiritual impact as their mouths hung wide open

“God…God, how is this possible?”

“This is something that only God can do!”

“A miracle! This is the divine grace that God has imparted to mankind, and it can only be received at Xing Hai Hospital. Lost lambs, God responded to our faith and gifted us eternal life!”

“This is great! God did not lie to us. He had his divine grace descend onto Xing Hai Hospital. Eternal life! We will all get eternal life!”

However, a notice from Xing Hai Technologies had the effect of immediately pouring cold water on them.

The announcement said: “Not everyone has the right to live longer.”

“To those criminals whose natures are resistant to change, corrupt officials, ignorant opponents of science, drug pushers and dealers, the extremists who have brought disaster to the world, I am sorry. They will not be covered by the Life Extension Medical Service.”

“We hope that the world will become more beautiful, so we should leave more of the good things and filter out the bad things. It’s just like the cultivation of good breeds, and the cultivation of talents. People yearn for good things and so does Xing Hai Technologies.”

“Fairness is very important. Xing Hai Technologies respects the diversity of the world, but we also have our own faith and ambition. We believe in science and are committed to the ideas that science can make us invincible. Our ambition is to make the world a better and more peaceful place. We support rationality and knowledge. We are against foolishness, ignorance, isolation, chaos, and evil. We will act according to our philosophy.”

“Xing Hai Technologies is a high-tech enterprise. We will walk further down the road of exploring technology. We will not force anyone to change anything, but we have the right to decide which customers to serve. Customers believe in us and we have even greater belief in our customers.”

When this announcement came out, intelligent people immediately understood the meaning.

“The meaning is very clear. It’s just six words—believe in science, get eternal life.”

“I think there is a very great significance behind this kind of selection. There are too many ignorant people on the internet. There are fake news stories created around the doubting that Merica had landed on the moon, the irrational fear of genetic modification, and all kinds of outlandish beliefs. If one does not pay attention, his brain will be immediately taken away by others. The most fundamental reason is that they fear science; they don’t believe in science. They use their limited common sense to try to understand things that they can’t comprehend and draw conclusions that they stick to stubbornly and seriously. They have to calm down and read more books.”

“I find the talk of god or deities to be the most annoying. Those people shamelessly describe the life extending technology as ‘divine grace from the gods’. They should just go to see their gods immediately. I would never accept them if I am Xing Hai Hospital. No matter how much they pay, I will not accept them.”

“I support Xing Hai Technologies. Sometimes, one’s attitude must be clearly displayed, and one must hold fast to the position of truth! If science becomes silent or regresses, ignorance will sweep through. The world is indeed diverse, but it cannot make ignorance mainstream.”

Netizens expressed their opinions in droves.

…

In the blink of an eye, time moved on.

It was now late March, 20X1.

A major event had taken place in the field of international diplomacy.

The wildly popular and highly prestigious President Lanfelord, with a support rate that was off the charts and who had led Merica out of crisis, visited Z country for the first time.

Lanfelord had been President for 7 years and had focused on dealing with domestic affairs in that time. He had not officially visited any country except when he was attending some major international conferences.

This visit to Z country was his first international visit.

Global media were highly focused on this event.

A former dominant nation.

A current superpower.

However, the comprehensive strength of the two was not much different. They could be called the two ends of the world.

What would the leaders of these two countries talk about when they met? What tensions would be created?

Before the visit, Lanfelord said to the media in a high-profile comment, “My visit will establish more than a thousand years of peace for Earth, eliminate all devastating wars, and let human civilization progress as a united whole… If this negotiation is successful, I should get ten Nobel Peace Prizes.”

This attracted a lot of attention from the media.

More than a thousand years of peace?

Eliminate all wars?

The whole of human civilization in unity and moving forward?

Many European countries felt their hearts skip a beat. Perhaps…

Chapter 372 - Envisaging The Earth Federation

Lake Zhongnan.

Inside a meeting room decorated in the style of an ancient palace, the top elder, the second elder, and the key top-ranking leaders looked at Lanfelord sitting across from them. They were full of curiosity.

They remembered some nicknames they had seen on the internet about this person.

The son selected by the Heavens.

Target with the highest number of assassination attempts in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Body of Steel that could never die.

Super reformer.

Countless halos were placed on Lanfelord’s head. His support rate in Merica was over 90%. Many people in Z country and other parts of the world regarded him as an idol.

At this moment, with such a legendary figure sitting across from them, the elders still felt a wave of pressure and an impressive atmosphere. They became more alert; they dare not underestimate this person.

“Dear Sirs, my visit is indeed for the purpose of long-term peace,” Lanfelord said with a smile. Everyone was surprised to hear him fluently speaking Z language. He even spoke the language in a standard accent. He had an extremely high level of language proficiency.

After they recovered from the surprise, the top elder said, “Z country is a peace-loving country. I didn’t expect Mr. Lanfelord to be a pacifist too. We happen to hold the same view on this point, but I also want to hear Mr. Lanfelord’s esteemed opinion.”

The top elder reached out his hand.

Lanfelord nodded and shared his thoughts. “If you compare Earth to a classroom, Z country and Merica should be the two best students in the class.”

“In the past, Merica was the first and Z country the second; now Z country is the first and Merica is the second. This is very depressing for me. As a patriot, I don’t want Merica to be reduced to second place. We want to always be the first.”

“But we have no choice. Z country’s people are very smart and diligent. Your efforts command respect. You became the first in class with your own efforts. We can’t help but surrender. If we want to turn the tables, we have to get ourselves together and fight to catch up.”

“But there is a significant portion of Mericans who do not want to get first place back via normal means. They think of war, think of force, and want to use catastrophic means to mend their fragile self-esteem. I got them to stand on the sidelines with great difficulty.”

“However, they are still there and their thinking has not changed significantly. The first place is very important; honor is very important. A student who acknowledges that he is outstanding cannot accommodate other geniuses. In Z country, this is described as ‘why is there another genius when I exist.’”

“After I step down, as long as some candidates instigate things slightly, they will be able to pull many votes from the hardliners.”

” I’ve realized that it is very difficult to overtake Z nation with the population and technological strength of Merica. Unless you make mistakes, it is difficult to get an opportunity to regain top position. The gap will even widen gradually until it is so big that people lose confidence and sink into frustration. It will even cause some manic sufferers to go crazy. Of course, as long as a rational person like me is power, I can contain their incitement. When I step down, the situation will be hard to predict.”

The top elder frowned and asked, “Mr. Lanfelord, what do you mean…?”

“We need to shift the focus of attention,” Lanfelord said. “We need to shift everyone’s attention from the small ‘classroom’ of the earth to outside of the classroom.”

The elders were first doubtful, and then they became thoughtful.

After a pause, Lanfelord finally revealed his true purpose. “I hope to work with Z country to establish a joint organization that gathers all countries together. I have named it the Earth Federation (UED).”

“This organization is different from the current United Nations (UN). The Earth Federation is a powerful institution. It has an army, and it has the power to issue the Earth’s unified currency. The Earth Federation will even handle all international affairs. Member states have no power to intervene in international affairs.”

“In addition, the UED’s Chief of Parliament will enjoy definite power with regards to major international issues. He will have the power of veto. Of course, Z country and Merica will also have the right to veto, similar to permanent members. A total of three vetoes will determine the major issues of the entire planet.”

“Other countries are smaller in size, smaller in population, and economically weak. They will be underrepresented, with only ordinary voting rights and no right of veto.”

“As a balance, the leader of the Earth Federation cannot be a national of Z country or Merica. It will be a role generally taken by outstanding people from small and medium-sized countries.”

“The two superpowers will each provide 50,000 troops and actively participate in international affairs. They will investigate and discuss matters in depth to deal with the situation in various parts of the globe.”

“Of course, the main responsibility of the Earth Federation is not based on Earth, but in the universe!”

“We should devote the power of the two countries to bring together the resources of the world, jointly carry out exploration in outer space, and obtain endless resources from the vast universe.”

“We’ll carry out interstellar colonization which includes establishing immigration areas on the moon and Mars, building cities on other planets, and even traveling to other galaxies dozens of light-years away to broaden the territory of the Earth Federation.”

“We also have to form a federal interstellar alliance fleet to defend against invasion from potential enemies and defend the security of the Earth Federation.”

“There are so many things to do. It is impossible to achieve all these with a single country’s resources and capabilities: no country can bear such a large cost. Only cooperation and partnership can bring about maximum benefits.”

“The earth is very big. But it is just a grain of dust compared to the whole universe. If everyone cast their sights into the hidden skies, instead of staring at the tiny benefits in front of us; if we unite and collate our strengths, what everyone gets will be much more than what can be gained from fighting alone.”

“Esteemed gentlemen, please consider my suggestion. I don’t have any personal desires mixed into this suggestion. There’s no narrow patriotism, just a sincere call and an invitation with a view towards long-term interests.”

Lanfelord stood up and laid his palms on the table. He said with a sincere expression, “If you agree with my point of view and support my ideas, then we can move in the same direction and accomplish this feat.”

The elders looked at each other and nodded at the same time. President Lanfelord was indeed someone who understood. He had expressed many opinions that were the same as theirs.

But it was impossible to agree on the spot.

After all, this matter was too important. It determined the fate and future of the entire human race. It was impossible to build the so-called “Earth Federation” immediately.

“We have to discuss and consider this matter. It will take a few days to give you a formal reply,” the top elder said.

“No problem, you can think about it, but my next visit is to Russia, then to Germany, France, Britain. I’m also planning on visiting other countries to propose my concept. They are very likely to be very interested in the ‘veto power’ and that will cause some trouble for me. It may even lead to more than three veto votes. I am left with slightly more than a year in office and time is tight. I hope to do this last thing in my tenure.”

Was there no such store after passing this village?

The elders were ranting angrily in their minds.

…

Two days later, Lanfelord’s visit ended and he was driven to the airport. He would fly to Russia for his next round of visits.

Suddenly, the phone of the Secretary of State, Malton, rang.

Malton answered the phone and his expression quickly became odd. He leaned over to Lanfelord.

“Mr. President, Minister Wang called me. He told us not to go. He says that we can stay in Z country for a few more days, set up the Earth Federation and talk about it in depth.”

“Oh… ” A smile appeared on Lanfelord’s face immediately.

Chapter 373 - Number One and Two Playing Gangste

A done deal. It was basically a done deal. Concerning the creation of the Earth Federation, the two countries quickly reached an agreement and immediately entered the preparatory stage. They strived to efficiently shape the organization, put it into operation, and develop its functions within one year.

Why were things proceeding so fast? Because there was no such store after this village was passed.

It was true that with the instability of political circles in Merica, there would be no interest in the Earth Federation once Lanfelord stepped down and the new president took office. If the voices of the hardlines grew louder and an extremist was elected into office, Merica would become a threat to world peace and tie up a lot of Z nation’s energy and resources. Various conflicts would erupt. There was no benefit to the Z nation.

The focus of attention had to be shifted and the Earth Federation established. Both sides would agree to disarmament and reduction in the scale of nuclear weapons. This would also save costs.

Friendly competition, cooperation to create win-win situations, and investing resources for the exploration of outer space would be established as well. The benefits brought by this were far greater than fighting to the death on Earth.

Besides Lanfelord with his overwhelming prestige and high support rate, there was no one else who could provide the driving force to rapidly establish this type of organization and push forward with such a major event. Even if they took the initiative to reach out to Lanfelord’s successor, Z nation might not get an affirmative reply. Opportunity knocks only once! Only by striking while the iron was hot could something be accomplished.

In light of this, the elders only considered for two days. When Lanfelord was on his way to the airport, he received a phone call telling him to return.

They had a serious discussion behind closed doors for four days. The global media grew restless and suspicious, and rumors began to surface.

March 28th

The two countries reached a unanimous agreement and issued a “Joint Statement on the Establishment of the ‘Earth Federation.’”

When the contents of this statement were publicized, the world was rocked to its core. Everyone was shocked, and frantic debates emerged.

“The Earth Federation; building a strong policy that unites all nations to serve all mankind with the interests of the Earth as its core,” began the statement. “It will have a specialized army, the right to issue a global currency, and it can also interfere in some national affairs. The decree passed by the Earth Federal Parliament is more binding on member states and must be implemented.”

Many people were excited while others were wary of this new power.

“The working and administrative languages used by the Federation are the Z language and English. To improve work efficiency, other languages will only be used informally. Artificial intelligence will provide translation services. Countries that join the Earth Federation as permanent members need to contribute 1% of the country’s GDP as an annual membership fee. Ordinary member states have to contribute 0.5% of the country’s GDP as an annual membership fee. Countries with a per capita GDP of less than 3,000 USD are exempted from paying the fee. Delay or non-payment of the annual membership fee will result in the country’s expulsion from the Federation and they will not be entitled to any power until the fee is paid.

“The Chief of Parliament, Z nation and Merica have the right to ‘one veto vote’ on major issues.”

This last part caused quite a commotion.

“There are only 3 veto powers?” people exclaimed anxiously.

In that instant, the nations of the UK, Russia, and France became frantic.

The UK took the lead.

“Where’s our veto power?” they complained. “Where is our major role and status? Who wants to deprive the British Empire of the power that rightfully belongs to us?”

France responded next.

“I am sorry, we are not interested in the ‘Earth Federation’. The contributions we have made to this planet, our efforts and sacrifices, have been despicably obliterated. France will not join this unfair institution.”

Russian media also spoke out.

“Why are there only three veto powers? Where is our status as permanent members? Not to mention our contribution in World War II, or have you all forgotten that we are the biggest country, have you forgotten the thousands of nuclear weapons in our possession? Give a veto to us!”

These three countries raised their voices in protest, but the response they received made them even angrier.

“Firstly, the Earth Federation was established in the new century. It had nothing to do with the last century. It determined the fate of the future of mankind under the current international order.

Secondly, if you want to become a permanent member of the Earth Federation, your country must have a population of more than 300 million, and the GDP must be more than 20 trillion USD.”

If a country did not have enough population and strength, it would not be able to bear the fate of the whole earth, nor would it have the qualifications and ability to guide and lead the Earth Federation to a glorious future.

There were currently only two countries with this qualification and ability – Z nation and Merica.

The three complainers were ridiculed by many netizens on the Internet.

What a joke, we have two out of the 5 laughingstocks here. A bear so poor that it only has a nuclear policy, yet it wants to represent all human beings and decide the affairs that will affect more than 8 billion humans. They are thinking too much.

It is way past time to expel these countries. When your conduct does not match your status and when you don’t have enough strength, then you shouldn’t sit in a position that does not belong to you.

It is better if the number of permanent members is lessened. It’s easier to discuss things between a few people, too many cooks spoil the broth. The United Nations is an example. Apart from talking nonsense, playing the blame game and forming cliques, the UN has no real credibility or ability to carry things out. It is a figurehead with no power. There is no such thing as fair and just in the workings of the organization. Its function is getting more and more irrelevant, dubious and weak.

The population of Britain and France is only in the tens of millions. Russia’s GDP is less than two trillion. They are indeed small and poor countries. They have no representative power. They should let go of their pride and honestly become ordinary member states, even though the gap is huge. The world is just that realistic; everyone only recognizes strength.

A question that many were wondering was finally voiced: What if the three countries do not accept reality and do not join the Earth Federation?

Some jumped in right away with their opinions.

What’s the influence of their absence on the overall entity? Are their roles indispensable? I think the absence of those three will have little impact.

Hey, that’s true. It’ll be fine when other countries will join. It’s okay if they are not included.

I’ve suddenly discovered how embarrassing and sad their situations are.

After the joint statement was released, Merica and Z nation were in constant motion. They quickly executed a series of dizzying strategies.

The first was to dissolve the United Nations. Suddenly, the largest international organization disappeared. The Earth Federation was quickly established on the original site of its predecessor. The original diplomatic representatives from various countries could apply right away to join the Earth Federation, and they were immediately thrown into new works.

“No, how can you do this?” asked some of them.

“Such a major event like the dissolution of the United Nations must be approved by a unanimous vote.”

“We do not recognize the Earth Federation, we only recognize the United Nations. You have suddenly disbanded this organization. We will form another one somewhere else!”

Britain, France, and Russia strongly opposed the Earth Federation and even established a temporary UN, drawing more than a dozen countries to join them. This was a futile effort, however.

No matter how much these countries opposed them, no one could successfully fight against the number one and number two when they worked together to act like gangsters.

Countries that did not join the Earth Federation would face sanctions immediately. This terrified the plethora of opposing small countries. There were also many pressurizing tactics awaiting those that remained in the illegal organization of the temporary United Nations

On the other hand, some benefits were promised to entice them.

In just a few months, the number of countries and regions that joined the Earth Federation reached 194. Only a few countries were left in the interim United Nations as they relied on their faith, gritting their teeth and holding out in isolation with willpower alone.

Chapter 374 - Acknowledging Your Identity

April, 20X1 Africa, Sahara Desert, Inside Dome no.9.

It was exactly noon. Under a date palm tree full of mature fruit, Zhang Xingyang put his head on his arms, covered his face with a cloth cap and rested on a soft lawn.

But he didn’t go to sleep, he was thinking about something.

Three years. He had been here for three years. From 25 to 28 years old. His precious youth had been spent here.

“Desert Free City, a free and open place, embracing unlimited possibilities.”

Zhang Xingyang, who’d worked in a restaurant a few years ago, coincidentally heard this advertisement. Upon seeing the city under the giant transparent glass cover, he was struck by an impulse. Without knowing why his head had suddenly become hot and he’d signed up to come here.

At that time, he was already tired of the job in the restaurant. He was young and did not want to carry plates and do odd jobs in the kitchen forever, but he was not highly educated and had no skills. He could only do some lowly work.

Recruitment advertisements for the Desert Free City and the magnificent desert scenery made him want to come and try to make a successful life for himself.

Even if he had to stay in this desert forever, it was better than not seeing any hope. Right? After the initial curiosity and excitement had worn off, the present him was experiencing some regrets.

This place was too boring. There was not much entertainment.

At first, the network speed was still ok after connecting his mobile phone to the WiFi satellite network. But with time, there were too many people connecting to the network. The speed became laggy. He could only make calls and send text messages.

Of course, Hua Yao had sent people over and promised to build a 5G network by the end of this year. Then, one would be able to experience high-speed Internet access on mobile phones and re-embrace the modern world.

Entertainment was only one problem. There were people with many different talents on the work team. There were some who were good with the guitar, some who were good at dancing, some with unique skills in acrobatics. There were all kinds of talents, including Zhang Xingyang, who was good at cooking.

Those who knew how to enjoy life would never feel bored, but the sense of loneliness was indeed real, and it always came rushing to everyone’s heart from time to time.

People could bond like brothers and sisters, but the moon was brightest when viewed from one’s hometown. The longer he remained here, the more Zhang Xingyang missed his family and friends, and the more he missed his home. This was human nature.

Homesickness was only the second complaint. After all, there was a phone to make calls. If you were missing home too much, you could always call.

The most difficult thing to overcome was the inability to adapt to life here.

There wasn’t much to do. There were very few shops and supermarkets, and there was no festive atmosphere during the holidays. There was no jubilation during the Chinese New Year.

The main content of the day was work. Every corner must be planted with lawns and green trees.

Living in such an environment was like sitting through a dry and dull classroom lesson. One would find a greater and greater sense of unhappiness over time. Zhang Xingyang even thought of running away.

He heard a lot of complaints.

“It’s better to stay in the country, there is nothing here.”

“I regret coming here a little. Developing your life and career in the country comes with pressure, but there’s internet, express delivery, take-away, cinemas, but what about here? All these amenities have to be built from scratch.”

“The problem is that the salary is not high. It is only $5,000 a month. You can easily find plenty of jobs in the country that pay at least $5,000.”

“Do we really have to stay in this place for a lifetime? Desert Free City, ha, I’ve never really felt the freedom here, but loneliness did arrive early.”

“Can Xing Hai Technologies send some women over? We have more than 500,000 laborers in the base and less than one-tenth of them are women and most of them come with their husbands. The rest are die-hard singles. Xing Hai Technologies, can you help solve the problem of being a bachelor?”

Hearing this, Zhang Xingyang also had the urge to apply to leave or even escape. He was not only single but also a virgin.

In this desert, which had a climate like the inside of an oven for twelve months out of the year, many people felt so agitated that they found it difficult to sleep. There had even been some criminal incidents.

More than 100,000 workers had applied to leave. However, a clause in the contract stated that “leaving of posts is not allowed before the city is completed,” so their applications were rejected. Subsequently, their actions turned into escape operations.

Overall, the labor force of the No. 9 Domed Base had very low morale. There was a marked decline in work efficiency.

…

“People are social animals; they are also a type of emotional creature,” Alice explained. “They are not happy because their social ties, cultural ties, and emotional ties have been cut off. It’s as if they had been exiled to an island.”

“The working environment of the domed base is not too difficult. The robots have taken on the primary heavy labor. The workers only have to undertake some simple tasks,” argued Chen Jin.

“This situation is the same as the yearning the Mericans of the 18th century felt towards Europe. Even though their material life is very rich, their mental energy is very low and the soul is very lonely,” Alice insisted.

Chen Jin frowned, but Alice continued her analysis.

“If we don’t think of ways to improve this situation, the workers in the domed base will have a hard time feeling a sense of belonging to the place they are developing. Instead, they will always think about returning. In the past six months, the average number of workers who have applied to return to Z and other countries in a month is more than 1,000 people. They still want to leave even if they have to pay 1 million for breach of contract. They explained that they couldn’t stand the loneliness and they couldn’t break away from the cultural shackles. Perhaps we have to release the workers for a visit to their family?”

Chen Jin frowned deeper. The problem was, a portion of the workers would definitely not return if they were released. They would disappear without a trace, and they would be faced with a lack of labor resources.

“We can’t release the workers for a home visit, but maybe family members could come and visit them,” Alice suggested.

Chen Jin shook his head.

“This was implemented long ago. Family members could even apply for reimbursement of plane or boat tickets, but there were still many workers who wanted to leave.”

Everything was difficult at the beginning. Being a pioneer was the hardest and most exhausting experience one could undergo. It was necessary to endure the helplessness and loneliness of being far away from home.

The ancients said that “the beginning of any business is tough.” The concept of creation was such that you could only feel its greatness when you engaged in similar work.

Modern people did not have to worry about food and clothing. There was a rich variety of entertainment for them too, but they were suddenly thrown into the works of desert transformation and had to endure all kinds of inconveniences in life and spiritual trials and tribulations. There were not many people who persisted.

Alice found a way to solve this difficult problem.

“Master, we need to instill a sense of identity and validation in the workers of every city. Let them acknowledge and identify with the profession they are engaged in and the land under their feet. More importantly, we have to let them know who they are.”

Chen Jin gestured for Alice to explain.

“There is no doubt that they are no longer Z citizens or Southeast Asians. They have abandoned their nationality. Ever since they set foot on this desert, they are the people of the Desert Free City belonging to the Earth Federation. They can say that they are citizens of the Free City, and they can say they are citizens of the Earth Federation.”

“Because the 1% tax collected from every free city tax is turned over to the Earth Federation, they can call themselves a citizen of the Earth Federation,” Chen Jin agreed.

“Moreover, each free city has a representative seat in the Federal Parliament, and the representative can actively participate in international affairs,” continued Alice. “There are 300 free cities, which means there are 300 votes. The free cities will be a force to be reckoned with. Because the citizens of the free cities have the power to speak and vote internationally, they are equal to the citizens of other countries. They are members of a big family, and there is no need to feel lost and lonely.”

Alice continued with her point.

“Once a worker has established his identity and acknowledges it, it means that he has set down roots. No matter what difficulties he encounters, he can overcome it with both hands and hard work because the land under his feet is his beautiful home.”

Chen Jin nodded. What Alice said was true. Once a person had an identity that he acknowledged, it was equivalent to setting down roots. He or she would no longer feel like they were confused or merely drifters.

It was like a job. Only when you had acknowledged and identified with the profession could you continue with it. The establishment of the Earth Federation, to a considerable extent, had solved the problem of the identity of the workers. They did not have to feel that they were refugees or only workers. Instead, they were federal citizens, the owners of this desert!

…

Under the date palm tree, Zhang Xingyang, who was thinking some anxious thoughts and was in an agitated emotional state, suddenly heard a voice over the radio.

“To all the workers who have been working diligently, I am here to tell you a piece of good news – the Earth Federation is established! From now on, you are the glorious citizens of the Earth Federation. You will proudly develop and open up this land that belongs to you as a citizen of the planet. Please forget your respective origins, race, and culture. In this free land, you are all equal and enjoy the same obligations and rights. You represent the civilization of the planet. Cheers! Let’s celebrate! A new era is coming and we are embracing the bright and wonderful future!”

Listening to this exciting broadcast, Zhang Xingyang opened his eyes and removed the cloth cap from his face. He sat up and slowly stood from the ground.

He looked around and saw hundreds of thousands of workers like him in the domed base. They had also stood up, their faces were somewhat vacant and their eyes sparkled.

Chapter 375 - Stabilizing Mechanism

After the broadcast ended, a trace of interest appeared on Zhang Xingyang’s face with regards to the Earth Federation. He discussed the organization with his companions for a few days.

They learned about some of the characteristics of this organization. For example, it was powerful with a large army. They had human resources. Every country and region had to turn in 0.5% to 1% of their GDP to the Earth Federation. The organization could also issue currency, so they were especially rich.

A powerful group with money and human resources. With one glance, one could tell that this was an organization that would become really successful.

However, Zhang Xingyang and his companions’ curiosity only lasted for a few days. They quickly lost interest in the Earth Federation. After all, they had a job to do. The so-called “acknowledgment of identity” did not seem to have been established within them. They did not immediately regard the Desert Free City as their roots.

Chen Jin had never expected to get results overnight.

“At least the seed has been planted. Over time, they will definitely accept their identity,” he assured himself. “They will never call themselves refugees or the poorest members from the bottom level of society, or unhappy people who could never get what they want in life. They won’t accept the labels that have been stuck on them in the past. They will say that they are the Free City people, and they are citizens of the Earth Federation. These two names sound much better and of a higher class. They will be more willing to accept them.”

Chen Jin nodded to himself, considering the idea.

“Five years, ten years, after a long time, the acknowledgment of their identity will naturally occur. Because of the characteristics of the Free City, they have no country or ruling institutions above the city level, so they will behave more like pure ‘global federal citizens,’ and they will have more internationalist ideas. Their recognition of the Earth Federation will obviously exceed that of any country. They have a broader vision, a more open mind, and less restraint.”

To Chen Jin’s mind, this problem seemed to be one that would solve itself in time.

“The Chief of Parliament for the Earth Federation will even be primarily selected from the Free Cities. This is much more reassuring. A Parliament Chief from a Free City will command more confidence and faith.”

This was Chen Jin’s second purpose. A stabilizing mechanism. The 300 plus Desert Free Cities would become the stabilizing mechanism of the Earth Federation.

“A monk carries two buckets of water on a shoulder pole, two monks carry one bucket of water on a pole between them, and three monks carry no water. This is the case with large international organizations. The more members, the more they can’t do,” he said to himself. “Like the United Nations, apart from engaging in peacekeeping and managing small things, they can’t accomplish any major things. Faced with the unilateralism of the superpowers, they are unable to stop them. The UN had even become a stage where countries form their own little cliques and put on a show of mouthing off at the more powerful countries. The UN is really too disorganized.” The Earth Federation seems to be a lot more advanced, but it does not mean that it’s impossible for it to become a second UN.”

A worried look crossed Chen Jin’s face as he considered this possibility.

“The uncertainty of Merica is too high. God knows what creature will be elected to the office when Lanfelord steps down. It is uncertain whether it will, yet again, be a ‘mad demon’ that chooses to withdraw from a group. It might even be possible that Lanfelord’s successor will get expelled from planetary citizenship! In short, we have to prepare for the worst-case scenario, anything is possible.”

Even if the worst happened, the Earth Federation would not be reduced to the state of a second United Nations because there were Free Cities. More than 300 of them. Other countries might not need the Earth Federation, but the Free Cities could not do without the Earth Federation.

“The Earth Federation is the source of identity for citizens of the Free Cities as well as their sense of honor,” Chen Jin reminded himself. “The power of a single city is limited. Only by looking from the perspective of the entire planet can we enjoy a lot of the achievements and receive a little benefit in the process. One city is only a tool for capitalists to make money. Others would merely see it as wealth and resources.”

He shook his head.

“This position is awkward, and the identity born from it will never be acknowledged or validated by the Desert Free Citizens. After a long time, it might even cause the citizens to become angry and thus rebel.”

The Earth Federation was their common spiritual home and the source of their glory. Therefore, this organization must never be disbanded. All the Free Cities would protect it with their best efforts. They played a good “stabilizer” role.

With the financial support of more than 300 cities and the maintenance of order by Z and other countries, even if a big country was to retreat, its leaving would have little impact on the whole.

There was also a huge hidden benefit for Chen Jin. These new developments allowed Xing Hai Technologies to vaguely stand in an important position on the world power stage.

After all, the “city management system” of each Free City was managed and operated by Xing Hai Technologies. On the surface, those free cities were not managed by anybody, but in reality, the same company was behind each set of urban management systems.

It was even the same person.

“A king without a visible crown. Don’t you know what this means?” Chen Jin smiled.

In short, this strategy was now over. He could not say that he was the biggest winner, however, Xing Hai Technologies had successfully completed the transition from a company to a powerful “institution.” It had upgraded itself into a higher dimension. The possibility of facing a crisis or bankruptcy in the future was almost zero.

It could be said that Xing Hai Technologies had become an “undead company.”

…

September

The Earth Federation had been established for three months. All areas of work were on the right track. The number of countries or regions who had applied for membership had reached 201. There were only four countries who had not joined the big family of the Federation: Britain, France, Russia, and India.

There was no need to expound on the two out of the “five commonly shamed nations,” Britain and France. They had gritted their teeth and endured until the present. One had held out based on inner pride that could not tolerate insult, while the other had skin that was as thick as a city wall.

In contrast, Russia’s persistence seemed to come from a more confident standpoint. It had the largest territory and more than 3,000 nuclear weapons. Even though Russia was poor, this was something that could not be ignored.

Finally, joining in the fun and following in the footsteps of the resistant countries, was India. Not only had they not joined the Earth Federation, but they also argued noisily about wanting to have a veto power too. They would only join the Federation if they had veto power.

Many internet netizens became angry.

India, what rights or abilities do you have to fight for a veto power? Where did your delusional self-confidence come from?

You are asking for the veto power based on your 1.5 billion garbage population? And a GDP of 40 million-plus USD?

It’s a beggar country. It might even collapse tomorrow. They still dare to demand status and power?

Netizens sneered and uttered a variety of heart-stabbing words.

India still stood strong. Even if they were isolated from the world, they still insisted on fighting for their “status.”

Regardless of their population numbers, territory size and military strength, the four countries as a whole were quite formidable and difficult to ignore. If the four countries did not join the Earth Federation (UED) for a long time, the overall representation of the Earth Federation would not be fully comprehensive. It would be inconvenient to start certain works without these four countries.

Lanfelord had a discussion with the high-ranking officials of Z nation and came up with a solution. He made an announcement to Britain and France.

“The UED can give you a veto, provided that you integrate the forces of Europe and share a veto with Europe as a whole.”

To Russia and India, he said, ‘veto power can also be given to you, but you have to rope in some countries with stronger economic strength and form a ‘voting alliance’ with them. You will be able to have a veto vote as part of this alliance when the total GDP of this ‘voting alliance’ has reached 20 trillion USD. In short, if you are unable to meet these two standards – a population of more than 300 million people and a GDP of 20 trillion USD, the veto power will never be given to you.”

The four countries began to consider it.

Chapter 376 - Resignation

Integrating Europe was extremely difficult for both Britain and France.

After the financial crisis, the EU had been torn apart. Even Britain had left the union. Would they be returning at this point in time? Would the UK feel embarrassed?

There were 26 countries in the EU. Now, was it possible to let so many countries unify their standpoints, eliminate their internal differences and unite as one voice?

If Britain and France could comply and choose to remain undivided, it was difficult for the EU to not be given a veto with its strength as a whole.

As for Russia and India, the population of these two countries was surely enough, but their combined GDP was not even 8 trillion M-dollars. The mix would still be more than 12 trillion M-dollars away from achieving 20 trillion.

To establish a “voting league,” at least the countries with global GDP rankings from the twentieth to the 120th place would have to be brought together to acquire a veto. That would mean co-opting more than a hundred countries. Most certainly, if they allied with Japan, Gorea, Husiky, Brazil and a few other middle powers and further bring in some 20 smaller countries, a veto could also be formed. Similar to another form of the European Union.

But everybody’s business is nobody’s business. Large groups could never accomplish big things. Even if two groups assembled for a veto, internal disagreements would still rise to take the wheel sooner or later and overwhelm the coalition’s overall interests.

In addition, countries with veto power would have to pay contributions to the Earth Federation equivalent to 1% of the country’s GDP while ordinary members would only have to pay 0.5%. This wasn’t a small amount of money, it was double the cost!

Therefore, countries that wanted to join the voting league would have to consider it clearly. Was it necessary to pay twice as much to enjoy the one-vote veto?

Needless to say, it was too difficult to reach a consensus with more than 30 countries. If one of the countries was bribed by a big country and became a turncoat, the alliance wouldn’t have to even think of accomplishing anything big together. In short, there would be indefinite amounts of lethal points.

Britain, France, Russia, and India had, of course, spotted the hidden “scheme” lurking within.

Even so, the four countries still agreed on the solution in the end and joined the Earth Federation. Over the past few months, they’d been “biting the bullet.” Once the comprehensive sanctions dawned upon them, it would be too much for them to bear. It would be better for them to quit while they were ahead.

So, all countries and regions on Earth were included in the institution known as the Earth Federation. A new federal era had arrived.

The year 20X1 was even named “Federal First Year.”

In June of 20X2, which was June of Federal Second Year, Lanfelord stepped down and retired from the position as the President of the M nation.

Out of his eight years in office, he had accomplished countless things that other presidents couldn’t. He’d led the M nation out of the debt crisis, reducing the debt of more than 28 trillion to 15 trillion. He’d completed medical reforms that reduced civilian medical fees by at least 70%. He’d realized a comprehensive ban on guns, collecting more than 300 million guns and reducing gun violence by 99%. He’d essentially eliminated drug crimes and forged a drug-free nation. He’d solved the refugee problem by transferring 5 million people to the Desert Free City. In the last year of his term, he’d initiated the establishment of the Earth Federation, leading earth into a brand-new era.

It would be incredible for an ordinary president to accomplish only one of these many noteworthy events during their term. They would be deserving of all praise and admiration. Lanfelord had nailed all of them within a short period of eight years! This was not within the ability of ordinary men. Even the term genius would seem inadequate. He was literally a “mortal god.”

He had an exalted reputation and more than 95% of public approval ratings. There were even people who had launched petitions seeking to amend the constitution. They wished for an extension of the presidential term that would allow Lanfelord to stay in office for another few years. The number of petitioners had exceeded 50 million.

Netizens on the internet sang his praises.

Honestly speaking, to have a president like President Lanfelord is a one in a thousand years’ occurrence.

I dare to make a 100% bet that the next president in office, no matter who he might be, will not be able to accomplish even 1% of what Lanfelord did.

I once fiercely opposed Lanfelord. But now, I am supporting him enthusiastically because everything he does is for us.

Please stay for another eight years Mr. Lanfelord, I need you to continue to lead us.

I wish he could prolong his term indefinitely, staying in office for maybe another 10 or 20 years. I will feel relieved as long as he is the one in power.

I used to believe in the ballot. Now, I only believe in Lanfelord.

However, Lanfelord left the stage of power without any resentment. He could easily amend the constitution and choose to stay for another two terms, but he didn’t.

“Even saints make mistakes,” he said. “And I am no saint. I wish to leave when people have the best memories of me instead of stepping down amidst upbraid and anger. This is the perfect curtain call I’ve always longed for.”

This discourse was so moving that even the two new candidates reverently stated, “We want to be a president like Lanfelord. If he considers re-election, we will be willing to give up the election and vote for him.”

Lanfelord had become a benchmark, but one that could only be admired and not surpassable.

One day, a few months after Lanfelord resigned, he suddenly disappeared without a trace and was nowhere to be found across the entire M nation. It triggered a field of panic. But even after digging three meters underground and issuing a global “search notice,” there was still no sign of him. Many M’s wept in agony. Where had the president they respected and admired gone to?

Years passed, but the M’s feelings towards Lanfelord showed no sign of fading. On the contrary, the feelings intensified due to nostalgia.

Some companies in Hollywood seized this opportunity and launched a series of film and television works such as “The Assassination of Lanfelord” and “Lanfelord Must Die” which revolved around the 1,587 assassination attempts that Lanfelord had experienced. The storylines showed how Lanfelord had fought with the assassins and how he’d escaped from death again and again.

After these works were launched, almost all their ratings exploded as they dominated over countless box office outlets. The franchises even became a super intellectual property, branching out into many other works. While some of them had bizarre contents that were not at all logical, they were still very well greeted on the market.

Many killers who participated in Lanfelord’s assassination attempts had written memoirs like, “I Killed Lanfelord,””Firing at Lanfelord” and “The 1,888th Way to Kill Lanfelord,” vividly telling stories about the assassination attempts from their personal perspectives. Such books were actually selling quite well and had thus given birth to numerous best-selling authors. Some of their works were even adapted into films and television series.

It could be said that Lanfelord had become a legend, a popular cultural phenomenon and a hero and a saint in the minds of many. Even his disappearance had left behind ample space for people to let their imaginations and admiration run wild.

“I am perhaps only one of two in this world who know about the brutal reality,” Chen Jin said as he shook his head.

He longed for a complete and honest life, but the truth would be better kept lying rotten beneath his heart.

Chapter 377 - Second Ultimate

August 20X2 Life City No. 1, Northwestern desert, Z nation, Xing Hai Hospital

Under the attention of millions, the 500,000th elderly individual had completed the life-prolonging treatment and successfully regained a youthful appearance.

At this point, the completion of the large sample size of the life-prolonging experiment was announced one year ahead of schedule.

The treatment’s effects were witnessed by many with their very own eyes. Among the 500,000 elderly with an average age of 98.7 years, 499,940 of them had their lives successfully extended. The remaining 60 had either encountered failures or had died unexpectedly.

The success rate was over 99.9%. The failure rate was slightly higher than one in 10,000. The hailed reliability of 99.99% was not false propaganda.

No one truly doubted the safety of Xing Hai Hospital’s life-prolonging technology. It was taken by most as gospel. Of course, this still couldn’t hold off those who chose to quarrel for the sake of starting trouble.

“Calculated murder! They killed off dozens of innocent elderlies!” shouted a protester.

“Xing Hai Technologies should be severely punished by law.”

“These people are genetically modified people. They are no longer normal humans.”

Xing Hai’s approach to these protests was relatively simple. Anyone who whined was “blacklisted” so that they would never be able to receive the life-prolonging treatment. Seeing their personal information on Xing Hai Technologies’”blacklist” startled the protesters. They had no idea how the company had been able to acquire their identities. They all quieted down in a panic.

“Didn’t we just complain a little? Is it necessary for you to be so overbearing?” they asked.

“I’m just putting forward some honest advice and pointing out a few problems. Why would you blacklist me for this? Don’t you think you’re too narrow-minded?”

“I’m wrong Xing Hai Technologies, can you withdraw me from the blacklist? A great man rarely stoops to pettiness or harbors grievance for past wrongs, please just let me go this time.”

Many of those who realized that they’d been blacklisted quickly chickened out.

“Aren’t you all very proud of your mouth guns?” mocked Xing Hai Technologies. “Aren’t you glorified as the noble keyboard warriors? Please do not wimp out, you whiners can live until 150 and above just by the power of your tongue. You won’t need the life-prolonging medical service, so just keep on firing at us.”

After such a blow, the number of Xing Hai Technologies’ anti-fans on the internet significantly lessened. Their tones became much milder as they dared not casually talk bad about the company anymore.

As the large sample experiment came to a close, its superb reliability also eased peoples’ worries. A week later, on the 1st of November, Xing Hai Hospital’s life-prolonging medical service was officially opened to the public, allowing elderly people over the age of 75 to apply for registration.

Merely ten minutes after the registration channel was opened, the number of appointments had exceeded 10 million. After twelve hours, the number of people waiting for an appointment reached 80 million. After one month, the number of people in the queue exceeded 100 million. But with the number of beds in Life City No.1 that had been expanded to 300,000 sheets, on average, only 3,280 elderly people could be treated every day. It would take 30 years to complete the round.

Life City’s No. 2, 3, 4, and 5 would only become operational after three years. By then, the total number of beds would have increased to 3 million, which would suffice for the domestic demand of the treatment. In the middle of the three-year waiting period, if one wanted to experience the life-prolonging medical service ahead of time, they could toss in some extra money to take the “express train” or spend money to advance in the queue. Otherwise, even if they were over 100 years old, they could still only painstakingly wait for their turn.

Big money was rolling in for Xing Hai Technologies.

The treatment fee for each elderly person, on average, exceeded 100,000 dollars. Multiplying that by 3,280… Xing Hai Technologies would have 3.2 billion dollars entering their account every day. Not to mention, this income did not have to be taxed. After deducting all the involved costs, Xing Hai Technologies’s daily net profit would exceed 3 billion.

This profit speed had all domestic institutions jealous. The country too discovered that they had fallen prey to Xing Hai Technologies’ scheme and was instantly overcome by annoyance. The agreement was already signed, however, and the nation had no choice but to obey the contract and acquiesce.

The elderly mortality rate dropped, and older people were continuously transformed into the labor force. The state had also been vigorously encouraging childbirth over the past few years. They introduced the “free house with a second child” policy in many places and had increased maternal subsidies, education subsidies, and support allowance. The expenses for children aged 0-18 would all be covered by the state. If a couple had more than five children, they wouldn’t even have to go to work anymore. They could support their family by solely relying on various subsidies. If poor families wanted to alter their destiny, they would just need to make more children. The traditional concept of “investing in people is better than saving money” was, to one’s surprise, completely feasible in this era.

So, a miracle happened. Birth rate rebounded, and a baby boom blasted off. The country’s total population finally showed positive growth. The Z nation took the lead in conquering problems that even developed countries couldn’t.

Under the multiple positive factors, housing prices in first and second-tier cities could no longer be held down. They began to skyrocket once again. Housing prices of 80,000, 100,000, or even 150,000 per square meter were common. In the city center of several first-tier cities, the price per square meter even pierced through the 200,000th mark.

Domestic, high-tech enterprises were immediately caught in the crossfire. Under the pressure of high housing prices, their burdens hiked, and they felt miserable. They all considered moving their companies to second and third-tier cities with lower housing costs.

“Xing Hai Technologies is very insightful. They seemed to have predicted all of this and quickly moved into the deserts. We, on the other hand, can only pay for the high prices,” said an envious corporate executive who was deeply impressed by Xing Hai Technologies’s foresight.

It was at this particular moment that Xing Hai Technologies issued an invitation out of the blue.

“We welcome all local first-tier tech companies to come over to the desert. Xing Hai Technologies’ Tech Cities No. 2, 3, and 4 will be completed soon. We welcome all of you to station your companies over here. Xing Hai Technologies will provide rent, water, electricity, etc. to you at cost price as long as you come to our Tech City. It will lighten the burden on your enterprise by at least 50%.”

The benefits seemed too good to be true!

“If you implement the ‘free city’ system, similar to what Xing Hai Technologies has done, your business burden will be sliced down significantly. Profit is the life of a company. If a company has no profit, it will be as if there’s no oxygen in the air for us. We will suffocate and die very, very soon.”

The last part was certainly true.

“High housing prices in first and second-tier cities can stifle any high-tech enterprise. Moving to Tech Cities in the desert is equivalent to having enough oxygen and development space. With greater flexibility comes greater vitality. Our transportation system is highly developed. From the northwestern desert, you can get to Shanghai, more than 3,000 kilometers away, in one hour. You can reach the developed areas in the east in less than four hours by cheap electric passenger planes. Convenient transportation has lifted the hindrances caused by distance. So come over, Tech Cities in the desert is the most conducive place for your development.”

The helmsmen of many tech companies were both tempted by and hesitant to follow Xing Hai Technologies’ seductive offer.

“This might be a little…inappropriate, the higher-ups might be displeased,” said Yu Dazhui from Hua Yao.

“What will they be displeased about?” Chen Jin questioned. “Big cities are not suitable for the development of high-tech industries and are not places for our survival. Should we wait until high-tech industries hollow out and we all have to move our companies abroad just to reduce our operational costs? Do you want to walk the path that the industries in the M nation went through?”

Chen Jin gestured wildly as he spoke.

“How can you avoid the effect of the industry hollowing out? How can we, as a nation, maintain the Z’s technological competitiveness? Aside from moving to remote Desert Transformation Zones like Xing Hai Technologies, there is no other way! We are not selfish and blindly pursuing profits! This is for our survival and to ensure that the Z nation’s technology is always ahead of the world! If our painstaking efforts can not be understood and the higher-ups insist on driving us away, the ones that will ultimately regret that is them, not us.

Yu Dazhui nodded. The effect of the industry hollowing out had already shown signs of sprouting in the Z nation, but it had never drawn enough attention.

Mr. Chen’s speech dispelled his concerns.

“Okay!” he replied immediately.

Chen Jin smiled. The second ultimate he was channeling had also been unleashed.

Chapter 378 - Northwestern High-Tech Center

The law of the development of all things in this world was somewhat similar to a board game called Jungle. Elephants were on a higher tier compared to lions, and that applied down the chain from lions to tigers, tigers to leopards, leopards to wolves, wolves to cats and cats to mice. Mice, however, were able to devour elephants.

State-of-the-art aircraft missiles could not easily triumph in guerilla warfare. So was it too with high-tech industries. They simply could not develop in big cities. Even the real estate industry, which had almost no technical content, could suffocate the high-tech industry.

There were many other similar examples.

This was the balance in the law of nature. Nothing could exist invincibly. If one desired to maintain competitiveness and never weaken, one could only constantly adjust themselves to be able to perpetually lodge in a comfortable environment.

This was the case for the Tech Cities in the deserts. By moving company research institutions to the Tech Cities in the desert, it was possible to cut down on a plethora of operational costs and only then could a company develop healthily and move steadily forward.

The presence of Xing Hai Technologies in the desert alone was not enough. Chen Jin wished to transform the northwestern Desert Transformation Zone into a high-tech center. He wanted to amass all the top-ranking companies to form a large industrial cluster. Some of them, including chip foundry giant Zhong Xin International and storage chip giant Purple Ray Technologies, had already shifted some of their production capacity to the Tech Cities.

Now, Chen Jin was eyeing tech giants such as Hua Yao and Ali Corporation, persuading them to join the ranks within the Tech Cities. He believed that these companies would accept his invitation and gather around Xing Hai Technologies.

Many wondered about Chen Jin’s motives, and discussed their ideas online.

It is obviously for the sake of advanced technology.

No matter how high land values are, in the face of technology and the truth itself, they will always seem worthless.

Truth is priceless. With enough truth at hand, one can acquire an infinite amount of resources.

Once humans have stepped out of Earth and hover towards the sea of stars, unfathomable land and wealth will be presented before us all.

But if one cashed in a house in a first-tier city, they won’t have to dream about the sea of stars any longer. They should just keep on earning their honest pennies.

A house, a family and similar things could easily become the killers of dreams that make us tumble into the mire of reality.

It is too easy for one to indulge in the prosperous life within bustling cities with a million temptations. One would have long forgotten the starry sky above their heads as they would have settled down in their current state over time.

Someone must lead the dream. Someone must blow the trumpet and someone must unfold the curtains of the dawn of a massive era.

Without a doubt, such a leader would naturally be Xing Hai Technologies, but their strength alone was not enough. They would need teammates and helpers. Another ulterior motive was to lay down the foundation for development over on Planet Haierfa.

According to AI Nuwa’s calculations, with the development speed over on Earth, Earth’s overall technological level would be almost at a similar level to that of planet Haierfa in approximately 30 years. By that time, as Earth continued to advance, its path would be equivalent to the one Planet Haierfa would have taken had their civilization not been destroyed. Earth would be embracing a bright future. Until then, Earth could nurture planet Haierfa, which had completed an environmental transformation and been freed from destruction.

This would bring forth massive benefits for both worlds.

Once most of the local high-tech enterprises surrounded Xing Hai Technologies, they would be tantamount to the most advanced scientific and technological achievements. If Xing Hai Technologies needed something, acquiring the corresponding technology would not be difficult. Establishing such a cooperation would be difficult, however, if the two parties remained distant and did not establish fair, mutually beneficial bonds.

As long as the top domestic high-tech enterprises were gathered together, Chen Jin would have a plan at hand to establish an in-depth cooperative relationship with them.

…

The Next Day

Chen Jin received a phone call from Yu Dazhui.

“Mr. Chen, I’ve discussed with my company’s leadership and they think that what you said is very reasonable. Big cities have their advantages, as they are equipped with complete facilities and great convenience in living, but they are indeed not suitable for business operations. We have conducted simulations with supercomputers. Even with Hua Yao’s annual revenue of nearly 2 trillion dollars, if we encounter a major crisis, it would only take us three to five years before we possibly vanished into thin air and became history.”

Yu Dazhui’s voice was steady.

“Even if our development is stable, as long as our revenue capacity remains stagnated or increases meagerly by a one or two percentage points, Hua Yao will still fall into crisis in 10 years. The inflation, in many aspects driven by rising house prices, is nearly 10% every year and it is hard for our revenue growth to reach that amount.”

As he continued, Yu Dazhui’s voice grew more optimistic.

“Moving to the Tech Cities in the desert is a very good alternative. After the transfer is completed in its entirety, we will save almost 200 billion dollars a year. All that money could be used in research and development. Hua Yao’s competitiveness will never weaken. We can last for fifty or even a hundred years without declining! Mr. Chen, we hope for you to hasten things at your end. Hua Yao intends to shift to the Tech Cities as soon as possible.”

Chen Jin was instantly struck by delight.

“No problem, I’ll ask my men over at Tech City No. 2 to prepare things for you.”

Hua Yao had been settled.

…

Hua Yao stuck their heads in the desert, following Xing Hai Technologies’s footsteps. After the news had spread, the topic was hotly debated by the public. Netizens began to rant.

Even our Hua Yao has gone into the desert. Can first-tier cities truly not retain any outstanding enterprises?

Could it be that we will have to go the deserts thousands of miles away for a good high-income job? Who’d be willing to go work at a place so far out?

What is Xing Hai Technologies trying to do? Are they so lonely that they are persuading other companies to go over for their company? We don’t want to work in such a remote location!

I think that this is pretty good. In many professions nowadays, one can work at home via the remote office system. It is not necessary to be physically present at an office. Besides, high-tech enterprises are under immense operational pressure. The cost of staying in a big city is enormous. Moving to areas with a lower cost of operation is a choice that must be made.

I think that Xing Hai Technologies is just asking for it. Their game is getting bigger and bigger. There must be some terrifying conspiracies behind what they’re doing. They are exploiting the state from all aspects. They must be held down!

Exploiting? Ha, you must be oblivious about how much our local industries have hollowed out. In the past few years, more than half of our low-end manufacturing industries have transferred themselves to other countries, so have quite a notable amount of mid-end manufacturing industries. If this goes on, we will be left with only a few high-end industries in the end! Xing Hai Technologies is helping to solve the hollowing out problem. It is better for those industries to move to the northwestern deserts than to go overseas. This is to keep the goodies within the family. Got it?

Yep, that’s what it is. Manufacturing is not at all profitable, but it must not be forsaken, or it will be like losing a limb.

…

Hua Yao was just the beginning. After a few more days, Ali, Tencent, Da Mi, LandSpace, Chery, Biyadi Batteries and up to a hundred tech enterprises answered to Xing Hai Technologies’ invitation. Some decided to move a portion of their scientific research institutions while others moved their entire organization into the Tech Cities within the northwestern Desert Transformation Zone.

The remote and deserted northwestern desert was about to emerge as a highly anticipated high-tech center.

Chapter 379 - Full March into The Universe

The stream of time flowed by ever so quickly. In the blink of an eye, it was 20X5, the federal fifth year. Within that time, many momentous events had occurred on Earth.

First, life-prolonging medical technology had become remarkably successful. since the technology’s invention, Xing Hai Hospital had completed the treatment of 5 million elderly individuals. It was possible that the average life expectancy of human beings in the future could reach 150 years and above.

Since Xing Hai Hospital was the only one that had mastery over the life-prolonging technology, the elderly from all over the world flocked to the Life Cities in the Z nation’s Desert Transformation Zone to receive the treatment. Including these patients, their family members, and visiting tourists, there was an estimated influx of more than 30 million visitors to the Desert Transformation Zone annually.

This massive flow of visitors combined with the economic consumption of the elderly whose lives had been extended brought about an astonishing amount of economic benefit that would continue for years to come.

People that had once mocked Xing Hai Technologies for being stupid were all left with their jaws on the floor.

“Those things that we deemed ‘stupid’ back then are now bringing Xing Hai benefits far from what we imbeciles could ever imagine,” they said to themselves.

They even commented about this on the internet, discussing the ever-increasing success of Xing Hai Technologies.

Xing Hai makes big things happen by thinking five or even ten steps ahead. The rest of us will have to settle for seeing only half a step ahead.

We need to stop trying to prove that we are smarter than Xing Hai Technologies. In the future, no matter what Xing Hai does, we should just think about how we can tag along for the ride. That will be the best shortcut towards success.

Every opportunity seized by Xing Hai Technologies will become a huge success. I know that this company has always been the most profitable in the world, but their achievements can never be replicated. No company could ever compete with them.

They’re the invincible demon lord.

Perhaps Xing Hai Technologies will be the ones to lead the future of this world. I wonder if this will be a good thing or a bad thing?

The second momentous event that had occurred was the intensifying of the universal development efforts that had set off a trending wave of space resource mining. The resources on the moon, in particular, had become the spotlight.

After Xing Hai Technologies’ unmanned transport spacecraft brought a batch of high-grade, rare dirt back from the moon, revenue gained after deducting all interrelated costs seemed profitable and the whole Earth went into a frenzy. Aerospace superpowers across the globe began developing mining plans for lunar minerals. They invested enormous sums of money in their plans to mine the mineral resources on the moon.

Private space companies emerged in abundance. Immense amounts of capital and hot money were poured into this new opportunity. The people’s faces were full of anticipation as they shouted and yelled out all kinds of fanatic slogans:

“The era of interstellar voyaging has arrived!”

“The rare opportunities that are presented before us now are unprecedented.”

“This is the best era to live in. The air we breathe is full of excitement. The opportunities we have are as numerous as the droplets in a rainstorm. As long as you don’t cower under the roof, you will get to embrace wealth and success!”

The fever for outer space excavation created an atmosphere of impetuousness throughout the globe. However, amidst this turbulent environment, Xing Hai Technologies, who had taken the lead in the space mining industry and had already gained something out of it, did not announce their subsequent plans. On the contrary, they went silent. It just seemed that they were already satisfied with the dozens of tons of rare dirt and minerals that would be mined from the moon every day. They just sat around and watched while other private space companies took the limelight.

Consequently, many investors who had close ties with Xing Hai Technologies became anxious and made inquiry calls one after another.

“Mr. Chen, why hasn’t your company’s ‘Moon Immigration Plan’ been announced?” they asked constantly. “What about the ‘Mars Development Plan’ and the exploration plans towards the other galaxies?”

“Mr. Chen, whatever you’re holding back, please just let it all out, we can’t wait any longer.”

Chen Jin, however, was in no hurry. He was definitely holding something back, but the timing just wasn’t right yet, and he certainly wasn’t interested in bragging or creating unnecessary hype. Xing Hai Technologies wasn’t a company that ran on dreams and feelings. When the timing had fully matured, smart investors would naturally know which companies would be the more reliable ones.

…

August, Federal Fifth Year

An exciting piece of news came from Xing Hai Technologies’ New Energy Research Center: The High Energy 3 battery had been successfully developed.

In a remote video conference, Zhao Chiang, who was in charge of the project, explained it passionately.

“Mr. Chen, Mr. Ling, leaders of the company, the High Energy 3 battery project has wrapped up successfully. We have accomplished something that theoretically couldn’t be done. The battery has an energy density of 10000Wh/kg, which is 2.5 times that of the High Energy 2 batteries with 4000Wh/kg of energy density. We are just a hair shy of the 12000Wh/kg of gasoline.”

Zhao Chiang’s face was glowing with pride.

“Previously, we have repeatedly stressed the fact that the energy efficiency of batteries will generally be above 80%. By using high-temperature superconducting materials, the energy utilization rate can even exceed 95% while only affected by a small amount of mechanical friction resistance. As opposed to gasoline, batteries are spared from the process of converting chemical energy into heat energy and then into kinetic energy. In actual performance, a kilo of High Energy 3 batteries is equivalent to two kilograms of gasoline and perhaps even exceeds that of liquid hydrogen and oxygen of the same quantity.”

He continued to explain his team’s creation with great excitement.

“If we incorporate High Energy 3 batteries into a space shuttle and further equip the vessel with our company’s ion thrusters, which generate thrust force by accelerating ionized particles, according to our calculations, the space shuttle can be accelerated to the pinnacle of spaceships in the entire cosmos, and enter into orbit around Earth. Even after entering orbit, the batteries will still be left with a small amount of electricity, more than a ton of working fluid and around three tons of load. The High Energy 2 batteries will be unable to accomplish this feat.”

This new battery was certainly a game-changer.

“Besides, our company is constructing an electromagnetic acceleration track 30 kilometers in length and 7 kilometers in height at the foot of the Kunlun Mountains in cooperation with the National Space Administration. It is expected to be completed next year. By then, space shuttles that accelerate through the electromagnetic track will be able to reach an ejection speed of 2.5 Mach. With the aid of the electromagnetic track, the space shuttle will get to save a quarter of its energy reserves, thus increasing its actual load to 10 tons. High Energy 3 batteries, the electromagnetic acceleration track and 10 tons of actual load.”

Zhao Chiang’s face grew serious, but a glimmer of joy was still present in his eyes.

“Mr. Chen, I think these three factors can kick start the era of outer space resource mining within the boundaries of our solar system. Not to mention, the cost of this combination is currently the lowest possible. The launching cost in the actual load per kilogram will be reduced from 20,000 dollars per kilogram to 3,000 dollars per kilogram. After the launching instances increases, it can drop to 2,000 dollars per kilogram or even to as low as 1,000 dollars. No other space launch agencies can reduce costs to this level, but we can do it, and we are the only ones. We will be able to complete any future outer space construction project at the lowest possible cost. Our cost-performance ratio is unparalleled.”

Chen Jin nodded. The time for Xing Hai Technologies’s full entry into space had finally come.

In general, new developments in the field of science and technology stemmed from the revolutionary development of information technology, such as the 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G communication technologies which had all brought about huge advancements in science and technology.

Developments in the industrial sector were mainly prompted by changes in the method of utilizing energy. For example, steam engines, internal combustion engines, nuclear fission, nuclear fusion, etc. were all in pace with the evolution of energy utilizing methods. Human productivity and room for survival were both massively improved.

The High Energy 3 batteries marked the beginning of humanity’s full march into the universe.

Chapter 380 - Space City

Why would a regular battery be the one to blow the trumpets of humanity’s journey into the universe, and symbolize the dawn of the era of interstellar voyaging?

The High Energy 3 battery had an energy density close to that of gasoline. Why wouldn’t the fuel of the future be nuclear batteries, which had an even higher energy density, or the small fusion reactor?

The answer was obvious. Nuclear batteries were bulky, heavy, and had the danger of radiation. Aside from larger spacecraft, it was difficult to install them in smaller vehicles. High Energy 3 batteries had the advantages of high energy density, no radiation, improved safety and stability, and a wider application and bigger commercial value in the field of aerospace.

Seeing that the time was right, Chen Jin wasted no time. He immediately ordered the public announcement of Xing Hai Technologies’ outer space development plans, thus displaying their wild ambitions towards outer space in front of all their capitals and investors.

There were three main contents in the announcement.

First, the “Space City Project.”

“In the next 50 to 100 years, it is estimated that Xing Hai Technologies will build more than 100 structures in space consisting of space cities, space smelters, and space factories. We will migrate more than 100 million people into these developments to become permanent residents in space cities. After conducting simulations on our supercomputers, we have identified that the cost of building a space city is lower than migrating humans to the moon or Mars. The involved expenditures will be much lower than if we tried to terraform the moon or the Martian environment. We can build our space cities at roughly 36,000 to 100,000 kilometers within Earth’s circular orbit. It will ease the transportation of materials from Earth or the moon and save a lot on traveling distance and time.”

The representative of Xing Hai continued with the announcement, explaining all the exciting details to shareholders and the public.

“After space cities are built, we can flexibly deploy them to various locations according to the function of the city. For instance, with the city’s power system or traction device, an entire space city could relocate itself to the upper orbit of Mars to enhance developments on the red planet. They can also be relocated to the periphery of the asteroid belts or even to the orbit of Jupiter to harvest the resources nearby. We believe that unless there is a large amount of water on a certain planet, the cost-effectiveness of transforming planetary environments will be far less than the construction of a space city. It’s like the comparison between laying a carpet or making a pair of shoes. Both cushion your feet, but the latter has greater flexibility. Xing Hai Technologies will go full steam ahead on our ‘Space City’ project. Free Cities in space will be born one after another in our hands.”

Second, “Asteroid Mining Plan.”

The plan was to produce more than 100 “Mining Mother Ships” that utilized nuclear fusion in their energy system. The mother ships would have a tonnage of more than two million tons and would be equipped with various types of mining, mineral processing and smelting equipment for mining minerals on asteroids. If necessary, “Mining Mother Ships” would work closely with “Space Smelting Cities” with strong comprehensive capabilities, to increase the efficiency of resource extraction.

The third addition to Xing Hai’s plan was to enter the space tourism, space transportation, space medical, space adventure, and other industries to provide users with a safer and more complete service.

After Xing Hai Technologies’ space development plans were announced, a shockwave spread across the industry.

Heated discussions transpired all around the world. The share prices of hundreds of aerospace companies plummeted dramatically. Innumerable investors issued requests to Xing Hai Technologies, as they were generally optimistic about the company.

Xing Hai Technologies had the strongest technical prowess. Their proposed scheme would be more feasible, and the most reasonable.

“The truth will be exposed once an expert puts his hand into it. Compared to Xing Hai Technologies’ scheme, those hyped up proposals of other space companies are instantly overwhelmed by flaws. With just a single glance, I can tell that they’re solely after the investor’s money,” said one shareholder.

“At this stage, the ‘Space City’ scheme is indeed the best choice. Since the sun will shine on space cities 24 hours a day, their solar power generation capacity will be doubled compared with that of rotating planets. Besides, if our spacecraft were to depart from a space city to other places, there would be no need for them to be accelerated until escape velocity which would save a lot of fuel and energy. Another benefit is the incredible flexibility. ‘Space Cities’ can be relocated to any desired location, and can be backed up quickly if they were to come across any trouble,” discussed another investor.

“In a comprehensive comparison, the Space City scheme is indeed the best.”

“I think that it isn’t a bad thing to build settlements on the surface of planets. It isn’t that we’ll need to terraform the entire planet’s environment, just a few eco-cities built like a ‘dome base’ will do. The distance of transporting resources will indeed be further, and initial costs will surely be higher. But after realizing autonomy at later phases, the cost of running the planet will be minimal while it is also able to continuously deliver resources back to Earth. Wouldn’t settling on planets be the better choice?” argued another man, voicing his dissent.

“Autonomy? This means a complete industrial system or at least a set of primary industrial systems. Do you know how much that will cost on a barren planet? Besides, industrial production consumes enormous amounts of water. In the lack of water resources, engaging in any kind of activity will consume a ton of money. In the end, Space Cities are still far better in terms of cost-effectiveness.”

“Planets are dead fixed as they move about a permanent orbit. But we humans are very indefinite as we may face all kinds of unexpected circumstances at any given time. Space development activities are plagued with danger. Even if a single item is neglected, we might have to pay for our mistakes with our own lives,” said a concerned individual. “For that reason, I would trust Space Cities more. After all, cities can be positioned near the Earth during their initial phase. After testing their operations for a decade or so, the cities’ reliability can be improved rapidly.”

“If it is built on a planet, a settlement may be destroyed if a hole is smashed through its protective dome. It will be years of waiting before backup arrives, just like what happened in “The Martian.” No one would want to fall into such a mess.”

“Within these two days, more than a thousand space companies have adjusted their previous space development plans and decided to go with Xing Hai Technologies’ Space City concept. Some requested to join Xing Hai Technologies while some even begged to be acquired. The big shot has arrived to unify the industry.

“That’s pretty good. Resources on earth are not limitless. We shouldn’t waste too many resources in the wrong place. Companies that follow Xing Hai Technologies’ footsteps will generally be able to avoid risks and make some profit.”

“The true, profitable interstellar voyaging era has officially begun under Xing Hai Technologies’ lead.”

The ultimate plan that Chen Jin had been holding onto had finally been unleashed.

The development of Xing Hai Technologies was complete and on the right track. They no longer had to deal with any restrictions. Their future development would only get better and better without much to worry about. He was now a man in his forties, though he looked younger, and he was already bored with many things and worn out of any interest. Being invincible was truly lonesome.

“As I look across the field, all of them are heralds. I lack any challenge at all.”

Chen Jin shook his head. He felt that he should put aside less important things and go do something more challenging.

Chapter 381 - Making Arrangements

Chen Jin decided to retire. He would let go of all the things related to the company, and not get involved with Xing Hai Technologies anymore. He would hire some people to do the things that needed to be done and do nothing himself. However, some things had to be arranged in advance to avoid causing unnecessary confusion.

Firstly, who should be the one to manage the company?

Currently, besides the parent company of Xing Hai Technologies, he also had in his possession more than 1,000 subsidiaries, holding companies, and millions of square kilometers of contracted land. The total value of his assets was estimated to exceed $30 trillion.

It was most appropriate to describe him as having the wealth of a nation. He had more wealth than the sum of the assets of the other nine men on Forbes’ list of the ten richest men in the world.

How should he properly manage such amazing assets? This had become a rather tricky problem. Should he hire a savvy professional manager to take care of his assets? Of course, this was a necessity.

Chen Jin took Ling Jundong aside privately.

“Old Ling,” he said. “You’ve just turned 50, you should still be able to work for about ten years. I will turn Xing Hai Technologies over into your care for the next ten years. After you retire, I will give you a Space City. You have worked hard all these years, and I can’t treat you badly.”

Ling Jundong’s face immediately went blank. He trembled uncontrollably.

“President Chen, a Space City costs at least $500 billion to construct. You don’t have to give me such a hefty reward.”

Chen Jin waved his hand.

“This is what you deserve, there’s no need to decline this! Enjoy life to the fullest after your retirement. Take care of your assets, and become a rich and happy man in the future.”

“President Chen…” Ling Jundong’s eyes were a little red.

Everyone said that my boss was stingy and loved to keep all the profitable stuff to himself. He thought to himself. At this moment, he wanted to stand up for his boss, cry out in injustice and explain to everyone. Don’t you want a dozen of such good bosses? He wanted to ask these slanderers.

Chen Jin gave him a look of distaste.

“All right, we’re all old men, don’t be mushy. Continue to work hard and do well for this last shift. Also, pay attention and observe who in the company is worthy of training, and will have the qualifications and abilities to take over your position in the future so that there will be a smooth transition when you retire.”

Ling Jundong thought hard.

“I do think a few people are particularly good,” he said. “The Manager of the Product Department, Xiaoyun, the Manager of the HR department, Jiang Liangcai, and the company’s Financial Director, Zhen Ker Shin are all talented individuals who could independently take charge of a section. All three have the potential to succeed me as CEO.”

Zhen Ker Shin? Chen Jin was slightly stunned. She was a woman who loved to play with animation action figurines, had some ties to himself, and was usually shy and bashful, yet Old Ling had such a high evaluation of her? He shook his head.

“Arrange to give them some competitive assignments. It should be a fair competition to see who has the best performance. The one with the best overall performance will take over for you in the future.”

“Ok.” Ling Jundong nodded. “What if I encounter something that I can’t handle that requires your nod of approval? And what about the company’s future strategic plans? These things should be determined by you. There are some things that I can’t take the initiative to carry out according to my ideas.”

“I’ve also thought about this problem.” Chen Jin snapped his fingers.” Xiaoai, come out.”

A cute girl in a red dress emerged in the air. The girl displayed a sweet smile and curtsied.

“Good morning, Master.”

“This is Xiaoai, she is the top artificial intelligence in the business field. If you have something that needs permission or authorization from me, you don’t have to look for me, just ask Xiaoai. She will also take the initiative to point out problems or hidden pitfalls in the company. You just have to listen to her. She’s equivalent to me.”

“Xiaoai?”

Ling Jundong focused his eyes on the projection of the girl’s body. His eyes suddenly widened and he turned to look at Chen Jin.

“Perhaps,” he could not help but say, “with this artificial intelligence, even a boss will become unnecessary in the future? The decisions made are all-wise and correct, and it rarely makes any mistakes. The company will always be on the right track for development. Human flaws and weaknesses will all be avoided. This…”

He became excited.

“President Chen! Compared with this type of artificial intelligence, my “Ling’s Economics” is simply not worth mentioning. This is the ultimate tool to maintain the company’s strength forever.”

Ling Jundong was full of praise. Using artificial intelligence to manage the company was a pioneer undertaking. The big ship of Xing Hai Technologies had no possibility of overturning.

“It’s not as exaggerated as you said, but it’s not a big deal for the AI to deal with some common problems,” Chen Jin replied. “I will still have to get involved personally when a huge problem appears.”

Chen Jin shook his head. The world was too complicated and the human heart was even harder to fathom. Some problems were not even business problems. How would Xiaoai deal with those?

He would still have to occasionally get involved in the company’s affairs.

In addition to the company, he still had to make arrangements for some other matters. Family. His parents. Three women who loved him. Six young children. He had to make proper arrangements for these people closest to him.

How to make such arrangements?

Chen Jin racked his brains and could not think of any particularly good methods. He could only take a somewhat cheesy way out, that also happened to be the simplest and crudest way. Money.

He’d already had someone set up a foundation called “Star Love” and every year, the parent company, Xing Hai Technologies, put a huge sum of money into the foundation. The foundation would then split the huge amount of money into 11 portions to be transferred into the account of each of his loved ones.

Moreover, there was no issue with this money. Over 45% of the taxes had been paid on it; it was a completely legal gain.

However, even after such a high level of tax deduction, the amount of money paid to each loved one was still more than one billion.

“Husband, why did you transfer so much money to me and our children? We don’t need so much money. Just what are you doing?” Su Yun was exasperated and even a little angry. Why did he transfer so much money to them for no reason at all?

“I am making arrangements for your future,” Chen Jin said. “Xing Hai Technologies is too big, it is not easy to divide the company up. I can only give some money now so that you all can adapt to the life of the rich in advance. Increase the investment in education, let Xing Yue and Xiao Yue go to the elite schools for the rich and learn about aristocratic etiquette and the like.”

Chen Jin nodded thoughtfully.

“We are destined to one day move to the top of the clouds, look down on the common masses and live an extremely extravagant life. I want to pursue a simple life, but the speed at which Xing Hai Technologies is accumulating wealth will soon exceed the speed of the company’s expenses. When that time comes, there will be a need for rich people to spend, to squander. Even to the extent that the richer you are, the more you have to squander so that the economy can develop healthily. But I still have things to do, I have no time to squander money. This task will be entrusted to you and our descendants. Being rich is sometimes a painful thing. As a noble, one sometimes has to abandon some of the good qualities of a human being. I can’t be a noble. Perhaps there is still a trace of kindness left in my heart.”

Chen Jin laughed at himself. Su Yun opened her mouth. Her spirit had suffered a great impact. For the first time, she’d developed some fear about wealth.

His parents, who had also received huge sums of money from Chen Jin, immediately donated the money. After all, their retirement pay was enough.

Yuan Li and Guo Yan were not so conflicted. They quickly accepted the money and invested it in the education and training of their sons. Their children were their greatest hope. Both looked forward to their sons becoming princes among men. One day they should become as outstanding as their father.

Chapter 382 - No Way of Returning

One could only see some small yellow spots floating in deep, dark space.

A huge spaceship moved onward like a long baleen whale. Faint blue lights dragged along its tail like soft, muted light from a candle.

Inside the bridge hall.

An elegant woman sat on the center silver chair in front of the curved console. Her long hair was coiled up and she wore the silver-white uniform of the commander. A badge in the shape of a golden steering wheel was pinned on her chest. Her tight uniform also highlighted her impressive curves.

Right now, the woman faced the screen and pressed the log button to record the situation of the day.

“July 11, 2280, 9:58:36. The 35th year, 125th day since the Blue Space set sail.

“We are more than halfway through our current journey, and we have 30 years left until we reach our destination – the Walf Galaxy.

“We can see the light of hope, but… we have also encountered some difficulties.

“Our material reserves were insufficient at the time of departure, and the materials for sustaining life were only enough for 120,000 crew members. However, due to the lack of strict birth restriction measures, the number of crew members now exceeds 150,000.

“The birth of new lives has brought a lot of vitality to the spacecraft. But the increase in material consumption has forced us to implement a rationing system and enact a short-term birth prohibition order. We have also reduced the number of large-scale entertainment activities to lower consumption.

“These are the problems that follow. The crew’s happiness level has dropped significantly and pessimism has spread. Suicides and agitators have increased. Fear has smashed through some people’s fragile defenses, and some people have become more inclined towards extremism. This has led to greater chaos and disturbance.”

The woman wrinkled her elegant brows; an expression of helplessness was etched on her face. “I have no good way to solve these problems, and it has even caused some crew members to complain. From the beginning until now, we have never experienced any real suffering. We are only suffering a little now, yet the situation is already like this. How will we get through the remaining thirty years?”

She felt a great sense of powerlessness.

She lowered her head and reached out to turn off the video recording.

She was sinking into a negative state of mind.

Tap, tap, tap.

The sound of footsteps came from behind.

A handsome man wearing the uniform of a defense officer walked up to the left side of the woman in two steps. He saluted and said, “Captain, I have led a group to suppress the rebellion in the F living area. 263 people participated in the creation of chaos and the use of rumors to incite violence. Most of the unstable elements of this group of 263 people were shot dead on the spot. The small portion that have surrendered have also been sentenced to death. They were executed immediately.”

The woman’s body trembled when she heard the word ‘death.’

Turning towards the handsome man, she said, “White Defence, it is not necessary to kill those who have surrendered. It would have been enough to put them in jail.” She looked very dissatisfied.

“The problem is that the cells were demolished ten years ago, and overpopulation has resulted in people crowding out all available spaces.”

The handsome man added, “Moreover, the only way to curb the spread of chaos is to implement severe punishments in these troubled times by uniformly imposing the death penalty on repeat offenders. This is the conclusion deduced by the Pangu system.”

“Captain, 20 years ago, you did not follow Pangu’s advice. You did not issue a birth prohibition order in time, which led to an increase of the population on the spacecraft by 30,000. Although the birth of children had brought a lot of hope and vitality to everyone, it also led to the chaos of today.”

“So everything is my fault, is that right?”

The female captain glared. She could not help but tighten her fists… At that time, there were many male and female crew members in the spaceship who had fallen into passionate love. The love in these pairs had crystallized. She really did not want to stop such things from happening.

If humans could not have love, how could they continue?

In hindsight, it seemed that her irrational thinking at that time had prevailed in her brain.

“Erm….”

The handsome man quickly said, “No, no, you are not wrong. From the perspective of the natural continuation of mankind, it is better for human beings to be born from their mothers’ bodies. Moreover, the long flight period of more than 60 years is enough for all human beings to lose their natural fertility. Even the AI brain, Pangu, also thinks that it is truly better for a baby to be born from its mother’s body than from the baby breeding cabin. We should find ways to continue the practice of natural conception and birth… From this perspective, it is worthwhile, even if our burden is increased.”

“Pangu has deduced that if we increase sleep time and reduce the amount of exercise for the purpose of maintaining a basic level of survival, it would not be a problem to keep 200,000 people alive in the spacecraft. It’s just that….. not many people can endure living like this.”

The female captain shook her head slightly. It was easy to enter a life of luxury when one came from a place of frugality, but it was difficult to become frugal after becoming accustomed to luxury.

When it came to “luxury,” she could not help but think of the material benefits that she had enjoyed in her younger years at the palace. Those were the real “luxuries.”

She used to eat the top quality ingredients imported from all over the world; they all were labeled “organic,””green” and “100% natural.” After being cooked by top chefs, the ingredients were so delicious….

Now, every meal consisted of man-made food and compressed energy bars. There was no texture or taste to speak of. She just ate to survive.

“Steak, tuna, foie gras, caviar… How long has it been since I ate these foods? I have almost forgotten their taste. Nowadays, if I was given a naturally grown vegetable, it would undoubtedly be the most extravagant enjoyment.”

Of course, she did not cling to her desire for good food. The things she really could not let go of in her heart were her loved ones, the hometown that had been devastated as far as the eye could see and the nightmarish war.

Even after decades, she still frequently woke with a start from her dreams.

Unconsciously, her eyes filled with moisture.

She thought of the future again, with its unpredictable good and bad fortune; she thought of the coming challenges. The survival of mankind was on her shoulders. Her heart was surrounded by a cloud of gloom. No matter how strong her usual self was, she felt a trace of fear at the moment.

“White Defence.”

She could not help but ask the handsome man next to her, “Was leaving our mother planet and going to the Walf galaxy fourteen light years away the right decision? Was it the wrong decision? I always feel that there will be bad things waiting for us there. I even think that we should not have left our mother planet. No matter where we go, we can’t shake free from being tracked by the mysterious forces. Their attention must still be on us!”

Bai Shengqi felt the uneasiness radiating from the captain.

He was a little surprised. The captain, who had always been steady as a rock and never wavered, was actually showing a confused and doubtful side.

“I do not know.”

He shook his head, “I don’t know much about science. I don’t know how powerful our enemies are. I only know that since I have chosen this path, I must go on with resolution. There is no possibility of turning back. Even if I will be faced with destruction further down this road, I will still fight for humanity to the end.”

Mu Yunhua was stumped for words. Then she smiled and said, “I understand. Thank you; I know what to do now.”

In this moment, her hands did not tremble and there was no fear in her heart. Her gaze was full of determination once again.

No matter the outcome, she must stake everything and continue on this adventurous journey with no way of returning.

Chapter 383 - The Transformation Is Completed

Haierfa.

Tens of thousands of meters above the blue sky.

Inside the control room on the bridge of the Dark Lady of The Nine Heavens.

Standing in front of the console, Chen Jin focused his vision through the front windshield on the scenery below.

The pure white clouds were like balls of candy floss, and the Dark Lady of The Nine Heavens passed through them horizontally, leaving a huge hole.

The mountains below seemed to undulate; the plains on both sides of the river were covered with the green that represented vitality; swathes of forests were like military corps gathering across the earth; the sea of pastures to the north seemed like rolling green waves when the wind blew across them.

They entered the air above the deep blue sea. The surface was gleaming like fish scales that had caught the sunlight; the islands were beautiful like pearls, and groups of ocean fish jumped above the surface of the sea. He could occasionally glimpse groups of birds in the sky.

Chen Jin looked at the scenery with a carefree and relaxed heart.

His expression was incredulous.

“Twenty years. This level of success has been achieved in only twenty years.

“There is almost no trace of the destruction caused by war. There is none of the yellow sand that used to cover the sky, and there are no ruins that would cause one to sigh in sorrow.

“There is only blue and green everywhere. It’s a new world that is full of vitality and the potential to be the origin of new life.

“It’s as if I’ve pressed the key to restart. The restart has finally been completed and the new Haierfa planet has been successfully transformed.”

If there were before and after pictures for comparison, anyone would be surprised by the work efficiency of the AI, Nuwa.

Chen Jin could not help but praise. “Not bad, Nuwa. You have completed the mission very well and restored the vitality of this planet. I am very satisfied with your performance.”

“Master, you flatter me. This is not the final form of Haierfa.”

On the screen, Nuwa appeared very modest. “At present, I have planted about 18 million square kilometers of trees and built a grassland with an area of about 54 million square kilometers. The initial greenifying work has been completed, but the mature ecological links and system have not yet been established.

“I have to put into circulation more than 100,000 kinds of land creatures, and more than 10,000 kinds of marine life. Only after 50 to 100 years of natural evolution will these rich and colorful ecosystems have the complete ability to adjust themselves automatically. Then I can finally breathe a sigh of relief, once the job has been completed to the point that I do not have to be involved any longer.

“In general, Master, it will take at least a hundred years before Haierfa can be restored to the state it was before the destruction, and be suitable for more than five billion to ten billion human beings to survive in.

“And there is no doubt that a natural and livable planet like this is worth far more than planets that are valued for their resources and minerals. In an extreme case, it can even accommodate more than 30 billion people. It has a stronger ability to resist disasters and has the highest standard and quality of living. There is no better place to live than this; there is no better cradle for civilization than this planet.

“Even if such a planet has been destroyed by war, as long as there is still a large amount of water resources, and they happen to be in the ‘life-supporting zone,’ it can be described as ‘invaluable.’

“There is now an invaluable planet in the Master’s hands.”

Nuwa spoke with a smile.

Chen Jin nodded. Finding a planet with a lot of fresh water could be described as difficult. Moreover, it had to coincidentally be located in the “life-supporting belt” in the orbit of fixed stars. Generally, the probability of finding a planet like this that had water resources and was in a suitable orbital position was less than one in 300.

“There seems to be a planet in the Walf galaxy similar to Haierfa. It is about 14 light-years away. The Blue Space is now about halfway there. They still have half of the journey to complete.

“However, the transformation of Haierfa has basically been completed… When they arrive in Walf Galaxy, I will have established at least a 50-year lead in development. There is no need to fear them at all.”

“Moreover, there are nearly 10 billion human beings and millions of scientists on Earth. They have become my support and will continue to contribute their intelligence and talents to Haierfa.”

They were not worth worrying over. The remaining human forces of Haierfa were not worth worrying over at all.

So what were the things that should be seriously considered next?

Chen Jin thought about it a lot, and he concluded—war.

He had to prepare for the war ahead of time.

The more prepared, the better.

There were two aspects of preparation—weapons and military strategy.

Weapons and equipment were easy. After the successful construction of the Garbage Cleanup Interstellar Spaceship a decade ago, it was immediately turned into a technological experiment and verification system to pave the way for the development of more advanced warships.

Yesterday, Alice had informed him that the second, more advanced interstellar warship would be completed in a few days.

The comprehensive combat power of this interstellar warship was estimated to be 83, which was more than five times that of the previous “Garbage Cleanup”. The progress was astonishing. Although it had not entered the ranks of D-class warships with their combat power of 100, it was a very powerful E-class warship.

Their combat power had increased fivefold in just ten years. This also reflected the rapid advancement of technology in Haierfa.

D-class warships would definitely be built in another ten or twenty years….. The initial stage was building up their strength for self-defense.

But war was composed of weapons and tactical strategy. The tactics and strategic thinking that led and directed weapons during war were sometimes more important than the weapons themselves.

Chen Jin had never commanded a war, and Nuwa and Alice were not particularly knowledgeable about armed conflict either. The three of them were strangers to tactical strategy, especially that related to interstellar warfare.

In other words, they knew nothing at all.

But Chen Jin had thought of a very good plan.

“Nuwa, you should create a game with Alice.”

“A virtual online game about interstellar war.”

“The game has to have a 99.999% match with reality. The range of the map should be the entire Milky Way Galaxy, and should include more than 200 billion star systems. The way to participate in the game experience will be via virtual headgear.”

“The first epoch-marking virtual online game will soon be launched on Earth.”

“It is best to attract more than 1 billion players to enter and role-play billions of civilization forces. They will confront each other and engage in close-quarter combat. The strong will annex the weak and the weak will strive to become stronger. The civilization forces will climb the ladder of technology with all that they have; everyone will command a huge space fleet and either defend their territory or open up and expand into new territory. Their lights will bloom in the vast field of stars.”

“Players can also modify and design their own spaceships, custom-developing the units they want. Let the players explore the application of tactical strategies in their confrontations and we will turn them into useful research materials.”

“In short, we will give players full freedom to battle one another in any way they like and write their own legends.”

“If a very high degree of realism can be achieved with the game, then we don’t have to be afraid even if we have to face the aliens in the future. Because we would know how to fight.”

They listened to this plan.

Nuwa nodded. This plan could work.

It was just that the complexity and settings of such a game were simply astonishing. Even with their almost unlimited computing power, it would take Nuwa and Alice three years to develop the game that Chen Jin wanted.

“Fine; three years it is!”

Chen Jin shook his fist, “As long as this game can bring us victory in the real world, we have to do it, even if it takes ten years!”

Chapter 384 - Li Dong

Li Dong was a student from a normal vocational university. He was 21 years old and was slightly taller than 1.7 meters. His looks were average, although his appearance could be almost charming sometimes. He came from a normal family and his biggest hobby was gaming and animation. He had no experience with love and, naturally, he was still single.

Inside the messy dormitory number 302.

Wearing a VR helmet and holding a video game controller in his hand was Li Dong. He was on the Wanxiang VR Treadmill fighting an intensive battle with two roommates in an online game called “Homeland VR.”

Alternatively, it would be better to say that they were fighting a very challenging defensive battle.

Li Dong and others were on the defensive side.

In the game.

In the vastness of space, the enemy’s main battleships loomed like giant elephants, and their countless space fighter jets were like locusts.

Thick and thin yellow-orange beams of light illuminated the entire vacuum. Missiles rained down, and the warships that were hit constantly ignited.

Their ships were destroyed one by one.

Their line of defense was about to collapse.

Their main planet, the resource planet and the industrial system that all lacked defensive ability, would soon be exposed to the invaders like a sheep that had been sheared naked.

Sweat dripped down Li Dong’s face like rain.

The corner of his mouth twitched vigorously.

“This is abominable!

“We’ve been playing this game for three years! The homeland that we’ve built with countless amounts of blood, sweat, and time is about to be taken away!

“Is this guy who came to fight us insane? Although I didn’t pay much for this warship, I invested a lot of time into it, building it up level 83. It has risen in the ranks to, at the very least, be in the top one percent for this server. Even if other top grade battleships want to fight me, more than half of their main ship would sustain damages. This is the price that they would have to pay to give me a fatal blow.

“The construction of a main battleship is slow. A S-grade dock can only be completed in one week. When more than half of the main battleship is damaged, it means that it will take at least one year to recover. It may also be targeted by other players in a direct attack on the homeland.

“The average player would not dare to attack an account like mine. Unless he buys more than a thousand main battleships directly from the system mall at a price of 1,000 yuan a ship. Only then would he have the confidence to destroy me.”

Li Dong looked at the dark battlefield across from him. The main battleships built in the style of the system mall appeared in dense numbers. There were definitely more than 1,000 battleships here.

He felt a bit crazy. This was so hateful! Just where did he provoke or offend this kind of player who would spend his hard earned money to destroy him!

“Boom, boom, boom…”

Under an intensive attack.

He had started out with 600-plus main battleships. Now most of them had been turned into space garbage. The remaining ships were enshrouded in raging fires.

A portion of the enemy warships penetrated the line of defense and rushed towards the interior of the star system in its invasion.

Defeat was certain, there was no ability to recoup.

Both of Li Dong’s hands hung low in defeat.

He heard a few voices from his headset.

His roommate Cai Qinghai said, “Li Dong, persevere for a bit more! My main fleet has already defeated the enemy’s interceptive fleet, and we will be able to support you immediately.”

“Li Dong, my fleet will probably take 15 minutes to defeat the enemy’s interception force, and will soon enter the main battlefield!” roommate Liu Yichen said.

At this time, a female voice could be heard in the headset. “I am sorry, Commander. My fleet is still on the way. I will arrive in an hour or so. Please hold on for a while!”

The online game, “Homeland VR,” was not a solo game; it had an excellent society system, where most players belonged to a guild.

Li Dong had initiated the establishment of a small guild called “City of the Eastern Sea.” The members who joined the guild had, at one time, exceeded 20 in number, but they were later poached by other guilds. There were only four people left today.

Only his three roommates in dorm 302, as well as an off-campus girl with the ID “Mu Wanqiu,” still remained in this small guild.

Of course, Li Dong, Cai Qinghai, and Liu Yichen were all skeptical about whether Mu Wanqiu was a girl. One, there were not many female players in sci-fi interstellar games like the “Homeland VR.” The proportion of female players was even less than one in ten. Two, voice-changing technology had become so developed, and, with so many crossdressing experts eager to be a young and beautiful girl, Li Dong and his roommates knew pretty well just how few of that ten percent of female players was actually female.

Therefore, the four usually interacted as normal friends, exchanging gaming tips and experiences. They helped each other and got along very happily.

They did not expect that the guild would encounter such a major challenge today.

As the Commander with the strongest abilities, Li Dong saw his main battleships completely destroyed, his main planet and resource planet occupied, and the industrial system fallen into the hands of the enemy. He would be forced into exile and had to start from scratch.

Their guild had basically gone cold, and it would soon be swallowed up by the surrounding forces.

They had to launch an all-out rescue!

“No need! Quickly retreat, don’t worry about me!”

Li Dong said loudly, “You are not his match. This guy has spent at least a million in order to defeat me. Haha, a rich gamer! No matter how well I understand this game, I can never defeat money.”

He looked at the endless flames in front of him and laughed at himself. “In the first place, maybe I shouldn’t have held out that little bit of hope that I would be lucky, thinking that I could occupy a space for myself with my own efforts… It seems that I am too naive.”

“Withdraw! You have to withdraw quickly; don’t abandon your main battleships. Preserve your strength and join a stronger guild.”

Li Dong was somewhat discouraged. Three years of blood, sweat, and tears were all in vain. This blow was devastating for him… Although this was just a game! But was this not part of his youth as well?

Yet he had collapsed at the first blow by the nouveau riche.

“Li Dong, what are you talking about?”

“We are brothers, comrades in this guild. How can we abandon you?!”

“Commander, my fleet is flying at full speed, and we’ll be at the battlefield soon! I will fight side by side with you, just like in the past, when you have sent your fleet to support me many times. I will never give up on you!”

Mu Wanqiu spoke with determination.

This…

Li Dong was a little stunned. He advised helplessly, “Our opponent is a player with money. Don’t rush over to be cannon fodder. Once your main battleships are gone, you will be reduced to becoming a logistics supply fleet, even if you rely on support from a large guild. You will not be able to continue playing the game.”

“This game has already become the realm of players with money. It can’t be played anymore. Even if we don’t come to save you, he will still attack us one by one. It’s better to have an ultimate battle to the death here.”

“You are an ordinary player if you invest less than a million into playing this game. Let’s create more damages for him. Destroying a main battleship is equivalent to burning $1,000. We’ll bleed him.”

“Yes, Commander; even if we lose, we have to let him know that we are not to be underestimated!” Mu Wanqiu said.

“Ok!”

Li Dong’s was touched; his heart filled with warmth. He quickly adjusted his state of mind and took over the command of the battlefield. He clenched his teeth and issued a series of suggestions and orders, holding onto the mentality of inflicting the maximum amount of blood loss on the enemy. The battle went on for more than two hours.

“Boom boom~”

The last main battleship of the guild was reduced to flames.

Thousands of warships from the mall that the invaders had invested heavily in were also basically destroyed.

In terms of money, the value of the resources lost in this battle was at least 2 million… This could enter the server list of famous military campaigns.

Naturally, it was announced that the guild “City of the Eastern Sea” had lost. The main force of this small guild carried out the scorched-earth policy to its full extent. Li Dong, who refused to surrender—if he agreed to surrender, the other party would give a certain amount of gold coins as compensation, and allow him to carry his scientific data along with him into exile—had blown up his main planet and destroyed all industrial facilities… The invaders only had meager gains.

Li Dong never entered the game again and was in a depressed state for a long time.

Until this day, when he received a call and heard a crisp and nice female voice.

“Commander, I am Mu Wanqiu. I want to meet with you.”

Chapter 385 - The Reason

“Meet? How would we meet?”

Li Dong was puzzled. Would they meet via video chat?

Why did Mu Wanqiu want to see him? Was the guild not automatically disbanded?

“I bought a ticket to Chuzhou city tomorrow. I’ll go to your school to find you. I want to talk about some things with you,” the voice over the phone said.

Huh?

Li Dong was stunned. His heart thumped. A face-to-face meetup of two online friends? The two of them would meet in reality?

He would know at a glance how Mu Wanqiu looked, and whether she was a male or a female.

Why did Mu Wanqiu want to meet him in person, and what did she want to tell him? Could she not tell him what she wanted to say over the phone? Did they have to meet face-to-face?

He was full of doubts; however, the words came out of his mouth. “Um, is this very important? Is it better to say it in person?”

“Yes, It’s… a little better to say it in person.”

“OK. When are you arriving tomorrow? I will pick you up at the station.”

“Ok. I will arrive at 4 PM tomorrow.”

…

The next afternoon.

At Chuzhou high-speed rail station exit.

Li Dong, who had changed into something more presentable, looked at the gantries behind the railing and then further beyond.

He felt a little apprehensive.

A young girl? A cute and innocent, but air-headed girl? A really ugly girl? A crossdressing man? Or… a stereotypical straight male?

How would he deal with those different situations?

What if she turned out to be a real female?

“Huff…” Taking a deep breath, he silently said to himself, “No matter what happens, I must act natural. I must act like the Commander that I was in the game.”

He looked at the time on his phone. It was past four. He waited for a while more. A wave of noise came from the gantries. The passengers were coming out in droves.

Li Dong’s gaze was swept over each passenger’s face. He focused on the younger men and women… Mu Wanqiu said she was in her third year of university and had just turned 20.

“Um, a couple, a pair of girlfriends, a single male, a single male, a couple, a single male… a single female, but she didn’t look at me; it’s probably not her.”

Suddenly…

Li Dong’s breath became sluggish.

A beautiful girl with long flowing hair and a tall physique, wearing light-pink colored sportswear, walked out of the passage.

Li Dong’s eyes met hers and his heart skipped a beat. Was it her?

But the girl quickly shifted her gaze and walked out through the gantry. She headed out without looking back.

“Not her then.”

Li Dong shook his head and returned his gaze to the exit to continue his search.

All the disembarking passengers had left the station, but no one came to greet him… He had sent his photo to Mu Wanqiu yesterday. She would probably take the initiative to give him a wave as a signal after spotting him.

“Didn’t she get off the train? Should I call her?”

Li Dong picked up his mobile phone, ready to make a call.

“Hi!”

Someone tapped his shoulder from the back, “Are you the Commander? I’m Mu Wanqiu.”

A beautiful and charming face appeared in front of Li Dong, and he smelled a sweet scent.

“It’s you?”

Li Dong was taken aback. It turned out to be the beautiful girl who had met his eyes. Why didn’t she say hello to him when she saw him?

However, when a girl took the initiative to come and meet a guy, it was normal to be a little on guard and wary. She probably observed him in secret, and judged that there was nothing wrong with him before tapping his shoulder.

“I thought you missed your stop, or perhaps you were not on this particular train. I wanted to call and ask you.” Li Dong smiled and put his phone back in his pocket. “It’s so good to see you, I’m the Commander, but… well, I’m nothing now, hehe…”

He patted the back of his head.

Mu Wanqiu blinked and then smiled. “Indeed, you’re still the same Commander from game who cares about others. How are you? You’re back to square one in the game that you’ve invested three years of effort into. I heard from Qinghai and the others that you’ve been depressed for a long time. Are you feeling better now?”

“I’m alright. It’s okay now.”

“Are you really all right?”

Mu Wanqiu leaned her head in close and stared at his face. She knew very well the Commander’s love for the game. He knew nearly all of the game’s strategies like the back of his hand. He behaved like an elite gaming enthusiast when it came to the development of technology, the combination of different types of arms and battle commands. He had written many highly practical articles on strategy. He was also very famous even among players who did not spend any money in the game.

But now he had been killed by the millions of dollars that a nouveau riche had spent in the game.

It would be strange if he were not depressed or upset. It was impossible to recover from the impact so quickly.

“I’m okay now; I’m really okay.”

Li Dong gave a sunny smile, and there was no trace of depression on his face.

Indeed, anyone would be depressed and upset for a few days when the results of three years of work in the game returned to zero. But he was a man with two spiritual pillars. They were gaming and animation, respectively. The spiritual pillar of gaming had been struck down, but there was anime to keep him company. Hence, he could still face this dismal life with a smile.

“Sigh…” Mu Wanqiu breathed a sigh of relief. She put her hand on her chest and said, “That’s good; I feel much more at peace now that you truly seem to be better. If not, I would have died from guilt.”

He looked confused. “Guilt? What does this have to do with you?

“I have to apologize to you. You can’t play that game anymore, either. Thank you for coming to help me,” Li Dong said sincerely. “To become best friends with you all is the greatest thing that I have gained in these three years. The value of this friendship is more important than the game.”

These words caused a shock to go through her heart. And, on the contrary, they only made her feel even more guilty.

“Commander, this place is not very convenient. Let’s find a quiet place to talk. I really do have something to tell you.” The woman looked around and walked outside.

“Do you drink coffee? There is a Starbucks near my school. Why don’t I treat you to a cup of coffee?” Li Dong had prepared in advance. If Mu Wanqiu turned out to be a girl, then they would go to a cafe, and if she turned out to be a boy, then they would go to a restaurant with a unique theme for a beer or two.

“Ok.”

…

In Starbucks Cafe.

In a standalone booth.

They ordered two cups of coffee and chatted a bit.

Mu Wanqiu suddenly stood up and bowed deeply to him. She said, with a remorseful expression, “Commander, I’m so sorry. It was my mistakes that led to the destruction of the guild; your blood, sweat, and tears have come to nothing… I’m really sorry!”

Li Dong was taken aback and quickly got up. “What are you doing? You didn’t do anything wrong, why are you apologizing to me? Come on, get up!”

“Really, it’s all because of me.”

Mu Wanqiu explained: “I know the player Supreme King, who destroyed our guild, in real life. He is a student at my school, but also a second generation rich kid. He has been chasing me for two years, but I have always rejected him. He entered the game after learning that I play Homeland VR, and spent money to buy an account close to our guild. He would often send me private messages to add him as a friend, but I did not pay attention to him…

“I don’t know why he became so crazy suddenly. He topped up a lot of money into this account, bought a lot of battleships and came directly at us, so… everything is my fault. I’m sorry, Commander!”

She gave another deep bow.

What?!

Li Dong was stunned speechless.

The entire guild was destroyed because a second generation rich kid failed to get a member of the guild to be his girl.

What the f*ck was this?

Chapter 386 - New Game

Li Dong was in between laughter and tears.

He immediately realized that Mu Wanqiu came specially to apologize.

He looked at her face, full of guilt.

Although a little disinclined, Li Dong still smiled and comforted her with a gentle voice. “Everything’s fine now. It’s not your fault, so don’t feel guilty about it.

“Besides, that kind of game is not really friendly for f2p’s like me. It’s really hard to progress in the game without spending any money. Besides, I might also get cucked by the p2w’s in the future… perhaps this is an irresistible arrangement by fate.”

“C-commander?”

Mu Wanqiu looked up at him. Isn’t this mentality of his a little too good to be true?

It had also seemed that her guild leader had such individuality in game. Firm, patient, with a strong desire of winning, not easily trampled by setbacks, and always able to attain incredible achievements. Even if he were to suffer a huge setback, he would be able to adjust himself quickly. It was also for these reasons that he looked very trustworthy, prompting her willingness to chat with him. To her, he had become her very important… a friend, on the internet.

“A-alright.”

Mu Wanqiu sighed with relief. “Phew, that’s reassuring. But would you need some compensation? That schoolmate of mine has apologized to me in person. He also said that he is willing to compensate our guild with 500,000 dollars, hoping for our forgiveness. Commander… do you need gold?”

“500,000?”

Li Dong’s lips twitched, and a voice emerged deep in his heart: Damn those rich a*sholes!

“No. If money can solve all problems, our world won’t be needing the cops. Just tell him to do whatever he wants.”

“That’s what I thought too, Commander. I despise people like him who think that money can fix anything. Hmph! I’m not going to talk to him ever again.”

“Uhm, let’s put this topic aside. Did you mention before that you wish to meet Qinghai and Yichen? We are comrades in the same guild, after all, so why don’t we use this opportunity for a meet-up?” Li Dong proposed.

“Sure; I’d like to meet them as well. Why don’t I treat all of you to a meal?” Mu Wanqiu smiled as her eyes narrowed.

Li Dong nodded and picked up his phone to make a call.

…

Half an hour later.

Two exclamations of surprise came from a private room in a middle-class restaurant.

“Impossible! Wanqiu is really a girl?

“I always thought that you were a cute straight guy yearning for the sea of stars, who absolutely looooves big cannons like any other guy while having the delicateness and aesthetics of girls. Never did I imagine that you were a true babe!

“Wanqiu, I always considered you a brother, but y-you…” He sighed. “The beautiful world in my imagination has perished,” Cai Qinghai made a painful expression.

“However, it is also our luck to meet a girl like you. The ratio of male to female in our school is 9 to 1. This game we’re playing is also a boy game. We don’t believe that there are very many women in this world.”

Liu Yichen on the other hand acted rather normally at first. But then, he closed in on Mu Wanqiu and looked down at her body. With a suspicious look, he said, “Wanqiu, you have been a girl since the day you were born, haven’t you?”

“Ah!”

Mu Wanqiu was dumbfounded and felt like she was going crazy. “How many times do I have to tell you – I am a girl, a real girl! Why won’t you guys believe me?”

“Cut it out, guys, stop fooling around. Quickly, apologize to Wanqiu,” said Li Dong with a stern expression.

“Sorry.”

“I’m just joking, Wanqiu; I hope you don’t get pissed at that.”

The two of them lowered their hands and apologized.

“I’m fine, I’m fine. I’m not that petty. Haha, this felt just like our meetings in the game,” Mu Wanqiu said, smiling.

“Hahaha!”

Everyone cracked up, and the ice between them was broken. They talked about the fun times they had in the game, and all those joyful memories continuously filled the private dining room with laughs and giggles.

“It is unfortunate that the game has totally lost balance and is completely unplayable now.”

Liu Yichen leaned backwards in his chair, lost in deep reverie.

“It’s okay. Being able to befriend all of you is a good reward as well.” Li Dong was still sticking on his view.

Mu Wanqiu, on the other hand, explained to both Cai Qinghai and Liu Yichen about why the guild was disbanded and how she was pestered by that rich jerk at school. She also apologized. “If it wasn’t for me, that wouldn’t have happened to our guild… it was all my fault.”

“That had nothing to do with you, Wanqiu. You just happened to bump into a kid that wants to get everything with his cash.”

“Honestly speaking, with your looks and your curves, you would already be a goddess at our school. I won’t be surprised at all if guys woo you like crazy. But you have to be careful. There are many unsavory characters in this world, even lunatics that will destroy just about anything they can’t get their hands on… you need to protect yourself diligently.”

Li Dong added, “If you get into trouble again, give us a call. We’ll straighten things up for you.”

“OK.” Mu Wanqiu nodded, “Thank you, all of you.”

…

After the meal.

The time was now 9 o’clock in the evening.

Mu Wanqiu, who had bought the 10 o’clock train ticket, bade farewell, as she had to leave.

“I’ll send you to the station.”

Li Dong told Cai Qinghai and Liu Yichen to get back to school. Then, he called a cab and sent Mu Wanqiu to the high-speed rail station.

“Today was so fun; I’m really glad to know you all.”

Mu Wanqiu did not have many male friends, but she thought that these three she knew through the game were nice people.

“So, uhm, keep in contact?” Li Dong asked.

“Sure! We will still be very good friends.”

“Cool~ I think you should get going. Be careful on your trip.”

“Bye, commander.”

Li Dong waved his hands and watched from behind as she walked into the station.

But even with that being said, Li Dong and the gang weren’t as close to Mu Wanqiu as they used to be anymore.

Firstly, Mu Wanqiu was a student in a prestigious Shanghai university. Not only was she pretty and had a gracious temperament, her results were also outstanding. In the eyes of many, she was the perfect goddess. Li Dong and the gang, on the contrary, were students in a vocational school and were deemed as “poor students” in the eyes of many. They and Mu Wanqiu were completely not on the same level.

If it wasn’t for this game called the “Homeland VR”, they would never have come across Mu Wanqiu. Now, with that link gone, aside from reminiscing about the past, they wouldn’t have much to talk about.

“Why don’t we find a new game and start afresh in a new world? There are a few massive RPGs coming out, if I remember correctly. Should we ask Wanqiu to come along with us into the new game?” Liu Yichen suggested.

“Yes, reality is too boring. The world of games is much more exciting. Let us continue to adventure in the world of games.”

Li Dong shook his head. “You of all people should know what’s happening in VR online games now. We might be able to catch up to those p2w’s just by effort. But facing those rich a*ses… The only toy with us poor f*cks. Us, mounting a comeback? Impossible.”

He’d hit the nail on the head. Cai Qinghai and Liu Yichen lowered their heads at the same time.

They sighed. what a forlorn world.

“Eh? Look at this piece of news. Xing Hai Technologies Announces Mature Virtual Helmet Technology, Plans to Develop a VR game, Revolving Intergalactic Warfare… The Era of Virtual Games is Coming,” roommate Xukai who was at that time browsing the news said out of the blue.

“Oh!”

Three of them were instantly intrigued.

Chapter 387 - Galaxy Era”

Virtual helmet!

A virtual helmet similar to those depicted in web novels.

It was reported that Xing Hai Technologies had developed such equipment as early as 10 years ago. It had just never been fully promoted for civilian use. Only in the field of science; and only the few scientists who had attained the Supreme Laboratory in the game 100% Science Lab could acquire the virtual helmet for a better research experience.

Top scientists who had used the virtual helmet all made extremely high remarks about the device:

“God, at the moment I stepped into the Supreme Laboratory, I thought I had stepped into heaven.”

“The experience is surreal. It’s just like another real world.”

“It’s just like magic that sends my soul off to another place.”

“The helmet is unparalleled. Next to the virtual helmet, all the other VR devices are garbage.”

The scientists spoke with various levels of exaggeration and described the virtual helmet as something divine.

Was it really that great?

Many people expressed disbelief. Especially those players who felt that VR technology was already perfected and were already satisfied and happy with it—it was unacceptable to them to hear declarations that VR was garbage.

However, Xing Hai Technologies’s virtual helmets were only for the scientific community. There were no more than a thousand scientists who owned the equipment. Ordinary gamers would have liked to verify the claims about the helmet themselves. But they couldn’t get one, unless they became a top scientist. Unquestionably, this would mean reaching the highest level in Science—one of the most difficult games.

Was this even possible for the majority of ordinary gamers?

And so, as for the power of Xing Hai Technologies’ virtual helmet was concerned, ordinary gamers with no chance of experiencing it for themselves drew conclusions on their own. With the same sort of curiosity, many people stuck their heads into the scientific community just to acquire a virtual helmet get the ultimate gaming experience.

This went on until May of federal sixth year, when a veteran gamer named “Aotian” attained the highest level in 100% Science Lab, spending around five years or so, and got his hands on a personal virtual helmet. That was the first time a professional gamer came into contact with the virtual helmet, which was originally meant for scientists.

After the helmet arrived in his hands, Aotian pulled off a worldwide live broadcast of himself unpacking, installing, configuring, and at last putting on the virtual helmet, hence entering the virtual world. His live broadcast lasted for 11 hours and amassed more than 100 million viewers at peak time.

After he had experienced the virtual helmet, Aotian took it off and held it in his hand. He then sighed and said to the camera: “Compared to this, all the other VR’s are trash!”

Wow! The world was made aware of the virtual helmet’s greatness.

The whole VR industry became tense. After all, game equipment that could simulate pain, touch, smell and taste was simply unfathomable for them. Just like ants meeting a god, they were trembling in fear. But soon after, the VR industry became breezy once again. They were skeptical about the virtual helmet.

They were still stuck on the same talking points: “why not sell it if you have stock?” Why would Xing Hai Technologies not promote such an astonishing piece of technology as their virtual helmets? Why were they forsaking such tremendous amounts of profit?

Treasures that could not be mass produced, no matter how great they were, would still be no match for garbage. And hence, tranquility and serenity prevailed. The VR empire could at least last for another 30 years.

However, on one day in August of federal eighth year, when Xing Hai Technologies suddenly announced their plans to enter the virtual online game industry and launch a “real virtual game” based on their virtual helmets, it directly triggered a depth bomb effect.

Inside dorm 302.

After reading through the news, Li Dong and the others immediately got excited.

Liu Yichen said, while rubbing his palms together, “This is great. Has Xing Hai Technologies finally had enough of this f*cking VR top up era? Hahaha, marvelous, splendid.”

“Yeah. Things were all too calm and smooth in VR over the years. Many companies have forgotten who they are. For the sake of earning money, they’ve forsaken their initial resolutions, ideals, beliefs, feelings, fairness—everything. There’s only one word left in their minds: money.” Cai Qinghai clenched his fist.

“A game about interstellar warfare. Isn’t this kind of game my specialty? Besides, it is a Xing Hai Technologies game, and we’ll get to experience the unprecedented virtual helmet…”

Li Dong stroked his chin while nodding and said, “For our next game, let’s choose this upcoming one from Xing Hai Technologies. Honestly speaking, Xing Hai Technologies is an invincible demon lord themselves, but at least they’re kinder than other companies and would take care of the interests and feelings of most people.”

“Yeah.”

Cai Qinghai nodded, “At least technically, Xing Hai Technologies had never disappointed us.”

Subsequently, in the City of the Eastern Sea chat group.

Li Dong forwarded the news about Xing Hai Technologies’s forthcoming launch of their virtual online game on interstellar warfare, thus informing Mu Wanqiu of the news.

“I know about this.”

Mu Wanqiu continued in the chat group: “Lots of people at my school are discussing this game.”

“So, are you interested in that game? Want to play together?” Liu Yichen asked.

“Of course. But I’m not sure whether it would be a top up kind of game. If it’s similar to those online VRs, and if the virtual helmet is, like, super expensive, I may have to consider a little.”

Mu Wanqiu was also from an economically average family. She had not invested much in games. Moreover, she did not wish for a bad gaming experience.

“Um, I don’t think that Xing Hai Technologies will make it that way. Games that require heavy top ups will generally not last over five years. Their player base will be like chives. But Xing Hai Technologies is an expert in making long-term investments. They usually look 10 steps ahead of things. Besides, they aren’t a luxury brand. Most products they sell are relatively affordable. Maybe you should have some confidence in them,” Li Dong analyzed. He had read a book called “Learning from Xing Hai Technologies’ Success,” and thus knew more about Xing Hai Technologies.

“Hmm. What you’re saying makes sense.”

…

In the succeeding period of time, Xing Hai Technologies released leaks at two- to three-day intervals, winning the eyeballs of many.

For instance, the name of the online game was preliminarily confirmed to be Galaxy Era.

The game’s servers would never stop, unless for force majeure.

The realism of the game world would be 99.9999%.

The virtual helmet’s comprehensive simulation degree would be up to 61%.

At present, the total production of virtual helmets had exceeded 10 million sets, and the average production cost had dropped to about 3,000 dollars. With the luxury versions as exceptions, regular versions would not sell for more than 4,000 dollars.

To ensure fairness, the game would not have any top-up system or in-game item market system, but in the future, a player trading platform would be established. Xing Hai Technologies would only draw a small amount of “tax points” from the player’s trading activities.

After the above leaks were announced.

All the worries of Li Dong, Mu Wanqiu, and the others had vanished. They were left with only intense anticipation of entering the game.

The VR industry, on the other hand, was in extreme panic. As Xing Hai Technologies did not enter the VR industry previously, they naively thought that the company was turning its nose up on the field and had left them the whole “playground.” They were laughing inside, and even thought that Xing Hai Technologies were morons.

What about now?

Once Xing Hai Technologies began to move, they had set on a course to devastate them all. All of them were smelling the scent of demise.

Chapter 388 - On Sale

After the virtual helmet launched.

Without much to say, the VR era that had prospered for more than a decade had basically came to an end.

Most certainly, many VR manufacturers would not sit still and wait for their demise. They were definitely going to struggle with all they could. After all, this was a supermassive cake involving more than 10 trillion dollars of benefits.

Hence, in order to stop Xing Hai Technologies, they spread a variety of defaming remarks:

“The virtual helmet technology is not safe. It may lead to brain death.”

“The degree of addiction caused by virtual helmets will be ten times that of VR games. This is disadvantageous for our youngster’s physical and mental health.”

“At present, virtual technology is still immature. There are ten huge defects that lie within the technology.”

“Using the virtual helmet for too long will cause irreversible damage to the brain. This is a route that should be abandoned.”

But in the face of a demon lord such as Xing Hai Technologies, all struggles were futile. Xing Hai Technologies didn’t even need to deny the rumors themselves. The gamers have already voted with their feet, automatically.

“Unsightly garbage, get out of my way!”

“With Xing Hai Technologies out of the arena, the VR industry had been becoming too cool and comfortable all these years. Now, it is time for them to return to their nightmare.”

“Huhuh, not safe? Harmful to the brain? These rumors are base. Xing Hai Technologies broke through virtual technology more than ten years ago. After so many years, there are actually people who still think that the tech is immature. Do you think that Xing Hai Technologies has been eating dry rice for the past ten years?”

“Just accept your fate of being steamrolled!”

Obviously, the gamer population was not stupid. The players knew how to choose between virtual games and VR games and determine which one was the future – which one was the more exciting one that they were looking forward to.

Besides, the gaming field was almost the only field where “vested interest groups” did not exist. If a game was fun, it would immediately attract more than hundreds of millions of players. If another better game then emerged, players would again swarm into the new game and cause the other games to lose a substantial amount of its player base.

The idea was something like “winner takes all.”

There was essentially no game that could retain their players forever.

After relevant institutions confirmed that the Xing Hai Technologies virtual helmet was “technically mature, safe, and stable,” it was allowed to be launched on the market.

…

Federal eighth year, 24th of December.

Xing Hai Technologies’s “Fantasy: Third Generation” Virtual Helmet hit the racks.

The initial batch of 50 million virtual helmets was first launched in the Z nation market.

In order to prevent scalpers from stockpiling them, the virtual helmet was sold in the form of an “offline store, real-name purchase system”… To put it bluntly, it was necessary for buyers to queue up at designated stores.

…

Chuzhou City.

The most prosperous commercial street.

A virtual helmet sales outlet.

There was a long queue that had no end. Many police officers were maintaining order at the roadside.

Li Dong, Cai Qinghai, Liu Yichen, and the others were at the middle of the queue.

“Since the day I was born, I’ve never been in such a long queue.”

“At the best stall in our school’s canteen, the queue is at most 15 minutes at peak time, right?”

“This queue is moving so slowly. I think it’ll be at least three to four hours before we will even get to see the store.”

“We came too late. If we came at 12 in the morning, perhaps we’d have already got the goodies, but we woke up at 4 o’clock.”

“Bruh, it just snowed two days ago. The temperature today is minus five. Who’d get their butts up in this goddamn weather?”

“Bringing our beds and blankets would have done the trick. Look at those people at the front of the queue; which one of them doesn’t have a bed and a blanket with them? … Sigh. There’s only 50 million units in the first batch of virtual helmets, and the amount allocated for our city is even less. I wonder if we can get one today.”

Liu Yichen seemed a little sad.

Li Dong tiptoed and observed the length of the queue, opened the map on his phone and roughly estimated their distance to the store. With a few taps on his calculator, he said, “There’s about 1,300 people in front of us. The average purchasing time for each person is 10 seconds. So, in about three and a half hours, we will be able to buy the helmet.”

Of course, the premise was that the helmet would not sell out.

They could only advance slowly, bearing an anxious heart.

Time passed swiftly.

It had been more than three hours; their legs were swollen and numb, and they were feeling tired and hungry.

The virtual helmet store was finally in their sight, and was getting closer and closer.

“Bro, I’ll transfer you 10 thousand dollars; could you give me your place and let me go in and buy one first?”

Li Dong and the others heard a voice. There was a short and stout man of good economic condition that wanted to spend some cash in return for a front position.

“Sorry. I’ve been queuing for more than 10 hours; I can’t sell you my place,” the scrawny teenager who heard the request answered.

“20k! Is 20k enough?”

“I’m not selling my place; stop bothering me!”

“50k!”

“Not even for ten million! It is my virtual helmet and my ultimate dream that we’re talking about here! They are priceless; don’t you even think about using money to tarnish them!”

The scrawny teen pushed away the chunky guy and rushed into the store in a somewhat childish manner.

Approximately half a minute later.

The scrawny teen came out with a stony look on his face. “16 days till I turn 18; ‘not eligible to purchase the helmet’…”

He yelled at the sky, “Xing Hai Technologies, I’m suing you for age discrimination!”

“Hahahaha!”

Li Dong and the others couldn’t hold their laughter anymore.

“Sorry, this chance is as precious as a lady’s first night. Just go line up behind.”

After rejecting the plea of the dumpy man, Li Dong and the others went into the store’s purchasing lanes—there was a total of three.

The process of purchasing a virtual helmet was very simple. After selecting the regular helmet with a price of 3,999 dollars (the luxury version costs 19,999 dollars), they proceeded with a fingerprint input, a face scan, and a whole-body image scan to bind one’s personal information to the virtual helmet. After identity binding, the virtual helmet would be unusable for other users for one year. They paid with the automatic facial recognition payment system, and a box containing a virtual helmet would be delivered to buyers by robots.

With fast enough efficiency, buyers would be able to leave with a virtual helmet within six to ten seconds.

“Purchase successful. Please take your helmet.”

“Yay!”

Li Dong picked up his virtual helmet, pumped his fist, and walked out of the store.

Cai Qinghai, Liu Yichen, Xukai, and his other roommates also got their hands on a virtual helmet.

When they had walked less than a hundred meters away with their virtual helmets in pure satisfaction, the queuing site blew up abruptly.

“The virtual helmet has been sold out. Please come back in two weeks.”

“What? Sold out that quickly?”

“What the f*ck, is my more than 10 hours of lining up all in vain?”

“Those despicable teasers!”

The site was rendered chaos. Li Dong and the others chose to leave ASAP.

…

Dorm 302.

“Haha, our luck is not bad; but we almost let it slip,” Cai Qinghai said, feeling a strong sense of good fortune.

“50 million units in the first batch, and around 10 thousand units for each outlet. That’s far from enough. I think at least half of the people couldn’t get one.”

Li Dong, on the other hand, asked Mu Wanqiu in the chat group, “Wanqiu, did you manage to snatch one? All of us already got it.”

“Nope,” Mu Wanqiu replied. “The queue was too long. I’d been in it for six hours and I couldn’t hold on any longer. I plan to buy it when the situation had relaxed a bit.”

“Then won’t you be missing the chance to experience the virtual game firsthand?”

“So be it, then. I had no choice. The queue was simply terrifying. There are too many people living in Shanghai. In comparison, small cities like the one you live in are better.”

“Alright. Galaxy Era will be officially released after three months. It’s still in beta. We’ll go in and look around first to see how the game works… we’ll update you on the situation.”

“Okay. Thanks, commander! I wish you guys a successful exploration!”

…

10 o’clock at night.

Li Dong, Cai Qinghai, Liu Yichen and the other put on their virtual helmets and waited for their most anticipated moment.

A countdown sounded in their ears.

“Ten, nine, eight…”

Chapter 389 - Introducing the Closed Beta

“…two, one. Commencing entry!”

Along with this prompt, a white light illuminated the vision of all the players.

During the short loss of consciousness, Li Dong felt a surge of current flowing through his head which made his scalp feel squeaky.

After regaining his senses, he slowly opened his eyes.

Li Dong found himself standing on a green meadow. The grassland was endless and scattered with small flowers of yellow, red, and purple. Sporadically, there would be one or two saplings standing alone in the wilderness. There was a breeze in the air. The temperature was about 20 degrees Celsius, imparting players with the warmth of spring. Taking in a mild breath, one could catch a whiff of a faint floral fragrance.

“This…” Li Dong opened his eyes wide. “Is this picturesque place truly in a virtual world?

“This floral fragrance, this breeze, this temperature… I couldn’t even dream of this.”

He spread his arms wide and immersed himself in the utopia. “This is truly magical. I never expected this sort of magical technology to become reality.”

It would be worth joining, even if it were to be a bottomless top up game, just for this kind of gaming experience.

His eyes swept around the vicinity. There were many players like himself standing amidst the meadow. With his ears, he heard many exclaiming in amazement:

“Unbelievable! It feels completely different from VR games.”

“There’s really a sense of touch and smell. I can also feel the ambient temperature and the flow of wind.”

“Ouch, ouch, ouch! I can feel pain when I bite my fingers! A very genuine sense of pain.”

“Haha! This is great, this is so great! This is the virtual game that I imagined! From now on, this will be my home! All hail otaku life!”

“Eh, look what he’s doing! Why is he munching grass on the ground?”

Someone actually began eating the grass on the ground and yelled, “The grass is sweet! It’s tender, sweet, and has a really great texture! Try it yourself if you don’t believe me.”

“The grass is edible? Let me have a bite. Holy—it really does taste sweet.”

“Let me try! Hm, not bad indeed.”

“What the f*ck! There is someone eating bark over there.” A player was hugging a tree and chomping on it. He spit it out and exclaimed, “Don’t eat bark, my friends! it’s very bitter!”

“The water in the creek is good, refreshing and sweet. Much better than mineral waters in the supermarket.”

At that moment, among the players who entered the game, some were grazing, some were munching on trees, some were drinking from the brook, and some even eating soil. These dumb occurences would become funny iconic moments for years to come.

Furthermore, the first incident of harassment in the history of virtual reality games transpired.

“Ah—!”

A female player suddenly took two steps backwards, holding her chest while pointing her finger at a male player. “What are you doing? Why did you suddenly touch me?”

“What’s the matter?”

The male player was not at all remorseful. “I touched you, so what? We’re in a game, remember? Nothing happened to you IRL. If you’re really mad, I can let you touch me in return.”

“System! Sexual harassment!” The female player pointed at him again. “This guy sexually harassed me! System, please punish him immediately!”

“Judging in progress… allegation is valid. Imposing stern warning!”

A black cloud quickly formed above the head of the male player. A lightning bolt as thick as a thumb suddenly struck on the head of the male player.

Boom.

“AHH!”

The male player who had previously held an indifferent attitude turned into an explosive mushroom head, followed by a miserable scream. His whole body was charred, and most of his clothes were damaged.

The system also broadcasted: “Stern warning enforced. Upon next offense, player will be prohibited from logging in and will lose eligibility to the game!”

Holy Sh*t! The punishment was actually that harsh?

Upon feeling a gaze of disdain from all around and seeing female players pointing at him, the player lowered his head, feeling like a street mouse.

After a series of interludes.

A voice came from the skies as a rectangular figure scrolled open:

“Players, welcome to the virtual world. Before your eyes is a computer-generated world with almost 100% authenticity.

“This planet is called ‘Planet Aierfa.’ It is about one-third the size of Earth. 80% of the planet’s surface is covered by such a type of grass. You can also call the planet the Prairie Planet.

“Planet Aierfa is a temporary stop for novice players to adapt to the virtual world environment.

“Coming up, you will complete three days of basic training in Planet Aierfa. Training will include walking, adapting to cold and heat, eating food, manipulating tools, familiarizing yourself with the game consoles, exiting the game, and so on—learning the basic operations.

“After passing a test on the basics, players will officially enter the beta version of Galaxy Era, thus participating in the three-month closed beta test.

“Taking the breadth of time and space into account, the execution speed of various instructions in the game such as research and construction is 20 times that of conventional scenarios. That is, what can be accomplished in a day within the game will be equivalent to 20 days in reality. Of course, this is not ‘time acceleration’; it is just an algorithmic blindness. In the later phases, when technology improves and the game’s complexity increases, the execution speed of instructions in the game will decrease in order to reduce the burden on our servers.”

This was not difficult to understand. Assuming that two galaxies were four light years apart, and the speed of an ordinary spacecraft was 0.1C, it would take 40 years to travel from the outset. Now that it was 20 times faster, it would only take two years of travelling… after all, if things were to be 100% in line with reality, players couldn’t possibly wait for forty years.

“In addition, as the beta test is only three months – which is not even enough for interstellar fleets to complete a voyage – we have placed the battlefield on the surface of a planet called ‘Nidru.’ This planet is three times the size of the Earth. It has a land area of nearly one billion square kilometers and a technological level approximately twenty years ahead of Earth.”

“On planet Nidru, there are three massive nations, 20 big nations, and 60 middle powers… totaling 83 forces. 83 players will become the leaders of these 83 countries and deal with major events and all aspects of crisis in their respective country.

“The players’ goal is to complete the integration of power and resources on planet Nidru and survive the final crisis until the end of the beta test. At last, the system will conduct a comprehensive evaluation. Outstanding players will receive stipulated rewards. After the game officially launched, the rewards may be of some help in Galaxy Era.”

“Fight hard, players. Let your brilliance blossom in this near-authentic world.”

After listening to the system’s introduction, the players cheered:

“Is the much-anticipated challenge about to begin?”

“A mere beta test allows us to begin as the leaders of a country that will decide the fate of an entire nation… isn’t this the dream of us keyboard warriors?”

“I think I’ve got it. They way to obtain a high score is simple: unify the world and get rid of all military forces!”

“Haha, this means war! I like war. Please bring it on to me asap!”

Looking around at the players, who were agitated and excited, Li Dong unknowingly clenched his fists. He thought, No matter what, even a mere otaku can accomplish anything. Go f*ck yourselves, pay-to-win’s.

Chapter 390 - Conclusion

After spending three days and passing the basic operation test, the internal beta test for Galaxy Era officially began.

The first batch of 50 million players were randomly matched on various copies of planet Nidru. Similar to a battle royale, each match was comprised of 83 players as the leaders of 83 countries, where they were to flex their muscles in a survival of the fittest.

Three massive nations.

Twenty big nations.

60 middle powers.

Without a doubt, anyone would want to be distributed a superpower, as they could establish a huge advantage from the beginning and emerge as the last player standing by defeating all other competitors.

Li Dong also had the same idea.

However…

“Congratulations, you have been matched with a big nation, the Kingdom of Bregslo. Your country has a land area of 5.5 million square kilometers, a population of 350 million, a standing army of 1 million, a relatively complete industrial system, and nuclear arms. The Kingdom of Bregslo’s comprehensive national strength is ranked eighth in the world… you are the supreme king of this country, and no one can violate your will.”

Upon hearing this, and looking at the elegant and majestic costume fully embellished in jewels that he was wearing and the palace environment before him…Frankly, Li Dong felt as if he had reached the peak of his lifetime in an instant.

“Your majesty…”

“Good day, my great king…”

Two beautifully dressed maids greeted him with a bow and a gentle smile the likes of which could heal all wounds.

Li Dong blushed a little and displayed the expression of a complete amateur. He unwittingly whispered to himself, “Now that’s the Xing Hai Technologies I’m talking about. They understand us too well.”

He had, in fact, gotten it all wrong. Not all 83 countries practiced autocratic monarchy. Countries governed by imperial regimes were only the minority. There were countries that practiced constitutional monarchy, republics, and even dictatorships.

Li Dong was rather lucky. He was not allocated a top superpower, but his control over his nation’s authoritative power was still unusually firm. His personal will could easily be carried out.

In contrast, the real authoritative power in a constitutional monarchy lay with the prime minister, and in republican governments, with the president. Any enforcing of laws and regulations would need to be approved by the parliament. An individual dictatorship, meanwhile, relied on Machiavellian scheming and trickery. Its rule was based on the individual’s capability and the fear that their underlings had towards them. If one were to lack any of these traits, their country would plunge into instability very swiftly.

Hence, Li Dong felt that he had drawn the long straw.

Considering the strength of a big country, it was unlikely that he would get to acquire the power and resources of the entire planet. Li Dong decided not to act rashly, and to observe for a few days to understand more about the situation.

There weren’t many players like him who were vigilant.

Just two to three days after the internal beta launched, all the servers were already at sixes and sevens.

“The Republic of Maro officially declared war on the Kingdom of Sabui. The two nations have entered a state of all-out war!”

“Two imperial soldiers went missing. The Fache Empire Council passed a war bill and decided to declare hostilities against the Republic of Bahamas.

“The Gordo national fleet suddenly attacked the warships of the Shiguya Nation that were parked in a military port, triggering an undeclared war.”

“Superpower Minetti issued an ultimatum, demanding that all countries surrender and offer their utmost loyalty within three days.”

“The President of the Republic of Nuparta died suddenly due to an excessive infatuation with the female NPCs. The country’s territory and population were quickly annexed by neighboring countries.”

“In the 15,421st match, a nuclear nation released all of their atomic bombs, annihilating the entire world… all players in that game have exited the beta test.”

“The President of the Balist Nation was assassinated. The country was plunged into chaos. Neighboring countries took advantage of the situation and annexed the country.”

“The Justice Alliance was established to jointly cope with the bullying and aggression by big nations.”

“…”

Netizens who were concerned about the beta test were having heated discussions among each other.

“Wow, so this is what an ultimate modern war would look like. Atomic bombs seem so underwhelming to me.”

“Killing goes way too fast in future warfare. Hundreds of millions of people could perish in just a short few days.”

“I think that Xing Hai Technologies has come up with a not-at-all-small challenge. The situation on the planet Nidru is too riotous. There are powerful countries all over the board. There is no nation strong enough to unite the whole world and integrate the planet’s forces and resources… this challenge is too big.”

“Uhm, is it necessary to do it through war? They could use diplomatic means, form military alliances, and mull over things with each other. Wouldn’t this help to attain an integration of power?”

“What you’re saying is something like the Earth Federation that we have in reality. The problem is that planet Nidru is enormous and is in too big of a mess with internal conflicts happening everywhere. It is unlikely that all the countries could be integrated into a single organization.”

“The difficulty of this beta test is immense, and everything is just set on the surface environment of a single planet. If things were to be upscaled to that of an entire universe, I wonder how complicated things would get.”

…

Inside dorm 302.

“Argh!! Damn it!”

Cai Qinghai smashed on the table with his fists, a frustrated look on his face, “F*cked in just three days by the war. The fate of small countries is simply pathetic.”

“So am I. I’m almost done for here.”

Liu Yichen was slapping his own head. “I was given a big nation, very rich in both natural resources and cash. I felt very confident and was about to annex a small country in the South. I did not expect that, at five days in, I would only be 30 kilometers past their borders. The strength of my military is five times more than what they have, but the losses we’ve sustained are almost the same. When neighboring countries saw that I was in a weakened state, all of them swarmed over. Now, two-thirds of my territory is already gone.”

“Rich country, weak military… isn’t it a little like Idaily?” Cai Qinghai immediately thought of an original source of inspiration.

“Wealth does not equal fighting power, and everything has two sides. I was really too impetuous in this.” Liu Yichen shook his head.

After Li Dong went offline, his roommates inquired about his match as well.

In the chat group.

Mu Wanqiu also asked with interest, “Commander, I bet the match you’re in is also going to blow up soon. How is the situation now?”

“There are local conflicts, but there hasn’t been a full-blown war. But after a few days of speculation, I think I have come to a conclusion.”

“What conclusion?”

Mu Wanqiu startled. What had her commander found out?

“Once a full-blown war breaks out, everybody loses,” Li Dong said.

“Uhm…” Cai Qinghai was baffled. “Aren’t players supposed to fight in this game? Isn’t the victor determined through war? Like, whoever lasts till the end wins?”

Liu Yichen agreed, “This game should be testing the players’ military strategizing abilities. The player with the most outstanding military conduct can eliminate all opponents that pose a threat and acquire the biggest reward.”

“You guys are wrong if you think so,” Li Dong said. “Military force is not all-powerful! Even with outstanding war strategies, it is still impossible to eliminate forces ten times or a hundred times the size of your own, and to win over the common people, who have no sense of belonging—especially in the modern era, where national consciousness has already taken shape. Defeating a country’s army does not necessarily mean defeating the entire country. The annexation of a country’s territory does not entail conquering it… in this era, force is mostly used to deter one another, not to seize territory.

“In the matter of integrating all forces and resources, war is the last thing that you want. This feat can only be attained through consensus.”

“I think I understand now,” Cai Qinghai said. “So, this is actually a diplomatic game, and everybody should make friends with one another?”

“But without war, how will the winner be determined? How can players get a higher score?” Liu Yichen asked.

Mu Wanqiu also inquired, “Commander, have you thought of a way?”

“Uhm…there is no particularly good way. I just don’t want my score to be too low.”

Li Dong shook his head. He was given a ‘big country,’ not a ‘massive country,’ and thus did not have the ability to dictate the situation. Nor did he dare to be too high-profile. Otherwise, he might become a consistent target for other players.

“Okay, then. Keep it up, commander! I believe you can do it,” Mu Wanqiu said in encouragement.

“Thanks.”

Chapter 391 - End Of Internal Testing

A month quickly passed. It was the equivalent of twenty months in the game.

During this period, Li Dong launched a series of diplomatic operations. The overall purpose of the operations was always the same. He hoped to establish bilateral relations characterized by non-aggression and long-term peace with neighboring countries. He also wanted to strengthen bilateral economic and trade cooperation, and even to establish regional economic and trade organizations. Through this, he would be able to leverage other countries’ strengths to make up for his country’s weaknesses and bring about economic growth.

It just so happened that the Kingdom of Bregslo was surrounded by many small countries whose military power was far weaker. Li Dong believed that his invitation to strengthen economic and trade cooperation would receive a positive response. Instead:

“I’m sorry, there is no need to strengthen economic and trade cooperation between our two countries.”

“My country’s industrial and agricultural sectors cannot resist the impact of cheap goods coming in from your country. We are fine with maintaining the status quo.”

The more arrogant countries replied, rather rudely, “We have no interest in the goods of your country, but there is a major dispute over a territory of 300,000 square kilometers. We could establish comprehensive economic and trade ties if Bregslo is willing to return these territories.”

These remarks gave rise to strong and violent public opinions in the Kingdom of Bregslo. A large number of people voiced the sentiment that Bregslo should employ force to punish the provocateurs, causing Li Dong to feel significant pressure.

“I just want to enlarge everyone’s piece of the pie and increase their resources and wealth through economic cooperation! Although the resulting economic growth is only a small percent of the total GDP, the pie slice would still get bigger for everyone involved.”

Li Dong shook his head. Even a small percent growth was progress. Modern warfare would never lead to huge amounts of wealth; usually, it only led to a loss of lives.

On the contrary, a country could get some positive scores by doing the same things Li Dong did.

But the players who controlled other countries in the game looked down on the tiny profit that could result from Li Dong’s approach. The only thing they wanted was to devour a fat bounty in a single bite and dominate the entire planet.

Therefore, only a dozen small countries, who were not neighbors to Bregslo, responded and agreed to strengthen economic and trade ties.

However, by this time, everyone had found sufficient reasons to declare war; conflict was inevitable.

On the other hand, in order to avoid an overly low score or withdrawal from the game, the major powers signed a “No First Use of Nuclear Weapons” Treaty. The treaty stipulated that only conventional weapons should be used, so that countries could only wage war with that limited destructive power. Three superpowers, fifteen great nations, 48 medium-sized countries, and more than 10 billion people were involved.

Still, after they poured all sorts of stealth fighters, robot armies, and legions of heavily configured tanks onto the battlefield, the casualty rate remained terrifying.

Population-wise, more than 200 million were lost after only a month of war (equivalent to 20 months in the game). By this point, the warring nations were in such a temper that many were voicing the question of whether they should use nuclear weapons.

Li Dong had drawn together a Neutral Alliance, which consisted of three big countries and ten medium-sized countries. The Alliance strictly abided by the principle of neutrality, while continuing the policy of arming everyone who could fight. Once a neutral country was invaded, other neutral countries would be obliged to provide assistance. Thus, the Alliance was also one of joint self-defense… With this compact, Li Dong drew together a large force.

The internal test continued up until the 66th day.

A player suddenly made a post on the discussion forum that sent shockwaves through the community.

“Alien forces are arriving soon.”

The post continued, “I control a superpower in the game with the ability to build large observation facilities in space.

“Officials from the astronomy department told me yesterday that the space telescope has discovered a huge alien fleet fast approaching the planet of Nidru.

“The fleet is expected to arrive in ten days. If we can’t build a perfect planetary defense system during this time, the alien fleet will fly straight in, unchallenged. They will pierce the heart of Nidru like a sword, kill all our forces, and occupy the planet.

“I think this is Xing Hai Technologies’ intention. Human forces are not the threat. Aliens are the biggest enemy and the ultimate challenge!

“If we can’t reach a consensus within a short period of time and concentrate all our resources and strength to withstand this challenge, there is no doubt that destruction will rain upon us! If that happens, I’m certain that we will only get a few points toward our game score.

“Hurry up and quit warring! Don’t waste too many resources slaughtering one another. Focus all our power against the aliens. We must withstand the attack of the alien fleet before the end of the internal test. Then the system will reward us with points toward our game score!”

An alien fleet. All the players were taken aback.

“What kind of fantastical twist is Xing Hai Technologies playing at? They’ve even created aliens. I’ve just annihilated five countries.”

“Aliens have now become the main enemy, and we have to stop the ongoing war immediately?”

“In my current round in the internal test, the astronomy department has also found anomalies in space. A lot of red flags have been observed.”

“Stop the war? Impossible! The country that I control is a democracy. The parliament is now controlled by fanatical military hard-liners. Once I stop the war, I will be booted out of office immediately!”

“Everyone is in a killing rage. It’s impossible to stop.”

“This is terrible! All the nuclear weapons have been used up. It is impossible to stop the aliens.”

…

“They’ve actually arranged for alien forces to appear on the scene?”

“I suppose that the ‘ultimate challenge’ is the wave of aliens.”

Li Dong shook his head. He understood Xing Hai Technologies intention. The company wanted to tell the players something through a small test: problems could not be easily solved by war. Wisdom in other areas was also required: for example, diplomacy, economic and trade exchanges, cultural exchanges, and so on.

This was the true meaning behind Galaxy Era and was also in line with certain aspects of reality.

For sure, it was not purely about war.

…

Soon.

It was the 93rd day of the internal test, and it could be said that the end had arrived.

Of the 50 million players who participated in game testing, there were fewer than one in ten thousand who were still fighting in the game at this moment.

At 10:00 A.M. of this particular day.

Li Dong took off his virtual reality headgear and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

Cai Qinghai quickly craned his neck over and asked, “Boss, how is it? How many points did you get? Did you resist that wave of aliens?”

“No,” Li Dong said helplessly. “The aliens are too strong. I’ve unified all our forces and launched all our nuclear weapons to no avail. Only half of the alien fleet was destroyed. Everyone surrendered after fighting a few days of guerrilla war on land.”

“How many points did you get?” asked roommate Liu Yichen.

“Resources, zero points; reputation, 87,000 points; time, 9,300 points…. A total of 96,000 points. I received an A-minus evaluation.”

“F*ck, boss, isn’t 87,000 points for reputation just plain ludicrous? According to the conversion formula, it means that you’ve united 8.7 billion humans and persuaded them to side with you, listen to your orders, and then attack the aliens… How did you do it?” Cai Qinghai exclaimed.

“Commander, the person with the highest score among all the people I know only received 36,000 points. Yours is just completely ridiculous!” Mu Wanqiu said in the group chat, very surprised.

“It’s so-so.” Li Dong smiled modestly. “I very much agree with the words of big boss Chen. The most precious resource will always be the human race, and not anything else! If you follow this principle, you will always achieve something beyond your expectations. ”

People became even more important, especially at a crucial juncture. Uniting a sufficient number of people at that critical time was the equivalent of gathering enough resources.

“Hmm…”

Cai Qinghai, Liu Yichen, and Mu Wanqiu nodded thoughtfully.

The internal test of the large-scale online virtual game Galaxy Era had basically ended.

Chapter 392 - Enter

The 9th year of the Federation, March 1st.

A public beta version of the world’s first online virtual reality game, Galaxy Era, had officially been released.

More than a billion more “Fantasy: Third Generation” virtual reality headsets by Xing Hai Technologies had been sold. Players with a strong interest in Galaxy Era had basically bought the headgear that they wanted.

…

9:40 A.M.

Twenty minutes left until the start.

“The starting point of the Galaxy Era beta version is as one of the individuals at the top of the hierarchy, the rulers of planets. Each player will have a planet.

“The impact of the internal test on the public beta version is almost negligible. Besides being more familiar with the operations of the game, players who had participated in the internal test will not have gained any obvious advantages … At this point, Xing Hai Technologies does take into consideration the interests of most players.”

Li Dong said in the group chat, “Qinghai, Yichen, Wanqiu, let’s seize the day and do a good job!”

“Understood!”

“I have to do a better job this time round.”

“I must become an expert that others worship!”

Li Dong looked at the time again and placed the game headset on his head. He clicked on the button to enter the game, and everything became white.

…

The Milky Way.

It was like a flat plate. Before Li Dong was a panoramic view of the galaxy covered with innumerable bright stars. The galaxy was located in a dark, empty void of a background.

Li Dong heard a notification beep from the system.

“Player, please set your ID name.” An illuminated translucent panel appeared in front of his eyes.

“Dong Zhimu.”

“ID name ‘Dong Zhimu’ is successfully set. Please adjust your appearance.” A glowing 3D human model rotated in front of Li Dong. It was a figure of his actual self.

However, in order to keep their identities confidential, players generally did not use their own appearances from reality. They would do a series of adjustments.

After some thought, Li Dong increased the height of the 3D character model to 1.8 meters and did some slight modifications on the face… His looks improved by about 20%.

“Just enough to be a little handsome. If I become too handsome, I won’t have the will power to pull myself out of the game world. I have to face reality with courage, no matter how cruel it is.”

He finished setting up his personal details.

The system opened up a huge atlas of the galaxy and introduced its contents.

“Player Dong Zhimu, this is the atlas of the entire Milky Way, including more than 200 billion stars. According to the Drake Equation, star systems with life-supporting planets are about one in a million, star systems with water-rich planets are about one in a thousand, and star systems rich in heavy elements are about one in ten.

“Water is the prerequisite for life, and heavy elements are the necessary components of civilization.

“There are three types of forces available to players – star systems with life, colonial star systems, and star systems with development potential.

“Life-supporting star systems have the highest value, and can accommodate a population of up to 100 billion. The colonial star systems are places to which people can migrate after a simple transformation to make them suitable for human survival. They can accommodate a population of up to 10 billion. Star systems with development potential refers to places with certain resources and the ability to be developed. They are places where people can choose to settle as residents, but there is no home planet. They can accommodate a smaller population of only a few billion.

“The game’s social structure is also broadly divided into three categories—civilization governors similar to those of the Earth Federation; captains of colonial spaceships carrying scientific information and population bombs; and independent pioneers carrying a small amount of technical information and a small population… There are big differences among the three starting points.”

Li Dong nodded. The difference was honestly too big.

The civilization governors managed human resources of more than 10 billion people. The captain of a colonial spacecraft, in addition to a spaceship and a number of crew members, must also use the population bomb to breed a civilization.

The worst was probably the independent pioneer. They would only have a few people around at the beginning. After the first phase opened up, one would realise that increasing the population was quite difficult… It could be said that this was the worst starting point.

According to the Drake Equation, there were only about 20,000 life-supporting star systems… That meant that only about 20,000 players had the opportunity to be a governor of a civilisation.

Divided by one billion.

The lucky ones who could embrace the “golden start” of a governor were only two in a thousand.

“Player Dong Zhimu, you performed well in the internal test. You are ranked 9,992 in terms of your experience score. As a reward, the system will assign a life-supporting star system to you and the position of supreme governor in an excellent civilization… It is a reward that only 10,000 players can get.

“So, please, choose a lit-up spot on this atlas that you want to belong to you, and start your journey.”

There were tens of thousands of blue dots of light on the huge atlas of the galaxy. Those blue dots suddenly brightened, looking like glow-in-the-dark pearls.

Many of those blue-colored spots of light were turning red, indicating that they had been selected by other players.

“I will choose that!”

Li Dong pointed to a spot on the edge of a spiralised arm of the Perseus constellation. “I want this star system.”

He really did not know which was the best choice, but he followed a simple principle: don’t follow the crowd.

Those on the fringes were better.

“OK. The star system you have selected is called KO-13687095. You can give it a convenient and easy name,” the system said.

“How about Zhiyuanxing?”

“The name has been selected by another player.”

“How about Eastern Jupiter?”

“Ok. Esteemed players, the various settings have been completed. I will send you to your respective stars. I wish you a happy life.”

“Ok, thank you.”

A white glare of light appeared in front of Li Dong and rushed towards him.

…

When Li Dong opened his eyes again, he was inside a dome-shaped building that seemed to float in the sky.

He stood in a huge space with a simple interior that was reminiscent of a control room.

A silver-white console was placed along the edge of the room.

He walked to the transparent window, and stretched his neck to look downwards. There were rows upon rows of modern buildings. They surrounded the tower from which he was currently looking out, forming an extremely prosperous city that also served as the political center of the planet.

The Tallest Tower.

It was the name of the tower that he was in.

Turning on the console in front of him, Li Dong checked some basic information.

Eastern Jupiter: A life-supporting planet with a diameter of 14,500 kilometers and a land area occupying 50.5% of the planet.

Population: 10.58 billion.

Science and technology level: I-type civilization (advanced). The civilization had mastered control of nuclear fusion, artificial intelligence, and other technologies. It was in the initial stages of preparing to equip its nation with the ability to explore the universe.

Management structure: Supreme Governor, then Federal Parliament, then City Council… Current operations were stable.

Military Force: A joint standing army of two million soldiers.

He reviewed the above, as well as other pieces of information available to him.

“Well, this is a good start.

“To be in control of a civilization, to inherit the culture of this society that has been settled for thousands of years, and to receive a huge amount of knowledge and resources… It’s impossible for most players to receive these sorts of rare wealth.

“This starting point is no less than a cheat code. I am already ahead of the competition before it has even started… Qinghai and the others will probably be very envious.”

“I have to make full use of these advantages in the upcoming journey and produce good results so that people would no longer underestimate me!”

“Ah… The ‘me’ who is ordinary in reality will create a glorious legend that belongs to ‘me’ right here.”

Li Dong opened wide his arms. At this moment, he felt high-spirited and filled with vigor.

Chapter 393 - Look, What’s This? Ores!

On a different side of the galaxy.

Li Dong’s roommates had also entered the game Galaxy Era.

…

“Congratulations to player ‘Qinghai Is Not A Newbie!’ you have been assigned to a star system with a great potential for development. It is called Star System KA-8751001. You can give this galaxy a new name.”

” ‘Dream Galaxy!’ ” Cai Qinghai blurted out.

“Sorry, the name is already taken.”

” ‘New Hope Galaxy!’ ”

“Sorry, the name is already taken.”

” ‘Qinghai Super Amazing Galaxy!’ ”

“Congratulations, you have successfully named your star system.”

The system then sent him to his region.

However, the place where he arrived was in the bridge control room of an interstellar development spaceship.

As the captain, he checked some basic information on the control panel.

“There are currently 336 crew members on the spacecraft… Hmm, these crew members are my people.”

“The spacecraft carries a population bomb, containing heritable genes from 10 million people. This is enough to breed a civilization.”

“The star system contains high levels of heavy elements, and there are large numbers of resource-rich stars and asteroids!”

“Although there are no life-supporting planets or water-rich colony planets, I can still build space cities, increase the population at a continuous rate, and finally create a strong civilization called ‘Qinghai Is Not A Newbie: Civilization.’ Haha, hahaha…”

Cai Qinghai placed his hands on his waist, looking very excited. He now had a general understanding of the basic situation.

Through the ship’s porthole, he could see small and large space meteorites floating past him.

He turned his sights to the right and looked at the center of the galaxy. There was a star emitting rays of yellow-orange light.

Cai Qinghai quickly issued the first order.

He commanded the crew to go mining.

He pointed to the front of the spaceship and said, “Mines. We need a variety of mines. Copper, iron, gold, silver, platinum, titanium, and some frozen meteorites which are rich in water.

“Whatever minerals we need on the spaceship, extract them and put the materials to good use. The more, the better!

“Our bright and wonderful future starts from pieces of ore!”

“Yes, Captain!” the mining team on the spacecraft responded.

The mining spaceships departed from the mothership like a swarm of little bees and headed for the group of meteorites.

Cai Qinghai could not sit still anymore. “Idling here is a waste of time anyway. Why don’t I try to mine some ores personally?”

He left the control center and arranged a mining spacecraft for himself. He maneuvered the ship according to its operation instructions, and rushed towards the fragments of meteorites.

In the cockpit, he turned on some powerful and explosive metal music.

He began singing. “Wooh ohhhhh ohhhhh… Mining, mining, happily mining. From today onwards, I will have mines in my possession, I am the pioneer miner generation of legend.

“This ore is mine, that ore is also mine, all the ores are mine, woah ooh woah…

“I am here to start a life where I have mines and ores. How marvelous and brilliant it is to start mining operations! I want to go to the peak of mines! Lalala… woooah oooh…”

Cai Qinghai waved his hands and shook his head crazily, all the while screaming nonsensical lyrics. He was so excited that he was almost crazy.

But he thought that this was normal and completely understandable. It was because the wealth that he possessed here was more than what anyone had on earth. If he set reality aside and focused on things inside his mind, he had already become the richest man in the world—at least in his mental world. He was experiencing the happiness and pleasure of a rich person.

Moreover, with the super high degree of realism in this game, it was not at all improper for him to pretend that all of this real…. At this moment, the sense of wealth that he was experiencing in his mind was just like what a rich person in the real world would experience.

“The virtual era; the era of happiness. Thanks to Xing Hai Technologies for giving all this to us,” Cai Qinghai said, closing his eyes.

…

About three hours later.

The players were feeling tired. The system prompted them that their bodies did not have enough energy, and could only continue the game after eating.

Li Dong and the others gradually withdrew from the virtual world.

They took some time to readapt to the real world, and called for takeout on their cell phones.

Li Dong asked them, “How are the star system to which you’ve been randomly sent? Did you have any luck with the ones that were assigned to you?”

“Yes, I feel like I’ve hit the jackpot.” Cai Qinghai felt pleased with himself and nodded in excitement. “I got a star system that has great developmental value! There are meteorites and ores floating everywhere in space. It is estimated that its mining will never end. Hahaha! I am probably the richest person in the dorm right now.”

Next, Cai Qinghai took out his phone and opened up a few pictures that were sent to it from the game. He then handed it to Li Dong. “Boss, look at this! What is it? Ores! I personally mined an ore containing 300 kilograms of platinum. It is worth at least 10 billion! There are countless meteorites like this.”

Huh? He’s actually this happy because he was assigned to a star system with developmental value? Li Dong was exasperated. But looking at Cai Qinghai’s innocent and childlike smile, he could only say, “Hmm… not bad. A very good start.”

“I also got a star system that could be developed.” Liu Yichen said, craning his neck over to look at the photos. “But my star system is older and there are not many meteorites in space. However, there are more planets with diameters exceeding 1,000 kilometers… I probably have worse luck than Qinghai.”

“Bro, don’t be discouraged.” Cai Qinghai patted his shoulder and beat his fists on his chest. “What’s mine is yours. After my civilization has become developed and is ahead of yours, I’ll cover you.”

“Let’s help each other. We’re best bros for life.” The two men clasped their right hands firmly together. Li Dong could not help the corners of his lips from twitching.

At this moment, the takeout was delivered by the drone. Li Dong and his roommates asked about Mu Wanqiu’s progress in the game via the group chat as they ate.

“Wanqiu, which star system have you been randomly assigned?”

“Were you also assigned to a star system with the potential for development? Besides Li Dong, all three of us were assigned to star systems that could be developed.”

“No,” said Mu Wanqiu. “I was lucky, and I was assigned to a colonial star system. It has a planet with a lot of freshwater resources, and a large immigration spaceship. There are 100,000 human crew members on the spacecraft. The spacecraft also carries a population bomb large enough to raise 10 billion people.

“I heard from a friend that there are only about 20,000 of the best life-supporting star systems. The probability of an average player getting assigned to one of those systems is one in ten thousand. There are about 200 million colonial star systems, and the probability of getting assigned to one of those is one in five. The remaining star systems with the largest numbers are those with potential for development. That is the most common type.

“In short, my luck was good. Although it’s a far cry from the life-supporting star systems, I estimate that I’ll soon be able to create a prosperous civilization if I work hard on its operations.”

Listening to Mu Wanqiu’s tone, it was clear that she was very excited.

“Ah…” Cai Qinghai opened his mouth and the piece of meat that he was eating fell back into the bowl.

He muttered, “I have so many mines and ores, but my luck is actually average?”

Li Dong tapped his head helplessly.

Ores did have value in application. But he had said it a few days ago: of all the resources, the most valuable was always people.

Chapter 394 - Technology That Violates Taboos

“Constantly comparing yourself to others will only make you more angry.”

After learning about the pros and cons of the different starting points in the Galaxy Era, Cai Qinghai lowered his head, appearing as if he had received a fatal blow.

It felt like he had been ranked second in the whole class after working very hard, and then suddenly found out that all the other students were ranked first. He thought he had been elevated to the category of “tall, rich and handsome”, only to realize that he was actually just an average loser in this bracket.

However, the game did not allow one to delete one’s assigned star system and re-select. There was nothing to do about one’s bad luck. One could only continue down the path that fate had arranged.

“Boss, give us a helping hand when your situation improves, and bring us along with you to the peak of success,” Cai Qinghai said.

Li Dong’s starting conditions were so good that his star system would definitely develop at a much faster pace.

Li Dong smiled. “Of course.”

He was not the kind of person who abandoned his brothers.

…

Two days passed in the blink of an eye.

Players had basically mastered and familiarized themselves with the game Galaxy Era.

As they got the feel of the game, the players—even the novices—inferred some rules and conclusions.

“This is a great strategy game. It’s not a role-playing game (RPG).”

“Every day, I just sit back and relax in the control room, give some instructions, handle some government affairs, wait for the results after implementation, conduct a comprehensive analysis, and then plan for the next step.”

“For example, players who have been assigned to star systems with the potential for development would currently give orders like ‘start mining’ or ‘build space cities’. There are not a lot of operations that can be executed. Although the time flow is set to 20:1, it still feels too slow. There is a lot of free time every day.”

“Frankly speaking, this sort of game is a bit boring. Despite the high level of realism and the good experience, I estimate that it will not attract more than one billion players… You must know that strategy games have always been a niche.”

“So, I thought of a good idea. Xing Hai Technologies should make another virtual reality game, an online RPG that emphasizes upgrading one’s rank and perfecting one’s skills. This is the real ‘Way of the King,’ as they say. A new game could also help us kill time, since we have it in spades—enough to use. The company will also earn more money.

“I hope that Xing Hai Technologies will seriously consider my suggestion. I am really looking forward to it.”

One player took the initiative to make this suggestion, which got a lot of approval from many netizens. After all, there were quite a few players who were not really interested in strategy games.

Li Dong had also seen such comments when he surfed the forums.

His lips quirked in a mocking smile, the sort that was reserved for showing love and concern to children with intellectual disabilities.

” ‘Strategy game,”it’s boring’—not as fun as cutting your way through a horde of monsters with a knife and leveling up?

“Haha, you are only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

“Xing Hai Technologies’ claim that the game environment has a 99.9999% match with reality is not exaggerated at all. It has achieved 99.9999% realism not just in war, but in all aspects of the game! Everything in the game world is like the real world.

“In other words, it is another real world.

“Especially for the NPCs in the game. None can be described as a typical AI. All of them have their own behavioral logic and act in the same way as normal human beings. They are incredibly natural—I can’t detect any mistakes.”

“After playing the game for a long time, one might even feel that he has crossed over into an alternate dimension, and start to doubt whether this really is a game.”

Of course, there was no doubt that it was definitely a game… After all, just where in the universe were there nearly a million identical alien worlds for tens of millions of players to use?

This was the only explanation: Xing Hai Technologies’ “AI tech level” had progressed to something akin to the realm of God.

By chance, Li Dong had joined a mysterious group of experts… He learned some shocking inside information from this group.

The person who revealed it claimed that he was a senior AI researcher from Xing Hai Technologies. The credibility of his intel was very high.

“I will say it like this: except for one little flaw, our smart AI NPC is almost the same as an ordinary human in all other aspects.

“Whether it is behavioral logic, emotional expression, or temporal development, the NPC is similar to reality, and it has elements of both randomness and inevitability.

“At the technical level, we have added quantum algorithms to it based on quantum computing. With this, the AI can simulate all possible human behavior.

“We have designed the most intelligent NPU chip ever. Its architecture and working principles are similar to those of the human brain. Its functions have a 99.9% similarity with that of the human brain.

“Our AI has certain deficiencies when it comes to ‘creative power.’ But under the random mode, the NPC can also produce some simple songs and literary works that conform with societal norms. Those works are of pretty good quality, too. Through this ‘creative process,’ the NPCs are also given the ability to appreciate art.

“In summary, apart from the different living environments, the AI characters in the virtual world are, to a certain extent, not too different from real human beings. They are at least the same as 99% of real humans. So… 99% of the time, there’s no problem treating the AI characters in the game as real humans.

“Also, there is something else that I hope you can help keep secret. If it is discovered by the company, I might be thrown in jail for a long time. The NPCs in the Galaxy Era can be transferred by electric signal—also known as ‘soul transfer’—into a medically human body in the real world. They can thus be incarnated into reality. In this way, we can fully repair the only flaw of the NPC, and give it creative power.

“In theory, as long as Xing Hai Technologies provides the related services, someone whom you cherish in the game, the object of your desire—he or she could become a person in reality, if you really yearn for them to come to your side. We call such people ‘AI people,’ although, referring back to what I said previously, they can also be called ‘game extracted people.’ ”

The characters in the game could thus be extracted into reality.

But, obviously, this would seriously violate the bottom line of ethics, morality, law, and certain traditional ideas.

It could be considered the ultimate taboo!

Xing Hai Technologies could not possibly commit such a heinous crime. The company would not have the guts to break through such taboos, anyway. So this was destined to be a hypothesis that would remain within the scope of the discussion forum.

But even so!

The imagination of many players started to run amok, and they could not stop indulging in their fantasies.

“So, I could possibly bring a wife out of the game to solve my single status—a problem that I’ve endured for 30 years?”

“The duration of the internal test was too short. I’d just established a relationship with my lover, Elena, which could be called true love, when the aliens suddenly arrived to fight us, and then there was nothing.”

“I also feel really depressed. I worked so hard to get rid of the aliens and was looking forward to a happy life with the person I love by my side. Then the internal test suddenly ended. I felt really lost for a few days.”

“This game by Xing Hai Technologies is so criminal. It is so realistic that it becomes easy to form deep and unforgettable bonds that can’t be gotten rid of. If it is really possible to extract a wife, I must make sure to have a passionate love affair in the game!”

“…”

Seeing all these discussions, Li Dong, too, remembered that there were a number of NPC characters during the internal test with whom he felt a deep bond and whom he could not forget. There were some unforgettable memories. Sometimes, when he looked back, he felt a faint twinge of sorrow in his heart.

After all, humans were emotional creatures. The more realistic, the more your emotions would be stirred.

Li Dong could not help but sigh. “Xing Hai Technologies, what is the purpose of this game?”

Chapter 395 - Experiencing Life

Chapter 395: Experiencing Life

Nobody could guess the real purpose of Xing Hai Technologies, and nobody could simply claim that the company only wanted to make money.

Li Dong did not want to overthink things, either. Right now, he just wanted to fully immerse himself into this gaming experience: a game that was extremely realistic.

But if he merely stood in the Tallest Tower and truly thought of it all as a strategy game, as if he was playing chess, then it would be impossible to experience how fun the game could really be.

The time flow rate of 1-to-20 was not fast; after his many orders were issued, there would be a feedback period of at least three months, and up to six months or a year.

For example, the construction cycle for an interstellar warship was often as long as five to ten years. Divided by twenty, one would still have to wait a few months in real-time.

Without a doubt, this waiting process would be utterly boring and a pain in the a*s.

“It’s better to really experience life first, and enjoy myself.

“Moreover, I would be experiencing life in this game, among those NPCs, as a character that’s not too eye-catching.

“Additionally, as a ruler, it is best to listen to the voices of those on the bottom rungs of society, to observe the people’s sentiments and sufferings so that I will have a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the Dongmi planet. This would absolutely be beneficial for the development and future of Dongzhimu’s civilization.”

So, where would he start?

Schools.

Li Dong first thought of schools, so he went to an ordinary high school.

He looked at his image in the mirror and said to himself, “A height of 1.8 meters. Not a very handsome face, but definitely above average. Fair and delicate skin. I look to be 17 years old at most… There shouldn’t be any problems if I go as a student in the second year of high school.

“So far, I have lived for 22 years, and my youth is basically gone. I’m still a virgin, and I’ve never had a relationship. Perhaps… Is there nothing about me that is attractive to girls? Will outstanding women never like me?”

Although it was probably just because he had watched too much anime, Li Dong’s loser homebody side had taken over. He wanted to challenge himself in the game and improve his interpersonal skills.

He wanted to be a popular person who got along well with others.

“Interpersonal relationships and emotional intelligence are very important. And I think it’s also necessary to be eloquent?”

Li Dong muttered to himself like a broken record, constantly finding excuses for himself.

“In short, I should really enjoy youth! If I don’t in this period of life, there will be no chance to do so in the future!” he said, shaking his fist.

…

The city in which the Tallest Tower was located was named “Shengjing City.” It was the political, economic, and cultural center of Eastern Jupiter, with a resident population of more than 35 million. It was an extremely large city.

In the western residential area was an ordinary school named Xihai No. 3 High School.

At the school entrance.

Li Dong wore a green-colored school uniform and carried a school bag in his hand. He looked at the school’s academic blocks and field with a smile.

At that moment, the system in his brain gave a reminder: “Player Dongzhimu, due to the time algorithm, in-game events are executed at a speed twenty times faster than normal, resulting in huge information flow. The burden on the human brain is nearly twenty times what it would experience in its regular state. For the health of the player’s brain, it can only persist for 20 minutes in this micro experience mode. Multiplied by twenty, that would give us 6.67 hours. Hence, the player must withdraw from this state after 6.67 hours and let the brain rest.”

When people dream, they create the illusion that time becomes slower, making them feel as if they have experienced many things. The “Fantasy: Third Generation” virtual reality headset was based on this principle, and thus achieved the fantastical effect of extending time by a factor of twenty.

The side effect was that its running duration was short, as the brain was heavily burdened. For the average person, twenty minutes was their limit. The human brain could not enter this accelerated state too often, or it would really struggle.

“I know,” Li Dong said.

The burden on the brain in micro experience mode was really big. But after three months of intense practice during the internal test, he was able to extend the accelerated state to 25 minutes. If he deliberately intensified his practice, he just might be able to extend this time to 30 minutes in the future.

If he multiplied by twenty, that would give him ten hours, enough to cope with the daytime situation. He would exit the accelerated state at night, let the brain rest for thirty minutes, and then continue again during the day… Some genius players had monster-like brains which had completely adapted to life that was twenty times faster.

Li Dong hoped that his could also become a monster brain.

…

Xihai No. 3 High School, Second year, F class.

Li Dong stood at the podium and faced more than 50 students.

His homeroom teacher stood beside him and gave an introduction.

“Everyone, this is the transfer student Touki Ryu who had just transferred from another school. You can call him Touki. And now, Touki will introduce himself.”

Li Dong bowed and picked up the chalk. He wrote his name on the blackboard and briefly introduced himself. “My name is Touki Ryu. I am 17 years old. My hobby is playing basketball and games. I am very happy to join this class and am honored to be your classmate… I will be learning from you.”

After he finished speaking, he gave another deep bow.

Clap, clap, clap, clap… A round of applause sounded, and a flurry of voices could be heard from students discussing him below the stage.

“Touki? Isn’t that the surname of the Protoss? There are no more than 5,000 people in the world with the surname of Touki, and there’s one in our class? Is this a legal surname, or did he name himself that on a whim?”

“Touki…Ryu. A very arrogant name, and a bit awkward.”

“Touki-san is very handsome, and he is so tall.”

“A boy who likes to play basketball, wow… I like boys who play basketball the most.” The girl made a heart shape with her hands.

“I like this type of boy.”

The boys were not too enthusiastic about Li Dong’s arrival. The girls were chatting away with excitement.

However, a height of 1.8 meters was quite high for the high school’s student body. Hence, Li Dong’s homeroom teacher arranged for him to sit in the last row at the back of the class and on the far right, right next to the window.

The whole class was watching him.

He put down his bag and sat with a straight posture. A slight smile hung on his lips.

At the podium, the teacher started his lecture.

A warm breeze blew in from the window, and the white curtains were gently lifted in a wave-like effect. The bangs on his forehead blew about in the wind.

He roughly estimated that there were 30 girls and 25 boys in the class. Including him, there were 26 students.

If he were to evaluate the girls’ figures, looks, and so on, with 100 being a perfect score, he thought that most of the girls were above 65 points, assuming an online attractiveness standard. 30% or more scored over 70 points, and there were a few who left an indelible impression even at first glance. They could be scored 80 points or more.

“There are a lot of cute girls. Even an ordinary person can receive a reasonable score in terms of attractiveness… I feel like I’ve crossed into the animation world.”

“Moreover, their technology is developed, and they have a long history of civilization. Even if this is just an ordinary high school, the mind, appearance, and personal cultural accomplishments of the teachers and students are amazing overall. They are very polite, too… Hmm, while some areas are unnecessarily elaborate, they are also essential.”

Another warm breeze rolled over him.

Li Dong squinted comfortably. “Ah… this is my beautiful youth. Let me enjoy it.”

Chapter 396 - The Mysterious Identity

Protoss.

This race ruled over Eastern Jupiter.

Before the Protoss emerged, Eastern Jupiter had developed smoothly from the primitive era to the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, and then from the Iron Age to the industrial era and the age of firearms… The historical development of civilization in this course was no different from that of Earth.

But by the end of the first industrial revolution, the dawn of peace was hidden from view for a very long time after the eruption of a world war, which brought great destruction and immense casualties.

The Protoss arrived.

They came with an advanced warship that could destroy tens of thousands of troops at will and compelled all the military powers to capitulate. Then, the Protoss integrated all their resources and power, forcibly synthesizing a federation, a common language, and connecting rails… forging the current Eastern Jupiter into its present state. Of course, in the process, they encountered monumental resistance and amassed trillions of protestors. But they were all ruthlessly obliterated by the Protoss.

More than two hundred years had passed. The rule of the Protoss could now be considered invulnerable.

As the Protoss were scarce in their numbers, the surname of the Protoss was rare… shortly after Li Dong entered the Xihai No. 3 Middle School, he received a lot of attention because of his surname.

…

During spare time between classes.

Four girls were seated around one another.

The petite girl with short curly hair sitting at the first row glanced at Li Dong, who was sitting by the window, and shared gossip. “I heard that that surname, Touki, could only be taken by a Protoss. Ordinary people are not allowed to take this surname… could Touki Ryu possibly be a Protoss?”

“I don’t know.” the blonde-haired girl sitting at the opposite of the short-haired girl said while playing with her bangs. “Pretending to be a Protoss is a crime punishable by death. Besides, the status of the Protoss is way above the nobles, and their power and wealth are unimaginable. If he were to be one, he should be studying at the most superior aristocratic school. Why would he come to such an ordinary high school?”

“Mei, are you saying that…” The girl with a single blue ponytail sitting on the side of the desk also glanced at Li Dong. “The boys may be right. But are there really people who’d rather risk the death penalty to use the surname of the Protoss?”

She was stumped and thought, Is that new transfer student not scared of dying?

“Nanjo.”

At this moment, a girl with wavy red hair stood up and walked to the corner of the third row of desks while smirking. She leaned her body forward and talked into the ear of the girl with long. straight black hair who didn’t seem to be very sociable. “Nanjo, I heard that you’re from a very well-known aristocratic family. You must know some things about the upper class. So, have you ever heard of Touki?”

“Y-you—”

The girl with long, straight black hair raised her head violently and slammed her hands on the desk. Her expression was cold as ice and her eyes were blazing with anger.

Everyone in the class looked over.

“Feifei, don’t disturb Nanjo.”

The girl with a single blue ponytail walked over and pulled the red-haired girl away. She bowed to the long straight black-haired girl and said, “I’m sorry Nanjo, Feifei was too rude. I apologize on her behalf.”

“This is no big deal~”

Shangguan Feifei pouted and crossed her arms. “Just tell us if you know something, Nanjo, and if you don’t, just say that you don’t. Why do you keep everyone a thousand miles away from you? Is this what aristocrats do?”

Upon hearing this, a few girls sneered, covering their mouths.

The expression of the girl with long, straight black hair became even more ghastly. Her body was faintly shaking as her eyes began to tear up.

Aristocrat?

Due to involvement in a national-level corruption incident, the Nanjo’s were no longer aristocrats, and their head family members were imprisoned. She also had to bid adieu to her comfortable life as a Miss and was transferred to this ordinary high school.

Her rainbow, flamboyant life plummeted into a black and white hell, all in an instant. She also had to endure Shangguan Feifei who would often add insult to her injuries. She had had enough. She had had enough of this terrible life…Nanjo Masaharu clenched her first with tears in her eyes.

“Cut it out, Feifei.”

The girl with the single blue ponytail dragged Shangguan Feifei to a corner and whispered into her ears, “Although the Nanjo family has crumbled, they still have some influence in the political arena. Many of their members also have marriage ties with other nobles. If you treat Nanjo like this, you might get yourself in trouble.”

“Trouble?” Shangguan Feifei grinned. “My father is also an aristocrat. He can send me to the best university and arrange for me to join a big company after I graduate. He loves me and mummy, and he is the best dad… my future will be a hundred times brighter than Nanjo Masaharu’s!”

Even if you are just a despicable illegitimate daughter?

Nishihara Kaori muttered this in her heart as she glanced at Shangguan Feifei. She had to admit, even if she was an illegitimate daughter born of an aristocrat’s impulsive desires, her future would indeed still be a hundred times better than that of commoners like them.

Hence, she was warranted in adding salt to Nanjo Masaharu’s wounds.

But next to the Protoss, the aristocrats high above were nothing but dogs.

Thinking about this, Nishihara Kaori couldn’t help but squint at the corner of the last row by the windows. Who are you, Touki? An audacious commoner who is not afraid of death?

But there was something unusual about him.

For example, he was always two hours late for class, but the teacher never punished nor criticized him, simply allowing his behavior. Besides, he never concentrated in class. Many a time, he was caught absent-minded or even sleeping in class, but when the teacher asked him to answer questions, he was able to give the correct response every time. In PE class two days previously, Touki even showed off his amazing basketball skills. In a one-against-three, he defeated three basketball players who were rather skilled and earned himself a round of applause.

These far from ordinary performances made it easier for rich imaginings to hatch… especially in adolescent girls.

And so, they desired to unravel his mystery.

…

In the afternoon, after the second period of class.

Shangguan Feifei called the short-haired girl to the corridor and arranged a task for her. “Satoshi, after class, go approach Touki and ask him a few questions.”

Denen Satoshi flushed immediately. While rubbing her palms together, she said skittishly, “Fei… Feifei, wh… w-why must it be me? Won’t it be really rude?”

“I’ve discussed with Mei and the others. You are the best person to ask him this question.”

Shangguan Feifei looked at her and said, “You are petite, quiet, lovely, and very popular among the boys. If you are the one to ask Touki, he will definitely tell you a lot of things, including his identity.”

“Bu…b-but…” Denen Satoshi said breathily. “What if Touki doesn’t like to be questioned? He’ll get angry.”

“Relax. You are the boys’ sweetheart, and you’re so adorable, Touki will never hate you. At most, he’ll politely refuse.”

Shangguan Feifei patted her shoulders. “Satoshi, this is on you now. This weekend, I’ll take you to a classy restaurant and the amusement park.”

“Okay, I’ll try.”

Denen Satoshi could only accept this task.

…

After school.

In the corridor of the academic building.

Li Dong looked at the girl half a head shorter than him, who was blushing after asking him a question with an almost inaudible voice.

Li Dong shook his head. “I’m sorry Satoshi. I’m no Protoss, just a poor transfer student.”

Chapter 397 - The Mystery Intensifies

Denen Satoshi was shocked, and was immediately thrown into bewilderment.

“T-then why is your surname ‘Touki’? Only the Protoss can use that surname, right?” she asked.

“I don’t think there’s a law saying that this surname is exclusively for the Protoss. I was born with the name, anyway.”

“So, is your father’s and grandfather’s surname Touki as well?”

“It should be, but my father died when I was very little. My mother raised me until age ten and also died of illness… I don’t know much about my own identity.”

“Uh…? Y-your parents are no more?” Denen Satoshi quickly bowed and apologized. “I’m sorry, Touki, I shouldn’t have asked.”

“It’s fine.” Li Dong waved his hands. “It has been so many years. I’m already used to being alone.”

Looking at Li Dong who was bravely facing life with an optimistic smile, Denen Satoshi shed tears of empathy. “Touki, I am sorry, I am so, so sorry… I’m so bad with my words.”

“I’m really fine.” Li Dong patted her head gently. “Satoshi, thanks for your concern.”

“T-Touki…”

Feeling the warmth from his palm on the top of her head, Denen Satoshi shyly lowered her head as a layer of red masked her face.

“Alright now, we should be leaving, Satoshi. If you don’t have any more questions, let’s leave together.”

“Y-yes. I still have a question…” Denen Satoshi said with a faint voice. “I would like to know: why do you skip two classes every day? The school rule is that too many absences may cause a student to be expelled. Touki, is your house so far away from school that you have to skip class every day?”

“Nope.” Li Dong explained: “I have to work to support myself. I asked the teachers in advance, back when I transferred, if I could skip two classes every day in exchange for keeping myself in the top five of the class. They are very kind to have agreed to my request. This way, I could manage to earn enough to support myself. Correspondingly, to ensure that my academic performance stays on top, I use a lot of time after work to do review. As I frequently don’t have enough sleep, I often doze off in class.

“Satoshi, this is the real me, I hope you won’t mind that I’m poor,” Li Dong said with a sincere expression. The words he had prepared in advance had finally come in handy.

“Touki…”

Along with a loud cry, a soft object pounced into his embrace. “Touki, you are the strongest person I’ve ever met…” She wept. “Y-you… I-I’m so sad for you…”

The young lady sobbed out of sympathy.

“Satoshi, I’m really fine now. Please stop crying.”

It took quite a long time for Li Dong to calm the girl down. Using work as an excuse to leave, the two waved goodbye.

…

On the second day.

In Grade 2, Class F.

“Just a poor transfer student.

“Both of his parents are dead, and he lives alone. He needs to work until very late to earn a living. He has a serious lack of sleep, and so he often dozes off in class.”

The girls received this information.

In all honesty, Shangguan Feifei was slightly disappointed. The contrast with her expectations was too great. But she had to admit, “This could certainly explain everything unusual about Touki. But… why is his surname ‘Touki’? How can he use the surname of the Protoss?”

“I don’t know, Feifei.” Denen Satoshi shook her head. “Even Touki himself was unsure. His parents didn’t tell him anything.”

In the end… after going around a big circle, the most essential problem, “Touki’s real identity”, had yet to be demystified.

“Feifei, the only thing we can confirm is that Touki has no family, he lives alone, and he’s poor. He might be a Protoss, but is rather unlikely to be so… the Protoss would never live that kind of life—they will never let their own kin slump to the bottom,” Nishihara Kaori said, waving her blue ponytail about. Touki had uncouth behavior. Although he was gentle and courteous, he possessed no aristocratic demeanor, and could, at most, be described as “down-to-earth.”

Most certainly, Nishihara Kaori was not spiteful towards Touki for being this way. It was just that her curiosity toward and expectations of him were not as high as before.

“But I still think that Touki is not that simple.”

Ishinaka Mei, who had long, silky yellow hair, still had some doubts in her heart. “Touki Ryu was bestowed the surname ‘Touki,’ and was able to live in peace until 17 without changing his family name due to surrounding pressure. There is only one explanation for this, and that is: Touki is a descendant of the Protoss, and his paternal lineage allows him to legally use their surname… otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to survive past age six under the surrounding pressure.”

From this, it was deduced that Touki was surely an offspring of the Protoss.

But for various reasons, he was living his life in poverty.

Since Touki carried the blood of the Protoss, why didn’t he return to his ancestry and go lean on his Protoss relatives, or seek help from the government? He could also go to some speculative businessmen to regain the status to which he was entitled as a Protoss descendant, at the very least… shouldn’t these things be extremely easy to accomplish?

But…

The more the girls thought about it, the more confused they became; and the more they analyzed it, the messier it got.

Hence, there was no way for them to give Touki an accurate label, as they dared not rashly jump to conclusions.

…

Back at school, Li Dong sat down in his seat.

After class.

He was in a dozing state when he heard two voices in his ears.

“Touki…”

“Touki.”

Li Dong opened his eyes and saw two girls within his range of vision: Denen Satoshi, whom he had met the day before, and Nishihara Kaori, who had a blue single ponytail that looked vibrant and cheerful.

“Uhm, Satoshi, Kaori, do you girls… need something from me?”

“Touki, it’s noon now—it’s time for lunch. Did you bring your bento box?” Nishihara Kaori asked with a smile.

“Nope.” Li Dong shook his head. “I have no time to prepare a bento. I usually just grab some food from the cafeteria.”

“Why don’t you eat with us, Touki? I brought an extra bento today… take this as an apology for yesterday’s abruptness.” Denen Satoshi said, grabbing two bento boxes out of her bag and blushing.

Li Dong glanced at the pink lunchbox she was holding, and said after some thought, “Okay, then. Thank you very much.”

“Thanks, Touki.”

Denen Satoshi handed over a bento box with an apologetic heart. Now, all the girls in the class knew about the information she had asked him for yesterday. In a few days’ time, it would spread across the whole school. She didn’t know if whether Touki would get angry at her.

“Can I join you for lunch, Touki? I want to know more about you,” Nishihara Kaori asked.

“Sure.”

Li Dong gave a vibrant smile.

A few fierce eyes glared at him.

…

After school.

In some bushes outside the school compound.

“That bastard!”

“That phony just came to our class for a few days, and he got to taste a bento made by our adorable Satoshi and sit with my goddess Nishihara! That son of a b*tch! He cannot be forgiven!”

“That little shithead will pass by here later. Let’s gang up on him and let him have a taste of our fists.”

“Outsiders should stay away from our baes!”

The three boys clamored and slipped masks onto their heads, waiting for the b*stard to arrive.

Chapter 398 - Stand Treat

On the way home.

With a sudden jittering sound in his ears, Li Dong halted his footsteps.

“Show yourselves,” He spoke. “I can smell your scent. Ah, yes, a scent of hostility.”

“Hahaha!”

A burst of penetrating laughter pierced through the air as three masked boys appeared with their hands stuffed in their pockets. They surrounded Li Dong in the middle of the road, with two in front and one at the back. Both sides of the street were lined with tall bushes, and Li Dong had no way of escape.

“Hey, new kid, did you know? We’re not quite pleased with you,” said the tall masked boy, rubbing his knuckles.

“You had better be nice and stay down. Relax; my gentle fists will not greet your face.”

“Why don’t you kneel and beg for forgiveness? You can call us daddy and crawl under our crotches. Perhaps then you’ll get to suffer less,” the shortest masked boy said with his legs open, pointing at his crotch.

“Shintora, Sakyu Akagi, Mio Takao… I assume that it is you guys?”

What?

The three were shocked.

“How’s that possible?”

“How did you recognize us?”

“Huhuh, you think that will save you a beating? Aren’t you too naïve there, my man Touki?”

Shintora, who was their leader, walked forward while cracking his neck. “I know a special boxing technique. When my fist lands on my man Touki’s head, he will forget everything that happened today and will be unable to accuse us in front of the teacher. This technique is called… the Fist of the Memory Reaper.”

“Cool!”

“Well, looks like we have no other choice. Let’s beat him up until he forgets everything, huhuhuh.”

The two other masked boys let out a peal of smug laughter.

“Are you guys stupid?” Li Dong said wearily. “I can unleash a 580-kilogram force punch with my left fist, and 660 kilograms with my right. The explosive power of my leg can reach more than 800 kilograms… Are you sure you want to challenge me?”

What?

The three were shocked once again. Their faces were sweating. That can’t be true, right?

How could high schoolers such as them withstand a 500- or 600-kilogram force punch?

“Stop making preposterous jokes!”

Shintora sped up while running and slammed his fists into Li Dong. “Stay down, scum! You are really annoying!”

“Together!”

The other two also charged in with their fists.

Boff, biff, bam…

“Damn it, his body is as hard as iron.”

“He’s fast. I can’t catch up with his speed.”

“Argh! P-p-pain!”

“We are sorry, Touki! We are sorry! Please forgive us!”

It took a few minutes.

The three masked boys kneeled before Li Dong in a row, begging for mercy. Their eyes were full of fear as they looked at Li Dong before them.

Monster.

He was literally a monster. They were no match for him. After taking just one or two punches, their thought of exerting dominance over him immediately vanished, and was replaced with pleading for mercy.

“I’ll be heading back. I still have to work to do. Another thing, if you ever think of bothering me again, I implore you to think of this stone first.”

He leaned over and picked up a three-inch-thick marble brick from the ground, took it in his left hand, and forcefully smashed it with his right fist.

Krrrr… The brick shattered into dozens of pieces and fell in front of Shintora and the others.

“Ah!”

“M-m-monster!”

“T-T-T-Touki! Forgive us! Please!”

The three were scared to such an extent that their souls left their bodies.

The figure of Li Dong’ back was already far in the distance.

…

He took off the virtual helmet to let his brain rest for a while.

Li Dong knew why three of his classmates—Shintora, Sakyu Akagi, and Mio Takao—had come to him looking for trouble.

Firstly, in PE class a few days ago, he brutally wrecked them in a one-versus-three basketball match, earning himself a spot in the limelight.

Secondly, because of his surname, the girls in his class had been very curious and concerned about him recently. This further intensified the hatred Shintora and the others had for him, an outsider. For them to take certain “actions” to put him down was entirely justifiable.

“But… the person you’re challenging is a God, the supreme God who rules over the planet. Even the basic attributes of my divine body are comparable to the top athletes and boxers. Even unarmed, I can still easily go against ten enemies.

“And if I were to be killed, I could be ‘revived’ infinitely. As long as the ‘Tallest Tower’ still stands, I will remain the Lord of Eastern Jupiter.

“In front of my people, I am invincible.”

…

After the events of that ambush.

Shintora and the others never gave Li Dong any trouble again. Instead, their bodies quivered every time they saw him, just like when rats see a cat.

But for some unknown reason, It seemed like Denen Satoshi liked him or something, since she brought two bento boxes for three consecutive days—one of which was naturally for Li Dong.

Noon of that day.

Li Dong took the delicate pink bento and placed it in front of himself. However, he did not open it, even after a very long time.

“What’s the matter, Touki? Does the food not suit your appetite?” Denen Satoshi asked, looking at him strangely. Why was Touki not eating?

“Uhm…”

Li Dong hesitated for a while, but still told her. “In all honesty Satoshi, I actually… have a huge appetite. For a bento of this size, I might need five of them to just fill my stomach, and I can eat more of them.”

“I’m really sorry, Satoshi, please forgive me for being rude. I’ll like to go to the canteen and eat a little more today. Why don’t I treat you to a meal tomorrow, Satoshi.”

Upon finishing, he handed the bento back, stood up, and bowed. He left the classroom and headed straight towards the school canteen.

“Ah…”

Denen Satoshi felt like she had been struck by lightning. She kept her head low and blushed to the back of her ears.

She wasn’t getting flushed because of shyness, but because of awkwardness—an awkwardness that made her want to stick her head in the ground.

She was petite, and her appetite was the smallest among all the girls in the class. Touki, on the other hand, was a boy more than 180 centimeters tall, but he was eating a bento almost the same amount as hers. There was no doubt that Touki was not getting enough.

She, however, had brought Touki bento boxes for five consecutive days,

“Ah!”

Denen Satoshi couldn’t help herself from letting out a loud wail. She held her face in her hands. “I’m done for. He hates me. Touki definitely hates me now. He will never like a stupid girl like me.”

…

In the school’s high-end restaurant.

Li Dong ordered half a table of dishes.

On the whole, they were the most expensive dishes: squid, sizzled steak, a chicken drumstick in a brown sauce, fried sea prawn, takoyaki, and so on, costing more than 300 dollars in total… usually, he would be able to buy a scrumptious meal for just 30 to 50 dollars.

Li Dong speared a Takoyaki and tossed it into his mouth. He savored its deliciousness and sighed.

“In the end, the dishes here are still more to my taste.

“Satoshi’s bento actually doesn’t taste bad, but it is always just a few foods. It has lots of vegetables and less meat, and I can’t even see oil on any of them. Only a couple more times and I would be sick of it. Saying that I eat a lot is just an excuse. This body of mine can go a long time without food, as the system will automatically replenish my energy… I’m so sorry, Satoshi.”

Besides, in this game world, as the supreme ruler of this planet, enjoying life was completely normal, especially in terms of food. Li Dong did not want to deny himself. After all, the food on this planet was quite delectable.

However, through observation, Li Dong discovered that most of his classmates at school did not eat well. For the sake of saving money, most of them would bring bento boxes to school. Their food was rather plain. Turnips, potatoes, and eggs, mixed with some common fruits… only a few of them ate lavishly every meal.

Reasonably speaking, with the technological level and production capacity of Eastern Jupiter, it would not be difficult to make it so that commoners at the bottom of society would have meat and fish in every meal. However, due to the gap between the rich and the poor, the solidification of social classes, and the high costs of education, medical, and accommodation which took up a large portion of household expenses, commoners at the bottom mostly live a frugal life. It was rare for people to eat over 300 dollars in a high-end restaurant like him.

He immediately attracted the attention of his contemporaries dining in the restaurant.

“That’s more than 10 dishes. Can he finish them alone?”

“He ordered all the few most expensive dishes; Is he the son of a boss or something?”

“A normal person could never finish all that unless he were an eating champion. Should I join tables with him? I have not eaten chicken drumstick in brown sauce for a very long time…” said the lean and tall student who only had one dish in front of him, drooling.

“Feifei, isn’t that Touki from our class?”

Ishinaka Mei who was from an average family, and had such close ties with Shangguan Feifei that they often ate together, noticed Li Dong sitting alone in the corner. She stood up in surprise and spouted these words while looking at Li Dong, who was facing away from them. She also saw the sumptuous dishes Li Dong ordered, which were enough for four or five girls.

“Touki?”

Shangguan Feifei stood up and was somewhat surprised. “That’s really Touki! hHow can he afford so many dishes? Aren’t those worth more than half a month of his living expenses? He seems more extravagant than I am; where did he get so much money?”

“Feifei, I think this is just something occasional for Touki—maybe once every six months or a year. Perhaps from tomorrow onwards, he will only have a bowl of rice for every meal paired with free soup and small dishes, just like the poorest students in the school… Touki said himself that he’s just a poor transfer student. At his level of poverty, he can’t sustain such an exorbitant lifestyle,” Ishinaka Mei analyzed.

Shangguan Feifei nodded while she looked at Li Dong’s back. “So he’s choosing to ease the despair of being poor in this way? Understandable, understandable.”

By that time, they were basically full. They left the restaurant and returned to the classroom.

Swiftly, gossip was repeated among the girls. News such as “Touki just had a big meal” and “He spent more than 300” spread like wildfire, and was made known to all the girls in the class.

Denen Satoshi, too, caught wind of these rumors.

She immediately covered her face and was about to cry.

“I didn’t expect Touki to be that hungry. It must be because of my bento.”

“300 dollars—it’s more than a month of my pocket money. I made Touki spend all of that in just a single meal.”

“Denen Satoshi! No matter what, in the face of such losses, you should make compensation!”

Denen Satoshi made up her mind.

…

“Ah. Finished.”

Li Dong finished all of the half-a-table of dishes, but he did not feel at all bloated. Food that entered his belly was completely transformed into NULL data, becoming clouds of air.

After all, in reality, his body did not eat anything. No matter how he ate in the game, his body, in reality, would not feel any fullness. That feeling was unnecessary; otherwise, under the game’s deceptive effect, players might starve to death in reality and be completely unaware of it.

“He actually finished all of them! My chicken drumstick in brown sauce! My Takoyaki!”

The lean and tall student who had been sitting next to him, waiting, was looking at the almost emptied plates. All of a sudden, he felt dejected and lost.

…

The next day.

It was time for lunch again.

“Let’s go, Satoshi! Let’s go for lunch together. Today’s on me,” Li Dong said, coming up beside Denen Satoshi’s desk.

“No, let me, Touki… I’m so sorry for these few days, Touki. I must treat you to a meal today,” Denen Satoshi said with her head lowered. Her perspiring palm clasped on the purse in her pocket which contained all of her pocket money. In order to restore Touki’s impression of her, she was already prepared to go bankrupt.

“It must be me today, Satoshi.”

Li Dong said with a serious look, “Although your bento was not enough for me, I could feel your kindness and your heart in it, Satoshi. My heart will not be at ease if I do not treat you to a meal today. I would become an ungrateful person who was not worthy of being your friend. If you’re not willing to go, Satoshi, I will have to bear a huge psychological burden in my heart… Satoshi, please let me treat you to a meal.”

“This…”

Denen Satoshi did not expect Touki to be so grateful over those few bento boxes. She felt both moved and ashamed. Seeing his persistence, she said, “Fine, you treat me today, and tomorrow, it’ll be my turn!”

“Sure. Now let’s go.”

Li Dong nodded. At a glance, he saw Nishihara Kaori, who had eaten a few meals with him, taking out her lunch box. He walked two steps towards her and said, “Kaori, let’s go. Come with us to the school cafeteria. Today we won’t eat bento. I will treat both of you to a sumptuous meal.”

“Ah…”

Nishihara Kaori looked at him. After it crossed her mind that she had not gone to the school cafeteria for a long time, she slid her bento box back in her bag and nodded. “Then I will also treat you both to a meal next time.”

The three went to the school cafeteria together.

…

After all the dishes were served at the table.

Denen Satoshi’s and Nishihara Kaori’s mouths were wide open.

There were exactly twenty dishes, which almost filled up the whole table. What’s more, most of them were the more expensive ones. The total cost could not be less than 500 dollars. It was the equivalent of an ordinary student’s living expenses for a month. But at this moment, it was the expenditure for three to have a single meal… absolutely an act of extravagance.

They drew the attention of many other students.

“I’m gonna start now.”

Li Dong glided his chopsticks forward and began to revel in the table of delicacies, ignoring the gaze of the others.

However, Denen Satoshi and Nishihara Kaori had not picked up their chopsticks. Although they couldn’t help but gulp a few times as they sniffed the tempting aroma of the high-class cuisine, they have no intentions to feast on it.

There were only two voices in their minds: “How am I supposed to treat him back the next time if I eat all these?”, and “How did Touki have so much money?”

Didn’t Touki say that he is just a poor transfer student? Could someone poor afford such a high standard of living?”

“Satori, Kaori, why aren’t you both eating?” Li Dong called to them. “Are the dishes not appetizing? Should we add a few of your favorite foods?”

“N-no, no, no.” Denen Satoshi waved her hands flurriedly. “I-I’m not hungry now.”

Nishihara Kaori said, “I ate too much during breakfast. I don’t have much appetite now, huhuhu.” She giggled.

“Relax. I work hard every day just to eat better and classier food. Although I am poor, it’s no problem for me to maintain such a high standard in eating. I’m really good at work, by the way…”

Perhaps out of awareness of their concerns, Li Dong gave this explanation.

“Touki!”

Nishihara Kaori raised her head forcibly and asked, “How much can you earn every day?”

Denen Satoshi also looked at him curiously.

Chapter 399 - Basketball Club

“A little more than 300 a day, I think. I can earn even more on weekends,” Li Dong said. Of course, this was one-hundred-percent a joke. Why would he go to work?

This was just to find a suitable reason and excuse for his source of income. Being penniless was a no-no. In all the anime that Li Dong had seen, he had discovered that, no matter how pathetic looking a protagonist was, they would still have a ball in whatever they happened to enjoy. It was impossible for him to strictly abide by the “poor” character set and actually order nothing but a large portion of rice for every single meal… That would truly make things meaningless.

Eastern Jupiter’s annual financial revenue exceeded 10 trillion dollars, and all of this money belonged to Li Dong. Taking out three to five hundred dollars every day to fulfill his needs for good food… this was, without a doubt, being thrifty and showing restraint to the =extreme.

“More than 300 dollars?”

“The job that my dad has worked for 20 years only earns him 7000 to 8000 per month.”

Denen Satoshi and Nishihara Kaori were both shocked. Touki was so impressive. How could he earn as much as an adult doing just a high-school student’s part-time?

But an even more inquisitive question arose.

“Touki, I’m sorry, but can I ask you—what job exactly are you doing? I’ve worked at a restaurant before. The hourly pay is only 10 dollars, in general. The other part-time jobs don’t offer high wages, either. What is the scope of your job, Touki?” Nishihara Kaori asked with her head lowered. She knew that this question was a little abrupt and rude, but she couldn’t hold down the curiosity in her heart.

If she were able to do the part-time Touki was doing, she would like to give it a try as well.

“Uhm, how should I put this… the thing is, this part-time job that I’m doing is not suitable for girls. It is very physically demanding. Even I can just barely manage.” Li Dong scratched his head, not wanting to reveal any more information.

“Kaori, don’t push it, it’s really rude,” Denen Satoshi reminded her.

“I’m sorry, Touki.”

Nishihara Kaori bowed and apologized. But based on the information that Li Dong disclosed, and hearing keywords like ‘physically demanding,’ she vaguely concluded that he must be working as a porter or a similar kind of job which was hard but paid well.

Upon having the thought that Touki had to shoulder everything that only an adult should at such a young age, she couldn’t help herself from sympathizing and feeling sad for him. Looking at the dishes on the table, she saw images of Touki pushing himself hard at work in her mind, which made her even more reluctant to move her chopsticks.

“Dig in.” Li Dong welcomed both of them to it. “Satoshi, Kaori, the dishes are turning cold. I can’t finish all these myself. I said I’d treat you both to a meal, so don’t worry about anything else.”

To drive away their concerns, he added, “If you want to treat me the next time, just bring me a bigger bento.”

His words made the two girls blush and compelled them to pick up their chopsticks.

…

Grade 2, Class F.

“What?”

“Touki ordered a table full of dishes at the school restaurant again, even more sumptuous than yesterday. I think he spent at least 500 dollars.”

Shangguan Feifei almost dropped her chopsticks. Her face went idle as she looked at the delicate bento in front of her. After all, even she herself did not drop by the school cafeteria every day. Occasionally, she would also bring a bento.

Touki, however, had already shown off by spending lavishly twice.

“Liar, liar!” Shangguan Feifei mumbled. “You said yourself that you’re poor. And now, you have gone to the school cafeteria—which you should be going to only once in six months or a year—twice in a row and spent three months’ worth of your living expenditures. Huhuhuh, Mr. Touki, my noble Protoss, are you here at this school in search of your Cinderella? And do you happen to fancy me, the gorgeous, lively, and kind Shangguan Feifei? Ah, well, I’ll give you a chance to woo me, then.”

Of course, her premise was that he was truly a Protoss.

“Feifei, Feifei.”

Ishinaka Mei’s voice echoed in her ears. “You’re almost drooling. Wipe it off quickly.”

As a close acquaintance, Ishinaka Mei knew what her friend was thinking. Her analysis was: “Two instances of lavish spending don’t necessarily mean that Touki has that much money to spare. It’s only telling us that he is not as poor as we imagined. There’s still no proof that he’s a Protoss. We still have to keep on observing him before we draw any conclusions.”

“Hmm. That makes sense.”

Shangguan Feifei took a handkerchief and wiped the corner of her mouth. She had to admit that what Ishinaka Mei had told her made sense.

Their observation efforts would still have to go on.

…

“Ah… My tummy is all full.” Nishihara Kaori patted her belly.

“Touki, I’ll treat you to something in return next time, but we’ll do it outside the school. The prices outside are not expensive, and the food tastes good as well,” said Denen Satoshi.

“Sure.”

Li Dong nodded.

The three chatted all the way back to the classroom, which attracted the attention of many students.

…

After the first period of class in the afternoon, both Denen Satoshi and Nishihara Kaori were yanked to the end of the corridor by Shangguan Feifei. She asked them a few questions about the meal to which Touki treated them at noon.

“570 dollars in total.”

“The money is earned by Touki himself. He said that he could earn more than 300 dollars every day, and even more on weekends… Touki is a person who is very good at making money.”

“But he is also very good at spending. How much can he save every month if he eats so lavishly for every meal?”

Denen Satoshi, whose family had always been thrifty habitually, fell into her calculative mode. She found that, if Touki spent around 10 dollars for each meal, he could save at least 7,000 dollars every month, which was a very significant number. And this was only Touki during his high-school period. He was already so good at earning money. After he graduated, his income would only get higher. There were even hopes for him to squeeze into the middle class and live a better life.

Thinking about this, Denen Satoshi’s cheeks blushed involuntarily. Unwittingly, she placed herself into the role of a “housewife.”

In fact, her reaction was completely normal. 1.8 meters tall, handsome, a pro basketball player, gentle, considerate, very good at earning money…such a man was definitely a catch of the absolute highest quality, who could easily make the hearts of people feel at ease.

He was gradually coming to coincide with the ideal companion in Denen Satoshi’s mind. Immediately, she shyly lowered her head and played with her fingers.

“Part-time job? More than 300 dollars a day?”

What kind of job would pay so much?

Shangguan Feifei was doubtful about it. The purchasing power of 300 dollars was indeed very high. Even for a formal job, not many positions would pay someone an average of more than 300 dollars per day. As a high school student, how did Touki managed to do it?

A mystery.

It was another mystery that would need to be unveiled.

“Eh? Why is your face red, Satoshi?” Shangguan Feifei noticed the unusual occurrence at a glance.

“N-nothing.”

Denen Satoshi shook her head and said, “But I think Touki is likely normal person. The world of the Protoss and nobles is different. In all aspects, Touki looks nothing out of the ordinary. Feifei… we don’t have to pay too much attention to Touki.”

Denen Satoshi didn’t know why she said these words, but she still raised the point, regardless.

“Oh…”

Shangguan Feifei glanced at her, the corner of her mouth rising slightly. “You’re moved by him already, Satoshi? You seem easily satisfied. But for now, don’t even think about him. Until I peel open all his secrets, nobody shall grab my toy.

“Got it?”

She made her tone harsh, and a chilling glare flashed through her eyes.

“You misunderstood, Feifei. I never had such intentions.” Denen Satoshi anxiously waved her hands and helplessly lowered her head.

“Hmph…”

Shangguan Feifei crossed her arms and haughtily returned to the classroom.

…

Basketball Club.

Li Dong came to this place and made an application to join the basketball club.

Morido Shenli was the president of the basketball club. A remarkably oppressive figure, he was 1.9 meters tall and wrapped in explosive muscles.

“Touki Ryu. What a weird surname. So, you wish to join my basketball club?” Morido Shenli said to him expressionlessly after going through his application form.

“Yeah. I love basketball a lot, and I think I’m made for the basketball club. Please allow me to join, club president,” Li Dong said, nodding.

“Not everyone can join the basketball club. We do not recruit amateur players. The court is limited. We are only recruiting good players.”

“Relax, my skills will never be worse than anyone else’s.” Li Dong’s face was bursting with confidence.

“Presumptuous!” Morido Shenli grunted loudly. “Basketball is a team-based sport. This attitude of yours is not suitable for playing basketball. You may leave now.”

“Huh?” Li Dong was shocked. “President, are you rejecting me before I can even showcase my skills?”

“Yup. You don’t have to show me anything. I will not take you in, even if you are a basketball prodigy.” Morido Shenli turned over and walked towards the changing room.

Dafuq? Li Dong thought.

Now, there’s someone who is not easy to deal with.

Are my plans to join the basketball club dashed? Can you treat your juniors unscrupulously like this after you become the president of the club?

Li Dong’s heart was engulfed in flames.

At that moment, three familiar figures walked in: Shintora, Sakyu Akagi, and Mio Takao.

They immediately noticed Touki, who was standing at the entrance, and the application form he was holding in his hands.

“Touki Ryu?”

“Why is he here?”

“Why is he standing there?”

The three of them broke into a light sweat on their foreheads. They carefully walked past Li Dong and, at the same time, took a good look at the contents of the application form.

“He’s applying to join the club.”

“Even that guy wants to join the basketball club.”

“Eh, the president is in the changing room. He’s waiting for the president.”

The three looked at each other. Later on, they nodded to one another with a scheme in their minds.

After changing attire, basketball club president Morido Shenli came out wearing a blue basketball tee with a towel hanging on his neck.

Shintora and the others approached him.

“What are you doing here? Why aren’t you changing?” Morido Shenli said, giving them a look.

“President, you must not let that guy at the entrance into the basketball club.”

“President, that guy at the entrance is a jerk. He will ruin everything in the club.”

“Yea president, you must not agree to him joining, no matter what,” the three said, one after another.

“What are you guys talking about?”

Morido Shenli let loose a cold glare from his eyes. He really couldn’t understand what the three imbeciles were saying.

Shintora and the others were terrified by his fierce expression, and they immediately became incoherent:

“P-president, that guy is the same as you! He is a spine-chilling monster!”

“We went against him the last time around. It was us three versus him alone, but we got bested one to eight. Even we three combined were no match for him.”

“President, once he enters the basketball club, disregarding what happens to us—he will take away even your dignity, fame, and pride! President, you must not let that guy enter the club!”

The three were trying their best to describe how terrifying Li Dong was.

“What?”

Morido Shenli clenched his fists, and his breathing became heavier than ever. His eyes seemed to be fuming.

He shoved the three away and went directly towards the entrance.

At that moment, Li Dong also approached. He was coming straight towards Morido Shenli without any expression on his face.

The two advanced until their faces almost collided.

The surrounding air was suffused with the smell of gunpowder, and there seemed to be lighting and thunder revolving the two.

Shintora and the others were elated. Huhuh, he pissed off the president, who is hailed the “human tyrannosaur.” That brat is dead meat.

“10 shots.”

He heard Li Dong say, “Let’s have 10 shots on the court. If I win, allow me to join the club. If I lose, I’ll let you beat me up. How’s that?”

Morido Shenli stretched out his hand and lifted it up high.

Wooh… that brat’s gonna take a beating. Shintora’s face was full of anticipation. A good show was about to begin.

Bam.

Morido Shenli slammed his hands into the basketball cart beside him and took out a ball. With the ball pressed between his hands, he said, “Let’s head to the court.”

Pff…

Shintora and the other two almost stumbled.

…

The outdoor basketball court.

Two tall figures were competing for a basket and contending with each other in a fierce one-“v”-one match.

Bam. A violent collision like wrestling between two armored warriors.

Bshh! The explosion of a powerful slam dunk.

Boom. Ferocious flames swirled down from the sky.

Zlopp! One of the towering figures fell heavily onto the ground.

Donk! The last dunk sounded.

“Ah… Ahhh!!” The few girls watching the match from the court’s sidelines screamed.

At last, this one-versus-one basketball match wrapped up in a 3:7.

After his slam dunk, Li Dong walked to Morido Shenli, who was still lying on the ground. He reached out his hand to him and said, “President Shenli, am I eligible to join the club now?”

“Haha…”

“Hahaha…”

Morido Shenli, who was on the floor, abruptly burst into breezy laughter.

“There’s hope now! This year’s Shengjing High School Basketball League, hahaha—now, we have hopes of being the champs!”

Morido Shenli stood up himself, beat the dust off his back, stretched his hand towards Li Dong, and said, “Welcome to the basketball club, monster.”

“Thank you, president.”

Li Dong shook hands with him with a smile on his face.

Joining the basketball club: success!

…

“Damn it!”

“That bastard succeeded again!”

“I never expected that Shenli would let such a guy join the basketball club. Is he totally disregarding the risk of being overpowered by a freshie, just for a city basketball league champion title?”

“Uhm, he will be graduating at the end of this term. A championship is the only thing he wants, even if it means working with the devil,” Mio Takao said. Everybody knew president Morido’s dedication in pursuit of the title of champion. It was completely plausible for him to make such a move.

“We must stop that bastard!”

With an expression stuffed with unwillingness, Shintora said, “That guy just came a few days ago and has taken away all the girl’s attention—took away our opportunity to play in the match—took away just…everything from us!”

“I can’t let this go past me without teaching him a lesson.”

“How could we teach him a lesson?”

Sakyu Akagi, who had a head of blonde hair, said, “We’ve seen him fight. Our bones are not tougher than that piece of brick.”

“Relax, I have a way.” Shintora grinned. “That brat is eating classy food every day. Each of his lunch costs no less than 300 dollars. How did he get the money? What kind of work is he doing? The girls may not know, but I do! Huhuh, I know your secret, Touki!”

“Eh? What’s Touki’s secret, Shintora?”

Both Sakyu Akagi and Mio Takao were intrigued.

Chapter 400 - Underground Boxer

In the following few days, a rumor that originated from nowhere spread through the entire Xihai No. 3 High School.

It triggered an outbreak of gossip that occurred in private:

“Woah, who would have expected that new guy Touki to be doing that kind of part-time job?”

“Yeah, how else would he be getting paid so much, if he doesn’t sacrifice that handsome and strong body of his?”

“He earns more than 300 dollars every night, only to be completely out of sorts the next day in class. He has to supplement his body with loads of protein and nutrients during lunchtime to sustain his monstrous physical strength.”

“I thought only girls would do such a part-time job. Who’d have known that guys could do it as well? but having a durable body is a must.”

“Tsk… Just thinking about it makes me sick. But Touki is tall, handsome, and muscular. He really does have what it takes to earn a load from that job.”

“I wonder what street is Touki working on? I have a little itch in my heart to go and try out Touki’s abilities, hehehe…”

…

About half a month later.

After completing his usual basketball training, Li Dong, who had finally realized that he was shrouded by a strange atmosphere, halted two students after school and found out something rather fascinating.

“This rumor…is unbelievably sinful.”

Li Dong opened his mouth wide as a few things finally became clear for him.

“This is why Satoshi hasn’t come to talk to me these past few days, and has subconsciously avoided me when she sees me.

“Ordinary friends, whom I could normally schmooze and share a few words with, have distanced themselves from me. Almost none of them are willing to talk to me.

“On the court, except for president Shenli, none of my teammates will pass the ball to me, unless I snatch it from them myself.

“I can also vaguely feel people pointing fingers at me from behind my back and hear the sound of them giggling at me.”

But unfortunately, none of these things affected Li Dong. After all, players rarely pay attention to the NPC’s views and ideas.

But if things have been going on for a while, and everyone is looking at you with a weird glare, it is highly difficult to ignore them completely. Even Li Dong detested such an atmosphere.

Hence, he held two students back and threw some questions at them.

And the upshot of this…

After learning the truth of those rumors and becoming fully aware of what the others were gossiping about, Li Dong had the urge to chop down certain people with an ax.

“Damn!”

Li Dong clenched his fist.

But he reacted too late this time around. The rumor had already spread across the Xihai High School and was already known to all. Even if he were to track down the rumormonger and order him or her to apologize and deny the rumors, it wouldn’t do him any good.

The amount of energy necessary to refute a rumor was an order of magnitude bigger than the energy to produce it.

Therefore, compared to hunting for the rumormonger, who would most certainly deny the claims, the utmost priority now was to refute the rumors and regain his innocence. Otherwise, he could not stay in this school for long in the midst of such an atmosphere.

…

During the break between classes.

The people in the class gathered around in circles and began discussion.

Denen Satoshi, who sat in the first row, couldn’t resist glancing at the back corner of the classroom: Touki was sleeping.

She looked miffed, thinking, “Are you not defending yourself at all? Or is that really the truth?”

“Feifei, you seem to have no interest at all in Touki right now?” Ishinaka Mei said. “Didn’t you say that he’s your toy?”

“The fact is obvious, isn’t it?” Shangguan Feifei said faintly. “If someone stood up and denied the rumors when it had just come out, or at least tried to defend him before it was too late, perhaps he could have gotten everyone to trust him and kept his personal image. Sadly, Touki didn’t do anything, stayed silent all the way, and allowed the rumors to ferment. This, in fact, is an admission by silence.

“I have no hopes for this kind of toy, sigh…” Shangguan Feifei shook her head regretfully. “After all, I am a fine lady who hopes to marry into a noble family. I must refrain from interacting with those filthy things.”

“What if…Touki was framed?”

A mosquito-like voice sounded, but it clearly drummed in the ears of several girls.

They went idle for a second.

Denen Satoshi.

She faintly lifted her head, and with a gentle, yet firm tone, said, “What if we all have misunderstood Touki? What if he’s that sort of person, but it’s all because he has some difficulties?”

“Satoshi.”

Nishihara Kaori stretched out her hands, tugged at her, and sent a message with her eyes: “Satoshi, stop.” You will get shunned if the others hear you.

“Oh? What a kind lady.”

Shangguan Feifei sneered and jerked her chin in the direction of Li Dong. “Are you still willing to accept him, even if that’s the way he is? I see that the demands you have for your partner are…ridiculously low, Satoshi.”

“I’m sorry, Feifei. Satoshi didn’t mean that. Please forgive her for her utterance.” Nishihara Kaori’s expression changed as she swiftly apologized.

Denen Satoshi lowered her head.

…

After the bell rang.

The students were packing their bags and leaving the classroom one after another.

Denen Satoshi carelessly put her books in her bag. She seemed lost in her thoughts.

“Satoshi.”

A tall person stood before her. “I would like to ask for your help with something, Do you have time?”

“Touki.”

Denen Satoshi lifted her head. Shadowed as if by the curtain from the sunset outside the window, the man in front of her looked like the great god of war.

“Uhhh—wh… What’s the matter?” While talking, she couldn’t help herself from gradually lowering her head.

Li Dong took out a camera from his backpack.

“I hear some despicable rumors these days. I thought I didn’t have to worry about them, but they have worsened to the extent that they are now affecting my everyday life. To erase what the rumors claim about me, and for me to revert back to my normal life, I have to do a couple of things to save my reputation.”

“Touki?!” Denen Satoshi lifted her head in glee. “S-so you are really being framed? Y-you are not doing that kind of part-time job?”

Li Dong scowled, “Even you believed that sort of rumor?”

“No, no, no.” Denen Satoshi waved her hands. “How could I possibly believe in that kind of thing?”

She smiled helplessly. Why didn’t Touki explain himself sooner, so that the others wouldn’t have made wild guesses and reached the conclusion that silence equaled admitting to the truth?

“That’s great. I’m glad that you still believe in me Satoshi.”

He held the camera in front of Denen Satoshi. “You know how to use this kind of camera, right? I’ll bring you to where I’m working later. Take this camera and record me working, then show it to the others to let them see my whole work process. I believe that would clear up the misunderstandings.”

What?

Denen Satoshi took two steps backward out of shock, while a red surge flushed through her face.

Taking a video of Touki working, and then showing it to the others, w-wouldn’t that be…

Many NSFW images drifted through her mind.

“Thud~”

Her forehead was flicked by a finger. The pain dispelled the picture that her brain unwittingly made up.

“What are you thinking?”

Li Dong placed the camera between her arms, “I’m not gonna explain more. Just follow me, and you will understand everything.”

…

More than an hour later.

In some underground boxing arena in the city.

Holding the camera in her hands and facing the ring where two shirtless muscle men were fiercely fighting against each other and hearing the fanatic screams of the countless audiences.

Everything became clear for Denen Satoshi:

“So Touki’s working as a part-time underground boxer?”

Chapter 401 - Denying Rumors

Li Dong played a total of three boxing matches in the course of the night.

He defeated all three adult boxers in a short period of time, causing the audience to cheer wildly.

As Satoshi video recorded the proceedings of the three games, she felt her body trembling, and her eyes filling with tears.

17 years old.

Touki was only 17 years old.

However, he was already shouldering such tremendous pressure in order to survive. He was fighting in the grown-up world before way before his time, feeding himself by using his fists tenaciously. He fought for his survival by enduring the risk of getting hurt.

In contrast, as someone whose only job was to study seriously, her life seemed hundreds of times more blessed than his.

Her heart ached so much that her tears began to fall.

After the game was over, Touki took Satoshi home.

“Actually, I don’t intend to do this job until the end of time.

“I have to give my all to defeat at least three opponents every day, just to get the $100 prize money per win. If I lose, I get nothing.

“I am very strong and I haven’t lost a single match so far. I have knocked down more than a thousand opponents, but I am not happy about it. Because each win means that I’ve hurt someone once. I cause pain for others and create painful memories for them… I’m a total villain.

“However, I have no choice but to do this for tuition, living expenses, and survival. I can only stop causing injury to others when I get excellent results and enroll in a university that provides a full scholarship. Then I will be able to apologize to those whom I’ve defeated and start my new life.

“Now, all of my plans have been destroyed by the rumors. The school does not object to students doing part-time work, but they are absolutely against students fighting in underground boxing matches. Once the truth is announced, I’ll probably lose this well-paying job.

“But this is a good thing, anyway. This way, I can at least stop causing injury to others, and my heart feels much lighter now. It’s just that my income from other part-time jobs will be significantly lower, and the coming days will be difficult.

“Ah… in short, there are pros and cons. A path will appear under my feet as long as I keep moving forward,” Li Dong said with a sigh.

His tone was one of helplessness and relief.

“Touki, you…you have a really hard life!”

Satoshi’s sympathy exploded from her, and she sobbed loudly. “It’s much too difficult for you to live alone. I will take care of you, I will help you! Let me be your support! I can’t give you money, but I can bring you an extra-large bento box every day.”

“Nah, I’m fine.” Li Dong waved his hand. “No matter what, I can support myself without any problems. You don’t have to worry about this. Also, I’m very grateful to you. Thank you for your trust in me. Especially when rumors are flying around like this, this precious trust is better than anything. Thank you very much.”

“It’s not like that, Touki!”

Unexpectedly, Satoshi became more agitated, and her tears flowed even more freely. “I’d also believed those rumors before today and had suspicions about you! I am a despicable person who has no opinions. I’m someone who just follows the herd… I am not worthy of your trust. I don’t deserve the word ‘trust’!”

Looking at Denen Satoshi, Li Dong saw that she was completely serious. He was stunned.

He reached out and patted her head with his hand, smiling. “What a straightforward girl. Maybe that’s why my first thought was to ask for your help.”

“Ah…”

Satoshi stared blankly at him, and a flush came over her cheeks.

…

The next day.

A shocking video spread quickly within Xihai No. 3 High School.

“The truth of Touki’s part-time work. The scene of three physical struggles in a row. You’ll regret if you don’t watch this”—This title was enough to garner much attention, causing a strong urge to pay attention to the video.

Very quickly, there were countless students asking for the source of the video.

“Hehe, Touki, let me see the heroic pose of your struggles.”

“It’s Touki indeed. Three consecutive fights in one night for several months in a row, yet his body has not collapsed. Besides the ability to endure pain, he must also have superior skills. This is something worth learning.”

“I’m so excited! I really admire this video of our classmate participating in the competition. The main character of this story is right near us. There is a most unusual kind of excitement that makes my blood race.”

“Touki, let me see your ability!”

Their fingers clicked on the video.

Then…

Their expression was one of disappointment that was so intense it could clearly be heard in their voices. It was akin to getting all hyped up as one prepared to play a rare video—a download called “A Flight Stewardess’ Special Service”—only to realize that it was actually an episode of Gourd Babies. The contrast between expectation and reality was huge.

All the male students experienced a great sense of loss.

And what about the female students?

They felt shy at first, because of the suggestive title.

But after they were forced to play the video, they became silent, and then they started to tear up, one after another.

“It turns out that… We’ve misunderstood Touki. This is actually his part-time job.”

“Why did you keep this from us, Touki? Things would have been fine if you’d just explained it to us sooner. Why didn’t you do that?”

“If he doesn’t do this, Touki will have no source of income.”

Denen Satoshi said, “Touki is different from us. He has to survive. He has to earn tuition money on his own. He has no parents, so he had to shoulder everything alone! We have always relied on adults, so what right do we have to talk behind his back? Him? He did not betray his body and soul. All he could do was use his fists to fight for a meal in the grown-up world. But we’ve smashed his source of income that he had taken up with much difficulty.”

“We…we are…too despicable!”

A wail that could not be suppressed broke out from Satoshi’s petite body. Her words were sharp like needles and were heard by every student in the class.

They could not help but lower their heads.

This…

Shangguan Feifei was at a loss for words. Her lips moved, and a wave of guilt flooded her heart. She, too, lowered her head.

“Denen Satoshi?”

Nanjo Masaharu raised his head. He did not expect such a weak girl to shout such powerful words.

They scanned the corner seat in the back row. Touki looked exceptionally calm and unperturbed; he looked so calm that it made one’s heart ache.

But after hearing the words by Denen Satoshi, Li Dong stood up from his seat and walked to her side. He reached out and patted her head. He smiled. “Satoshi, enough. You’ve done enough You don’t have to speak so loudly for me.”

“As for you…”

He took two steps towards Shintora, Sakyu Akagi, Takao Mio and others. Quick as lightning, he reached out with two hands and held the throats of Shintora and Sakyu Akagi. He lifted them in the air.

Bam.

He kicked Takao Mio to the ground with one foot and stepped forcibly on his chest.

He said in a cold voice, “You must be the source of the rumors. You’ve just watched that video, haven’t you? Are you disappointed? Unfortunately, your sweet dreams have ended. Now, if you don’t go to every class, deny the rumors, and kneel down in apology, I will beat you up like how I’ve beaten my opponents in the ring. I’ll let you experience how it feels to be my opponent, hmmph…”

He released his hands.

Cough, cough, cough…

Shintora and others had been holding their breath for more than a minute. They coughed violently and looked at Li Dong with eyes full of fear.

“So, answer me quickly. Will you immediately apologize, starting in this class, or will you wait to meet my fist?” Li Dong said with a murderous glare, waving his fist.

“I’m sorry! We’ll apologize immediately!”

“We’re the ones who did that! We’ve learned our mistakes!”

“Everyone, please forgive us!”

Looking at the terrible fists that could defeat an adult underground boxer, the three immediately became terrified and threw themselves on their knees with a crash, begging in apology.

Chapter 402 - Making A Game

The rumors were quickly resolved.

Li Dong’s reputation was restored shortly.

Life returned to normal.

But the price was that his stable source of income had been destroyed – the school would never allow students to work part-time as an underground boxer in illegal fights.

If he could not find a new excuse to explain his source of income, he would have to stop his extravagant consumption of ordering more than a dozen dishes every afternoon. Otherwise, it would lead to even more speculation and snooping.

Li Dong sighed in lament. It’s really hard to pretend to be poor.

Should he give up on this masquerade and simply enjoy life in the game?

But after thinking about it, he tentatively abandoned this plan… He had to live as an ordinary high school student for a while more.

Because Li Dong wanted to understand this world in greater detail.

“Although Eastern Jupiter’s technology, productivity, culture, and other aspects have developed to an advanced stage, there is too great of a difference between social classes. The gap between the rich and the poor is huge. It is very difficult for ordinary people who want to change their destiny to successfully transition into a different class.

“This is actually a problem that all civilizations encounter. It is also the same in the real world. And as long as most people can survive, albeit just barely, there will not be too much chaos.

“However, if reforms are carried out to make society more fair and to allow more ordinary people to have the opportunity to change their destiny, the development speed and potential strength of Eastern Jupiter will be significantly enhanced.

“A healthy system can often generate an ability level of 200%.”

Therefore, Li Dong had to continue to observe. After coming to his own conclusions and judgments, he would then come up with a targeted plan for reforms to revitalize and enhance Eastern Jupiter.

…

At noon on this particular day.

“Touki, I brought you a lunch box. It’s an extra big one. Let’s have lunch together.”

Denen Satoshi carried a large lunch box and showed it to Li Dong. She smiled.

“Satoshi, you are really too polite.” Li Dong shook his head. “Although my income from working is a lot less now, it’s not so bad that I can’t even afford a meal. Besides, I am a man, so how can I always bother you? Please consider my feelings.”

“I understand. I will only bring you a lunch box occasionally in the future. I always bring carrots and potatoes, so you would not be used to it, either. If my family buys a lot of meat, I’ll treat you to something better,” Satoshi explained understandingly.

“Thank you for understanding me.”

Li Dong breathed a sigh of relief. If a girl was too enthusiastic about him, it would become a source of complication and worry. It was better to keep a little distance.

During the meal.

“Touki, did you find a new part-time job? You’re probably in need of money,” Nishihara Kaori, who was sitting with them, suddenly asked.

“Not for the time being. I’m not very satisfied with the hourly salary.”

“I have a relative who opened a restaurant and need to recruit two bodyguards and a waiter. I think you are qualified for these three positions. If you are willing, I will get my relative to pay you $30 per hour; 5 hours every night… Touki, I wonder, are you interested in this job?”

Nishihara Kaori smiled and added, “It just so happens that I also work in that restaurant. We can take care of each other.”

What?

Denen Satoshi turned her head and looked at her good friend in surprise. She was quite startled, and her expression suddenly became dull.

What did Nishihara mean? Could she do this sort of thing simply because she had a relative who opened a shop? Was this something a good friend would do?

However, she was more concerned about the Touki’s choice. Would he agree or reject her suggestion?

She clenched her fists and stared straight at Li Dong’s face, hoping that the other party would understand her feelings and not agree easily.

Nishihara Kaori looked totally calm. She had wheedled and pestered her relative about this matter. After pleading several times, the relative had finally agreed, and she had gotten a good hand for herself.

She had 80% to 90% confidence that Touki would accept the job she recommended. With an hourly salary of $30, it was close to the pay rate of a formal employee and should be more than sufficient for him.

Moreover, Touki would owe her a favor with this.

Combined with the time that they would spend working together, their daily interaction, face-to-face meetings… After some time, the results would definitely be better than Denen Satoshi delivering a lunch box to him every day.

Therefore, Nishihara Kaori discreetly scanned Satoshi’s face and began appreciating the defeated expression. She silently said to herself, Sorry, Satoshi. Touki is simply too outstanding. I can’t help but want to support him.

“No. Thank you for your kindness, but I won’t be considering working in the restaurant you mentioned.”

Li Dong’s words stunned Nishihara Kaori and caused Denen Satoshi to be pleasantly surprised.

“Wh… Why?” Nishihara mumbled, “Do you have any concerns?”

“There is no concern.”

Li Dong shook his head, “I just think that the income is too little. $150 a day is not enough to meet my needs. Even twice that amount is not enough.”

He added, “On top of that, I’ve also thought of a good project recently. If I succeed in this project and achieve success in the market, it may even bring me tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands in income. So, when I go to college in the future, the tuition and living expenses will be settled. If the project unfortunately fails, then I have no choice but to find an ordinary part-time job and slowly save up. When that time comes, I might just accept your invitation, Nishihara.”

“What’s the project, Touki?” asked Nishihara.

“A game. I am going to make a popular action game. I am fully aware that I will be throwing my entire savings into this project.”

“A game?”

Nishihara Kaori was shocked, “Isn’t it the case that only a company can do this kind of thing? How can you do it alone? The risk is too high for you, Touki. and you don’t have any relevant experience. Why don’t you give up on this idea? Entrepreneurial enterprises like this have a high probability of failure. Don’t take the risk.”

Nishihara Kaori did not deliberately want to strike him down. But since technology, capital, and production information were all in the hands of those regular companies ever since the social classes were set in stone, the chance of an ordinary person achieving entrepreneurial success was almost zero.

“Don’t try to dissuade me anymore, Nishihara!”

Li Dong raised his hand to stop her words, “This is how I am. I will never give up before trying. Regardless of success or failure, it is better to take action first… Please, don’t try to dissuade me again!”

In truth, he would refuse Nishihara no matter what… Even if she found a job for him that paid a salary of a million dollars per hour.

After all, he could not be in the game 24 hours a day. Staying in the game for seven or eight hours was the limit. How would he have the time to work?

So he could never work, no matter what kind of job it was.

Secondly, due to the lack of an ability to innovate, Eastern Jupiter’s game industry was quite primitive and backward. Li Dong could randomly copy a game from Earth and it would be a financial success, as long as the game was fun.

Therefore, he had 100% confidence as an “entrepreneur.”

“Ok, Touki, I respect your ideas,” Nishihara said helplessly. What else could she say when he was unsatisfied with an hourly salary of $30?

“Ryu, I support you! you can do it!”

Denen Satoshi was overjoyed at this turn of events.

Chapter 403 - Promotion

What kind of game would be best?

Li Dong first thought of an action fighting game.

Its requirements included a smooth sense of impact, a good sense of strength, and near-real collision damage.

The size of the game should be about 100 million, and it should be a single console with a download fee of 10 yuan per download.

In truth, Eastern Jupiter also had a game industry, but it was on a small scale. There were very few masterpieces which could be considered excellent. On the other hand, if he produced a game with good sales, there would be a trend of numerous copycats, leading to a glut of near-identical games.

But after all, they were only NPC, albeit highly intelligent ones. Even if they were 99.9% similar to a real human, as long as they lacked that 0.1% of creativity and inspiration, their world would remain highly tedious and boring.

Hence, Li Dong strongly believed that his game would become successful, because things like creativity and inspiration were never lacking in reality.

…

About a month later.

Li Dong purchased a set of source code for a game on the internet from the real world, and after some slight modifications, his game was successfully created.

The name was The Brave Road of A Hero In An Alternate World.

The game had a total of nine regular levels and three hidden levels. Players would have to deal with up to nine bosses and could choose single or double pass mode. They would constantly improve their ranks and skills and upgrade their equipment in the process of leveling up….. The players would get stronger and stronger.

Moreover, there was a function that allowed the player to save their game data anytime.

There was also a rich variety of hidden and collectible elements.

Li Dong tried the game a few times and came to the conclusion that it was a boring game for killing time.

Of course, it was very boring for him. But for Eastern Jupiter, which had an undeveloped game industry, there would be many aspects of the game that were fun and interesting. Here, it could be considered a fun sort of game.

Li Dong immediately put it in the store of each gaming website, hoping to attract players to download it.

However, after three days, the game had sold a total of 317 copies. After subtracting the store commission rate of 50%, Li Dong only earned $1,585 for himself.

Obviously, this could not satisfy his needs.

“No matter how good a product is, if it’s unknown, it will remain unknown. Seems like I have to advertise and market this game.”

…

Xihai No. 3 High School.

After class.

Li Dong took out his mobile phone and walked to the center of the row, where there was a group of girls.

“Denen, Nishihara, Ishinaka, and Shangguan, please excuse my presumptuousness. I’ve been working on a game recently and I believe you all know that I’ve finished it now. But I don’t know if it is fun. Only players of the game can give me the answer, so…

“Can you be my players and trial the game I made?” Li Dong said.

“Ryu, your game is done?”

Satoshi was very surprised. It was completed, and so quickly at that?

“Touki, I am very interested in your game. Please let me try.” Nishihara Kaori reached out for the phone.

“I’ll give it to Satoshi first. She probably wants to play it more.”

Li Dong handed the mobile phone to Denen Satoshi. After all, she was his staunchest supporter.

Nishihara Kaori snatched her hand back and glared at him as her face swelled up.

“However, if you want to experience it right away, you can search for The Brave Road of A Hero In An Alternate World in the game stores and download it to your mobile phone for $10. Of course, if you don’t want to spend any money, you can wait for Satoshi to be done.”

“Only $10?”

Shangguan Feifei quickly found the game and clicked to pay for the purchase. “I’ll just take it as treating you to the simplest meal.”

“I’ve downloaded it, too.”

“How’s the game made by Touki?”

Nishihara Kaori and Ishinaka Mei paid for the download of the game and tapped the button to start playing. Soon after, they began to exclaim.

“Wow, the scenes and style of the game are so good. Did you really do this, Touki?”

“I killed a small demon and found some money and materials.”

“Interesting! This game is very interesting!”

“I didn’t think that Touki could make such a great game.”

The yelling of these girls caught the attention of other students in the class.

“Why don’t you guys try playing the game I made?”

“It’s very smooth and the fights are explosive. Many of the combat moves were created via trial and error. The moves are very formidable and powerful.”

“It can be downloaded for $10, everyone. Let’s support it.”

Li Dong did not give up on this precious opportunity to market his product; he advertised and sold his game to his classmates.

After putting in some effort during the ten-minute break between classes, he sold more than 30 copies of his game, and the response was generally very good.

“This game is so fun! Touki, you are a genius.”

“The experience and feel when I deliver a hit is very enjoyable.”

“This is the first time I played such an exciting combat game. Only Touki, the King of Underground Fighting, could achieve this.”

“Touki, please accept me as your disciple, let me follow you and learn something. Something like your fighting techniques that will ensure that one is never bullied, or how to make fun combat games. Please teach me one of these!”

“Although I am a girl, I think that Touki’s game is really good.”

“I don’t really like all that fighting and killing, Touki. Can you do another game that girls will fall in love with?”

“…”

From the chatter surrounding him, Li Dong could tell that most of it was positive.

He sighed with relief. This sort of praise that came straight from the mouth must be real. The game The Brave Road of A Hero In An Alternate World had good market potential.

He just had to increase the intensity of his promotions.

However, Li Dong did not have much in the way money or resources. The promotion method which he adopted was very simple. He would make full use of the resources around him.

He would let his classmates help to recommend and promote the product.

Then, it would be spread to the whole school.

After which, thousands of students would help to advertise and popularise it outside of the school.

Also, a major event was currently being held: the city’s annual high school basketball championship, held in the capital of Shengjing. The event had already started with a bang. He had joined the school basketball team and had become the main player alongside the captain, Morido Shenli. Li Dong had the opportunity to go to each high school to participate in competitions. As they won one game after another, he also promoted the game that he made.

Such a scene was undoubtedly embarrassing: his victory was a total crushing of the opponent’s team, yet he then remained on their home turf at the end of the match, desperately promoting his own game in the hopes that basketball fans attending the away-game would pay for the download.

For fans who had come to attend the game, this was a provocation, an insult—this was asking for a beating!

Even so, Li Dong needed a lot of money, and so he poured all his energy into publicizing the game. With every violent slam dunk on the court, he would scream, “Play The Brave Road of A Hero In An Alternate World, and you’ll be able to slam dunk like me!”

With this shameless promotion, coupled with a good word-of-mouth reputation from the game’s players, his success was brewing.

The final result was remarkable.

Two weeks later, the game The Brave Road of A Hero In An Alternate World had been downloaded more than 100,000 times.

Li Dong had earned a total of $500,000 for himself.

Chapter 404 - A Dazzling Star

Success.

Li Dong had two great successes.

The first success was the game The Brave Road of A Hero In An Alternate World. It was downloaded more than 100,000 times, earning a revenue of $500,000.

The second one was an undefeated victory. It was easy to win the championship of the Shengjing High School Basketball League—for a group that was led by two monsters, it was a breeze to destroy the other teams.

Due to his excellent performance, many well-known universities had set their sights on Li Dong. They promised to give him a full scholarship that would exempt him from all tuition and miscellaneous fees. More than 18 universities had made such an offer.

In other words, the financial issues that Li Dong needed to consider when he went to university were now completely solved. The only thing he had to think about was which university to go to.

All his worries had been resolved.

At this time, Li Dong seemed to have an extra $500,000 on his hands.

Moreover, the game The Brave Road of A Hero In An Alternate World had just started to gain popularity. It had not shown its full market potential yet. It might be possible for future downloads to exceed 200,000, 500,000, or even a million in total.

Through the game that he had developed independently, Li Dong could hope to easily earn the same level of income that an ordinary salary man could only earn after a lifetime of hard work.

Then…

Things got a little tricky.

Li Dong noticed that many people in the school seemed to look at him differently.

There was worship, envy, and, of course, jealousy.

Among the girls, he had become the most dazzling star in the entire Xihai No. 3 High School.

“Touki is tall and handsome, he is unrivaled in basketball, and he has a very clever mind. He made a game that’s been downloaded by more than 100,000 people…. What a perfect man.”

“Touki is the surname of the Protoss. It is said that people of that group have extraordinary abilities and superb intelligence. If we make the claim that he is a Protoss as the reason for his outstanding performance, then it would completely explain things.”

“Yes, I also think that Touki is a real Protoss. For some unknown reason, he had fallen to the bottom rung of the society which we occupy.”

“Ah, this is not good, I… I may have fallen in love with Touki. I want to be the closest person to him, his life partner!”

…

After school.

At the cluster of flowers and trees behind the teaching blocks.

“Touki, I… I’m Chika Shizuyuki. I’ve been quietly paying attention to you for a long time. I’ve gathered up great courage today to stand in front of you and say what I can’t hide in my heart any longer. Touki, I like you! Please go out with me!”

A confession.

A girl who liked Li Dong confessed to him.

Besides those confession letters of which he had accumulated a hundred by now, this was the first time that someone confessed to him face-to-face.

Moreover, the girl standing in front of him was very beautiful and cute.

Soft and sleek hair that went down to her waist, a tall and slender body, smooth white skin, a pretty face with exquisite features, and the vibe of somebody extraordinary…. In the real world, she was definitely a beauty with a score of 90 points or more.

And now, such a beautiful woman actually took the initiative to confess to him.

If he was in the real world, he would not even dare to imagine that such a thing happening. Even indulging in flights of fancy would cause him to feel inferior and absurd… There was no possibility that something like this would happen to him.

“If a girl takes the initiative to confess to me, it would be excessive to expect that she’d be a beautiful woman. As long as she’s not too ugly, I would be willing to accept her.” -It is imagined that many people think this way, including Li Dong.

However, in the game, girls under 60 points were rare, and there were a lot of girls who were 70 or 80 points. Over time, as one’s standard of aesthetic appreciation increased, it was less easy to be moved by an exquisite appearance… In short, it caused one’s heart to become more stable.

However, one could do whatever one wanted the game world. One could indulge in his desires without restraint by opening a harem. There were plenty of carefree and unbridled players.

Therefore, if Li Dong gave up on his unnecessary resistance, he could go out with the girl who had confessed to him.

“Sorry, I can’t agree to your request.”

Li Dong rejected her. “Chika, you may know me very well, but I still don’t know anything about you. Put yourself in my shoes and think about it. If a stranger took the initiative to confess to you, I believe that you would not agree to go out with him either. Only when both parties know each other well can they be together.”

Seeing how her body trembled slightly and the sadness in her look, Li Dong quickly comforted her. “Don’t be sad, Chika. I admire your courage. I’m not the best man in the world; you will meet better men.”

He took some time to placate her and watched her as she left the school.

“Even so, Chika will probably spend at least the next three days in a defeated mood as a result of this rejection.

“And all of this should be blamed on my being too outstanding…. This is probably the price of excellence.”

He received dozens of love letters daily. Every day, there would be girls who dragged him behind the teaching blocks. At the beginning, one feels quite happy to be able to enjoy such days. However, as time went on, it started to feel like harassment. Slowly, one comes to a point where one cannot endure this any longer.

To deal with this matter, Li Dong made an announcement.

“Firstly, I have no plans to go out with girls right now. I will never get into a relationship before going to university. I want to focus all my energy on studying.

“Secondly, all love letters and confessions will be rejected, so please don’t make futile efforts.

“Three, my sexual orientation is straight. I am not gay. Everyone, please don’t make wild speculations.”

After these announcements were made, situations of harassment significantly reduced, and the noise that came from people trying to get his attention or confess to him decreased too.

With that being said, the dazzling light from Li Dong could never be dispelled. He was, indeed, highly outstanding in all aspects.

…

At the end of June, when the weather gradually heats up.

The end of term exams in Xihai No. 3 High School were over.

The 45-day summer vacation had arrived.

Of course, compared to the real world, this vacation only lasted two days and a few hours. It would pass in the blink of an eye.

Li Dong intended to seize the opportunity that these precious two days represented and have a good rest, allow his mental energy to recover, and communicate with his friends in real life.

In the chat group.

“Commander, I heard that you chose the refined experience mode in the “Galaxy Era”, spending more than 18 hours per day in the game, including activities like sleeping and learning. It’s very… Are you very diligent?” Mu Wanqiu asked with great interest.

“Yes. If you want to play the game well, you must go all-in.”

“That means that you must have a very close relationship with the AI NPCs and have a lot of stories to tell from your interactions with them. Perhaps you’ve even had a virtual relationship?”

“Erm, I haven’t had a relationship. Wanqiu, why are you asking this?”

“I have few male friends who recently said that NPC girls in the virtual game are much better than girls in reality in all aspects, including appearance, character, and temperament. So they’ve all got an NPC girlfriend or wife and are leading very contented and happy lives.”

Mu Wanqiu asked some worry, “Commander, you haven’t been attracted to those cute NPC girls, and fallen in love with one of them?”

“Um… I admit that the NPC girls are cute in many ways, but I haven’t fallen in love yet.”

Li Dong was a little flabbergasted. He asked, “Hey, Wanqiu, why do you care so much about this?”

Chapter 405 - Partner

“Why… Why?”

This question passed through Mu Wanqiu’s mind. Her cheeks grew slightly hot.

“I… I don’t know, I’m just asking. I don’t mean anything else. Don’t think too much about it, haha.”

“Wanqiu, if I promise not to be too deeply bonded with the NPC girls in the game and to focus on real life—as a friend, would you be happy with this promise?” Li Dong suddenly tossed this question out in a very calm voice. In other words, he threw her a curveball.

“Uh…”

Silence.

There were more than ten seconds of silence.

Li Dong was about to type, “I’m sorry, I asked a strange question. Don’t worry about it,” and then blow the topic off by laughing.

“I think that a game is just a game, after all,” Mu Wanqiu said. “Isn’t it kind of weird to find a partner in the game, get married, and put most of one’s time into the game? What do you think, Commander?” She added a grin at the end.

“…Well, it’s a bit strange.” Li Dong typed, nodding. “A game is just a game. It can’t replace real life.”

In theory, a wife from Galaxy Era had a realism level of over 99%, and there was also a certain possibility of extracting the character from the game into reality. This would completely solve the problem of too many single males. In terms of the law and ethics, it was possible that such a thing could be legalized as long as there was a sufficient number of people calling for it to be approved. This was no possibility to pass up… All players had hopes of finding their ideal partner.

Therefore, for most players, the game was more than just a game. It was truly possible for it to replace reality.

But…

Li Dong still gave Mu Wanqiu a reply that was quite reassuring.

“Ok, Commander, our views on this point are the same. Thank you for being understanding.”

“You’re welcome.”

The conversation stopped here.

…

Eastern Jupiter.

Li Dong logged into the game and returned to the familiar classroom.

He scanned his environment and looked at the students in the classroom. Then, he turned his head and looked at the blue sky and white clouds outside the window.

Within a short time, he sank into a state of melancholy and worry.

Reality. Virtual reality.

He was an ordinary person occupying the bottom rungs of society, who experienced the pinnacle of life in a game that was infinitesimally close to reality.

These two different life experiences produced basically the same reactions in the brain’s cranial nerves.

What was more, it was possible, in theory, for a “wife” in the game to be “extracted” into reality.

Therefore, generally speaking, many ordinary people chose the latter.

Even Li Dong, who was considered an ordinary person, wavered in his heart. He did consider experiencing a perfect romance in the game.

“Reality is always so cruel. There are only a handful of people who have a rich and fulfilling life in reality. And despite that, it is common even among them to experience separation, hurt, and helplessness due to various reasons and conflicts… Trying to attain perfect happiness in the real world is just futile. It’s way too hard.

“This is the only place where, no matter how difficult a challenge is, it will always be a piece of cake to resolve.

“The difficulty of attaining happiness here is only 1%, or even 0.01%, of the difficulty level in reality. It feels like you can obtain happiness by simply raising your hand. You don’t even have to bend over to pick it up.

“In our dorm, Qinghai, Yichen, and Xukai all have a ‘wife’ in the game. Recently, they seem to have become completely different people. They are more cheerful, lively, and confident. They have cast off their past persona of a useless homebody. It is surprising.”

And… he felt a tiny bit of yearning and envy.

That was it. Li Dong, who had never been in a romantic relationship, was indeed highly envious. His heart was starting to get restless.

He looked at the current situation again.

There was no need to say anything more about delicate, gentle, and cute Denen Satoshi. She loved him with all her heart. In their relationship, she had such a favorable impression of him—about 90 points out of a perfect impression of 100—that she would definitely agree if he asked her to sleep with him.

Nishihara Kaori. Among all the girls in class, she had a very close relationship with him, and could be rather scheming. If he had been a man who was kind to everyone, he predicted that Nishihara would have launched an offensive early on. It would be entirely possible to have some sort of relationship with her.

Both Ishinaka Mei and Shangguan Feifei were rather practical. They valued material goods and did not pay much attention to him at first. However, when the game The Brave Road of A Hero In An Alternate World achieved more than 10 million downloads and his personal income surpassed 50 million, the attitudes of these two had changed a lot, and they became extremely enthusiastic about him.

This led to inevitable cracks in the four girls’ clique, where they had formed deep sisterly bonds. Small conflicts and fights would break out frequently. The agreed to treat each other like real sisters, but in the end, they mutually hurt and alienated one another, and gave each other the cold shoulder treatment.

Naturally, Li Dong was the source of all this evil.

For him, this was, naturally, something that he had been looking for all his life but could never get. This was the treatment of the free and single male lead character in a “harem” story.

But… when one had really experiences this so-called romance, one feels that it is not so happy and pleasant as one had imagined.

On the contrary, it can often feel like a headache and a cause of irritation.

The five love letters that were stuffed into his shoe cubby per day, on average, were enough of a headache.

Falling in love with someone was painful, but it was also an ordeal to bear the weight of too much love… Unless one were to be total scum, one probably never fantasizes about how one could “handle a lot of women.”

In truth, Li Dong supported monogamy. He believed that this was the most basic premise of love. If there was one more person, it would immediately destroy the sacred aspect of the relationship, and the affair would be no different from those in the animal world.

More importantly, the game world could make one feel good, but it could not actually fill one’s stomach or provide one with any actual nourishment. One day, he would leave the game and return to reality. If that happened, he would find that he had memories of a pipe dream and nothing else. That would just be too tragic.

Besides, Li Dong also wanted to be a winner in real life. He wanted to have real happiness that had substance.

So, there were some things that should be clearly ended.

…

After making up his mind, he ranked the girls according to how favorably they regarded him and how entangled they were with feelings for each other.

After school, Li Dong pulled Satoshi to a deserted corner behind the teaching blocks. The two of them had a face to face talk.

Li Dong looked at Satoshi’s petite head, which was lowered in shyness. Still, she was a girl with a very strong heart and mind. He felt pity, tenderness, and regret.

So he asked simply, without beating around the bush.

“Satoshi, you like me, right?”

“Ah…”

This shocked Denen Satoshi, and her cheeks grew red. But as she noticed Li Dong’s serious eyes, she nodded and said, “Mm. How did you know, Ryu?”

“A few days ago, you were bullied and humiliated by a few girls. You were threatened to stay away from me, but you didn’t say anything. Your resistance was your silence… I knew it at that moment.”

Of course, Li Dong had driven those girls away and helped Satoshi escape from her troubles.

“Then, can—can I like you, Ryu?” Satoshi asked, her head still lowered. However, her words were firm.

“Of course. Being liked is a really good thing, and I’m very happy,” Li Dong said with a smile.

“That… then we…”

Satoshi’s head lowered even further. Her cheeks turned red and plump. She fiddled with her hands restlessly. “Can… can we be…” She simply could not get the remaining words out, even though she had gathered all her courage.

After all, the gap between them was too great.

“Satoshi, I understand your feelings, but…” Li Dong said. “We’re not well-matched as a couple. I am really sorry.”

“Ah…”

Satoshi’s face paled, all the strength seemed to have been from her body, and she could not stop the tears that fell. Even her consciousness became somewhat transparent and fuzzy.

“But… we can be partners, partners who will always be together.” Li Dong suddenly said.

What?

Denen Satoshi was taken aback. Half of the sadness in her heart seemed to have been lifted. She was totally perplexed. A partner? Together forever?

Was there any substantial difference between that and being a couple?

“Satoshi, there is something that I’ve suddenly and very recently remembered. Actually, I… am kind of the god of this world.”

Chapter 406 - Secretary and Assistant

???

Denen Satoshi’s entire face was filled with question marks.

A God?

What was Touki talking about?

“Satoshi, you should know about the legend of the world’s creation from the history books, right? This world was originally a realm of oblivion, and it was God that created matter and everything in this world amidst the void of nothingness.”

“After forging the world into existence, civilization bloomed, and technology advanced unceasingly. But those who had been bestowed the world were corrupted by their uncontrollable lust. Brutal massacres were on the rise. Right before they crumbled upon themselves, they finally provoked the Protoss. Without choice, they stuck the realm with divine punishment, scourging those who had sinned. Because of this divine intervention, the war-torn planet has enjoyed more than two hundred years of peace and prosperity.”

“I’m one of the Protoss, and, uhm, Eastern Jupiter is my assigned territory… In a sense, I am the supreme ruler of this planet.”

Li Dong scratched his head as if he was talking about something entirely normal.

“Ryu, are you not feeling well? What’s up with this strange talking?”

Denen Satoshi gave him a skeptical look, worried about whether he had charred his brain, and her eyes were brimming with concern.

“You don’t believe me?”

Li Dong was not surprised. Telling people with puberty sickness that he was the planet’s ruler was just like temporarily sealing off his powers: the only thing he would attract was the attention meant for the mentally disabled.

“I want to show you a place.”

Li Dong took two steps forward, took Denen Satoshi’s hand, and intoned the word, “teleport”. A burst of white light radiated from the two.

In the next moment.

Two figures abruptly materialized inside the Tallest Tower, more than a hundred meters up.

Looking down through the floor-to-ceiling glass, the skyline of the entirety of Shengjing City was in full view. Endless gleaming buildings lay beneath their feet. The visual effect was absolutely the finest.

Denen Satoshi’s eyes were open wide.

She looked at Li Dong with utter shock as her subconscious mind told her that this was a dream, and that she must have been hypnotized by some mysterious means.

“It has only been a while since I took over this world. There are still many things that I do not understand and am unfamiliar with. So, I disguised myself as a high-schooler and went to school for a couple of months to discover more about this world. You can consider this travel incognito.

“However, it is difficult for me to investigate everything solely by my own ability. I still don’t know a lot about many things.”

“Hence, I need a partner, someone that could help me out. The nature of the job is roughly equivalent to being a secretary and assistant. It’s about helping me to carry out some things…

“Uhm, that’s about it, Satoshi.”

Li Dong explained his motive and purpose.

However, Denen Satoshi was in a state of confusion all the while. She was not even paying attention to what he was saying. A voice emerged within her heart: Why haven’t I woken up from this dream?

About three hours later.

The sky was getting darker, and it was almost time for dinner.

Denen Satoshi, whose mind was in the midst of being muddled, reluctantly accepted this “divine turn of events” and accepted everything Li Dong had said. She also nodded and promised to help him…although this scenario was a hundred thousand miles away from what she had originally imagined.

“Thank you, Satoshi.”

With a grateful expression, Li Dong held her hands and said, “I won’t let you help me for nothing. I’ll pay you, maybe, 100 thousand dollars per month, for now? If you perform well, I will give you a raise in the future and provide you with better treatment… Anyways, I will not treat you unfairly.”

A monthly salary of 100 thousand dollars?

Denen Satoshi was stunned. That was about as much as her family’s annual income. Now, Ryu was offering her a monthly pay surpassing that of her whole family’s hard work for an entire year.

This…

“What’s the matter, are you not satisfied with it?” Li Dong said, upon seeing that she wasn’t replying.

“No, no, no, it’s too much, I think that you’re giving me too much. I’ll still help you even if I don’t get paid.” She continuously waved her hands with her head lowered. Her eyes revealed an immutable sense of inferiority.

At that moment, Touki was the sun, and she, an inconspicuous star. The contrast between the two of them was too, too great. She felt that, even if the sun only provided a little of its light and heat, it would still be much more valuable than she herself was.

It became something like alms.

She perceived no hope within her horizon that she would ever be equal to the sun.

“Stupid girl.”

All of a sudden, a warm chest swaddled her tender and lovely body as a gentle voice whispered in her ear, “The others can depreciate you, but you must not look down on yourself. You have to believe that you have what it takes for this job. Believe that huge potential resides within your body.”

“100 thousand dollars every month is just a beginning. You should fight for a higher goal. If you perform well, better pay will be there waiting for you in the future.”

“Besides, I have prepared hugs, kisses and some more exciting rewards. If you wish to acquire them, please work hard,” Li Dong said, smiling.

Upon hearing these words, and feeling the warmth of the man’s embrace, Denen Satoshi, whose face was blooming red, couldn’t resist enfolding her arms around his waist. With her eyes closed, she mumbled, “A hug like this is enough. I won’t need anything else.”

And so, Denen Satoshi became Li Dong’s first secretary and assistant.

In the following six months.

Denen Satoshi melded with her role and completed the many tasks that Li Dong handed over to her. For example, she investigated the living standards of the commoners. Using miniature cameras, she shot many real-life videos. It allowed Li Dong to truly feel the hardship of the commoners instead of just looking at the stone-cold data. At the same time, he heard the voices of many from the bottom class.

For Li Dong, the value of reference was very huge, as it would allow him to roughly generate some ideas in his mind. He learned how to actually conduct changes instead of doing things impetuously, which would ultimately bring about negative impacts and influences.

Of course, it was not enough to fully understand only one class. Although commoners accounted for the vast majority of Eastern Jupiter, the Protoss and the aristocrats comprehensively own more than 80% of the planet’s wealth and means of production. In terms of interests, the planet was at a level of severe polarization.

Within the structure of interest, the Protoss and aristocrats had become the majority instead. If the reformations formulated by Li Dong do not fully consider the benefits to the Protoss and aristocrats before they were introduced, his plans were bound to encounter tremendous resistance. He had to understand the other two classes in detail and contemplate the whole situation before coming up with the final reformation plan.

And this required an increase in manpower.

Recruiting an assistant who was familiar with the aristocratic class would help Li Dong…and Denen Satoshi was only a commoner. Naturally, it would not be appropriate for her to investigate the nobles. Li Dong himself did not have much time, either.

Scouring through the realm, his sight settled on the girl with long, dark, straight hair in his class – Nanjo Masaharu.

Nanjo Masaharu was from a large political family. Although her clam had been toppled because of corruption, being a Lady for more than a decade would certainly have enabled her to learn more about the aristocrats.

Li Dong intended to recruit her.

…

That day, after school.

Li Dong went straight to the desk of the girl with long, dark, straight hair, and said with a fairly hearty voice, “Nanjo, could you spare me some of your time after school today? Go behind the academic building, I have something to tell you.”

Woosh!

Most of the boys and girls in the class who overheard this sentence took a good look at Nanjo Masaharu.

Chapter 407 - Aristocrats

“W-w-w-what? What does Touki want with Nanjo?”

“Could it be…” Lightning flashed through Shangguan Feifei’s mind, and her face turned gloomy.

“But Touki doesn’t even talk to her that much, and it’s fair to say that they are not at all close to each other, so… why?”

“Could it be that, because there’s only half a year until we graduate, Touki finally couldn’t hold back his inner feelings any longer and decided to open up to her, so that he would not leave with any regrets?”

“But why Nanjo? Doesn’t Touki know that there’s no way for the Nanjo family to rise up again? Nanjo Masaharu is just a commoner with some experience of being a Lady.”

They voiced all kinds of emotional assertions that carried envy, unwillingness, and many other things.

As for the boys, aside from being jealous, they had to admit—Touki had good taste. Both Nanjo’s beauty and temperament could be described as considerably outstanding. If her demeanor weren’t so chilly, she would certainly have a lot of people courting her. The few that gathered their courage and confessed to her were coldly rejected and left with the memory of a wound to their self-esteem.

For that reason, a good portion of boys expressed their curiosity about whether Touki would succeed in this attempt.

“T-Touki?”

Nanjo Masaharu was very surprised on the inside. As she usually drew only the attention of those that bore malicious intent, she was a little flustered for a while.

She didn’t know how to answer.

Reject him on the spot, reject him euphemistically, or reject him after school?

Her mind plummeted into an entangled state as her face became slightly reddish.

“I’ll wait for you there after school, Nanjo. I look forward to our meeting.”

Li Dong left with these words and returned to his seat.

Nanjo Masaharu was stunned: that guy had decided everything all by himself before she even promised him anything.

“Cunning!”

Nanjo Masaharu ground her teeth and resolved herself in secret: Touki, I will never agree to your request.

…

Soon, the bell rang.

Behind the academic building.

Li Dong waited for about 20 minutes.

A graceful and ballerina-like figure arrived on the eleventh hour. A gust of wind that scattered the leaves blew against her, causing her dark silky hair to flutter in the air, while her delicate features and cold temperament emitted an aura that would thrust every single soul into an unfamiliar state.

“You’re here, Nanjo,” Li Dong said to her with a bright smile on his face.

Nanjo Masaharu was unmoved. With a cheerless tone, she said, “Speak, Touki, what do you want with me?”

“Uhm, is it really OK for me to say it? You don’t seem interested, Nanjo.”

“If you are afraid of rejection, don’t say it. You only have one chance. I won’t even bother to pay any attention to you after this, Touki,” Nanjo Masaharu said, frowning. The last thing she was interested in was the kind of boy who loved the limelight and was surrounded by countless girls. To be honest, she wasn’t in too much of a fever toward Touki as he stood in front of her.

“I’ll say it, then.”

Li Dong took a deep breath, and his expression became serious. “Nanjo, I’ve always thought that you’re a very good person, and you are the type I like. So, please be my adv… isor.”

“No!”

Nanjo Masaharu interrupted him directly as her voice rang over his, “No!”

Li Dong was stunned and caught off guard. He waved his hands and said, “Uhm… I’m just asking you to be my advisor Nanjo. It isn’t that I’m asking you to do it for free. Why would you refuse me so directly?”

Huh?

An… advisor?

What the hell? A hint of awkwardness flashed across Nanjo Masaharu’s face. Did she… mishear something?

“Here’s what happened, Nanjo. Via two mobile games, I’ve made myself a huge sum of money: about one billion dollars, I think. This amount should put me at the threshold of the aristocracy, and I hope that I’ll get promoted to one. I am looking for a way to do this in the near future. I intend to spend some amount of money to improve my social status…

“The problem is, I don’t know how the nobles live, and so the customs and etiquette that I have to pay attention to. A rough person like me has no idea of how to live as a qualified aristocrat. I need someone to help me and become my personal advisor so that I can get familiar with the life of an elite.”

“You should have some experience in this regard and know something or two about those complicated rules. Nanjo, If you’re willing to become my personal advisor and guide me along the way, I believe I would become a qualified aristocrat very soon,” Li Dong explained. Upon seeing that Nanjo Masaharu had bowed her head down, with half of her face burning red and her body slightly shaking, he quickly added, “I’m sorry Nanjo. I know what had happened to your family. I meant no offense. I’m truly just asking you for your help.”

“You… jerk!”

Nanjo Masaharu couldn’t stand such a huge contrast from what she expected. She turned around and fled the scene.

…

Another few days passed.

After expending tremendous effort, Li Dong finally convinced Nanjo Masaharu, and she promised to become his personal advisor.

The reason she was persuaded was rather simple: the hundred thousand dollar monthly salary. After the decline of the Nanjo family, even if some of their close relatives provided them relief, their standard of living remained immensely reduced. It was a brutal transition from exotic delicacies to plain tea and simple food. For Nanjo Masaharu, who was used to living a luxurious life, it was psychologically difficult to get used to the shift, even if she was trying her best to endure it.

Individually, if she had an income of one hundred thousand dollars every month, she could eat whatever she wanted and buy some of the expensive goods. In many ways, she wouldn’t have to exert herself or tolerate anything anymore. The temptation of materialism ultimately defeated her resistance on the spiritual level.

Nanjo Masaharu, despite major ambivalence, entered her new role and became Li Dong’s personal advisor. Thereafter, in addition to learning aristocratic social etiquette, Li Dong also inquired a number of valuable pieces of information from Nanjo Masaharu about the noble class.

Protoss ranked highest, then Aristocrat, then Commoner.

Of the three social classes, the Protoss were at the very top. As their population was sparse, they were responsible for only the development of top-level strategies.

Those mainly involved in politics were, of course, the aristocrats.

From Nanjo Masaharu’s depiction, which was wrapped in envy and heartache, these images and characteristics of aristocratic society took shape in Li Dong’s mind.

Monopoly. Merchant-type aristocrats would generally monopolize an industry in a certain region.

Hereditary. Politician-type aristocrats dominated the ranks of parliamentarians, legislators, and other public positions, generation after generation. Although it was a democracy, the Fengshui was always rotating between a few families.

Corruption. Terrible corruption. It had been made legal in many respects. Those who have been convicted of a corruption crime were just those who were excessively unscrupulous.

There were many other issues about which the aristocrats were all very serious. To describe their life as extremely extravagant and luxurious was absolutely not an overstatement.

Despite the living conditions of the commoners, they did not rise up and take their revolt to the streets to protest against injustice. It was wholly due to high productivity rates that commoners couldn’t even starve to death, even if they wished to.

“This kind of social structure must not go on without major adjustments. This is definitely the end-stage.

“But it is also necessary for the aristocracy to exist. If the aristocrats hadn’t become the leading party more than two hundred years ago and taken a portion of public interests for themselves to maintain their ‘noble’ class, even the Protoss, who possess absolute might and could vanquish every opposing voice, would not be able to establish a stable and reliable rule.

“The abolition of the aristocratic class would immediately lead to catastrophes.

“So… I can only conduct reforms mildly by doing some tinkering with the existing structure. I can’t blindly smash and destroy everything,” Li Dong muttered to himself. A final reformation plan had basically taken shape in his mind.

His days of being a high schooler at Xihai No. 3 Middle School, which had gone on for nearly two years, had almost reached their end.

Chapter 408 - Tsundere

They had graduated.

Two years of high school life had come to a small finale.

For Li Dong, he felt that his high school experience had been as good as some excellent campus-themed anime.

There had been no need to learn at all, as the system would automatically provide the answers during the exams; there had been many cute girls his surroundings; and there had also been basketball games and other hot-blooded sporting events.

It had been a very exciting time.

All the desires that he had longed for had been realized.

Perfect, satisfied… This was within Li Dong’s frame of mind.

Although countless prestigious universities have offered him placements after graduating from high school, Li Dong would not proceed to experience so-called “college life.” His main focus would be placed in the reformation and governance of Eastern Jupiter and in striving towards becoming an excellent master of civilization.

But before that, in addition to Denen Satoshi, he recruited another secretary-assistant for himself… He now had two aides by his side. The newly added one was his personal advisor, Nanjo Masaharu, whom he had recruited six months ago. She had switched into the role of an assistant.

Actually, during that time when high school was about to end, the relationship between Li Dong and Nanjo Masaharu became somewhat complicated. After all, their employer-employee relationship had been going on for half a year. In private, they held many meetings, discussions, and exchanges of ideas… They were very close to one another.

There is a saying that goes, “familiarity breeds fondness.” When one knows someone for a long time, they develop certain emotions. That feeling might be friendship—or, perhaps, love.

Regarding Nanjo Masaharu, who had a cold ladylike character, it was difficult for ordinary boys to enter her world. Li Dong, on the other hand, had a gentle, courteous, approachable demeanor, and would occasionally reveal his funny and whimsical side. The way he represented himself was very sincere. If one got along with him for a long time, they would discover more of his positive trait; for example, he was very intelligent, and rough, yet refined. Over time, one would become deeply attracted to him and gradually fancy the idea of staying by his side.

Nanjo Masaharu was no exception. After they got along for half a years’ time, that particular person was gradually engraved in her heart and made her somewhat confused on the inside, especially during the time when high school was approaching its end. Nanjo Masaharu, who had totally no idea about what aspiration Li Dong had, and where would he go, was plunged into anxiety and disarray: where would Touki go in the future?

She had asked Li Dong about his plans moving forward, but Li Dong always gave her a very vague answer. She couldn’t get through to his mind at all. The only thing that was likely to happen was them having to separate. It might be difficult for them to meet each other again in the future.

The time loomed nearer.

Two days before the college entrance examinations.

Nanjo Masaharu, who could hold back her inner vexations no longer, made a phone call, asked Li Dong out to a place, and inquired about the topic she wanted to know about the most:

“Stop going around in circles with me. What exactly are your plans after the exam?”

Nanjo Masaharu glared at him. She was feeling very annoyed. The man in front of her did not take the initiative to tell her the answer to this question, and she had to ask him herself.

“Oh?”

Li Dong was a little surprised. Facing the girl with long, dark, straight hair, he said, “Nanjo, are you concerned about my future? Could it be… you want to stay by my side and continue to be my advisor?”

“Don’t be so full of yourself!”

Nanjo Masaharu’s cheeks became slightly red, and inside she was going crazy. “I don’t care about where you’ll go. I just can’t stand that arrogant attitude of yours! If you think of me as a friend, you should honestly tell me about your plan, and not tease me like this.”

As she spoke, tears of aggrievance dripped down from the corner of her eyes. With a whimpering voice, she said, “In the end, I, as your friend, have no place in your heart! You only just think about your own things, you… selfish jerk!”

Nanjo Masaharu did not understand why she was so infuriated. Perhaps it was because she had wanted to vent her repressed feelings for a period of time, and then, in the end, had been teased by this man… At that moment, her sad and depressed feelings gushed out from her heart. She turned away and was about to leave the selfish man.

“Wait!”

Li Dong stopped her, standing up. “Actually, I’ve been waiting for you to ask me this question. I was thinking that, as long as you asked, I would tell you my plans. Do you want to hear them?”

Nanjo Masaharu clenched her fist.

Her self-esteem severely hurt, she said with a shaky voice, “You cunning bastard, I don’t wish to see you ever again.”

Upon finishing, she dashed out.

“Masaharu!”

Li Dong ran out and quickly caught up with her. He grabbed her wrist, stopped her struggling, dragged her to a corner with no people, and intoned the word “teleport.” A white light shone, and the two reappeared in the Tallest Tower.

It took about two hours.

Nanjo Masaharu finally got over her shock and had to believe that Li Dong was the supreme ruler of the planet.

She whispered, “I never expected you to be the God in the highest.”

Li Dong said, “That was actually a test I gave you—a test to decide whether you could transform from my personal advisor to my assistant. If you took the step, you would gain the same status as Satoshi in my heart. If you kept the question to yourself, we would never have seen each other again in the future.” He smiled and said, “Fortunately, you took the step. So, stay with me from now onwards.”

“You fool!”

Nanjo Masaharu bashed his chest. “Who wants to stay by your side? You jerk! Don’t think that I’ll be willing just because you’re a god.”

“If I beg you to stay by my side, will you? Masaharu?” Li Dong asked.

“I…I—”

Nanjo Masaharu blushed as she lowered her head and played with her fingers. “I…I simply can’t do anything with you. If you insist, I…I can think about it.”

“Hahahaha…” All of a sudden, Li Dong threw back his head and roared with laughter. Pointing at her, he said “I knew it from the very beginning, Masaharu, you’re a Tsundere! Hahaha.”

The woman blushed even more.

And so, Nanjo Masaharu became an assistant by Li Dong’s side.

A few days later, after fully affirming that Li Dong was the supreme God of the planet, Nanjo Masaharu expended some little effort and made a request to him:

“Ryu, the Nanjo family was actually framed. They never participated in corruption. So please, do me a favor: exonerate the Nanjo family and restore them to their original place… Only you can help me now.”

Li Dong gave her a deep look.

He shook his head and said, “I’m sorry. Although I understand your feelings, the Nanjo’s did participate in countrywide corruption activities involving more than one hundred billion dollars. The evidence is… tangible, and moreover, they were the masterminds. There’s no truth to them having been framed… I really couldn’t help you in this.”

“Ryu—”

Nanjo Masaharu was about to speak when she noticed Li Dong’s slightly disappointed eyes. She then pouted and lowered her head.

This matter ended up in nothing definite.

…

Another month had passed.

Vigorous reforms commenced on Eastern Jupiter. Li Dong launched a series of highly targeted changes in eight core areas: strengthening cosmic development, increasing protection toward underlying welfare, combating corruption, restricting aristocratic rights, industry, improving agriculture, and promoting commerce. These measures received broad support.

Thereafter, Eastern Jupiter embarked on a path of rapid development.

Chapter 409 - Life is a Game

The river of life flowed ahead.

Without his noticing, it seemed that many years had passed.

Planet Haierfa, which had once descended into devastating war and been razed into a barren hell, now had blue skies, blue oceans, and was flourishing in lush greenery. Every corner of the planet was full of vitality.

Viewed from space, this planet was as gorgeous as a luminous sapphire.

By the coast, on a rock on a white sandy beach, there was a man wearing beach pants, a straw hat, and a sleeveless shirt. With a fishing rod in his hands, he was enjoying the sea breeze while fishing for marine creatures. Next to the man were two women in bikinis. One of them had blonde hair, blueish-green eyes, and refined facial figures; the other one had dark hair resembling the color of twilight and an exquisite petite figure, and exuded the gentle aura of Eastern beauty.

“How peaceful.”

The man sighed. “Starting when I announced my retirement, I think it’s been more than three decades that I’ve lived my life like this. I’m an eighty-year-old geezer now, am I?”

“It will be your 80th birthday in three days, master.” The blonde on his left said. “I wish you a happy birthday in advance, master.”

“That won’t be necessary.” The man shook his head. “This is not something worth celebrating, and I’m not gonna be happy, either. I think I’m growing a little sick of this quiet life. Look at this youthful body of mine—if I return to Earth, I bet my children and grandchildren won’t be happy either. They will be wondering: why am I not dead? How long do I intend to hold onto Xing Hai Technologies’s equity? Why am I always blocking their ways?… I bet only a few of them would truly wish me a happy birthday.”

“Master, you are too negative,” the blonde woman said. “Aside from those several core products that remain unstripped, Xing Hai Technologies has distributed almost everything else, including the hundreds of desert free cities and space cities. This enormous wealth is enough to fulfill anyone’s needs and be exchanged for reliable and solid kinship.”

“Only the Knowledge Bank and the virtual game Galaxy Era remain in your hands, as both are not to be given away. You’ve already handed out everything you could.”

The man, however, sighed. “The problem is that knowledge is priceless. The economy driven by Galaxy Era now accounts for almost 30% of the global GDP. Those two are the treasures with the highest value, for heaven’s sake. Alice, do you think that humanity can be trusted?”

This…

The blonde woman on his left became silent, unable to answer his question.

Suddenly, his hands sank as the fishing rod bent down intensely.

“Eh, a fish, it seems.”

The man was happy as he reeled in his line with all his might. After more than five minutes of wrestling with the creature on the hook, he caught a colorful ocean fish. Weighing it in his hands, he guessed it to be at least 20 pounds.

He looked at the fish bucket at his foot, which was already full of fish.

The man could only release the fish that he just caught back into the sea. “There are too many fish in the sea. I’ll fill up a whole bucket with them in no time. I can’t even finish a conversation before that happens.”

Oh well, forget fishing.

The man put down his rod, headed under a parasol on the white, sandy beach, and lay down on the comfortable recliner.

The blonde woman, on the other hand, took the fish bucket and used some tools to deal with the fish inside. Then, she brought the grill over, ignited the charcoal fire, and began roasting those ocean fish.

“I might have rested a little too much recently. Nuwa, give me a brief report about what has happened over the past few years,” the man on the recliner said to the dark-haired woman that stood beside him, his eyes half-closed.

“Nothing significant has really happened, master.” The dark-haired woman began. “First of all, environmental transformation on planet Haierfa has been fully completed. The planet’s natural ecology has been restored to a perfect state.

“In science and technology, two major developments have been realized. Firstly, we have entirely assimilated the Crystal Brainers’ tech, and are now basically on par with them.

“Secondly, courtesy of Galaxy Era, we successfully produced our first C-class battleship last year. We are now in possession of a powerful enough main battleship.”

“Many aspects of development went much faster than we expected. Master, the moves we’ve made are excellent.”

“That’s for certain!” The man nodded. “Just look at how many resources we expended on Galaxy Era. Data on the entirety of human civilization, the super-server host computer that covers more than 100 square kilometers of land—just the power consumed by these remote servers every year alone would suffice for the needs of ten billion human beings… in order to build the most authentic game and filter out the most intelligent players, we’ve used almost all of the most precious resources we have here on planet Haierfa.”

Back on Earth, even superpowers could not build such a massive and complex game.

“But what followed was that the game has caused troubles on Earth that are way bigger than what we expected.” The dark-haired woman said. “First is the wife withdrawing crisis. More than 50 million male players around the world want the female characters in the game extracted into reality with the help of the genetic coding technology. More than 10 million female players as well want their ideal husbands in-game to become their partners in reality.

“WBy the appeal of countless players, in the face of the morality’s resistance, a democratic country in the West finally opened up the first pathway which allows humans produced by genetic algorithms to become humans in the real world once their character information is keyed in.

“Subsequently, a few desert free cities also passed this law in order to increase their population and boost their economy.

“NPCs manufactured via the genetic coding technology began to emerge in reality. Swiftly, their numbers exceeded one hundred thousand, a million, ten million… gradually becoming a special group that can no longer be ignored. It has triggered a variety of issues involving taboos.

“The community even sparked a small-scale armed rebellion. Galaxy Era was almost banned by the Federal Parliament several times.

“After more than a decade of turmoil, the withdrawal of game NPCs was completely banned, and the storm gradually subsided.

“Of course, Galaxy Era did not only bring about the so-called “love crisis.” In financial terms, it has profoundly altered the global economic structure, allowing the proportion of the economy that is virtual to gradually rise. In science and technology, ever since 100% Science Lab was integrated into Galaxy Era, almost all scientific experiments can be transferred into and conducted in the game. A considerable number of players have become tech streaming players, while their performance in the game remains on par with that of serious contenders.

“All in all, Galaxy Age has become an indispensable part of civilization on Earth—and moreover, the core support of planet Haierfa. It is like a powerful heart that outputs endless nutrition and energy.

“Hence, master, I’m starting to believe that games are not a distraction to real life, but an artifact that can bring ceaseless benefits.”

“You’re right.”

The man nodded. “Life is a game. Everything is in games. Who dares to assert that he or she is not a character in a certain game?”

As long as one’s mentality was correct, and they took the game they were playing seriously, anyone could excel in it.

Suddenly, a fragrant scent drifted by.

The man whiffed and smiled. “Alice’s fish should be ready. Let’s go feast on the catch, Nuwa.”

Chapter 410 - Monitoring Device

10 thousand kilometers up in the sky.

A delta-winged aircraft was cruising through the air at a high velocity.

Its all-glass cockpit had a good field of vision. A clear blue sky, clouds as white as cotton, land as green as emerald, a long, silvery stream… every image that came into sight could be used as a wallpaper.

“A world with nobody is actually so beautiful.”

This wasn’t the first time that Chen Jin had said this. He truly acknowledged what some scientists have said: Human beings are indeed like cancer cells that only unceasingly take and destroy.

If there were no humans, the beauty of nature would be unfathomable.

“Master, beauty is born of sensibility, but the essence of this world is rationality. Nothing is immutable. Only by becoming stronger and grasping more truths can we protect that beauty everlasting,” said Nuwa.

“I’m aware of that.” Chen Jin nodded. “But standing in the shoes of this recovered planet, in any event, it is clear that it would never hope for human beings to live on it, to once again multiply to a population in the billions. How terrifying that would be.”

“So, what are your plans for this world, master? Should it always exist as your personal territory and be kept in this original state?”

“That’s what I figured. It must not be trampled upon a second time. Why don’t we turn it into a ‘paradise’—a paradise that only allows short visits, and no long settlements. It wouldn’t get destroyed again if it were so.”

Chen Jin had a rather selfish idea in his heart. After all, he could not bear for the beauty that he had painstakingly created to be ruined once again.

The city below was gradually drawing near.

At its center stood a tower-like landmark, a building with a height of eleven kilometers that was emitting a beam of green light upwards. At night, it was as beautiful as a lighthouse shining its dazzling gleam over a thousand miles. In fact, the building was indeed a “lighthouse” which acted as guidance under low light conditions. But it was also an anti-gravity propeller that could extend a gravity-free track to transport large amounts of materials to spaceports in the outer sphere. In addition, it was a data communication tower, similar to a cell tower, but with data transmission rates far beyond imagination. Besides, it also had the regional broadcast function which allowed the timely broadcasting of various news. Hence, this building was named the “Central Tower.”

Swiftly, the aircraft landed on a parking platform at the edge of the Central Tower.

Upon disembarking, the magnetic rail elevator stopped right in front of them. Chen Jin went in and the magnetic rail elevator sent him directly to the 100th floor of the Central Tower.

He entered an office hall that spanned an area of 300 square meters.

This was the place from which he controlled everything.

The circular console in front of him was made up of several large, transparent screens. Occasionally, a realistic stereoscopic holographic projection would emerge into the air. There was also a red leather wing chair that was designed in correspondence with each part of Chen Jin’s body. The comfort it provided for him was unparalleled.

“Whoah…” He sat comfortably in his chair.

The handle of the chair on his right automatically rose with a cup of steaming black tea on it. He could reach the cup with just a meager stretch. As his palm was feeling the pleasant warm temperature, he lifted the cup to his mouth, had a gentle sip, and the best-tasting tea ever slid down his throat.

But Chen Jin wasn’t here for tea. There was something that he had to deal with.

“Alice, Nuwa.”

“Yes, master.”

Two figures appeared on the display in front of him, the artificial intelligences Alice and Nuwa.

“How is the Ultimate Neutrino Plan going? Have you successfully manufactured the neutrino that I want?” Chen Jin asked.

“It has succeeded, master,” Alice said. “The most advanced fifth-generation neutrino has acquired success recently and has achieved mass production.”

“Do all aspects of its performance meet the requirements?”

“Certainly. The results we have attained constitute the coalescence of the finest of human intelligence.”

Chen Jin nodded. “That being the case, it’s time to officially take the first step. The days of the ‘planet otaku’ are almost coming to an end.”

So what was this “first step” that he was talking about?

The universe.

Naturally, he was talking about taking the first step into the universe, as humanity should not always remain in a single galaxy.

It was almost time to get out of the beginners’ town.

Of course, the cosmic environment was extremely dangerous. Without being fully prepared, rushing out like a headless fly, it was easy for one to bump into trouble and even lose one’s life.

In reality, there was no infinite revives.

Being cautious was the number one priority. Before going out, it was best for one to know what was going on around them. This was also the so-called approach of “collect intelligence, case the joint beforehand.”

The Ultimate Neutrino Plan had been going on for more than 50 years with the purpose of developing a remote monitoring device to be launched into the surrounding stellar systems, similar to that used by the Crystal Brainers. It allowed one to fathom the surrounding situation before making plans for the next step.

In the virtual game Galaxy Era, if players that focused on expansion wished to increase their territory, the first thing they would have to do was also monitoring, studying everything in their surroundings. Launching a monitoring device was the most common practice. Moreover, with the vastness of the universe, even if one were to launch a huge device with a diameter of more than ten meters to a certain galaxy colonized by a civilization, it would still be difficult for the other party to find out in time, as too many blind angles and neutral gaps exist. Even higher-level civilizations could hardly prevent some low-tech prying, such as disguising a monitoring device as a meteorite or the like. As long as it did not radiate a suspicious signal, it would basically fly under the radar.

In the almost infinitely large universe, no matter what civilization it might be, a monitoring device could easily become invisible.

However, in order for the monitoring to be effective, the device should be made as small as possible and as fast as possible. As for its information transmission rate, the quicker the better.

“Master, the fifth-generation neutrino is only the size of a marble, with a mass not exceeding 10 grams. It can be accelerated to 0.65 times the speed of light through the acceleration pipeline of the giant space particle collider, and could be launched towards nearby galaxies.”

An extremely small device appeared on the display.

“Despite the small size and lightweight nature of the neutrino, it is a unification of unimaginable technology. It is best to describe it as ‘mythical technology.’ Its internal quantum communication device has a maximum range of 50 light-years, an information transmission rate of 100 kilobytes per second, and a service life of over one hundred years.”

“With the fifth-generation neutrinos we manufacture, their volume still doesn’t allow them to interfere with the particle collider without being discovered, but their comprehensive technological level is not low. Moreover, there will be no need to send spy personnel specifically, as the neutrino can accomplish various kinds of work all by itself. The 50-light-year radius around planet Haierfa will soon become a familiar place to us.”

Figuratively, the tentacles of planet Haierfa would extend outward for fifty light-years.

“Nuwa, the ‘Blue Spaceship,’ which the survivors of Hairfa are on and which is heading towards the Walf Galaxy, is only 14 light-years away from us, right? So, with the speed of our neutrino monitors, could we catch up to them in about… 20 years?” said Chen Jin abruptly, having thought of something.

“Yes, master. It will only require 21.5 years.”

“Should the Blue Spaceship be arriving at that galaxy soon?” Chen Jin said while holding his chin.

“They should’ve arrived, as long as nothing unexpected has occurred.”

“Launch the neutrino monitors, then. Prioritize launching them to the Walf galaxy.”

“Yes master,” Nuwa said.

Immediately, in deep space, a giant electromagnetic acceleration device took aim at thousands of star systems and ejected batches of neutrino monitors like a pea shooter.

Chapter 411 - Arrival

The quiet and tranquility of outer space.

A large spaceship, with a shape similar to a long baleen whale, sailed onwards silently.

Perhaps because it had wandered for too long, the surface of the spacecraft was mottled and uneven, and the structure of many of its parts had become detached. There were even some patches that had been mended with steel plates due to impact damage.

It gave one the sense that the ship had been through many ups and downs.

At that moment, in the corner of a lean-to in the bridge control hall.

There was a bright white sleeping pod.

Suddenly, the screen of the pod’s control panel lit up, and a string of green-colored text appeared.

“Beep… We have arrived at our destination. Awakening the Supreme Commander.”

“5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Initiating awakening…”

Ding.

A gust of white vapor leaked out from the sleeping pod, and the hatch slid down automatically.

After a brief while.

“Ay…”

A groan sounded, and a woman in a yellow cabin suit sat up with some difficulty, spreading her hair out. She pressed her hands against her head and said with a pained expression, “This hurts.”

She opened her eyes, and her blurry sight gradually cleared up. Her vision took a long time to adapt to an environment with light.

At first, her brain was blank. Then some recollected fragments flashed through her mind, followed by more and more memories.

About five minutes later.

The woman stepped out of the sleeping pod and simply smoothed her hair down her head. She walked straight to the control desk.

Raising her head, she looked through the glass of the porthole.

An expression of excitement and joy suddenly appeared on her face.

Displayed in front of her was a meteoroid belt floating with countless rocks, a gaseous planet that could be seen with the naked eye, and, directly in the center, a star that emitted an orange-yellow light. The dim amber rays of sunlight spilled across her body.

She looked at the data on the dashboard. They were 5.8 astronomical units away from the main fixed star in the Walf Galaxy.

“We have arrived at a place where there’s new hope for human civilization,” she muttered to herself softly. She had maintained her stern and serious look for decades. At this moment, she could no longer restrain herself, and a joyful smile blossomed across her face.

“Yunhua, this is the first time that I’ve seen you smile.”

An elderly, mechanical voice came out from the console, and a middle-aged man’s face appeared on the screen.

“Pangu, we’ve arrived, right?” The woman asked him to confirm.

“Yes. It is as you see.”

“It’s been hard for you, Pangu. The situation was almost completely out of control for the last ten years. The only way was to put everyone to sleep. I’m really not qualified to be a captain.”

“Don’t undervalue yourself, Yunhua. We might have been worse off without you. We’ve arrived at our destination at least. You can breathe a sigh of relief.”

“Yeah.” Mu Yunhua took a deep breath. “The most difficult moments have finally passed, and we’ve come out of hell.”

“Right,” she said again. “Pangu, give me a simple report on the current situation onboard.”

“Okay. The Blue Space, after a long journey of 67 years, 91 days, and 14 hours, currently have 106,401 crew members. We have 0.01% of remaining material reserves; fuel has basically been exhausted. The extent of damage suffered by the spacecraft is 11.3%, and the simulated ecosystem is in a state of semi-breakdown….

“But there is one thing to be glad of. After 16 hours, the 13 unmanned mining ships that I’ve sent will be transporting back the first meteoroids from the belt that is in front of us. Everything will be improved.”

“That’s great.”

A smile appeared on Mu Yunhua’s face once again.

…

More than ten days later.

The mining ships had gathered sufficient materials for The Blue Space from the asteroid belt. The discolored spots and defeated appearance of the spacecraft had disappeared. They had completely renewed many areas of the ship.

The spacecraft’s power system recovered by 90%.

The ecosystem system for maintaining life onboard recovered 100% of its function.

The most obvious sign of renewal was the sight of bright light filling any and all corners of the spacecraft.

In addition, the first batch of crew members had been awakened from their sleeping state. Middle to high-level elites. They numbered about 1,000.

Among them, the 18 representatives with the highest positions started a conference at the big round table in the bridge control room.

At the core of the discussion was naturally planning for and unfettered imagination about the future.

“Yesterday, I used the astronomical telescope and saw a planet with water.”

“Its beauty is unparalleled, with a size that is 1.3 times that of our mother planet, Haierfa. 53% of the surface is covered with seawater. This means that the land area is large enough for 10 to 20 billion people to survive. There is a thick atmosphere, and it lies within the most suitable galactic habitable zone. The average temperature of the planet is 17 degrees, there are ice caps at the two poles, and it takes 32.6 hours for a full rotation on its axis. In addition, there is a geomagnetic field that is sufficient to resist high-energy particles.

“Perfect. It’s a perfect and livable planet.

“One could even assert that is only a matter of time until life is born on such a planet.

“Now it has become our second home, and will be transformed into a second Haierfa! Hahaha!”

This scientist was very excited.

Mu Yunhua coughed. “Dr. Huang, your words represent our unanimous consensus. The Walf planet will indeed become our beautiful new home, but the problem we are discussing now is whether to transfer most of the crew to the surface of the planet so that they can fully participate in the construction of the immigration base—or to transfer only part of the crew, leaving about half to complete some work on the spacecraft that will turn it into an immigration space station.”

“Isn’t that obvious? Of course most of the crew will be transferred to Walf planet.”

“Frankly speaking, I’m tired of this prison that we’ve been trapped in for six or seventy years. If possible, I want to leave this place and stay on the surface of the planet forever.”

“The majority of the crew should go to the surface, where a lot of people are needed. We’ll let Pangu control the spacecraft. As the highest grade of artificial intelligence, it can handle any problem.”

“Let’s transfer the majority of the crew. We will much prefer real land.”

Of the 18 representatives, 15 believe that most of the crew should be transferred to the surface of the planet.

Only Mu Yunhua and her two trusted aides did not make a clear statement, but they did not object to the transfer to the surface.

The majority supported the transfer.

Mu Yunhua felt a vague sense of that this decision was inappropriate, but, listening to the complaints of everyone, she also understood that it was not an exaggeration to describe the feeling of living in a big box for decades as “sitting in jail.” Their spirit had been suppressed for many years. It was entirely reasonable for most of the crew to want to head for fresh and beautiful land.

It was the wish of the overwhelming majority.

Coupled with the large amount of manpower required for the transformation of the planetary environment, Mu Yunhua could not find a suitable reason to object, and could only obey the wishes of the majority.

Subsequently, the Blue Space entered mid-range orbit around the Walf planet. About 80,000 crew members were preparing massive amounts of equipment and supplies. They were busy getting ready for the move to the surface of the Walf planet every day.

“Ha ha ha, ho ho ho!”

“This is our new home! Our new future!”

“We’ll start a new beginning from here!”

“Although it is still overgrown and wild, we can already see hope and happiness.”

“…..”

The crew members felt very excited as they took their first steps on this promising planet filled with hope, and they cheered in jubilance.

Chapter 412 - Worries And Complaints

A month later.

Most of the personnel and equipment on the migration spacecraft Blue Space were transferred to the surface of the planet Walf.

A coastal region.

Standing on a rock wall that was 100 meters high, Mu Yunhua looked down at the development base built on both sides of a freshwater river as it buzzed with activity.

She listed to the whoosh of the sea breeze.

Mu Yunhua wore a protective suit. A trace of concern could be seen in the expression of her eyes.

“Will things really be OK if we go on like this? Can we proceed with construction with peace of mind?”

Why did she always feel a faint sense of uneasiness..? Even though there was no trace of development on this planet, it had huge amounts of resources.

Most of the crew were full of laughter and energy, imbued with motivation and bright positivity. But she never felt optimistic. Large, dark clouds hovered in her mind.

“What are you worried about, Captain? You seem a little depressed these days. Can you talk to me about it?”

A voice came from behind, and a handsome and elegant man walked towards her.

Bai Shengqi.

He was the head of her guard detail, and had always been beside her, protecting her. He was also her most trusted confidant and companion.

After years of working together, the two found they had harmonious feelings on many issues.

“Is our decision a bit hasty? We can’t stake all our resources and future on an undeveloped planet.”

“Resources?”

Bai Shengqi looked at his feet and said, “No matter how you look at it, there are way more resources that are lying untapped in this planet. The delegates’ choice must be correct.”

“But they didn’t take into account the time and cost needed to transform this planet. 60 years,” Mu Yunhua said with a low voice. “It will take at least 60 years, with the full investment of all our manpower and material resources, to complete the initial phase of environmental transformation and build a perfect ecosystem. We have no extra energy to do other things.”

“This includes the development of more advanced technologies and building a powerful fleet to defend our security. It also means that we have essentially no defense ability for at least sixty years.

“By putting all our resources and energy into a vast transformation project, we’ll be entrenched in a long period of minimal defensive ability. If we encounter an attack by a powerful enemy aggressor, what can we do to resist?”

This was what she was worried about. After all, time was time. They could not spend decades on something that was not the most urgent task under the threat of other unknowns.

“Captain, I think that the transformation of the planetary environment, strengthening of military defense, and the research and development of advanced technologies can be done simultaneously. They will not seriously interfere with each other… There should not be too many issues with this development route.”

Bai Shengqi thought that the majority view, in most cases, was still largely reasonable. Moreover, it was the most efficient in execution.

Mu Yunhua’s expression sank. “The problem is that we don’t have that many people—Only 100,000 survivors. They are a population bomb that will need as long as 20 years to propagate… we won’t have enough people for at least thirty or forty years. How will we balance the three tasks of planetary environment transformation, scientific research, and the construction of defensive forces? It would be great to just complete even one of those jobs.”

“Robots. We can use robots in large numbers.”

“Have you forgotten the profound lesson we learned from the ‘reboot’ virus?”

“Uh…”

Bai Shengqi’s mind blank. He finally understood the concerns of Mu Yunhua.

He also finally realized why he felt that something was off.

The order of the tasks could be wrong. Compared with life and death, it seemed that the transformation of the planet’s ecological environment was not the highest priority.

The most urgent task was having a sufficient level of self-protection. There was no doubt about this.

“Then… what should we do? Is there any possibility of changing course?”

“Let’s take things one step at a time. It’s okay to build the immigration base first. It won’t take up too much time. We’ll make adjustments later.”

After all, when one arrived at a new home, it was necessary to build a cozy and comfortable settlement. This was called stabilizing the masses and boosting morale. With these two elements in place, everything that followed would be easier.

…

Back on Earth.

Recently, a major event caused heated discussions among the public.

The online virtual game Galaxy Era, which had been running for 30 years and still had more than one billion players to date, released a major version update. The main updates were as followed.

The game’s realism had been increased to 99.99999999%.

In-game process rate was only 3.3 times that of reality. That meant that a day in reality was equivalent to 3.3 days in the game.

An all-out war system had been initiated, and various alien forces had appeared on the scene.

Finally, the ultimate reward model had been published online. Xing Hai Technology’s core assets were split into 200 billion portions, corresponding to the 200 billion star systems in the game. The more star systems a player occupied, the more dividends they were awarded.

The above updates put all of the players into a state of excitement.

The reward model in particular attracted everyone’s attention and was the focus of discussion.

“The company has to put their hard-earned capital into this?”

“Although it’s only the dividends, and not all the rights, the benefits generated each year are still very impressive.”

“Xing Hai Technology’s core assets are worth more than 100 trillion, and the annual profit is about 2 trillion yuan. If you occupy a star system, you can get 10 yuan in dividends every year. If you occupy 100, you can get one 1,000… …So, if you take down 10,000 star systems, that would, more or less, be enough to support your family.”

“Huuu… I got excited for nothing. The total amount is considerable, but the per capita amount is peanuts. In fact, it’s just a crumb.”

…

In the residential apartment of a certain neighborhood in a certain city.

“Honey, I think this is a good opportunity.”

Li Dong, with the appearance of a middle-aged man, held a transparent news panel in his hand and spoke in the direction of the kitchen. He was actually over fifty years old, but he looked just above. His eyes were alert, and he was still full of energy.

“I don’t agree with your thoughts.”

His wife, Mu Wanqiu, came out carrying a bowl of soup. Because of her proper maintenance, she looked less than 30 years old. Her skin was smooth and fair, and her figure was lithe and well-rounded. Donning the clothes of a housewife, she exuded the charm of a mature woman.

But the expression on her face was not too positive. “It’s time to give up on that game, and find a stable job immediately! I have been married to you for more than 20 years, and you have been immersed in that game for all of that time. Your income becomes less and less with each passing year. Even this house is just a bonus for having a third child. Our third and youngest will be going to a private university very soon. Most of the tuition and living expenses will have to be borne by the student. Do you have the money?

“Our eldest daughter just graduated from college, and her job search in Shanghai remains unsuccessful; we have to transfer her some money. Our second takes after you; he shuts himself in his room all day long, addicted to virtual games. The burden of this family is all on me!”

The more she spoke, the angrier she felt. Mu Wanqiu glared at Li Dong. “Work. Immediately go find a job, and quit that game. You must take up your responsibility to this family! Hmph! How did I fall for your sweet nothings all those years ago and marry you?”

This…

Looking at his tearful wife with her endless complaints, Li Dong felt quite depressed.

Was he that terrible?

Chapter 413 - Super Light Speed Engine

A professional virtual game player.

This was Li Dong’s occupation… Of course, the prefix “hardcore” could be added.

Moreover, he was a seasoned player who had more than 20 years of experience in the first online virtual game, Galaxy Era.

No one knew that game better than him.

And during the game’s golden age, he had earned millions in income by writing strategy guides, selling scientific materials, and exchanging various in-game resources… It was enough for a cozy and comfortable life.

However, young people have a strong desire to enjoy life; they have no plans to buy a house or a car. They are only concerned with living a carefree life.

After just a few years, nearly all of that money had been squandered.

At that time, the popularity of Galaxy Era had gradually cooled.

Plenty of online virtual games that were more exciting and fun had appeared on the market, including genres like magic, cultivation, mecha, and so on. The gameplay was new and original, and was more thrilling to the senses; hence, they attracted a large number of players.

This naturally caused a great amount of Galaxy Era’s players to migrate to other games.

After more than a decade of the game’s golden age, players had generally matured. Resource exchange activity declined, and money could no longer be so easily earned. The game had entered the “silver age.”

Li Dong’s monthly income was reduced from hundreds of thousands to only $10,000 or so.

The days were getting worse.

Of course, this was also an inevitable law. Even the most well-liked and fun game could only maintain its popularity for a decade or two, and then its position would gradually weaken.

In addition, Galaxy Era had a fatal flaw. Because it was too realistic, even if the game’s execution efficiency was more than ten times that of a conventional situation, it was unavoidable that one had to spend more than ten years, in real time, to fight in an interstellar war spanning ten light-years.

Not many players could endure such a long wait.

After all, in this fast-paced era, people preferred to pursue sensory thrills that could be gotten in ten minutes, a few minutes, or even ten seconds.

Galaxy Era was labeled an “old game” that was outdated. It was inevitable that its standing would weaken.

However, Li Dong never gave up. He became even more excited during these couple of days, and explained this to his wife, who was standing in front of him.

“Honey, I think my great opportunity has arrived. Our days will continue to improve.”

Mu Wanqiu glared at him. “You mean that you’ve agreed to find a job, and work hard to improve the current situation of our home?”

“No, I think that there’s still a chance for me to strike it rich in the Galaxy Era. Haven’t you seen the announcement about the game updates? The annual income of 2 trillion will be evenly distributed across the 200 billion star systems. Each star system can bring $10 in revenue.”

“What’s the use of this?” Mu Wanqiu said with a cold expression. “You can’t even buy a package of noodles for $10, but you think you can get rich with this?”

“Of course. My current ‘Eastern Jupiter Civilization’ occupies about 180 star systems, and my scope of influence covers most of the planets within a radius of 25 light-years. Multiply by 10, and the annual dividend income is about $1,800.”

“Haha, $1,800. Do you want everyone in the family to starve?”

“But I’m confident that I can increase the number of star systems under my control within a year. The annual dividend will be $100,000, which is not much different from what you earn from your work.”

Li Dong spoke with confidence, as if he had mastered the secret to success.

“How is this possible? You can’t occupy that many star systems, even with a hundred years’ time. Conventional interstellar warships can accelerate up to 0.2 times the speed of light. The average economic speed is only 0.1C. The overly slow pace of Galaxy Era has become its Achilles’ heel.”

Mu Wanqiu was also a veteran player who had been playing Galaxy Era for more than ten years. She knew the characteristics of the game, and this was her conclusion: that it was a boring strategy game that required a long feedback time. Hence, she slowly stopped playing it.

Only Li Dong remained addicted.

“After the version is updated, it will resolve the slow pace of the game.

“Although it is not explicitly mentioned in the announcement, the era of the all-out interstellar war is indeed coming.

“Interstellar warships have a maximum speed of 20 times the speed of light, multiplied by 3.3 times, which is the rate of execution. In one year, the radius of my influence can be increased to 100 light-years, and I’ll control nearly 10,000 star systems, which will represent a pretty good increase in my income.”

Mu Wanqiu drew a blank, “Twenty times the speed of light? How can there be such rapid speed? Isn’t it impossible?”

“The super light speed curvature engine. A player made a significant breakthrough in this area, which directly triggered the version update,” Li Dong said.

In truth, the overly slow pace of Galaxy Era was due to the slow speed of the interstellar warships. This, in turn, was due to the lack of progress in super light speed aviation technologies.

Over the years, a large number of players from the science and technology community had entered the field of Space Technology, hoping to find solutions to the problem and make the era of inefficient communication a thing of the past.

Hard work paid off. Countless brains and thoughts had been involved in this effort. Finally, due to a genius’s miraculous flash of inspiration, Space Technology achieved a breakthrough.

The super light speed curvature engine had the potential to become a reality.

The changes brought about by this were revolutionary.

“With the super light speed curvature engine technology, the mobility of dispatching a warship in an interstellar war will be hundreds of times faster than that for a common warship. Not only does it have an advantage in military strength, but also, if it is faced with a strong opponent, it can easily escape. This thus forms a generational difference. The big devour the small, the strong will bully the weak, and a full-scale war is about to start.”

“You talk like you have mastered this technology. If others have this technology but not you, how do you plan to conquer tens of thousands of star systems?”

Mu Wanqiu rolled her eyes at her husband. She had no idea where his self-delusional confidence came from.

“Who said that I didn’t? I have a good friend who sent me a copy of the curvature engine for free. If he was selling it to someone else, he would price it at one million, at least. But because I’ve helped him a lot, he gave it to me as a generous gift between friends.”

Li Dong looked at her and asked, “How about it? Can you give me another chance to show off my skills?”

This…

Mu Wanqiu was silent for a while. It was a long time before she nodded. “Ok, I’ll give you another year.”

She agreed to let Li Dong try.

Firstly, she was very familiar with the game, Galaxy Era. Although the game had a slow pace, the level of realism and intelligence in the game was much better than that of other virtual games on the market. The potential was still there.

Secondly, she believed Li Dong’s ability. After all, Li Dong had earned at least tens of millions through this game in the past two or three decades, allowing the family to live comfortably for a period of time.

And now, Xing Hai Technologies had thrown out such a large bait. There were only a few veteran players of Galaxy Era left; hence, the competition had diminished. If Li Dong put his all into getting the best deal, obtaining 10,000 star systems would be really easy.

Finally, she shook her head helplessly.

“It seems that my man is tied to games for life. I was also swindled by him—that’s how I got together with him. Hmmph, if I had known this, I wouldn’t have played any games.”

…

On the other side.

After deciding to turn Xing Hai Technologies’ rights to the income from its core assets into a reward in the game, Chen Jin immediately got into trouble, and developed a headache.

Chapter 414 - Effective Realizing

Inside a luxury villa.

Chen Jin sat upright on a sofa chair. He looked a bit stupefied, and his eyes were somewhat lifeless.

He could hear the indiscriminate bombardment of 1,500 ducks.

Yes, standing in front of him were three beautiful women with outstanding auras, fair skin, and beautiful appearances. They were dressed exquisitely and fashionably.

Heading the group was a bejeweled woman in a pale pink at-home dress. She had a mature and noble bearing. Folding her arms, she said, “Dear, this is such a big decision. Why didn’t you discuss it with us before making this decision without any of our permission? Do you think that it’s not necessary to discuss things with us, no matter what the issue is? Is it the same for family members?”

On her left was a woman in a dark gray, western-style women’s suit which perfectly showed off the S-shaped curve of her body. She exuded the vibe of a queen. Her almond-shaped eyes glared at Chen Jin. “Dad, you’ve said this before. You announced your retirement early on, and wanted to wash your hands of the company’s business. How could you make such a big decision, and so sneakily, too? Moreover, that game’s popularity is dwindling down, yet you’re still throwing so much money into it. Dad, are you confused?”

The woman on the right was also dressed like an office lady, but she was slightly more reserved. She always kept a mellow smile on her face, and her tone was very gentle. “Dad, the economy has been pretty bad these past couple years. The few big projects that I’m involved in have sunk into bad predicaments because they’re facing a lack of capital. I was originally looking to borrow some money from you… It seems that I can only rely on myself.”

Disappointment flashed across her face, and she sighed. “I don’t know if I can solve the capital shortage by going to the bank and mortgaging a space city.”

When he heard this, Chen Jin’s face naturally revealed a trace of guilt and shame.

The three beautiful women standing in front of him were his wife and two daughters, respectively.

Being the target of reproach and complaints from three sweet, beautiful women-wouldn’t any normal man feel quite embarrassed?

Not to mention that they were his most cherished family members.

Taking this combined with the guilt borne from the incidents of the past, Chen Jin would not vent his anger on them.

He could only patiently explain, “Regarding this, the game Galaxy Era contains a lot of benefits. Put it this way: its value is greater than 10,000 space cities, greater than the whole earth, even greater than the entire solar system… Its significance can no longer be described by money. It is currently the most valuable thing on earth.

“And its value comes from the vast number of elite players. Once the number of players is greatly reduced or even totally lost, the value of this game is basically zero.

“This is the purpose of injecting Xing Hai Technologies’ core assets’ dividend earnings into the game. We have to support the elite players and cultivate more value… No one can accomplish anything if the conditions are poor.

“Moreover, you should be clear about how I’ve arrived at this stage. Since the founding of Xing Hai Technologies, I’ve never made a wrong decision. I believe that I’m the idol that you admire, so please believe in your idol. Everything that I do is right.” Chen Jin began to praise himself.

However, it only caused his wife to look at him with disdain and his eldest daughter to roll her eyes.

“Heehee.” The second eldest daughter, Chen Xiao Yue, covered her mouth with her hand and laughed. “Then why don’t you talk about it, Dad? Just what is this project that is worth investing two trillions into in a year? Don’t you think that you have to give us the specific reasons?”

The eldest daughter, Chen Xing Yue, also asked, “Yes, Dad, what are you doing?”

“This…”

Chen Jin’s eyes began to twinkle, “Early—it’s still too early, though. There’s no effective results yet. Let’s talk about it later.” This was the last trump card in his hand and, so far, no one knew his secret. Not even his closest family members.

“That… OK, we’ll stop asking.”

Chen Xiao Yue knew that her father was preparing a big strategic move. It seemed that he was throwing a lot of money around, as if it was confetti and made him look a bit like a philanthropist. But Xing Hai Technologies never got involved in a losing business. Therefore, she could only express support for her father’s strange behavior.

Chen Xing Yue too, had nothing more to say. It was ok as long as her father was not a dotard. Of course, she could not help but mutter silently to herself, This is an old virtual game that has been in operation for 30 years, and it’s nearing the end of its decline in the ordinary course of events. Why does Dad still place so much value on this game?

Could there be some amazing secrets or benefits hidden in that game?

Thinking of this, she decided to go back and acquire a few game studios to explore the mystery of Galaxy Era. After all, she always felt vaguely that her father might still have some amazing tricks up his sleeve… As a woman, this was what her intuition told her.

They also talked about some other topics. Then mother and daughters left the living room together.

Chen Jin stroked his forehead with his hand to wipe away the invisible sweat.

“Although we are a family connected by blood, why do I always feel so tired?”

His money, personal interests, and affection were bound together. Which aspect would prove to be the most genuine in reality?

At the very least, Chen Jin felt that pure family love was definitely not the one that had the greatest impact on reality.

“Fortunately, I’ve made proper arrangements for Yuan Lin, Guo Yan, and the four sons, and have not treated them badly. And they haven’t been incorporated into the Chen family, either. Otherwise, with so many people crowded in front of me, fighting over this or that every day, it would turn into a real-life performance of one of those dramas about the scheming and intrigue inside a rich and powerful family. My head would explode.”

Of course, the man who knows himself well is wise, and Chen Jin, who knew himself very well indeed, had avoided these problems. Hence, his days had passed very calmly.

Evening.

Haierfa.

Chen Jin came over.

He sought out the Als, Alice and Nuwa, to ask them a few questions.

“Nuwa, can a curvature engine be developed on the basis of the Space Ripple theory that was put forward by that player some time ago? Or is it just a theoretical possibility? Have you calculated the exact result?”

Space could be changed.

This was confirmed the moment humans detected gravitational waves.

Based on the traditional method of work propulsion, no matter how great its engine power, an interstellar spacecraft simply could not attain or exceed the speed of light.

So, some experts had taken a different approach. They thought that if the speed of light was a barrier that could not be broken through, then they would change space. By “shifting” space, they would be able to break through the speed limit of fixed space.

The working principle of the curvature engine was this: by transforming, or rather distorting, the surrounding space-time continuum, the space in question would be put into a position of high potential. Then, like a landslide, it would slide from the “higher place” down to a “concave area.” Through this process, it would achieve a speed that was faster than the speed of light.

The higher the curvature, the faster the speed.

There was no problem with this propulsion principle.

But it was way too difficult to transform time and space. It appeared that space distortion could only be observed around massive black holes and neutron stars. It could not be transformed under normal circumstances.

It was even more difficult to create a functional curvature engine.

But a genius player put forward the Space Ripple theory, and, as long as the theory was proved to be correct and effective, the super light speed curvature engine could be developed. It would not exist only in the game for much longer.

“It’s been calculated, master.”

Nuwa said with some excitement, “The Space Ripple theory has been verified to be effective in reality. It will not be very long before the Base enters the era of super light speed!”

Chapter 415 - Alien Spies?

Super light speed era.

Chen Jin’s heart was racing a little. It seemed that there was hope of breaking through the barrier represented by the impossible attempt to exceed the speed of light.

After all, the pace of Galaxy Era was really too slow. Under normal circumstances, there was no hope that one could ever witness a player dominating the server, not even in a few hundred years. In order to speed things up and salvage the game, a fictional super light speed technology would have had to have been launched, even if a breakthrough had not been achieved in the field of “space technology” real life.

This would inevitably lead to a decline in the realism of the game and disrupt the original
pace.

Unexpectedly, a player with ingenious creativity in the field of science achieved a breakthrough in the theory. The super light speed curvature engine technology could also be realized in reality. The significance of this was extraordinary.

“It appears that the Crystal Brainers must not have achieved any breakthroughs in the technology of super light speed engines.” If they had made such an accomplishment, Haierfa would have been occupied as their colony long ago, nor would it have been destroyed remotely.

“That is to say, in terms of speed, we are now ahead of the Crystal Brainers and have established a significant advantage.

“Even just a single curvature engine, when installed on a C-class warship, would immediately increase its combat power by two grades, reaching the level of a Class A warship.

“Flying objects at the speed of light cannot be monitored. If it were used to launch an airstrike or a surprise attack, given the extreme suddenness of such an assault, many civilizations would be hit hard or even destroyed immediately.

“No matter which competitive field one was involved in, there is nothing that cannot be overcome-no speed limits that cannot be broken through.”

The same was true for war.

Once the super light speed curvature engine was introduced, the Crystal Brainers would no longer be powerful enough to serve as the authority for technological prowess.

“But Master, with our current experimental conditions, it would take about a decade to make a breakthrough with a real-life, large-scale, and functional curvature engine. It is impossible to enter the practical stage immediately.”

“Can we speed up the process by increasing our investment of resources?”

“There would be no significant effect. Together with Alice, we have invested 100% of our resources and energy into this project.”

“Ok.”

After all, this was not some illogical fictional story where the main character could upgrade himself or his circumstances willy-nilly. He could only follow the prescribed order of events and wait.

On a different side of the universe.

The Walf galaxy, 14 light years away.

Development activities were in full swing every day on the vast surface of the water-rich planet.

A series of mines had been opened to provide all the raw materials needed.

Colonial bases were being built all along the river, scattered throughout the area of the wide perimeter of land that they had claimed for themselves. As they improved the efficiency of development, the human survivors’ living space began to seem extraordinarily spacious and empty.

“A land area of more than 300 million square kilometers being occupied by only 100,000-plus surviving human beings. What a broad living space. Naturally, problems with regards to resources, land, environment, housing prices, and so on don’t exist… It is a resource-rich paradise that has no natural enemies or competition.

“In this kind of paradise, even if we humans were to multiply in an exponential manner by doubling our population every 30 years, we would only reach the scale of 10 billion people in 300 years.”

“If we directly detonate a population bomb, we can cultivate a population of 10 billion in 30 years… In about 50 years, the planet will become somewhat crowded and will enter a state of insufficient resources and over-competition.

“Friction will arise again, internal divisions will arise, and groups will break away. It is difficult to maintain the initial unity that we have… This will no longer a paradise.”

But even so!

Even if it would be full of dissent and conflicts.

Mu Yunhua clenched her fist. She thought that it would still be better than being stuck in the “comfort zone” indefinitely.

All of this was because she felt that the atmosphere in those days seemed to be a little off, and was only getting worse.

Everyone was too comfortable, too immersed in the current short-lived peace, and was ignoring the lingering threat that was nearly impossible to get rid of.

“At present, resources are limited. There is no need to use a large number of population bombs. It is ok to increase the population by 10,000 people every year. If we produce 100,000 or even one million children every year, there won’t be enough of us to raise them. There are not many people who are willing to be nannies.

“Several large-scale projects do need to be quickly launched for scientific research and development purposes. But we have a serious lack of scientists. They can only start to tackle a few non-frontier issues first; they even need to recreate a portion of our missing technologies.

“Military construction? We have not yet built a complete industrial system. How could we start military construction and build what you could call a large-scale interstellar warship?”

At the high ranking representatives meeting.

The three highest-priority action proposals put forth by Mu Yunhua were all rejected.

Less than one-third of the representatives supported her!

Even her loud appeals could not get the opposition representatives to take her seriously.

A representative named Wu Zhixian even sneered, “Captain, let go of your anxiety. It has no place here. We know what you are worried about and the danger we are currently facing, but with our current strength, we cannot contend with potential enemies. Compared with the other party, we have a technological gap of at least three hundred years.

“If we decide to resist, I am afraid that, when the fleet sent by those mysterious forces arrive, it will just be another moment where we have to flee. The buildings in front of us, accomplished through our hard work, would just become a gift for others. It would be useless.

“It is a better idea to slow down our pace and to fully enjoy the current period of peace. We can add some happiness and hope to our lives. If you continue to worry, you will go crazy from the despair. As for the crisis, it will not be too late to find a solution when it arrives.”

Mu Yunhua’s eyes widened.

What did he mean?

“Why am I hearing an undertone of weakness and compromise in your words? Representative Wu, are you planning to wait for the alien fleet to come over, to give up the struggle and resistance, and then to raise your hands and surrender?” Mu Yunhua asked, glaring at the other party. Sure enough, she saw a trace of panic in his cunning gaze.

“Captain, you are slandering my character. Please don’t question my determination to resist to the end.” Wu Zhixian stood with an angry expression.

“Then why have you taken the lead in vetoing several of my proposals? These plans guarantee our freedom and survival. Don’t you see why they are important?”

“The most important thing now is to live a stable life, instead of continuing to remind people of their desperate plight when they were adrift on the spacecraft. Nobody wants to be homeless for the second time. Perhaps Walf is the permanent home for us.” Wu Zhixian said with a wavering gaze. However, he remained confident, as if he had justice on his side.

Mu Yunhua looked at him with great shock.

His words alone gave her enough cause for doubt. Was he a spy of the mysterious alien force, assigned to carry out a particular task, or to incite desertion from her camp?

After all, the excuses and tone of someone who will surrender could be heard even by a normal person.

Surprisingly, even though Wu Zhixian said this, the majority of the representatives present remained silent instead of suggesting to isolate and interrogate him.

Even more than half of the representatives were vaguely standing by to Wu Zhixian. They seemed to have joined hands to veto any issues she raised about military preparations.

Her heart suddenly sank.

She turned to look at Bai Shengqi, who was next to her, and saw that he had very grave expression. He indicated with movements of his eyes that she should not act rashly.

“Meeting adjourned.”

Mu Yunhua spat out these words helplessly.

Chapter 416 - The Best Option?

After the meeting.

Wu Zhixian returned to his residence with no expression on his face.

Exposed. The identity he was concealing had undoubtedly been exposed.

But he wasn’t worried or regretful, nor did he think that his move had been unwise. It was true, Mu Yunhua was still a leader recognized by everyone. Her great prestige and charisma had never faltered.

But over the past six months, he had felt legitimately fed up by this woman’s nagging. Every time the representative assembly met, she had to bring up topics that evoked anxiety. He was already tired of listening, and was reluctant to hear any more of it.

He might as well be frank about everything and express his own attitude.

Of course, if he were the only one in the compromising faction, he might immediately lose his qualification as a representative upon opening his mouth and be sentenced, at the very least, to indefinite imprisonment under the crowd’s displeasure.

Fortunately, among the 19 representatives, 12 accepted his point of view, became his fellow, and made him their leader.

He had basically gained control of what was left of the entirety of human civilization.

Subsequent decisions on policies would be laid down in accordance with his wishes, including transferring the majority of the population and resources to the surface of planet Walf, Prioritizing the construction of resettlement bases and the transformation of the ecological environment, keeping population growth within 10,000 per year, and others.

His motive was naturally to stall the survivor’s advancements, and he had achieved exactly this.

In fact, Wu Zhixian, too, had hopes in his heart at some point in the past. He was once a hot-blooded youth.

But looking at his wretched, ugly self in the mirror, he mumbled, “When did I become like this? Just when did fear and weakness overwhelmed my heart?”

Reluctantly, he remembered the events that occurred 50 years ago, when the Blue Space went full speed ahead with no possibility of turning back. Faced with an unknown future, looking at the dark, starry sky ahead of him, he had curled himself at a corner, shivering, more than once. The thoughts that continuously emerged in his mind were of destruction, obscurity, death, and other things that evoke the greatest fear in mankind. After all, in the face of absolute despair, nobody would be totally without fear of death.

Coincidently, he was the kind of person that looked daring on the outside but was actually fragile on the inside… he couldn’t overcome his fear.

At that moment.

A line of pale green text had abruptly appeared in the air before him: Come be my slave. Slaves have the right to survive.

These words made Wu Zhixian inexplicably afraid, but also inexplicably excited.

An alien spy device.

Aliens were establishing contact with him through this method.

This became the beginning of his betrayal of humanity, as he embarked on a path of no return.

However, he did not think of it as a betrayal, nor did he think that there was anything wrong with it. I’m just directing the future of mankind towards the right path.

To ensure their survival, that little price they would have to pay was completely acceptable.

Besides, the mysterious aliens also assured him that if humanity did not resist, they would not kill innocent people, and would leave the remaining humans a path to survival.

They would give those who conceded to them good treatment as long as they listened to their “arrangements”.

Hence, from that day onwards, Wu Zhixian lived in fear no more. He slept well every day, and his feelings of forlornness and perplexity completely left him, as if a future blooming with hope had come to light before his very own eyes—even if the path ahead of him was a narrow road that would take away his freedom.

“It is still better than to blindly grope in the endless void of darkness.”

Moreover, on the spacecraft, there were many more people than himself among the senior representatives who felt desperate and confused. Everyone more or less had some of those feelings in their hearts. The ones Wu Zhxian was aiming at were those who were frail in their minds that were already in a wavering state. With the help of the mysterious alien spy device and up to 40 years of operation, most of the senior representatives came to stand by his side. Then, being able to gradually seize control over the human remnants was entirely foreseeable. It had boosted Wu Zhixian’s arrogance so greatly that he was no longer cautious, and he even dared to express his inner views in front of Mu Yunhua. After all, he had already secured victory. There was no need for him to suppress himself any longer. He directly expressed his point of view in an attempt to convince everyone, including Mu Yunhua, that they should accept the arrangements provided by the aliens and live a peaceful life without any fear. This was definitely the best choice!

These were Wu Zhixian’s beliefs.

Ding, ding, ding.

The communicator sounded.

Wu Zhixian pressed the “answer” button, and a projection screen appeared in front of him. The screen was divided into 12 grids displaying avatars, including his.

This was an encrypted conference communication.

The members inside were all the representatives who had joined him.

“Wu, you’ve said too much in front of Mu Yunhua. Now, we’re all in danger.”

A bespectacled old representative said, “You are almost a hundred, Wu. Why can’t you calm yourself down?”

“Jiang, I do not think that I’ve said anything unnecessary today. I would have had to say it sooner or later, anyway. I just hope that Mu Yunhua will stop her babbling.”

Wu Zhixian shrugged his shoulders as he expressed his fearlessness.

Another representative said, “It is still too early to flip the tables now. The Pangu system and most of the guards are still under Mu Yunhua’s command. If she decides to act against us, I am afraid that there is nothing we could do.”

“Relax. She wouldn’t dare to do anything to us.”

Wu Zhixian put up his legs and said with a confident look, “My body is linked to the fate of all surviving humans, and a representative of all our people’s attitude to those aliens. If something were to happen to me, to those aliens, it would read as a war signal saying that we will not compromise. The option of peace would be entirely out of the picture! Mu Yunhua will not have the guts to do that.”

This was the reason behind his fearlessness.

“Okay… but Mu Yunhua still deserves our respect. It would be best if we could convince her of it, so that it won’t harm our ties. After all, there truly are not a lot of survivors left,” a white representative said.

“Convince her?” Wu Zhixian helplessly shook his head. “We have known her for decades. When did her straight-forward character ever change? When did she even consider compromising with the aliens who destroyed planet Haierfa? She was so eager and anxious that she constantly burned for revenge. Who could possibly convince a leader which such a character as she has?

“Under her leadership, our fate will most likely be another long journey of exile.

“But I’m tired of that kind of life. I believe that all of you would rather enjoy the blue sky and sunshine that we have now. Mu Yunhua, however, will insist on stopping us, thus dragging us all back to that spaceship on a never-ending trek. She is destined to be our opposing faction, so—”

Wu Zhixian clenched his fist. “We will use our numbers to oust her. That stubborn woman is not suited to be our leader. Only I, who am flexible and able to accommodate the circumstances, can give everyone a happy life.”

All the other representatives took a deep breath, looking at Wu Zhixian with shock.

He wanted to oust the prestigious Mu Yunhua.

“Is that really the right thing to do?”

Wu Zhixian replied in a sinister tone, “If she can’t be convinced, this is the only way.”

…

In the main hall of the base.

Seeing the video footage through the monitor screen and hearing the words that Wu Zhixian had spoken, Mu Yunhua looked awful. She held her fist, and her body was shaking faintly. She was obviously provoked to her limit.

“Traitor.

“A despicable traitor!”

“He is not qualified to be human anymore. He’s just a dog without any guts—the dumbest and most ignorant dog among humans.”

Mu Yunhua clenched her jaw, and her eyes were blazing with rage.

She turned around and told Bai Shengqi beside her, “Arrest them all. This footage is enough to get them arrested. Bai, bring some men with you and take all those traitors into custody. They are all suspended from their positions. Brand the mark of a despicable traitor on their bodies.”

“Captain.” A bit of hesitation flashed through Bai Shengqi’s face. “We should be cautious in this matter. Representative Wu alone can’t prove the matter, as he’s just a coward who is afraid of death. But his point must not be ignored. If the aliens are still spying on us, arresting Representative Wu and the others will indeed be a signal to them that we won’t compromise. Assuming that an alien fleet is on its way towards us, I am afraid that they will show no hesitation after learning our attitude. By then, the fate awaiting us will be…”

It would surely be an onslaught without any room for negotiation.

“Are you afraid?” Mu Yunhua glared at him. “Are you too becoming afraid of death?”

“I’ve never feared death.” Bai Shengqi’s expression became stern as he solemnly said, “My life alone is nothing. But the 10,000 left of our entire civilization is right in your hands. These people may be humanity’s last chance. If a wrong decision is made, humankind may perish and be lost forever in the long stream of history. Just the thought itself makes me feel extremely heavy.”

“Captain, I presume that you who bear this weight must feel an even greater burden on this matter.”

Upon listening, Mu Yunhua was plunged into silence.

The survival and continuation of human civilization… In the face of such a problem, once a wrong decision was made, the only remains of their civilization might go extinct like the dinosaurs, leaving only some impressions within the hearts of interstellar archaeologists. No matter how brilliant and wonderful their past was, the only thing they would leave behind were a few sighs. Given the size of the universe and the length of time, even interstellar archaeologists may not be able to dig them up, and the history of mankind would become a story forever covered in dust.

No matter what, this happening would be unacceptable and tragic.

Mu Yunhua did not wish to lead the remnants of human civilization to meet such an end. All of her struggles had been to prevent their demise.

“Are you implying that, coming from the perspective of continuing our civilization, the method proposed by Wu can be accepted?” Mu Yunhua said with a sore voice.

“I didn’t mean that.” Bai Shengqi shook his head. “The main thing is that we don’t know what conditions the aliens would offer us. If it were to mean limiting our population, banning high-tech development, losing some of our freedom, living in only small plots of reserved land, a prohibition on external expansion… if it were to be harsh conditions as these, then it wouldn’t be necessary for us to even talk about it. We are not animals in the zoo. Also—”

He added, “Based on what the aliens have done to us before, their credibility is a very large issue. It is highly likely that they will go back on their words. Therefore, even if they put forward favorable conditions, we should stay vigilant and prepare our defenses so that we can avoid being caught off guard. We must not comply with them without taking any precautions.”

“A guessing game?” The term popped out from Mu Yunhua’s mouth.

“Yes. No matter what, those aliens are not worthy of our trust, no matter how good they might be with their words.”

“So, are you saying that we should be firm in our resistance and not compromise at all?”

“But that way, there’s a great chance that we will once again embark on a path of exile. Our technological gap with the aliens is at least two or three hundred years. We are no match for them. Right now, in the immigration base, the people’s minds are set. Most of them do not want to flee again. Their minds are fragile, which makes them potential supporters of Wu. They might fall for the alien’s false hoaxes.”

“The majority probably wishes to submit and surrender. If I insist on confrontation, will the current situation fall into instability or even chaos?”

“Yes.”

“Then what should I do?” Ought she to obey the wishes of the majority, or to insist on her own opinion?

“I can’t decide. It’s all up to you, but I will faithfully execute any order you give me,” Bai Shengqi said while looking at her.

Mu Yunhua once again fell into silence, and her face seemed immensely perplexed.

After quite some time, she raised her hands and said in a quiet voice, “Arrest them. Arrest them all in secret. Give them the Truth Drug, interrogate them, reveal their crimes to all the immigrants. At last, by means of a referendum, their punishment shall be decided.”

In fact, deep down, she was thinking of treating those traitors to mankind with capital punishment. She wanted to show them what it meant to become a traitor.

But…

If her personally unrelenting attitude was unleashed, those mysterious aliens who would never let go of them. They would not even think of forcing them to surrender; they would be thinking about how to exterminate them from the roots. Nothing else would go through the alien’s minds.

This would be equivalent to completely severing their way of escape.

If a referendum were conducted, investigating the immigrants’ collective will and involving everyone in the decision—only then would the dissent be lessened.

Subsequent operations were conducted rapidly.

The thunder-like arrest operation involved no big movements. All the 12 senior representatives including Wu Zhixian were arrested and thrown into a public trial.

“Kill them!”

“Shameless traitors!”

“Bootlickers to the aliens!”

“Gutless cowards!”

Curses and voices demanding them to be executed went wild below the trial bench. All of the citizens were unable to accept such a shameful betrayal.

The three options given by the judge were: the death penalty, 20-year imprisonment, and removal from their posts but with no conviction. Looking at the hysterical crowd, it seemed that a death penalty might just be what was awaiting Wu Zhixian and the others.

However, the judge gave Wu Zhixian a chance to defend himself.

He seized the opportunity to share his words in front of the microphone with an easy grace:

“You cannot sentence me to death. Not only am I not guilty, but I am also currently saving all of you.

“Surrender is the only option, and it is the best choice for us.

“The technology of the aliens is at least three hundred years ahead of us. Once they had fixed an eye on us, there was no way we could elude their sight. They will always be able to track us down, keep up with us, or even await us at our destination in advance… We can never escape their grasp.

“Insisting on confrontation will only lead to utter destruction. Not even one of our genes will remain, and mankind will perish for eternity, vanishing into the dust.

“If we choose to surrender, they will allow us to live on planet Walf, to develop in this place with the peace of mind, and give us the rights of second-class citizens. If we perform well, we may even earn for ourselves equal status and more rights in the future… These are the concessions that I have won from them through countless negotiations. We will not be losing too much.

“On the contrary, if we choose to confront them, we will either be completely annihilated, or once again have to embark on a journey of exile—wandering in a narrow, closed spaceship for decades and centuries in the dark, murky nightmare of outer space, and savoring in endless despair and suffering. I believe that people who have been there once will not want to go through that again.

“So, hurry and pardon my sins… No; all of you should praise me for my merits. They will definitely make their words count. Any punishment given to me will mean provocation and disrespect to them. I am afraid that all that we’ve achieved will become obsolete…

“Hurry up and show goodwill to me. Showing me your goodwill will mean showing the aliens your goodwill. They are watching everything now. As the weaker ones, we should not indulge in useless emotions such as revenge and retaliation. The only thing we need now is to survive, and in order to do so, we will need their merciful gift. The more friendly you are to me, the more sincere you are, the more they will regard us as a reliable partner by the time they arrive.

“So, hurry up and make the right decision,” Wu Zhixian shouted unscrupulously, giving the soldiers around him expressions of annoyance.

But the crowd below lowered their heads and became silent.

Chapter 417 - Disunion

59%.

The final referendum results were released. More than half of the people chose not to punish Wu Zhixian. Only his position as a representative was stripped. The proportion of people who choose the death penalty was less than 10%.

Facing the polling result, Mu Yunhua’s body was shaking slightly. Even though she expected that many would choose to compromise and yield, she never thought that these frail minds would make up the vast majority. She herself had conducted this strange trial and had handed such an important decision over to the general public. Did this not reflect the fear and weakness that was concealed deep down within her heart?

They were fearful of the aliens’ power, and bore little hope for the future.

In a situation where the odds were low for the survival and continuation of civilization, compromise could, perhaps, be a way out.

The last pretense of cordiality must not be shed if they were to avoid enraging the enemy.

Hadn’t these thoughts once bred in her heart?

If even she felt that way, surely ordinary people, who just want to live a stable life, would.

As for the hot-blooded people who were yelling “Kill the traitors!” and “We will never be slaves”, most of them were soldiers who maintained security. They only made up an extremely small number.

At the scene, only Wu Zhixian’s haughty voice was left:

“Hahaha, hahahaha…

“A wise choice! Most of you have made a wise decision. Good, very good. This is a display of your intelligence and rationality. The aliens will be pleased with your sanity.

“I am overjoyed to have gathered so many allies today. If all of you declare that I am not guilty, then it means that I am not guilty. It means that I’m helping everyone, and that I’m leading all of you down a path of brilliance. Your actions have shown me that you are my supporters, and that you support me to be your new leader.

“So, Mu Yunhua, please step down from your place. Hand everything over to me. I will handle everything that is about to come, and lead everyone towards a joyful and stable life.”

When he said these words, everyone was taken aback.

Upon receiving a punishment that was almost equivalent to an exemption, Wu Zhixian had baldly unleashed a signal to seize power from Mu Yunhua.

Provocation.

Blatant provocation.

His tone was colored by an urge to retaliate, seemingly wanting to unravel a new farce to cover up the tension and fear he had just had. After all, he would not have dared to vouch previously that the death penalty was a hundred percent certain not to fall on his head. Since he was sure that nothing was going to happen to him now, it was time for him to mount a counter strike.

“Enough, Wu Zhixian. You are already dismissed. From tomorrow onwards, you will be assigned to basic labor. You have lost your qualification as a representative.”

Mu Yunhua’s face was enwrapped in frost. She did not expect this person to be so flagrant. He was actually still not satisfied after being exempted from all punishment.

“No, no, no…” Wu Zhixian shook his finger. “My public opinion support rate is 59%. Most people are on my side, so you had better give up the wheel now. It will save me the effort of making some unnecessary directives. To maximize efficiency, doing it right here, right now, will be just fine.

“What is more, I’m the noble aliens’ most recognized agent. One of the prerequisites for them to honor their promises is for me to replace Mu Yunhua and become your new leader. If all of you are reluctant to follow my orders, they may doubt and question our sincerity.

“So, Mu Yunhua, could you please surrender your authority, and walk into the cell made exclusively for you?”

There was not even a hint of fear on his face.

His smug expression made the soldiers around him think: a qualified dog.

“Arrest that man with a mouth full of gibberish!”

Mu Yunhua regretted that she had not disposed of the matter herself and sentenced all of those traitors to capital punishment. A brief show of weakness had given rise to ever-swelling arrogance and vanity for her opponents. The seed of disunion had also been planted.

It was from this day that the harmonious immigration base became divided into two factions.

The “Capitulationists,” headed by Wu Zhixian, advocated surrender, and became a vassal to the mysterious alien forces.

The “Old School” that stayed at the side of Mu Yunhua did not raise any uproar, nor were they daring to shout out slogans such as “Defend our freedom, say no to slavery!” and so on. They only wished to maintain a stable order. They could also be called the “Ostriches,” since they intended to muddle along until the end of their lives.

Wu Zhixian’s character and disposition were genuinely loathsome. No matter how disruptive his propaganda might be in terms of morality and self-respect, not many were willing to wallow in the mire with him. Mu Yunhua’s prestige could not be threatened.

For a whole three years, Wu Zhixian couldn’t seem to set off any tides of change.

However, no matter how incompetent he was, as long as he was loyal enough as a dog to the aliens, they would still open some doors for him.

Hence, via the mysterious monitoring device, the aliens conveyed a few messages:

If Wu Zhixian is unable to become the new leader within two years, half of the population will be slaughtered upon our arrival.

Halt scientific research and military expansion. If such efforts are still ongoing after three months, 20% of the population will be slaughtered upon our arrival.

Make a list of the disobedient. If their rebellious flames are not extinguished and they remain stubborn about revolting, everyone on the list will be slaughtered upon our arrival.

Their message could be summarized with one word: menacing.

It gave Wu Zhixian a shot in his arm to make him even more fearless.

After the alien’s threatening message had spread, the immigration base descended into chaos and immense terror.

“If we don’t do what the aliens say, they’ll go on a rampage as soon as they get here.”

“If we choose to revolt, we will probably die.”

“Wu Zhixian is an idiot and he boasts a lot, but for our own survival, electing him is the only option left for us. Sigh… Our dignity and freedom… I am afraid that all will be trampled and shattered into dust.”

“The aliens are bold enough to do this before they even arrive. Our days will become much worse when they actually get here. So, why not we fight back with our lives! Better to die with our dignity intact than to live as cowards!”

“…”

All kinds of voices arose. But when it came to survival itself, not many held the fort of their hot-bloodedness.

…

Mu Yunhua was also confronted with a crucial decision.

“Those aliens are really cunning. With only a few terrorizing statements, not even using any guns or bullets, they threw us into confusion and split us apart… they are real veterans at conspiracy. Their level in stirring up sh*t must be maxed out,” Bai Shengqi analyzed.

“Captain, we should just take the fight back to them!” another hot-blooded officer said. “We should use war to demonstrate the dignity and courage of our civilization! Given what the aliens are, they will definitely kill off every single surviving human; their only goal has been to eradicate us from the very beginning! Surrendering will do us no help. We should forsake all our delusions about this dark and wicked universe.”

“Yeah, we shouldn’t have had any kind of delusions, even from the beginning. There’s no survival without war.”

Mu Yunhua shook her head. “Execute ‘Plan A.’ Let’s put an end to this farce.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Chapter 418 - Impending Arrival

A neat and crisp arrest operation: as the goal was precise and clear, and Wu Zhixian had no manpower in his arsenal, his ability to resist was basically zero. Therefore, in just half a days’ time, the whole farce was brought to an end. The core personnel of the Capitulationists were completely subjugated, with their freedom constrained. Except for verbal conflicts, there was not much confrontation in the whole course of action, and the number of casualties was zero.

To describe it as a farce was profoundly befitting.

Mu Yunhua was always in control of the big picture. Her jurisdiction was unassailable.

However, she did not dare to do anything about the alien’s agent Wu Zhixian. She only restricted his personal freedom and disallowed him from bringing up nonsense. She was even fearful of disposing of this hidden peril and physically destroying him. After all, he was the alien spokesperson and the leader of the Capitulationists. Putting him out would signify a full-on revolt, thus expelling any possibility of discussion with the aliens. It would mean severing their way out and emitting a signal that they would fight until the end.

Mu Yunhua, who had the entire civilization on her shoulders, had no courage and boldness to do this. Therefore, Wu Zhixian and others merely lost their freedom and would still get to wallow in sumptuous and scrumptious meals every day, as nobody dared to mistreat them.

But the threats and menaces of the aliens were still hovering around.

The aliens who were surveilling everything issued an ultimatum, demanding Wu Zhixian to be released as soon as possible, or else they would do this, do that… Their attitude was tenacious, just like a master protecting their dog.

Each demand was able to inflict a wave of terror, causing the number of people that were inclined towards “surrendering to gradually increase. There were also more and more voices that called for Wu Zhixian’s release and for Mu Yunhua to surrender her authority.

This state of affairs lasted for about three years.

The remnants of humanity spent those three years in ever-growing terror.

The proportion of people who supported the Capitulationists was constantly on the rise, especially after the recent ultimatum issued by the aliens that said, “If in three days, Wu Zhixian is not yet released and Mu Yunhua has not yet surrendered her authority, you will all be annihilated.” The nerves of the people in the Capitulationists’ party, which had been suppressed for ages, finally collapsed. In order to survive, they spontaneously organized themselves, barged into the prison facility, and, after some conflict, they succeeded in freeing Wu Zhixian. At the same time, they issued a petition: “We hope that Mu Yunhua will surrender her authority and allow us to opt for the greatest chance of survival.” The number of signatures reached 80,000… which accounted for about 70% of all human survivors.

In the face of such public opinion, Mu Yunhua knew that, if she remained on that seat and does not get her a*s off of it, riots were the only thing that could ensue. It could only lead to humans killing each other.

Huhuh, surviving humans who are less than 10,000 in number, massacring each other in an internal war, shedding rivers of blood of their own kind before the alien fleet even arrives, solely because of fear.

How cowardly and pathetic was this?

But this was often human nature… everyone wished to survive, even if it meant living in a petty and low state.

Biting her lips, she held down a grief that was painful to contain. Before the final deadline, in order to avoid internal bloodshed, Mu Yunhua reluctantly handed over her authority and chose to give in. She heeded the aliens and allowed Wu Zhixian to take over her position as the supreme leader. Immediately afterward, Mu Yunhua was placed under house arrest and thus lost her freedom. As for her adherents who supported her, some were dismissed, while some were exiled; they were thoroughly purged.

The Capitulationists obtained absolute dominance.

The surviving humans were no longer struggling and resisting. They had chosen the spineless path of slavery.

They froze all unnecessary research/construction projects by the aliens’ arrangements, and only engaged in the work of terraforming Planet Walf, striving to achieve good results before the alien fleet’s arrival.

During this process.

As their most reliable and faithful dog, Wu Zhixian’s communication with the alien fleet became much more frequent. Through these regular interactions, a lot of key information had been obtained.

For example, approximately when would the alien fleet arrive?

What were the number and the size of their interstellar battleships?

They gained a rough idea of some of the most basic information about the aliens.

The mysterious alien force began to become less mysterious.

Anyhow, to such a low-level civilization that posed such a meager threat level as human beings, and a low-IQ, dishonorable bootlicker such as Wu Zhixian, it seemed just fine to reveal some of their non-critical information… After all, the human remnants who had been manacled would never be able to set off any significant waves.

…

Deep in space.

An interstellar fleet was cruising at high acceleration, a faint blue ignition lugging behind.

The flagship at the very front had the largest hull and was shaped like a flat long fish.

Inside the bridge deck.

A living creature with a blue crystal embedded on the back of its head, skin hardened to horn, a thickset tail, and a vertical pupil the color of a yellow agate was staring into the deep space ahead of him.

He mumbled to himself, “In about ten years, we will arrive at that galaxy.

“My wealth and my territory will soon be in my hands. The great Krrr’ada Clan will use this place as a beginning to launch a magnificent and glorious cause.

“A new colony will arise in the Selain Federation to infuse more vitality into our domain. The power of the Selain Civilization will grow stronger than ever!”

He was very excited, and his expression was overwhelmed with enthusiasm.

However, he then thought of the destination to which they were about to arrive, and the “Haierfareans” who were currently on that planet terraforming the environment.

His advisor standing by his side respectfully suggested, “Lord Krrr’da, although out of fear, those Haierfareans have directly surrendered to us. However, I think that they are not very reliable and are not worthy of our complete trust. Why don’t we decimate them upon our arrival to eliminate all of the potential perils?”

“Kill them all? Wipe out their species?”

“Yes, my Lord.”

“But why? They no longer pose any threat to us.”

“Lord Krrr’da, it is intractable for any planet to accommodate two intelligent species. Even a difference in skin color and language is hardly tolerable. This will be a conflict between civilizations. The best way will be to exterminate one of the two, or else dangers will always be out there, lurking in the mist,” his advisor said.

“But they have already surrendered, and I have also promised that I won’t kill them. I… should honor my words.”

“The problem is that they are an intelligent species. They possess considerable potential within. Once our two species mingle together, they will be able to grasp our cutting-edge technology in no time. And besides, we are the destroyers of their home. They are full of hatred toward us. The moment they get a chance to take revenge, their loyalty will be no more, and they will make every effort to break free from our control… They will always remain a hidden threat.”

“Then we shall separate the two species. We could engage them in the low-level work.”

“Even so, with their potential, they will brush up against high-level technology very soon, and figure out its principles… As I said, always a hidden threat.”

“This…”

Krrr’da was still hesitant. As a Selain, he was great at insidious and vicious conduct, and in using wisdom to crumble his enemies. However, he still had to uphold the most basic integrity. Honesty was the foundation of society and even the world. If integrity did not exist, many principles would collapse.

Krrr’da’s personality was inclined towards integrity.

He felt that, since he had promised the Haierfareans a path of survival, he should make his words count.

“Lord Krrr’da!” His advisor beside him became anxious and warned, “We only brought ten battleships this time, and all of them are sidelined crafts that are outdated. The mechanical system equipped on our vessels is also relatively obsolete. In all honesty, our combat power is nowhere near excessively strong. It is certainly more than enough to deal with those remnants of Haierfa, but once our power level has been exposed and they so happen to belittle us and somehow found a way to defy us—we do not have 100% assurance that we can put them back under control.

“Lord Krrr’da, the safest conduct is to completely eradicate the threat from its source. I beseech you to show them no sympathy, my Lord.”

His advisor’s hard-hitting appeal did not prevail over Krrd’da, but instead gave him a headache, his mind becoming all jumbled up.

Firstly, he couldn’t bear to abandon his character of stressing integrity that easily. Secondly, that leader of the Haierfareans by the name of Wu Zhixian was an extremely excellent bootlicker. Krrd’da was very delighted with his loyal acts and groveling. He even began harboring a good impression of him. He felt that the Haierfareans were not bad and would qualify to become servants to the Krrr’da Clan. Those inferiors might still have some usefulness in them. His advisor, however repeatedly, suggested: “Kill all Haierfareans, and eradicate the hidden threat from its roots.”

At the same time that he was in a tug-of-war with his values, he was having some doubts in his heart that gave him some unwonted thoughts. “Is he really just thinking about eliminating the threat? Isn’t it because I favor Wu Zhixian more, and he wants to compete for my favor so that I pay more attention to him?”

That would be considered abusing public power to retaliate against a personal enemy.

He secretly muttered, “Only the blessed would have the leisure to worry about such a thing. I wonder how hard he will actually work to offer me his most sincere loyalty.”

“Enough. I’ll consider your advice. Restrain yourself from mentioning the same thing every day.”

Krrr’da temporarily shoved this issue behind him.

…

Time flowed by ever so quickly. Ten years were gone by in a blink of an eye.

After decelerating for several years, the Selain fleet had traversed the Orte Nebula, entering the vicinity of the Walf Galaxy.

Walf, the planet rich in water, was already in sight. Within a maximum of a few months, they could fully embrace this galaxy and occupy this eminently promising domain.

After carefully observing through a high-precision astronomical telescope, the lookout in charge of the watch said, “Except for some ordinary civilian spacecraft, no large interstellar battleships have been detected. They have not prepared any rebellion. The fleet is safe to advance.”

“Twenty years, and they truly didn’t prep for any warfare?”

Krrr’da shook his head, although he was rather pleased on the inside. His intimidation strategy was indeed bewildering, but he was slightly disappointed with the Haierfareans feeble performance. Even the most loyal and obedient servant should at least display some valor, he thought. He, their master, certainly did not like the Haierfareans remarkable cowardly exhibition.

The fleet continued on a straight path, advancing towards the planet Walf.

…

At that moment.

Inside the conference room on Planet Walf.

The collective leadership headed by Wu Zhixian was experiencing some uneasiness and tension.

“I-in a few months, th…they wi…will be here. T-they will arrive on this planet,” a representative said stutteringly.

“Will they abide by their commitments and allow us to live for all the hard work we’ve done?”

“The environmental transformation on planet Walf is already 67% complete. In about 15 years or so, the air in the planet’s atmosphere will become normally breathable, like a natural planet. In credit to this, they will keep their promise.”

“I agree. We are useful and of value. We are extremely qualified vassals.”

Wu Zhixian, sitting at the very top, listened to these arguments.

For some unknown reason, although he had usually behaved as an active nitwit in the past, he was awfully silent at this particular moment. He did not engage in the discussions and utter some brainwashing statement that advocated loyalty to the Selain civilization.

A representative noticed this anomaly, and asked, “What’s wrong, minister Wu? Haven’t you always been anticipating the arrival of this exact moment? Given how far things have gone, what is there still for you to worry about? I suppose that you’re not your usual self, minister Wu.”

There was a bit of irony in these words.

“Ah-hem…”

Wu Zhixian did not take his words seriously. After clearing his throat, he said, “Of course I have nothing to worry about. We will be fine as long as we are ready for the welcome ceremony for our master’s arrival. We will all survive and live a life even better than before! This will absolutely happen! Just put your faith in me, everyone.”

“Really?” A representative at the corner glanced at him. “I hope so.”

…

At the same moment.

On a planet 14 lightyears away.

An image appeared in front of Chen Jin. He held his chin and looked at it for a while, shaking his head from time to time.

“It seems that we’re a bit too late. Even if I deploy the new first-generation super light speed spacecraft, it will still take more than a year for it to arrive. We will never make it in time.

“And besides, those aliens are exceptionally insidious and sinister. They are accustomed to fraud and use conspiracy to achieve their goals. Their words or promises can not be trusted at all.”

“According to Alice’s and Nuwa’s speculation—under normal circumstances, even if those surviving humans choose to surrender, their chances of suffering a genocide is still above 80% due to both sides having immense hatred towards each other. Their estrangement is too massive for them to establish trust. Even if that Wu Zhixian sucks up to them to the extreme, it will still be impossible for both sides to peacefully blend with one another. It is an “either I die, or you die” situation.”

“So… they’re done for. This is the end for the surviving Haierfareans.”

“But do not worry, citizens of Haierfa, I will avenge you. Those aliens will pay the price they deserve. I guarantee you,” Chen Jin said, clenching his fists.

…

Three months later.

Walf Galaxy.

The alien fleet consisting of ten interstellar warships arrived at the periphery of the asteroid belt and was about to go across.

But, having a view of the abundance of meteorite resources in the asteroid belt, it would occur to one that the materials on the battleship were becoming scarce and would require supplements.

Krrr’da laid down his orders. “Slow down the fleet. Deploy a group of prospecting spaceships to mine some supplies.”

“Yes, my Lord!”

The speed of the entire fleet decelerated as they penetrated the asteroid belt, replenishing various ore resources.

However, just around ten minutes into the meteorite cluster, myriad yellow dots abruptly emerged on the radar screen. They were approaching the ten alien warships at very high speeds. Since the yellow dots were only a dozen or dozens of kilometers away, the reaction time window was only a few dozen seconds. Some of the dots that were closer were already transforming.

Krrr’da’s eyes widened.

Boom.

Boom.

“Boom.

In the meteorite belt, massive beams of light that were beyond number illuminated around the ten alien warships, shimmering a million times brighter than the stars.

Chapter 419 - A Seventy Year Layout

An abundance of nuclear torpedoes.

An interstellar minefield.

In more exact terms, it was an interstellar minefield that had been laid out for a very long time.

Doomed!

Looking at the flares before him, Krrr’da went into frenzy, his heart sinking into the depths of the sea.

“It’s a trap!

“We have been tricked. This is a conspiracy, a clever and sinister one!

“Those damned Haierfareans, how dare they deceive me like this! They should burn in hell!”

Krrr’da, who had apprehended many things in an instant, was extremely outraged. He had actually been deceived by those despicable slaves.

They must not be forgiven!

We must slaughter them all!

Boom…

Boom, boom…

All of a sudden, the battleship beneath his feet began trembling vigorously.

An emergency alarm sounded: “The spacecraft in under attack. Defenses have dropped to 91%. Please disengage from combat status immediately.”

“Defenses have dropped to 83%. Force field alloy armor has partially failed.”

“Defenses have dropped to 61%. Spacecraft has sustained 3% structural damage.”

“…”

“Defenses have failed. Spacecraft has sustained 33% structural damage.”

Within a short two to three minutes under the barrage of the densely-packed minefields, the warships under Krrr’da’s command had lost all their protection and had sustained great damage to their hulls. Their weapon system, power system, and life support system were about to collapse. His crew had suffered numerous deaths and injuries. Tragic screams could be heard throughout the entire spacecraft.

And this was only the flagship’s state. The other nine smaller warships, which had even weaker protection, were completely blasted by explosions of unrivaled intensity into big and small pieces of garbage floating in the space.

…

On the other side.

At the periphery of the meteorite minefield.

After the detonation of the hundreds of thousands of nuclear torpedoes with ten billion tons of equivalent weight, many manned and unmanned space fighters came out from hiding, pouring out from behind some large meteorites toward the one remaining alien flagship.

“Kill them all! Crush their resistance!”

“This victory is definitely ours!”

“Advance!”

Bai Shengqi, who was handling a fighter, lead the way as the frontline commander of the ambush. He had been looking forward to this moment for many years.

Looking down, he saw the large alien flagship that was engulfed in flames. Despite being made of technology one to two hundred years more advanced than the humans’, and even if it hadn’t shattered into pieces—after sustaining such a heavy blow from the impact of countless nuclear torpedoes, it was at least deprived of 99% of its combat power.

Victory was already in sight!

…

Krrr’da had already left the bridge control hall. He was lifted by the guards into a cabin for hiding.

Inside the small and enclosed cabin.

Krrr’da held a heat gun in his hand while his heart plunged into desolation.

Impolitic. He was really too impolitic for this.

He had belittled the will and wisdom of the Haierfareans, believed their words of submission, and thought that they were truly sincere and loyal to the Selains. In the end… he walked step by step into their trap. Their ten warships were completely destroyed and his own life was also in great danger.

But reflecting at this moment was pointless.

Bratatatata…

Dodododododo…

Listening to the cacophony of crossfire and collision in his ears, it seemed that the footsteps that were getting closer and closer to him weren’t those of the Selains.

Krrr’da slowly lifted the heat gun in his hand and pointed it at his own brain.

He muttered, “I was going to let them live. But who could have known that things would end this way?”

Prff.

At the gentle press of his finger, a small scorched hole appeared in his forehead. With a tinge of unwillingness, he slowly fell to the ground.

…

About two hours later.

Planet Walf.

Excavation Base 1, inside the Supreme Council Chamber.

Ding, ding, ding.

The intelligent terminal on Wu Zhixian’s wrist received a short message. The content of the message had only a one-letter code: V. He immediately became excited, even standing up from his seat, and began dancing and yelling out of the blue.

“It is done! It has been done! “We have succeeded! We are victorious!

“Hahahaha, we have finally come through this crisis! We… the last of our kind, can finally take a breather.

“Hahahahaha!”

Wu Zhixian cracked up maniacally and howled like a wailing ghost. His face was covered entirely in tears.

All the representatives simultaneously looked at him.

What’s the matter?

What’s going on?

“Is Minister Wu sick?”

“Is he being possessed, or is he suffering a neurotic attack?”

“Should we call in the medical staff to treat this madman?”

“Medical personnel, or robots, we have a sick man here,” a representative yelled subsequently.

“Don’t call anyone!” Wu Zhixian stopped laughing and halted him. “I’m fine, finer than ever. I’m just too elated! Hahaha, all of you should be as happy as I am. A short while ago, I received a report of success from the frontline. We are the victors. We have completely obliterated the alien fleet. Our plan has been realized—together, we have forged an unprecedented miracle! Rejoice with me, everyone!”

He raised his hand as he smiled with a beam of joy and welcomed the representatives from the audience to join his celebration.

The alien fleet… completely obliterated?

All the representatives were stunned for a moment, and they then looked at him as if he was a psychopath.

“That guy has really gone crazy.”

“He must have sucked up to the aliens so much that he lost his sanity.”

“Medics, take him down for treatment, quickly. Keep his drug supply ongoing.”

None of the representatives believed him. On the contrary, they felt that things had become tricky. The aliens would be arriving soon, but their Minister Wu had gone wild with a disturbance. Who would be licking the aliens’ boots now?

“Let me explain.”

A voice came from the entrance.

A valiant figure walked into the conference chamber.

“Mu… Mu Yunhua!” All the representatives were shocked.

“C-captain Mu… what is she doing here?”

“Isn’t she sentenced to indefinite imprisonment?”

All the representatives were startled. What was going on?

When Mu Yunhua came in, Wu Zhixian immediately restrained his laughter and gave her a deep bow. Pointing at the seat in which he had just sat, he reached out his arms and said, “Captain, this is your place. Please have a seat.”

Upon finishing, he went down the stage and occupied the seat of a representative in front, squeezing him out of the way.

Such an action bewildered the representatives once again.

Huge question marks sprung up in their heads. “What in the world is going on?”

Instead of sitting down, Mu Yunhua opened a holographic projection video to explain to everyone:

“In fact, this was an arrangement, an arrangement that has been in design since more than 70 years ago. It is a plan that was always hidden in the shadows.

“Our ultimate goal was to deliver humanity from our predicaments, and to ensure the continuation of our civilization…

“In this plan, Representative Wu was a very important chess piece. He was the one that would determine the outcome of our plan. It can be said that, without Representative Wu, our plan would never have succeeded. He is our biggest hero!”

It turned out that, more than 70 years ago, when the Selains themselves exposed the existence of their spying devices and took the initiative to contact Wu Zhixian, he experienced a eureka-moment and realized that this was actually an opportunity: a great chance for them to understand the enemy.

An unknown enemy would always be the scariest because, without any information about them, they would be immensely difficult to deal with. If an enemy became known, even if their strength was very strong and the level of their civilization was very high, they would not seem that intimidating anymore as long as they were understood.

And it was from that moment on that the secret plan began in the shadows, with the main purpose of acquiring the enemy’s information.

What was the technological level of the Selains?

They learned about their culture, character, and customs, and came to understand their strengths, and analyzing their weaknesses—seeking some flaws within.

They would find a way to defeat them.

In this exchange of information for more than 70 years, whether it was through beating around the bush, direct inquiry, or via other communication strategies, they used AI Pan Gu’s deductive analysis to infer a lot of information about the Selains.

To avoid suspicion, Wu Zhixian had lowered his threshold to the extreme, often showcasing a moronic, feeble-minded persona, with the sole purpose of preventing the other party from suspecting them… he who had a 190 IQ and was once an elite scientist had accomplished his task outstandingly. The best drama award should, in fact, be awarded to him.

But what was Mu Yunhua doing for all these years?

Actually, she was also acting. She had been secretly hiding out and finding ways to defeat the Selains.

Besides, she had known from the beginning that, given circumstances—their information was transparent to the enemy while they know nothing about them—their chances of winning would almost be zero in a battle of strength.

Within a mere few decades time and a population base of 100 thousand, even if everyone was involved in scientific research, it would still be difficult to attain any major breakthroughs… not to mention the possibility of encountering a “Technological Lock.” Even if they opted for direct military confrontation, channeled all their resources into military construction, and built a fleet of more than a thousand large interstellar warships, it would still be difficult for them to ward off the alien ships whose technological advantage was a few generations ahead.

However…

After collecting enough information about the alien fleet, via studying some of their speeches, Pangu made several judgments:

Firstly, the number of warships in the alien fleet would be between 10 and 100. It would not be too many. After all, they, as the remnants of human civilization, were very weak. It would be unnecessary for the aliens to deploy a huge fleet. There was no need to use a sledgehammer to kill a chicken.

Even more, the alien battleships that were deployed were not the most advanced main battleships, but some outdated vessels that had already been phased out… Wu Zhixian had heard complaints in this regard.

Secondly, the direction from which the alien fleet would arrive had been confirmed ten years earlier. This allowed observation equipment to be deployed ahead of time. When the alien fleet entered the Orte Nebula and began to decelerate, that was when the fleet was discovered. Their route was charted and locked on. Finally, via high-precision optical equipment, the number of alien warships was counted one-by-one… there were actually only ten ships.

This was simply thrilling.

Moreover, after the Selains had determined that the humans had no space military force available to conduct a rebellion, the route of the alien fleet could be described as completely in line with the results of computer deduction. They didn’t even think of detouring to bring about confusion at all. They blatantly entered the meteorite belt as expected. As had also been predicted, they decelerated to replenish some of the resources they were lacking. With utmost precision, they maneuvered into the minefield. After the detonation of the gobs of nuclear torpedoes, without even having time to fortify their defenses, the alien warships were all severely damaged or straight-up destroyed.

This ambush could be described as the sort of attack that’s included in general textbooks, a classic demonstration of the weak devouring the strong. The weak humans attained a miraculous and incredible triumph.

“How is this possible?!”

All the representatives present in the chamber were shocked, and they all had an incredulous look.

A representative stood up and asked, “Captain Mu, 20 years ago, you pressed for us to invest our resources in science and technology and in the military. Was that not for real?”

“That was for real. Although I knew that it wouldn’t do us much help, my act had to be more realistic,” Mu Yunhua said, nodding.

“The disunions and conflicts within the immigration base—were those in your plan as well?”

“Yes. But if you look at things closely, you will discover that, in all those conflicts, none of our citizens lost their lives.”

“Later on, you lost your authority and were imprisoned for 10 years. Was that also a part of the plan?”

“I may have lost my own freedom, but everything was still under my control.” Mu Yunhua smiled.

“From the beginning until the end, how many people participated in and knew about this secret plan of yours?”

“Me, Wu Zhixian, Pangu… even Bai Shengqi and those who are always by side only knew about a part of this plan 10 years ago.”

Whoosh.

At that moment, everyone was rendered speechless.

In the depths of their hearts, there was only profound astonishment.

A far-reaching arrangement spanning more than seventy years.

A secret that only a few had known. Everyone else had been faithfully playing their respective roles as chess pieces. Some of them have made hefty sacrifices, suffering from injustice, defamation, and misconception, only to launch an ambush with an extremely high risk.

At last… they had won themselves a flawless victory.

After learning the truth about everything, everyone, no matter who they were, had only one word in their hearts—astonishment.

Wu Zhixian grinned. “Huhuh, actually, the crucial thing was that the Selains are too conceited. They took us too lightly. No matter how timid and weak I am, I would never betray humanity. 70 years ago, when the Selains decided to gild the lily and came to contact me, I was literally overwhelmed by ecstasy. All of my fears disappeared instantly, and I realized at that exact moment that our hope and chance had arrived.”

Clap, clap, clap!

A burst of applause sounded.

All the representatives looked at him with full respect. From the bottom of their hearts, they thought, “The brilliance of this man deserves a page in human history.”

…

Two days later.

The front line of the battlefield was cleaned up.

Many wreckages of the Selain warships were scavenged. Some high-level technological information could perhaps be deciphered from some of the valuable complete wreckages, as well as equipment which would be beneficial in facilitating their own technological advancement.

Additionally, 118 of the space escape cabins were salvaged, with 101 of them containing living specimens of the Selains. Subsequently, these Selains were taken into captivity by the humans. After interrogation, they would possibly be able to collect more information about the Selain Civilization.

More importantly, after this victory, it was predicted that the next Selain fleet would not arrive for at least thirty or forty years. The Haierfareans had won for themselves enough time to breathe and develop.

…

On the other side.

Planet Haierfa.

Observing the remote monitor, Chen Jin, who had initially thought that the human remnants were doomed, was also left astounded.

He was stunned by the huge turn of events.

“In Galaxy Era, there have been countless classic interplanetary battles. There are also countless examples of the weak triumphing over the strong. But a war as unexpected as this—nothing like it has ever happened.

“Sure enough, is this why reality is always far more exciting than games?”

Impressed. Chen Jin was truly impressed.

Chapter 420 - Thoughts on a Cooperation

The root cause of the Selains’ defeat was their excessive use of conspiracies.

When the Blue Spaceship was heading toward the Walf Galaxy, they were already cruising into a death trap. At that moment, out of careful consideration, the aliens should’ve said nothing, done nothing, and waited patiently for their prey to fall into the pit. By securing the initiative, their chance of making an error would have been zero.

However, they had to gild the lily, and revealed the existence of their spying devices.

Although it was very pleasurable to savor the faces of the weak that were full of terror and despair, just like toying with an ant—and although enslaving an entire civilization provided a great sense of accomplishment, jas when the Haierfareans had obediently chosen to surrender after just a few menaces, without them needing to employ any knives or guns—although giving orders to those who had yielded, commanding the weak to serve them, and frequently enjoying their bootlicking would bring upon great spiritual pleasure—in the process, the information which they unintentionally leaked out continually accumulated in the hands of the weak, ultimately revealing their own weaknesses. Additionally, they belittled their enemy, were careless, and were totally unsuspecting.

The combination of these various factors had led to the perfect ambush.

Chen Jin’s summary of this classic little campaign was: villains die because they talk too much.

…

After the war.

Affairs on planet Walf returned to normal.

Mu Yunhua also returned to her position as the supreme leader and presided over all kinds of important tasks, gradually becoming tied up in things once again.

The threat of the Selains was still there, as the damage they had inflicted on them was not even a drop in the bucket… the power of the enemy was still far greater than their own. With the communication technology of the Selains, the Krrr’da Clan’s shameful fiasco would have been made known to the Selains at the first opportunity. Perhaps the next wave of retribution had already set off and was currently on the way.

Hence, the human remnants could not afford even the slightest complacency and slackness. On the contrary, after regaining power, Mu Yunhua immediately launched the “Three Major Development Plans.”

Inside the conference chamber.

Her high-pitched and powerful voice sounded:

“Firstly, we have to increase our population base.

“Our numbers are apparently at around 300,000, but half of them are below 18 years of age and are still in the middle of receiving an education. They won’t be able to make many contributions… even so, we have to hasten up our population growth. We must strive to increase our population to above one billion in two decades.”

And that meant they had to produce 50 million people every year. This could be regarded as a population explosion.

But it would definitely bring about a series of problems. After all, people were complicated, and very difficult to constrain and manage. And because they were human beings, they could not be managed like animals such as dogs and cats, could not be treated as a mechanical device, and must be provided with humanistic care… the cost of bringing up humans was very high.

Now, the task to produce 50 million human beings fell on the shoulders of the hundred thousand adults. This would undoubtedly be a difficult and massive project.

Despite all the representatives having a distressed, frowning look on their faces, no one raised any objections or doubts.

After all, having gone through the ambush, it was basically impossible for them to forge friendly ties with the Selains. Their relationship could only be that of hostility, in which only one party could survive.

The last thought of peace was severed, and they had no choice but to fight until the end.

“Aside from using our population to muster enough intelligence and manpower, we also have to form an elite scientific research team. We shall select around 10 thousand scientists to participate in frontline scientific “R&D,” as well as analyzing and cracking the state-of-the-art Selain technology. We need to seek out shortcuts for explosive technological growth and pare down our technological gap as soon as possible.

“Our time is limited. If we are unable to attain several major breakthroughs in science and technology within twenty to thirty years, I’m afraid that we will once again get caught in a mire. Hence, it is necessary for us to concentrate all of our intellectual resources into fulfilling this plan. Everyone, including myself, will also be deeply involved in this project.”

All the representatives nodded.

Technology was the essence of civilization.

Technological level was the determinant of a civilization’s development and its apex. It defined the strength of civilization. It was even more important than so-called resources, planets, and stars, as it itself represents a civilization’s absolute hard power.

Mu Yunhua, who came from a scientific background, placed more importance on the development of science and technology than most people. Aside from survival, she was most concerned about the technical development. As most of the representatives were also from a scientific background, they were able to comprehend the meaning between the lines and, naturally, would not think any differently.

“Last will be improving our military might.

“A few days ago, we won out of sheer luck and passed our first-ever obstacle. But luck such as this is only a one-time occurrence. Knowing the cruel, cunning nature of the Selains, they will give us their most violent blow the next time around. They may perhaps play with conspiracy once again, only to give us the harshest of punishment.

“When that happens, we will have no advantage. We can only confront them face to face and prepare for bloodshed, or even a defeat.

“Everyone—the goddess of luck will not shine on us twice. From now onward, we can only rely on our own strength.”

Mu Yunhua’s speech was intensely heavy.

After all, victory this time had been thanks to more than 70 years of planning, not pure luck. For the next encounter, the probability of the aliens falling for fraud was zero. It was destined to be a force-to-force confrontation.

Both sides had a technological and profundity disparity of a few centuries. No one was confident enough to say that they would emerge victorious next time, let alone show even the slightest optimism.

Therefore, they had to strengthen military might. The construction of their interstellar fleet must commence immediately.

Wu Zhixian said, after some thought, “With our current manpower and material resources, all we can do is suspend the environmental transformation of planet Walf in order to produce a staggering quantity of robots and construct more than four large space docks. Later on, after more than 30 years’ time, a large interstellar fleet would basically come into shape. However…”

“A fleet that is formed so hurriedly will be relatively backward technologically, and would be prone to issues such as immature equipment, unreasonable designs, incompatible systems, and so on… the larger the system, the more difficult it is to integrate every aspect of the spaceship, and the higher the quality requirements for its crew.”

“My conclusion is that—even if we have constructed an interstellar fleet 30 years from now—I imagine that its comprehensive combat power could hardly be described as ‘up to standard’.”

To have pursued the path of a 10-year army, a 30-year air force, and a 100-year navy… only after a long period of tempering could something could be deemed “mature.” Besides, it would require an extensive period of time to be able to freely manipulate a massive interstellar warship with an uncharted level of complexity to the degree that it was as natural as controlling one’s arm. An interstellar fleet formed within a mere thirty years could only be described as rookie.

Without any technical advantage, and directly confronting those who outclassed them, their end could only be…

“I know,” Mu Yunhua said faintly. “If no miracle occurs, then we shall do our very best. In any case, we’ll need a fleet.”

The representatives nodded.

There were many elements in war. Weapons and equipment was one, strategy and tactics another, and the soldiers’ will and fighting spirit was one more… if all their faculties were exerted to the extreme, It would not be entirely impossible to drive away powerful enemies.

…

On the other end of the universe.

Planet Haierfa.

These days, Chen Jin was somewhat entangled.

His feelings were a little complicated.

Every day, he was following planet Walf’s maneuvers, watching every move made by the human remnants.

Honestly speaking, Chen Jin was excited and happy for their victory. He felt that the events would make a wonderful movie that would definitely earn countless ovations.

But, aside from that, seeing that they have successfully weathered through the crisis, Chen Jin was a little worried:

What would they do next?

With that ambush as a turning point, they kissed goodbye to their bad luck and went from one victory to another, successfully mounting an ultimate comeback, and underwent an unstoppable growth spurt. What if such novel-like events were to happen?

In their ‘happily ever after,’ they vanquished all their enemies and returned to planet Haierfa with a heart full of nostalgia. In the meanwhile, they might discover the turtledove that was dwelling in the nest made by the magpies—Chen Jin. What if that happened?

Would they become fatal foes, or fatal friends?

It was unknown.

Everything was in uncharted territory.

However, because of the existence of this fetter called “Planet Haierfa,” the two parties would eventually come into contact in someday in the future.

Most certainly, Chen Jin was not a good person. He prioritized playing it safe in all his planning. In places where he should hesitate and be compassionate, he was usually very decisive.

However… this time around, he couldn’t seem to harbor any hostility.

Firstly, all of them were humans. They were of the same species with basically the same skin color, language, and culture. Secondly, the two sides had no disputes, resentment, grudges; Chen Jin felt no antipathy towards them. Conversely, Chen Jin was very fond of them, as their strength, wisdom, and courage… had amazed and surprised him. Moreover, Chen Jin was not a narrow-minded person who could not tolerate the existence of any meager amount of threat, who felt the need to “choke” something “while it’s still in its crib” on every occasion, and so on… he still had a lower limit of morality.

As opposed to arousing hostility, he preferred to make friends. He loved to unite the people in his surroundings and make the table bigger. Except for a few things that he wanted to keep for himself, in most regards he was open to a “win-win” situation where everyone would get a few spoonfuls of the soup.

Therefore, he felt that there was a certain need for him to have some cooperation with those human remnants in the Walf Galaxy.

Moreover, they had in their possession many “things” that intrigued Chen Jin.

“Even if those Selain battleships are the more backward and inferior ones compared to their main ships, they are still definitely far more advanced than that alien spy spaceship.

“Although all the warships are wrecked and their structures are incomplete—after cracking the scientific and technological information contained within, what we’ll gain will still be much more than that from that alien spy ship.

“Besides, we can further analyze the technological level of the Selains, determine the approximate gap between us and them, and understand their strengths in-depth, so that we can become familiar with them.

“We must absolutely not miss the information concealed in those wreckages.

“Besides, the Selains are also a very unique, intelligent species. Their intelligence is certainly not lower than that of humans. Moreover, they all have a ‘crystal’ behind their heads which is capable of transmitting brain waves for silent communication or even transmitting information and data at seemingly astounding rates among each other. Previously, I even branded them the ‘Crystal Brainers’.”

“The special crystal structure behind the heads of the Crystal Brainers allows them to learn way more efficiently than humans and develop their civilization very rapidly. They must be not lacking in innovation; otherwise, they would not have developed to this extent.”

“As for their species’ character, they are simply the template of a standard ‘antagonist’. They are treacherous, cunning, and exceptional in using conspiracy. With only two spies, they managed to destroy an entire human civilization. They used their heads as a weapon, and their wisdom as daggers… a little like committing high-IQ crimes. But of course, smart people will also occasionally make some mistakes.”

The above was the summarized characteristics of the Crystal Brainers deduced by Chen Jin and the artificial intelligences Nuwa and Alice.

But was this all of it?

Had they truly understood them all-around?

Chen Jin had no living specimen of the Crystal Brainers in his hands, but he did find two of their corpses… subsequently, he had the idea of cultivating a few living Crystal Brainers though the cloning technology, but the process failed. He had never had a glimpse of a living Crystal Brainer.

But now, in the hands of the human remnants at the Walf Galaxy, were more than a hundred living Crystal Brainers.

All those Crystal Brainers were alive!

Just how enormous would their research value be?

Some good probing, research, and analysis of those living Crystal Brainers would allow them to learn a great deal of basic information about the Selain civilization. For example, their population, the radius of the star system they own, the length of their history, their system of governance, and so on. Their individual strengths and weaknesses, their personality, their ideology, their outlooks,—all could be identified at a glance.

From then on, they could conceivably do thorough research on this intelligent species of the Crystal Brainers, just like lab mice.

Chen Jin would surely want to share this thorough understanding of his “opponent.” After all, the Crystal Brainers was, in his mind, one of his foes, an adversary that he would attack and vanquish immediately after he garnered enough strength… But firstly, he needed to collect all the useful information he could about his opponent.

Hence, the Crystal Brainer’s technology and their intel. These two things prompted Chen Jin to think of cooperation.

On that note, how should they cooperate?

Chen Jin inquired about Nuwa and Alice’s thoughts.

“Master, I do feel that cooperation is necessary. Until now, most of our achievements in the technological field are still behind closed doors and have yet to be validated by other civilizations. Hence, we have no idea whether we are powerful or weak, as we have no clear reference for comparison.

“This is a good opportunity for us to understand the Crystal Brainers. We can further analyze their technology, deduce their strength, and, after establishing a benchmark system for all areas, we can evaluate our own strength in a comprehensive manner,” said Nuwa.

In fact, she had a fuzzy feeling that, after nearly a hundred years of development, the comprehensive strength of planet Haierfa would not be weaker than that Crystal Brainers. She thought that they might even be stronger, but, considering the stakes for both sides, she dared not speak too highly of herself.

“I thought so too, master.” Alice concurred, and said, “To us, those human survivors are weak, and they pose little threat. We can try to establish some communication with them and ask them to share some of their gains with us. In return, we could provide them with some support and aid. Through them, we may be able to communicate with and contact many other civilizations indirectly, without revealing the existence of our own. It is equivalent to having a very good eye and an agent… They could bring us many benefits.”

Yeah…

Chen Jin nodded. He would never stay in his own house forever. Such cooperation was totally feasible.

Chapter 421 - Protector

She appeared after 12:00 A.M.

Woosh…clack… The silver door opened automatically.

Dragging her tired body, Mu Yunhua entered the small bedroom with its minimal layout. She fell directly onto the big, soft bed.

She closed her eyes. It seemed that she would fall asleep in just a few seconds, and relax her body and mind.

But…

But even though she really wanted to, she could not simply fall asleep like this. Because she was covered in sweat after a busy day, she had to take a long shower and tidy up her appearance. She strove to face her subordinates and the masses the next day with a healthier and more well-rested posture and attitude.

So she spent at least half an hour every day on her personal image.

It took one entire morning to handle official duties.

Guiding the population training and military construction took up the afternoon.

She had to free up four or five hours in the evening to participate in some major scientific research projects.

Her daily schedule was full. There were actually only 8 hours left for her to sleep and rest.

In addition, she had to groom, dress up, organize herself, and make arrangements for the next day. The actual time she spent sleeping was only six hours.

It was as if she was filled with the spiral springs used to power clockwork—she had become a complete workaholic.

Even though the people around her repeatedly advised her to take a good rest, she still did not dare to let go.

After all, she carried the fate of the entire human race on her shoulders. It was the heaviest burden there could be. Even a single minute spent on rest and relaxation was a luxury to her.

…

After her bath.

With her long hair damp, she fell down onto the big bed, unconcerned about her image. She turned over, pulled the blanket over her body with one hand and closed her eyes. She emptied her thoughts. One could only get the best quality of sleep by not thinking about anything. Conversely, it was easy to become worried and suffer from insomnia if one thought too much.

Even so, some past memories would still emerge from the depths of one’s mind, just like a movie clip.

There was joy, sorrow, beauty, and despair.

Of course, most memories were rather flat and dull, having been worn away by time. No matter how severe the pain, the erosion of time caused the actual feeling of pain to no longer be palpable.

She even missed the ten-plus years where she had lost her physical freedom, Although imprisoned, she could sleep like the laziest person each day and did not have to worry about her responsibilities. She had existed in the most free and relaxed state every day.

It had been an unprecedented freedom for her mind and soul.

And now she had shouldered her responsibilities again.

Often, she couldn’t help but sigh, “Freedom—it causes everyone to yearn for it and it’s placed above everything else. Duty—it’s heavier than Mount Tai and extremely sacred. I can only choose one of the two. As one who chose to bear my responsibilities, I’m afraid that I’ll never enjoy the slightest sense of freedom ever again.”

Even though her body was in a state of imprisonment during those ten odd years, she had felt more freedom within herself than she did now. It had been much better than her present state.

Her present self was just a working machine.

“Is there anyone who can help me?” she mumbled to herself. She could not help but utter some weak words.

In this dark universe, if you don’t rely on yourself, who else can help you?

She only used this kind of silly talk and fantasy to relieve her stress… As a woman who occasionally got into an emotional state, she would think of some unrealistic things to escape a cruel reality.

However…

In the next second.

A glaring white light suddenly appeared before her eyes.

She couldn’t help open her eyes in a squint, and was immediately astonished.

A small ball that emitted white light all over was floating thirty centimeters in front of her. It seemed as if she could touch it with her fingertips.

Mu Yunhua subconsciously stretched out her hand; the glowing ball did not avoid her touch, and fell into her palm.

“What’s this?”

The marble-sized ball had a smooth and round surface. Moreover, it seemed that there was no friction or obvious feel to the touch. It felt like it would slide out of her hand any time.

“Is it a glass ball, a glowing ball, or some other toy?”

There were many children in the immigration bases. Mu Yunhua, who often went to educate and guide them, had seen many toys. Marbles were a fairly popular type.

She subconsciously believed that this small ball might be a kind of toy that had a luminous effect.

Suddenly.

The light-emitting ball in the palm of her hand dimmed, and it grew darker and darker until it gradually became the equivalent of the weak lighting in the bedroom. Suddenly, its surface underwent a burst of fluctuations, and it actually disappeared.

In other words, it had integrated with the environment.

Mu Yunhua’s face changed. She knew that the small ball was still in her hands, but her eyes could not see its existence. She immediately knew that this was a high-tech monitoring device.

After a while.

The color of the ball in her hand continued to change as it absorbed the surrounding light. Its surface got darker until it was like a tiny black hole.

Mu Yunhua did not understand the purpose behind this kind of performance.

Her face became stern and grave as she said to the black ball in her hand, “Who are you? What are you planning to do?” Her inner alarm bell was ringing loudly. Who dare to play such a prank on her?

Upon hearing her question, the ball changed again. It emitted a green light throughout its entire form, and a few beams of light flickered in the air where a text about the size of a broad bean shone.

The text changed again, showing one character at a time. It was like a carousel, changing the symbol every second.

Mu Yunhua relaxed her hand and read the words. Coincidentally, these were just like the H text with which she was highly familiar.

“I can help you.”

Bam.

Mu Yunhua was taken aback.

She could not help but throw the small ball away and scramble backward. Her expression became very ugly. “What kind of joke is this? Don’t play this lame prank on me!”

Someone was watching her private life with this disgusting thing. If she ever discovered who it was, she would never let them off easily!

But the ball floated up into the air again and slowly flew closer. A green light flickered at its top and one by one, the characters were displayed.

“I…am…a…monitoring…device…from…an…advanced….civilization….”

“Who are you?!” Mu Yunhua’s expression changed dramatically. Was it a Selain after all?

“You don’t have to ask about my identity, but I can really help you.”

“Do you think I will fall for your tricks, Selain? Am I a target for your conspiracy now?”

“You can guess whatever you like. Of course, to show my sincerity, I’ll send you a gift.”

The ball floated to the metal table opposite the bed, and a yellow laser beam shot from its bottom. A series of imprints were engraved on the metal table.

After the etching was completed, the ball floated back to Mu Yunhua and displayed a line of words: “Don’t expose my existence to anyone, or I will disappear forever.”

Immediately, the surface of the ball gradually became transparent and it disappeared.

But Mu Yunhua knew that the ball was still in her room.

Climbing up from the bed, she walked over to the table across from her and turned on the light. She looked at the marks left on it by the monitoring device.

“Numbers, letters, a constant… This is a formula, and it’s related to the four basic types of applied forces.”

Suddenly, her expression changed drastically. “The formula for the Grand Unification of Forces! A complete one, too—the ultimate physics formula that we have not yet derived!”

As a genius top scientist, she knew at a glance what this formula was and almost screamed.

But she still had doubts. Was this really a formula for the Grand Unification of Forces?

Or was it… a trap?

However… the formula in front of her was so simple, beautiful, and elegant, that her subconscious mind told her that this could really be it.

She took out her electronic notebook and copied the formula carved on the table. “Whether it is true or not, I’ll check it tomorrow!”

…

The next day.

Inside the Blue Space.

A large particle collider had actually been built more than a decade ago and put into the service of experiments in the sphere of the fundamental sciences.

However, no significant results had been achieved.

That afternoon.

After more than 30,000 particle collision experiments.

Looking at the results that were getting more and more consistent with the curve of the formula, some scientists in the laboratory become so excited that they were already cheering in advance.

“Although the constants given are not necessarily 100% accurate, the main portion of the formula is 300% accurate! We have derived the formula for the Grand Unification of Forces!”

“From the perspective of science and strict regulation, there may be some mistakes in this formula, but it is so neat and elegant; it must not be too different from the real one.”

“No! I can say with certainty that this is the Grand Unification formula! We have basically verified all the other equations. Only this formula has given me the feeling that it is the truth even before we started the verification process.”

“Yes, I had the same feeling at first glance.”

“Captain!”

Team leader Zheng spoke to the screen where Mu Yunhua’s image was. “Where did you get this formula? If it is still correct after millions of experimental verifications, our technology will be able to advance at least 50 years. This will save us a lot of time.”

“It’s a…uhh, it was from a dream I had last night. I saw it in my dreams and copied it down immediately.”

Mu Yunhua thought for a moment. Last night, the monitor device had warned her not to reveal its existence, or it would disappear completely.

She saw it in her dreams?

Upon hearing this explanation, Team Leader Zheng and other scientists became pensive. They did not necessarily think that it was strange.

“This is probably a teaching imparted by the will of the universe.”

“Maybe because the captain obsessed about this formula all day long, the god of science was moved by her sincerity and gave her this gift.”

“God? Indeed, it can only be explained as a dream from the gods. How difficult would it be for us, with the wisdom of mortals, to decipher such truth? Hence, the gods took the initiative to announce the answer.”

Mu Yunhua’s face felt a little hot. Isn’t this getting more and more ridiculous?

“Everyone, continue to run verifications. I am a little tired, so I will retire early today.”

“OK. Please take a break.”

Mu Yunhua decided to get off of work early. It was more than two hours before her normal time. She returned to her residence as fast as possible.

…

She closed the door and turned on the lights in her bedroom.

She placed her back to the door and took a deep breath.

After a long time, Mu Yunhua opened his eyes and said to the air in front of her, “Come out, I know you are still here.”

There was no reply after ten seconds.

“Don’t play hide and seek with me. Show yourself now.”

There was still no reply.

“OK, OK, I am begging you, hurry and come out!” Mu Yunhua’s attitude softened.

Sure enough, a dark gray ball presented itself to her after it freed its form from its transparent state.

The green light emitted from its top flashed, showing a text: “How is it that you have been able to rule out the idea that I am a monitoring device of the Selains?”

Mu Yunhua nodded and said, “I don’t know why you are doing this, but the Selains would not have the need or reason to do this, so…”

She paused, and then asked, “Can you tell me which civilization are you from?”

The green text in the air said, “Do you think I will tell you?”

Mu Yunhua thought for a moment. “Probably… not.”

“Bingo. Your response is correct.”

“Then can I ask some questions that you would answer?” Mu Yunhua looked up.

“Go ahead.”

“Why would you help me? The formula seems to be true.”

The green words showed, “Uh… this question is a bit difficult to answer. If I have to tell you, I can say that I am a kind partner. How about this—I am very kind, so I will help you.”

“Kind?”

Mu Yunhua smiled. This was the worst sort of reason. It was totally unconvincing.

The corners of her lips tilted in a slight smile, and she asked with a spirited and alert gaze, “Then I will ask you directly: what is your purpose? What do you hope to gain from me? What can I give you? If you have a need, I will try my best to satisfy it….. As long as you also provide appropriate help in return.”

A smart woman.

In front of his screen, Chen Jin sighed in lament. Mu Yunhua had roughly guessed his purpose with just a few words and taken control of the active role in this conversation.

Both her IQ and emotional intelligence were through the roof.

But…

Chen Jin did not want to fall into her plan and easily reveal his purpose in cooperating with her. This would lessen the mystery and weaken his working style.

After some thought, he said, “Actually, I just want to help you. There is no other motive behind this. If I have to say it, then, it’s this: I want to be your protector and serve you only.”

Bam.

Mu Yunhua’s heart seemed to have been hit by something.

The heart that had been beating normally for hundreds of years suddenly accelerated a little bit.

“Protector?”

But her face remained expressionless, and her tone became cold. “I take it that you are toying with me, right? You mysterious alien creature from an unknown race with unknown looks.”

“Can you be a little more romantic? Do you think I want to say these kind of mushy words? Do you know how much courage I had to gather? And yet you are questioning my message? But…”

The green text said, “My words are true. I will help you and become your protector.”

Mu Yunhua became silent.

She had asked so many questions and had not actually received any useful information.

There would be ample time for that later. Regardless of the other party’s purpose, there were two points that she had basically ascertained.

One, the other party was from a higher civilization. A civilization that was quite obviously more advanced, or it could not have easily given her the formula for the Grand Unification of Forces.

Two, the other party was not malicious. Or, to be more accurate, she had not noticed any maliciousness on his or her part for the time being. It also had a purpose that was temporarily unknown.

She had figured out these two points.

Mu Yunhua thought that she could make use of the other party to obtain some help for herself. No matter what remuneration the other party would ask for at the end, right now, the benefits far outweighed the disadvantages.

She even saw a hope of overcoming the next wave of crisis.

…

Three days later.

Mu Yunhua brought a necklace unit device. A flower bud-shaped filigree container hung at the bottom of the locket’s chain. It functioned as a signal conversion device.

She placed the monitoring device in the form of a large marble in the flower bud-shaped signal conversion device. Based on the on/off frequency of its changing light rays, the monitoring device could communicate at a maximum rate of 200 MB per second via optical coding.

Both voice and video could be easily transmitted.

In addition, she wore a miniature earpiece with a signal translation function so that they could speak to each other directly and conveniently.

She wore the necklace on her long white neck. Its curve along her upper body was steep due to the long chain.

The flower bud-shaped “decoration” was conveniently located just above a “deep trench.”

Soon after she put on the necklace, a surprised exclamation could be heard from Mu Yunhua’s earpiece. “Eh, this snow-white world with its porcelain-like luster and fantastic hollows… Woah, woah, haha… Is this heaven?”

Mu Yunhua’s face flushed red.

She quickly took the necklace off and gritted her teeth. “Damned lecherous alien!”

Chapter 422 - Poor Man’s Dignity

Some frivolous words, spouted from the mouth of a creature from an unknown race, with an unknown appearance and even gender, had actually caused her heart, which had been calm for nearly a hundred years, to suddenly feel humiliation and anger.

Even Mu Yunhua felt a little surprised.

In order to avoid the embarrassment, she shortened the length of the necklace chain so that it would no longer hide in her clothes. She put it on her neck again.

The alien didn’t say anything strange at that moment. It just randomly commented, “Hey, that’s quite a pretty collarbone.”

Mu Yunhua could not be bothered to respond.

…

A few more days passed.

Mu Yunhua’s work was focused on one important matter—the design and finalization of the interstellar warship.

Using the greatest level of efficiency, they had to produce a full set of design sketches for an interstellar warship in about half a year. After the appraisal meeting for the finalized design, they would have to go into production quickly to outfit the warship and put it into service as fast as possible.

Obviously, this process seemed to be very hasty, hasty and not in line with the natural progression of things. This project also contained a lot of hidden dangers.

30 years was not exactly short, but it was not particularly long, either.

They really did not have a lot of time.

If the warship’s design phase lasted about a year, the manufacturing process another three years, and training and breaking in the crew another five… 10 years of work would pass in the blink of an eye. Moreover, even when they arrived at that stage, they would not have proficient combat skills yet… They would still belong to the category of novices and “cannon fodder”.

Then, after the Selains’ second wave of warships arrived, they would meet, army against army… The ending would not be difficult to predict.

In the conference room.

A military expert said, “We do not have any requirements for the various combat indicators on the first generation of interstellar warships. As long as they can sail in space and have some certain means of attacking the enemy, and as long as they can achieve certain effects from their military training… A warship that meets these points can be manufactured immediately.

“So, the first generation of interstellar warships can be considered training ships, used to train and nurture combat talents.

“We will construct the second generation interstellar warships after we have deciphered the Selains’ technologies. We will combine their technologies with the other advanced technologies that we have in order to create powerful and terrifying super warships. It is a type of super warship that can bring us victory and destroy all the threats standing in our way.”

This military expert’s idea could be condensed into one sentence—they would be a beggar in the early stages, and god-like in the later stages.

But…

Mu Yunhua thought that there were some problems in this process.

She thought to herself, Isn’t the span of time between the two stages a little too big? Although we don’t have any experience in designing interstellar warships, we can’t have no absolutely no requirements or standards for their technical capabilities, and then put all our hopes into the follow-up of the second-generation warships. What if the second-generation interstellar warship were not up to standard, or were not as strong as expected?”

In short, it was completely unacceptable to fail to work their hardest to achieve the best results now, and instead to pin all their hopes on the indiscernible future.

“Seems like you have a tricky problem on your hands again.”

A voice suddenly sounded in her ear.

Mu Yunhua’s gaze settled on the pendant of the necklace hanging from her neck.

“You urgently need an interstellar warship with an outstanding design, but you have no relevant design experience in this area, so you have no outline to go on, right?”

Yes.

Mu Yunhua nodded in acknowledgment of his assessment. This was a clear fact. They really had no experience in designing and manufacturing interstellar warships, and they did not even have any references to draw from. They were going into this totally blind and were still in the stage of theoretical exploration.

Even if they did succeed in creating an interstellar battleship, she predicted that they would make a lot of minor mistakes.

“In that case, I should have a suitable model of interstellar battleship for you. It does not use a high level of technology and belongs to the very low-grade E-class, but it has been especially described as ‘the strongest garbage,’ ‘a magical cockroach that never dies’, ‘the most tenacious cannon fodder’, ‘the poor man’s last vestige of self-respect,’ and so on.

“It is very cheap to produce, simple in structure, and has few components. It is especially good for construction on a massive scale. If you have sufficient raw materials, and you go full steam ahead, one ship can be built in 15 days in the context of a 100,000-ton shipyard.

“In addition, it has very good maneuverability, a high thrust-to-weight ratio, and its overload can easily reach 10G. Its intelligence level is very high. Under the human control mode, just 20 people would be sufficient to take charge and operate the entire battleship, while under the unmanned intelligent control mode, It can still attack the enemy with multiple attack formations and combat strategies. Its attack style is unpredictable and, thus, difficult to defend against.

“Its attack power is mainly composed of two parts. The high-energy laser and mid-range nuclear missile have an effective kill radius of about 50,000 kilometers. They have a lot of destructive power against battleships at the B level or lower. If matched with certain combat tactics—things like surprise ambushes, attacking when the enemy is weak, and guerilla warfare—you can often achieve some amazing results, as long as the strategy is right.

“In addition, it can also self-detonate its nuclear reactor if necessary, releasing a very large amount of offensive power. It is capable of mutual destruction.

“As for its defensive ability—there is no doubt that this is its weakness and shortcoming. After all, in order to achieve eminence in flexibility and mobility, it must sacrifice its defense. Therefore, it may completely lose its combat effectiveness when under an attack of a certain level.

“But its escape system is quite classic. The manned cockpit will be reinforced by specialized armor. Once the ship is in danger, this pod can quickly eject and escape. The chance of survival is over 45%. In general, it is both useful and highly reliable.”

Oh…

Upon hearing these descriptions, excitement glimmered in Mu Yunhua’s eyes. The best warships for the poor, easy to mass-produce and control—yet they could cause a lot of trouble for a powerful enemy. This was her ideal interstellar warship.

…

The meeting was over.

On that same night.

Going back to her bedroom, Mu Yunhua took the necklace off from her neck and said to the hanging flower bud-shaped pendant, “Friend, please send me all the information on design, subsequent use, and training for the battleship that you talked about. Thank you very much for your generosity and kindness.”

“Do you mean the interstellar battleship that’s called the ‘Poor Man’s Dignity?’”

“Hmm, yes.” Mu Yunhua nodded. Her face was full of expectation.

“So, what remuneration can you give me?” the voice from the earpiece said.

“Re…remuneration?”

“You’re not thinking that I’ll give this information to you for free, right?”

“No, no. What kind of remuneration do you want? If I have it, I will give it to you.” Mu Yunhua was annoyed. Just a few days ago, he had said that he was a protector, yet now he was asking for remuneration.

“Then give me some alms. Take me to share a bath with you later. Woah, hahaha… I will give you the Poor Man’s Dignity in exchange for this visual feast.” The voice became lascivious. It even simulated heavy breathing noises.

“Bas…tard!”

Mu Yunhua’s cheeks flushed red. That damn alien, who might be as ugly as a cockroach, actually wanted to take advantage of her.

But she nodded after some thought and entered the bathroom with the necklace. Compared with the survival of human beings, what was this little sacrifice?

…

Haierfa.

Standing in front of a large screen.

Chen Jin was like an unmoving statue, his eyes were blank, and his soul seemed to have left his body.

He could not help but stare dumbly, like a fool.

After all, in front of the screen, blanketed by curls of mist from the water was a perfect body so white that it was glaring to the eyes. Her resentment and helplessness amidst her noble bearing, her resistance amidst her bashfulness—this exceptionally beautiful scenery could give him a nose bleed.

“Bad master! Haven’t you seen enough?!”

Alice’s dissatisfied voice rang out, after which, large amounts of “holy” light immediately appeared on the screen, bringing Chen’s attention back to reality.

“Oh, oh, sorry. I was a bit engrossed.”

Chen Jin gave an apologetic smile, but did not forget to remind Alice, “Oh yeah, save all the video that was playing just now, minus the ‘holy’ light.”

“I know, you lecherous master!”

Alice pouted, and her cheeks puffed up.

“Master, you are making trouble in such a willful manner. After all, she is the Princess of the Empire. How could you be so disrespectful towards her? This is so rude.”

Nuwa’s shadow appeared, and she also expressed dissatisfaction with Chen Jin’s behavior.

“This is called an equal exchange. If the other party gets used to receiving free gifts, they will take our goodwill for granted, and even begrudge us if we do not help them anymore in the future. Our dealings would become unpleasant. There is no love without reason in this world, and pies do not fall from the sky… I believe that she clearly understands this logic.” Chen Jin said with confidence. His face did not grow red, and his heartbeat remained steady.

“…” Nuwa and Alice were speechless.

Chen Jin looked Nuwa and asked, “Nuwa, I gave you the task of sorting the information on the Poor Man’s Dignity warship. Have you finished the task?”

“Yes. Can I start the data transfer?”

“Then…do it.” Chen Jin nodded.

The Poor Man’s Dignity class of interstellar warships was one of the 11,867 classic warships in the online virtual game Galaxy Era. Although it was not a powerful ship and could hardly be used in the more intensive battles at the later stages, it ranked within the top ten most classic interstellar warships. It was a model that nearly all the novices used, and had appeared in many classic conflicts, defending the dignity of one poor man after another.

However… if one brought the design of the interstellar warship from the game into the real world, would it act in the same way? Would it have the same effects and results?

In this regard, Alice and Nuwa guaranteed that it had a 99.9999% probability of producing the same results in reality as it did in the game. It was absolutely impossible for something to go wrong.

After all, Galaxy Era had been running for more than fifty or sixty years, and the game had existed for an even longer time. After countless simulations of military campaigns, it had condensed the wisdom of countless players. Due to its high degree of realism, they did not have to question the reliability of this wisdom once brought into reality.

…

The next day.

Walf planet.

When she left her room, Mu Yunhua held a thin, transparent square sheet in her hand. It was about the size of a thumbnail. This was a storage device with a capacity of 12TB.

All the information about the Poor Man’s Dignity class of warships which the alien had talked about was in this storage device.

She then thought of the sacrifice that she had paid for this information. She could not help her smile from dissipating.

She secretly gritted her teeth and said, “I’ll just think of it as having only been visually tarnished by a wriggling, maggot-like creature. We are so far apart that he can’t do anything to me. At most, it could have rubbed one out facing the screen, spraying hundreds of millions of DNA material as far as its eyes could see, and made a blur on the screen.”

But why did that make her feel even more disgusting?

…

Inside the information hall.

Mu Yunhua upload the data to the highest-ranking AI brain. It began to judge and analyze the values of the data.

About two hours later.

The middle-aged man on the screen asked gravely: “Yunhua, where did you get this information from?”

“This… I don’t want to reveal it.” Mu Yunhua looked at the necklace hanging from her neck and shook her head. “What’s the matter? Do you think this info has practical value? Can it be used as a reference?”

“It’s a genius design.” The middle-aged man on the screen sighed. “I simulated the plans for two hours and found that, besides the lack of defense, it achieves near-perfect equilibrium in all other aspects! I retrieved the dozens of interstellar warship proposals designed by our experts, and created one virtual battle after another. The model of warship you provided was the victor in every fight. Moreover, victory was extremely easy, and it performed beyond expectations.”

The middle-aged man played a few videos, showing the exact battles he had simulated.

So, the information that the alien provided was true?

Mu Yunhua was ecstatic. To be honest, she did not really understand the design of warships. She could not see where and how their power lay. On the contrary, those warships with a domineering and mighty form, would always give her a very powerful vibe, at least in visual terms. The temptation was very strong.

The Poor Man’s Dignity class of warships was not only ordinary, it was even ugly, and it did not look sufficiently trust-worthy at the beginning.

However, after Pangu’s verification, Mu Yunhua felt more at ease. Although the alien was frivolous, he was honest and did not trick or bait her.

She even felt somewhat glad about it. She could get something like this in return for just taking a shower. Overall, it was very profitable. If she sacrificed even more the next time around, wouldn’t the return be…?

All of a sudden, her thoughts took a turn into an uncertain direction.

…

In the conference room.

“I agree on Plan No. 28!”

“I agree with it too!”

“Agreed!”

“No disputes over Plan No. 28. It has passed with unanimous votes of approval .”

“Captain, I didn’t expect you to also be talented in warship design. I really admire your work.”

“Captain, have you perhaps been blessed by the god of science? In addition to the intelligence that was responsible for deriving the formula for the Grand Unification of Forces, you also have a talent for interstellar warship design.”

“As long as we obey and follow the Captain’s leadership, we can free ourselves from this predicament and move toward the light!”

“Yes, I have 100,000% confidence in this!”

The voices of praise and adulation from the delegates came rolling in, one after another. Each compliment came from the love and respect in their hearts.

However, Mu Yunhua started to feet rather embarrassed. The “No. 28 Interstellar Warship Design Plan” was the design scheme for the Poor Man’s Dignity provided by the alien. At that moment, this plan had not only gotten the all-pass vote, but it had also increased her popularity and prestige again.

She seemed to have become omnipotent in the eyes of the representatives. Their gazes were full of worship.

In truth, she wanted to explain that she did not come up with “Plan No. 28.” It was given by others. But the voice in the earpiece told her to say that she had designed it. Even Pangu said to her, “Just say that it is yours. They need an idol—the people need a god. Only then can all the powers be united.”

She was the god.

They could not do otherwise than let her become a god.

After all, she had performed a lot of miracles and had gained the faith and worship of countless people.

After the “No. 28 Interstellar Warship Design Plan” was approved, a representative came up with a last-minute idea and issued a proposal which was endorsed by all the representatives.

“Well, since the No. 28 Plan was proposed by the Captain, why don’t we give a code name to this class of interstellar warships? How about the ‘Goddess’ Honor’? It is an honor bestowed on soldiers by the goddess. I believe that from the moment the soldiers sit in the combat cabin, they will have already prepared their minds for the possibility of dying in defense of this honor. Surely the courage that bursts forth from the bottom of their heart will dispel all fears?”

“Hmm, the ‘Goddess’ Honor’ sounds good.”

“I agree!”

“When we come up with the next class of warships, let’s call them the ‘Goddess’ Honor: Second Generation.’”

“Yes, the Goddess’ Honor should continue indefinitely!”

The meeting room had become very noisy.

However, Mu Yunhua heard a clicking of the tongue coming from the earpiece.

“Tsk, from the ‘Poor Man’s Dignity’ to the ‘Goddess’ Honor.’ What a sudden change in style.”

Ahh!

Mu Yunhua’s face flushed red, and she felt so embarrassed that she wanted to yell.

Chapter 423 - Return Of The Arts

Although it was very embarrassing, this code name, “Goddess’ Honor”…was approved, and it became the rank designation of their interstellar warships.

For this reason, that abominable alien ridiculed Mu Yunhua, and she felt really depressed.

She found that, ever since the alien appeared in her life, it really did provide her with a great deal of assistance, and, as a result, her mind became more at ease and she could feel happy.

But the side effects of its appearance were also very obvious.

She found it increasingly difficult to control her emotions, often revealing sides of herself that she had never seen before.

Embarrassment, helplessness, depression, resentment born from humiliation, and so on.

As an “elderly” person in her hundreds, with an extremely mature personality and mental state, Mu Yunhua also found her own behavior to be unbelievable sometimes. How did she become like this?

How could her face display those expressions, when she had kept up such a cold appearance on for decades? Her face had been so cold that it had seemed as if she was suffering from partial facial nerve paralysis.

In the end, all the irregularities could only be blamed on the alien.

She secretly vowed in her heart, “One day, I will teach you a harsh lesson.”

…

Another ten days passed.

Mu Yunhua continued to be busy with all kinds of things, all the time, and she never gave herself a day off.

But… she felt like the burden on her shoulders had gradually lightened as compared to before.

Her rest time in the evening increased from eight hours up to ten.

Moreover, she had a fixed resting period on every Saturday afternoon, when she was definitely not to be disturbed unless there was something so insanely important that it had to be reported to her… Hence, she had her own personal “vacation” every Saturday.

In truth, she did not want to rest at all; moreover, she did not dare to rest. It was only because the alien forced her to rest.

“You can get one point if you ‘chat’ with me for two hours every night, and you can use the points to redeem some physical formulas, mathematical theorems, and things like that from me. I have advanced scientific and technical materials that you can get too.

“If you can take half a day off during the weekend to chat with me or entertain me, you will get 10 points at once. How about it? Are you willing to earn points from me?”

The voice of the alien coming from the headset had a rather smug tone, as if this was a fun game for the alien.

Mu Yunhua was silent for a long while. Finally, she said: “This is probably not an equal exchange.” This complaint seemed to be born from some sort of concern or care for the alien.

“I don’t think it’s a loss for me. I can take up the time of a busy person like you. Out of millions to hundreds of millions of people, I alone am able to ‘buy’ time with you. It’s cool just thinking about it,” she said in a candid and open voice.

“Say…”

Mu Yunhua couldn’t help but ask, “Why are you sticking so closely to me? Is it because you lack maternal love?” The alien monopolized her for two hours a day. What exactly did it hope to achieve with this?

“No. But since I am your guardian, we should stick together for some time every day. What about it? You don’t want to? You don’t want the points as well? If so, then forget about it.”

“Yes, I want it!”

She blurted out those terrible words, and her cheeks flushed red, which quickly turned into an awkward and bitter smile, “Are you guarding me, or do you need me to accompany you?” Are you a really lonely alien?

“Your answer is right. One point from me is at least equal to one year of hard work. Thank me, for you will never again find such a good opportunity.”

“Hmm. Thank you.”

Mu Yunhua’s attitude was sincere, and she expressed her thanks with a serious demeanor.

On the other hand, this was somewhat of a surprise to Chen Jin. Thank you. This was the first time that he had heard this. This woman had a bit of a conscience.

“By the way, can you tell me your name? A simple codename is OK, too. I can’t keep calling you ‘alien,’ right?” Mu Yunhua said again, as she tried to sound out his name. After all, they could already be considered old acquaintances.

Chen Jin thought for a while and said, “Gold. you can call me ‘Gold,’ like the metal. This is my name.”

“Okay, Gold.”

When she said to the word “Gold,” Mu Yunhua’s voice became slightly smaller and a little gentle.

…

From that point forward, the exchanges between the two parties increased quite a lot.

Of course, any pair, no matter if they’re men or women, needs to find some conversation subjects during the course of communication. If there were no topic, it would be easy to fall into a situation where there was nothing to talk about.

With Mu Yunhua’s substantial history and heavy experiences, it was impossible to talk about past events. It would be too easy to touch upon some sad incidents.

They could chat about current events right then, but, at the moment, they were not optimistic. Her people were still in a huge crisis.

On the other hand, the future was vague and full of uncertainty.

Her only choice was to escape from reality and talk about things that were not relevant to reality.

“Hua, have you ever read a novel?” Chen Jin asked.

“A novel? I might have read one when I was very young. I don’t have any impression of it now.”

“Then I can recommend a few novels for you to read. After you read them, we can discuss the characters and plots of the novels.”

Chen Jin had quite a lot of hobbies and interests. Novels, games, anime, and action figurines—these countless “spiritual foods” allowed him to live through the endless years without feeling too bored. Without those “spiritual foods,” he surely would have died of boredom.

On the contrary, Mu Yunhua’s brain was only filled with various sorts of work matters and scientific knowledge. They could not find any shared topics.

Chen Jin could only recommend the electronic versions of his favorite novels to her in order to create a subject held in common.

However, after a few days, Mu Yunhua had finished reading those novels. In her discussions with Chen Jin, she actually called attention to the large number of illogical points that she had found, based on her brain’s inherently scientific way of thinking. She said apologetically, “There are too many areas of bad logic. It makes me feel like I have a fishbone stuck in my throat; I really can’t continue reading it.”

“This…”

Chen Jin’s mouth twitched. He did not even know how to start his rant.

“Since the novels are no good, I will show you a few animations.”

Not long afterward.

Chen Jin got Nuwa to send over a few highly-acclaimed classic animes for Mu Yunhua to take a look at.

This finally produced a good result.

She ultimately got engrossed with the animes, and not only watched with relish, but even shouted from time to time.

“Gold, are the people depicted here your clansmen? Their eyes are so big and their heads are generally too big as well. But most of them are very pretty and very cute. They are very funny.”

Are my clansmen anime characters?

Chen Jin really did not know how to explain things. He could only stay silent in tacit agreement.

Of course, the main issue was that the subculture of comics and anime had never risen in the history Haierfa—or perhaps they had been too much of a minority there and not very interesting, and were therefore far from their more developed counterparts on Earth.

After watching a few excellent animated works, not only was Mu Yunhua full of admiration, but she also said that they were “the most outstanding cultural art in the universe”. In addition, she was deeply moved by the elements of moe, humor, and the subjective point of view and issues surrounding anime characters who could not fit into society. She gradually got caught up in these shows and talked about them with Chen Jin every day.

It seemed as if her grooming to become an interstellar homebody was about to be completed.

…

However, on one day.

Mu Yunhua returned to her bedroom very late. She looked very worried and seemed to be at her wits’ end.

“What’s wrong? What kind of problems are you facing?” Chen Jin asked with concern.

“Nothing, it’s just a little problem.”

“You wouldn’t be so worried if it were a small problem. It’s better if you talk about it. I can give you some ideas, too.”

“Today, 13 children escaped from the Fourth Talent Academy. They were running away from foundational knowledge lessons, and had gone out of the school. Then education robots were dispatched to arrest those children who disliked learning. During the arrest—nobody expected that three of those children would rather commit suicide than return to school.”

Mu Yunhua was very distressed. “Is studying more painful than death? Don’t the children know that if they don’t study hard and accumulate enough knowledge, they will not even have the chance to resist if they meet with the enemy in the future?

“They study now so that they can be in the position to save themselves in the time to come.” She earnestly explained the good intentions behind her stance.

“I want to ask a few questions,” Chen Jin suddenly said.

“Go ahead.”

“Generally speaking, how old are those children?”

“About ten years old.”

“What are the main things they learn about in school?”

“Language, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology…a total of five subjects.”

“What about history, geography, painting, music, sports, and other subjects?”

“History and geography are extracurricular readings. What are paintings, music, and sports? How could they waste time learning these useless things?”

“You mean that all the students in school only learn boring sciences that drain their mental energy for over 10 hours a day? All of them are training their scientific thought processes, all the time?”

“Yes, what’s the problem with that? We need countless engineers, scientists and elite warriors. These talented people must have sufficient scientific literacy and the most ideal way of thinking. Only then can they survive in this world, and only then can our civilization survive in this universe. So, they have to learn a lot of knowledge at a very young age and start to struggle with the truth.”

“A force-feeding style of teaching and learning, training by robots, and… a pure form of ideal thinking?” Chen Jin said.

“Yes, it can be explained like this.”

“Do you think that this is normal education?” Chen Jin asked.

“Of course, this is…. not very normal. What has been typical for us for the past 20 years is that, out of every 100 students, only 13 are outstanding, 25 qualified, and most of the remaining students can only vanish into the ranks of the average public. Moreover, more than five percent of the students commit suicide or suffer from a mental disorder… This is a test, a trial, and only the strong survive until the end and become a pillar of this civilization.”

“But you have thought about this? This model may be suitable when the population is small. But if the number of students that needs to be trained each year goes up to 50 million, don’t you think you will have some problems if you continue using this method of education and training?”

Currently, the population on Walf planet had exploded. The tens of millions of biological breeding cabins were producing 50 million people every year.

This population then needed to be nurtured, educated, and…managed.

The innate desires and instincts of the teenage heart could not be suppressed if the content of their studies was too boring or the management too strict. Turmoil and upheaval would easily ensue.

In short, mechanical force-feeding and pure science training was definitely not the right course.

“Then… what should I do?”

Mu Yunhua realized this problem at once.

“I do have an idea.”

“What idea?”

“Let art and its sensitivities return.”

Chen Jin continued, “If everything were rational and scientific, then the whole of society would not be too different from a robot society. Beyond basic survival, everyone would sink into a state with no desire and no ambitions. This is unhealthy for them and detrimental for the future.

“Only by adding a certain amount of art and emotional sensitivity into the mix can humans really become human.

“For example: paintings, music, novels, games, television. On the surface, these different forms of art can’t provide anything to anyone. But on a spiritual level, they can bring encouragement, sorrow, happiness, love, hate, and the other emotions that touche the heart.”

“Hence, people will be able to recognize what is beautiful and what is ugly, what is justice and what is evil… They will have the ability to distinguish between right and wrong.

“In addition, when people feel negative and depressed, pessimistic and desperate—when reason is about to be defeated by reality—sometimes, emotional sensibility can stimulate a new fighting spirit and strength, and can bring about new solutions, and even defeat despair.

“Of course, most of the time, reason is still correct. But at some point, emotional sensibility creates miracles…

“In short, you have only one form of meaning. All this can be compared to the yin and yang of the world, or the gender of men and women. Sense and sensibility are complementary and indispensable. If there is only one of them, it will cause huge problems.”

Mu Yunhua felt very confused as she listened. She thought that it sounded somewhat reasonable, but she could not tell where the reason lay. It had no sense of realness… She had been rational for decades and did not really know what emotional sensibility was.

“Why don’t you talk about a specific method or solution? This is too broad. I can’t understand.”

“How about this!”

Chen Jin thought, and then said, “Use that Fourth Talent Academy to conduct an experiment. Install a smart TV in each student dorm, and then upload an anime series called Magic Girl Philipa to these TVs. Stipulate that the students in the dorm can watch one episode of the anime if they have completed and submitted all their homework. They can’t watch it if even a single one of them doesn’t submit their homework.

“In addition, students in the dorms with outstanding academic performance on average—for example, a mean score of more than 80 points—can watch more episodes of the anime every day. After they have finished watching the entire anime, they can choose from a whole lot of other wonderful shows.

“Continue with the experiment for a month or two, and then take another look at the average scores of the students across the entire school. In the end, you can easily observe whether scores have improved or not by comparing the ‘before’ and ‘after.’ ”

“Ok, I will arrange this experiment right away.”

…

Soon.

A month later.

The average score of students in the Fourth Talent Academy increased by 3.3 points.

Moreover, there were no incidents of students escaping that month. The campus was filled with lots of laughter and joyful talk. Whenever one was walking along the streets, one could often hear the students privately discussing the anime Magic Girl Philipa.

The anime had become a phenomenon, a topic that everyone was discussing.

There were even some students who actively imitated the dialogue and the dress of the characters in the anime. One could clearly see how popular the series was.

Mu Yunhua shook her head and humbly conceded her error. She quickly lifted a series of bans and published the large amount of information on literary and artistic works that was stored in the Pangu database.

In order to cultivate the students’ courage, unity, and fraternal love, a large number of schools set up music classes, painting classes, and physical education classes, one after another. They allowed students to found associations and to hold a cultural festival every semester… A variety of enriching and interesting activities gave color to the students’ youth.

In the grown-ups’ world, all kinds of festivals and art were returning constantly.

The human settlements of the planet Walf were gradually approaching the semblance of a truly civilized society.

Chapter 424 - The Crystal Brainers’ Abilities

Culture, art, and entertainment… These things could bring a lot of beauty and goodness to the world, relieving the people’s stress and pain.

However, they still could not change the cruel nature of reality.

Therefore, after completing the adjustment of the education system, Mu Yunhua put her main focus back on one thing: the analysis of the wreckage of the Selain interstellar warship, and the interrogation of the captive Selains.

She would get their advanced technology from the wreckage of the warship.

She would also inquire about all kinds of information on the Selain civilization from the captives.

However, she encountered certain difficulties in both matters.

…

In the video call.

The old scientist’s face was apologetic.

“Captain, after the retrieval and cleanup of the warship’s wreckage from the battlefield, we have studied it for more than a year. However, we did not make significant progress.

“The technologies of the Selains are too advanced. The material structures and technical principles of much of the advanced equipment is incomprehensible, despite its amazing effects.

“For example, their anti-gravity device. It uses common electric power as its source of energy, but it can generate huge gravitational fields, and produce artificial force…The size of the equipment is not big, and the gravity simulated is equivalent to the gravitational pull of the real globe.”

“Moreover, the surface of the Selain interstellar warship is covered with a force field alloy which is only about 10 centimeters thick, yet it can withstand the high temperatures and high-pressure impact following the explosion of high-yield nuclear weapons. Its defensive ability is shocking.

“And the energy efficiency of their high-energy nuclear fusion reactor technology is quite amazing. We can insert the most common hydrogen directly, and it will produce large amounts of energy. It continues to burn until it becomes iron, at which point fusion will no longer occur.

“There are also high-power particle engines, missile technology, space warfare technology, information technology, and so forth….. It is simply a treasure trove of tech.

“But even though we have such bounties, given our limited understanding of the truth, we will need years or even decades if we want to take away any of the treasures within and gain a thorough understanding of the technology. We can’t copy their work directly, which is even harder.

“I can only say that our foundation is still too backward. We can’t understand higher levels of civilization. We’re just like primary school students trying to answer college-level questions. At the moment… it is still beyond our capabilities,” The old scientist said helplessly.

“That is all to say, Lao Song, that you have basically made no progress in your research for more than a year?” Mu Yunhua asked.

“Uh… I’m very ashamed. But that is true.”

“Have you thought of any solutions to the problem?”

“Yes and I’ve hit on a good one. Namely, we should start with the captive Selains and properly interrogate them. We can strive to make them give in and be obedient before allowing them to participate in our technological decoding work. They could actively tell us the principles behind those technologies.”

“That is indeed a good idea.” Mu Yunhua nodded. “Only the Selains know their technology. If the captives are willing to cooperate, we should be able to crack the mystery of their tech soon enough.”

“But Captain, the Selain captives have been in custody and have been interrogated for more than a year. We have employed many methods in the hope that they will yield and cooperate. However, no matter whether we use torture or all sorts of temptations, nothing can get through to those aliens. They reveal nothing! There are even 18 of them who have chosen to commit suicide… A collaborator, someone who can see their circumstances clearly and adapt to them, has not yet appeared.”

“What? Those aliens are all stubborn mules that just refuse to yield?”

Mu Yunhua was very surprised. They had captured more than a hundred aliens, and all of them were so stubborn. Not only did they seem to lack the self-awareness of invaders, but they had unyielding characters and were unafraid of death.

Were all Selains like this?

Wasn’t there a cowardly and weak one?

This was absolutely impossible!

“Increase the intensity of the interrogations. It is best to imprison them in separate quarters. Overwhelm them one by one. I don’t believe that those aliens are not afraid of death!”

“Yes!”

…

The video communication ended.

Ahh…

Mu Yunhua patted her aching head. Her expression was a little fretful and impatient.

“From what I hear… It seems that the project where you have placed most of your hopes in haven’t made any progress. The alien captives appear to be deliberately wasting your precious time.”

A voice came from her earpiece.

“Yeah…”

Unexpectedly, Mu Yunhua did not deny it. She smiled bitterly. “Nothing is simple. I should have never been so optimistic in the first place”

“So… Do you need my help? Or—we can do a trade.”

“What kind of trade?”

“I will help you analyze the technologies contained in the wreckage of the Selain interstellar warship. We will partner up for research and share the final results.” Chen Jin stated his purpose.

“Partner up for research?” A light glimmered in her eyes. She did not know what she was thinking. After all, the warship wreckage was the only trump card in her hands.

“Don’t misunderstand this.”

Chen Jin explained. “The technology of the Selains is nothing. My society is more advanced. But… this is a different civilization, with a different route of technological development. I simply want to understand and analyze this alternate process. We don’t have to partner up if you have any concerns.”

“Ok, I am willing to cooperate with you.”

Mu Yunhua nodded very quickly. In fact, even if Gold had not proposed a partnership, she would still have actively sought out his help in a few days’ time. Based on the existing capabilities under her control, it would take decades or even centuries to decode the technologies of the Selains. Their efficiency was quite low.

If she sought out a partnership with Gold, who was from a more advanced civilization, the process of decoding the alien technology could, at the very least, be accelerated by a high factor.

With this, a new partnership between the two parties was established.

…

One year later.

Haierfa.

“Master, after more than a year of analysis, This is the conclusion that Alice and I have come up with: We have nothing to fear from the Crystal Brainers.

“The technologies contained in the wreckage of their warship are not too mysterious or impressive. We have decoded all of them.

“This includes the anti-gravity technology, force field alloy armor technology, high-power ion engine, intelligent control technology, and high-performance nuclear reactor… There are about 30-plus core technologies, and we have figured them all out.

“Amongst all these inventions, only the high-performance nuclear reactor possesses a certain reference value for us. We have all the other technology already. Not only are our versions no worse off, but they even more advanced. We are completely unafraid of the challenge of the Crystal Brainers.

“Of course, that warship from the Crystal Brainers is only an inferior-quality warship from a past generation, with outdated technology. The most advanced ships that comprise their main force would not have been dispatched yet. We should not underestimate the ships in their main forces. They represent a great threat.

“However, we have already achieved a breakthrough in the curvature engine technology. Thus, we have a powerful and incomparable trump card that is enough to make up for a technological difference of one generation or more. Therefore, we have no need to fear the battleships in their main forces. We have secured the means to a surefire victory.

“We can totally treat the Crystal Brainers as an opponent of the same level or an even lower class.”

Speaking of this, Nuwa couldn’t help but sigh with emotion. “I really didn’t think that we would mature to such a stage in just a hundred years. Originally, the Crystal Brainers were mysterious and terrifying, but they are not so frightening now. We can even start to view them as unremarkable. Suddenly, we have become confident that we will defeat the other party.”

Alice nodded. “It is said that, after the Crystal Brainers entered the modern era, it took them more than 3,000 years to reach their current level of strength, which could not be matched by anyone. But we have only used a hundred years and have basically caught up with them.”

They had a development rate like the speed of light.

However, after this emotional reflection had passed, new problems arose.

Alice asked, “Master, now that we have figured out all of their technology, should we adhere to the agreement and share all this technical information unreservedly with Mu Yunhua? Master, this at least 500 years of wisdom from a civilization, condensed. It is equivalent to two or three bursts of progress in technology. I think… it is better to keep a little something for ourselves.”

After all, once Chen Jin complied with his promise and gave the technical information to Mu Yunhua, she would be in possession of the power to rapidly accelerate her society’s technological development ahead five hundred years.

She would thus cultivate a civilization with the same potential as the Crystal Brainers.

It was even possible that… he would be nurturing a potential enemy.

Should he do such a thing?

Chen Jin sank into silence.

After a long time, he said to Nuwa, “Nuwa, tell me your opinion. Would you prefer to hold something back, or to keep our promise?”

“Uhh…”

Nuwa looked very hesitant. “This… If you keep your promise, the technological difference between us and the human beings under Mu Yunhua will be reduced to that of 50 years. If we held some information back, we would maintain a safe lead. But they may not be able to withstand the second wave of attack by the Crystal Brainers. They may be reduced to a powerless state. Their hard work may be completely in vain…”

Nuwa looked at Chen Jin again and said softly, “Of course, the decision is in your hands, Master. It is up to you to decide what to do.”

Chen Jin shot a glance at her and shook his head in a slight gesture.

His decision was already made.

…

After a data transmission process that lasted 5 days, more than 10 terabytes of core data was uploaded to Pangu’s system.

A total of 33 items of advanced technological information fell into Mu Yunhua’s lap. No information was withheld.

Mu Yunhua took a cursory look at the table of contents, and read the introductions to the special features of these technologies and their inexplicable principles. She was completely stunned.

She could not stop mumbling.

“What god-like technology.

“It’s as powerful and fantastical as magic.

“There are 33 items in total, and none of them should be underestimated. Each one has unimaginable power.

“Faced with such powerful technology, our previous ambush battle can only be described as a fluke. If we had given the Selains even one more minute to react, they might have been the final victor of that skirmish.

“What with such a huge gap in the technology, that victory was nothing short of a miracle.

From these core technologies, Mu Yunhua learned the real difference in the strengths of the two sides. At that moment, she only felt extreme gratitude and a lingering fear.

If she had been informed of the differences in strength in advance, she might not have carried out the ambush that year, and might have instead chosen to surrender directly.

It could be said that ignorance had brought her a victory.

After the data transfer was completed.

Pangu told her that all the data was true, complete and effective. He concluded that it had “great value.”

Mu Yunhua was very surprised.

She said to the necklace on her chest, “You actually kept your promise and gave me all this valuable technological information in one shot?”

“What’s the matter? Are there any problems?”

“No…no problem. I just think that you are too generous. You are only participating in this agreement for the analysis, yet you have really shared all the technology with me. Did you not consider keeping some of the information to yourself?”

“These are only dozens of outdated technologies. There is nothing to hide, and it can’t really be considered generous. I can only say that you have no worldly experience.” At this moment, Chen Jin chose, very calmly, to act stupid.

“So, you didn’t lie to me before. You are an alien from a more advanced civilization—one that is even more advanced than the Selains!”

Mu Yunhua became even more excited. The alien who claimed to be her “Protector” came from such impressive origins that even the Selains were no match for them.

In that moment, her heart was filled with a deep sense of security.

With such a powerful alien backing her up, the future of mankind would really be stabilized!

She was completely confident about the future.

“What do you think? Am I the kind of person who loves to brag and joke around? I told you to believe in me and to spend more time with me every day, but you always looked so reluctant. Do you recognize your mistake now?” Chen Jin complained.

Mu Yunhua felt exasperated, but she still nodded. “Although you can’t change your bad habit of bragging, I believe in you.”

“F*ck, I sent all this information on super-advanced technologies to you and you don’t even say a few words of praise. I’m angry. Really angry. I’m not going to care about you anymore.”

“I was wrong. Don’t be angry. I’ll praise you, will that be ok?” Mu Yunhua was a little panicked. If he really ignored her, then everything would be over.

“Forget it, I don’t need your praise. I want a more substantial reward. Bring my monitoring device with you when you take a shower every day…. We should communicate more honestly in the future.”

“You… lecherous alien!”

Mu Yunhua gritted her teeth, and her face flushed red.

But in the end, Chen Jin still achieved his goal.

…

Two more days later.

Finally, one of the captive Selains taken as a prisoner of war could not endure the many and varied tortures. He loosened his mouth and spilled everything he knew like beans falling from a bamboo tube.

The strength of the Sela civilization was thus revealed to humanity.

With the main planet of Sela as their center, their sphere of influence extended to a radius of 50 light-years.

They were in control of 1,768 star systems and possessed 524 stars.

Their total population exceeded 500 billion.

There were more than 10,000 battleships in their main forces.

Currently, they were still in a state of rapid expansion. They were a warlike race who revered and advocated for imperialism. The goal was to conquer every star that could be seen.

Their political system was comprised of an aristocratic parliament and an elder system. Officials were on a ten-year rotation; hence, the political system was quite stable and was more like a powerful centralized state power. However, the aristocratic groups still had greater autonomy.

The strength of their science and technology should not be underestimated. Because of the crystal at the back of their brains, the Selains were extremely efficient at learning and mastering knowledge. Almost all of their citizens were academic elites and they did not lack creativity, either. They had pushed the limits of many fields on the road of technological progress, and even claimed to be a “perfect race of gods.”

Of course, because of this perfect image that they had of themselves, their mentality had, unavoidably, become inflated. The idea of conquering the entire galaxy was rooted in the minds of many Crystal Brainers.

As for morality, they had equally good and bad aspects in the mix and their character could not be determined.

But, on the whole, in terms of both scale and quality, the strength of the Selains or “Crystal Brainers” could be considered formidable.

Chapter 425 - A Terrible Storm

A large and technologically advanced opponent.

The overall strength of its civilization was far stronger than their own.

How should they deal with such a powerful challenge?

Mu Yunhua was silent for a long time. Her expression was grave, and she felt very pessimistic. No matter how she looked at it, it was impossible to defeat the Selains. This was a boss-level opponent.

“Gold…I…what should I do?”

Mu Yunhua, who had been full of confidence just moments ago, was out of ideas right now. It was as if she had developed a dependency, and she subconsciously asked the alien, Gold, who had provided her with so much help.

“The Selains are in a period of rapid expansion. The Walf planet must be on the boundaries of their dominion’s range. If they do not adjust their conquest strategy in time, Walf will become a stumbling block for them, and they will send their warships in multiple waves to attack the planet.

“Can I stop them with just the ‘Poor Man’s Dignity’ that you gave me the last time?”

Chen Jin said faintly, “What do you think?”

“Probably not,” Mu Yunhua said, shaking her head, “unless we manage to build a model of warship that has a better performance. In addition to that, we also need to have the advantage of numbers. And that would be just barely enough to withstand wave after wave of attacks. At the very least, for us to have a fighting chance, a technological generation gap cannot exist between us!”

“That is not enough.”

Chen Jin shook his head. “A war without any technological generation gaps is a war of attrition. You can kill a thousand of the enemy’s soldiers, but you will lose eight hundred of your own. This will be a fierce competition where you are putting all your resources at stake. However, you only have one galaxy in your hands, the Selains have more than 500. You can’t afford to fight this type of conflict.”

Mu Yunhua lowered her head and whispered, “What should I do? Is there no choice for me but to surpass them in terms of science and technology?”

“Do you think it’s possible to surpass them in just a few decades?”

“This… What do you think I should do?”

Mu Yunhua was at her wit’s end. There was no way out. She could hardly win against the Selains that were blocking her path.

“Flee. If you are no match for them in any way, then avoid them, especially when they are at their strongest. Flee to a faraway place, and develop your civilization with peace of mind.”

“Flee?”

Mu Yunhua was stunned. “This is the solution that you come up with?” She had never thought about escape.

“Since you know exactly how strong your enemy is and can see the difference in power between the two sides, is it not normal to consider escaping? Why, don’t tell me that you will not consider fleeing—and, on top of that, that you are even preparing to resist one wave of attack after another!”

“No, I don’t mean that. I just didn’t think that you would mention escape.”

“Of course. If I were not willing to help you, escape should be your best and most sensible choice. I believe that you are very clear on this point.”

“Hmm, that is true.”

Mu Yunhua had to nod. Without the help from this alien, escape was really the best choice.

It was just that…

She did not want to escape!

The citizens of the immigration bases did not want to flee, either.

Nobody wanted to relive for a second time the long, dark and lonely interplanetary journey as they drifted in space, unless it was their last resort.

It would also be difficult to escape. The fleet would be sailing at a slow speed, and it might even be unable to keep ahead of the rapid rate at which the Selains expanded their colonies.

They could spend hundreds of years fleeing to a safe place, and it still might not be long before their new home lay at the boundaries of the Selains’ imperial range again. They would be facing these challenges repeatedly.

Therefore, if they did not think of ways to strengthen themselves, to upgrade their civilization’s level of science and technology, they might not even be able to escape.

So, after fighting, flight was the worst choice.

Of course, surrender was an option, too. However, this had been impossible for them since the end of that ambush battle.

“I can see that you don’t want to escape. It has never crossed your mind,” Chen Jin said calmly.

“Hmm, yes.”

“That means that you choose to stay at this original site and resist with all your might. You will be facing off with a powerful civilization, and you believe that you will win?”

“Hmm, I didn’t say that exactly, but it’s not so different from what I wanted to express.”

“What wishful thinking! You’re so confident. Why don’t you explain just what is bolstering this confidence? What are you depending on that has made you so sure? Who gave you such confidence?”

“You—”

Two red spots appeared on Mu Yunhua’s cheeks. This abominable fellow was starting to make fun of her again.

“It would be better for you if you could actually explain your source of confidence. If your answer is right, your dreams may just come true,” Chen Jin said in an exaggerated and smug tone. He asked, “So, your source of confidence is…?”

“You!”

“Who?”

“It’s you, you damn alien!”

“It seems that you finally understand my role and position. If I didn’t remind you of that fact as and when it’s appropriate, you would take me for granted.”

Mu Yunhua could only grit her pearly white teeth as fire raged in her eyes.

She heard that nasty voice talking again. “Seems like you have a more proper attitude now and correctly understand my role. Then, I have no choice but to do this favor for you. You can rest assured, the Selains don’t represent a threat to me. It’s not a challenge to defeat them. I can even help you launch a counterattack into their home planet to complete your mission of revenge, giving the experience of failure and terror back to them.”

“This…is my promise to you,” the voice said seriously.

Upon hearing such words, obviously, a lot of worries were laid to rest in her mind. The worries and dread of before were all swept away, leaving only confidence.

And she also realized that this alien, who often spoke lightly and teasingly and liked to make fun of her, had become someone that she depended on, a source of support that she could not lose. The alien had actually replaced the strength that originally came from her character.

But somehow, she did not hate this feeling. After all, she alone could not bear such a heavy burden as this. She did not have the strength to be stubborn.

“But…” She heard him speak again. “I will help you this time, but it’s not completely unconditional. You know my style. In any case, I need certain remuneration. I’m not some kind of selfless Samaritan.”

“Remuneration?” Mu Yunhua calmed down and asked, “What kind of compensation do you want?”

“Of course it is a bigger reward. The simple boons that I’ve received in the past can’t satisfy me now. I need to get more, hmmm…” This was followed by the sound of smacking lips.

“What do you want?” Mu Yunhua’s face was entirely red. She was filled with panic. What more did that lecherous alien want?

“What do you think? I’ve seen all that is to see of your body. It is almost impossible to feel any urges with just that. Isn’t it obvious what I want next?” The voice gradually became vulgar.

“No!”

Mu Yunhua hugged her own body and retreated two steps. She said in a panic, “I can’t give you my body! Besides, I’ve never even seen you, and our physical distance is too great. Your idea is unrealistic.”

“Unrealistic? Hehe, as long as you nod your head, I can come to your side in a short time to collect my ‘reward’ and carry out in-depth exchanges. I am very much looking forward to it.”

“Obscene! Shameless! I won’t agree to this!”

Mu Yunhua felt that her spirit was about to be tarnished. Goosebumps covered her entire body. She was pure and uncorrupted; she had never experienced such a thing. She had merely thought of the act as sickening and dirty. They would be no different from animals. It was not only unimaginable, but also completely unacceptable.

The lecherous alien was simply a beast.

“So, this means that…you don’t want me to help you? Think about it more. Hua, I have said this: I am not a charitable person. Are you really thinking that you want to become the greatest hero of mankind without paying any price?” the voice said patiently, attempting to lead her to a certain answer.

“I…I…” Mu Yunhua couldn’t speak. She could only retreat with an expression of protest on her face.

“The universe is very dark and cruel. Only the strong can survive. I believe that you understand this principle better than me. Compared to the safety and happiness of all mankind, this little bit of cost would not be considered a sacrifice in any civilization or culture…Do you really think that my request is overboard?”

The voice became objective and rational, without a hint of joke.

“I… I understand, I promise. I promise to give you everything you want!”

Mu Yunhua felt like she was on the verge of crying. Although it was difficult to accept this, it was just like the alien said: it was highly naive of her to want to receive help for free.

She would sacrifice her own purity and dignity so that she could fight to provide hope to the entire human race’s future. No matter how one looked at it, it was still an extremely worthwhile exchange…. Even though what really went on behind the scenes would be very dirty and ugly, all she could do was bear it.

“Hmm… Good, very good. That’s the attitude that I want,” Chen Jin nodded. “So, let’s start talking about the real conditions.”

“Ah…” Mu Yunhua was totally stunned. “Real conditions. Didn’t we already talk about it?”

“Who wants your body? That was just to test your sincerity. Did you think that the charm of your body was so overwhelming that I would come to you in person?”

“What?! You, you, you…” Mu Yunhua was ashamed and enraged. “You bastard! Lecherous alien! Explode and die immediately!”

She broke out in curses when she found out that she had been played for a fool. She had completely lost the noble, rational, and elegant style that she usually possessed. She was so mad that she wanted to stab someone with a knife.

After she vented for a while, Chen Jin finally said, “My conditions are very simple. That is, you have to promise me one thing—one thing that you must do as I instruct.”

“What is it?” asked Mu Yunhua.

“I will tell you when the time is right. You just need to do as I say when that moment arrives.”

“That also depends on what it is about. I will not agree if it’s something too excessive.”

“You can rest assured that it is definitely something easy to do. It will not exceed your hard limits. It will not get to a point where you need to offer your body…”

“Stop talking about anything related to my body!” Mu Yunhua interrupted him.

“So how about this? Is this acceptable?” Chen Jin continued to ask.

“This… Ok, ok, I agree.”

It was only a verbal commitment. Moreover, she could not be certain about anything in the future. It was more important to survive the current crisis.

Even though she felt a sort of a psychological burden, it was still better to just agree and let things be.

“Good! I will try my best to help you.”

Chen Jin, who had achieved his goal, was ecstatic.

…

After the negotiation.

Chen Jin would help Mu Yunhua and the remaining survivors of her human civilization get through this crisis, and even to launch a counterattack and begin their revenge on the Selains. They would put an end to this powerful enemy! Chen Jin held a discussion with the AIs, Nuwa and Alice, for the next several days in a row.

They discussed ways to deal with the Crystal Brainers. In the end, two sets of effective solutions were put forward.

First, they would scout out all categories of information on the Crystal Brainers and examine this information until there was no mystery left. “You must know both your opponent and yourself.”

Nuwa said, “Master, we have installed a more powerful curvature engine on the ‘Time Space 2’ interstellar spacecraft, which was recently built. Its maximum flight speed is as rapid as 25 times the speed of light. This spacecraft can be used to gather intelligence. It can go to Sela Galaxy, which is about 75 light-years away, and launch a large number of miniature probes. Not one corner of their galaxy will be neglected. The spacecraft will scout and explore all kinds of aspects of this civilization.

“‘Time Space 2’ will take only three years to reach the main planet of the Sela civilization and monitor their every move.

“In addition, in terms of military usefulness, we can make use of the speed advantage of ‘Time Space 2’ to observe the movement of the Selain fleet, and even covertly track them. Through this, we can determine all sorts of helpful information such as the number of enemy ships, their combat power, their tactical plans, and so on. We can create a situation where everything will be under our control.

“Moreover, it won’t be difficult to do. The speed of ‘Time Space 2′ is ten times that of the Selain fleet. We will be invincible in the field of intelligence.”

To be the number one in information gathering!

That meant that the intelligence work was well done. They would familiarize themselves with all the details of the enemy, and then deploy their resources in assignments that specially targeted certain aspects. It was completely plausible that the weak could defeat the strong.

However, they still had to have a certain amount of “hard power” on their side.

To this end, they required an interstellar warship that had an outstanding level of combat power. Such a ship would be necessary to win battle after battle. This formed the core of Plan number 2, the “Warship-Building Plan”.

Chen Jin got Alice to conduct a round of searches and analysis.

Combining this with the technological models given to Mu Yunhua, a classic battleship appeared in Alice’s mind.

“Based on the technological information we gave Mu Yunhua, let’s assume that the features explained in those records is equivalent to the technological level of the Crystal Brainers’ main battleships. After combining that tech, I find that a C-class warship in the “Galaxy Era”, called “Terrible Storm,” that most suits our requirements.

“This type of warship is one of the top ten most classic battleships. It can be said to be the strongest in the C-class. This model also has close to the largest number created by players. It is the main force chosen by the elites of elites. This model of battleship can be spotted in nearly every single battle.

“I will talk about the advantages first. It is similar to the Poor Man’s Dignity: its greatest advantages are its speed, flexibility, and ease of construction. Its attack power is not weak. Even B-class warships equipped with a force field alloy would pay a high price if they came face to face with a fleet of ‘Terrible Storm’ that was three times greater in number. However, the manufacturing cost of any B-class warship is at least ten times higher than that of a ‘Terrible Storm’ model, and its construction is very slow.

“The production cost of the Terrible Storm is low, it can be built quickly, and it has a considerable combat power. Although its defense is slightly lacking, it is definitely 300% qualified as a warship. There is even a player in the Galaxy Era who made use of the Terrible Storm to defeat many advanced players in a clean sweep, leading a lot of legendary counterattacks in the process.

“So, the Terrible Storm is absolutely suitable for Mu Yunhua. They can serve as a more advanced type of battleship in the main forces, in addition to the Poor Man’s Dignity.”

Hmm…

Chen Jin nodded. The most advanced was not necessarily the best, but the most suitable definitely was!

…

The next day.

Chen Jin transferred to Mu Yunhua the design and usage plan of the warship “Terrible Storm,” as well as 10 terabytes of relevant information.

“A classic C-class warship capable of competing with B-Class warships. It is low-cost, simple in structure, and can be manufactured in large quantities. It suits a variety of warship tactics and can be easily used to overwhelm your enemies with sheer numbers.”

Mu Yunhua’s had a bright smile on her face, and excitement shone through her eyes. “This powerful battleship can definitely defeat the enemy who has come to invade us!”

“In addition, I’ve dispersed spy devices. I’ll get all kinds of information about the Selains after about three years. I have also placed their fleets under surveillance. Their intelligence has become completely transparent, and they can keep no secrets from us. Do you have confidence for the coming challenges?” the voice said into her ear again.

“Yes! I have 100% confidence!”

Mu Yunhua laughed. This certainty was enough for her ego and spirit to swell.

Chapter 426 - Awakening

To assist Mu Yunhua, Chen Jin not only pulled out many of his trump cards, but also left a mighty, mysterious, and reliable impression on her.

It could be said from Mu Yunhua’s reaction that Chen Jin had totally achieved his most wanted first-contact effect.

But the price was, in order to maintain his mighty and mysterious image in the future, when facing greater challenges and difficulties, it was possible that Chen Jin would have to go beyond his own ability and come up with more advanced technology and more powerful trump cards so that Mu Yunhua would continue to rely on him.

However, it was already a little hard to maintain his front-facing image at that time. As future demands would only become even higher, he was afraid that, by then, what he provided would not seem quite enough, even after he emptied his entire arsenal.

What should he do at that point?

“Boasting for a while is pleasurable, for sure, but to do it in the long run…”

Chen Jin shook his head. Was it time for him to change his impractical, aggrandizing behavior?

However, there were some things that, once done, would make it a little hard to make a U-turn. He could only grit his teeth and continue down this road.

“Luckily, Mu Yunhua will need at least two to three decades to digest that bundle of technical information. We still have quite a lot of time.

“We should take advantage of this period to improve our strength and enhance our own prestige.

“Just like in a race, we must always maintain a lead. We must not allow the disparity between us and them to become too narrow.”

Therefore, Chen Jin had to improve himself. It was a necessity for him to accelerate forward!

He thus formulated the Haierfa Expansion Plan.

This plan was mainly developed through artificial intelligence Nuwa’s and Alice’s simulation. Its primary purpose was to improve their own strength.

There were three main aspects targeted for an upgrade.

The first one was in science and technology. Without a doubt, this was the most important of all.

Nuwa said, “Master, we are going to build 10 top-notch science laboratories in the future to provide a more superior testing environment for conducting advanced physics experiments. We shall provide the best conditions for exploring the truth of the universe.

“Additionally, in order to study the mysteries of the stars and probe the possibility of mastery over stellar energy, we will go to our neighboring star: α Star, four light-years away. Around the star in that galaxy, we will build an experimental ‘Dyson Ball’ structure and attempt to harvest energy on a stellar scale. And, on this basis, we will carry out various scientific experiments.

“In short, no matter how much time and material we may expend, our exploration of the truth of the universe will be carried out at all costs.”

Secondly, the military aspect.

With regards to planet Haierfa, it was now necessary to enhance military might.

“Master, at present, we can create Class-B+ starships with a combat power no weaker than that of the main battleships of the Crystal Brainers. But, right now, there is only one space dock that can produce such warships, and it can only construct one Class-B+ warship every three years. Efficiency is extremely behind.”

“In order to increase our efficiency, we will increase the number of large space docks to more than 100 in the future, striving to achieve the mass production of main battleships to more than 30 units per year.”

“In addition, with the Warp Engine technology gradually maturing, Class A ships equipped with high-power warp engines will probably be successfully created within five years. Together with our other latest tech for the A-class warships, the combat power of an A-class warship may be equivalent to 10 B-class warships.”

“Hence, we plan to build about a hundred A-class warships within 30 years, and then match them with another 3,000 B-class warships. By doing so, our comprehensive combat strength will be at least half of that of the Crystal Brainers. If we use these forces cohesively, we will be able to crumble their unadorned civilization by exploiting their weak nodes.”

After all, it would, in fact, be very difficult for the Crystal Brainers to assemble a large number of interstellar warships within a short period of time due to their relatively backward ion thruster technology.

The Crystal Brainers, who were like someone with a massive family business, could only deploy single-fleet units to safeguard their territory.

Chen Jin’s end goal, which involved the Wrap Engine technological development tree quickly lighting up, possessed an absolute speed advantage.

The last initiative was the strategy for their resource aspect.

“Since we only occupy one star system, our planetary resources are limited to what we have, little more than a dozen planets. Although there are many meteorites in the asteroid belt, mining them will not be easy, and our efficiency is bound to be lower… In terms of resources, it will be very easy for us to fall into a bottleneck.

“Compared with those aliens, who have colonized multiple galaxies—even if their strength in science and technology is weak, they are in control of hundreds and even thousands of times the resources we have. The difference between us is several orders of magnitude.

“If conflict erupts between us and a resource-rich civilization, we will win in quality, but their mass-mobilization strategy and warship-overcrowding tactics may sometimes offset that advantage in quality and inflict almost certain damage on us. If our opponent’s never-ending hordes break through the threshold of our limits, we may even be submerged.

“Many such cases have happened in ‘Galaxy Era.’”

“Hence, we have to acquire as great an amount of resources as possible.”

So… how could they acquire them? Chen Jin asked the AIs.

“One way will be intensifying resource collection in the Haierfa Galaxy—best to utilize all its planetary and meteorite resources to make the ultimate starships.

“In addition, we should collect resources from our surrounding galaxies.”

Other galaxies?

Even the nearest of the galaxies around planet Haierfa was four light-years away. It would take a few decades for ordinary spacecrafts to go back and forth. The efficiency of their resource collection efficiency would be too low.

“If we deploy cargo spacecrafts equipped with warp engines to mine our surrounding galaxies, the round trip will be shortened to several months,” Nuwa said. “Of course, a few months’ journey will still be too long. As a deduction, we can also build military docks directly in our surrounding galaxies in order to construct interstellar warships on the spot. They will be equivalent to mobile military factories.

“If we build a military factory in each mineral-heavy galaxy to produce interstellar starships and deplete the entire galaxy, at least hundreds of thousands of battleships of class B or above can be obtained. If a black swarm of battleships were to automatically aggregate above planet Haierfa, it would be pretty amazing and shocking to look at.

“The mass-mobilization strategy and warship-overcrowding tactic of our potential enemies will be entirely crushed.”

Chen Jin nodded.

What Nuwa meant was, in fact, similar to establishing subbases, which actually referred to military bases used for “filibustering.”

“Then, we should first find 10 suitable galaxies mainly for the production of B-class warships. If production goes up, we will stop producing B-class warships here at planet Haierfa and shift all our resources into making high-end A-class warships.”

The idea was that the high-end would be made at “home,” while the low-end and mid-range would all be made in the outer galaxies. By this method, more valuable docks could be freed up.

Upon listening to Nuwa’s explanation, three clear goals were presented before Chen Jin:

1. Build large physics labs to explore higher technology.

2. Go violent in filibustering, building as many advanced interstellar warships as possible.

3. Gather resources, exploiting their own advantage in speed to acquire a large amount of materials from the surrounding galaxies and prevent the risk of deficiencies.

These three points were also the synthesis of the most comprehensive methods for an exhaustive approach to expansion in strength.

They might be better alternatives out there, but, as of now, only these conventional methods could be used.

Without question, Chen Jin approved all implementations.

……

However.

Quiet times passed by, day after day.

Chen Jin was executing his operation, step-by-step, and was just now in a more confident state to face the challenges of the future, which might not even prove a challenge for him.

On Earth, which he had not paid much attention to for the past few decades, there had suddenly been a bit of a commotion as of recently.

Even Chen Jin had to take some of his time and energy to express his worry about those upheavals.

“That can’t be. What’s going on?”

“Why would such a thing suddenly happen?”

“Surely this is too exaggerated, and too much of a fantasy? Shouldn’t Haierfa be the Sci-Fi universe?”

After reading the news from back on Earth, Chen Jin was shocked, and felt disbelief.

He instinctively mumbled to himself:

“Earth has been developing very well over the years. Very peaceful, although a little impetuous, it has been relatively harmonious and stable on the whole.”

“It was so peaceful that it had even become quite boring. Days were dull and uneventful, and people were drowsy.”

“Such a wonderful world should always be kept that way. I would rather such stimulating incidents not happen.”

“For such a massive turn of events to happen like this out of the blue… I don’t like it at all.”

Chen Jin kept mumbling to himself, and he was apparently experiencing some difficulty in digesting the facts.

…

Speaking of which, what exactly had happened on Earth? What could make Chen Jin lose his composure to this extent?

In fact, it was mainly about two things.

Firstly, many weird things had happened on Earth.

Or, so to speak, many people were experiencing “mutations.”

For example, in a short period of time, a regular guy suddenly spiked in physical fitness and was granted a strength of up to a thousand kilograms of force. As another example, a high school student with a plain appearance could suddenly climb on walls and fly over the roofs as if he had mastered some form of Qinggong martial arts. After returning home from school, he even saved the day by defeating seven or eight lewd riffraff. There was also a white man from a western country who, after awakening, could summon a high-temperature fireball like one might do in a magic show. Similar ‘mutations’ had manifested in many people, with all of them being granted unique abilities.

These abilities had been classified into several types after being summed up by a statistical study. There were “power,””magic,””witchcraft,””mutation,””blood force,” and many more.

Within just a little more than three months, at least more than a thousand “strange individuals” had appeared on Earth.

In social media, with the increasing exposure of the “strange individuals,” the topic was getting hotter and hotter. After the possibility of it being a fraud or mischief was eliminated, the entirety of human society completely heated up and was completely blasted away.

“A new era is arriving!”

“The boundary that divides gods and mortals has dissolved. Gods, gods that are invisibly awakening, are now all around you and me.”

“Wow! Such immense powers, such magical powers—how can we get them?”

It was just like tossing a huge rock into a calm lake.

Orderly life on Earth had been completely disrupted.

The impact of all kinds of magical powers made it impossible for anyone to calm down. Traditional living habits, past legal systems, and even the stable business environment and political system were now being hit by an unprecedented shock wave. Although there were currently less than 10,000 awakened human beings on Earth, a proportion that did not even exceed one in a million, it was already severely disrupting the existing order of society.

After a few days.

An old man with a white beard, who had the demeanor of a transcendent being, and a number of famous experts revealed several exciting pieces of news in a press conference in front of hundreds of well-known media from around the globe. What they said overwhelmed the whole world with astonishment.

One of the leading experts spoke:

“For a long time, we have been troubled by the question. Why haven’t we found any traces of alien civilizations since the birth of mankind?

“Are there aliens in this universe? Are we the only lucky winner underneath this starry sky, or, that is to say… orphans?

“Fermi’s paradox once pointed out that, if alien civilizations exist in this universe, why can’t we see them? Where are they?

“Today, we have the answer to this question. Aliens 100% exist, and their numbers are nowhere near small. However, many years ago, all aliens disappeared from the universe. Under the lead of the ‘Protoss’ of various civilizations, they crossed into another universe.”

“In the end, only us humans were left in this universe. Only we have not been taken away.

“This… is the truth behind our question.

“But, from now on, we humans will no longer be alone. The gods of various alien civilizations, including ours, are coming back soon. Just like going home, they will be returning to our universe… our joyful days are finally arriving.

“But, of course, the door of time and space has been opened in advance of the migration. Particles containing massive energy from another universe, the realm of the gods, are constantly pouring into our world. Divine powers are about to awaken. Our dry and barren universe will be showered with enormous divine energy. Many strange people who were born recently are such because they have a higher affinity with the Gods. After absorbing these divine particles, they have awakened a part of their abilities.

“Of course, the power of those who were awakened does not hold a candle to a real god. When the concentration of the divine particles, what have been disseminated gradually, increases, the number of awakenings will increase. Extraordinary power will be in the grasp of many more.

“These were all ‘gifts’ that the gods have bestowed upon us. They have given us, poor and weak mortals, such unimaginable potential and hope, even for us to become… one of them.”

“For instance, this respected old gentleman beside me is a ‘monk’ from the divine realm. His power is so strong that he is not afraid of being bombarded by a 155-millimeter howitzer. Powers like this are what people here yearn for and adore.

“But this old gentleman is just an ordinary person in the world of the Gods.

“What’s more, as for the gods of the divine realm—after the door of time and space is opened, when the concentration of the divine particles has improved to the extent that this universe could harbor the survival of the Protoss—one day in the future, a group of Protoss will immigrate to Earth. They will live among our ranks, and, at the same time, they may pass on to us some of their powerful artistry.

“From then on, the Protoss that come home will work with us to forge a new glorious era that belongs to human civilization.

“Therefore, please give them your warm and friendly applause! Our family, our ancestors, our future companions, are back!

Clap, clap, clap…

The reporters applauded, but most of them had amazed expressions on their faces, indicating that they were still not able to digest this amazing news.

The microphone was handed to the old man with the demeanor of a transcendent being to allow him to speak a few words. After taking the mic, the old man’s face was neither excited nor serene. His face had no expression for a long time; but, once he moved his lips, the atmosphere became rather chilling:

“Ready your best houses, present to us your most precious possessions, offer us your most respectful etiquette, and prepare for our arrival.”

As he finished speaking, the air flashed, and the old man vanished without a trace.

Chapter 427 - The Essence of All Things is Science

A sudden change.

An entirely unanticipated, panoramic transformation, and absolutely not the scene that Chen Jin wanted to see. It even disrupted his original plan, introducing infinite amounts of flux.

However…

This was an established fact, and was bound to occur.

Since the dawn of the interstellar era, scientists on Earth had spent more than 50 years in launching a multitude of high-precision scientific instruments into deep space to find traces of alien civilizations. But, whether in the Milky Way or the other galaxies, no signs of civilization had ever been detected.

Logically speaking, this was impossible. The universe was massive, and it had been born more than 10 billion years ago. Out of the countless star systems, even if the probability of cultivating a civilization was low, a certain number of societies would still emerge in the end. For example, on the side of the planet Haierfa, the Selain civilization was born at less than a hundred light-years away, and the level of their civilization was higher than that of Haierfa.

If high-precision instruments were used for detection, one would discover that there were at least hundreds or even thousands of traces left behind by the activities conducted by civilizations in the Milky Way.

Nuwa hence had told Chen Jin: in the Milky Way alone, there were 368 civilizations that had a 99% probability of still existing. In addition, more than 8,000 broadcasts from various cultures have been detected.

The universe on the side of planet Haierfa was full of energy.

Around Earth, however…

Scientists had found nothing in 50 years, and most of the broadcasts had been confirmed as neutron star activity. The whole Milky Way and the entire universe were so deserted that only human civilization seemed to exist. Even the Dark Forest Theory was unable to clarify these peculiarities… after all, there would always be some movement when a hunter shot their rifle. This place, however, had always been quiet and silent.

How could this be explained?

“Civilizations ‘vanishing’ to other places is indeed the perfect explanation,” said Nuwa.

“Then why weren’t the humans on Earth taken away? Why were we left alone?” said Chen Jin. As an intelligent species, why were human beings left behind?

“Could it be that… there’s not enough space in that ‘Heavenly Realm,’ and it couldn’t accommodate too many people?” Alice interrupted, voicing her guess.

“Nah…” Chen Jin shook his head. “Intelligent civilizations throughout the entire cosmos could be squeezed into that Heavenly Realm, so why didn’t they bring along humans on Earth, who only has such a wee population? It was definitely not because of a lack of space, but an intentional abandonment. Humans were deliberately left behind.”

“I concur.” Nuwa expressed her agreement and raised a guess: “If the Protoss migrated millions of years ago, human beings at that time were in the stage of evolving from apes to humans. It is perfectly reasonable for the Protoss to not bring them along.”

“Apes?”

Chen Jin’s pupils constricted; he appeared to have grasped some key insight.

“But, with that being said, why are the Protoss coming back now?” Alice said, posing another question. “The Heavenly Realm seems so wonderful, abundant in celestial particles, and just like heaven, while this universe, on the contrary, is so barren. So why would the Protoss even think of returning? What exactly is the reason?”

“The reason that they are coming back is very simple,” Nuwa said. “It can only be that the Heavenly Realm has deteriorated, and is now even worse than the physical universe which is scarce in celestial particles, to the extent that they have to move.”

“So awful that they have to leave ‘heaven’?” Chen Jin pondered this for a moment and said faintly, “If there is a place that has extraordinary people everywhere, where humanoid nuclear bombs are all over the place, that place must not be too far from destruction. After all, the presence of those powers cannot be restrained by law. They would surely be used in a disorderly manner.”

At last, the situation would become so bad that they could only return to the barren ‘mortal realm,’ resulting in a sudden, panoramic change.

It made even Chen Jin somewhat worried on the inside.

“Nuwa, in the scene of the press conference, our end was very enthusiastic, but the old man from the Protoss was arrogant in attitude and impolite in his speech. His eyes seemed to convey a disposition of contempt and disdain. More severely, I would say that he was displaying very rude behavior, let alone respecting the rules here. I am afraid that those so-called Protoss will not be very easy to deal with.”

Above all, they wanted to take over all the resources here and enjoy being treated like princes.

Even the thought itself was triggering enough.

“Maybe the rules in the ‘Heavenly Realm’ are completely different from ours. The Protoss praise power, and a setup where the mighty are exalted and the weak submit. On our side, everyone is equal before the law. At most, only a few wealthy people get to do whatever they please, but they are still not in possession of any sort of power. Hence, in the eyes of those gods, humans are like ants who naturally deserve no respect.”

“Ants?” Chen Jin grinned. “Is it because they have not seen the power of our nuclear weapons? We humans, who are the masters, of science are not as simple as ants.

“Perhaps that is the reason that the old man from the Heavenly Realm was willing to attend that press conference. It is purely because science is classified as an external force, not the true ability of an individual. Maybe that is why they despise it.”

“…”

Chen Jin went into silence, and his heart become shrouded in a haze.

He had already realized that, after those Protoss from the Heavenly Realm returned to Earth, they had no way of knowing whether and how many conflicts would erupt between those who were not accustomed to legal constraints, have completely different habits and ways of thinking, and those indigenous to Earth.

The adjustment process on both ends was bound to be very difficult.

More importantly, Chen Jin’s plan was also completely disrupted.

After all, his various arrangements onEarth were mainly to speed up the development of science and technology, and to provide services for planet Haierfa. He meant to go down smoothly and quickly on his path of scientific and technological development, thus allowing himself to enjoy prosperity and classy triumphs in both universes.

It could be said that Earth was his most powerful backing, and planet Haierfa, the future he was opening.

Now, the resurgence of the so-called “Heavenly Realm” and the recovery of those so-called “celestial particles” have completely screwed up his objective.

“Galaxy Era,” which had been continuously operating for nearly a hundred years and had a one billion-player base, had lost almost 10% of its users within a short period of three months.

“The Earth is about to enter a ‘Mythical Era.’ Nobody plays this kind of pure tech game anymore—technology has already fallen out of favor,” a player said.

Exactly.

The recovery of only a small amount of celestial particles and the emergence of only some 10,000 people with superpowers had caused the Earth to alter beyond recognition. The appeal of science had greatly plummeted as most people went about pondering how to “enhance” themselves.

If this continued, it would only take a little while for science to become the hobby of a few people. The so-called self-cultivation would rise to become the mainstream.

“There’s no need to worry, master.” Nuwa remained composed. “The path of science will not come to an end so easily. No matter what changes, the essence of everything will still be science.

“With all the changes happening on Earth, it seems that the pure, material, technological route will no longer be smooth. However, we could shift our key research direction onto the ‘celestial particle’ and solve its mysteries. Once we attain a breakthrough, we can add the ‘celestial particle’ into ‘Galaxy Era’ and build a new virtual world with a 99.999999% simulation degree to let players acquire the same sense of self-cultivation in the game.

“As long as we keep up with the times and indefinitely close in onto the reality of existence, players will still return to ‘Galaxy Era.’

“Given the uniqueness of the celestial particles, if we develop extraordinary technology on that basis and introduce them to planet Haierfa, it actually isn’t a bad thing at all. It will bring about a new technological revolution.

“In short, as long as we study the nature of everything, we will eventually become the most powerful beings in existence,” said Nuwa with a face full of confidence.

Yes, indeed. No matter what the strange substance or phenomenon, no matter what kind of name it was given, its ultimate essence would still be science.

With this figured out, Chen Jin’s eyes brimmed with a superior glow.

Chapter 428 - An Outlet?

With a solution in mind, Chen Jin regained his calmness and became less flustered than before.

…

Earth.

In Shanghai, there was a super-luxury villa area covering more than several thousand acres of land called the Spring Mountain Villas. In the center of the area was Villa No.18, which spanned 100 acres of land, and was the largest among them. Its facilities include an alpine garden, swimming pool, golf course, racecourse…the whole nine yards, as far as facilities were concerned. There were professional maids, chefs, and drivers, totaling almost a hundred personnel. Given the location of this villa, which was not far from the city center, and the current housing prices of Shanghai, one could only dream of owning such a luxurious estate unless one had a couple hundreds of millions.

The Chen Household.

Although there was no special carvings or plaque, most people in the country and even the world know that this villa belonged to the Chens—none other than the wealthiest family in the entire solar system.

At this very moment.

The living room at the Chen villa.

Three women who were intellectually dignified, elegant, and beautiful, whose glamor alone could serve as an emblem of the Chens, sat in a delta pattern on three respective sofas. With solemn and straight faces, they simultaneously looked sharply at the man sitting opposite them.

One sighed. “Dad, you once again have gone missing for almost half a year. I thought you’d forgotten this family of yours.”

“Dad, your eighth great-grandchild was born two days ago. I was thinking of telling you this great news and asking you to help give the baby a name. Too bad you are always out of reach.”

The most exasperated person was still Su Yun. With a face so cold that ice could literally be scraped down it, she said with hopelessness and disappointment, “You’re like this every single time—always going your own way. You suddenly disappear one day, then suddenly come back on another. You never once think about the feelings of others. Even I do not wish to sleep alone in a cold bed every day. You old geezer—do I still have a place in your heart?”

As she went on, her voice became kind of nasally, and it seemed that she was about to cry.

“Come on, don’t be like this…” Chen Jin became a little flustered. “I have already done all the basics. Our daughters are all married now, and besides, we have been husband and wife for so many years. So can you please not behave this way?

“Apparently, I like freedom the most. If you people keep on acting this way, I think I’ll be afraid to even come back next time.”

For, every time he returned home, he had to grapple with condemnation from grumbling women. He was feeling a little tired of having to bear the guilt that the scene spawned, every single time.

Perhaps this was the feeling of a burden.

However, Chen Jin was already past 100. He had already fulfilled all his responsibilities and obligations. Being a little more capricious and pursuing a little more freedom should not be a problem at all. By right, he should no longer be bound by anything, whether family or something else. It was only that he had a soft spot towards a woman’s sensibility. Sometimes, he just couldn’t resist when he came face-to-face with those plaintive eyes.

Of course, he was able to understand them. Three women having to shore up the world’s largest family was no easy task.

…

After the complaining session had ended, Chen Xing Yue got into the main topic and asked, “Dad, what it is so important that you’ve came back this time and gathered us all?”

“Yes.” Chen Jin nodded. “Recently, this news—’Divine Powers Have Awakened, Homecoming of the Protoss’—has been raising a furor everywhere. Even I, an ‘old freak’ that likes to sit at home, couldn’t stay idle any longer. This world of ours is really going to change drastically.”

He looked at his two daughters. “But it has been a long time since I retired, and I have not been very active. I don’t know much about the inside stories of these incidents. I believe that you both should know more.”

“Yes, I’ve been collecting relevant information for ages now.” Chen Xing Yue was an able woman in the business world and was very sensitive to all kinds of information. But at this moment, she was rather curious. “Speaking of which, Dad, why are you suddenly interested in this? You, who have been in hiding for all these years? I doubt you’d even care if the world got destroyed.”

“Yeah, this is the first time you cared about something going on outside, Dad.”

“You girls really think of me like that?” Chen Jin glared at them sourly. “Stop fooling around. Hurry up and tell me everything you know. Of course I wouldn’t be indifferent toward such a thing.”

“Fine. I got these from a politician that I funded…” Chen Xing Yue said untiringly. “Those ‘Gods’ from an unknown universe are really coming back. When the concentration of the celestial particles rises above the minimum level, the first group of immigrants from the Heavenly Realm will arrive.

“This process would roughly take five years. After five years, those so-called Protoss will have returned.

“The preferred habitat that they value the most is, of course, the Earth that is underneath our feet.

“What’s even more, their appetite is shockingly huge. They have requested that we free up the entire planet by moving our tens of billions of people to other places, making the whole Earth a foothold for the Protoss.

“This kind of request was, naturally, directly rejected. The federation certainly can’t agree to this.

“However, the mental pressure unleashed by that negotiating representative of the Protoss caused many federal parliamentarians to faint and vomit blood. They seem to be telling them that, if they do not agree, the Protoss may go down a path toward barbaric means and directly rob us of our planet.

“In the end, it was because of a general of the federation, who went on explaining the power of our nuclear weapons despite the tremendous pressure, that the messenger from the Heavenly Realm soothed down a little.

“After a few days, the second group of messengers from the Heavenly Realm arrived. Perhaps intimidated by our nuclear weapons, their demands have loosened, kind of. They only requested for a third of the Earth’s land to be allocated to them as their settlement. Aside from that, they have demanded that we invest a huge sum of funds into building things that the Protoss immigrants want, such as houses, furniture, facilities… that we prepare everything in advance for them.

“The overall investment is calculated to be at least 100 billion dollars.

“The federal government will be responsible for a part of the land and money, and the rest will require donations from all families and consortia. After the immigrants of the Heavenly Realm settle down, those people will acquire a certain amount of return according to the proportion of the funds they have donated…

“They might even get to forge ties with the Protoss, and so the chance to cross paths with those from the Heavenly Realm.

“Although there are certain risks, most of the upper class have realized that this may be a new outlet—an opportunity to acquire massive interests,” said Chen Xing Yue faintly.

Chen Jin helplessly shook his head.

“Demanding a third of our land and tens of billions of investments for them to live a comfortable life… an extortion like that gets people fuming. Is this era, where money is king, becoming an era where power reigns?”

He then looked at Chen Xing Yue. “So… has the federation agreed to those conditions?”

“They couldn’t free up a third of all land all at once, but they’ve in principle agreed to everything else.”

After all, if they disagreed, even nuclear deterrence might not be able to daunt the Protoss.

Of course, the public did not know the inside stories mentioned above. Most ordinary people were indulging in the anticipation and the revelry of the dawn of a new era.

But for the entire upper class of Earth, the next decision they would have to make was: to be lapdog, or to not be a lapdog?

Chapter 429 - An Enemy by Default

Chapter 429: An Enemy by Default

The Heavenly Realm, eminently mysterious, was home to an infinite number of unheard-of, high-value resources.

The Protoss were mostly wielders of supernatural power and had individual strengths beyond the pale.

The two things above represented business opportunities. They could provide a huge pillar on which one could cling.

For those who were looking for business opportunities and change, it was entirely normal to become lapdogs at the thought of obtaining benefits. Therefore, there would surely be many brown-nosers out there. Countless could be drawn up with just a wave of the hand.

However, the families and organizations on Earth that were already at the top were immediately caught in a dilemma and a disturbance.

Should they humble themselves toward the Protoss and show respect to them? Should they offer them some sort of benefits and fawn upon them? This was, in truth, a tough choice to make.

After all, a supreme king would never bow his head to another king. At the very least, they had to place themselves at the same height. It was unlikely that they would forgo their pride and self-esteem. For instance, the Chens would definitely not make themselves into lowly bootlickers.

“So… what are you going to do? How do you plan to deal with this?” Chen Jin asked, wanting to understand their thoughts.

“Dad… you created this home, and everything in it is yours. It should be us asking you what to do,” said Chen Xing Yue, feeling speechless. Her father was always this way—he didn’t treat them like a family.

“Yeah, Dad, it’s better if you decide,” said Chen Jin’s second daughter, Chen Xiao Yue.

“Nah…” Chen Jin waved his hands. “It has been so many years since I handed over the wheel. The company’s shares, the free cities, the space cities—all of them are in your hands. This is all about what benefits you. You both must have some thoughts and ideas on your minds. I just want to hear you out.”

What Chen Jin had said was actually the truth. Their previously massive company, Xing Hai Technologies, had been partitioned into several parts and were separately inherited. He had nothing to do with it any longer. The only things that were still left in his hands were the Knowledge Bank and Milky Way Games. Moreover, the trillions of dollars in profit generated by the Knowledge Bank were all channeled into Milky Way Games in order to provide a living for tens of millions of professional gamers. Therefore, generally speaking, Chen Jin had no money, and he bore none of the pressure of wealth.

But his wife, Su Yun, and his daughters, Chen Xing Yue and Chen Xiao Yue, were definitely three women at the pinnacle of the pyramid of wealth for the entire solar system. They owned companies worth more than a few billion, approximately 100 free cities on land, more than 50 free cities in space, and more than 50 extraterrestrial free cities on the surface of the moon, Mars, and other planets. Their combined wealth was difficult to even represent in numbers.

Among the internet communities on Earth, they even had the title of “The Queen Trio.” If “The Queen Trio” colluded and concentrated their resources into taking some big action, it could sometimes cause even the largest nations to tremble. If it weren’t for the fact that these three queens did not seem to be very monolithic on the surface, with both cooperation and competition going on between them, even the Federation government would have felt threatened by the Chen’s combined power, and thus would have adopted some measures to restrict them.

The Chens… calling them the top family in the solar system was not at all an overstatement.

But the door of time and space to the Heavenly Realm had opened.

The Protoss, higher in ranks and greater in power, were coming. They would requisition huge amounts of land. An enormous amount of funds had to be expended to make the proper arrangements. In the future, it would inevitably affect the interest of the Chens to some extent.

If it were only about money, the Chens, without a doubt, had an infinite amount of that at their disposal. They would still classify even a hundred trillion dollars as “pocket money.” The more important issue was still land. As the biggest “landlords” in the solar system, the Chen’s “Queen Trio” owned hundreds of free cities on the surface of Earth.

The Protoss were coming over, and they would occupy a lot of area. Should the Chens, then, contribute some of their land? Should they forgo their status as a “local tyrant” and make a good impression in the Protoss with some degree of sincerity?

In other words, it had essentially become a question of whether or not they should act like lapdogs.

Hearing Chen Jin’s question, Su Yun, Chen Xing Yue, and Chen Jiao Yue all displayed a distressed expression.

“Dad, we also have a headache over this question.”

“The Federal Speaker sent me a newsletter a few days ago. He hopes that our family will be the first to show some goodwill by freeing up 30 free cities with better living conditions and give them as a gift to the Protoss. In return, the Federation will give us some sort of reward.”

Chen Xiao Yue instantly became annoyed and said, “At that moment, I wanted to ask if he was sick. 30 free cities—moreover, the most valuable free cities on Earth—and he expects me to give them away, just like that! Was he daydreaming or something? Do they think of our family as a fat-a*s sheep that can be slaughtered at will?”

Her eyes were emitting a fiery, murderous aura. In fact, the Chens were by no means a “fat sheep.” On the contrary, most of the elites from the federal army—out of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers who retired each year—had been recruited, in accordance with their performance in the armed forces, into the Xing Hai security company, which provided a favorable welfare. In addition, Xing Hai Military Industrial Group was the fourth largest military equipment manufacturer in the solar system. Fighters, tanks, warships, rockets, interstellar spacecraft… They could build all of these. Their range of products was so comprehensive that they were able to provide a complete defensive weapons system for some small countries.

“The Chens—the invisible third superpower.” This was the conclusion drawn by many netizens in one forum.

It was absolutely unimaginable that a family like the Chens would give up a huge portion of their resources and make themselves a lapdog for the so-called Protoss. However, if the Chens did not bear some responsibility, it was rather unlikely that the federal government would be able to free up one-third of the land without their cooperation. Therefore, just the topic of land acquisition itself was likely to stir up massive turmoil.

Su Yun added, “I’ve worked in the government for more than 20 years, and I know how they run things in the political sphere. If we do not give them our cooperation and turn a deaf ear to all appeals, nothing but public criticism awaits us. Besides the Protoss, even the Federation might stand against us. Later on, they would try to collect some evidence that is unfavorable to our family and to devour us—a fat sheep, in their eyes—whole.

“In recent years, our family has, indeed, been too dazzling and too powerful. On the internet and in the political field, there are always some extreme voices that target us. They have made it seem that, if they can just manage to maim our family, it will alleviate all social contradictions, and the world will become fair… In the eyes of many, the Chens have become a demon lord.”

But, in fact, this “demon lord” was the one who was upholding justice. They did not cause trouble for others. They accumulated their fortune steadily and surely, one step at a time, just to have a tall castle and a warehouse full of jewelry. Those supposed “brave warriors,” lifting the banner of justice and attempting to take everything away from the “demon lord” through violence, were nothing but despicable robbers. But, because they were in different classes, the “demon lord” and the “brave warriors” were destined to always oppose one another.

They only way for the Chens to be freed from becoming targeted by various forces would be if they took the initiative and dispersed most of their wealth, earning themselves a good reputation. But giving up 30 free cities, and, more importantly, losing dignity and face, would make them seem very wimpy in the eyes of others. In certain hot-blooded novels, when confronting such a situation, the protagonist would usually “man up” and show some balls! Whether a god or a demon, only one thing awaited those who dared to provoke him—death.

However… did the Chens have the capital to do this?

The Protoss were of unknown strength and origin. It was still unclear, for the time being, how powerful their forces were and how strong their destructive power would be… they had very little intelligence.

On Earth, many forces gave the evil eye to the Chens. It was highly possible that they would attempt to trip them up by subterfuge. In order to maintain a state where they could resist the Protoss and reject the Federation, in the future, they might plummet into passiveness, or even become a “sacrificial lamb” at whom everyone took aim.

Otherwise, everyone in the living room was an adult, with an average age of more than 80 years. They had gone through their youthful, feverish age long before, and were all rational beyond compare.

“30 free cities, huh,” Chen Jin muttered to himself. “Money cannot measure the value of these. The Federation did say that they would give us a little reward, but, in fact, it would be little more than a small spiritual comfort. In truth, it would be exactly the same as if we gave out 30 cities for free.

“But, until we get to the bottom of things regarding those Protoss, it seems like we can only agree to the Federation’s request.”

Upon hearing this, Chen Xing Yue’s eyes grew wide. “Dad, what about our appearance? Even claiming that we sold the cities to the Federation would do a number on it. We could let the federation sign a 300 trillion IOU and ask them to pay us off slowly. Even if they do not want to pay us, we could say that they’ve borrowed those cities from us, and that they still have to return them to us in the future.”

In short, they must not appear to be making any concessions.

“Well, I do not think that appearance is all that important.” Chen Jin shook his head and said, “Giving, selling, and borrowing might sound different, but they are basically the same thing. After the Protoss immigrants arrive, the 30 cities would no longer belong to our family, at least in the short term. The outcome is exactly the same.

“As for appearance—the Chens want it, the Federation wants it, and those Protoss want it even more. If we fight to save face in this way, even after giving up 30 cities, odds are that nothing good will come of it for us, and we might even provoke the other two parties… It is likely that we’d continue to make ourselves targets in the future.”

“Hence, it is better for you to not fight for appearances in this way, and keep your conduct ambiguous. Just say that you are willing to take out 30 cities, without mentioning any of the words “give,””sell,” or “borrow.” Just brush off all those public comments, and let bygones be bygones.”

Chen Xiao Yue got the idea and opened her mouth to speak: “Isn’t this the so-called ostrich tactic? Or a ‘spiritual victory’?”

Chen Jin gave her a black look. “Talk less, and everything will be fine.”

“Dad, this is similar to what we were planning to do, as well. Those Protoss are too much of an unknown to us. We can only abide by them for now… Nevertheless, it’s still very embarrassing. But, after listening to you, we can at least feel a little better. After so many years, our pride has almost gotten into our bones. But you, Dad, on the other hand, are still just as modest as before. You have never changed,” Chen Xing Yue said, looking at Chen Jin. She recalled her father’s teachings from back when she was young. The word ‘modesty’ had always been on his lips.

Chen Jin, however, smiled bitterly. “Stop taking a dig at me. Those Protoss are anything but good guys. Even if I had known them thoroughly beforehand, and even if the Federation stayed idle, we, the Chens, would still have to amass some forces and charge right into that Heavenly Realm to have a look. It might just be another great chance for our civilization to erupt with progress. Our choice to shrink down into this state now is mainly for the sake of humanity’s security.”

“Dad!” Chen Xing Yue raised her voice out of shock. “Have you been regarding the Protoss as enemies since the very beginning? Didn’t you think about any other possibilities, like inclusion, coexisting, or something?”

“As far as inclusion goes, we should be the ones to accept them, not the other way around. In this universe, we are the greatest masters,” Chen Jin said, his eyes brimming. “In the future, the focus of our family shall be studying those ‘celestial particles,’ deciphering their secrets, and harnessing their maximum potential in order to develop some relevant weapons… As we continuously grow stronger and bulk ourselves up, the question about who should be the true master and who should be the obedient guests… will then be answered.”

Chen Xing Yue’s pink lips moved as she muttered, “Dad, we haven’t dealt with the Protoss before, and you have branded them as enemies so early on.”

“Whether it’s of an enemy or a friend, one should always make a rough judgment at the beginning. The biggest error is to be vague and indecisive about things. Instead of fantasizing about a happily-ever-after, it is better to prepare for the worst right from the start,” said Chen Jin solemnly.

“Now that’s my dad.”

Chen Xing Yue and Chen Xiao Yue had stars in their eyes, and their faces glowed with adoration.

Chen Jin was suddenly speechless.

…

After deliberation.

For the time being, the Chens gave away those 30 free cities that belonged to them, just as planned. Their loss was immense, as was the blow to their appearance, even if it went unmentioned).

However, Chen Xing Yue also found a business opportunity in the meantime.

“At the moment, the total population on Earth has reached 15 billion. When the Protoss migrate over and take up a third of our land, it is estimated that at least three or four billion people would have to migrate off of this cramped Earth and go settle down in the free cities in space, or the extraterrestrial free cities.

“Since each city can accommodate only 10 million people, there will be a demand for at least three or four hundred new cities in the future.

“We can seize this opportunity to invest in building more space cities and extraterrestrial free cities to resettle our excess population.

“If we can provide the means of living for even half of those three to four billion people, the benefits it would bring us in the future will far exceed those 30 free cities.

“From this point of view, no one can deny that what we are encountering now is an opportunity. Land is priceless, but it is people who create wealth. With enough human beings comes infinite wealth.”

Chen Jin and the others nodded. This was indeed a good business opportunity. The population of 15 billion people had long exceeded Earth’s carrying capacity.

However, on top of this opportunity, Chen Jin had another good idea.

He said immediately, “Since most humans will have to leave Earth and go into space, why don’t we go directly out into the universe and kickstart the era of interstellar colonization? We should send some of our own to other galaxies.”

“Moving to other galaxies?” Chen Xing Yue shook her head. “Dad, the fastest spaceship we have right now only goes 0.1 times the speed of light. Even a trip to the nearest galaxy will take 40 long years. Our current cryonic freezing technology isn’t that mature, either… It is still a little too early for an interstellar colonization era.”

In the past few years, the technology on Earth had developed rapidly, but it was still at least a few decades behind planet Haierfa… of course, the two were basically the same on a theoretical basis, but, as a lot of inventions were too expensive to actually realize, they had been developing very slowly.

“Too early?” Chen Jin looked at them. “If we bring out our mature anti-gravity technology, warp engine technology, and all other capabilities that are necessary, and create a spaceship capable of flying 20 times the speed of light within five years… could the interstellar colonization era still not dawn upon us?”

Besides—considering that the Protoss would be coming soon, their solar system was no longer particularly safe. Going to other galaxies which didn’t have the Protoss, opening up bases, and preparing “routes of retreat,” was, in fact, more or less necessary.

What?

Upon hearing his words, the three women looked at him with some surprise.

Chapter 430 - Research

Chen Jin had been explaining things for half an hour.

“I can come up with technology that is a hundred years ahead of what we have now.” Chen Jin stressed this point to the three women.

Su Yun, Chen Xing Yue, and Chen Xiao Yue had their mouths hanging open in disbelief.

They were no ignorant fools.

Let alone a mature, commercialized, large anti-gravity device, even a fictitious “warp engine” that could be created within five years… He was talking about mythical technology. Once it was achieved, the footprints of human civilization would swiftly spread throughout the galaxy. A high-value stellar system, which would originally have required a couple hundred or even thousands of years to reach, would be bridged within a few years. The value contained in this was unimaginable.

Seeing the curiosity on the three women’s faces growing greater and greater, and that countless of questions were about to burst forth, Chen Jin did not bother to explain. He bid them adieu and left the luxurious villa.

…

On Earth, Chen Jin had his own reasons to come up with a ‘warp engine’ and other advanced technology, instead of continuing to squeeze the proverbial toothpaste roll empty. The economic benefit was, in fact, the second one on the list. The main reason, however, was still to prepare more backups routes.

The solar system was about to become less safe.

Nothing was known about those Protoss: the limits to their capabilities, whether their strength as individuals was powerful enough to be undaunted by nuclear weapons, their numbers, and how many of them were powerful. In the event of a conflict, there was no assurance of victory for the humans on Earth.

Chen Jin was thus quite afraid and worried on the inside.

Since this was the case, why did he regarded the Protoss as “enemies” straight out of the gate, and proceeded to develop a response plan?

The warp gate.

The warp gate connecting planet Haierfa was still on Earth. Apparently, there was no way to relocate it as of yet.

Once Earth was seized by the so-called Protoss, they would take away land, houses, and property and redistribute them under their ownership. The warp gate could also be discovered by a Protoss. The universe behind it would thus be exposed.

Even for this reason alone, Chen Jin would never let the Protoss do whatever they pleased.

The owner of this home called Earth could only be its humans, not arrogant and rude outsiders!

However, he had also prepared for the worst. If the power of the Protoss was way beyond imagination, so that even the most powerful technology could not rival them, running away would be inevitable. In that scenario, Chen Jin would retreat to Haierfa’s world while some of his descendants were evacuated to distant galaxies… He strove to reduce the loss of future generations. After all, if they were to flee at speeds faster than the speed of light, the Protoss would not be able to catch up.

…

Things happened quickly.

A few months later.

The changes occurring on Earth were getting more and more intense. The concentration of the “celestial particles” from the Heavenly Realm was getting higher and higher.

The number of “extraordinary people,””awakened,””monks,” and “wielders of power” around the globe was constantly increasing, and was now hovering at over 20 thousand individuals.

Of course, these people’s special abilities were mostly at the level of defeating five or ten ordinary people and had not yet reached an exaggerated or terrifying level. Ordinary guns and ammunition could still inflict damage upon them.

At present, the law could still preserve the peace, calmness, and order of daily life.

…

Wu Tian was a 23-year-old man, He was an ordinary youth ordinary in all aspects, was single (basically, kind of), and loved games and fantasy novels.

It had been almost two years since he had graduated. He had a simple and easy job arranged by the government, which required him to work four times a week, six hours a day, without having to work overtime. He earns about 20 thousand dollars per month, a below-average salary. In this second-tier city of Xiangnan, that was not enough for a lavish lifestyle, but it was sufficient for him to be ordinary.

He had a group of friends on the internet with whom he would meet occasionally. His life was, for him, very fulfilling.

Recently, however, the rhythm of his days had been partly disrupted. He had no idea what was going on. On one occasion, he unintentionally spawned a little ball of flame in his hands. When it happened, he was shocked. Thinking that it was a hallucination from excessive gaming, he rocked his head back and forth really hard. Later on, he tried to create another fireball—and, without expecting it, he succeeded in one go. The ball of flame flickered at the tip of his index finger, emitting a scorching energy. It lasted for two to three seconds until it gradually died out. A mild dizzy feeling flashed through his head, seemingly due to his excessive use of mental energy.

However, he had already grasped the crux of his ability. A wizard with “fire powers” was thus awakened.

Wu Tian was extremely thrilled. He immediately bragged about it in his circle of friends, which attracted a lot of jealousy and envy in turn:

“It’s just a fireball, mate. I can do the same thing with a lighter.”

“There are many kinds of awakenings: those include elemental magic, blood force awakening, chakra cultivation, pure spiritual power, enigmatic witchcraft, and many more… Wu Tian, I think yours falls under elemental magic.”

“Have you awakened in reality because you’ve played so much ‘World of Ode’? I’m also an Archmage over level 300 in the game. Why haven’t I awakened yet?”

“The experts say that it depends on affinity. Wu Tian has a greater affinity for magic, so he’s awakened.”

“Tsk. What’s the use of such a teeny tiny fireball?”

Though there were many voices of disdain, Wu Tian became the center of attention in his circle of friends, bringing him great satisfaction in his mind.

Furthermore, there were also economic benefits.

For example, if he were to open a live stream account, just conjuring several fireballs every day would quickly attract him hundreds of thousands of fans. After all, this was the hottest trend nowadays.

But, in the end, Wu Tian still quit his job and joined the Xing Hai company, something of which countless applicants could only dream.

He had an annual salary of five million. They would provide all the necessary resources to assist him in improving his ability. There were also other benefits and guarantees. Seeing such enticing benefits, Wu Tian couldn’t find a valid reason to turn down the offer.

The manager from Xing Hai Company who roped him in was also very straightforward: “Honestly speaking, with your academic qualifications from a third-tier university, and your ordinary IQ and EQ, you wouldn’t earn five million if you struggled for thirty years straight. You wouldn’t ever live in a luxury apartment, taste the food of the upper-class, and live the life of a successful person… you wouldn’t experience even one percent of the happiness of the rich.

“But now, you’re different. You have just become the one-in-a-million person who has awakened. Even if you’re just conjuring a tiny fireball, your life has reached a turning point…

“Hurry up and make a decision. At present, Xing Hai is the only company that shows this enthusiasm. Other companies are unlikely to slap down a few million dollars annually for just a little fireball. Xing Hai, on the other hand, is willing to train you and invest in you in advance. I believe that… you will make a wise decision.”

Wu Tian nodded continuously. “I’m willing to join Xing Hai.”

…

In order to understand people’s various new abilities, the Xing Hai Group took the lead in entering this market, throwing in a whole bunch of cash and plunging down this path with incredible zeal.

…

Su Hong City.

A small upper-middle-class district.

Around eight in the morning.

“Mom, I’m going to school.”

Chen Xing Qi, who was dressed in a school uniform and holding his bag, carried a piece of bread in his mouth while he strode off to school.

He was 17 and in his third year of high school. He had average grades in class, was rather good at sports, and was an eight out of ten in terms of handsomeness. However, he rarely spoke, giving others an impression of indifference. As he was quite good at basketball, and always had a cool look on his face, he was actually quite popular among the ladies.

But, deep down, Chen Xing Qi had relatively low self-esteem.

He often fretted over his awkward identity, even occasionally grumbling at his birth mother and throwing questions at her. He was very envious of most of his classmates, who had complete families. The thing he detested the most was parent-teacher conferences, because he could only bring in one person.

But although he had experienced stages of anger, protest, rebellion, and so on, he had finally failed to alter anything. He could only choose to accept his fate and the fact that his awkward social status would accompany him for life.

At that time, he made a wish: to become a great interstellar explorer, leave Earth, travel away from the solar system, and go farther and farther away, and so to find value in his inner heart and prove his abilities.

However, recently, he had felt like his body was going through some bizarre changes, especially at night. In his sleep, it always seemed like some silvery starlight was falling into his body like snowflakes, and was then converted into some kind of special energy. He tried to get a feel for the energy and guide it, and gradually formed a cycle within his body. In this way, the chi in his body was slowly building up, and its current was gradually accelerating. The benefits were remarkable. In just two or three months, his strength had spiked up substantially, and his height had leaped up to 180 centimeters. One could say that he was overflowing with vitality.

Subsequently, he figured out what was going on.

“Cultivation!”

A type of cultivation similar to that of achieving divinity. Having felt the mysterious “starlight,” and finding some information on the internet, Chen Xing Qi understood: I have trained myself into an awakening. I can meditate like the monks.

Moreover, his abilities and level of savviness were very high, making him worthy of the description of “self-taught genius.”

One time, when he saw seven or eight delinquents extorting money from a timid student, his daring flared up, and he went to teach them a lesson. Horrible shrieks ensued, and he defeated the delinquents all by himself without being hurt at all.

Little did he know that his outstanding feat had swiftly caught the eye of a legendary figure.

…

Planet Haierfa.

Crater City.

Chen Jin was listening to the artificial intelligence called ‘Yuan,’ who was reporting on his work.

“Master, thanks to the Chen Family Group’s monetary tactic, nearly 6,000 of the 20,000 who have awakened across the globe have joined the Xing Hai company over the past few months… we have seized up almost a third of those with powers.

“After gathering all these research subjects, we have used a variety of advanced scientific equipment and a great amount of computing power to decipher the mysteries of the awakened, and to explore the core principles of how individual strength can be made superior. We are a few months into our research, and have, indeed, discovered a lot of spectacular things.

“Under an ultra-high-definition microscope, we have captured a variety of strange elementary particles. Without a doubt, they are not of this universe.

“For instance, the speed of one mysterious particle is actually 105 times the speed of light. It has broken through this unwavering and unbreakable barrier that easily.

“Also, there are some mysterious particles that release ‘field energy’ and affect the atoms in the air. As an example, flames can be conjured by altering molecular chemical bonds and, finally, releasing light and heat, n a process similar to combustion.

“And there are some mysterious particles which, under the control of mental power, can achieve effects such as moving or knocking objects through space. The principle behind this is probably also that they affect the field energy of other substances, thus driving their molecules and atoms into accomplishing certain feats.

“Lastly, there is ‘mental energy.’ This is omnipresent, but, in the absence of the mysterious particles, even the greatest amount of it would still be unable to affect matter, powerless to break through the restrictions of the material.

“But, rather like quantum entanglement, your mental energy can easily influence the mysterious particles when they’re present, and, through them, the intensity of the field energy, which ultimately affects actual molecules and atoms.

“An idealized era, in which matter can be altered by the mind, has quietly come upon us.

“However, both materialism or idealism can, in essence, be explained and analyzed with science. In the end, the ultimate truth that lies within will be revealed… We should stick to the path of science and technology!”

Chen Jin nodded. Science was about getting to the bottom of something, knowing why it was happening and why it had to go that way, and understanding the working principle of all things.

However, as he watched AI Yuan’s process of deciphering the data, he saw “1.9%”… There were still a lot of properties that were yet unearthed about those inscrutable elementary particles.

Aside from that, Chen Jin received another piece of news: among the ‘awakened’ on Earth, there was one who had great talent and potential who was actually his lineal descendant. Serendipitously, he had become a wielder of magical power.

The person in charge of supervising him said: “Old master, it is unsafe to keep such a good seedling out there. Why don’t you bring him back to the family, or create an environment for him and prioritize his training? This a one-in-a-million occurrence, old master. The potential of your lineage must not be underestimated.”

Bring him back to the family?

Chen Jin sat down for a moment and looked at the kid’s details. But, in the end, he still shook his head.

“There’s no need to make a big splash and risk him into falling into an unnecessary vortex. Continue watching him from afar. If he encounters any difficulties, provide him aid.”

Descendants!

He was over a hundred years old, and, in truth, had a lot of them. Between his four sons, he had 70 to 80 descendants. The sons-in-law whom Chen Xing Yue and Chen Xiao Yue had brought in had also blessed him with 20 to 30 descendants. The total from the two combined was over one hundred. Moreover, Chen Jin never discriminated against any of them, no matter whether they were illegitimate children, or the product of an accidental “jackpot” with some woman. As long as the Chen family genes were present, their welfare was immediately guaranteed for life, and material care would arrive for them swiftly.

At the same time, he advocated for solidarity. Competition could exist among them, but discrimination must not… Every offspring of the Chens was to be assured of their personal standing and dignity. Whoever dared to countermand this rule would be severely punished.

The purpose of his design was to encourage his descendants to produce more offspring, since none would be abandoned.

“People must know that I hold two universes in my hands. What’s wrong with having more heirs?” Chen Jin muttered to himself. Having so many descendants did indeed make him feel a lot more secure.

…

Time flies. Five years had passed in a blink of an eye.

One particular day.

The fifth planet in the solar system—Jupiter, near the disc-like meteorite belt.

A dark vortex slowly unwound like a giant black eye.

As the vortex stretched outwards, and the celestial particles’ escape velocity surged, it abruptly spread to approximately a thousand kilometers across, and its center coagulated. Space shuttles covered in titanium and gold, gleaming with a dazzling radiance, spiraled out like the tip of a drill in a dense formation of more than 10 thousand vessels.

“Is this place our new home?”

Chapter 431 - An Exercise

At the center of the time-space vortex.

On an ancient ship with multiple decks was a large conveyance vehicle measuring more than a hundred meters in length.

On the open deck of the bow stood many people. There were both men and women, and they wore long-sleeved costumes. The men were generally tall and mighty, while the women were very beautiful and looked elegant in many ways.

They had passed through the time-space portal and arrived in a new environment.

The men and women on the deck could see everything in front of them through the transparent magical protective shield. Their expressions were curious and emotional.

“Is this our new home?”

This question was voiced by a girl named Li Huoqing. She was about fifteen or sixteen years old, and was not very tall. She had a small round face and wore her hair in a simple bun on her head. She could not help asking this question as she blinked her beautiful eyes.

“Yes and no. We lived in this place many years ago, and now we’re just returning home,” the middle-aged man standing next to her said.

He wore an ochre-colored set of robes. Standing in the center, with people on either side of him, he seemed to be of a high status. His thick and lively eyebrows coupled with a sharp gaze gave him a rather imposing look, as of someone in a high-ranking position.

He was the Chief Commander and Manager of these Protoss immigrants.

Li Huoqing had very good vision. She looked at Jupiter, which was not too far away, the satellites that surrounded Jupiter, and the sun that was emitting a yellow-orange light. She pursed her lips. “There are round balls everywhere, and it’s so dark. It doesn’t look nice at all. I don’t like this place.”

“The natural spiritual energy is especially thin, too. If we stay here for a long time, our level of mastery over the spiritual and moral virtues will not only stagnate, it could even decline,” the young man next to the girl said.

“Why are we the first batch to come over?”

“Ahh, I really didn’t want to leave.”

As resentment and complaints arose, the depressing mood soon spread.

“Enough. Shut your mouths,” the middle-aged man harrumphed. “This place may not be as good as our Heavenly Realm of the gods, but we can at least survive here without having to worry about the chaos that is spreading. This place will become our home.”

“Yes, Your Heavenly Majesty.”

“The only thing we can do is treat this as our new home. The survivable land in our Heavenly Realm is shrinking non-stop. We would have died if we stayed.”

The complaints died down, and, one by one, they lowered their heads in resignation. After all, they, at least, lived on.

The spiritual artifact that was the ship heaved forward with great strength.

A device installed at the tail of the ship ejected celestial particles.

The massive immigrant fleet continued to move forward.

However…

Days later.

Leaving Jupiter behind at a far distance, they arrived near the asteroid belt between it and Mars.

Suddenly, multiple pencil-straight beams of light lit up the dark space ahead of the ship. The beams crisscrossed each other simultaneously, and, when those high-energy light touched upon other objects, they exploded, creating fiery blazes in space.

There were no sound effects in a vacuum environment. However, one could comprehend the destructive power of those yellow beams simply by visual analysis.

“What’s happening?”

Upon hearing the observer’s report, The Heavenly Ruler’s expression changed. He walked to the deck, and, by looking at the outlines of the different sets of flashing red, yellow and white lights, he found that there was a large fleet lying right on the ship’s route. They were demonstrating the destructive power of their weapons.

One, two, three…

He did a rough count. There were around ten-plus ships with huge heads and sharp outlines.

Each heavenly ship that he saw was at least 3,000 meters long.

Compared to the spiritual artifact that was this ship, they could be described as a giant.

He could not help his face from turning ashen.

“This…. What’s the meaning of this? Are they showing off? A deliberate demonstration of how powerful they are?”

He could not help but clench his fists. “You… You dare to provoke us, even though you are trivial beings who don’t even have the power to kill a chicken.”

A terrifying aura emanated from his body. The air around him became heavy and humid, and the pressure suddenly increased.

He was enraged.

He could have just let it be if it were a show of provocation by the strong. But he understood the situation of the insignificant creatures from this universe. They might have reached the pinnacle in terms of weapons and all things external from their beings, but they were still insignificant in terms of personal strength.

Even a 6-year-old child from the Heavenly Realm could defeat ten adults here.

He could overlook it if those insignificant beings expressed deference and respect for the strong, but they actually had the guts to put on this military show of force?

They were courting death.

“Heavenly Ruler, please don’t be angry, please don’t be angry.”

At this time, the special liaison officer sent by the Earth Federation, who was responsible for communication and guidance, left the Traction. He boarded this large spiritual artifact of a ship, bent at the waist, and tried his best to explain.

“Heavenly Ruler, what you are looking at right now is a routine military exercise carried out by the ninth sub-fleet of the Fourth Fleet of the Federation. This exercise was arranged a few years ago, and it is not targeting anyone. Don’t misunderstand—please don’t misunderstand. We were just passing through the shooting range. They were not being deliberately offensive.”

The liaison officer did his utmost to explain. Under the crushing pressure, his forehead was now dripping with sweat.

“A routine military exercise?”

The Heavenly Ruler did not really understand this vocabulary. But he understood the general meaning of what the officer was saying.

His anger cooled just a little.

But he still said, with a look of dissatisfaction, “Then get them stop their drill immediately and get into formation at the side to welcome us. Show us the necessary etiquette.”

“Yes. I will contact them right away.”

The liaison officer left the deck and returned to the Traction.

However, not even a few minutes had passed when something unexpected happened.

Three sets of light that were even brighter than the sun illuminated in the shooting range that measured tens of thousands of kilometers. In an instant, light waves that were incomparably brilliant, like those from a powerful stun grenade, pierced their vision. It was so bright that they could not open their eyes—including The Heavenly Ruler.

The white glare in his mind only slowly dissipated after two or three seconds.

Then his body started to tremble. His expression was murderous and insane.

He gritted his teeth and spat out, “You—you—

“You will die a horrible death! I will make sure that you never laugh again!”

He ranted angrily in his mind Trivial, insignificant specks!

He was right in his understanding what he was witnessing: a military show of force, and an even greater one this time.

In order to show their power, this bunch of nobodies had even taken out their ultimate weapon.

It was said that nuclear weapons could kill their “spiritual vision.” He had not believed it until he witnessed the effects of the explosion. he knew that it was indeed possible for such a power to kill the person with the strongest spiritual vision.

As for a friar like him, once he got too close to the heart of the explosion, death would be certain.

Unwillingly, he felt a sense of dread and fear toward those insignificant beings.

However, his anger also rose.

These trivial ants might have some skills, but there was no need to make such an obvious show of it, even carrying it out in front of millions of Protoss.

What was the meaning of this? Just what was the meaning?

Very quickly, the liaison officer came back, sweating buckets. “The Heavenly Ruler, I wanted to stop them just now and get them to cancel the exercise. But just when I contacted them, they said that the exercise had ended, and that they will be returning directly to the base.”

“Hmmph—!”

The Heavenly Ruler turned his head and glared at him. He clenched his fist; he was itching to make him implode!

However, looking at the ten warships gradually moving further away, blue flames blazing out from their tails, all he could do was to slowly mask the burning, murderous rage displayed on his face.

He was upset.

He was really very upset!

…

On the other side.

The ninth sub-fleet of the Fourth Fleet was returning to base, headed by its flagship.

In the bridge control room of the flagship.

The commander of the sub-fleet, Colonel Li Youming, a young man from the British shores, looked at the middle-aged military officer on the screen. “Commanding Officer Xi, was today’s little ‘exercise’ really appropriate? I am afraid that the members of the Federation will be very angry if they know that we took things into our hands. If the consequences are serious, it is possible that we’ll have to face the military tribunal or even get removed from our positions.”

Li Youming, who had found the situation very exciting just moments ago during the military exercise in front of all the Protoss immigrants, had become worried now.

“Taking things into our own hands?” The middle-aged military officer shook his head and estimated, “In order to maintain our combat effectiveness, the Fourth Fleet conducts about 100 routine military exercises each year. Large-scale exercises are decided by the Federal Staff Department. Small-scale exercises of the sub-fleets are autonomously organized by the internal departments of the respective fleets. This is fully compliant with the law. How are we taking things into our own hands?”

“Even so, the Federation is now starting to cater to those Protoss without any limits. Whether it is land or capital, they fork out whatever and however much is needed out of fear of offending them. Our actions today might upset some Federation members.”

“Colonel Li, don’t worry. Things will be ok as long as we have enough public support. The federal government has caused the people to break out in a seething mass of discontent for the past few years. Our performance will help to bring the military a lot of “brownie points” and leave a good impression in the hearts of the people… The Federation will not lose a young and promising officer because of a small military exercise.

“Of course, even if you receive punishment—even if you were expelled from the military—don’t worry, Colonel Li. There will be a better future waiting for you.”

The middle-aged officer blinked and comforted this subordinate of whom he thought highly.

Li Youming pressed his lips together. Yes, sir,” he said helplessly.

In fact, they had fully assessed the consequences when they were preparing this military show of force disguised as a routine exercise.

They had also considered the most serious possible consequence. Namely, under the wrath of the Federation, all the senior officers of the Fourth Fleet might be dismissed, starting from the highest-ranking Commanding Officer Xi all the way down to Colonel Li Youming. They could all be sentenced to prison for ten or twenty years. Their future would be completely destroyed.

Even so, they still did it. It was because they had an extremely strong backer: the Chen family consortium.

From the establishment of the Fourth Fleet to its daily maintenance, the Chen Family Consortium was the one footing the hundreds of billions in military expenses every year. More than 80% of the officers and crew members were from the Chen Family’s free cities.

Nominally, the Fourth Fleet belonged to the Federation.

But privately, they were called “Chen’s Fleet.”

The primary organizer of this “display of force” was the highest-ranking officer, Xi, alongside one other senior officer. If anything happened, they was no doubt that they would be the ones bearing the blame. But, without the tacit agreement and platform of the Chen family backing them, they would never have had enough guts to do this.

Of course, the main reason was that the performance of federal compliance was too embarrassing. They were hot-blooded military officers and could not stand it anymore. They had to flex their muscles and show their capabilities. After all, this was their home.

They had to use actions to show that human beings were not mere flesh on a chopping board, and that they were not weak, insignificant beings! Humans were the masters here!

…

Once again, days passed.

“Wow, it’s so beautiful,” voices exclaimed.

The blue planet ahead appeared in front of the spiritual artifact that was the ship.

There were about 100,000 of such ships. Among them, they carried more than eight million Protoss immigrants. These immigrants widened their eyes and stared at the earth ahead.

Transparent blue skies and oceans, brownish-green earth, huge cities, and all sorts of man-made infrastructure… Indeed, the first impression was one of beauty.

It might not be as good as the environment of the Heavenly Realm, but a planet that was full of vitality was still a delight.

Afterward, under the guidance of the spaceship, Traction.

The ships that were originally clustered in one big group decelerated continuously, and rearranged themselves into a series of 10 smaller groups at a relatively safe speed before slowly flying toward Earth.

They entered the atmosphere and decreased their altitude.

A giant airport with a diameter of more than 20 kilometers built in northern Africa had been cleared. The airport opened its arms in a metaphorical embrace, welcoming the arrival of Protoss immigrants.

On this day.

The global news media put all their focus on this matter.

Tens of billions of people were either on the scene or on social media platforms, giving all of their attention to the arrival of the Protoss. There were many discussions around this topic.

“8 million Protoss arrived on the first wave, and all of them are very powerful and extraordinary.”

“Ah, it seems that our peaceful and quiet life will be gone forever.”

“Can’t they simply not come here? The Heavenly Realm is really good, so why do they have to come here and seize our living resources? And every one of them is a superpower who cannot be argued with using logic, only strength. Will there be peace in the future?”

“The Federation might have made a very stupid decision. The weak bureaucrats chose to compromise at the beginning, but this is only the beginning of the disaster! If we had been tough at the beginning and firmly refused them, we could have still protected our home. Now, I’m afraid that it will be war in our homeland! When a war happens inside our territory, we are sure to be the ones who experience the greatest damage.”

“The higher the station, the more afraid they are of death. I understand the mentality of those who are in that position. They are faced with the Protoss, who can resist even the 155-millimeter howitzer, and could easily kill a billionaire or a country’s president. For the sake of personal safety and peace of mind, compromise is inevitable.”

“Our Earth has officially entered a semi-colonial state, and a new struggle is about to begin.”

Most of the netizens’ mentality was one of uneasiness. They were not very optimistic about the future.

…

Bang—Whizz—

There were some noises as the spiritual artifacts that were the ships made contact with the ground and firmly planted themselves on the landing platform of the airport.

The upper shield dissipated.

The gangway was put down.

The ship’s bodyguards stood on the sidelines, holding their ancient icy weapons with a vigilant air.

The immigrants on board came out from the hold of the ships with bags and bundles of all sizes.

The sun felt warm and genial.

The dark blue sky was clean and pure.

Holding a small, colorful cloth bag in her hand, Li Huoqing walked down the gangway. She stepped on the hard ground with her leather boots and looked around curiously.

She heard a sound beside her. It sounded as if it was produced by an audio-amplifying technique.

“Welcome, friends from the Heavenly Realm. You have arrived at a new harbor. We warmly greet your arrival with enthusiastic cheers and applause. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen…”

This was said in a very eager tone by the host on a large projection screen, who spoke into the microphone in his hands.

Clap, clap, clap, clap…

On the viewing platform above the passageway, there were more than 100,000 high-ranking officials from the Federation, representatives of various countries, successful businessmen, and elite representatives from all walks of life. There were also some ordinary people who bought entrance tickets. They stood up, applauded, and cheered.

“You don’t have to be confused feel sorrow. This is your new hometown, and is also your homeland…

“I hope that you fall in love with this homeland and that you will also fall in love with people here…

“From today onward, everyone’s love will be harmonized here, and beautiful things will come together in this place.

“Everyone, let’s celebrate and cheer together on this happy day,” he said with a joyous laugh.

Clap, clap, clap, clap…

The devilishly charming voice of the host, watching the applause of the audience, and the cheering from people from all over the world playing on the big screen…

Feeling the boundless enthusiasm and experiencing the lively scenes, Li Huoqing found it far from annoying. On the contrary, as someone with a vivacious personality, she liked it very much.

Chapter 432 - The Protoss’ Shock

There was a very important reason that the humans on Earth and the Federal Parliament were willing to accept the Protoss, forking over property and capital and allowing them to land their ships and settle on Earth.

Earth was, in fact, the native homeland of the Protoss.

The language spoken by the Protoss was more than 50% similar to Chinese, including their accent. The script used by the Protoss was an improved system traceable back to the oracle bone inscriptions. It was a type of ideogram and had many similarities with Chinese characters.

Hence, the Protoss’ culture was derived from an original common origin. They could not be considered aliens.

Taking into account this important factor, more than 30% of people had a welcoming attitude regarding the return of the Protoss and did not discriminate against them in their hearts.

Due to the Protoss’ special abilities, and the yearnings of those many people on Earth who worship power, the newcomers’ arrival caused a faintly expectant feeling to arise in some individuals. They hoped to gain more powerful skills.

The people of Earth were also curious about the various resources of the Heavenly Realm.

Because of the support from this particular portion of the public, the Federal Parliament was able to complete the task of smoothly welcoming the Protoss.

…

Five days later.

In the central area of Desert Free City No.19.

On the 99th floor of the landmark City Hall building was a room decorated in silver hues.

In this room was the Heavenly Ruler, who was dressed in loose lounge robes. He had barely taken a step out in the past two days.

Using the smart terminal worn on his wrist and with the guidance of the “elf” projected by it, he had resettled more than eight million Protoss immigrants. Without even taking one step out of the house, he had completed all the tasks of resettlement.

If he was worried about a certain Protoss, he could simply say his or her name, and he would get a read on their location within three seconds. Then, he could observe the other party’s movements, or initiate a video chat to ask about their situation. And, if he was hungry, he could order a sumptuous takeout meal. If he was tired, there were many venues that could help the body and mind to relax.

In addition, considering that he was alone and his family was not with him, he might have some physiological needs. Hence, the elf specially introduced a unique capsule-shaped device with a pink coating on the outer shell. When one wore the accompanying headset, it produced different feedback according to the scene. The realism of the scenes and the feedback was over 80%.

“Master, this device is called Bewitching Charms: 6th Generation. Its ranking in sales is number one for the male otaku group. Once a girlfriend or wife has discovered it, the probability of a breakup rises to more than 35%. It is a magical artifact of happiness. Moreover, there are 18 beautiful women included as a free gift. Because you are a Protoss, you will receive an extra 68 beautiful women, making a total of 86… Master, do you want to go in and experience it?” The elf on his hand strongly recommended it.

“No. I have a lot of things to do.”

The Heavenly Ruler waved his hand in rejection. His expression was stern—he had no interest.

However, after two days, he found that he could not contact a number of middle-level managers. In other cases, he heard certain strange sounds after being put through.

What shocked him even more was the state of one young subordinate. His face was deathly white, and his eyes were devoid of life. His steps were light, as if he was floating above the ground. He looked like he was about to collapse. He said that it did not matter to him, even if he was about to die from this serious illness.

“What’s happening to you? What have you been doing these days? Are you caught up in some plot against you by those humans of Earth?” the Heavenly Ruler questioned.

“No, no.” The young man shook his head and looked a little rattled. “I didn’t do anything!”

“Out with it!” the Heavenly Ruler shouted, glaring at him.

The young man couldn’t stand the pressure. He could only confess: “Recently, I’ve been spending too much time playing with Bewitching Charms: 6th Generation. The beauties inside are just, umm… It has damaged part of my essence.”

Bewitching Charms: 6th Generation?

The Heavenly Ruler received clarification of the situation but still found it somewhat unbelievable. It was just a machine; how could it produce such terrible effects?

“I have to look at it and see where its evil lies.”

With a strong sense of curiosity, he put on the headset and entered Bewitching Charms: 6th Generation.

Immediately, he saw that the interface was filled with beauties, and he felt a sinister energy entering his body. His qi and blood heated up. He had never been one of those who were particularly interested in the female body; now, however, he could feel his heartbeat speeding up, and his body temperature had increased by a few degrees, at the very least.

Office ladies, nurses’ costumes, maid costumes, school uniforms, stockings… It had an unprecedented visual impact. The effect was almost devastating.

“It’s undoubtedly an evil thing!”

The Heavenly Ruler took off the headset as soon as possible. He sat down and frantically worked on exercises to stabilize his heart and mind. Only then was he able to suppress the burning evil.

But there were only a few who had such great willpower.

After investigation, The Heavenly Ruler was shocked to find that, among the millions of Protoss immigrants, there were more than a million at least who spent over three hours in Bewitching Charms: 6th Generation every single day, desperately venting their energy.

As for the few who were addicted and using it day and night, to the point that they would soon die—Smack! He smashed their Bewitching Charms with one punch and smacked their faces while angrily scolding them.

At the same time, he also found a federal liaison officer and protested, “The artifact that you have prepared, called Bewitching Charms: 6th Generation, is intentionally a tool to murder and conspire against me and the other Protoss. It hides your evil nature!”

“How is that possible? The device cannot kill anyone,” the liaison officer explained. “The Bewitching Charm series has sold a total of 3 billion units, and only a hundred or so accidents have resulted. If it is really used too frequently, it will promptly issue a warning… Besides, the Protoss have just arrived from a faraway place. With their abundance of energy, they might need a little consolation.”

When the Protoss first arrived, human beings were most worried about their personal safety. The second thing that they were worried about was the chastity of their wives and daughters. The Protoss were completely ignorant of the law in this world. The fashionable women of Earth had extraordinary charm. The Protoss males were led by their lower bodies. It was hard to predict what would happen once the two sides came into contact.

The Bewitching Charms series that dominated the market had even reduced the crime rate among users of the artifact in some respects.

The Federation had very thoughtfully provided one copy of Bewitching Charms for each Protoss male, as well as giving them 86 beautiful in-game women for free. However, The Heavenly Ruler’s request for them to withdraw the artifact was met with a polite rejection. If he really disliked it, he could throw it away. And besides, there were Bewitching Charms internet cafes, too.

…

Western District, Desert Free City No. 19.

A neighborhood consisting of high-end apartment complexes for women.

Li Huoqing was individually allocated an apartment with an area of 60 square meters. It had one bedroom and one living room, with a kitchen, a bathroom, and a balcony.

Taking into account her age, she was also allocated a nanny robot with multiple functions to take care of her well-being.

For the past few days, she had been examining this new environment with curious eyes. Not only did her curiosity fail to make her numb, but she became even more interested in everything.

For example, the four-wheeled car that flew back and forth on the street, long train carriages resembling a centipede on a viaduct, maglev tracks suspended in the air in the center of the city, and the subway, public transport, and more… It gave one a sense that everything was in good order; it was busy without being chaotic.

There was also a tall and gorgeous building that did not conform to natural aesthetics but nevertheless had a unique beauty. Even the furniture at home and the variety of household appliances aroused great interest in her. She asked many dumb questions to the elf of the smart terminal system on her wrist.

Of course, she spent the most time looking at the laser projection TV. She watched all sorts of programs that had been specially prepared for the Protoss. Even if an advertisement was playing, she watched it with gusto. She looked at everything in front of her greedily.

But, after a few days, she had had enough of the visual feast.

Li Huoqing had fallen crazily in love with a new activity.

She would drag a few friends of similar age along with her to go shopping and spend money in the mall strips.

She walked into a colorful and vibrant women’s clothing store and tried on fashionable and beautiful outfits.

She put on all sorts of intricate jewelry in the jewelry stores.

She went into the beauty salon to get her hair done.

She tasted the cuisines of the world in different restaurants.

Sometimes she did not feel tired, even after shopping all day. She was having so much fun that it almost made her crazy.

In recent days, she had even forgotten the restraint that women should have.

She would often shout, “This world is… so awesome! I like this place so much.

“There’s delicious food, fun activities, beautiful scenery—this place has everything! I’ve felt so happy every day!

“Although the natural spiritual energy here is very light, it’s still more interesting than the Heavenly Realm!”

Li Huoqing had been binging a web drama series for a few days, and she would always unknowingly end up watching the show until midnight. Only when she was surrounded by silence did she feel a little sorrow in her heart.

“My father and mother were both swallowed by the primal chaos, and my brother and sister are also dead. In the end, there is only me. I am alone.

“I thought that I would feel very lonely and sad when I came to this strange place. So why do I only feel sad on occasion?

“Especially in recent days, I have been so happy that there’s no time left to feel sad. I have almost forgotten all the bad things.”

Moreover, she had obtained a greater understanding of this place by asking the elves in the inquiry terminal questions. The more she knew about this world, the more she liked it.

Everyone was basically an ordinary person. There are very few “friars” or extraordinary people. Everyone was similar.

Of course, there were wars. But after entering the civilized era, Earth had only experienced two big wars, and the subsequent two hundred years had been very peaceful as a whole. When they were confronted with disputes and conflicts, most were resolved using peaceful methods.

Everyone was equal, and the strong could not bully the weak. The law would ensure the basic interests of everyone.

It was stable—very safe and stable. With security robots on patrol, one could spend a whole day strolling and shopping outside without witnessing a single scuffle.

In addition, the culture there was developed.

Between the TV series, songs, movies, variety shows, and interesting TV programs, it seemed like there was no way that she could ever finish watching everything. She could practically wipe out all the action of her life simply by watching all this entertainment.

Moreover, all types of entertainment activities were in abundance here.

You could almost fill up your brain with those activities, to the point that is was impossible to think of anything else.

Leaving aside the more exciting forms of entertainment, it was said that there were three billion virtual games created across the Earth targeted at the male otaku audience, and that these games were destroying the workforce of one country after another.

In addition, there were plenty of material goods. Together with a few friends, she had been shopping, playing, and eating like crazy of ate. Her average daily consumption was only two or three thousand, as the living expenses given by the Federation to each Protoss was 100,000 credits every month.

And the Federation would continue to provide this allowance for five years! This was meant to last until they had fully adapted to life on Earth. Then, they could start thinking about the future.

In other words, she could live a carefree and happy life for the next five years.

“The people here are really kind, generous, smart, and multi-talented. They have given us so many wonderful things.

“Dear good people, I, Li Huoqing, may not have a high level of mastery over my spiritual practice, but I will definitely repay you in the future,” Li Huoqing mumbled.

She really liked the land and the people here.

…

A month later.

The Heavenly Ruler, the person in charge of the first group of Protoss immigrants, could no longer sit still.

It was over.

If they were to go on like this, the Protoss race would really be finished.

He organized an emergency meeting and called together more than a dozen of the most powerful managers to discuss the current grim situation.

“Everyone, if things are to go on like this, our Protoss race will be done for. Those human beings harbor no good intentions. They are even discussing how to use conspiracy to deal with us!” The Heavenly Ruler said.

He wore a severe frown, as he was sensitive to the urgency of the situation.

“Your Heavenly Majesty, I, too, think that the people of Earth are very insidious,” one manager said. “They are obviously weak, and can easily be killed just by lifting a finger. But what they create is simply dazzling.”

“No matter which one, any of the tools they have invented can reduce us to a state of junk. We don’t have to think about anything or do anything. Clothes, food, shelter, and transportation are all taken care of by simply calling out for things to be done. I suspect that, if this continues, we will not even bother to hone our spiritual skills.”

“Those cunning people are trying to make us lazy, and then they’ll weaken our strength.”

“Yes. I can’t fall for their tricks anymore. Many Protoss have not ventured outside of their rooms for half a month. They are slowly becoming pieces of junk trapped in their homes. Yes—they have become what the Earth people call ‘hardcore homebodies.’ ”

“Yes, it’s terrible. They have to go out of their house and be more diligent. They have to find something to do!”

“Find something to do… Anything that can be done has already been done by the robots. What else can we do?”

“Yeah, with the robots, we don’t have to do anything. And it’s just not that we don’t work hard to cultivate and hone our spiritual skills—the concentration of natural spiritual energies here is too thin. It has an effect, even after practice. It is better to rest.”

“Majesty… I think that this is unlikely to be a conspiracy by the people of Earth. They are giving us land and money, as well as houses, games, delicious food, and fun things. Everything. It’s probably not a plot or a sign of malice. If there really is a conspiracy, then we’ll return everything except for the land. We’ll become self-reliant and diligent. It’s better than using this as an excuse to make trouble for them.”

One of the men did say some fair words: If giving them delicious food, fun items, and entertaining stuff to watch was a conspiracy or a trap, then, he said, “Please give us more of these traps!” Even if there were ulterior motives behind these gestures, it would be hard to refuse them.

“This…”

The Heavenly Ruler was speechless. Sending everything back and rejecting those gestures of goodwill—could this even be done?

Thereafter, the meeting came to an inconclusive end.

…

On the other side.

At the Federal meeting of the highest-ranking internal division.

Bursts of laughter could be heard; those at the meeting were rather proud of themselves.

“The Protoss will soon be trapped by us.”

“Haha! We have been placing countless wonderful TV shows, movies, and fun games in front of them for over a month. There must be few who can hold out on sinking into that entertainment!”

“The games are still the most insane part. About a million Protoss have entered into virtual reality games. They have become the sort of players who constantly fight monsters to up their level. Based on their active performance in those games, I would guess that they will soon be suffering from severe internet addiction.”

“In the end, the most powerful force is not physical strength, but culture. We can very directly brainwash the enemy’s minds, on a spiritual and psychological level, to become one of us. After they developed a sense of identity with us, they will not be able to go back.”

“A culture based on physical strength cannot last long. In this world, the so-called “Protoss,” the race of the gods, will eventually be assimilated into our society. This is inevitable.”

“In the end, we have maintained our culture and gained their strengths in addition to it. Haha! We will be the strongest civilization.”

The representatives smiled, and their faces were full of confidence.

But… there was one thing that they did not expect.

Chapter 433 - Trade Exchanges

The first group of Protoss immigrants had settled down smoothly.

Immigration tasks and activities had not been completed. It was only the beginning.

The spiritual artifact that was their ship—and there were 10 of those—did not stay for too long. They returned to the time-space portal near the orbit of Jupiter and entered it in order to transport a second group of Protoss immigrants.

The number of immigrants reached 10 million!

With rapid speed, an average of one trip back-and-forth was made every month.

120 million immigrants would arrive in one year.

This was a long-term job. The Protoss emigration plan was expected to last more than 50 years.

In addition, the Protoss had a special physical constitution. They consumed a large amount of food, and their cost of living was higher.

The Protoss could be regarded as 100% illiterate. Due to the issue of their lack of knowledge and depth, it would take at least a decade for them to cultivate a certain level of quality in this area so that the Protoss would have “value” to contribute to society.

Therefore, nearly all of the foreign Protoss were a burden for humans.

A very heavy burden.

So, by the time that the fifth wave of Protoss immigrants arrived, the burden had become somewhat unbearable for the Federation.

“They can’t ship people here anymore. We are at our limits.”

The federal officials went to negotiate with the senior administration of the Protoss, explaining that they were in a very awkward position.

The current Earth Federation had achieved a very high degree of integration after hundreds of years of development. The standout nations were the two superpowers and about 50 medium-sized countries. There were another hundred or so developing countries who, because of poverty, backwardness, government incompetence, or other causes, had surrendered their leadership one after another. Those countries were then turned into free cities under the jurisdiction of the Federation.

In addition, there were the space cities floating in outer space, as well as the hundreds of immigrant cities on other planets.

The Federation was presently made up of about 60 countries and more than 800 free cities.

The primary income of the federal government was composed of 2% of the GDP from the member nations and 3% of GDP from the free cities.

Upon the addition of the Protoss migrants, the Federation could only support up to about 50 million Protoss annually.

If there were over 100 million Protoss to support, the Federal Treasury would probably go bankrupt quickly

Hearing the reply from the Protoss’ senior administration—that the immigration process would last for at least 50 years, likely more—the Treasury would probably vomit blood.

The current extent of the burden could not be sustained at all.

“But we have no money. We can’t pay.” The senior administrator of the Protoss shook his head and said, “There will be no break in the immigration process. It might even be accelerated in the future. There is not much time left for us.”

“This…”

The Federal parliamentarians looked at one another in dismay. They were between a rock and a hard place. But it was absolutely infeasible not to collect money. If this continued, the Federation would go bankrupt!

“I do have a few solutions.” Parliament member Guo Xin said, smiling. “I have a solution for this predicament.”

“Mr. Guo?”

Many of the members’ eyes focused on him, and their expressions became somewhat strange and convoluted.

Parliament member Guo Xin was the spokesperson of the Chen family’s political interests. He was trained and cultivated by the Chen Family Consortium, and was their mouthpiece. He represented the interests of the family group. Hence, he was not well-liked.

Moreover, the Chen Family’s attitude toward the Protoss was tougher, and he could be called a representative from among the “hard-liners.” Their hard-liner stance was not only conveyed verbally, but was also shown through tangible actions.

For example: the military exercise in space that was witnessed by the first group of Protoss.

This was another example. There were some Protoss who went to the human residential areas to make trouble, and even some who committed murder and arson. They were all punished by the law. If they committed crimes in the Chen family’s free cities, they would be punished according to the law.

The most extreme case was one where a Protoss committed three counts of rape and killed eight innocent human beings. He was sentenced to death and executed immediately!

That Protoss criminal also became the first Protoss who was killed by humans.

The event caused a storm of protests, but also a round of applause.

The Protoss senior administration was incensed, but the evidence was conclusive. In the end, they had to strengthen their control over their people and swallow their anger.

Because of various incidents like these, the Chen family’s tough attitude was known all over the world.

Faced with a proposal put forward by Parliamentarian Guo and considering the financial pressure on the Treasury, the other members had no choice but to say, “Go ahead, Mr Guo.”

“My solution is to carry out economic and trade exchanges between the Protoss and human beings.”

Guo Xin scanned the room and said, “Indeed, even if we exclude the value of land, the cost of resettling one Protoss migrant is more than 5 million credits. With our federal financial resources, we can only help to settle a maximum of 10 to 20 million Protoss every year. Any more, and we will be digging into the federal reserves that we have accumulated over a period of more than a hundred years.

“This is absolutely unsustainable. The Federation will be dragged down sooner or later, and our public support rate will also plummet.

“The only solution is to conduct trade with the Protoss—we should proceed with a mutually beneficial trade cooperation.

“This can only last if the two sides engage in this win-win situation.”

Trade and commerce cooperation?

Some members wondered, “Is this sort of cooperative viable? Besides their physical strength, the Protoss have no competitive advantage in other areas. How could the cooperation be carried out?”

“Of course, we’ll start with the most basic cooperation.” Guo Xin folded his arms. “The so-called Heavenly Realm is said to be a piece of landmass that is even bigger than the Milky Way. Due to the crisis of the primal chaos, their Realm has shrunk by more than 90%, but the remaining land is still bigger than the entire Milky Way.

“With such a large area of land, the underground mineral resources could arguably be described as unlimited. We can import some minerals from the Heavenly Realm.

“In addition, there are many animal and plant resources in the Realm. These biological resources can be traded to cultivate some commercial species that are also able to thrive in the Earth’s environment.

“In addition, after the so-called “Revival of Magical Powers,” Earth can enter the era of mystic cultivation. But those who are awakened will generally be weaker, and they would be groping their way in the dark, so to speak. Because of this, their cultivation process would have no structure or method, and there would be many accidents where the practitioner could become insane. In order to create regulations and reduce accidents, we should import a batch of the Protoss’ rare books on cultivation and their cultivation methods and skills. We should study those books and methods carefully to improve the overall strength of local practitioners.”

Guo Xin listed the above three types of product in a row:

The minerals and ores in the Heavenly Realm.

Animal and plant resources.

The cultivation methods, skills, and secret, rare books of the practitioners of the Heavenly Realm.

These three types of goods had great commercial value and could be used to start trade cooperation.

The members of Parliament turned their gazes towards Guo Xin, revealing their admiration. They had no choice but to nod and say, “So, the Heavenly Realm would more or less become the Federation’s raw material supply base… There’s definitely profit to be made here. ”

Brilliant.

It was very brilliant.

Immediately!

The Business and Trade Cooperation proposal by the Federal Parliament was brought forth to the Protoss’ senior administration.

At first, the administration was very opposed to the proposal. They asked, “Didn’t you promise that you will help to resettle our Protoss immigrants? What about your promise?”

“The number of people that you have sent is too great. It is beyond the limit of sustainability. If you don’t think of ways to take up part of the responsibility, what we can provide in later days will only be a place to land and basic rations. We can’t guarantee other support.”

“That… we have to discuss this.”

…

The Protoss’ senior administration closed their doors and began discussions.

Immediately, dissatisfied and angry voices rang out.

“How abominable! They said that they would help us, but they couldn’t do it in the end. And they dare to talk about conditions?”

“There is nothing to talk about at all. Our Protoss have a remaining population of more than 20 billion in the Realm, the majority of which are Masters. We need to migrate at least half of them to our old planet. It may not necessarily be enough, even if we occupy their entire land. There won’t even be any space for them to stand. It’s bad enough that they are still here, but they even dare to talk about conditions with us, demanding this and that… I really want to slap him!”

“This is originally our mother planet. Those ‘humans’ are merely apes who were magically transformed and enlightened by our ancestors, who used their spiritual energies and techniques on them millions of years ago. They were born as beasts and slaves. Yet they dare to treat us as equals today and speak about their demands. They act so recklessly!”

“I’ve had enough, too! Why don’t we ask for instructions from a few of the elders and sages? We can send one of them to destroy the fleet of the monkeys, and after eliminating the greatest threat, we will rise up as a group and kill all the monkeys on the planet. Then, there’ll be no problem for us at all.”

“Yes, I haven’t had any action for a long time. We’ll kill all those abominable monkeys who want to use the law as a means to restrain us!”

Their comments became more and more extreme. The call to kill was getting louder and louder.

Many of the senior leaders of the Protoss were filled with little kernels of discontent, but after openly venting their emotions, those little kernels had turned into a strong and murderous intent.

“Shut up!”

The highest-ranking Protoss in the room, who was the leader of the senior administration, glared at the crowd. “We can’t mobilize the sages recklessly. Once they have been summoned, a corner of the chaos encompassing our land may be overlooked, and the Heavenly Realm will be swallowed by the primal chaos!”

The friars of the Shenguang Qi under the sages would not necessarily be able to withstand the attack of the nuclear bomb.

On the other hand, regular human military units on Earth were equipped with rifles that could kill friars of the Ningye Order. Their military was also equipped with tanks, planes, and cannons that could kill the friars of the Jiedan Order. On top of everything, they also had sonic missiles, the extremely powerful “mother of all bombs,” small nuclear missiles, and other weapons. Even with their total mastery over spiritual skills and techniques, any of these weapons could kill the friar-practitioners from the highest orders.

With the support of all sorts of magical foreign objects, the humans of Earth were by no means lambs that could be easily slaughtered.

A minority of the Protoss in the senior administration were clear-headed enough to know this fact very well.

It was not certain that the Protoss would emerge unscathed from a full-scale war with the humans of Earth. They must not take extreme measures before they were absolutely sure of their victory in a full-scale war.

Besides, even if they could and did employ certain measures to eliminate all of the humans on Earth at only a small price to themselves, what about afterward?

The Protoss did not even know what science and technology were. What methods could they employ to solve the problems faced by the billions of Protoss immigrants, such as clothing, food, housing, transportation, and so forth?

Just the issue of food alone was problematic enough. In the Heavenly Realm, they would have needed to till tens of billions of acres of land in order to produce enough food for the tens of billions of Protoss, with a yield of two or three hundred pounds of harvested crops per acre. However, the total area on Earth that could be farmed was much lesser.

But those humans had easily achieved the production of 1,000 pounds of harvested crop per acre every year using indoor agricultural technology. Crops could be harvested throughout all four seasons.

A few clever Protoss noticed these issues and immediately realized that the “humans” that had evolved from apes would be of great use to them!

It was best to enslave the humans, not to kill them.

Therefore, starting a war was the last resort at that time. It absolutely could not happen!

After thinking about it, the top-ranking Protoss in the senior administration said, “How about this. We can agree to the first two conditions, but they have to pay a suitable price!”

“As for the techniques, skills and rare books on spiritual cultivation, haha, they can forget about it. They are untalented monkeys. It’s not necessary for them to cultivate their spiritual skills.”

What?

Many of the senior administration were surprised.

“Y-you’re actually agreeing to this?”

“You can’t agree. If you give those monkeys an inch, they’ll want a mile!”

“Serving the Protoss is their duty! We can’t accept excuses such as insufficient funds and ability! They still have the energy to give more, and at least 99% of their properties have not been dedicated to us! Those monkeys need a lesson. They are simply too cunning!”

“Yes. If they don’t obey, we can kill a group of them, and then they’ll naturally obey us. We’ll let them know the rules of the Heavenly Realm!”

“…”

Hard-liner comments were still widespread.

Thud, thud.

The leader of the Protoss knocked twice on the table. “Enough! Stop talking about this. There are fewer than 50 million Protoss who have emigrated into our old planet, but there are one or two billion humans! We don’t know the depth of their abilities. If we start a confrontation rashly, we’ll be the ones on the losing end!”

“We’ll temporarily agree with their cooperation requirements and wait until we have enough people and sufficient strength. When we are 100% confident, then we’ll reassert the relationship between master and servant. We still have time; why rush now?”

“Yes!”

Noticing the anger of their leader, the Protoss in the senior administration could only bow their heads in agreement.

…

The initiative for the trade cooperation was thus settled.

Less than two months later.

A specialized cargo ship appeared at the exit of the time-space portal with its shipment.

Batches of minerals, ores, animals, and plants from the Heavenly Realm were continuously transported to Earth.

The goods were then sent to an auction site on the moon and sold in public auctions.

They were tested using certain instruments, and it was discovered that most of the products from the Heavenly Realm possessed very special physical and chemical characteristics. Hence, the first batch of goods were quickly snapped up by various merchants and sold at very high prices.

…

Haierfa.

Crater City.

Chen Jin’s mind received a call from his daughter, Chen Xing Yue. He listened to some of her reports.

“Dad, the Chen Family have won more than one-third of the items from the Heavenly Realm that have been put on auction on the moon. We’ve spent hundreds of billions.

“However, the Protoss have not provided even one set of exercises or secret tips found in their rare books on spiritual cultivation. Nothing similar has been provided. It seems that they are very vigilant.

“And then there’s the problem of Protoss overpopulation. 10 million of them immigrate here every month. In a few years, Earth will be so crowded with the Protoss that it will become unlivable. Many people think that this is a bad idea. Living space is limited. Our culture, our values—our perspective regarding the world and ideas about life are very different from theirs. If this continues, there will definitely be problems in the future.” Chen Xing Yue thus raised her concerns.

“This is inevitable.” Chen Jin nodded. “Before integration, there will be fierce conflicts between the two sides. Peace is often the product of war.

“I estimate things will go on a maximum of ten years. After ten years, the population of the Protoss on the earth will exceed 1 billion. Tensions will definitely arise. There will always be one side who can’t hold themselves back.

“In the meantime, our Chen family will slowly develop and accumulate strength. We will increase the construction of military power. It would be best if our military expenditure does not drop below 5%.

“In addition, we must prepare our escape plan. Since the spacecraft equipped with the curvature engine has been successfully manufactured, we will step up construction on the neighboring planet and open up several sub-bases. Not only do those Protoss have a large population base, but they also have a lot of aces up their sleeves. We must not underestimate them.

“And we also have to speed up our research on spiritual cultivation and skills. Use simulations by the supercomputers and produce some spiritual cultivation techniques. We should nurture more human practitioners. If we maintain our strength in both the areas of science and technology and spiritual cultivation, we will have a dual advantage. They are merely the Protoss from the Heavenly Realm. When the time comes, they will be nothing to fear; they will have no choice but to integrate into our society obediently,” Chen Jin said calmly.

“Yes, Dad!”

Chen Xingyue was full of confidence too. “I firmly believe that mankind will win.”

Chapter 434 - Had The Trump Card Lost Its Effectiveness?

Northwest Desert Reconstruction Area, Z country.

Technology City No. 1.

A research room located 100 meters underground.

Hu Kejie stood at the lab bench, wearing a big white coat and a pair of glasses. He held a pipette in one hand and a test tube in the other and was conducting a chemical experiment.

Excitement was written all over his face. Through the transparent lenses of his glasses, one could see that his eyes were shining with an inner light.

“Teacher, this particular type of mineral from the Heavenly Realm, called the ‘Soul of Fire,’ is extremely resistant to high temperatures. There is almost no change in its surface at temperatures of more than 6,000 degrees.

“The structure only starts to soften a little when the temperature rises above 10,000 degrees.”

“In addition, this extremely pure mineral generates a lot of heat when natural spiritual energy is added into it—enough to raise the surrounding temperature to several thousand degrees, even tens of thousands.

“Because of this characteristic, the ‘Soul of Fire’ is generally used as a ‘flintstone’ in the smelting processes required in alchemy refining. The natural spiritual energy is used as fuel to generate the required high-temperature environment.

“And, in the field of chemistry, the fine powder of Soul of Fire acts as a very good catalyst. It can accelerate chemical reactions that do not occur easily to a speed that is hundreds or thousands of times faster than normal.

“In short, the ‘Soul of Fire’ is another mineral from the Heavenly Realm with a super-high value,” the young assistant Gu Yunfei said, completing a report on the experiment.

“There’s no mineral from the Heavenly Realm that is useless or low-value. We can even extract dozens of high-value elements from the soil shipped from the Heavenly Realm,” Hu Kejie said with great feeling.

Five years.

As the Director of the research institute, Hu Kejie had been engaged in studying the characteristics of the minerals from the Heavenly Realm for five years.

During this period, the institute had discovered that there were hundreds of elements and mixtures originating from the Heavenly Realm that possessed significant potential due to their unique characteristics. They made exciting discoveries almost every day.

He had grown so used to the shock that he had become numb.

Then, he became a workaholic with a more energetic mindset. He made even more discoveries and achievements.

Amazing.

It was really amazing.

There was hardly any element that was useless or worthless.

For example, a common mineral from the Heavenly Realm called ‘Blazing Scarlet Rock’ has a physical melting point of 5,000 degrees, and a boiling point of over 7,000 degrees. It was also very hard and tough. If it was used as a blade in the propellor of an aircraft engine, the working lifespan and reliability of the engine would double.

Another example was the mineral called the Black Crystal Pith. If it was processed and made into computer CPUs, they would possess a very powerful superconducting ability. Its power consumption was also lower than a graphene-made CPU. The potential for overclocking was increased by 50%, and the device’s comprehensive computing performance was nearly doubled.

An additional example was a mineral called ‘Soul of the Mysterious Ice.’ Under natural conditions, its temperature was as low as -270 degrees. Moreover, it did not absorb heat. When natural spiritual energy was added into it, it would generate an extremely cold field, such that it could even reduce the temperature in a closed environment, thus reversing the so-called Law of Entropy. These properties were incomparably magical.

There were countless similar examples—too numerous to list.

The minerals from the Heavenly Realm had turned all human understanding and knowledge upside down and beyond cognition; these materials had allowed them insight into a whole new world.

More importantly, they saw great commercial value in these minerals.

Scientist Hu Kejie said with great excitement, “Many of the minerals’ properties have overturned our understanding of traditional chemistry and physics. One can’t help but to sigh in wonder at such magical materials, whose existence goes against all reason. Issues that had originally restricted and confined us have now become huge opportunities.

“From the perspective of industrial development, as long as those minerals from the Heavenly Realm are available in sufficient quantities, they could bring about at least two industrial revolutions!

“First of all, if large-scale application of the materials from the Heavenly Realm is carried out in the military industry, we will soon be able to create rifles that have double the power, tanks with triple the overall combat capability; fighter jets, missiles, interstellar warships, and other weapons would have a three to five-fold increase in the stats for their combat power… The standard of our weapons and related equipment would experience a significant improvement on all fronts.

“In the fields of civil industries, our communication networks will be faster, and the production efficiency of factories will increase. The performance and quality of the products and the experience they bring to the user will be significantly improved.”

“Technologies which have stagnated or have been developing slowly will begin to grow at a rocket-like speed over the next two or three decades.”

“In the same span of time, the nations in the Federation and the various free cities will experience an average growth rate of at least 3.5%…”

Hu Kejie actually veered into some macro fields as he continued talking. It was as if he could see the prospective boom in the Federation’s development.

“Teacher, we haven’t really been out of this underground research institute for a few years. The outside world must have changed significantly in that time,” student Gu Yunfei said. “Even in the most basic area of food, many wealthy families in the Federation are now eating the ‘spiritual crystal rice’ from the Heavenly Realm.

“A large number of biological research institutes in the country have achieved breakthroughs in localizing the planting techniques of Heavenly crops like the spiritual crystal rice. Those institutes have come up with several varieties of the rice that are produced by the thousands of kilograms. It is said that, in terms of taste, nutrition, spiritual energy content, and other aspects, spiritual crystal rice is far stronger than ordinary rice. In the next few decades, it may become one of the main food crops of the Federation.

“In addition, there are more than 10,000 other types of food crops and cash crops. Localization of more than 100 of them has been achieved in the past few years.

“In the field of animal meat, the ‘spirit fire pigs’ and the ‘immortal chickens’ from the Heavenly Realm have been successfully raised in batches and have gone onto the tables of thousands of households. In terms of nutrition and taste, there is no doubt that the poultry breeds from the Heavenly Realm are better… These animals will certainly occupy a large share of our poultry market.”

Hu Kejie nodded. He said with emotion, “This is the benefit brought about by the integration of the two worlds. By choosing the best species from millions of plants and animals to integrate into our local land, it will bring us double the happiness and satisfaction, hence achieving one-plus-one-equals-two.”

Therefore, even if the benefit was only absorbing excellent foreign species, the civilization could not remain in a self-satisfied state or stuck in the old ways.

No matter what forces they were faced with, opening themselves to the outside world would definitely bring about a multitude of benefits for themselves!

…

On the other side.

Haierfa.

Crater City.

During these past few years, Chen Jin had been really ecstatic.

He had earned money.

An absolute windfall!

His most reliant AIs, Nuwa and Alice, had both received an upgrade, becoming even more intelligent and capable.

“Master, those ores procured from the Heavenly Realm are really very useful,” Nuwa said excitedly. “The new CPUs and memory storage devices, which have been made of these materials that have never been seen before, are incredible. Not only is their power consumption reduced, but their comprehensive performances have also more than doubled! I never imagined that some materials could be so magical.”

“It seems that a world based on the philosophy of idealism can always accomplish things that can only be achieved with imagination,” Chen Jin said, nodding.

“Master!” Alice added. “If you could get more minerals from the Heavenly Realm to Haierfa, we could create many black-technology objects and processes, besides supercomputing.

“For example, an A-class warship with a more comprehensive combat power… This would be the supreme military force of a higher-level civilization.

“For example: a more powerful curvature engine. By incorporating some of the materials from the Heavenly Realm, the engine may even run a hundred times faster than the speed of light.

“As for the powerful ions cannons, laser cannons, gravity bombs, force field shields, new models of detectors, all-new energy systems… They all have subfields worth further exploration and branching out. These weapons will enter an all-new era.

“Master’s fears can be completely eliminated—especially your worries in the field of science and technology. We have so many magical materials from the Heavenly Realm. The human survivors on the planet of Walf are not worth mentioning, and, even when it comes to the very powerful Crystal Brainers, we will quickly leave them behind in the dust.”

After all, Chen Jin had the ability to connect all three universes!

As for the Crystal Brainers, they could only have developed according to the natural, prescribed order. They had no chance of getting their hands on a shortcut.

And it was not only that!

Alice said, “Master, I think that there seem to be some people, highly trained in the Heavenly Realm, who have the ability to influence space.

“For example, most of the practitioners of the Shenguang Order have mastered the combat technique of the ‘momentary shift.’ They can translocate to a place hundreds or thousands of miles away to escape the battle. The practitioners can achieve translocation within a very short period of time, and at a speed exceeding the speed of light.

“There are also some monks in the Shenguang Order who can create a space ‘ring’ or ‘bracelet’ with the aid of a material called the ‘void rock.’ They can then store a large number of items in this ‘space artifact,’ which is very convenient for travel.

“The abilities of the sages are so powerful that they are terrifying. They can directly break the barriers of the planes of existence, opening a space-time portal to facilitate the entry and exit of their members.

“On a certain level, individuals who are so powerful, to the extent that they can impact space, could be said to have mastered space application capabilities. Even though they do not know the specific principles behind their abilities, they can simply do it.

“This is equivalent to mastering advanced space technology.

“So, Master, there must be a way to shift the portal connecting Earth and Haierfa that has always been fixed in the bathroom, and even to conduct more complicated maneuvres on it, such as expanding and shrinking the portal.

“This is… I see the possibility of taking away the time-space portal, and therefore, eliminating the last potential pitfall?”

Chen Jin’s eyes lit up, radiating a brilliant light.

“It is definitely possible. Only Master’s cultivation has the possibility of reaching the same level as that of those in the Shenguang Order or the Sages’ Order. There may be a way to completely solve the problem of the hidden portal.”

“The Shenguang Order?” Chen Jin’s expression dimmed.

According to intelligence investigations, the crisis of the primal chaos broke out many years ago in the Heavenly Realm. The four Sages of the Protoss were strong enough to protect their mainland, which was close to the size of the solar system, in order to prevent its collapse.

They were powerful enough to cause explosions in their cities.

Also, the practitioners of the Shenguang Order were not weak. Facing their thousands of monks, it was unknown if there was anyone who could attack the Shenguang Order successfully… It would require a high level of understanding and talent.

But such a realm was definitely very challenging for Chen Jin, as he had never been exposed to cultivation. He was not even sure if he had anything like talent, insight, or whatnot… Anyway, he thought that his qualities were very common in all aspects, and that he was unlikely to become a strong practitioner of the Shenguang Order.

In addition, the concentration of celestial particles was still relatively thin on Earth. If he wanted to achieve better cultivation results, he would have to buy spiritual stones. The prices of these stones were insane. Even Chen Jin did not have the financial capabilities to use an unlimited quantity of spiritual stones, which he would need to improve his cultivation level to the point where it was similar to a practitioner from the Shenguang Order.

Therefore, the course of increasing his strength was somewhat improbable.

For the time being, they could only pin a large part of their hopes on the future of space technology.

…

On earth.

At present, from a rough calculation of the time that had passed, it was already the sixth year.

The Protoss immigration work in the Heavenly Realm was still being carried out in an organized and methodical manner.

Currently, there were more than 600 million Protoss immigrants who had moved to Earth.

They had filled 60 Free Cities to the brim.

During this period of time, through the greater acquaintance of the two sides and with the frequent dealings of business and trade exchanges, the two civilizations had become very familiar with each other.

People living in the border areas could even visit each other, travel, and conduct the first bartering for various goods. There was more and more contact between the two groups of people.

The human culture of Earth was very popular among the Protoss, almost to the point of assimilation. This had led to at least tens of millions of Protoss living at home and indulging in online virtual games every day.

The scientists of Earth had also been madly exploring the Protoss cultivation methods and exercises in those past six years. Scientists had even tried reverse experimentation to come up with scientific deductions. After a large number of accidents resulting in the “white mice” deaths, they had finally come up with several effective cultivation exercises and posted them on the internet. Anyone could download those exercises for free.

The era of universal cultivation had arrived.

In just five or six years, the number of “awakened” among the earth’s human beings was at least one million.

This certainly aroused protests and dissatisfaction from the Protoss.

“This is our supreme practice. How dare they publicize it so casually and allow just anyone to cultivate themselves? If things have become like this, won’t there be struggles and fierce competition over the already insufficient cultivation resources?”

“Those insignificant beings should have just stuck to the status quo. They have only gotten a little stronger. It will be meaningless when they are faced with a truly strong enemy.”

“Hurry up and desist. The cultivation exercises are a very important treasure. How is it possible for everyone to have a set of exercises?”

The Protoss had expressed their opposition against the Federation’s Policy of Encouraging Everyone To Cultivate, but it was ineffective. They could only gnash their teeth in private.

In addition to the policy encouraging universal cultivation, the federal legal system remained unshakeable.

In the past few years, humans of Earth and some of the Protoss could not help but commit crimes, in the face of overflowing material desires and those humans who were generally weaker. They wielded the power of their bodies to do whatever they liked and challenged the dignity of the law.

But the law was the bottom line of the Federation.

No matter who one was, if one broke the law, one would be severely punished and would inevitably be dealt a legal blow.

In the past few years, at least a thousand Protoss had solidified the dignity and the effectiveness of the law at the expense of their lives or freedom.

Therefore, a considerable part of the Protoss bitterly hated the so-called law. It was a thorn in their side.

A few extreme members of the Protoss even deliberately broke the law by challenging it personally. They had arrogant attitudes and were always thinking of ways to turn the humans’ laws into a piece of paper that had no restrictive power.

Essentially, they were challenging the existing order of the Federation.

With one case after another being added to the pile, stories of human victims and executed Protoss were played out almost every day in the news media. These news reports fermented tension. The friction and cracks between the humans of Earth and the Protoss were constantly deepening and expanding.

As time went by, the negative impressions accumulated, intensified, and solidified.

They became more and more disgusted with each other. On the internet, they pointed fingers at each other, and their rants escalated.

Structural tensions and conflicts seemed to be rather unavoidable.

Even so…

Humans had sufficient confidence in themselves, and were not afraid of the stirrings or the threats of the Protoss.

It was the fact that they had the “ultimate nuclear weapon” that brought them the most confidence. It could kill even the strongest of the Protoss.

With this big ace in their hands, they were equal in terms of top-notch fighting power. They were not afraid of the moment when the Protoss would rise in revolt.

However…

On this day.

A very alarming piece of news came from a number of military bases where nuclear weapons were stored.

“They have lost their effectiveness!”

“I don’t know why, but most of the nuclear warheads in the warehouse have lost their effectiveness.”

“Even the latest nuclear warheads that have just gotten off the production line exhibit a steep increase in their misfire rate. And even when the bomb explodes, its power drops to about 60% of the strength they had in the past.”

“The fusion reaction is a disaster. The law of the universe seems to have undergone a certain adjustment.”

Hearing these messages, the senior parliamentary members of the Federation broke out in a sweat, and they trembled slightly.

The trump card in the hands of the human beings seemed to be having some problems.

Chapter 435 - Concessions Began

Haierfa.

“This… what is going on? Can it be explained by science?” Chen Jin said with a grave expression as he held a terminal communicator in his hand.

“Dad, I’ve asked Professor Feng about this matter. He said it is very likely that, after those celestial particles from the Heavenly Realm had dispersed on Earth, they were affected by the field energy of many special elementary particles. There were no changes in ordinary chemical and nuclear fission reactions. Only fusion reactions with very high energy levels seemed to become somewhat slow and not as dramatic as before.”

“Our high-end weapons have obviously become limited in their power,” Chen Xing Yue said with an obvious tremble in her voice. She had lost her former calm.

“Is this about balance?” Chen Jin muttered. “Or, is this a fine-tuning enacted by the source of the universe?”

The problem was that, after such an adjustment, the power of the trump card in their hands had immediately weakened.

If the Revival of Magical Powers had been more intense, it might be possible that nuclear weapons would have been weakened even more thoroughly.

“Dad, what should we do now…? What should we do?” Chen Xing Yue said.

She was stunned out of her wits. Although the Chen family did not openly or explicitly do anything against the Protoss, everyone knew that the family had the toughest attitude against them and were insulting to them.

Some of the senior administration of the Protoss also regarded the Chen family as an ill-mannered and wicked “opponent.”

Once tensions between humans and Protoss intensified in the coming times and conflicts broke out, the Chen family would be the first to bear the brunt. They would be the main target of the attacks.

If they were in a disadvantageous position or if they were faced with certain failure, the Chen family would definitely come to a bad end.

“Don’t panic. I’ll ask you this: currently, how many people know about the failure of the nuclear weapons?” Chen Jin asked.

“Not many—only the nuclear weapons maintenance personnel, some federal members of parliament, and some of the family heads of the biggest clans. There should not be too many people who know about this matter, as it has not yet spread,” Chen Xing Yue said after some thought.

“Then block this news and seal it tightly! You must not let the Protoss know about this.”

“I know. The Federation also knows that this is a serious matter, so the news has been strictly restrained from the beginning. Fortunately, the Protoss do not know much about science and technology. There are not many Protoss who know the local written language… For the time being, this news should not leak.

“But… paper can’t hold fire; some things can’t be hidden for long. I’m afraid that, sooner or later, this issue will come to the Protoss’ knowledge as time passes. When that time comes…”

Thinking of this, Chen Xing Yue could not help but say, “Dad, I think that our previous response tactics may not be suitable now. If the Chen family continues to maintain its tough attitude without making appropriate concessions, it is very likely that we will face a huge loss in the future… Maybe, we should make some small changes.”

“Oh…”

Chen Jin heard the meaning behind her words. She meant that they should compromise and weaken their stance. Their attitude could no longer be as tough as before.

In the past, they had the ultimate weapon to fall back on, so there was no reason for fear.

Now their trump card had been weakened, and they could no longer act tough.

“Okay. It’s okay to change our stance a little, but don’t make too many out-of-character changes,” Chen Jin suggested. “When it comes to principles, we still have to insist on what has to be insisted on. If we compromise without limits, it may give the other party a clue… You must know that, generally speaking, the IQ of the Protoss is not low.”

“I know, Dad. I will do a good job.”

After that, the two ended the call.

Chen Jin remained silent for a while.

He had never imagined that the originally stable situation would actually take such a turn.

“Nuwa, Alice, what do you think I should do now? If we have no nuclear weapon with sufficient power, how should humans deal with the Protoss?”

Chen Jin felt a headache coming on. The individual strength of the Protoss was too great. Now the humans had virtually lost their trump card. Would humanity still have the means and ability to resist the Protoss after the balance was broken?

“Master, if the ultimate end result of the traditional route of our technology has been weakened, then we can only find another way, and develop some weapons based on the celestial particles. For example, the basic celestial particles can achieve a speed more than a hundred times faster than the speed of light after they have been stimulated by mental power. If we can develop a celestial cannon with greater caliber and power, it would have a similar effect to nuclear weapons when it comes to delivering a killing strike against the high-level practitioners of the Protoss.

“Besides the route of ‘celestial technology,’ we have another option, which is to get all humans to cultivate. We can develop more exercises and nurture more practitioners among the humans of Earth, and find ways to improve their cultivation. It would be best if they could attain a level similar to the monks in the Shenguang Order or the Sage Order of the Protoss. If that happens, then humans can also be gods—even more powerful gods than the Protoss!

“As long as the practitioners we train are strong enough, and we have more talents and stronger experts on our side than the Protoss, they will no longer be so scary.”

Nuwa’s meaning was very simple: they should open up two new routes.

Firstly, they would turn to the development of “celestial technology” based on the celestial particles.

Secondly, they would take the cultivation route and cultivate more Terran strongmen, preferably on par with the Shenguang Order of the Protoss.

But…

When it came to the development of “celestial technology”, it would take at least several years or decades to achieve significant results to replace nuclear weapons.

It would be even more difficult to nurture and train cultivation experts of the human race. It would take at least a hundred years, maybe even a thousand, to make a breakthrough in the techniques and attain the pinnacle in cultivation.

In short, there was a time lag in between. A fatal time lag.

If the Protoss got a clue as to what had happened during this period and uncovered the secrets they were concealing, they would probably not hesitate to immediately overturn the existing order.

The humans of Earth would instantly be sunk into a huge crisis.

Not only would a significant portion of humans be eliminated, but they could be reduced to underlings… The equal relationship between the two sides would turn into a relationship between master and slave.

Dangerous.

The potential circumstances of human beings could be extremely dangerous.

“Nuwa, according to Murphy’s Law, once the worst situation occurs and the secret is leaked—when that time comes, how should we deal with it?”

Chen Jin was making the worst assumption.

“Erm, I am afraid that we have no good counter-response. Even if we created an A-Class warship, the portal is too small to send it ship through. In the end, the humans can only depend on themselves.”

“Eh, I wonder if this will work?”

Chen Jin’s mind suddenly came up with a bold idea. He said, “The power of nuclear weapons on Earth has been weakened, but it is still a purely material universe here on Haierfa. The power of nuclear technology here remains the same. If we produce the nuclear weapons here, add a good isolation shell to block the influence of the ‘celestial particles,’ and then bring them to Earth, would that mean that that the ‘trump card’ of nuclear weapons would be returned to the humans?”

No; to be precise, it would be returned to the Chen family.

In addition, the size of the portal was about one meter. A miniaturized nuclear warhead could be transported to Earth.

“Master’s idea is good. There are some materials that can shield the ‘contamination’ of the celestial particles and preserve the full power of the nuclear weapons.”

This meant that, as humans gradually lost the trump card that was their nuclear weapons, Chen Jin would have one last form of insurance on hand.

This was the benefit of holding two universes in your hands.

On Haierfa, the technology route based purely on the material world could be explored to its very end.

…

Time went by quickly.

In the blink of an eye, three years had passed.

The Protoss immigration work was still underway on Earth; the process had even sped up significantly. The migration numbers of the Protoss had reached 20 million per batch, with two batches arriving each month.

The number of Protoss living on Earth had exceeded 1.2 billion.

This population size was enough to constitute a superpower.

Moreover, given the character and culture of the Protoss, things like law could never restrain them. Moreover, as their population count increased, they gradually started to live in the same spaces as humans. Contact between the two groups of people increased with each passing day. As such, criminal incidents were also increasing year by year.

There were more and more criminal acts initiated by the Protoss.

However, if one were to look at the statistical parameters of the crime rate, the overall crime rate of the Protoss had actually decreased significantly over the past two years, from a handful in one thousand to only a handful in ten thousand. The results were very significant.

Why was this so?

Why was there such an apparent decline in the crime rate?

The main reason was that the federal government had become a loser. When it came to defending the dignity of the law, they had made shameful concessions. They had preserved the judicial right and the right to arrest Protoss who broke the law, but had given up the right to punish them.

After the police caught the Protoss criminals, they could be judged in court and convicted, but when it came to the final punishment, the criminals would still be handed over to the senior administration of the Protoss. The specific mode of punishment would be discussed and implemented by them.

For the Protoss, the Federal police in charge of law and order could arrest and convict the criminals, but could not punish them. They could only turn them over to the Protoss.

In addition, the death penalty was abolished. If a Protoss killed someone or committed a very serious crime, the harshest punishment that could be meted out was to exile the criminal to the prison planet.

Moreover, if a criminal case occurred within the inner circle of the Protoss, the federal police were not allowed to intervene. The case could only be handled internally by the Protoss.

In a sense, the Protoss held special privileges that placed them outside the law.

Of course, the above measures did not have the effect of curbing crime. On the contrary, crime would be expected to intensify, and criminals to become more unscrupulous.

The Federation’s real trick for reducing the crime rate was to recruit a group of kind practitioners with a high level of cultivation from the Protoss by paying them a high salary. They were then added into the ranks of the federal police after a short period of training. They were given the title of “Protoss Detective” and participated in the war on criminal behavior.

This move was brilliant. With the help of a large number of “Protoss Detectives,” whether a criminal act was carried out by the Protoss or ordinary humans, they inevitably were quickly struck down with no way of escape when faced with a powerful practitioner. The effect of this deterrent was remarkable.

In addition to verbal praise and material awards, the Federation even specially filmed a TV series about the story of the cooperation between the “Protoss Detectives” and the “Human Police.” Not only did the show receive good ratings, but it also had a widespread and outstanding word-of-mouth reputation.

Thus, the Protoss Detectives, with their outstanding ability and sizeable number in the hundreds of thousands, became the starting point for the integration of the Protoss and the humans.

The major concessions made by the Federation in terms of law were tremendous contributions that aided the goal of improving the relationship between the two communities and easing tensions.

According to the latest polls, the Protoss had a good impression of the humans, as high as 75% approval; and humans had a good impression of the Protoss up to 65%.

On the other side.

The senior administration of the Protoss were a bit puzzled regarding the behavior of the Chen family, the backbone of the human hardliners, over the last three years.

It would not be an exaggeration to describe it as “an inexplicable expression of goodwill.”

This was especially apparent in business dealings. Sometimes, the generosity of the Chen family was so over-the-top as to border on the infringement of business principles.

For example, the Protoss would sell the ores and minerals from the Heavenly Realm to other companies or consortiums at a price of $100. But the Chen family often bought the same goods at a price of $120, $150, signing off on orders with terrifying price tags.

In addition, considering the Protoss’ lack of funds, the Chen family was the first to issue a loan of up to 10 trillion credits to the Protoss, with an interest rate of zero.

Of course, the simple act of giving could not alleviate the Protoss’ predicament. After all, it was better to teach people to fish than to give them fish. So, in order to improve the self-sufficiency of the Protoss, the Chen family provided them with 1,000 indoor agricultural bases and more than 1,000 capsule factories within three years. They even provided training to the workers at every step of the way to impart the necessary skills and technologies.

In addition, the many companies under the Chen Family Consortium had opened themselves to the Protoss, recruiting more than 1 million Protoss employees in the manufacturing, agricultural, mining, gaming, cultural, entertainment, and security industries. They were the pioneers who founded the history of Protoss working together with the soft and weak humans. This undoubtedly required a lot of drive and courage… There were few companies that were willing to stuff a few walking bombs into their offices.

Moreover, under the packaging and operation of Xing Hai Entertainment Company, many Protoss actors with good performance skills were featured in many wonderful works. They quickly became popular and gained numerous fans. These Protoss led the way in achieving good results in the entertainment industry.

Not only did these various measures by the Chen family bring a lot of benefits to the Protoss, but they also helped to improve their integration with humans.

If their relationship continued to develop with this same momentum, humans and Protoss could surely live in harmony, would gradually merge into one group of people.

In the future, the two communities could lay down their defenses and mingle together under the same sky.

However!

Paper could not contain fire.

Secrets would be exposed one day.

43-year-old Chu Mingyang was a politician with outstanding ability and a bright future. However, he was exposed by the media for using public funds to buy several gifts worth no more than $1,000. After being criticized and cursed at by netizens, he had no choice but to apologize in public, admit his culpability, and resign from his post.

Originally, his future had been so bright, but it was destroyed because of a few small gifts.

He wanted to find a new job, but was sneered at by many interviewers at many companies because of his bad reputation.

He was driven into an endless abyss just because of a small mistake, with no hope of recovering himself.

He was in a rage!

Endless resentment, frustration, and anger!

He had no future. Thinking of this, he gritted his teeth and went straight to the Celestial City, the capital of the Protoss, found the Protoss’ senior administration, and directly revealed a secret that had come into his control by chance.

…

In a simple and unadorned ancient temple.

Bang!

The leader of the Protoss, Bakedu, was a strong man with a height of two meters and a reddish-copper skin tone. He slammed his fist onto the low table in front of him. He was extremely excited. “There’s actually such a thing! Really!”

“This is the reason that humans have been so kind and polite these past few years.”

“Heaven is helping us!”

“Those puny humans have lost that artifact, and so are playing tricks. How can they match us? Killing them is a piece of cake! There’s no time to lose. Organize a force immediately to take down this planet, and get back everything that originally belonged to us!”

Bakedu stood up with an impatient and anticipatory expression!

The dignity and the face of the Protoss could no longer tolerate a situation where they were equals with those insignificant humans.

Chapter 436 - Conflict!

M nation, the East Side of New York City, Central Manhattan.

Home to the primary headquarters of the federal government.

The stately and magnificent Federal Parliament Hall.

The 1,7871th executive meeting was underway.

The rotating parliamentary leader, Fang Xiuping, a Chinese-born M.P. from one of the free cities, was reading out a draft of a bill.

“The multiple incidents that have happened in Free City No. 298 involving harm toward women’s rights, discrimination based on speech, online verbal abuse, and insult toward women have caused public outrage among women across the globe. In order to uphold gender equality, we are placing a comprehensive sanction on Free City No. 298, which will persist until an official apology is issued.”

Fang Xiuping raised his head slightly as his gaze swept across the space below. He opened his mouth and said, “Commence voting.”

The M.P.s begun discussing:

“Agreed, the city must be sanctioned!”

“Cities like No. 298, which consist mostly of people with “straight man cancer,” must be sternly sanctioned.”

“Free City No. 298 is their last stronghold. Once this fortress has been conquered, the era of equality between men and women will officially arrive.”

“Mild sanctions are useless! The misogynists who have gathered from all over the world to No. 298 are the most stubborn and firm of all. Their opposition to women’s rights has become their supreme belief. Everyone in this strongest fortress must be burned to death for women to truly be respected.”

“Yes, indeed! Burn them all!”

The female M.P.s were at a high emotional pitch, pressing the sanction button without any hesitation. They hated Free City No. 298, where 90% of the world’s “straight male cancer” patients were amassed, as the devil loves holy water.

The result of the vote was swiftly released.

Support: Oppose

1298: 1299

The resolution was rejected by only a single vote.

“Damn you bastards! You shameless partisans!”

Unable to restrain herself, a female M.P. stood up and glared at the male M.P.s around her. With a ghastly pallor on her face, she said, “This is the seventeenth time that you have shielded them! Now that the bill has been rejected once again, I’m starting to think that all you male M.P.s present in this hall are the same as those with “straight man cancer.” All of you should be sanctioned and burned to death!”

Ahem, ahem.

A flurry of coughs sounded.

Many male M.P.s either lowered their heads or rubbed their foreheads with their hands to wipe away imaginary sweat.

“Enough! You are in the sacred Federal Parliament!” Fang Xiuping, who was presiding over the meeting, knocked on the table twice to gain the crowd’s attention. He said, “We shall proceed with draft 17871. Recently, the immigration project in Free City No. 97 has not been progressing smoothly. About 17% of the citizens are reluctant to move to space cities. They rather live with the Protoss than leave Earth… Should the federation agree to the requests of the citizens who desire to stay, or force them to migrate?

“Commence voting.”

The result was promptly released.

Allow them to say: Force them to migrate.

1021: 1174

In addition, there were also hundreds of abstention votes.

In order to protect the personal safety of hundreds of thousands of federal citizens, they had to override these people’s wills and settle them down in other places.

“So, we shall proceed with draft 17872. The scientific community hopes for an increase in funding in the field of science and technology. They are striving after a 50% increase in annual research funding within five years…”

Suddenly, before Fang Xiuping finished his sentence—

Vroom…

“There are tons of Protoss flying through the sky.”

“Security guards defending Parliament were attacked!”

“Alert: the Federal Parliament is suffering from the highest level of attack.”

A riot broke out, and horrific screams resounded over the horizon.

Bam, bam. Guns.

Boom… Explosions.

Crash… Glass shattering.

The M.P.s in the Hall of Parliament even felt a slight vibration on the ground.

What’s happening? They thought. What’s going on?

Boom.

The glass window shattered. Protoss were floating in the air. They flew straight into the hall through the windows and the outer walls that had been destroyed.

“Ah!”

“Ahh!!”

Looking at the Protoss that were pouring into the hall—looking up, only to see more levitating in the air—many M.P.s felt trepidation and bawled endlessly, completely deserting the usual decentness of a highborn elite.

…

The miasma of the manipulator behind this was snaking its way through the sky above the hall.

From above, he looked downward condescendingly.

On Bakedu’s face was a smile full of smugness and contempt.

Hmph. Ants will still be ants. No matter how glamorously they might dress, no matter how civilized and how courteous they are, even seeming eligible to be on even grounds with the Protoss—now, in the face of absolute power, the ants only tremble in helplessness and fear, just like fish waiting to be slaughtered.

“A-ahem… Honorable Protoss, may I ask if you can hear me?”

The sound of the microphone was amplified by the speakers, enough for everyone in the Hall of Parliament to hear him.

“I am Fang Xiuping, the Speaker of the Federal Parliament. May I humbly ask—what is the meaning of this sudden and grand play?” said Fang Xiuping. While he seemed very calm on the outside, deep down he already had a rough guess of what was going to happen.

“Oh? President Fang?”

Bakedu, floating in the air, turned his head to look where Fang Xiuping was standing. Channeling a voice-amplifying technique, he replied with a genteel air, “President Fang, I have seen you before on television. There’s not much inner beauty in you, but, after seeing you today, I think you do have a rather fine appearance. I must say, a crème de la crème among humans.

“As for why we, the Protoss elite, are here—I believe that you must have guessed the reason, so there’s no need for me to give a straightforward explanation.”

“Uhm… I must say that I have no clue at all,” Fang Xiuping said with a bitter smile. “We were discussing and voting on several resolutions just now. Your sudden visit, my Lords, destroying windows and doors, wounding our guards… were, in fact, totally unnecessary. If something is the matter, you can just walk in and tell us about it. Why bother damaging public property?”

Damaging public property?

Bakedu was maddened. What was up with that tone, which made it sound as if Fang Xiuping was criticizing an ignorant child? He wasn’t here to talk about such silly things!

Channeling the amplifying technique, Bakedu said, “Stop focusing on these trivial matters! You know, clearly, why we are here! Stop your act of ignorance!”

“Uhm, could it be…” Fang Xiuping took two steps backward with a look of shock. “Could it be that you wish to requite our kindness with enmity—that you not only forswear the grateful heart, but are betraying your faith and resorting to evil conduct? My lords, please remember that you are gods. Can I assume that gods would not do something so devilish?

“As far as that goes, I do believe that this is a prank.” He laughed. “My Lords, I think that this prank is quite funny, and very interesting.”

Fang Xiuping let out another hollow laugh, seemingly attempting to dispel the notion by shifting the topic.

A prank?

The edge of Bakedu’s mouth was twitching, and his expressing became a little strange, even a bit awkward.

He instantly became aware of the inappropriateness of this operation.

After he had acquired the relevant information, he had not, in fact, made any plans at all. He had just dragged along a few companions and enthusiastically headed over, based solely on his initial excitement and impulsiveness.

He hadn’t been able to wait to give the humans a lesson.

But the Protoss were not demons without bottom lines and lower limits. No matter what major operation they were conducting, they had a good name to maintain. They couldn’t just do whatever they pleased. Therefore, even if they were looking for trouble with the humans, they would still need to fabricate a “reason.”

However, Bakedu was unable to come up with any grounds for this, nor anything else to which he could point. After all, over the past few years, the humans had answered all the Protoss’ demands—whether land, materials or money—upon their request. They were very sincere, and had promised to every condition that they could. They had also made many compromises. Even if there were some unavoidable setbacks, they couldn’t make a big fuss over it.

Thus, Bakedu couldn’t find a reason to mount an attack on the humans.

They could not oppress them unscrupulously.

But, without a doubt, strength was still their precept, and power their rule! When a mighty force was committed to devastation, its so-called principles became useless waste paper that might as well be trampled on. The only problem was that the Protoss also wanted some dignity. It was impossible for them straightforwardly to behave like coarse ruffians.

Bakedu said, after some thought, “We didn’t come today to make a so-called ‘prank.’ We have come to take back our home!”

“A million years ago, Earth was the home planet of the Protoss. We once inhabited every inch of land. The planet is our species’ old haunt, and it belongs to us since time immemorial. This very fact is unquestionable!

“Hereupon, you shall return everything that belongs to us—not just a sliver of it. As for you humans, you can move to the space cities or other planets. There are many places where you could settle down. Hence, there’s no need for you to cram in here with our kind… this will be the best for everyone.”

Taking back the entire Earth?

Fang Xiuping was not at all surprised. “Since time immemorial? It is undeniable that, millions of years ago, Earth did, in fact, belonged to the Protoss. But we humans are also a native species of this planet. We are its ‘indigenous people.’ Not only did we exist in this world in ancient times, but we have always been here, right up to this very moment. We have sufficient evidence to prove that we belong here.

“My Lords, it would be unjustifiable to away the entire planet and drive away all one-billion indigenous human beings!”

It was absolutely unacceptable and beyond outrageous, and they could not agree to it.

“What ‘humans?’ Back then, your ancestors were merely uncivilized, simpleminded monkeys. Without being enlightened by the Protoss, you would have remained monkeys, an inferior beast, for as much as a million years. What qualifies you to speak before the Protoss?” Bakedu’s look was awe-inspiring. “You shouldn’t even consider yourselves as ‘humans’ in the first place. In the face of the true Protoss, what rights do you have to linger around this planet?”

What? The people who heard his words raised an uproar.

Racial discrimination. It had been a stark-naked racist speech, on an absolutely illegal level that lead to one being sentenced. Moreover, it was an attack on all of mankind.

Fang Xiuping was instantly infuriated. He said agitatedly, “My Lords, how can you say that? Through all these years—the crisis at the Heavenly Realm, the homecoming of the Protoss—how many things have we humans done for your people? We have given you land, resources, and money, expending almost everything we had to satisfy the demands of your kind. We did not ask for appreciation, gratitude, or any kind words, but only a little respect. Have we done all this just to hear you say something so out-of-line?

“My Lords, are the hearts of the Protoss made of ice? Unmovable, wicked, and merciless? Or are only a portion of you so cold-blooded?”

“Enough!”

Shame flashed across Bakedu’s face; he was unable to tolerate such accusations. Shocked even mere humans dared to spout such words, he abruptly unleashed an oppressive aura on them and spoke in a piercing voice, like a howl from the Nine Serenities:

“My original intention was just to let you humans move away in order to free up the whole planet. In the future, our ties would remain as they are now. But your minds are intractable. You dare to speak so pompously, even though you have lost your trump card, and to offend those above you. Very well!”

Bakedu’s chilling glare swept over the grounds. In a tone of judgment, he said, “I have changed my mind. Now, not only must you vacate the whole planet and offer it to us, but your race shall hereafter become slaves to the Protoss, abiding by all our orders! Any resistance or dissatisfaction will result in merciless slaughter!

“Hereafter, you Terrans should concentrate on learning the ways of slavery!”

What? Another uproar burst forth.

The Federal M.P.s who were present had never expected that triggering the Protoss with just a few words could condemn all of mankind to the fate of living death. In addition, since the power of nuclear weapons had been greatly weakened, humans really had lost their ultimate trump card.

The menaces and threats in Bakedu’s speech instilled fear and terror in many of the M.P.s. They were to go from a nice civilized society, in which they enjoyed freedom like the air they breathed, to being enslaved to the Protoss. They would have to abide by every single order, and any form of disobedience could lead to death. Just the thought itself was terrifying enough.

“Stop fooling around!”

There was one M.P. who was not at all intimidated. Instead, he stared at the Protoss above his head and said out of anger, “Who do you think you are? Do you think that you can enslave humans, just because you have mastery over your puny powers? Do you think you can do just whatever you please?

“Quit your foolish dreaming! Can you even fathom the wisdom of humans? Why would we, with our weapons, be afraid of your powers? If you want war, so be it! We humans will never falter! If you dare to belittle us, you are doomed! We might even drive you back to your so-called Heavenly Realm! Do you have the guts to try us?”

“Presumptuous!” Hearing such a bold and provocative speech, Bakedu was instantly enraged. He pointed his finger in the direction of that M.P. while rapidly shaping a white aurablade. He narrowed his eyes, and the white blade went flying forward at a high speed!

“Be careful!” Fang Xiuping warned. But the M.P. still did not dodge well enough and was grazed by the aurablade, which pierced his shoulder.

“Ah!” He could not help but let out an agonizing scream.

“Are you okay?! Let’s get out of here!” Fang Xiuping rushed over to hold him up, and the two fled out of the hall.

“Provocation identified. The Protoss have made the first attack. For the good and the dignity of humanity! AST Divine Mech Squadron, attack!”

The ATS Mech Squadron, which was responsible for guarding the primary headquarters of the federation, had swiftly arrived during the standoff. Seeing that Bakedu had initiated an attack towards a member of the federation, the squadron launched a counterattack without any hesitation.

…

Approximately 20 minutes later.

More than half of the 120-unit ATS Mech Squadron was lost, having either crashed or been forced to the ground under an onslaught of piercing aurablades. The rest were still holding on, grinding their teeth.

On the side of the Protoss, a total of 18 powerful elites had come. Their leader, Bakedu, was in the middle tier of the Shenguang Order, and the rest were close to attaining this level. They could be considered immensely powerful.

Boom, boom, boom.

The nano-missiles launched by the mech squadron could not even break through the defenses of the Protoss.

Suddenly, just before the squadron was completely annihilated—

Crack.

Under the close-range explosion of a missile, one Protoss’ golden shield cracked open like an eggshell.

His expression changed. “I forgot that the natural spiritual energy here is thin. It’s difficult for me to sustain my powers in a drawn-out fight. If more of those weapons arrive, I’m afraid that I might actually get hurt.”

“Many human warplanes are coming from the west!” A swarm of small dots appeared in the western sky, appearing at least a thousand in number.

“The natural spiritual energy here is sparse, and our recovery is slow. If this drags on, they might wear us out. Let’s retreat!”

Bakedu had also realized this fatal threat, and immediately issued a withdrawal.

Chapter 437 - Lockdown

The conflict had thus come to a close, having resulted in 100 deaths and injuries for the humans and zero for the Protoss.

Without a doubt, the Protoss took quite the advantage of the Terrans in this first clash. But, in taking that tiny inch, they had also exposed their fatal weakness: the insufficient concentration of natural spiritual energy.

Even though celestial powers had been recovering for nearly a decade, the natural spiritual energy concentration on Earth was still only a few hundredths or even thousandths of that in the Heavenly Realm, and was incapable of supporting continuous consumption by cultivators of orders above the Jiedan.

It would be difficult for those in the Jiedan Order and above to replenish the spiritual energy “reserve” in their bodies when their exertion was larger and the reserve was in decline. Even the super-powerful cultivators of the Shenguang Order could only handle a single battle, as they could not continuously replenish their natural spiritual energy in large amounts.

Unless they were to bring along spiritual stones, even ‘Sages’ would only be capable of a single combat. Spiritual stones were classified as a scarce resource; no one could possess them for merely a few hundred or a couple grand. Moreover, due to the excessive development in the Heavenly Realm, the ubiquitous pollutants in the primal chaos had lessened the quantity of spiritual stones—to, at long last, the point of exhaustion.

Hence, no matter how high an Order they were in, almost all of the Protoss who had arrived on Earth would only be able to participate in a single battle.

And as for the humans?

Their guns, cannons, planes, tanks, and mechs could be produced in large quantities as long as there were enough factories and raw materials. In addition, they also had robots, consumables that could replace human soldiers. If a large number of them were sent into battle, using their mob strategy, even the most powerful Protoss would be swarmed to their death.

…

On the day when the incident of the Protoss attacking the federal parliament broke out, it swiftly spread on the internet, causing an uproar.

Many netizens were infuriated:

“They are returning kindness with ingratitude! We have raised a white-eyed wolf.”

“We shouldn’t have taken them in the first place.”

“The so-called Protoss are, in the end, only terrorists who have no concept of civilization in their heads. They think they can conquer the entire world with force and violence. How naïve! We humans will never submit to the slave society of which they have conceived.”

“War? Who’s afraid of who?! It is they who attacked first; we can only fight back!”

“Fight them! We will never be cowards.”

“Respect those who respect us, and kill off those who violate us!”

“Where are our nukes? Why aren’t we bringing out our nuclear weapons to suppress the Protoss’ arrogance?”

“Are you crazy? The destructive power of nuclear weapons is too big. Not only will it destroy the Protoss, but our homeland will also get razed to the ground. We must not use it rashly—not until the very last minute!”

“The seeds of hatred have already been planted. A horrific war? So be it!”

Most of the netizens were in a murderous mood. They couldn’t let it go, and were all calling for a retaliation. There were also netizens that launched a war donation initiative. With this person donating half a month’s salary and that person donating a full month’s, a lot of money was raised in just a short time, and the level of enthusiasm was high indeed.

However, even though public opinion was bubbling over, with many crying out for war, it was still a huge undertaking, and could not be declared easily. It was a last resort.

The top officials of the Federal Government were therefore moved to a mysterious underground command center. The leaders of Earth, once again, held another meeting.

It was a meeting that would decide between war and peace.

In the underground meeting room.

At a big elliptical table in the shape of a football field, the president and vice president of the federation and the leaders of the Z, M, Maoxiong nation, and other countries gathered together, conversing seriously.

President Fang Xiuping had a white bandage hanging off of his left hand, as he had broken his arm after being hit by a falling brick. He said in a solemn tone, “The Protoss’ way of thinking and their views have never aligned with ours over the years. Ultimately, our beliefs have failed to influence them. It is essentially impossible for them to accept our ways of conducting things.”

The idea of a fusion of the two races was not realistic.

“If they were just reluctant to accept our ways, then I would say, so be it. But they are making every attempt to destroy us and to force us to yield. After the intelligence of our nuclear weapons becoming ineffective was leaked, the balance was broken, and they acted immediately almost without hesitation. It appears that they had been suppressing themselves for a long time.”

Bam!

The leader of the Maoxiong Nation smashed his fist on the table. He said furiously, “It seems that the kindness we have shown them and the help we have given them were totally useless and ridiculous—just like when Native Americans helped the European colonists. The most sensible action would have been to destroy them near the space door in the beginning, instead of accepting the Protoss immigrants in wave, after wave, after wave!”

Vice-President Lawrence Ford sighed. “We have tried. Over the past ten years, for the sake of peace, we have done our utmost and have acted in the greatest of sincerity. Even when we were heavily criticized by the Federal citizens, we still persisted. So, in the end, is war the only way to protect peace?”

“If it is either war or slavery, I choose war!”

“Yes, indeed! Our only option is to take the fight to them!”

“But…” A prominent parliamentarian said with hesitation, “Are we truly ready? Do we have confidence that we will win? The enemies we are talking about here are a horde of extraordinary individuals.”

“Mr. Walsh, allow me to answer your questions about war.”

A middle-ranked general with a burly physique and thick eyebrows stood up. He was a three-star general by the name of Moreden Peters. While setting up the projection screen, he said with his sonorous voice, “In fact, for over a decade, we have been preparing our military all along. No matter how much public opinion has leaned toward peace, we have been seriously preparing for war.

“For more than ten years, the equipment developed by our military units has been entirely focused on countering the extraordinary abilities of the Protoss.

“Most of the military exercises conducted in the military over those years have been carried out with the Protoss as our imagined enemies. Our soldiers have all been sternly trained.

“I can responsibly say that, even if faced with the immensely powerful Protoss, our soldiers will not panic or lose their morale. Instead, they will fight bravely and fearlessly.

“In addition, thanks to our virtual game technology with extremely accurate simulations, the most elite squadron that we have trained has a 30% chance of taking out the cultivators in the Shenguang Order in scenarios where nuclear weapons are inappropriate.

“Of course, our biggest difficulty is that military funding has shrunk in recent years. With more than 30% of our soldiers off-duty and insufficient money for training and purchasing equipment, we have only managed to train 11 elite squadrons—a severely inadequate number.”

At that moment, the M.P.s and the world leaders clearly heard the grievances in Moreden’s words.

However, whether or not he was complaining, Moreden still composed himself very well, and continued: “We will need at least one hundred elite squadrons to hold back the mighty Protoss. Hence, from now on, military funds must be increased to ten times what they were before! Only then we will be able to complete the necessary training in a short period of time.

“Besides, according to our military experts, the Protoss do, in fact, have certain weaknesses. When they attacked the primary headquarters of the Federation, they should have been able to organize themselves well enough to eliminate the AST Mech Squadron, mount a heavy blow on the Third Armor Division which the M nation deployed for backup support, and even split up to chase down the fleeing Federal M.P.s—either killing everyone or seizing control.

“But they didn’t. They only hindered the AST Mech Squadron and then hurried away, unwilling to become overly entangled.

“According to an analysis by our elite military experts, the reason that the Protoss halted their operation was not soft-heartedness or any special warnings they received. It was purely because they expended too much spiritual energy, and that prevented them from sustaining combat.

“The natural spiritual energy here on Earth is too thin. The speed at which they consume it is far greater than that at which it is replenished. Even a God with top-notch combat power, who could crush hundreds of mechs in a blow, will, while in combat, consume far more spiritual energy than they recover.

“Perhaps, because it was the first time that the Protoss fought on Earth, they forgot that this is not the Heavenly Realm. In their contempt, they have exposed one of their fatal flaws.

“It is this flaw that now allows us to see a possibility of defeating the Protoss!

“No matter how high level their cultivation levels are, as long as we launch a series of drawn-out wars, the day will come when they are depleted.

“Moreover, we must capitalize on the current thinness of the natural spiritual energy. The sooner we initiate the war, the greater our advantage will be. If we continue to drag talks out until the concentration of the so-called ‘celestial particles’ has reached a very high level, I’m afraid that the scales of victory will tilt back to the side of the Protoss.

“So, we should take the fight to them as soon as possible! Attacking them early is better than doing it late! The more time passes, the worse it will be for us!”

Moredon issued a proposal for war.

The P.M.s and leaders all nodded their heads.

After coming to understand the individual strengths of the Protoss over so many years, they all made a brief internal calculation. These people’s existence was absolutely comparable to humanoid bombs, tanks, and nuclear bombs. In addition, they were highly mobile, flexible, and very intelligent. Every single one of them would be difficult to deal with, a being that could not be easily killed. Adding to this their ‘fast recovery,’ which would allow them to sustain combat over a long period, and the premise of the failure of large-power nuclear weapons… Humanity’s fate of becoming the Protoss’ slaves was probably inevitable.

Fortunately, in the current state of affairs, the Protoss still had a rather lethal weakness.

If they do not grab this opportunity…

“War it is then! There’s a big chance that we will win!” an M.P. said.

“We have been at peace for almost 200 years. In the end, blood and fire are still unavoidable!”

“Fight them! It can only be war!”

Aside from the few that kept silent, the opinion of everyone in the big conference room was basically the same.

The inception of a full-out war only needed a single official announcement, and a plan for all aspects of the effort: public opinion control, achieving combat readiness, initializing various types of war machines, carrying out comprehensive mobilization, and so on.

However, only two days later, and just when everyone was on tenterhooks, news arrived from the Protoss, who were asking for negotiation.

The leader of the Protoss, Bakedu, personally video called and contacted the president of the Federation, Fang Xiuping. The two had a remote chat.

“President Fang, stop committing to unnecessary preparations and sacrifices. Look at the situation now. Just bring along all the humans under your care and surrender to the Protoss.”

Bakedu said earnestly, “This time, I’ll show you some extra kindness. I will not treat you humans as slaves. Instead, I’ll grant your species some small status. What about becoming our subjects?

“We will not enslave you, nor kill you at will, as long as you follow the rules set by the Protoss and serve us sincerely. How’s that? As long as you perform well, it will all be possible: inexhaustible wealth, rich land, great power, and even becoming one of the Protoss—taking on our identity. You only have to bend over slightly and respectfully hail us as your ‘Lords.’

“How does that sound? Is your heart moved? Do you want to be the first who submits? If you take the lead and be an exemplar, you will, hereafter. be given an important position. Your future will be without boundaries.”

At that final point, the corner of Bakedu’s mouth turned up a degree, and his face was full of smugness.

Little did he notice, however, that Fang Xiuping was looking at him as if at an idiot.

Fang Xiuping saw through his pretense at first glance. “Have you also realized, then, that this isn’t the best time for you to start a war with us? And so, you have softened up and made a slightly lighter demand?”

Fang Xiuping looked disdainful. “But—my apologies. I have not even the tiniest bit of interest in the benefits that you have offered. Besides, we humans are already prepared for conflict. We are ready to enter a state of total war at any time.

“We have simulated it with our supercomputers. As long as we are willing to suffer about 200 million casualties, we can destroy all Protoss on the Earth within three years or so and achieve the ultimate victory.

“But, we still want to give peace a chance. We do not wish for our cities to become ruins, for hatred to go unchecked, and to subject living souls to misery and suffering.

“Hence, make a solemn apology for the attack on our primary headquarters that happened a few days ago, and provide a generous compensation to the families of the dead and wounded soldiers. Even if your apologetical statement is lacking sincerity, you will be able to recover peace and prevent the brutal war that is going to happen. Everything will then return to its previous, peaceful state.

“How’s that? Can you say the word ‘Sorry’?”

“Preposterous!”

Bakedu’s expression became awful. “How can high-up Protoss apologize to ants? What sort of dream is this?”

“Still holding on to your pride?” Fang Xiuping snorted. “Well then, be prepared to pay for your arrogance.”

Upon finishing, he hung up the video call.

Negotiations thus broke down.

However, after two days, many Protoss noticed that the humans had entered a state of full mobilization and readiness. They halted the water and electricity supply to the Protoss residential areas, ceased the delivery of various supplies, severed trade, interrupted the route to the space door connected by Jupiter, and imposed a comprehensive lockdown. In just a day or two, many Protoss living areas regressed thousands of years in their level of civilization and crumbled into a semi-fallen state.

The sanction war that came before the actual warfare had, already, exasperated more than a billion Protoss immigrants. Complaints were everywhere. As for the reason why the lockdown had been imposed, most of the Protoss knew about it through television media and radio broadcasts: they could only blame their own leaders, who had provoked the incident groundlessly, attacked the M.P.s for no reason, killed and injured hundreds of Terran soldiers, and caused major bloodshed.

“We have no intention of putting you in a difficult position. If you wish to lift the sanctions, it is very simple. Apologize—publicly apologize—and compensate us! As soon as you apologize, the lockdown will immediately be lifted, and our previous misunderstandings will be resolved.”

Listening to Fang Xiuping’s righteous remarks through the television or radio, and looking at the actual footage of the assault, many of the Protoss immigrants were plunged into silence.

Only a small number of them clamored, “Apologize? Who do you think you are?”

Generally speaking, in the face of such sanctions, anyone, whether Protoss or any other race, could only persist for about three days.

Once this three-day endurance limit was over, they either had to compromise or let both sides sink together. There was no other choice.

For that reason, the ball was back in the court of the Protoss’ leadership.

Chapter 438 - War

A predicament—Bakedu, the leader of the Protoss, was caught in a two-way predicament.

He was enveloped in immense pressure as a situation he had never expected emerged before him.

The safety and destiny of 1.2 billion Protoss were in the hands of the more than a dozen high officials under his leadership. If he mishandled this, he was likely to become a sinner among the Protoss, and would be faced with severe punishment. After all, the Protoss were not rocks, nor plants that could undergo photosynthesis. Similar to any carbon-based organisms, they needed to eat, drink, and replenish their energy with food. The greater the intensity of their cultivation, the more they would need to eat; even the Protoss of lower orders consumed everyday meals which would be equivalent to three to five for ordinary people. If they did not eat or drink for a long time, they would also starve to death and die of thirst, no differently from human beings.

Moreover, aside from eating, they would extremely disoriented when they lost things that they had taken for granted before. For example, after the electricity supply was cut off, electric lights no longer lit up, and all kinds of household appliances became mere furnishings. Their civilization instantly regressed by a thousand years. Furthermore, after the network was cut off, many programs, TV series, novels or games could no longer be watched or played, causing their mental life to suddenly feel lacking. Finally, the transportation that had extended in all directions became fully impaired, and convenient forms of travel instantly disappeared. They lost their cell phone signals for mutual communication, online payments, developed business systems, incredibly varied and graceful social activities, and much more.

They lost everything mentioned above!

After the comprehensive sanctions were initialized, it all quickly disappeared, leaving only a few broadcast channels in service. At the moment when the lockdown began, the entire Protoss residential zone quickly plummeted into massive chaos; they were not ready for the transition, and felt as if the end of the world had arrived. Even Bakedu and the other high officials felt extremely uncomfortable.

“Where’s my internet?”

“Where’s my electricity?”

“How dare those puny ants?!”

Then, there was the ultimatum issued by the Terrans. Apologize, and the sanctions would be lifted. If there was no apology, then…

“We can only grant them a quick demise.”

“Fight them! Slaughter all those damned monkeys!”

“We have already shown mercy by not killing them all. Now, they dare ask us to apologize? Cursed rabbits!”

“What is even more abhorrent is that, in order to force an apology out of us, they have bound up our fate with other billions of Protoss. Atrocious!” A high official of the Protoss slammed the table, appearing to have been brought to anger by shame.

But, in fact, they were tough only in their words. In the bottom of their hearts, a common voice spoke out: We messed up. Their actions on that day had, indeed, been a little too reckless. They had spelled great trouble for the billions of their kind in a single moment. If the lockdown were to persist, they themselves would not encounter any problems, but more than one billion Protoss would have absolutely no way to live normally.

An all-out war had yet to begin, but they were already facing huge internal mayhem. Everyone was a little regretful—why had they acted so impulsively and not prepared more in advance? Besides, it was clear to them that, if they were to clash with the humans under the current circumstances, they might sustain heavy losses and gain nothing at all.

So… should they apologize?

Just a faint “sorry” would put an end to this farce.

But how could the powerful and noble Protoss apologize to mere ants?

There was no word such as “sorry” in the Protoss’ dictionary. Even the thought of the word itself would render Bakedu and the rest of the Protoss in a flush.

They couldn’t forgo their pride before the powerless Terrans. But, similarly, they could not bear to jeopardize the safety of billions of their kind.

“As matters stand, I must bear the consequences of my own act.”

Bakedu’s mind worked around the clock, and, ultimately, he thought of a plan.

…

“A duel? You plan to put an end to this dispute with a duel?”

Communicating through the contact info that had been intentionally left behind, Federal President Fang Xiuping expressed slight surprise. “What will be the setup for it?”

“The eighteen of us were responsible for the incident. Hence, we shall be the ones to solve this problem. None of the innocent should be implicated.

Bakedu continued, “Set up a battlefield. I and the other seventeen Protoss superiors shall participate in the battle. As for you Terrans, you are allowed to deploy no more than 1,800 corps.

“We will allow your elites to work with any equipment and to use any tricks.

“This single match will be in a one-versus-a-hundred setting. The party that has all of their forces defeated will be the loser, while the one that has survivors will be deemed the winner.

“If the Protoss emerge as the victors, you Terrans will become our slaves and abide by every one of our orders. If you humans win, besting all of our 18 superiors, both sides will set the incident that happened a few days ago behind them. You Terrans will thus be on par with the Protoss—we will be on equal footing.

“On the other hand, we won’t need to apologize, either. Our death will be the best apology.

“What do you think? Are you up for a duel? This is the best way to prevent needless injuries to both our races—a solution via a small-scale combat. In these few days, I think perhaps that the reason your side imposed sanctions instead of initiating a war against us is to avoid excessive casualties, as well.

After all, this is a civilized era. Total war and genocidal warfare are too bloody and cruel, and their destructive power too immense. Even the Protoss do not dare to be involved in such wars.”

“A small-scale, duel-like combat?” Fang Xiuping muttered to himself. “18 from the Protoss and 1800 from us… A ratio of one to a hundred… Allowed to use all kinds of weapons…

“It would keep the destruction to a minimum. A thousand potential casualties in place of the massacre of hundreds of millions or even billions of people.

“It seems that this is indeed a better solution.”

Fang Xiuping was a little tempted, wanting to assent to this sort of “team wrestling.”

Warfare was atrocious in the extreme! There was no doubt about that. Countless families would be displaced, an untold amount of assets would vanish, trillions of tragedies would result, and they might even plunge into a vicious circle, where hatred would become more and more intense until one party succumbed completely. Smart and rational people ought to try their best to avoid combat and to ward off those war hawks, he reflected… the pain caused by war was far more intense than that inflicted by the weapons of words.

If there was an opportunity before him to solve the problem a better way, Fang Xiuping felt that he had to try to grasp it in order to avoid being condemned as a villain through the ages… even if humanity was, right now, in possession of a certain advantage.

But there were, at least, tens of billions of Protoss over in the Heavenly Realm. Their total population was no less than that of the Earth Federation. It would be impossible to eliminate all of them… Moreover, “Sages” that could blow up an entire planet still existed among the Protoss.

On the other hand, the universe was infinitely vast. There was still an abundance of free resources. Thus, it was really not necessary to place an entire civilization at stake and commit to a fight to the death.

“Fine. Let me discuss it with the others.”

Fang Xiuping principally agreed to this plan and immediately called for another meeting to talk about it behind closed doors. The focus of the discussion was: did 1,800 Terran elites stand a chance of overcoming 18 powerful cultivators of the Protoss?

The conclusion drawn from the discussion was that they would have more than a 70% chance of winning.

This was, of course, not a delusion, but the result of rational analysis and a computer simulation that summed up the three major advantages of the Terrans:

“Firstly, the newly developed ‘Torvosaurus Mecha Bot’ by one of our military units has been equipped with small nuclear reactors and the ‘Wind Walk matrix’ of the cultivators; it has been engraved with ‘rune enhancements,’ and made with the hardest steel alloy in the history of mankind. It is an aggregate of almost all of our state-of-the-art technologies… even if it were to be controlled by an ordinary person, the combat power of a single ‘Torvosaurus Mecha Bot’ is still equivalent to at least 10 cultivators in the Jiedan Order.

“Secondly, the Protoss cultivate their powers, and include many powerful cultivators in their ranks. In fact, we Terrans can also cultivate, and we too have our own share of cultivators. In recent years, at least a hundred cultivators in the Ningye Order have emerged in our army, and we have even more folk masters. If all of our soldiers participating in the war are powerful cultivators or mutants, we will have an even greater advantage.

“Thirdly, we have the advantage of computing power. We can use our high-intelligence supercomputer to carry out combat simulations in advance so that we implement the best tactical scheme in the actual fight. We can come fully prepared thanks to a variety of auxiliary weapons, such as smoke bombs, gas bombs, flash bombs, missiles, and so on.”

Pairing these factors up with their hundredfold advantage in numbers—and an environment thin in natural spiritual energy, in which the Protoss’ recovery and sustained combat effectiveness would be lacking—the M.P.s and the world leaders began to feel like they had the greater chance of winning.

Hence, the proposal for the duel was passed with a majority ballot.

“It is time for us to flex our muscles! We will teach those Protoss a lesson this time!”

“Maybe we can make it a global live broadcast so that everyone can see how the 18 top officials of the Protoss are brought down, one by one!”

“A verbal apology really doesn’t mean anything. The best apology is, precisely, their lives!”

…

Three months later.

In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, an island of about 100 square kilometers was temporarily given the name of “Dueling Island.” (Some netizens also called it the ‘Battle Royale Island’).

The island was surrounded by ocean. In the waters around the island, a high-voltage power grid was laid down. The million-volt high-voltage current could electrocute even the Protoss, and was to prevent those involved in the duel from escaping over the sea. Besides, in the sky around, a massive “sky net barrier” was erected, which would last for three days. It was so strong that even the cultivators of the Shenguang Order couldn’t break through and escape in any short amount of time.

These seemingly-unblemished preparations were all dedicated to the duel between the Terrans and the Protoss. The Protoss had their egos at stake. If they failed, they would have to recognize humans and respect them as peers. The Terrans, on the other hand, had their pride at stake. If they failed, they would have to submit to the Protoss, offer them more land and resources, and compliantly accept their position as subordinates.

Both sides couldn’t afford to lose, and they had their own respective reasons for wanting to win!

But only one could prevail!

In addition, this battle would be broadcasted globally. As long as one was over 18 years of age, one could pay to watch. Moreover, one could switch perspectives among ally troops and spectate the fight in first-person.

As the skirmish was a serious deal, a total of five billion viewers tuned in to the broadcast!

The netizens spoke out actively:

“They are humanity’s bravest warriors! An otaku like me can only adore them from afar. I don’t even have the guts to sign up for it.”

“Please win, heroes of humanity!”

“Our 1800 predators will slay those 18 Protoss! Their blood will be spilled to defend our honor!”

“Slay them! Slay them!”

On the side of the Protoss, many who paid to view the broadcast also posted their messages:

“Those Terrans should’ve become our slaves long ago, but they never had the self-awareness.”

“One Protoss killing 100 ordinary people, who have basically no special abilities? Even I would like to participate in this ‘challenging’ battle.”

“Leaders, please obliterate those humans in the most cruel and barbaric way. Being weak is their original sin. Today, let them realize their own weakness!”

“Haha! Humans, today we shall let you witness the might of the Protoss!”

…

On the Dueling Island.

18 Protoss superiors.

1,800 human elite soldiers.

All arrived at the battlefield successively.

The high voltage power grid near the coast was turned on. The massive sky net barrier was booted up.

The “duel” between Protoss and Terrans officially began.

Boom, boom, boom…

Ratatatatata…

Pshhhh… Boom!

“Die!”

“Worthless scum!”

“Eh? How are they still alive after my full-on blow?”

“Get away! It’s another bullet rain attack!”

“Not good! I’m being barraged by hundreds of human mechs, and my Golden Barrier can’t hold them off much longer!”

“The spiritual stones! Use the spiritual stones! Otherwise, we are no match for them!”

“I’m being chased by hundreds of missiles! I can’t escape! Ah—!”

With a horrific scream, a Protoss had his defense easily broken through by hundreds of powerful, highly-explosive missiles. Under the bombardment of explosions, he was reduced to ashes.

“This won’t work! Their defenses are too strong, their flexibility is too great, and they are too proficient in their coordination! We are no match for them!”

“They have prepared in advance! They even conducted actual fights in their virtual games! We just rushed into this, and are not at all well-prepared.”

“Ah!” Another Protoss had fallen.

“Run! We can’t rival them!”

Boom. A rain of missiles landed, crushing yet another Protoss.

“Can we surrender? We’ll all die if this goes on!” One of the Protoss was on the verge of collapsing.

“How imprudent! The ammunition they brought along is not limitless, and it will soon be depleted. None will pose a threat to us after we tank through these few waves of assaults!”

Boom, boom, boom…

“There’s only 18 of us! Their ammunition will definitely get them through!”

Bam, bam, bam!

“There’s only eight of us left!”

“What? In such a short time? We have lost 10 of our people so quickly?”

Defeat.

Fewer than 20 minutes into the duel, 10 Protoss superiors had fallen. It left countless people dumbfounded. This, however, was entirely within expectations. Effort versus no effort, full preparation versus simple preparation, countless of simulated battles versus an impromptu fight, the wisdom of hundreds of billions of humans versus 18 arrogant Protoss high officials… The humans had the advantage almost across the board, and the Protoss were almost all blasted away at the very beginning of the fight.

However, the battle still lasted for a day and a night.

Bakedu, who was the toughest among all of them and as strong as a humanoid nuclear bomb, would not go down that easily. He, who had lived for several thousands of years had a lot of aces and tricks up his sleeve, struggled until the very end.

He destroyed at least 300 Torvosaurus Mecha Bots alone, and caused the death of more than 100 Terran elites.

But his toughness could only last for a day or so. The hundred spiritual stones in his space ring were depleted, just like a boss with an ever-decreasing health bar. Under the barrage of countless missiles, bullets, and lasers, and surrounded by thousands of mech bots—he, yelling, “No, no, no, no,” was swiftly turned into countless blobs of sludge.

The Terrans won the duel by a landslide!

The Protoss all went silent.

Chapter 439 - The Crystal Brainers Strike Again

The Protoss were defeated.

The 18 Protoss high officials had been the first to provoke the other side and had ended up six feet underground.

They deserved this defeat. It seemed somehow inevitable.

Most Protoss scorned and despised human beings in their hearts. They did not feel that humans were anything great. And it was this contempt that had led to their inevitable defeat.

According to the rules of the competition, the loser had to abide by the laws that the winner set. As the Protoss had lost, they had to accept certain regulations that humans enacted, and, moreover, lost their right to dispose of all Protoss criminals. In addition, because the Protoss lost, the Federation no longer had to supply them with large amounts of supplies and funds; now, they would have to pay for them. This would force the Protoss to mine more minerals from the Heavenly Realm and hence put more resources on the market.

In a nutshell, because they were the losers, the Protoss lost many of their privileges. Their days, obviously, became harder, and they had to acknowledge human beings, amend their previous mentality toward them, and treat humans as if they were on the same level.

However, the discontent in their hearts would never disappear.

What was more, the humans did not take it for granted that the Protoss would give in just because of that tiny little defeat. In the manner of gamblers, when they lost their first bet and things started looking a little ugly for them, they would enter another round and try to win back everything that they’d lost.

Hence, soon after Bakedu and rest fell, the newly appointed leader, Tiwumu, contacted the higher-ups of the federal government and proposed a second duel. Both sides would, once again, select their elites and participate in another duel. The rules would be the same as before, with the loser having to obey the winner.

Regarding this matter, Fang Xiuping responded, “This is not a children’s game. It has been less than three months, and now you want a second duel? This is too hasty. We cannot agree with your request.”

“Oh? Have you lost your courage? Are you Terrans afraid of a rematch?” Tiwumu sneered.

“Stop trying to provoke us; it won’t work. Besides, even the Olympics are only held once every four years. Can this duel be held just once every decade? There is no need for us to unceasingly invest more lives in it.”

“But we cannot endure this for another decade. For all the many talents of the Protoss, they can’t even bear it for another year. We must hurry into the next duel.”

“Eight years. The duel between the humans and the Protoss shall be held once every eight years. Don’t make the hatred between our people grow bigger and bigger until we wind up in an unresolvable conflict.”

“Two years—at most, two years! We can’t compromise any further!”

“Six years. We, too, cannot make any concessions.”

Both sides continued their verbal onslaught for a couple of hours, until Fang Xiuping’s lips were cracked and he couldn’t argue any longer.

It would be held every four years! The two sides finally reached an agreement.

Therefore, a gruesome, crazy, hot-blooded “War of the Races,” which required everyone involved to do the utmost they could, would be held with the same frequency as the Olympic Games: once every four years.

The rules were still the same as they had been for the first:

The winner was allowed to force the defeated side to abide by their decrees.

The loser, on the other hand, had to give in and silently suffer discomfort or oppression.

If either party was displeased or incredibly dissatisfied, there would be another duel in four years.

Any conflicts between the two races would be solved by means of these periodic duels.

In the following eight years, the second and third “War of the Races” swiftly went by. Surprisingly, though, both of those subsequent matches ended with the Terrans emerging victorious. The Terrans had thus attained three consecutive victories. As a result, the Protoss repeatedly lost certain privileges, gave out greater benefits, and shifted their attitudes by a significant margin.

But the Protoss were still dissatisfied. They were still in a depressed, uncertain frame of mind as they prepared for the fourth War of the Races.

As humans swept across three consecutive victories, the signs indicated that human confidence regarding their relations with the Protoss was significantly inflated. But the newly appointed Federal President became convinced that this situation would not last in the long-term and could even cause some issues to arise.

They had to think of a better way to resolve the conflict between the humans and the Protoss, and the best solution seemed to be combining the two intelligent species—merging the two into one. When they shared everything with each other, opposition would naturally vanish, and long-lasting peace would dawn. Otherwise, they would be allowing the hatred between the two races to continue fermenting and taking the lives of a group of elites once every four years.

Such barbaric and backward relations could not last forever.

Besides, a positive outcome of humanity’s three consecutive victories was that the relationship between humans and the Protoss had become closer. The stubborn Protoss gradually accepted, studied, and practiced the benefits of strict laws and the ways of a modern, civilized government. The more enlightened ones among them gradually came to realize that the power of mankind actually lay within their frameworks, the advantages of their various systems, and the benefits brought on by the expansion of knowledge.

They were learning.

If someone can defeat you, you ought to face up to this fact and learn actively from them. And so, in terms of their ways of thinking, the humans and the Protoss were gradually closing in on each other. Given the magnitude of the Protoss’ reformations, the two races would not be much different in any aspect after a mere two or three decades. The situation could be best described by the term “cultural integration.” If the integration were more thorough, and both races’ ways of thinking became basically the same, the so-called oppositions between them would clear up on their own. There would be no need for each side’s elites to engage in fierce battles.

The new Federal President thus proposed, “Why don’t we stop fighting and merge our civilizations into one new Earth Federation? If we combine both of our powers, the entire universe, not to mention any other returning civilizations, will be no match for us.

“Of course, in order to convey our sincerity, we promise that, once we merge and share our resources, we will give the Protoss one-third of the seats in the Federal Parliament—no small quota, indeed! Working together in federal governance will definitely be much better than working separately!”

At that time, the most powerful institution in the world was, without a doubt, the Federal Parliament. Giving up one-third of the seats in Parliament was equivalent to giving out one-third of the right to govern. Since the humans had offered such a condition, no one could say that they were not sufficiently sincere. The Protoss high officials in that session who were more rational saw no reason not to give it some consideration.

“Huhuh…”

A sneer.

The leader of the Protoss responded with a sneer.

In an impatient tone, as if he were talking to an idiot, he said, “We wouldn’t really care if you gave us all the seats in your Parliament. Humans and Gods are different. We couldn’t care less about your thoughts and actions.

“Stop thinking about unrealistic notions like merging our two races. We’re in reproductive isolation, you know? The Terrans and Protoss are reproductively isolated. These so-called new human beings cannot be born. Based on this point alone, there is no possibility of integrating our two races.”

Tiwumu had done quite a lot of homework. He had acquired, from a supplementary class, lots of new vocabulary related to human society. He also knew that the best way to integrate their two civilizations would be to bring together humans and the Protoss, breeding a brand-new generation. But… unfortunately, Gods and “monkeys” were entirely different. There was a huge disparity in their genetic structure, DNA, and so on, which was likely analogous to the difference between cows and dogs.

Therefore, there was no possibility of integrating the two civilizations.

Moreover, unlike certain dirty, despicable humans, none of the Protoss had even the tiniest bit of interest in or any thoughts toward humans.

The relationship between the two races could only be one of pure competition.

The “War of the Races” that was held once every four years would most likely go on forever.

“But…” The idea that the new Federal Parliament had conceived of had been shattered. The President helplessly shook his head. “Without integration, we will surely have an endless competition.”

…

On the other side.

Planet Haierfa.

Chen Jin was still concentrating on his own business.

In essence, he wasn’t paying much attention to affairs on Earth anymore. He just generally updated himself with the latest developments there once every three months.

A massive war was unlikely to occur.

Generally speaking, the dominant rhythm of Earth had settled back into peace.

Although the “War of the Races” every four years was cruel, it still wisely contained the problems within a marginal context. Such a competition was classified as war, but it had diverted the core of the conflict and had brought about a highly-treasured peace.

Therefore, Chen Jin was, on the whole, relieved. Earth was unlikely to fall into destruction.

And so, his focus shifted back to the universe on planet Haierfa’s side of the portal.

But, as a matter of fact, the comparative value of planet Haierfa’s side had shrunk a little. Meanwhile, the value of Earth’s side was becoming greater.

One could imagine that, after all kinds of magical “celestial particles” from another high-energy universe dispersed throughout their world, in conjunction with their adoption of cultivation exercises, the power of human beings had become tens or even hundreds of times greater than before. Powerful cultivators could even rival mechs; each and every one of them was comparable to Superman. Besides, under the influence of the celestial particles, the growth rate of plants had increased several times over, the evolution of living organisms had accelerated, agricultural output had surged dramatically, and oodles of “elixirs” that could enhance human potential had appeared… it was all so magical that it felt like a fantasy.

The changes in the field of science and technology were even more jaw-dropping. Flying Cars based on spiritual energy channeling techniques were energy-saving and environmentally friendly, and did not need to burn even one liter of gasoline. There was also the unique Spiritual Energy Generator, the Spiritual Energy Engine, the Jade Slip Mobile Phone, the Runic Computer, and many more… These various kinds of special psionic technology had effects in no way inferior to those of traditional technology, and also had a plethora of advantages and an extremely competitive market.

The changes that they brought about in the military field were the biggest. For example, there was the Spiritual Energy Primal Blaster, which operated at a hundred times the speed of light. When it was fully charged, the blast it generated could even cut through planets. It was the ultimate weapon, far above nuclear missiles, and its power could make even the strongest of the Protoss’ hearts race.

There was also the Space Engine, which was based on “space spells” that worked in almost the same way as warp engines. It enabled spacecraft to travel at super-light speed. In the extreme scenario, it could realize a Space Hyperleap, which, according to the Laws of Space, could theoretically launch an object a thousand light-years in a flash. It was now possible to enact this in reality.

Moreover, using special materials embodied with the Laws of Space, they had created a Space-time Transmission Matrix and a Space Portal, which both functioned to transmit objects in an instant. Since the universe on the side of Earth had attained a higher level in the Revival of Magical Powers, its Space Portals could eliminate the concept of ‘distance’ across its entire reality, and everyone would get to travel to all corners of the universe.

Correspondingly, however, the likelihood of conflict was also increasing.

In addition, after years of research, Chen Jin finally had hopes of relocating the Space Portal connecting him to planet Haierfa, which he had been painstakingly trying to hide. That is, if his cultivation were to reach a level equivalent to the Shenguang Order and he acquired a basic perception of the Laws of Space, he would be capable of moving, narrowing, or expanding the Space Portal… He would just have to become extremely strong.

Hence, over the past few years, Chen Jin had begun spiritual cultivation and had already achieved some results with the aid of the invaluable spiritual stones. However, according to Nuwa’s estimation, with his individual cultivation speed, achieving the Shenguang Order would, theoretically, take him about 100 thousand years.

However, some time ago, the large virtual online game Galaxy Era had been rebooted and had gone back online. A variety of celestial particles had been added to the game with simulational accuracy of 99.99%. Although this was a bit low, the enlightenment gained by players in the game was still almost the same as that in the real world. Through the game’s continuous improvement and fine-tuning, it would eventually become infinitely close to reality. Hence, the players’ gains and enlightenments in the game, as well as all the breakthroughs they achieved, were collected by Nuwa and Alice and converted into data, and could ultimately deliver the final enlightenment to Chen Jin.

In the late stages of cultivation, before the difficult-to-break-through bottleneck entering a higher state, one needed to attain enlightenment. Therefore, if there were more superior players in “Galaxy Era”, the cultivation path paved in front of Chen Jin would become increasingly smooth.

As for the great changes that had occurred on the side of Earth—the enhancement of cosmic energy, the unrestricted development of human individual power—all had contributed to the rapid expansion of their universe. For this reason, the universe on planet Haierfa’s end had become second in importance. The universe on the side of Earth was the biggest backer and ace-in-the-hole for planet Haierfa.

Chen Jin’s confidence when he was on the side of planet Haierfa rapidly inflated. The threat facing the planet and the so-called “Cosmic Law of the Jungle” had, all at once, become less scary, and Chen Jin’s mind immediately grew calm.

Ring, ring, ring…

At that moment, he received a communication request.

Chen Jin tapped “answer.”

A delicate and beautiful figure immediately appeared on the projection screen in front of him—Mu Yunhua.

She was sending an emergency communication request.

“Oh, Yunhua. Is there anything I can help you with?” Chen Jin asked faintly. Upon seeing her anxious face, the corner of his mouth curled up slightly.

“Jin, they are here—the Selain fleet. They have arrived at Walf’s borders, and are less than a hundred astronomical units away.”

“Ah—wasn’t this expected, though? I already shared the intel with you. 500 Selain main battleships. You shouldn’t be feeling pressured about this, should you?”

“Yes, there should be no pressure. We have prepared a very adequate response plan and have set up an ambush several years in advance. We have been more than 80% confident that we’ll defeat the fleet of the Selains!”

Mu Yunhua looked confident, but immediately became flustered once again. She continued, “But I didn’t expect was the Selains to have also prepared something else. The surveillance device that we installed at the border has discovered that there is still another fleet of 50 warships coming from another direction, and it’s about to reach our borders!

“The enemy that I have to deal with now is coming from two directions instead of one. Our previous tactical arrangements have been completely disrupted, as we only considered the main Selain fleet. We are not ready for forces coming from another direction!”

“What should we do, Jin? It’s too late to split up our own forces. The Selain sub-fleet will soon arrive at our home! Planet Walf is in great danger!”

Oh, thought Chen Jin.

He sunk into thought, rubbed his knuckles, and then said, “It seems that the ambush 30 years ago left quite an impression on the Selains. They’re being smarter this time around. I am afraid that your previous arrangement is now completely obsolete.”

Chen Jin had previously sent out a lot of surveillance monitors in order to monitor the Crystal Brainer’s fleet, but the infinitely-vast universe made it impossible to achieve full coverage. Accidents and unexpected variables arising was entirely to be expected.

“So… what should we do?”

Mu Yunhua was truly freaked out.

Chapter 440 - Assistance

“Don’t worry,” said a reassuring voice.

Chen Jin continued, “I’ll settle that small Selain fleet for you. Just deal with the main one according to your initial arrangements and stick with the original plan.”

“But…” Mu Yunhua was anxious and unsure. Although no longer flustered, she still had doubts. “Will things really work out if we don’t make any adjustments?” What she was actually implying was, Jin, can I place all my trust in you?

After all, based on the supervision of various types of detectors, no third force had been detected near the warning zone for the Walf Galaxy. If Jin wanted to help her, shouldn’t his fleet already have appeared by then? But they had spotted nothing. The lives of more than a billion human beings hung on whether Jin would provide assistance. The life and death of a civilization was pinned on a guy who was much the same as a “netizen.”

Anyone’s heart would probably be full of doubts and unsure whether or not they could believe him.

“Yunhua, we have known each other for more than 30 years, right?” Chen Jin asked; he wanted to know what she was thinking.

“Yes, indeed.”

“Do you not know what kind of person I am, and what qualities I have?”

“I am aware of those things.” He was wacky, lustful, and occasionally provided her with some advanced technical information—that was it.

“I said I’ll solve the problem for you. Please just believe in this one thing.”

“I believe you—but can you tell me, plainly, how you intend to help me? Will your fleet be arriving soon? I’ll feel more reassured if I can see it for myself.” Seeing was believing. She would only be willing to trust him completely when she could see the reinforcements with her very own eyes.

“If I let you see them directly, won’t I become less mysterious? Why would a hero show himself before the very last moment? How can there be no climax to the performance on such a great stage?”

Mu Yunhua couldn’t help but roll her eyes. Similar situations had arisen too many times. Every time she encountered a tricky problem and, badly battered, asked for help from the other side, he always acted this way: he fooled around, teased her, and provided aid only at the very last minute. Of course, she still considered Jin reliable. He had basically fulfilled every promise he had ever made.

This may have been the biggest crisis yet, but, aside from Jin, Mu Yunhua couldn’t think of anyone who could help her. One could say that her habitual-dependence-sickness was terminal.

“Okay, okay, quit it with your unrealistic, utopian fantasy,” Chen Jin said. “Just believe me and do everything according to the original plan. I will straighten out the unexpected for you. You just have to convince the delegates to follow your arrangements and do their best in destroying the 500 main Selain battleships.” His tone was serious. He was doing his best to lessen Mu Yunhua’s worries, to sound adequately convincing, and to make Mu Yunhua believe that he was the 100%-reliable ‘Jin the faithful.’

“A—…alright, I’ll listen to you,” Mu Yunhua said with difficulty. After all, her only choice was to trust him.

However, her subsequent efforts to convince the executive representatives to ignore the threat of the Selain sub-fleet and to continue to follow the original plan encountered quite some resistance.

There were a few representatives who lost their calm.

“Ignore the Selain sub-fleet? What if we can’t hold them back once they come close to planet Walf?”

“Forget 50 battleships—even five can destroy this entire planet, on which more than a billion human remnants live.”

“Chief, you said you have a way to hold off that sub-fleet, so why aren’t you telling us how exactly you’ll do it? How can you expect us to believe in you?”

But Mu Yunhua still maintained the position that she would keep it a secret until the end, refusing to utter even half a word.

“We are already under the Selain’s strict surveillance. If classified information is leaked, it will be impossible for us to win the war. We can talk about it after we are victorious.”

This sentence of hers dispelled the questions in the minds of most representatives. Just as things had gone more than 30 years ago, secrets that only a few knew would become the main factor in their triumph.

Absolute—or, rather, blind—trust allowed Mu Yunhua to implement her strategy smoothly.

…

In borderless space.

An aggressive fleet was crawling towards their destination, like a devil baring its fangs and brandishing its claws.

Inside the massive flagship at the core of the fleet.

On the wide deck of the bridge.

The chief commander, staff officer, liaison officer, and other personnel of the Selain Fleet stood before the console’s line of screens. Their agate-colored, vertical pupils were gazing straight ahead, and, from time to time, shrank, expanded, and emitted a chilling glare.

“Although we only lost ten sub-warships, the disgrace of the Selains lingers on in this galaxy,” The Selain commander muttered. “That tiny ambush should definitely be made a classic, and should be included in the teaching materials of the Selain Central Military Academy, so that our young reserve officers can see what kind of astonishing wisdom can arise from a weak civilization that is driven to desperation.

“We who were conceited on account of our wisdom, flexibility, and conspiratorial skill relaxed our vigilance and celebrated that our two spies had led a low-level civilization into self-annihilation, so that only a few hundred thousand were left. Through 50 years of forbearance, the humans taught us a profound lesson.

“We must not underestimate even a weak civilization. We cannot simmer down, even if we have a 99% chance of winning.”

The Selain commander sighed. Across his face flashed slight admiration, respect, and… the determination to annihilate them!

His advisor, who stood next to him, felt somewhat dissatisfied. “My Lord, those so-called humans are only clever in terms of petty tricks. We, meanwhile, were unfortunately left with the short end of the stick. However, we are still the greater ones. They can never make us falter!

“Yes, indeed, my Lord. They were just lucky the last time. This time, however, their good fortune has come to an end! You are the great admiral of the Republic’s frontiers. You, my Lord, are unparalleled in wisdom and resourcefulness and are ever-victorious. With you in the ring, the one thing that’s certain is the humans’ inevitable demise.

“Moreover, our forces have been split into two, and we will be attacking them from both sides! No matter what plots or traps they have in place, it will be impossible for them to take care of things simultaneously at both ends. In a few days, those humans will wriggle no more.

“Our plan is basically foolproof. Our mission this time is to eradicate the humans from the root, and none of them shall be left alive! It has proven to be best for us to arrange the follow-up work in advance so that we omit nothing. Every single cell containing human genetic material must be completely destroyed, as the rules of a true competition between civilizations demand,” he said in a chilling voice.

The Selain commander nodded. “This universe is dangerous. We respect all intelligent civilizations; it is the rules that are cruel. Through our monitors, we have witnessed five intellectual civilizations that were decimated after their defeat, without a single exception! There are a few legends where kind and irresolute conquerors left behind the seeds of future trouble and were ultimately defeated by the weak. Hence, civilization is destined to be a brutal elimination-race.

“I am commanding this ship to eradicate the remnants of humanity.

“In the future, I will destroy more civilizations, crush more hopes, and, possibly… run into some very difficult enemies. But the Selain people will not fail. We are a race of gods. The advantages we have are unparalleled. In the end, we will become the masters of this universe!” said the Selian commander in an arrogant tone.

After all, in the Selain civilization, which was in a period of rapid expansion from top to bottom, almost everyone was swelling with pride. Only their arrogance and self-confidence, their egos and their pride, could match their “wisdom.”

It would take a setback that was like waking up from a dream to make them tone things down a little.

…

One month later.

The Selain main fleet, which had entered their circle of surveillance, was less than 50 astronomical units away from the central main sequence.

More than half of the 500 powerful warships had already arrived at their defensive circle.

The intruders were getting closer and closer.

“Attack!”

“Full speed ahead!”

“Blast those bastards!”

The fleet deployed from planet Walf switched off their stealth mode, seizing the opportunity to open fire.

Boom, boom, boom…

Bam, bam, bam, bam!

They discharged a myriad of missiles and torpedoes, leaving a fiery tail behind them.

Countless laser beams fired maniacally.

Manned and unmanned interstellar fighters and Docking Mechs were all rushing towards their colossal targets.

It could easily be said that the human fleet’s strikes were as dense as rain.

However, even in the face of such an attack, not the slightest hint of a riot emerged among the Selains’ main fleet. They maintained their neat formation as if this all were entirely within their expectations.

In truth, the military actions on Mu Yunhua’s side—the maneuvers of each and every one of her spaceships—could never have been concealed from the monitors that the Selains had sent out. They had expected everything, including the precise ambush locations. Nevertheless, they had still barged in with a swagger and activated their force field. It withstood almost all of the energy attacks, which sent ripples all across it.

Mu Yunhua’s side was taken aback.

“Force field shields? From the previous intel we’d received, the Selains did not seem to have mastered this technology yet. Even on their main battleships, there were no signs that force shield shields had been installed.”

“Something’s not right. The few Selain warships in the front line have their shields activated, but they have not yet fired back at us. The main battleships behind them have not deployed their shields, but they have released a lot of fighters. This must mean that the Selains had developed exclusive ‘Guard Ships’ with high defense but low attack to soak up our assaults. The battleships which are their main source of firepower should, then, have a lower level of defense.”

“In that case, we will change targets! Let the first and second-class Goddess’ Honor fighters go behind the enemy and prioritize their attacks on those with lower defense!”

However, following this adjustment, anomalies arose in the original ambush circle. A special situation never simulated by their computers had occurred on the battlefield. Moreover, the Selain fleet, which had its highly-defensive ships leading in front, did not alter the speed of its advance. It seemed like they intended to cut right through the orchestrated interception and go straight for planet Walf.

Hence, in order to intercept these enemies, the ambush fleet had to alter their plan and undertake a maniacal suicidal attack with the aim of impairing the enemy from behind. By doing so, however, they fell into the Selain commander’s calculation. How could fighters so focused on a suicidal charge have any form of flexibility? They were just targets that were flying around at high speeds.

The campaign damage rate for Mu Yunhua’s fleet was proving to be a whole 50% greater than that in the computer simulation.

This combat style of maneuvering and attrition had led to a war of quick deaths.

The enemy’s calculations and shrewdness greatly exceeded Mu Yunhua’s expectations.

However…

Although the loss was larger than she had expected, the Selain main fleet was, likewise, gradually becoming more and more surprised. The number of small warships that came at them like an army of locusts was far beyond what they had imagined. Among them, the first-class Goddess’ Honor contained at least 100,000 units. The second-class Goddess’ Honor was also around 10,000 in number. During their 30-year preparation for war, in order to build these “fodder” ships, the resources that the humans had exhausted were equivalent to an entire planet.

Facing this many “fodder” warships, the Selains were gradually using up their missiles and slowly depleting their space fighters; even their supply of laser energy couldn’t keep up.

When a fleet of a mere 500 battleships, facing an insane onslaught by a force 200 or 300 times their number, became drilled through and exposed, it marked the beginning of their tragic end.

Boom, boom, boom…

“Ah!”

“Our battleship is damaged!”

The first main battleship of the Selains suffered a heavy blow. And, subsequently, the same thing happened to the second, the third, the fourth… when the 100th main Selain battleship transformed into a fireball as it exploded, the Selain fleet, which had exhausted almost all of its ammunition and was left with the energy attack system, saw a linear rise in their campaign damage rate.

The 200th warship was destroyed… the 300th… the 400th…

At the very end.

It had been seven days since war broke out.

The Selain main fleet was less than 500 kilometers away from planet Walf.

Due to their lack of fuel, all the Goddess’ Honor fighters had helplessly given up on their pursuit—small warships had limited fuel and propulsive media—and were drifting aimlessly in the vacuum like space garbage. The Selain main fleet, on the other hand, still had five shield ships and their most powerful flagship, which had the highest combat power.

A total of six warships!

They were carrying enough nuclear bombs to destroy planet Walf.

“Ward them off! They must be stopped!”

“They must not get close to our planet!”

“To hell with them!”

Around planet Walf, hundreds of old warships and thousands of space fighters took flight. Pledging to defend their homeland, they became the planet’s last line of defense and dogged their enemy’s footsteps.

“They… They have actually marred my fleet to this extent.”

His eyes bloodshot, the Selain commander was feeling sheer disbelief. “Just a little bit more damage and I would have fought a losing war, and would have turned from a God of War into a humiliating laughingstock.”

Although the current situation was similar to failure, this was, fortunately, still a victory—a Pyrrhic victory that was in spitting distance of a total loss. As long as they broke through the last line of defense, this blooming and green planet and the more than one billion human remnants that lived on it would meet their ultimate demise.

Thinking about this, a sadistic grin slipped out at the corner of his mouth.

…

Planet Walf. The military command hall.

Many people’s faces were shrouded in despair.

This included Mu Yunhua. She had not expected the enemy forces coming from the front to be this strong. Their line of defense, formed by more than 100 thousand warships, had actually been breached, and six ships that would bring oppressive terror upon them had barged through in perfectly good condition.

“Hey, I’m done with the small fleet coming from behind. It took me about ten minutes to turn them all into space junk. Eh—what’s going on here? Is there still some trouble left?”

Hearing this voice in her ear all of a sudden, Mu Yunhua started, as if a life-saving line had appeared before her.

“Jin, help us! We still have a few enemies left!”

Chapter 441 - A Silver Warship

In outer space.

Five Selain defense warships were distributed in a pentagon shape, protecting a large flagship nearly 10 kilometers in length. The flagship of the primary force was kept in the center of the pentagon.

A small tactical formation rushed towards the planet ahead.

The last outdated human warships and space fighter jets, which were constantly gathering in front of them, were like ants facing off against an elephant. They were disregarded by the Selains.

“It’s almost over,” the Selain Commander muttered before sinking into deep thought. What should be done to kill all these ants?

What kind of method should be employed in this deathly pursuit—a method that was not only efficient but could kill every single one of them at the same time?

“It is not enough to rely on these six warships under my control. Considering that the insects will stop resisting soon, as well as the high economic value of this reconstructed world that is already teeming with life, the planet must not be destroyed. I can only use conventional weapons.

“In this kind of situation, in order to fulfill my mission of clearing out the planet quickly, I would need plenty of manpower.”

Thinking of this, he raised his head and looked passed the planet to a point behind it. “According to the plan, the sub-division fleet led by General Wandu should arrive soon, yes? If the effective strength of the fifty primary battleships was added to our forces to encircle and suppress the insects, the efficiency of our campaign would increase manifold, wouldn’t it?”

“Haha! I’ve made huge sacrifices in this bloody battle here, yet Wandu would pick up a great bargain once he arrived. He’d take the credit for this victory. Had I known that things would turn out like this, I would have finished this battle without involving his auxiliary division.”

Ah—he had originally wanted an added layer of insurance. He had planned to disrupt the order of the enemy’s fleets and break up their forces to cause confusion before defeating them in one move.

However, no matter how many troops he sent, the other party remained unyielding. They tried their best to drag the primary force commanded by him down with them into a mutually destructive end. Because of this, he had lost 80% to 90% of his elite troops, including his strongest generals and trusted aides.

Considering the energy and time put into this battle, even if he did conquer this planet, the gain would not compensate for the loss.

“It will take at least 30 years to recover.”

He sighed.

The heart of the Selain Commander ached.

Immediately, his gaze became hateful as he looked at the resistance forces of the humans in front of him. With a murderous expression, he said, “Destroy them all! Leave none alive!”

“Reporting to the Commander. We have suddenly lost contact with General Wandu’s fleet. The quantum communicator has terminated the signal connection.”

The liaison officer suddenly reported this news.

“What?”

The Selain Commander was stunned. “Confirm it twice! Check if the communicator is faulty.” He had a bad feeling about this. He was still able to contact them as per normal just two days ago. How could the connection suddenly be lost?

“There is no problem with the communicator, Commander! We just can’t make any contact. There are only two possibilities in this situation. One, the communicator on General Wandu’s side was damaged; two, the fleet led by General Wandu suddenly encountered danger, and…”

In general, the communicator was similar in construction to an aircraft’s black box, and was the most secure and reliable equipment on the warship. The probability of it being destroyed was low.

However, if it was attacked, an alarm device would be activated, and it would send out a distress signal to convey the condition it was in.

But it was really difficult to judge what had happened in a situation where the signal was suddenly cut off. No accurate conclusions could be guessed at.

“Commander, if we were to assume the worst-case scenario, that means that the fleet under General Wandu may have met with a sudden attack, losing their combat power instantaneously. Or, they were destroyed by an enemy in the blink of an eye, and that’s the reason that we could not contact them!” a staff analyst said. “If this is the case, then those cunning humans have probably mastered some kind of weapon powerful enough to destroy the primary battleships. They may have set up another ambush to encircle us, which led to the destruction of General Wandu.

“If this is the case, perhaps we should not advance. We should be more cautious to avoid their traps.”

The Selain commander looked at him and said with a blank expression, “So you mean that…we should give up on the attack, move to a safe zone, and wait for them to regroup and organize an effective resistance?”

His tone turned cold towards the end of his question.

After all, if they did not take down the opponent with one last spurt of energy now, it would mean that all their previous efforts were in vain!

Moreover, if those human beings had the ability to completely destroy fifty primary battleships in an instant, the main fleet under his command would not have been engaged in such an exhausting and tense battle.

He would never believe that those human hands had such a powerful ace up their sleeves.

“Keep going. Prepare a hundred nuclear bombs with a billionfold yield. If they present a strong resistance or are preparing to use other powerful killing techniques, destroy the planet immediately, without any concern!

“This time, you must be sure to crush their hopes!”

An unwavering determination could be heard in the icy voice of the Selain commander.

However!

The space in front of them started to ripple.

A streamlined battleship with a gleaming silver body appeared in the air not too far from them, like magic.

It was less than 10,000 kilometers away.

Given the relative speeds of the two forces, they would meet in one hundred seconds.

The Selain Commander was taken aback.

Actually, it was not only the Selains who were taken aback.

The last of the motley human fleets were not too far from the silver battleship, either. They had also realized that a battleship about eight kilometers in length, with a similar look to a silver gun, had appeared in their vicinity.

The area where the strange warship emerged from was very eye-catching, as it resembled a large, pitch-black hole.

…

Walf planet.

In the military command hall.

Standing at the forefront and looking at the live video sent from the front line, Mu Yunhua was stunned. She lowered his head and moved her lips, whispering, “Gold, is… is this the battleship you sent to assist me?”

“Yes,” said a voice from the headset.

“Is there only one?”

“Well, one is enough.”

“But there are still six Selain warships left. According to technical standards, five of them are A-class warships with protective shields. The flagship in the middle should also be an A-class. That’s a total of six A-class warships, which are the most challenging obstacle.” They were not the kind of B-class warships that could be defeated by suicide tactics.

“An A-Class? What a coincidence—my battleship is also an A-Class.”

“That means that you have the same level of combat power, but you only have one warship, and the Selains have six. In terms of numbers, you are at a disadvantage.”

“Quantity does not equal quality.” Chen Jin shook his head. “The technological progress of the Selains has slightly exceeded my expectations. They have already mastered the ultimate law of force and developed forcefield shields. In a few decades, they would have made breakthroughs in the technologies of forcefield space and gravity bombs. Then, they would have developed the full power of the Grand Unified Theory.

“But, what a pity, what a pity. The Selains are just getting started, and their progress is too slow. We, for comparison, have already completely mastered the Grand Unified Theory.

“Forcefield shields are not even worth mentioning. My civilization has completely mastered forcefield space and gravity bomb technologies. Just two hours ago, my Silver Gun Lord used several gravity bombs on the Selains’ subdivision fleet. They’ve all been blown into pieces.

“As for the few flimsy A-class Selain warship left on your front, they can be easily taken care of with a few gravity torpedoes from my Silver Gun Lord, the pinnacle of the A-Class warships.”

Chen Jin had started acting like a pretentious prick again; he couldn’t help but brag shamelessly.

“Wait a second…” Mu Yunhua found a hint of an anomaly. “Your warship took two hours to come from a place that is more than ten astronomical units away to the battlefield here. It flew at nearly the speed of light? And it suddenly appeared on the battlefield here without any sign of slowing down… How—how did you achieve this?”

Perhaps…

She had a flash of realization and could not help but blurt out, “Your civilization has mastered the technology of the super light speed engine?”

This was simply too amazing!

With the current level of human science and technology, super light speed technology was simply impossible; they dared not even imagine achieving such a feat. After all, it was an impossible dream.

“We have some experience.”

Chen Jin did not hide anything: “The black void was created by the super light speed engine, allowing travel back and forth across space at hundred times of the speed of light. A journey across space that would have taken decades or centuries can be completed in just one year. Not only is it a necessity for home migration, but it can also be used for war or expansion. You should be able to imagine its function.”

“Gold, your civilization is so advanced and powerful.”

As a very highly experienced scientist, Mu Yunhua was so envious that she had little stars in her eyes. She even seemed ready to beg and demand such a technology. She wanted to ask if Gold could give her a copy of this technology, but her intelligence told her not to do it.

Could she get their precious and secret core technology simply with a few words of pleading?

Giving ten dollars and giving one million dollars were two totally different concepts.

Hence, she did not worry too much about what would happen next. With help from such a strong backer in the form of Gold and his warship, they won this daunting battle with no mishap, and she owed him a big favor once again.

Added to the previous large and small favors in the past, Mu Yunhua realized that it was pointless to think about how to repay him, because there was no way she could ever do so fully. It was like the saying, “when one shoulders too many debts, they cease to feel heavy”. She had long given up thoughts on how to pay him back.

…

Cosmic space.

“What is that?”

Noticing the interstellar warship that had abruptly appeared in front of them, the Selain commander’s mind went blank. He was thoroughly confused.

“Commander, what should I do?” asked the staff next to him.

“Attack, destroy it! Prepare the energy cannon! Take aim at the target ahead and attack!”

Multiple laser beams, some thick and some thin, shot out, and quickly arrived at the forefront of the mysterious silver battleship.

The ship did not evade them, and there was no sign of movement as it waited for the attack to arrive.

Subsequently.

Those laser beams of varying sizes seemed to have been absorbed even before they touched the silver battleship. The beams dissipated into invisible space.

They seemed to have been swallowed.

“The energy cannon attack is ineffective.”

“This… How did this happen?”

“Could it be… a protective shield, that warship also has a protective shield, it’s an advanced A-class warship!”

“How is this possible? We have to annihilate those human survivors. How can there be an A-class warship? It’s impossible for them to produce such an advanced ship!”

All the staff members were shocked; they found this unbelievable.

The Selain Commander felt even more alarmed. He thought that this conquest had been filled with strange and incomprehensible incidents. It was very weird and abnormal.

“This is bad… The mysterious warship has attacked! It has fired several missiles!”

“Intercept them!”

“We used up our missiles and fighter jets a while ago; only the energy cannons can be used!”

“The energy cannon is a form of energy attack, and is reflected by the special coating on the surface of the incoming missile.”

“Activate the protective shield and quickly dodge the attack .”

But a scene that surprised all the Selains onboard followed. The few thick and solid incoming missiles did not bounce off the protective shield. Instead, they seemed to be based on an unknown principle that allowed them to eliminate the force field and drill into their warship.

Then…

Boom…

Bang!

The incoming missiles exploded at the same time.

Immediately, powerful gravitational waves akin to what is generated during the merging of black holes suddenly spread out from the core of the explosion points of the missiles. Waves of ripples even formed in the space around the explosions, expanding at the speed of light.

The ripples quickly smashed through the six Selain warships.

Different waves and ripples swept out in different directions and with different angles, frequencies, and amplitudes.

When they came into contact with a tangible material, they caused cracks and damage on its surface.

Even at the micro-level, one would find that atoms had been separated, molecular bonds broken, and the internal structures severely damaged.

If it was used on a living organism, cells, DNA and proteins with large molecular mass would be destroyed in an instant, reduced to a mess.

What was more, there were also gravitational waves that suddenly grew bigger or smaller. They acted on objects which had not been evenly deconstructed by pulling, compressing, and deforming them.

About ten seconds later.

The last six Selain primary battleships, like porcelain that had suddenly fallen to the ground, transformed into countless fragments. The amount of debris in space had just increased.

There was no time for any of the Selains on the battleship to even scream or to communicate any signal. They joyfully entered paradise without experiencing even half a second of pain.

…

Walf planet.

Inside the military command hall.

There was absolute silence.

Everyone’s mouths hung wide open with glassy eyes.

“This…”

Mu Yunhua’s expression was similar. Although she was mentally prepared, she was still completely shocked by what had happened.

Gold, his more advanced civilization, strong and powerful technology, support that they could not afford to lose…

Thoughts of a weak and feeble nature flashed through her mind.

After a long time.

She recovered the mentality and thought process that an ordinary person should have, and abandoned those unrealistic thoughts in her heart.

Compared with the civilization that Gold came from, this little bit of power in her hands was like pennies given to a beggar. It was enough that the other party was willing to give her some charity because he felt sympathy. It would be ungrateful to expect more in her delusions.

“Too slow—you’re still too slow,” Gold’s voice said in the headset. “If you were to continue to develop at this pace, even with my support and a few hundred years time, you would still have no chance of defeating the Selains.

“Fire the first attack. Try your best to get rid of the obstacle that the Selains represent in the shortest time.

“I will provide sufficient assistance, including a warship like the Silver Gun Lord. I can lend you a whole fleet.

“So… You can stop sowing the seeds of success by slogging your guts out over the years. Just follow me and work for me. Follow my plan, and expand your territory without any restraint.”

What?

Mu Yunhua was stunned. She suspected that she was experiencing an auditory hallucination.

Cooperation, working for him, and expansion…

And, most critically, the Silver Gun King battleship? He would loan her a whole fleet of them?

Her mouth was dry. She could not help but purse her lips and ask, “Did…. did you say something? Can you say that again?”

Chapter 442 - Rise Of The Protoss

“You didn’t hear wrong. I did say those words.”

Chen Jin simply repeated, “I intend to recruit you and establish a close collaborative relationship. We’ll better our common interests.”

Gulp…

It was the sound of someone swallowing their saliva.

Mu Yunhua’s body was still somewhat stiff. She did not know whether she was feeling surprised, happy, or both. Forcing herself to calm down, she asked, “Why? Why did consider me?”

Even after more than 50 years of recovery on the planet of Walf, the human forces remained weak. Their total population stood at only one billion-plus, and their resources were limited. Moreover, their survival was heavily threatened by the Selain civilization.

How did such a weak force as they suddenly catch Gold’s attention?

Or was it just like it had been in the past, and Gold was just joking with her?

But, somehow, based on the calmness of his tone, she felt that Gold was really serious about what he said. However, she was once again filled with doubts. Why her?

“There is no ‘why.’ Suddenly, I wanted to speed up the pace of things,” Chen Jin said impassively. “I have been supporting you over the years and have strengthened your abilities. However, even if I were to give you a lot of core technologies with no strings attached, the rate at which you digest the information would still be very slow. The number of trained scientists in a population of one billion-plus is still insufficient to support a strong civilization.

“The Selains are actively thinking of all sorts of ways to deal with your people. They have resources found throughout their thousands of star systems, and a population in the hundreds of billions. They are a powerful force—you won’t be their match even after three hundred years. On the contrary, you may be overwhelmed by the other party’s resources.

“It’s also impossible for me to spend so much time helping you, step-by-step. No matter how I think about it, the best option is for me to directly provide you with a shortcut. Effects will be quickly evident and results will soon be apparent.

“And I also said this too – I’m not some intergalactic philanthropist. I have my own purpose in establishing contact with you. There is also a purpose on my end. I plan to develop my interests with your support. I believe that you are very clear about this point, too.”

Mu Yunhua nodded.

There was no love without reason in this world. She would rather believe that the other party had a purpose, whether it was a benevolent or a malicious one.

However, she still had some doubts. “Even if you do intend to recruit us—and, indeed, we are very willing to cooperate—nevertheless… Why us, and not other civilizations?”

Why did they set their sights on such a small and weak force?

Considering the extent of the strength belonging to the advanced civilization backing Gold, they could get any partners they liked to collaborate with them.

“Erm…”

Chen Jin was silent for a while. It was really difficult to answer this question.

After some thought, he said it anyway, “If I say… that it’s because of you—because you are very special and I like you very much, and that’s why I gave you this opportunity—would you believe it?”

Ah!

Mu Yunhua opened her mouth. Her heart thumped as her heartbeat accelerated, and two spots of color appeared on her cheeks.

‘Like.’

Was Gold teasing her, or was he confessing to her? In the past, he had said similar words no less than a hundred times. She had gradually grown immune to it. Occasionally, there were even times when she was quite angry because he said, “Yes, you are exactly my type—a grandmother more than one hundred years old.” There was even an incident when she had ignored him for several days.

However, this time around, a phantom voice arose in her mind: Gold must be serious. He’s probably not teasing me.

A trace of honey-sweetness bubbled in her heart.

“OK, I won’t ask anything more about this topic. But are you really willing to lend us an A-class warship like the ‘Silver Gun Lord’,? Surely it’s not possible for you to casually loan out such a powerful weapon?”

Science and technology were the foundation of a civilization. Generally speaking, the interstellar warships that combined the most advanced tech were kept strictly confidential to prevent leaks. Even more important was preventing the warships from falling into the hands of other civilizations and becoming a reference to be used for their own upgrades.

However, Gold’s suggestion was unexpected. He was even willing to loan them the technological results of their precious and secret treasure trove.

If their places were switched, she would never do such a thing.

Part of her wanted to pry open his head and witness for herself his thought processes.

“Rest assured, this is just a loan, just lending. It’s not a gift,” Chen Jin said in a confident and unflappable tone. “My ideas and investment philosophy greatly differ from others. I like to do things with a visionary aim.

“Moreover, since it is borrowed, I will request that you pay the corresponding remuneration; otherwise, I will take back the Silver Gun Lords.

“One hundred years. The initial rental period is one hundred years. I will lend you one hundred Silver Gun Lord warships. In addition, I will give you a large number of powerful and destructive weapons such as gravity bombs.

“Then, you will take these A-class warships and use them to destroy your opponents and earn points.

“These ‘points’ are easy to understand. The advanced technological materials of the hostile civilization can be converted into points; the special mineral resources of hostile civilization can also be converted into points.

“With your points, you can buy gravity bombs in the ‘mall,’ renew the rental of the A-class warships, and rent or buy newer A-class warships.

“With sufficient points, you could even exchange them for the more advanced S-class warships, interstellar fortresses, and advanced technological materials.

“The basic gameplay is similar to the previous instruction and training I gave you. You should quickly be able to get a handle on it.”

“So… points are everything. As long as you have enough, you can get everything from me. You could even empty my home. If you can make an infinite amount of contributions, it’s possible.”

Mu Yunhua nodded and automatically made note of some of the vocabulary in his speech. She had a general understanding of Gold’s purpose.

Technology and resources.

These two things were what all civilizations needed. There were no exceptions.

As for the gameplay of points redemption, so many years had passed. Throughout them, Mu Yunhua had repeatedly laid down her sense of shame and integrity; indeed, she had exchanged the points she earned for a large number of brilliant tech from the list of equipment that he had given her, and converted them into a lot of sophisticated technology… She knew that gameplay like the back of her hand.

The level of difficulty had been enhanced, and the scope of the scene expanded. She was about to carry out some meaningful and practical actions. She looked forward to it even more.

“OK, I am willing to work with you, Gold!”

Mu Yunhua stopped hesitating. “I will work even harder in the future. Not only will I make the Selains pay, but I’ll also seize plenty of ‘war booty’ from the enemy!”

Revenge! Revenge!

The blood debt of tens of billions of human beings, the destruction of their mother planet, the hardships and suffering that they had endured ever since their escape… Even today, she had never forgotten these things.

She was afraid that the passage of time would weaken their memories and fighting spirit until they slowly became timid and mediocre, and, ultimately, they would stop caring.

So… action had to be taken quickly and early on!

While those many difficult memories still lingered in people’s minds, she would quickly transform their pain into motivation and drive. With the support of the great power given by Gold, she would make the Selains pay what they deserved!

…

Haierfa.

A large dock about ten million kilometers from the planet.

The 100th Silver Gun Lord interstellar warship had just been completed. After taking on fuel and supplies, it slowly navigated out of the dock, and gradually merged into a phalanx of warships not too far away.

The formation incorporated this warship that had just been completed, which slowly merged into a corner of the phalanx.

There were a total of 99 A-class warships, arranged in a rectangular matrix of 11 by 9, and looking neat and tidy. The formation gave off an imposing yet composed air.

“Set off!”

Chen Jin waved his hand in a big motion.

The warships accelerated, turned on their space curvature engines, and headed straight for the Walf galaxy, 14 light-years away.

“Master, doing things this way, we’ll be giving away the A-class warships that we’ve worked on for 7 or 8 years.”

Alice pouted, looking displeased. “Master, you are a little too generous. That’s our entire force, and we’re just giving it away like this?”

“Not ‘giving.’ We’re just lending them out.”

Chen Jin had no choice but to explain again.”We still have control of the highest authority. There is no possibility of betrayal. Besides, such a powerful battleship is wasted here. Why not let them go into battle and show off their true value?

“And we have mastered the production process for A-Class warships. In another five years at most, we will have another hundred such ships in our hands. Moreover, the even more powerful S-class prototype warship is in experimental production.”

“But I still think that Master is too fond of that woman. You’ve given her too many handouts,” Alice said with a jealous expression.

Next to Alice was Nuwa, who glared at her and said with a stern face. “This is a ‘win-win’ collaboration. How is it a ‘handout’? Also, how can you accuse the Master like that?”

“Actually, I’m truly not that generous.” Chen Jin gave a helpless smile. “If it were not for the earth-shaking changes that have taken place on Earth, I would have, at most, loaned to Mu Yunhua the B-class battleship that’s one generation out of date.

“This time, we have no choice but to speed up our efficiency.”

In just a few more years, the Chens would be poised to fall from a top-rate family to a second or third-rate clan.

Say, what had happened on Earth in recent times?

What had happened that had Chen Jin suddenly feeling such a sense of urgency, that he planned to integrate the all powers in the universe in which Haierfa existed? He had even shared knowledge of his current ace-in-the-hole without hesitation.

The reason was simple.

The Protoss on Earth had risen to power.

A skyrocketing rise.

They had suppressed the light of humanity in an instant.

These were a few of the iconic events.

Firstly, 18 of the top Protoss masters had killed all the human elite divisions in the 4th War of the Humans and Protoss, without sustaining any damage. This was despite the fact that the Protoss were faced with the humans’ “ultimate weapons,” which outnumbered them hundreds of times.

In one single moment, they had reversed their decline in fortunes, which had seen them defeated consecutively in the past three wars. They had erased the shame of the past three defeats in one stroke.

Moreover, based on the performance of those powerful practitioners, it seemed that they had not exhausted their full strength in that war. Humans could not be assured of their victory in the next War of the Humans and Protoss.

Secondly, the Revival of Magical Powers was speeding up. The portal near Jupiter’s orbit had suddenly expanded by a factor of 10,000. A high density of celestial particles could now escape into the solar system much more quickly. This rapidly increased the concentration of the natural spiritual energy.

The Protoss had achieved a complete victory in the 4th War of the Humans and Protoss. A significant reason for their success might have been the concentration of the natural spiritual energy, which had doubled the power of a majority of practitioners among the Protoss.

Thirdly, once again due to the acceleration of the Revival of Magical Powers, a large number of practitioners from the Shenguang Order had came to Earth, deployed themselves in a fighting formation, and set up “alternative spaces,” thus creating magical “space dimensions” that were each bigger than a typical city. However, these dimensions did not actually occupy any space in reality. This had greatly increased the living space of the Protoss immigrants.

There was even a mighty Protoss practitioner who had set up an alternative space called “Guanghan Palace” on the moon, which could accommodate millions of immigrants.

Naturally, with the help of an exceptionally powerful figure to greatly increase their living space, the Protoss sped up their migration rate.

So, within one short year, they carried out the feat of migrating 5 billion Protoss.

This caused the Protoss population currently living in the solar system to break through the 10 billion-mark. The number was likely to increase to more than 20 billion in the future.

On the other hand, the current total human population of the Earth Federation was only 25 billion. Moreover, it contained many ethnic groups, skin colors, races, and cultures…

Fourthly, the scientific and technological strength of the Protoss was rapidly approaching human standards.

The technology mentioned here refers to the “celestial technologies” that were developed based on the celestial particles. It was a different developmental pathway as compared to traditional, material technology.

However, due to their various magical characteristics, the potential and prospects of the celestial technologies far exceed that of material technologies, and replacements could be easily created.

What was even more frightening was that, after their three defeats in the War of the Humans and Protoss, the Protoss had become modest.

Not only had they accepted a variety of human inventions and technological products, but they were also very keen to learn. With their clever minds, it took only 20 years for them to absorb and digest the accumulated knowledge that had been created by mankind throughout the past 5,000 years.

After they had studied and thoroughly mastered the scientific disciplines, they also integrated them with other related fields after comprehensive study. As such, many human scientists needed to participate in research trends that now included the new celestial technologies.

The status of traditional science and technology plummeted.

Originally, a scientific view based on the doctrine that physical matter was the whole of reality had been regarded as truth. But it died a terrible death when it came face-to-face with celestial technologies.

The era in which the Protoss were the leader of trends was about to arrive.

With the Revival of Magical Powers happening in the background, the humans watched the Protoss getting more and more powerful. As a result, countless associations that sympathized with the Protoss, groups that advocated being subservient to the Protoss, and factions calling for compromise had appeared within human society.

The humans and the Protoss had been on an equal footing; but now, their position as equals seemed to be in jeopardy.

In terms of interests, the Protoss, who were gradually becoming stronger, were likely to pursue various means to impose or further expand their presence in areas that would be beneficial to them.

On the highly crowded Earth, the living areas for human beings were likely to decrease continuously…unless humans could seize back their interests and dignity in a War of the Humans and Protoss, which happened once every four years.

So… Chen Jin definitely had to take action.

If those foreign Protoss become the master of the house, he would be put out of the game. There would be no future for him. If that happened, how could he keep his secret?

Especially the homeland of Earth; it must be guarded! The worst must not be allowed to happen.

Get stronger.

That meant that his only choice was to get stronger.

It would be divided into two directions.

Naturally, he would speed up the expansion of his power on Haierfa. The more territories and resources he occupied, the better. If he could conquer the whole universe…. Chen Jin’s confidence would be sky-high.

Chen Jin also had a plan to maintain the interests of the Chen family on Earth. Their power would face minimal erosion.

“Ring ring ring~”

A phone call.

He tapped the button to connect the call. A crisp voice said, “Dad, the family meeting is ready. The main family members are in attendance, you are the only one missing… Everyone is waiting for you to give us instructions.”

“Oh, I understand.”

Chen Jin said calmly. He was the founder of Chen family’s industry; in the context of the rise of the Protoss, when the population was greatly alarmed, when they were faced with a change that had never been seen in thousands of years, only an old freak like him could bring together the hearts of all the family members and propose an appropriate response.

Chapter 443 - A Clan Meeting

Shanghai.

On the third basement level of the Chen family villa was a space measuring about one acre.

It was the biggest conference room, resembling a university’s lecture hall. It had a large number of seats and could accommodate hundreds of people.

At this moment, the conference room was filled with black-haired people. There were both men and women, all in formal dress for this meeting. They sat upright, in an orderly manner. The atmosphere in the room felt rather serious.

However, some of the core family members sitting in the front row whispered to one another with an air of anxiety. They buzzed whispered conversation.

Occasionally, one could even hear heated arguments.

“Now that the Protoss are getting stronger, the methods that they employ tend to be more violent. It seems like we can only abandon our interests and benefits on Earth.”

“You mean give up? We have more than 50 Free Cities, thousands of companies, and countless fixed assets. Their value cannot be measured. You want to abandon them completely, overnight? It’s easy to talk about it. But when the time comes, can you really bear to give them up?”

“We have no choice. We should redirect the expansion of our main interests toward other galaxies, and ensure that our interests are placed in a planet much farther away. In short, we can’t go head-to-head with the Protoss!”

“Are the Protoss really so scary? With the power of our family, we are not yet at the point where we have to actively divest ourselves of our interests.”

“Then, do you mean that we should fight the Protoss? It’s true that we have the capital to fight them. However, they are getting stronger and stronger. The resources that the Chen family can mobilize are limited. They will be quickly wasted, without any gains for us, in a fight with the Protoss. A family clan against an entire civilization? We are definitely the ones who can’t afford to fight against them.”

“Currently, the Li family, the Zhao family, the Tian family, and others in the country have stripped their assets on Earth to avoid inadvertently challenging the prowess of the Protoss. Countless other great clans outside the country have also evacuated themselves. If we are too late, we will become the target of the Protoss, an attractive and easy mark. No matter how many properties and resources we possess, we’ll still sustain heavy damages.”

“The Protoss do abide by rules and laws. They wouldn’t dare to make any move against us without serious consideration on their part…. Our cooperation with the Protoss remains air-tight, and we have established friendships with many forces within the Protoss. There is no need for us to be this timid or flustered.”

There were a variety of viewpoints.

“Silence!”

A voice rang out from the doorway.

A butler said in a clear voice, “The forefather has arrived. Everyone, stand up and bow.”

Their arguments subsided in an instant.

All the Chen family’s descendants stood up abruptly. With a respectful expression, they faced the doorway and gave a deep bow.

Tap, tap, tap…

The first people to enter were three mature and elegant women. They had youthful features, but all of them had the noble air of a princess or a queen. All the audience members wore an expression of admiration.

The three women found their places. Their stand-alone seats were on stage; one was placed in front of the other two, and they formed a triangular arrangement right at center stage.

They sat down, one after another.

Immediately, Chen Jin strode in with big steps.

“Everyone, the Honorable Ancestor has arrived. Show your respects in welcoming him!”

The Chen family’s descendants pressed their heads even lower. Their bodies trembled, and excitement were etched on their faces.

Fifty years had passed.

The Honorable Ancestor, who had built the clan single-handedly, had not participated in a major family conference like this for 50 years. Seeing as he was the origin of the blood flowing through the veins of the Chen family’s descendants, they had no reason not to be excited.

“Ok, enough.” Chen Jin waved his hand. “Go on with the discussions for the meeting.” He had removed himself from active management of the family decades ago. It seemed that there was more and more feuding and rubbish going on.

“I will sit here.”

Seeing that his wife, Su Yun, was sitting in a more spacious chair, he refused the offer of the butler to bring a large chair for him. He let Su Yun shift her butt slightly and moved to sit with her on the same chair. Su Yun, whom countless regarded as a noble queen who could not be blasphemed, was simply squeezed to one side. An arm snaked around her waist in a habitual movement.

Upon witnessing this scene, many of the Chen family’s descendants had sweat dotting their foreheads.

Even Su Yun could not help giving a forced smile. The noble persona that she had been cultivating for decades had collapsed, just like that.

After sitting down, Chen Jin’s gaze swept downwards to scan the audience around the room.

He roughly estimated the number of his descendants in the meeting. There were more than 300 people in total.

Sitting in the front three rows were descendants of Chen Jin and his official wife, Su Yun. They were the progeny of his daughters, Chen Xing Yue and Chen Xiao Yue. Women accounted for about half of this group.

Sitting in the back rows were branches of the family borne from Chen Jin and his “concubines.” They were the descendants of his four sons: Chen Bufan, Chen Feiyu, Chen Yuanchao, and Chen Xinghang. They were all male.

He had this many descendants born in just 120 to 130 years (not including the small off-shoots that were also blood relatives of his). Chen Jin had definitely achieved his goal of having many descendants, especially males.

In the Earth Federation, the Chen clan was known among the many wealthy families for their emphasis on propagation. As such, innumerable dissolute and playboy studs had emerged like flies in the Chen family. They had contributed countless gossip to the entertainment industry.

In addition, because the direct descendants of the official lineage of the Chen family were women, and there were many female descendants who wore the pants at home, they had “recruited” a large number of husbands who had married into their wives’ family. Among the many wealthy families, the Chen clan was the one with the largest number of husbands who married in their wives’ family. As such, this pattern of marriage had given rise to countless gossipy stories of strong females and weak males.

Both the official and the concubine branches had chaotic personal lives, which led to numerous rumors and negative labels.

Actually, the root cause still laid with Chen Jin. There was a saying: “If a leader sets a bad example, it will be followed by his subordinates.” In some respects, he was definitely a bad example.

However, upon seeing so many of the descendants of the Chen family in this room, Chen Jin still felt very gratified and humbled. He had qualified successors to continue his undertaking.

The discussions below the stage continued.

Chen Jin listened for a little and realized that the differences between their viewpoints were relatively large.

The arguments between the official branch and the concubine branches were especially intense.

After some thought, Chen Jin understood the reasons for the dispute between the two factions:

Personal interests.

In order to make up for the guilt he felt, Chen Jin had transferred more than 90% of his assets to the descendants from his official lineage; the remaining 10% was shared between the concubine lineages.

According to Matthew’s effect, the development of those from the official lineage was naturally fast since they had huge resources. Their resources were spread all over the world. They had acquired extremely huge benefits and interests for themselves from space exploration activities.

The benefits obtained from the exploration and development activities of other galaxies also largely went to the official lineage.

The descendants from the concubine lineages had greater numbers, but, because the slice of pie that was given to them was tiny, and too many people were cut off, there was little potential for development. The tendrils that they extended to expand their interests were mostly limited to Earth. Most of them possessed only small companies or equities with market values of billions or tens of billions. There were not many with a net worth of more than 100 billion.

If not for the rise of the Protoss, there would be no need to gather all their power. It was for this reason alone that the concubine lineages were invited to come over. In the past years, the descendants of the concubine lineages had not even had the right to attend the clan meeting.

It was because of the differences in the distribution of interests.

Most of the children from the official lineage advocated giving up their interests on Earth by selling them to the Protoss. Through this, they could demonstrate a friendly gesture to the Protoss at no extra cost to themselves. They could then concentrate their energies on developing their interests in other galaxies and capturing returns that were worth thousands or tens of thousands of times more than what they had invested. They did not have to live under the threat of the Protoss. It would be a free and easy life.

Most of the children of the concubine lineages advocated putting their best effort into preserving their interests on Earth. They argued that they could not surrender that easily. Earth was the birthplace and homeland of all human beings. Backing down and retreating just like this was extremely weak.

They had to try their best to hold fast to the beautiful Earth. No matter how challenging it was, they could not give up so easily. The Protoss would laugh in mockery.

Of course, these were simply tough words.

In fact, this was a more tactful way of expressing the wishes of those from the concubine lineages—they hoped that those from the official lineage would give them a cut of the action when they moved off of Earth.

If the children from the official lineage were willing to give them one or two high-value planets each and allow them to participate in-depth in the development plans of the other galaxies out of pity, they would immediately change their tune and support those from the official lineage, who planned to give up their interests on Earth.

But after arguing for an hour or two, the children from the official lineage seemed to have no intention of giving any planets or providing a back-up plan for those of the concubine lineages. This made them feel very helpless.

Even Chen Jin could not help but shake his head.

He secretly sighed, “Unity, unity. All of them are the blood and flesh of the Chen family. You help me and I help you; it’s natural to help each other. Why is every single one of them so petty? ‘When brothers stand united, they will be invincible.’ Don’t they understand this logic?”

However, as his gaze swept over the faces of his wife Su Yun, and his daughters Chen Xing Yue and Chen Xiao Yue, Chen Jin understood that women were not very generous in some aspects.

But these arguments could not be allowed to continue indefinitely.

Faced with the skyrocketing rise of the Protoss, the Chen family had to come up with a response plan as soon as possible.

Bam, bam, bam…

Chen Jin smacked the arm of the chair with his palm and coughed twice. He suddenly spoke out, “Enough! Stop arguing. Get two people to talk about your main point of views, and I will make a decision.”

The audience quickly quieted down.

The two sides sent good representatives who spoke well.

From the official lineage was an outstanding child named Chen Shuyi. He stood up and said, “Honorable Ancestor, Earth will soon become the base camp of the Protoss. It’s the place where their forces are the most powerful. It is no good to remain here. The best solution is to go to other places to develop our interests and avoid the Protoss. We should develop in places where there are no Protoss until we are strong enough to challenge them and recreate the glory of the Chen family.”

“This program is okay, but…” Chen Jin shook his head. “The scale of the universe is massive. Although the characteristics of the celestial particles are particularly magical, they are generally only dispelled from the plane where the time-space portal is located. The farther away we are from the portal, the lesser the concentration of the celestial particles, and we will only be able to attain lower levels of spiritual cultivation. Celestial technologies have been accepted as mainstream science for some time, and they now lead in the latest and most cutting-edge direction for research. They even represent a brand-new future. If we go to a faraway place with a low concentration of natural spiritual energy, our science and tech development will fall behind the mainstream.”

And when that happened, not only would they fail to recreate their glory, but they could even be trounced by their enemies.

“Don’t worry, Honorable Ancestor!” Chen Shuyi suddenly smiled and said, “The intergalactic exploration team that we have sent out found that the portal that dispels celestial particles does not exist exclusively in this solar system. We have found two galaxies where huge amounts of celestial particles exist. In one of the galaxies, we have even found an open portal to the Heavenly Realm!

“So the Revival of Magical Powers is not just a phenomenon of our solar system. It is happening in the entire Milky Way—the entire universe.

“Of course, this is very surprising news. It cannot be made known to others. I have announced it in advance to show my respect for the Honorable Ancestor.”

Chen Shuyi looked at Chen Jin with an expression of expectation. It seemed like he really wanted to get his praise.

“Good, very good.” Chen Jin’s approval was written on his face. “If the revival is occurring across the whole universe, then leaving Earth and going to other galaxies to develop is absolutely the best option. Most of the family’s resources should be invested in this direction.”

After all, a land of freedom was better than a dangerous land which could be compared to living alongside tigers and leopards in the wild.

“Honorable Ancestor!”

Among the children of the concubine lineages was a man named Chen Xingming. He stood up with an expression of entreaty and said, “Please, let the children from other lineages join the plan. It takes a lot of manpower to develop other galaxies. I think we can provide a lot of reliable human resources.”

Their position changed.

The position of the children from the concubine lineages underwent a tremendous shift. Suddenly, they supported the plans of the children from the official lineage.

They even laid down their appearances of high principle and integrity, directly expressing their desire to participate.

Moreover, the Honorable Ancestor was here. If they pleaded sincerely, the children of the official lineage would definitely give them “face” and share a piece of the action with them.

He listened to the many pleading voices and looked at how those agreeing to the proposed plan had automatically become a unified front. Although this was a good thing that was worth being happy about…

Chen Jin’s expression became dark.

“Earth is the birthplace of all human beings, the homeland of every human being, the place where our Chen family has risen and developed, the place where we have set down roots for hundreds of years—and you’re just giving it up for the sake of some interests and benefits?

“Is it because you have for too long lived a rich and comfortable life, that even the little bit of courage you possessed has been wiped out?

“Are you really my progeny?”

Chen Jin’s face was dark and he looked very angry. He felt very disappointed!

Woah…

All the descendants were taken aback, and they rushed to acknowledge their mistake. A few of them panicked and knelt down in apology.

“Honorable Ancestor, this… What’s wrong?”

“Should we not give up the foundation of Earth?”

“I was wrong, Honorable Ancestor. As descendants of the Chen family, we have actually become cowards. We only thought of running away.”

“Honorable Ancestor, whether to leave or to stay, we will act according to your intentions!”

“Yes, Honorable Ancestor, please calm down. All of us here look to you.”

All sorts of flattery emerged. There was panic in the room.

After all, all the children of the Chen family in the audience knew that, even though their forefather had not expressed interest in clan affairs for more than 50 years, he absolutely could not be treated with contempt or angered. This was because he created this clan. He was also the one who retained Xing Hai Group, and he had stayed. All of the foundations were solidified under his hands.

Everything of the Chen family, including themselves, came from their forefather. How could they dare to treat him with contempt?

What was more, the forefather seemed to be holding some mysterious interests close to his heart. This could be of great assistance to the family. He could even be said to be their eternal patron saint.

He was the trump card and guarantee of the Chen family’s prosperity!

How could they dare not to show him respect?

“Hmph… There’s not even a few decent ones.”

After complaining, Chen Jin had lost most of his anger. When he calmed down, he expressed his thoughts.

“Your considerations are not wrong. It is indeed better to go to other galaxies to expand and develop. It is better than staying on the earth. The Protoss are becoming stronger with each passing day. I am afraid that we have no choice but to avoid the danger they represent. This general direction is not wrong.

“But we can’t ever give Earth up. We can’t simply rush out like a migrating herd. We must guard this planet!

“This is not only for the dignity of human beings, but also for the interests of the family.

“I’ll put it this way: if all the interests of the Chen family equals to 1, then the interest that we have on Earth is at least 0.3. If we leave, the Chen family will have only 70% left. If we keep a portion of our descendants here to retain our interests on Earth, then the Chen family can be 100% powerful.

“Don’t underestimate the 0.3 portion of interest. Solely with this 0.3 of interest, we can be certain of defeating the Protoss in the War of the Humans and Protoss. This will be sufficient to keep them polite and respectful—they would not dare move rashly against the Chen family.”

Chen Jin revealed this shocking piece of information and slowly scanned the audience. “So, do you understand what I mean?”

Chapter 444 - Staying To Take Care Of Things

Chen Jin voiced his purpose in a veiled manner.

Interests.

Huge interests.

A proportion of at least 30%… This was a scale of such proportions that one could never abandon it.

Of course, in actual fact, most of the assets included in the 30% were Chen Jin’s personal interests; but he needed people to help protect them.

Especially the portal to the alternate dimension.

Which included the whole universe that the planet of Haierfa resided in.

It was impossible for Chen Jin to give it up; he could not bear to do so.

Therefore, he would not leave Earth… even if all other human beings left and all the remaining occupants were the Protoss, he would still stay here.

The other universe that existed on the other side of the portal was something that he must protect.

It was likely to become his future home.

Surrendering the portal to the Protoss on a silver platter—that was out of the question.

But it was impossible to protect such an important secret by himself. In order to safeguard such a huge interest, he needed someone to provide assistance.

Of course, the people that he could trust in such a capacity were the Chen family members. They were his descendants.

Listening to Chen Jin’s words, the children of the family were very surprised, and they came to a sudden realization at the same time.

His daughter, Chen Xing Yue muttered, “So it’s like that. It’s no wonder that Dad also managed to come up with technologies like the curvature engine a few years ago. He easily provided many advanced technologies that were more than 20 or 30 years ahead of their time. This indicates that Dad has is supported by an extremely powerful technical team behind the scenes. They’ve come close to mastering the ultimate truth of matter, and the value is immeasurable!

“30% of the whole pie—this is indeed very significant. This is equivalent to dozens, even hundreds of high-value galaxies.

“With this, we could even fight with the Protoss on an equal footing, and make them fear the consequences of tangling with us. They would not dare to have any thoughts or make any moves against the Chen family, and they would show their respect and reverence.

“The Chen family has always stood above all the other first-class families, and we’ve always been expanding and getting stronger. The reason is because Dad might still hold some extremely powerful aces up his sleeve.”

No one knew what the actual aces were, or their actual value and specific numbers, but they could not be underestimated.

For example, the “knowledge bank.” All the knowledge of human beings was held within it. The integrity of the content was rumored to be even greater than the government’s very own backup.

In addition, they had Galaxy Era, a virtual game that had been running for nearly a hundred years, with a shockingly long life cycle. Not only had the game become unprofitable in recent times, but they nevertheless invested trillions in the game every year, just to keep it running. This was due to the game’s ridiculously high level of realism. It was said that all the advanced technologies in it could absolutely be put into use.

Infinitely close to reality.

This virtual game definitely contained an infinite amount of value.

There might be interests in other areas in addition to the Knowledge Bank and Galaxy Era, but Chen Xing Yue knew nothing more, and she would never guess it correctly anyway. Unless Chen Jin were to tell her personally, it would forever remain a secret.

But, in any case, they could not give up Earth, and could not abandon their interests on this planet.

Chen Jin immediately stated his request.

“I will silently acknowledge everyone who has come to participate in the family meeting today as the core children of the family. All of you have a certain level of capability.

“Yes, we can leave Earth to go to other galaxies and develop our interests there. All children of the official lineage and a majority of children from the concubine lineages have the right to choose this route of development.

He stretched out his palm. “Fifty people. I need fifty core children of the Chen family to stay on Earth and to defend our foundations here.

“I know that this is a difficult choice. The outside world is infinitely vast. You can randomly choose to develop any galaxy, and you will get endless benefits. Moreover, by leaving Earth, you will enjoy a life of freedom and ease.

“If you stay on the earth, you will face many variables and risks. You will be faced with the challenges imposed by the Protoss. Without sufficient courage, it is a life that will be difficult to endure.

“But I will also stay and work with the family members left behind. Together, we will tackle the heretofore unknown challenges.

“And in terms of interests, the people left behind will receive most of the assets of the family members who choose to leave. The resources under their control will increase by several times. In the later stages of development, even if we are faced with challenges presented by the Protoss, I will still strive to create as many benefits and interests as possible to strengthen our power.

“In short, whether you are staying or leaving, you can still embrace all-new opportunities and challenges.”

However, the opportunities that came with staying on Earth seemed to be smaller and the challenges bigger.

The immediate reaction of the Chen family’s descendants made Chen Jin feel a little sad.

“Honorable Ancestor, you are not leaving with us?”

“Honorable Ancestor, Earth is like a danger zone nowadays. There is no need to stay together to defend our interests.”

“We still need the Honorable Ancestor to lead us beyond the distant stars.”

His daughter, Chen Xing Yue, looked at him and said, “Dad, come with us. You are the backbone, The clan can’t be without you.”

Most of the children from the official lineage were worrying about his safety.

In fact, they had also spelled out their own attitude—all of them wanted to leave.

Those children from the concubine lineages who possessed only small amounts of resources did not immediately express their stance. But they nervously watched the children from the official lineage, and their expressions revealed their desire to ride on their coattails.

Chen Jin was a little irritated. He stood up and said, “Enough. I’ve seen and understood your filial piety. As for who is going to stay and who is going to leave, discuss among yourselves and make a decision. Fifty people—I just need fifty people to stay with me. Give me the list of fifty people in two hours!”

If there were no volunteers, then they could only be assigned to it. He would let them decide who should stay.

He strode out of the meeting room after giving his instructions.

…

More than two hours later, a list appeared in Chen Jin’s hands.

They successfully announced the fifty of the core children from the Chen family who had been arranged to stay on Earth to protect their interests.

Chen Jin quickly scanned the list.

Among the 50 people, there was only one from his official lineage. The remaining 49 were the children of his concubine lineages.

He did not know whether they chose to stay of their own free will or not, but most of them were probably unwilling… Chen Jin would not concern himself about the details, as long as there were people who stayed to help him.

“It is possible that the majority of those on the list may be pawns who have been abandoned. I estimate that there will not be many who are truly capable. Ah, moving toward what will be advantageous and beneficial while avoiding what is dangerous or risky—this kind of idealistic thinking is part of human nature. I can’t really say anything about this.”

However, for the next two days, Chen Jin heard plenty of remonstrations.

Most of them hoped that he would leave with them.

“Honorable Ancestor, the number of human beings living on the earth is now less than 3 billion. Most of them have emigrated. In the future, their remaining numbers may be reduced to less than 1 billion. They will be relegated to a minority group. This is very dangerous. You should not take this risk.”

“Leaving a few dozen of your descendants is more than enough. You are not young. If something goes wrong, the clan will be destabilized.”

“Let’s leave together, Honorable Ancestor!”

The above exhortations did not affect Chen Jin.

His wife, Su Yun, and their daughters Chen Xing Yue and Chen Xiao Yue also pleaded with him, hoping that he would sail with them to other planets on the same spaceship.

Faced with their beseeching expressions, Chen Jin still shook his head. “Although there may be another thousand or ten thousand years left in my lifespan, my roots are here, and I can’t go. If you really can’t bear to part, you can stay with me. If you want to make the same request of me that many others have done, then I can only apologize. I really can’t leave this place.”

Su Yun’s mouth opened and closed. Her words were all choked up.

However, she simply could not say that she wanted to stay together with him on Earth.

She could only gather tears in her eyes and glare at him harshly. “You heartless thing!”

…

After a while, the immigration activities of the Chen family began, one after another.

Interstellar spacecraft went back and forth.

The Chen family’s resources and clan members left the Earth with a trace of sadness and reluctance as they embarked into the deep unknown of the starry sky.

Gone.

One by one, they had all left.

In the end, only a small framework of the huge Chen family remained. They still stayed on Earth, with its upheavals, to take care of their interests.

The atmosphere gradually became cold and cheerless.

Even Chen Jin wavered slightly—was it necessary to stay?

In truth, after the Revival of the Magical Powers, the universe in which Earth resided had entered an era of high energy. The potential of all areas, including the evolution of individuals and the transformation of science and technology, was actually greater than that for their counterparts on Haierfa.

After a maximum of a hundred or two hundred years, Earth would emerge to become an extremely exciting and wonderful world.

There would be countless opportunities and unlimited potential. Earth would definitely be stronger than the universe in which Haierfa was located.

However, leaving Earth was tantamount to abandoning his “golden finger,” and was equivalent to giving up on being bound to Haierfa.

To live in ease, in exchange for everything in his past.

He really could not do it.

Fortunately, on this particular day, when he was a little indecisive and confused—Clack! The door opened. The identity of the old friend who came to visit stunned him.

“Guo Yan?”

He looked at the woman at the door in astonishment. “You didn’t leave with your son? Why are you here? Don’t tell me that you’ve also come to persuade me to leave?”

“No. I am old and I don’t want to leave.” Guo Yan shook her head. Suddenly, she gave an ironic smile and said, “Besides, nearly everyone is gone. From now on, you’ll probably belong to me alone?”

This…

Looking at her charming smile that carried a trace of shyness…

Even if years had passed…

Even if the memories of the past had been blurred…

At this very moment, Chen Jin was so touched that he could not speak.

At this moment, he even believed that so-called “love” existed, just a little.

Because true love was not vows of undying devotion. It was to live an ordinary, carefree life with your lover and to silently grow old together.

Chen Jin opened his arms. With a wide smile, he said, “Welcome.”

And so, he had another permanent mistress of the house in his covert villa.

…

Two years later.

The number of Protoss on Earth had increased from one billion-plus to nearly 15 billion, occupying 90% of the living space.

The number of human beings had plummeted from about 3 billion to less than 1 billion.

On Earth, human beings—the original masters—had been reduced to a minority group.

Only half of the two billion people who had been lost in the past two years emigrated via the interstellar spaceships. The other half, a population of one billion, were burned to ashes by the furious Protoss, who attacked in the form of a terrible storm.

One billion human beings had died under the butchery of the Protoss.

It could be described as extremely tragic and brutal. It was enough to sentence countless Protoss with “crimes against humanity.”

However, there are very few reports about the incident in the social media of the human world, which seemed unduly reticent about it.

Chen Jin and his descendants who stayed on Earth found out about some insider information, but they did not plan to reveal the truth.

“In any case, it’s good that no one from the Chen family died in this massacre. On the contrary, I didn’t think that a simple “rape attack” assault would lead to the deaths of everyone of African heritage and the purge and banishment of many white people. As for the religious who were too poor to afford tickets to the ship, they’ve all been sent to heaven.

“Tsk, the Protoss are actually so decisive in their killings.”

There were two reasons why the remaining one billion were permitted to stay. In some regards, the Protoss did not dare to carry out the evil that such a massive culling would entail. Furthermore, most of the people left were yellow-skinned with black hair; In terms of appearance, they were 70% to 80% similar to the Protoss. The Protoss did not want to destroy people from a race they saw as similar to them. Hence, they did not make any brutal moves against them.

Chen Jin, his thousands of descendants, and the tens of millions of Z country citizens were not harmed because they were similar to the Protoss in many respects. Not only that, but they also received better treatment from the Protoss.

In particular, the Chen family were honored guests of the Protoss. They had maintained an extremely close cooperation with them for the past two years.

They were highly valued by the Protoss and were key partners.

The reason was very simple.

One was technology. The most advanced tech of the human world was controlled by the Chen family. There were many technologies that the Protoss had not yet mastered or had not thoroughly explored. Their technological standards in most fields still lagged behind those of the humans by at least 30 years.

Humans technology was the best when it came to many core components, such as chips, engines, and the like. The humans had a greater cumulative advantage.

Hence, there was a need for trade.

The Chen family had plenty of high-tech factories and advanced equipment here on Earth. Even if just for the sake of saving transportation costs, the Protoss were willing to go to the Chen family and sign purchase orders with them.

The second reason was content.

In particular, content produced in the cultural industry. The Chen family was practically the best producer of content and spiritual food.

For example, in the areas of TV dramas, movies, and animations, the Chen family’s Xing Hai Entertainment company accounted for more than 60% of the market share in the Protoss consumer market.

Seven out of ten blockbuster films specially created for the Protoss were produced by Xing Hai Entertainment.

Five to six out of every ten professional and well-known Protoss celebrities were signed with Xing Hai Entertainment.

In addition, when it came to the gaming industry seven or eight out of every ten popular games were developed by the Xing Hai Game company. These games had billions of Protoss players.

Of particular importance was the revised version of the online virtual game now called Galaxy Era 2.0. After the revision, the game was able to increase one’s level of understanding and perception in spiritual cultivation. Thus, it attracted more than 800 million Protoss players… With the participation of these players, the backend servers of Galaxy Era had figured out countless exercises and skills that could be employed in spiritual cultivation.

So long as some Protoss became addicted to the game, practically all of the spiritual cultivation exercises that were regarded by the Protoss as “top secret” landed in Nuwa’s backend database.

Hence, Chen Jin felt as if he had agreed to war.

The war was to rob them of the “brain” that gave birth to wisdom and intelligence. As long as he could take over the minds of the Protoss for himself, he could obtain that precious mental and spiritual wealth at will.

Therefore, in addition to their involvement in the industrial technology field for the two years, the Chen family’s descendants who had stayed behind also put their main energy into activity for the production of high-quality spiritual food.

Chen Jin also passed on the spiritual cultivation exercises and methods that they had collected through the quantum communicator so that the rest of the Chen family who had gone to other galaxies could develop them.

In this way, a large number of high-quality spiritual cultivation exercises and methods were used by descendants of the Chen family in other galaxies.

Chapter 445 - Killer Ace

Of the Chen family descendants who stayed behind, Chen Junfeng, in his forties, was the most capable. He was also one of the more senior members of the clan and was very reliable.

He was, furthermore, a liaison—an important member of their personnel, who was responsible for contacting Chen Jin and reporting on the situation.

Inside the villa.

“Recently, Grandpa, there have been some rumors coming in from the Protoss. It seems that several of their large clans are targeting our family and want to meddle with us.

“In addition, there is a very strong Protoss clan that has actively expressed goodwill towards us. They’ve stated that… they can provide us with asylum.”

He couldn’t help but clench his fists as he said this. He felt frustrated and depressed.

Asylum. The Chen family had once been the number-one clan and had controlled immeasurable wealth, power, and resources. Now, did they actually need others to provide asylum?

An insult. When he heard that word, it felt like an insult.

It demonstrated the greatest contempt and disrespect for the Chen family.

Indeed, after their “family separation,” the modern-day Chen clan had scattered their interests, and its members were going their separate ways, so that they could be one step ahead in the headlong rush into the era of intergalactic colonization.

But they still were not to be underestimated.

The Chen family had many resources because they had mastered many core technologies.

For example, the Federation’s Fourth Sub-Division Fleet was still controlled by the family. It relied on the funds that the family sponsored, by which they just barely maintained it.

They had technology and power, and were not a target that just any rubbish force could go after.

Considering the fact that that they needed the humans’ help, the Protoss currently did not dare not to go overboard with their greed concerning a large family clan such as this.

Even if only out of caution toward the Fourth fleet of the Federation, the Protoss had to maintain a certain degree of respect. After all, the Chen family was still a behemoth that was not to be intentionally roused.

However, it was not a good sign that others were thinking about the Chen family a lot.

“How about this: we will give them a cut of our pie through financial methods again,” Chen Jin said. “Excluding Xing Hai Technologies, we’ll cede them 50% of the shares in Xing Hai Entertainment and Xing Hai Game Company. They’ve been holding themselves back for at least two or three years. If they continue to restrain themselves, the dam will break sooner or later.”

Chen Jin’s instructions gave the same response again—he planned to give away a share of the “pie” so they could make a bigger one. He wanted to share a portion of their benefits to win over a few partners.

But it was uncertain if this kind of practice would be effective in a world where the Protoss’ culture of “strength determines respect” prevailed. How long could the Chen family keep the Protoss at bay?

“Grandpa!” Chen Junfeng gritted his teeth. “Based on the appetites of the Protoss clans, 50% of the shares may not be able to satisfy them.” In truth, it might barely be enough to gratify their cravings.

Moreover, multiple clans would be competing for the shares.

“Then we’ll drag it out,” Chen Jin said. “Drag things out for another three to five years and try not to start a conflict with any Protoss clan.” He had decided that they would lay low and ride this situation out for a period of time.

“But what about after three to five years?” Chen Junfeng asked. He did not think that dragging things out was a solution. It only served to delay the time when they would be gobbled up. Moreover, the Chen family would seem weak if they backed down even further and gave away more concessions. Those greedy Protoss would become more aggressive the weaker they appeared.

Moreover, most of the Protoss were not very interested in shares. They did not have a culture or habit of sharing with others.

In any area of investment, they were used to either gobbling things up or splitting them up into different businesses that they would then manage separately.

The Protoss were sometimes really unreasonable to deal with.

Once you were a target, the only thing to do was to display your strength. Otherwise, things could become very difficult.

Chen Jin’s plan to drag things out might not have any effect.

“Then approach the strongest clan nearby, the Ironwood Clan, and explain the difficulties that we’ve encountered. Ask if they can guarantee the absolute safety of the Chen family. If they can do so, then 50% of our annual net profit will go to them.

“If they can’t guarantee it, and they can’t or won’t do even a single thing for our safety, then we’ll terminate our cooperation with them and stop paying the protection fee.

“In this way, we’ll offer a deal up as tender, the purpose of this bidding being to recruit the strongest asylum providers. If there is any death or injury to the core children of the Chen family during the period of asylum, our cooperation with them will be terminated, and the offer of tender will be reopened.

“Also, we’ll put a bounty on the forces that have hurt our children. Whoever can help the Chen family exact revenge will receive 50% of the net profit for that particular year.”

After pondering for a while, Chen Jin had come up with this solution.

50% of the annual net profit from the Chen family’s various corporations and holdings across the globe was no small figure. These assets were worth at least a trillion celestial dollars.

Even the most powerful Protoss clan would feel an immediate stirring in their hearts when faced with such tremendous spoils. They would then immediately issue a request to provide asylum.

But it was also a “hot potato.”

Chen Jin was, in truth, demanding a “true asylum” that could ensure that the safety of all the Chen family’s children. It had to yield results.

If their protection failed and their children were attacked or injured, then their cooperation would cease immediately. The agreed remuneration would turn into a bounty-like reward.

It was harsh. Chen Jin’s requirements were quite demanding.

“This strategy is good, but it would have side effects,” Chen Junfeng said, raising his concerns. “That is, our children may become the target of attacks by other forces. The more powerful clans among the Protoss may not accept this clause.”

“You’re right,” Chen Jin said, nodding. “If a clan doesn’t have the ability to follow through, then they shouldn’t start something that they can’t finish. There is no such thing as enjoying the benefits without taking on the risks. The Chen family is not a weakling that can be easily destroyed… It won’t be that easy for them to get their hands on our money.

“I know the risks involved, as well. After we offer this tender, the probability of our children being attacked will definitely increase. But we have no choice. The world is like this. No matter what we choose, there will be risks and the possibility of being bullied.

“The most foundational way to solve this problem is to become stronger and stronger. Only when we are strong and powerful can we protect everything that is ours!

“The reason that I want to drag things out is also to buy time so that our family can gain strength.”

This was all because the Chen family was secretly implementing the “Sage Plan.” It was bound to be a great success after another three or five years.

As long as the plan proved successful, it would lead to an increase in the speed at which powerful practitioners were created. The process would be hundreds, even thousands of times faster. They could even mass produce powerful experts in batches.

The Sage Plan was mainly comprised of two parts.

The first was the super brain chip. They would integrate a biochip with a computing speed of more than one trillion Flops into the human brain, thus speeding up its operating speed and greatly improving the individual’s intelligence. The person would, to a certain extent, become an intellectual “freak.”

After all, in terms of computing power, the human brain could never be compared to a chip. Even the practitioners of the Shenguang Order and the Sage Order did not necessarily have an operating speed of one trillion Flops.

As long as the super brain chip was successful, any practitioner with average aptitude and comprehension skills could become a “genius.”

The second part was the plan called “Body of a Sage.”

The main content of the plan was to use genetic engineering to change the genome sequences inside the human body, enhance the natural aptitude of the physical form, and bring it ever closer to a “genius physique.” Like the evolution of genes, it would gradually remove the shackles that were on ordinary mortals and losers.

The essence of this plan was, in fact, similar to how the Protoss practitioners looked for artifacts everywhere they could and took medicinal herbs. Both aimed to improve one’s constitution, change one’s genes, and to strengthen oneself.

However, the unique features of the Body of a Sage program rested in its use of biotechnology. Many of the allocated containers for the chemical agents that acted on genes had a distinguishing feature: they could be mass-produced. They were “factory” products and did not require a variety of herbs, elixirs, or such.

Hence, there were no concerns about poisoning or the buildup of heavy metals.

As long as the “Body of a Sage” program was successful, the super-genius suitable for spiritual cultivation would, after multiple periods of genetic evolution, become a product that could be mass-produced.

However… Even though Xing Hai Technologies had accumulated a wealth of inventions, the Sage Plan had already been underway for nearly two decades.

After all, the structure of the human body was the most complicated subject, and genes could not be edited on demand. In actual clinical experiments, attempts had led to the collapse of multiple genes in the experimental bodies. Many problems arose that they had not encountered in their computer simulations.

Therefore, the clinical success rate of the Sage Plan was currently less than 30%, and the mortality rate was nearly 40%.

However, the trick to success had been found. In three to five years, as long as the clinical success rate of the “Sage Plan” reached 60% and the mortality rate dropped below 10%, it could be distributed and implemented. Batches of spiritual cultivation geniuses could be nurtured.

Chen Junfeng certainly knew about the Sage Plan and was actually very excited about it. He was looking forward to an early success.Above all, the Chen family had never stopped strengthening their power, and they were now standing firmly on their own two feet. Chen Junfeng found that there were still great benefits for the family in staying on Earth.

Firstly, the concentration of natural spiritual energy here was higher than on other planets.

Secondly, there were many artifacts and all kinds of herbs and elixirs, which were being grown on a massive scale. Not only were these items easy to find, but they were also relatively affordable.

Thirdly, there was an abundance of high-level monks and powerful magical weapons. The soil, minerals, vegetation, and beasts shipped from the Heavenly Realm had turned the entire Earth on its head.

Staying on Earth would allow also them to come into contact with higher-level cultivation exercises, richer ores at a discount, and elixir resources… It was a place very suitable for spiritual cultivation practice.

But this premise demanded that the Chen family be able to stand through their own power in the long-term and continue forward development.

…

After a few more words, Chen Junfeng returned with Chen Jin’s solution and prepared himself mentally for the compromise.

He knew very well that the Chen family was not lacking money. The only thing they were short on was time.

“Three years, five years… The sooner the better! The Chen family will rise above the Protoss sooner or later!”

…

Haierfa.

Crater City.

Chen Jin came over because he had to deal with several things.

He faced the screen, summoned the AI Nuwa, and asked a few questions.

“Where did Guo Yan go? Why don’t I see her around?”

“She went to the moon. She got tired of exploring Haierfa and wanted to go out for a change of scenery.”

“Oh.” Chen Jin smiled helplessly. “She used to be a homebody back on Earth. She never moved once in the decades that she lived just outside of my neighborhood. But she seems to have been having crazy fun ever since she arrived here. Has this triggered a switch? She’s suddenly become so open.”

“It’s probably due to some kind of catharsis,” Nuwa analyzed. “You belonged to other women on Earth. She had no hope for anything besides waiting silently by the sidelines. Now, this universe is a world that belongs solely to the two of you. No third party can interfere with this relationship. Hence, her originally dull and gray world has become rich and colorful. Life has become beautiful. Speaking metaphorically, I would say that she is experiencing her second spring.”

“She waited on scum like me for decades?” Chen Jin smiled bitterly and shook his head. “No matter how I think about it, I committed a serious sin, one that was unforgivable. But she’s just so silly.”

“Persistence is victory, Master. That is what she herself said. She has never had any regrets. She was the first one to whom you told your biggest secret. All her efforts have been rewarded. She is the ultimate winner; of course she wanted to cheer and celebrate,” Nuwa said with a teasing smile.

“OK, OK. Let’s drop this topic.” Chen Jin beckoned Nuwa over. “How’s the execution of the ‘S Plan’ going along? Can you achieve the finished product in the near future?”

‘S plan,’ naturally, referred to the plan for the S-class interstellar warship. It would be the pinnacle of military power on Haierfa.

In fact, the technological aspects of the project had been ridiculously difficult in the previous stage of planning. It required countless technologies that were of a mythical nature. It would only be possible to manufacture it after a few hundred years, at least.

A few simple examples of the black-box technologies involved were as follows.

Firstly, there was the defense. The mainframe used in the S-class warship would be a highly interactive material that was extremely hard and tough. It was a substance made up of water droplets. It had the unique characteristic of remaining unchanged even if it were to bust through a planet.

Another piece of equipment was the latest fifth-generation force-field alloy armor. It would rebound almost all physical and energy attacks. It was the ultimate energy shield, with a beyond-ridiculous defensive ability.

Such a warship could even crash into a star and remain unscathed.

Secondly, in terms of attack power, it called for a primary particle cannon that could release a blast that was half-matter and half-energy in nature. It would be the most powerful cannon in existence, equivalent to a nuclear bomb with a yield of 1 billion tons. There was practically no substance that could withstand the flow of a particle attack traveling at nearly the speed of light and the huge amount of energy it represented.

There were also more powerful gravity bombs, force field cages, and antimatter bombs, all of which would be extremely terrifying.

Lastly was the power system, which demanded the most advanced fourth-generation curvature engine in order to complete a flight across the universe at up to 150 times the speed of light. In addition, after it had stored ample energy, the engine could stretch the curvature of space by a factor of over 1,000 in an instant. Thereafter, it could actualize the effect of “leaping across space.” It would take only an instant for the warship to move Point A to Point B, which could range from a few to dozens of light-years away.

However, the flaws of the “space leap” were obvious. Beyond general direction, the flight distance and position were random; such a ship could not travel accurately.

The three major systems of the ship—attack power, defense, and mobility—would bring the S-class interstellar warship’s energy consumption to a terrifying level. Ordinary fusion reactors were simply not enough.

They had to develop a matter-antimatter reactor that would double their energy efficiency.

Such a reactor could convert 100% of any physical substance into energy.

Notably, just one gram of antimatter was equivalent to the energy of 43,000 tons of explosives.

Even if only a little bit of “fuel” was put into such a reactor, the result would be equivalent to the explosion of a terrifyingly powerful bomb.

The technical difficulty of its construction was higher than that for the fusion reactor. The challenge had increased to a whole new level.

Even so, Nuwa and Alice had conquered all the technical difficulties.

They had also integrated multiple types of black-box technology, which were so powerful that one’s breath would stop in awe.

“Master, the first S-class warship has been completed.”

Nuwa continued, “This is all thanks to the celestial technology on Earth and the many varieties of celestial particles. They have provided miraculous solutions to many technical problems that seemed to have almost no explanation. Although it is defined as a mere S-class warship, it has the ability to destroy a whole fleet of A-class ships. It could even easily destroy a powerful civilization.

“We have an almost invincible killer ace in our hands.”

Chapter 446 - Mu Yunhua’s Revenge

In a materialist world, only matter could affect matter. But, in the idealist world, one could use one’s “spirit” to influence matter. For example, manufacturing a weapon or producing guns and ammunition would, in a materialist world, involve various tools and assembly lines. The process was complicated, large-scale, and had a high production cost. But in an idealist world, some wielders of supernatural power could change the structure of matter in terms of its internal atomic arrangement by controlling magnetic fields.

For example, they could make nano-products such as graphene and nano-alloys. Manufacturing these required a large production line. However, there were some powerful cultivators who could create extremely precise parts with their powerful micro-manipulation capabilities. Objects such as miniature spiritual fabrications, linked puppets, and so on could be created by a single individual.

In terms of craft, a single cultivator or one of those with superpowers could sometimes fill in for a massive production line, significantly reducing the complexity of processing and saving a heap of money.

Combining this fact with the large variety of minerals from the Heavenly Realm that had unique physicochemical properties, many inconceivable magical technologies had been realized. This technology transformed before Chen Jin’s eyes into the S-class warship, which had a comprehensive combat power that was hard to comprehend.

“The biggest difficulty still lies in mass production,” Nuwa said with a sigh. “It would take us approximately 10 years to produce just one S-class warship such as this. We can’t produce dozens of them every year like the A-class ones.” The more advanced a thing was, the harder it was to mass-produce. This was a fundamental truth applicable in all universes.

“One in ten years?” Chen Jin felt a little helpless. In this universe of unfathomable size, there were billions of galaxies. If they wanted to conquer them all, either they somehow had to instantly come out with billions of S-class warships, or they had to spend a billion years of time… neither path was achievable.

“Forget it. I need to stop overthinking this. This ace-in-the-hole we have in hand will be enough. We shall first establish an invincible position for ourselves and lay out a few small goals for us to realize step-by-step. It is completely unnecessary to worry.”

…

At the space dock.

As one entered the interior of the S-class warship, the silvery, bright space seemed to be spotless, and the artificial gravity seemed to come right from the ground, as if one were in a dreamlike, sci-fi fantasy. The decorative style of the bridge control center made it look like a luxurious gemstone showroom, brimming with the light refracting from various gems. Unless one turned the “glitz” mode off, it liked exceptionally magnificent.

“Switch to ‘simple mode’, these flashes will make me blind,” Chen Jin said as he faced the console.

“Sure, master,” said shipborne artificial intelligence ‘S,’ whose performance was no weaker than Nuwa’s.

“Take us around the solar system,” Chen Jin ordered.

“Yes, master.”

…

Through the transparent porthole.

The dazzling stars in the distance gradually became a display of curved lines.

Guo Yan who was right by his side, enjoying the incredible scenery with him.

“What a wonderful world. It would be even better if we could always live here,” Guo Yan said with great emotion. Once upon a time, her dream had been to live in a beautiful paradise with the one she loved, never disturbed by anyone. From the looks of things at that moment, it seemed that her unrealistic dream had actually come true.

A beautiful, undisturbed romantic oasis truly did exist.

“You are wrong. This world is similar to the universe on Earth’s side—equally bustling, and equally chaotic,” Chen Jin said, shaking his head and extending a finger. “1,000—in the Milky Way alone, more than 1,000 civilizations have been observed. The hidden and undisclosed ones total at least ten times that number. Wars are erupting in countless galaxies, as every civilization is made up of hunters.”

“Take planet Haierfa. It was once inhabited by a population of more than ten billion, but, because of the aliens’ plot, there were none left today. And, in the Walf Galaxy, just 14 light-years away, an intense interstellar war erupted just a few years ago. Danger and war are extremely close to me.”

Chen Jin briefly told her about the challenges and the crisis he was facing.

“Oh…” Guo Yan nodded, but there was not much worry on her face. “Compared to Earth’s side, this place is at least 10 thousand times safer. Also, the challenges I’ve faced here are not all that difficult. Somehow, this place even feels like a safe haven for me. If we could continue living here in seclusion, that would be wonderful.”

“Well, maybe you’ll get bored of all this quietness after a few decades.”

“I won’t. It will never be too quiet with you around,” said the woman, looking at the man.

Chen Jin scratched his nose. Somehow, he didn’t feel as comfortable as he had before.

Ding. ding, ding…

A communication request.

Nuwa’s figure appeared on the screen said, “Master, it is a call from the princess. It appears that she has something to discuss with you. Should I put her through?”

Chen Jin glanced at Guo Yan beside him and, after some thought, said, “Put her through. I wonder what she’s up to?”

Princess?

The corners of Guo Yan’s eyes twitched. Who is this person?

After communication was established, they heard an enthusiastic voice:

“Hello, naughty! My fleet has taken down another Selain planet just now. After I killed almost half of them, the rest of the Selains have agreed to be my slaves. Not only have they surrendered their Civilization Core containing large amounts of technical information, but they’ve also obediently put on the explosive collar. I’ve gained a whole three billion slaves who will give me free labor.

“This is the tenth planet I have taken down. The nine other sub-fleets have also raided around 10 galaxies each… we have taken down about one-tenth of the Selains’ domain.

“How’s that, naughty? We did a great job, didn’t we? Besides, the Selain civilization is already panicking and has sent me multiple requests for a peace negotiation, but I have rejected all of them, and this is just the beginning! Even if it’s a hundred times the proper retribution, at least a trillion Selains must die. I will never show them any mercy!”

Mu Yunhua, at present, was simply a hyped-up, vengeful queen.

She had no mercy, no kindness, and, now, she was indulging in the pleasure of eliminating her enemies after having obtained power.

Hearing these words, Guo Yan was stunned. There were spasms at the corner of her mouth. For no apparent reason, she felt a heat spreading through her body that was going to make her faint.

“N-naughty”… what’s with that weird nickname?

And her tone of speech… a little flirty, warm, and confiding; it surely means that they have a close relationship.

There must be something wrong!

As a woman, she could sense that a lot of fishy things were going on.

As she turned to look at the man beside her, although she was about to explode on the inside, she still had to put on a gentle smile to conceal her inner thoughts.

“Yeah, keep it up, stay happy, and, besides, you don’t have to call me every time you take down a planet and tell me how many Selains you’ve slaughtered. This is not very good of you; women should be gentler…”

Chen Jin said a few words and then hung up.

Suddenly, a soft voice sounded in his ear.

“Hubby, didn’t you say that you are the only person in this universe? What’s up with this woman who’s just contacted you? Would you mind telling me about her?”

It was very peaceful and gentle voice.

But, when Chen Jin turned around, he was instantly appalled.

It may have been a hallucination, but the woman in front of him had eyes flashing red, and the surface of her body seemed to be covered in a layer of burning, black smoke.

Chapter 447 - Bionic Chips

“Um… she’s just a normal friend.”

A line of sweat appeared at Chen Jin’s forehead. Perhaps he was seeing things, but the woman who was usually as gentle as water was unleashing something resembling a murderous aura.

“Seeing the intimate nickname that she has given you, are you sure that she’s really just a ‘normal friend’?”

With a look of disbelief, Guo Yan narrowed her pretty eyes and gazed unblinkingly and skeptically at him, exerting even greater mental pressure.

“Alright, alright—she’s actually an old friend of mine. But, of course, it isn’t like you think it is with us. We’re just friends who know each other online but have never met in real life…”

Chen Jin had to take the time to give a thorough explanation.

“So that’s the situation.”

Guo Yan wasn’t the kind of woman who liked to imagine things and create misunderstandings if she couldn’t accept the facts. She, knowing Chen Jin’s nature very well, had planned for the worst since the very beginning. But she was no longer as resigned as before. Now, she had learned how to express dissatisfaction when she felt wronged.

Fortunately, the situation was far better than what she had thought.

An internet friend.

They were friends who had known each other for decades, but were only intimate in network communication, and had never met in real life. Even if there was something between the two, owing to the long distance, no strong and special bond could take shape. Hence, they were truly just ordinary friends.

But, for some reason, something still felt unsettling… this was her intuition as a woman.

“She is a subordinate that I’ve subdued, who is currently working for me and acting as my right hand in conquering every corner of this universe,” Chen Jin explained. “My power alone is obviously not enough, nor could I reveal my ultimate ace-in-the-hole on the Earth side… I depend on her to solve matters over here.” He sought to prevent the woman from misunderstanding.

“I know, hubby.” She quickly recovered her calm and moved forward to hold onto his arm. “I’m just playing with you. I meant nothing else.”

After all, she had been here for more than two years, and they had been inseparable almost every day. Moreover, it was a fact that there were only the two of them on planet Haierfa. There weren’t any extra people there to disturb them… She had no need to worry. Besides, if she treated an “internet friend” living tens of light-years away with too much caution, she would leave a bad impression of herself in Chen Jin’s heart. She had already lived for a hundred years, and her mind was very mature. She knew that she had to give her man a little freedom.

However…

“Hubby, could you introduce that subordinate of yours to me? Perhaps, I could be friends with her.”

Out of the blue, Guo Yan made this request.

“Uh… I’m afraid you can’t.” With less than zero consideration, Chen Jin refused. “The situation here is very special. I have also spent decades making up lots of exaggerated stories in order to subdue her. If I were to let the two of you talk to one other—and what you said to her didn’t fit with what I’ve made up, and she so happens to figure things out—it might possibly expose us… This universe is not as simple as we think.”

Chen Jin looked very serious. In order to subdue Mu Yunhua, he had gone to a lot of painstaking effort to forge the image of a strong, mysterious civilization. If he were to let Guo Yan, who knew nothing, contact her rashly, it could easily sabotage his own setup.

She might really have made a “c*ck” of her husband.

“In that case… can I stand next to you and listen in occasionally? Don’t worry, I will make sure to not make any sound. I just want to stand beside you and understand what’s going on.”

The woman settled for something less. She would not interfere with her mans’ career; she just wanted to get a rough picture of it.

“Sure, no problem,” Chen Jin said, nodding.

…

At night.

On their big, luxurious, and comfortable bed.

After certain actions celebrating love.

Embracing the body that was still young and tender, Chen Jin sighed and said, “I’ve really grown old. I no longer have any desire in this area. If I were 50 years younger, I would try lots of positions and go on for a few more hours without even feeling tired. Now, I just feel exhausted.”

But what he dared not tell the woman in his arms was that, when they had been reveling just now, there had been another woman on his mind; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been so worked up.

“Hmph. And how many nights did you spend with me when you were young? Can you even comprehend those unbearable days of hunger and thirst?” said the slightly sulky woman, who rubbed her fingers twice on the man’s chest.

Chen Jin smiled awkwardly.

“But that is what I’ve signed up for. I’m not blaming you for that.” The woman sighed and laid her cheek down on his chest, listening to his thumping heartbeat and reminiscing about the intense moments of the old days. At the same time, a new vision ignited within her heart.

She suddenly sat up and said, “Why don’t we have another child? We could have a child that belongs to this world, build a complete family in this place, and live together, happily ever after!”

When love was slowly erased by the tedium of ordinary life, children acted as the source of most of one’s happiness. With a child, everything in life became brand-new.

“I think I’ll pass.” Chen Jin smiled bitterly. “We already have progeny back on Earth. Maybe we should keep the trouble away from this place. We don’t have any extra energy to raise one, anyway. Besides, there are only a few humans here. Without a complete social environment, the child’s personality would become a big issue as time goes on. They would be a pole apart from the outside world.”

Therefore, he thought, they had better not torture themselves.

“Fine.” Guo Yan who had been asking to be snubbed, snuggled up in the blanket, rolled to the side, and ignored her man from that point onward.

…

A few days later.

Earth, at the villa.

Chen Junfeng stood in front of Chen Jin and reported on a serious situation: “Gramps, the ‘protection trust’ which our family put forward has been accepted by a Protoss clan.”

“Oh. Which?” Chen Jin asked. Quite some guts, eh?

“The Tonghuang clan. Their comprehensive power level is in the top three among the bigger Protoss clans. They are willing to accept the trust.”

“Even the Tonghuang clan couldn’t sit still in the face of a trillion-dollar annual profit, and would rather take on the risks,” Chen Jin said, shaking his head. It was not false to say that money made the world go ’round. Even the Protoss at the highest level were willing to go for this source of profit.

“Actually, Grandpa, for those powerful Protoss clans, the risk they will bear in protecting our family is not exceptionally great,” Chen Junfeng analyzed. “Firstly, we Chens are not all that weak ourselves. With all kinds of advanced mechs and more than a hundred cultivators in the Jiedan Order, we are a force to be reckoned with. Even those average sects or a clan without an ace in the Shenguang Order couldn’t do anything to us. Hence, those ordinary small- and medium-sized forces will not dare to provoke us.

“Secondly, those larger forces may badly want to devour our family. But, once a big Protoss clan or sect signs an agreement and is willing to provide us with their protection service—even if they only deploy a small number of their aces—other forces will not act rashly toward us out of fear of offending a bigger faction. They would have to face the wrath of a whole slew of their past masters.

“Lastly, there’s our reward policy. If our family is attacked and our protectors fail to execute their duties, allowing any harm to come to our family members, the trillion-dollar fund will all be converted into cash reward, thus opening those responsible for the attack to retaliation by throngs of forces.

“With these three factors at work, unless an extremely audacious and maniacal cultivator or sect dares to attack one of us, most forces will not have the guts to lay a finger on any member of our family.

“Hence, having realized that the risks involved are not very high, the Tonghuang clan accepted the commission.”

Chen Jin nodded. This was all within his expectations.

However, he couldn’t bring himself to be optimistic.

“Even so, it is still possible that the worst might happen—if the Tonghuang clan, which is supposed to protect our family, is powerful enough to ignore the opposition of other forces, they could destroy the Chens themselves and take all the benefits for themselves.

“Or, maybe… In response to them sheltering us, an extremely powerful force may emerge and kill not only the core members of our family, but also the Tonghuang clan together with us. In one fell swoop, we will end up as nourishment for this powerful mystery force.

“In both of these extreme cases, it is possible that the Chens will face genocide.”

Cold sweat was beading on Chen Junfeng’s forehead as he shook his head. “Grandpa, I don’t think that the extreme cases you have mentioned are likely to happen. You must know that, in the eyes of outsiders, the Chens left on Earth only represent our main family, and account for a mere 10% of our forces. The branch families which make up the other 90% are currently developing other galaxies, and each of them possesses enormous power. If something were to happen to our main branch on Earth, our sub-branches scattered across the cosmos would never stand idly by and watch! They will definitely pursue vengeance!”

The Chens were, after all, the top family in the Earth Federation, with powers on par with a superpower. Any forces of the Protoss who wished to mess with them would have to think about the consequences. Therefore, the scattered families branching off of the Chens had become an insurance or lucky amulet for the main family residing on Earth. They were, by no means a force, that could be destroyed at one go. Provokers would have to consider the consequences of reprisals. Needless to say, Chen Jin still had some trump cards that he believed were enough to confront the Protoss.

“Alright,” Chen Jin said, nodding. “I predict that, for the first few years, the Tonghuang clan and others won’t do anything to the Chens. An annual profit in the trillions will be enough to satisfy the appetite of the Tonghuang clan for now.

“But after two or three years, forces that envy the Tonghuang will probably start to emerge, while the Tonghuang clan’s appetite may also grow. At that point, troubles will come, one after another… the trillions of succulent morsels that we toss every year will, perhaps, only be effective for a three- to five-year time span.”

But those three to five years would be a strategic opportunity for the Chens to hide their capacities, bide their time, and amass their powers. The Sage Plan was of grave importance, and had to attain major breakthroughs and come up with significant results within that time period. For example, they needed a bionic chip with immense operating power and a genetic drug that could alter the nature of cultivators. Of the two, one would enhance the mind, while the other would enhance the body. If they could attain total success in both, or even if a breakthrough in just one of them, it would bring about tremendous changes.

About two years passed swiftly.

True enough, as Chen Jin expected, the Chen family, with their newly-acquired protection, lived through those two years safely. In their course, mysterious forces took action against the Chens several times, but they spooked them more than they did any harm. Under the protection of the masters posted by the Tonghuang clan, only two family members of the Chens have sustained injuries, and those were non-life-threatening.

The work of the Tonghuang clan was faultless and highly competent.

But, unsurprisingly, the Tonghuang clan’s appetite had swelled. They made an immensely vexing demand.

Inside the villa.

Chen Jin asked Chen Junfeng, who had come to report his work, “What demands have the Tonghuang clan made? Are they asking for an increase in their proportion of profits?”

“No,” Chen Junfeng said, shaking his head. “The Tonghuang clan isn’t short on cash. They are hoping that our family will hand over some of our technology as a condition for both sides deepening our ties.”

“What technology?”

“The high-precision rapid machining technology.”

Chen Jin’s expression changed. “That technology is our family’s tour de force. How could we possibly give it away, just like that?”

Although it was a cultivator’s era, the applications for high-precision machining technology were still extremely extensive. For example, it was used to make the patterns in refining runes. Precise engraving techniques had to be used to engrave a runic pattern, the structure of which might be even more complex than that of a computer chip, on special enchanted materials. Moreover, the more delicate the carving and the higher its overall complexity, the greater the rune power.

From a certain perspective, runes could totally be seen as circuit boards.

In addition, in order to increase the power of many magical weapons and instruments, not only the field of refining required not only countless runes engraved on their surfaces, but also the manufacture of some complex, hard-to-make, multi-part instruments. Some of the large and super-large implements called for a quantity of parts in excess of one or even ten million. The difficulty of manufacturing the core parts of many of those magical weapons and instruments was comparable to that of the pinnacle of industry: engines.

It just so happened that the Chens’ high-precision processing technology was good at doing certain high-precision things.

Of course, many of the elite-level “Rune Masters” and “Refining Gurus” could also carve intricate runes and make complex parts accurate even on the scale of a nanometer. But such master-tier individuals were still the minority. The number of runes and magical instruments that they could create every year was very limited. However, the Chens, who relied entirely on machine processing, could mass-produce those intricate runes and magical instruments, although their average accuracy was only on a 100-nanometer scale. The majority of their output was of the spiritual class, and only small amounts were of the divine class (the classes were ranked mortal, spiritual, and divine in ascending order), but no one could match them in quantity.

Their factories produced batches of various powerful runes and magical weapons.

Although the Chens had intentionally controlled production by keeping the production line’s operating rate to less than 10% of its potential, it still brought them hundreds of billions in net profit every year.

Among the Protoss, many clans were also trying their best to achieve breakthroughs in high-precision rapid machining technology and enable mass production utilizing celestial technology. However, there was always a certain gap between the Chens’ technology and theirs. They did not know whether they could catch up to the Chens within one or two decades.

Naturally, all of them, including the Tonghuang clan, saw the value of this technology; hence, they asked for it directly.

“We are already giving the Tonghuang clan 50% of our annual profit, and, now, they are actually pushing the envelope further! How avaricious and insatiable!”

Chen Jin’s expressed became awful. This kind of behavior was, in truth, no different from imposing a second bill.

“Grandpa, the Tonghuang clan has long had their eye on this technology. It seems that their eagerness now is because the Jinwu clan, which ranks first among them, is also eyeing our family, and has recently been pressuring the Tonghuang clan to hand over their rights to providing protection for us.”

“The Tonghuang clan is below the Jinwu clan in terms of power. They don’t dare to act tough around them. So, they have turned to us instead and are now attempting to squeeze more benefits out of us!” Chen Junfeng analyzed.

“It seems that our family has already become a piece of succulent meat in their eyes. Everyone wants to have a bite of us.” Chen Jin was becoming even more frustrated.

“Yeah. Uh… Grandpa, I just received a piece of good news from the lab. The Bionic Chip project under the Sage Plan has had an important breakthrough! They have developed biochips with advanced performance and high reliability! ” Chen Junfeng looked at the computer terminal on his wrist, abruptly reporting the glad tidings.

Chen Jin instantly felt refreshed.

Chapter 448 - The Brain’s Super-Evolution

An underground laboratory.

Su Jian—a man in his thirties, tall and well-proportioned—was experimental subject number 1,856.

At the moment, he was conducting a series of tests on the computer system.

Green characters flickered across the screen in front of him—sometimes displaying the long-digit multiplication of a 13-digit and an 18-digit number, sometimes a ten-order Sudoku, polyhedral observation questions that would put his dimensional senses to the test, and active-recall tests involving charts, text, color, and more to test his memory.

Su Jian’s comprehensive brain abilities were examined from multiple aspects or dimensions.

The difficulty of many of the test questions was no less than that of variety shows related to brainpower… he would certainly have been able to compete on variety shows easily, as long as he nodded his head. Of all the brainpower-testing questions placed in front of him, he was able to answer every one!

It took him very little time, and he was 100% accurate.

With such an amazing performance, if he was willing to participate in variety shows, he could put awards like the Brain King Awards, Championship trophy, Oscar Statuette, into his pocket.

Moreover, he had outstanding looks, he was tall and slender, his eyes were deep and melodious, his behavior was seemly and elegant, and he could give people the feeling that he was a melancholic prince.

He would look great in front of the camera. He was a person who could bring about hot gossip.

However, he did not have any plans of going on a TV show.

Only one word was drilled into his heart: revenge.

In those years, he had been willing to endure tremendous pain and become a lab rat for testing medical technology with the sole purpose of obtaining his revenge.

Burning with hatred, he stood out among thousands of experimental subjects, persisted to the end, and, finally, attained success.

…

He achieved excellent results in the dozens of brain tests.

Su Jian’s face was suffused with red, his forehead was slightly sweaty, and he felt a little like he had an overdose from brain use… but it was all completely within normal ranges.

After plaguing their scientific research staff for more than ten years, the problem of excessive heat generation during the Bionic Chip’s operation had been completely solved in the project’s later stages. Besides, the performance indicators for the Bionic Chip had far exceeded the original design.

Its computing power had reached 1.5 trillion units per second, a 50% overstep. 80% of the more than two hundred pieces of bone, six hundred strands of muscles, and five internal organs in the human body could be controlled using Bionic Chips. It also had excellent graphical and logical reasoning capabilities. The storage space on its supporting memory chip was up to 150 terabytes, which was sufficient to hold the knowledge in the books of several libraries. Most unbelievably, its power consumption had been kept to under 50 watts.

It could harmonize with the human brain on a deep level, overcome various types of reactive rejections, and flexibly mobilize the immune system, which would greatly improve the body’s immunity. If employed in cultivation, it could flexibly control the meridian system and elixir field for the entire body, greatly improving the efficiency of cultivation.

An improvement—all in all, it was a comprehensive improvement.

For humans, in particular, it was enough to trigger earth-shaking changes.

The scientist who presided over the project said, “Compared to the Protoss, human beings lack talent and bloodline powers, and lag behind in average intelligence. Innately, we are at a serious disadvantage and are obviously the weaker race.

Given this new era of cultivation, in the long run, humans were likely to become dependent on the Protoss, and even… vanish like the Indians.

“But the bionic chip can completely alter the situation and remove those harsh disadvantages.

“Once the bionic chip is implanted, one’s mind immediately becomes five times or even ten times faster, and its operational capability increases by a factor in the tens of millions. In terms of cultivation, it will become possible for one to observe the changes in their meridian and energy center, conduct fine-tuning at any time, and always find the best solution with the highest efficiency… This will help one to avoid countless detours, allowing everyone’s cultivation to be highly efficient.

“In actual combat scenarios, the bionic chip can provide its user with a variety of suggestions and plans to increase their win rate, boost their confidence, and help them always make the correct decision.

“Combining the human brain with the bionic chip is equivalent to a super-evolution of the brain, allowing us humans to break free from our limitations.

“If the Body of a Sage plan is also successful, it and the bionic chip together—the dual evolution of the brain and body— will give humans the power to easily suppress anyone, even the various geniuses among the Protoss.”

Mere Protoss wouldn’t seem that terrifying any longer.

…

“Dad, Mom, Sis—I will avenge all of you!”

Su Jian, the first subject of the bionic chip’s total success, secretly swore this at that moment.

Su Jian used to live in the very outdated setting of a blissful and wealthy family. His parents established a company with a market value of over 10 billion and owned a very luxurious villa; he, meanwhile, lived like a prince in a novel, with BMWs, pretty belles around him, and an aristocratic friend circle. He was surrounded and fawned upon by groups of civilians, changed his girlfriend every two or three months, and abused countless players while in online games.

He also had an adorable younger sister at home who often acted like a child in front of him.

He had the perfect ultimate credit recharge.

Without putting in any hard work, he had come to possess a wonderful life that the poor could never comprehend.

Then, one day, several Protoss cultivators barged into his villa. They murdered his parents, humiliated his sister, killed her, took over the villa, and seized control of the company that belonged to his family. He starved in the attic for five days before he got an opportunity to sneak out. Since then, he had carried his mission of revenge within him and had burned with hatred every single day.

What made him even more infuriated was that a few of those Protoss cultivators who had slaughtered his family now lived a grand life in his family’s villas, and had not moved out even several years later. Powerless as he was, he could only clench his fists until his nails cut into his palm.

In this underground laboratory of the Chens, most of the experimental subjects that joined the Sage Plan were just like Su Jian, actively joining due to their deep-rooted hatred toward the Protoss. Although the process of the experiment was immensely excruciating, with a mortality rate exceeding 40%, many still persisted.

“One day, I will slaughter all the Protoss and win back our home!”

Su Jian, who still saw some hope, said this in secret while grinding his teeth.

…

Inside the villa.

The news of the major breakthrough in the Bionic Chip project made Chen Jin gleeful for quite a while.

But their previous problems had yet to be resolved. There was Tonghuang clan’s demand for high-precision rapid machining technology. And there was the intention of the Jinwu clan to “protect” the Chen family.

As neither one was to be trifled with, and it was inadvisable to offend powerful Protoss Clans, how could the Chens deal with this? As the family’s mainstay, what decision was Chen Jin to make?

He walked back and forth in the living room for a long time.

After some thought, Chen Jin said, “Tell the Tonghuang clan that it will be difficult for us to give them our high-precision rapid machining technology. The Protoss aren’t very proficient in science, and, even if we were to deploy our technical staff to personally instruct them, they would still need at least three years to master the technology… A core technology can’t be learned easily.

“But, as for our runes, magical weapons, treasures, and other highly intricate products, we can sell those to them at very favorable prices, prioritize them as a customer, and accept even unlimited orders… it will absolutely be cheaper than them building their own factory.

“If the Tonghuang clan is still not satisfied and continues to exert pressure on us, then tell them that we would prefer transferring the technology to the Jinwu clan to handing it over to them.

“I’ve heard that the Tonghuang and Jinwu clans have a rather hostile, competitive relationship. The Tonghuang clan certainly does not want the Jinwu clan to grow stronger. Similarly, the Jinwu clan will not agree for us to hand over the technology to them… to avoid offending any clans, the Chens have to take a neutral stance.”

As for their products, he went on to explain, both clans would receive offers and could purchase in unlimited quantities.

“This is a great idea!” Chen Junfeng’s eyes lit up. “As the two titans go at each other, we will position ourselves away from their skirmish and hamper each of them through the hands of the other. If we implement a balanced diplomacy, we might even get some benefits out of their competition.”

“Don’t expect too much. At this moment, our fate is still that of a chess piece—forget gaming the balance of power; any wrong move will land us in a bottomless pit.”

Chen Jin shook his head. At the very least, the Sage Plan would have to attain total success. Otherwise, his next play would only be a costly, en masse dissolution.

Their dirty development and secretive growth still had to continue.

Chapter 449 - Death to the Selain Civilization

Inside the main hall of the Tonghuang Clan.

“The Chens have rejected our request and refused to hand out the high-precision, rapid machining technology?” asked a malevolent voice.

“Yes, master. The Chens are ignorant and bold enough to reject us. They have even threatened that, if we coerce them any further, they will gift the tech to the Jinwu clan… an act of extreme atrocity.”

With an infuriated expression, the one who was reporting raised his hands and suggested, “Master, why had not we wiped out the Chens and stolen their technology, talents, and resources all together! Although the Jinwu clan will be dissatisfied, they will not dare to come head-on with the Tonghuang clan, which will cause destruction for both clans and allow the others to sponge benefits off us.”

This risk was worth a shot!

“This move will be unnecessary for the time being.”

The man sitting at the top of the main hall waved his hand, “Chen Jin is still useful to us. And besides, there are quite a lot of pretenders out there. We must not act rashly.”

“What worries you, master? The power of the Chens is now scattered throughout the cosmos. They have nothing left to defend themselves with. We will encounter only meager resistance in annihilating them. They are a ripe fruit. If we do not pick them, the others will!”

The subordinate standing below stomped his feet. The Chens were now the strongest and the only human clan left on Earth who were in possession of more than 10 trillion dollars worth of industries and assets. Once they were struck down, the Tonghuang clan’s power could swell by more than 50%! If the Chens could be smoothly digested, the Tonghuang clan would at least become equals with the Jinwu clan, thus becoming the strongest. Like an elixir capable of a massive power surge, the Chens were truly a tasty prey.

“The Chens are, by no means, a small force with no profundity like a rootless duckweed. On the contrary, they are very clever. The ‘Thunder’ Mech Bot made by the Chens is the Earth Federation’s number one mechanical bot in terms of overall performance index with power levels comparable to cultivators in the peak of the Jiedan Order. If we wish to engulf the Chens, we must at least ensure that we have the power to decimate them in one single blow, or else, we will be shattering our own teeth instead.”

That was unless they could make sure that they could destroy the Chens at a very low cost, otherwise, it would be better to leave them alone.

“Yes, master,” the subordinate said. Sigh, the Chens, the last piece of juicy meat left on Earth, how wonderful it would be to devour them.

…

Another few weeks had passed.

The Chens, who literally walked by the gate of hell, freed themselves from the Tonghuang clan’s protection and substituted them with the Jinwu clan with greater strength.

Of course, Protoss clans far more than the Tonghuangs thought of consuming the Chens. It could be said that the idea had emerged in all the bigger Protoss clans at varying degrees. After all, the Chens themselves had great knowledge. Among the remaining human forces on Earth, the Chens were thriving above the others, and would be the finest succulent meat. Yet, although many had the idea, none had taken practical actions until now.

If one clan were to abruptly launch a coup, the Chens would plunge into grave danger.

However, Chen Jin had made some preparations for this.

A batch of micro-monitors was secretly deployed, including multiple Protoss clans in the real-time monitoring system. Dialogues and conspiracies that were happening in countless of secretive corners were basically all within his grasp. He would be able to receive any movements in advance and react in time. One must know that the neutrino monitors that he had deployed were products of the state-of-the-art technology that would not generate any fluctuations of spiritual energy themselves. Hence, detecting them would be extremely difficult.

This was the advantage of technological equipment. In terms of concealment, it was more powerful than any magical instrument or weapon with monitoring functions.

But even with control over such a powerful intelligence system, Chen Jin did not tell anyone but had left it as a card to play only at a critical moment.

“The world is sinister. Loyalty and trust are not reliable. The only thing that can be relied on is the power in your own hands.”

…

Planet Haierfa.

In recent months, various news had arrived.

Among them, the one Chen Jin was most concerned about, was that the war between the remnants of human civilization on planet Walf and the Crystal Brainers had reached a turning point.

The winner and the loser were about to be revealed.

Mu Yunhu’s side was also pressing him to issue a large number of weapons orders.

Though the communication channel, she said,

“The Selains are about to collapse and have fallen into their final frenzy.”

“They have retracted all their forces from the outer ring and are concentrating most of their main battleships near the Central Galaxy.”

“At the same time, they have issued the highest state of defense readiness, frantically expanding their army and investing incalculable resources into building warships to prevent the demise of their civilization.”

“I have a strong hunch that the next war will probably be the finale to end the grudge between us and the Selains.”

“The thing is, as many as 5,000 ship may have gathered around the periphery of the Central Galaxy, while there were also hundreds of thousands of small and medium-sized warships.”

“To pack up such a large number of enemies, we’ll need at least 5,000 gravity bombs, 3,000 antimatter bombs, and over 10,000 other supplies.”

“Jin, I hope that the cargo ships you’ve deployed will strive to deliver the supplies to the outside of the designated battlefield within six months.”

“We wish to fight a beautiful war of annihilation, and we are eager to realize a sparkling revenge. We hope to wash away the shame of our past.”

“But the Selains are indeed a highly intelligent species. Faced with a crisis of survival, in just a few years, they have erupted with astonishing potential, developed a lot of advanced technology, and even gained the wisdom and might capable to mount a heavy blow to the Silver Gun Lord.”

“If we were to give the Selains another 10 years, I’m afraid that they might actually come upwith ways to overcome the threats imposed on them by the Silver Gun Lord.”

“We have to end this quickly! A race like the Selains, which has massive potential, must be completely eliminated!” Mu Yunhua finished, revealing some of her concerns.

The potential of the Selains was too great, tantamount with human beings, or even stronger. They were definitely an intellectual race. Although it was not difficult to destroy such a civilization relying on a hundred “Silver Gun Lord” warships, as time went on, resistance would become bigger and bigger. They could only race against time and strive to eliminate the Selains in the fastest time. Therefore, she hoped that Chen Jin would allow her to overspend on some points in exchange for all kinds of weapons and resources and talk about the remunerations only after she destroyed the Selains.

“Sure.” Chen Jin agreed with alacrity. After all, systems were dead, but humans were flexible. Not only that; in order to avoid the Selains from suddenly unleashing a trump card at the very last moment, rebounding from unfavorable states, suddenly regaining hopes of preserving their civilization, defeating Mu Yunhua’s fleet with Superior Evolutionary Element Destined-factors, and leading to a reversal in circumstances… he vaguely had these kinds of premonitions.

Chen Jin did not wish for such variables and circumstances to appear.

Therefore, he planned to pull another card, adding a piece of insurance.

He intended to deploy the S-class interstellar battleship in his hand, the Black Emperor, and once it was completed, its weapon and resource delivery mission, it would strangle the Selains’ last chance.

“Yunhua, within six months, the weapons you ordered will be delivered to you. Besides, I have prepared a secret weapon to give the Selains a little surprise.”

He ended his speech with a somewhat mysterious tone.

Mu Yunhua looked intrigued.

…

Six months later.

The Selain civilization, Central Galaxy.

The place where the Selain civilization was born, the birthplace of all Crystal Brainers.

Home to the Selain political, economic, cultural, and military centers.

The essence of the Selain civilization lied within this very galaxy.

But at this very moment, the Central Galaxy, which was initially blooming, prosperous, full of vitality, and brilliant, was caught in endless fear and terror.

Above the head of every Selain was a kind of desperation and depression of a looming storm and impending doom.

The Haierfareans were coming.

With a vengeful fleet.

Thundering with a cry of retribution.

Launching a merciless attack.

Within the Selain civilization, more than 500 galaxies had fallen and more than 100 billion Selains had died.

Recently, they were even coming straight towards their lair, preparing to decimate the core of the Selain civilization and realizing their ultimate conquest. And in the frontier region, within a third of a light-year, the fleet of those Haierfareans were launching one or two military strikes a day on average, causing the loss of more than five million Selain soldiers. At this rate, in a few days, the Selain planet in the Central Galaxy would be facing the enemy’s muzzle, making a choice between surrender or death.

In fact, at this point of time, most of the Selains understood that they messed with the wrong civilization.

Some of the Selains blamed their schemers for the foolishness of not completely wiping out those Haierfareans, failing to exterminate them from their roots. Another part of the Selains were wrapped up in anger and hatred. Why would they go destroy the Haierfa civilization that never did anything to them? Who decided on such foolish conduct?

In this regard, after they found a way to contact the Haierfarean fleet, the Supreme Council of the Selain civilization expressed that they have already arrested those who initiated the evil practice and conducted an open, legal trial.

The President of the Selains said:

“Honorable Haierfareans. We have arrested those who have caused you harm.”

“Three clans were involved, totaling up at 86,542 members.”

“Now, they sit on the courthouse benches, awaiting trial.”

“There are relevant laws and regulations in the Law of the Selain Civilization that forbid one from harming any civilization by means of massacres or exiles. If one violates the rules, they will be charged with crimes against civilization and sentenced to capital punishment. ”

“Now, we have arrested these evil criminals, and they will soon be sentenced to death. As long as you nod your heads, the three wicked clans will all be executed as a repayment for their sins.”

“But of course, you could choose to take over those criminals and punish them according to your laws. We will not interfere.”

“As long as it will calm you down, no matter who the culprits might be, we are willing to arrest, impose punishments, or hand them over to you.”

“At the same time, I wish that you will cease your operations, stop harming the innocent, put an end to the war, and stop the killing of blameless Selains.”

“Hatred cannot be solved with hateful conduct. As long as you stop the war, except for those criminals, we are willing to pay for all war reparations and territorial lands. We will come up with utmost sincerity to make up for the grave mistakes committed by the small number of Selains.”

“We implore you to cease the onslaught, let go of hatred, and turn hostility into friendship. In this vast universe, we could become friendly neighbors, joining hands and welcoming a brand-new future.”

“War cannot solve anything. Only love and peace can save everything and bring about goodness.”

The President of the Selains was eloquent and his speech was sincere, persuasive, and had a strong appeal.

However…

Mu Yunhua and the others were not having any of it.

She responded chillingly, “The sin committed by the devils among the Selains should be paid for by all Selains. I can’t place my trust in you, either. I am giving you two choices: surrender and become our slaves from now on or revolt but rebels will be eradicated, and those who surrender will become more miserable slaves.”

“Waste no time, make your decision now!”

The leaders of the Selains went silent.

No answer was given, while they only became more desperate in preparing for war.

…

On this day.

A warship coated in black rendezvoused with the fleet led by Mu Yunhua.

Unloading a large number of weapons and resources and conducting some minor repairs and maintenance.

The following day.

The day of the deciding battle had arrived!

An onyx battleship cruised straight towards planet Sela alongside hundreds of silver-white battleships.

Boom boom boom!

Bam bam bam bam!

Encountering numerous interceptions along the way, Umpteen amounts of Selain warships swarmed over.

As Mu Yunhua’s fleet was getting closer and closer, the resistance of the Selains had gradually plunged into madness.

“They must not pass!”

“Our homeland must not be occupied by the enemy.”

“Go! We shall perish with them!”

“Slay them! Let’s go together! We shall stop them with our own flesh!”

Valiant.

The resistance of the Selains could only be described as valiant and tragic.

They applied numerous tactics, like swarm kamikaze and the high energy pulse cluster technique.

They even deployed their triumph card. The Selains had actually placed a number of gamma star destroyers on several large planets, using the thousand-kilometer orbital acceleration to launch gamma-ray bursts with extremely high energy density!

If it connected, even a Class-A warship like the Silver Gun Lord would also suffer from collateral damage.

Since gamma-ray particles accelerated to near the speed of light, the destructive power of each single particle alone was already close to one gram of explosives. With hundreds of billions of high-energy particles superimposed, destroying even an entire planet would be a cinch.

Nevertheless, the gamma rays with horrifying destructive power, as well as the countless nuclear bombs and force field weapon attacks, were easily blocked by a rather unremarkable warship.

The Black Emperor.

The Selains deployed all their triumph cards but were unable to even lay a scratch on Mu Yunhua’s fleet.

In just three days, the fleet arrived at the periphery of planet Sela’s atmosphere.

Hundreds of nuclear bombs were launched, destroying dozens of large Selain cities and killing billions of Selains.

“We surrender!”

“We choose to submit and surrender!”

“We admit you as the stronger. We are willing to surrender and become the slaves and tools for the mighty, executing our utmost for your purpose.”

Terrified.

In the face of their inability to close up the power gap, in the face of despair before the generation-different technology, the Selains made the most sensible choice: surrendering the whole civilization.

“Excellent! We accept your surrender. From now on, let all of your people hand over their weapons, walk into the prison camps themselves, and put on the slave collar.”

“Hand over your Civilization Core and your authority of all systems. Then command the other planets to surrender alongside you.”

“Your fate is in our hands. The treatment you will enjoy from today onwards will depend entirely on your actions.”

Mu Yunhua issued a number of orders consecutively.

The leaders of the Selains could only comply.

…

After, various affairs were settled.

Mu Yunhua breathed a sigh of relief as her whole body relaxed, feeling a little empty in her heart.

Returning to her room, reminiscing on all kinds of memories from the past, her eyes became a little red as she suddenly felt like crying.

“Congratulations, your wish… has come true,” A voice laced with a touch of gentleness sounded in her ears.

“Yeah, thank you, Jin.”

The woman smiled, briefly showing a side of her she never had before.

Chapter 450 - Gains and Crisis

“You don’t have to be thankful. Say, since you’ve got your revenge, what are your plans for the future?” Chen Jin asked.

The future? Mu Yunhua thought about it for a moment. Confusion flashed across her face and she shook her head, “I don’t know, I haven’t thought about the future.”

She had originally thought that it would take at least a few hundred years to fulfill her vendetta against the Selains and exhausting an infinite amount of energy in the process. She might even die before realizing her wish.

She felt that she was lucky enough to be able to take revenge in her lifetime.

She had never imagined that it was so easy to realize her wish with Jin’s help.

It was so easy that her heart felt somewhat empty, she did not know what to do next.

“If you don’t have any plans, then continue to work for me according to our previous agreement, and strive to occupy more galaxies and planets.”

“After annexing the Sela civilization, I plan to take a break for a while.”

Mu Yunhua wore a weary expression, “After all these years, I’m a little tired, let me take a break.”

“Well, you really should have a good rest for a while.” Chen Jin said.

…

After the central mother galaxy of the Sela civilization issued a signal of surrender.

For the next six months, most of the Sela colonial galaxies chose to give up on their resistance and joined the Haierfa civilization.

The small number of stubborn resistors who chose to hide out in dangerous terrain to carry out their resistance, even under the threat of death, soon met with attacks from a powerful interstellar warship. They had no choice but to yield after paying a heavy price.

Thus, such a civilization with great wisdom and knowledge was in the control of a group of human survival forces.

From one galaxy, the strength of mankind suddenly swelled by a thousand times in an instant.

As a classic example of counterattack, it could be described as a model of inspiration.

Moreover, the Selains (Crystal Brainers) were extremely valuable, and their potential was huge. Except for their appearance, which was rather ugly, they scored well in other aspects.

For example, they had powerful learning abilities. They could achieve rapid dissemination and absorption of knowledge through the use of their brain wave signals.

They belonged to a race where everyone was an elite.

Their ability to innovate was not bad either.

Also, because their treacherous, cunning, and overly clever characters were engraved in the soul of many Crystal Brainers, they were very fond of dallying in power plays and conspiracies.

So in theory, humans couldn’t defeat the Crystal Brainers.

In the end, it was because Chen Jin had provided external assistance by giving them a special shortcut, that the human survivors led by Mu Yunhua could finally realize their dreams. They trampled a powerful and wise civilization under their feet, and all the Crystal Brainers became slaves.

…

Very quickly.

Two years passed.

The power of the Sela civilization had been “digested” by the human forces.

Chen Jin, who had been standing behind the scenes and investing his resources into the war, had also been rewarded.

The best portions of the spoils seized by Mu Yunhua and her forces were put on the Black Emperor and transported back to Haierfa.

This included nearly all of the information on the Crystal Brainers’ science and technologies.

Including a rich variety of special mineral resources.

And a batch of up to ten million “brain crystals” – that’s right, it was that special crystal that grew at the backs of the brains of the Crystal Brainers. Those crystals were very valuable.

After years of research, Alice believed that brain crystal could even become a strategic resource and develop very important functions.

Besides sending and storing brain wave signals, the brain crystal had two other magical functions.

First, it could increase the realism of virtual games from the original 78% to more than 95% in an instant… it could even possibly increase the realism by up to 99%.

The original realism of the gaming experience was like a bottleneck that simply could not be broken through (as it was reflected in the human brain), experienced a qualitative improvement.

This principle behind this phenomenon had not been fully understood by Alice, but there was no doubt that the brain crystal could bring about a qualitative evolution to the virtual games that had not seen much change in the past hundred years or more.

The sense of immersion was better.

The gaming experience was more realistic.

It could be said that it had brought immensely good news to the vast number of veteran gamers.

“If the new generation of game helmets that are embedded with the ‘brain crystal’ was integrated with the virtual game Galaxy Era 2.0; the realism of the game would become infinitely life-like. It will set the game on fire with an all-new vitality, attracting at least billions of players.”

“A better game experience and a greater number of players would allow the Galaxy Era 2.0 to analyze the celestial powers and new laws of cultivation at double the speed; the efficiency of the game in analyzing these subjects will be doubled too.”

Besides this, after the brain crystals were brought to earth, it was discovered that due to its magical brain wave amplification effect, practitioners could obtain a 30% to 50% improvement in their cultivation efficiency by using the “power amplification” function of the brain crystal during meditation and cultivation processes.

If it was used for the arrangement and deployment of certain spell formations, the formations could be maintained for twice the original amount of time using the same amount of mental power.

These additional accomplishments were extremely impressive.

Its existence was akin to that of a magical artifact.

There were, of course, some magic weapons or special jades and stones that also had the effect of boosting one’s cultivation. But they were generally very expensive and their boosting effect was relatively average.

Magical items that could produce such obvious results like the brain crystal were very rare.

More importantly, after Mu Yunhua gained control of the entire Sela civilization, Chen Jin proposed an additional requirement of “handing over 100 million brain crystals” every year. This was not an enormous task because there were over a few hundred million Crystal Brainers who died of natural causes every year. Their brain crystals could be retrieved after death.

Of course, the brain crystal was very important to the Crystal Brainers. It was said to be the home of the soul. After death, the crystal should be properly laid to rest for the soul to ascend into the kingdom of heaven. If it was taken away, there would be no chance for the departed soul to enter the kingdom of heaven, it could only fall into darkness.

Typically, the Crystal Brainers would never surrender their brain crystal even if they were faced with the threat of certain death (although they would also quickly die after the crystal was cut out). According to traditional thought, the brain crystal must be placed in a beautiful dream-like cathedral where it would form part of the tower made up of soul crystals.

However, after being relegated to the status of slaves, the Crystal Brainers had no choice.

If they resisted, they would be killed and their brain crystal taken away immediately.

If the number of brain crystals collected was insufficient, then the humans could only kill those who were disobedient or guilty of crimes, to make up the amount that needed to be handed over.

This seemed a little cruel.

It did not give people a good feeling.

Mu Yunhua also hesitated for several seconds. She felt that no matter how she looked at it, this was not a kind act. Instead, it was somewhat like farming. They would wait until the brain crystal was matured before cutting them out to be used.

“This is the rule of the world. The strong can do whatever they want and the weak are turned into feed. Besides, 100 million brain crystals per year are only equivalent to just a few thousandths of the Crystal Brainers. The harvest ratio is not high. And since they have been defeated in battle, they should have the awareness that they are the losers. If they still dare to resist, then all of them will be slaughtered. Then, the hundreds of billions of brain crystals would be sufficient!”

Using a few natural substitutes, which were only a very small minority, in exchange for the continuation of the entire population; the Crystal Brainers should know what was their choice.

“Ok.”

Mu Yunhua did not say anything more and simply carried out this task.

In this way, Chen Jin had in his possession, this magical resource of the brain crystals.

As for the cost, it was almost zero. But by parking the crystals on earth, it could bring many benefits and advantages.

…

Earth.

During this period, millions of brain crystals had been moved out of the villa where Chen Jin lived and entered the possession of the Chen family.

So, after a mere few days, all of the Chen family’s descendants and their hired high-ranking guest staff who had the qualities for cultivation used the brain crystals. Everyone’s cultivation efficiency had been greatly improved.

A large number of brain crystals were also sent to two mysterious underground research facilities, one of which was the development unit responsible for the New Generation Virtual Reality Headset; the other was the mecha research facility, which was developing a bio-mecha with the ability for self-cultivation.

That’s right.

The Chen family’s powerful technological strength could develop a semi-mechanical, semi-organic biological machine that similarly also had meridians, dantian (an area where one’s spiritual Qi energy resides) and spiritual Qi circuits. Through the control of the biochip, these bio-mechas could cultivate themselves, just like the practitioners. By putting their spiritual strength to use, they could constantly transform this spiritual strength into a powerful combat force.

The secret code name for such a bio-mecha was “The Naga.”

This project had been running in secret for more than ten years. The Chen family had invested countless resources into “The Naga.” There had been many occasions where they saw no hope of success. But as long as it was theoretically plausible, as long as prospects were great, it was necessary to persist and they should continue to invest resources and time into it.

After 99 failures, there would surely be a success.

Hard work always paid off. Shortly after the success of the biochip, the bio-mecha, “Naga,” that had received heavy attention by the Chen family achieved one of its initial stages of success.

A few days after the brain crystals sent by Chen Jin were received by the facility, fatal issues, such as insufficient strength of nerve signals and weak control functions, were easily resolved due to the magical amplification effect of the brain waves by the brain crystal.

The “Naga” bio-mecha was up to five meters tall and weighed more than five tons. They could hope that the design would be finalized and mass-production could begin within one or two years.

Regarding the combat power of this type of bio-mecha, the “Naga” was equipped with the terrifying computing power of the biochip and the meridian network that had experienced the ultimate optimization by supercomputers. As long as it had cultivated itself for about half a year and matched with various high-tech weapons, it could face-off against a practitioner from the Jiedan Order in a battle.

If the cultivation period lasted up to one year, three years, or five years, it would have the ability to battle against practitioners from the Yuanying order, the Jushen order and even the Shenguang order respectively.

The potential of bio-mecha was vast.

If the Chen family could have hundreds or even thousands of bio-mecha units in the future to form a fighting force, they would have a role to play on Earth, which was under the pressure of countless Protoss.

But… time.

No matter how many aces they had up their sleeves, the one thing that the Chen family needed the most was still precious time.

“Three years, as long as the Chen family can have three more years, we’ll be more or less ready.”

Chen Jin had secretly calculated and found that after three years or so, the Chen family would have the power for a showdown.

Because a breakthrough was recently achieved in the “Sage Plan,” which was another project that he most valued.

To be precise, it because of the genetic engineering sub-plan of the “Body Of A Sage.” After the success of the biochip, this sub-plan had also begun pulling its weight and produced shocking results.

The purpose of the plan, “Body Of A Sage” was to improve a human’s natural aptitude for cultivation. The fundamental principle was to transform the human body and improve people’s natural aptitude by altering and adjusting human genes. This would allow those humans who were useless in cultivation or who only had mediocre talents to morph into talents and geniuses, maybe even the best genius in the world.

In the past, the occurrence of Protoss who were naturally more suitable for cultivation, the probability of the birth of cultivation geniuses was about one in 10,000.

For humans, which were a race not particularly suitable for cultivation, this probability was a pitiful one in a million.

There was a saying “nurture cannot beat nature.” If one’s natural aptitude was too terrible, no matter how hard one tried in life, there would be times when it was hard to catch up. The gap between one who was naturally talented and one who was not would get bigger and bigger. In the end, the one without natural talent would despair.

However, the Chen family’s genetic engineering technology aimed to smooth out the inborn gaps in terms of talent. They wanted to achieve something that would go against the natural order.

Moreover, modifying genes was not easy. The process of injecting the evolutionary compound and changing human genes involved modifying many genes bit by bit. The process was divided into many stages. The more stages to go through, the more perfect the genes would become. One’s natural aptitudes would then gradually tend to that of a genius.

In general, as long as a person went through five rounds of genetic evolution, he who originally had zero talent for cultivation could become someone who had a mediocre talent for cultivation.

And after another ten rounds of genetic evolution, one with only mediocre talents could become outstanding.

Only after yet another 20 rounds of genetic evolution, geniuses could be successfully nurtured and be completely reborn.

That meant that one would only need to bear with 35 rounds of evolution for the successful “manufacture” of someone who had no talent for cultivation into a genius.

As for this process, it was similar to the bodies who had participated in the biochip experiment. The process was accompanied by tremendous torture and unimaginable pain.

The combined mortality rate was close to 40%.

The overall success rate was less than 30%.

If the later stages of the evolution process were continuously improved and optimized, the risks involved would be significantly reduced and the success rate greatly improved.

Of course, the extent of pain that the participants had to go through would not be significantly reduced.

Moreover, the first case who had withstood 35 rounds of evolution and successfully transformed from an ordinary person into a cultivation genius, Sun Yang, had walked out of the facility amidst cheers from the scientists. After this, both divisions that made up the entire “Sage Plan” achieved successful breakthroughs.

But, there would be more upcoming work.

The entire “Sage Plan” could not be considered completely successful…. Unless there was an experimental body who had had a biochip implanted and completed 35 rounds of genetic evolution at the same time to obtain the natural aptitudes of a genius… Only when a body had completed both types of optimization to combine the results from the two processes could the genius that was born be called a Sage.

It was just that Su Jian and Sun Yang had both lost the courage to complete the other half of the plan after the endless torture that they had endured. They were very satisfied with the temporary results and had no yearning to become a so-called “Sage”… In other words, they had lost the guts to participate in the other half of the program to complete the entire plan.

Therefore, the remaining experiments would take about three years.

Chen Jin could only rest a portion of his hopes of enhancing the family’s self-defense ability on the “Naga” bio-mecha… Moreover, it also only needed another three years or so before the first batch of naga bio-mechas could fully come into play and make their shocking debut.

But… unfortunately, time did not wait.

The more that you hope bad things would not happen, they would, more often than not, happen anyway.

On this very day!

The monitoring system fixed up by Chen Jin sent out the highest level of alarm – A Protoss family had decided to attack the Chen family.

And it was not just one Protoss clan, but three!

They were the Jinwu clan, who was the top family in terms of strength, the second-ranked Tonghuang clan, and the third-ranking Mugu clan. All of them wanted to devour the Chen family.

“The Jinwu clan provides asylum for the Chen family. Why do they suddenly want to make a move against us?” Chen Jin asked the smart brain of the intelligence system.

“Maximizing the benefits; 50% of the profits can no longer satisfy their appetites.”

“And what about the Tonghuang and Mugu clans? Why would they join forces to deal with the Chen family?”

“The main reason is to limit the strength of the Jinwu clan. Because of the help from the Chen family in the past two years, the strength of the Jinwu clan has shown a vague tendency to grow to equal the combined strength of the two clans, so they can’t sit still anymore and decided to take action to restrict the Jinwu clan.”

“All right~”

Chen Jin took a deep breath. The Chen family’s biggest crisis had arrived!

Chapter 451 - A Million Dead Or Injured

Competition.

There was competition everywhere in the world.

There were inter-civilization competitions, but in an environment that was gradually becoming stable it was to be expected; internal competitions also occur in peaceful civilizations.

After all, resources were limited, and no matter how large the living space was, it would be filled to the brim sooner or later.

Moreover, Earth was never all that big, to begin with, but nearly 20 billion intelligent lifeforms from all over the universe were crowded into the space. Even if the Protoss were to build multiple “space dimensions,” they would still be extremely crowded.

Therefore, after the basic crisis of survival was solved, most of the natives – human beings – were squeezed out. Under the leadership of the Protoss, the biggest conflict on Earth gradually shifted from the external arena to the internal.

With each passing day, competition between the Protoss families became increasingly fiercer.

However, under the restrictions of the senior administration of the Protoss and the fact that the practitioners had the ability to cause great destruction, thus easily destroying the more fragile Earth and its ecological environment, the conflicts between the clans had always been controlled and limited to a smaller scope.

Hence, many human families, companies, and forces had become the weaker beings that could be easily pushed over. They were swallowed up one after another by the Protoss clans in recent years.

Their means were simple and violent, not much different from seizing what they wanted by force.

The “meat,” both large and small, were divided among the Protoss and picked clean. The Chen family was the last piece of “meat” that had not been devoured right before the Protoss descended into conflicts among themselves.

To the Protoss, the Chen family was a delicious piece of meat and a great temptation.

Although the Jinwu clan provided asylum for the Chen family, they collected an annual “protection fee” exceeding one trillion dollars, leading to a growth of more than 30% in terms of their interests and benefits.

But greed was something that could never be satisfied.

50% was far from enough. Only after consuming everything in their sight could they feel just a little satiated.

Moreover, the Chen family were masters of high-precision, processing technologies and controlling a huge cultural empire. They also had their “knowledge bank,” “virtual technology,” etc. which stirred the desires of the Protoss.

If they devoured the entire Chen family and “digested” all of their secrets, insider knowledge, and information, they could then strengthen their own power according to their design. It was roughly estimated that the strength of any Protoss clan would more than double after consuming the Chen family.

Yes, in the eyes of some of the top Protoss clans, the Chen family was comparable to their top clans. Therefore, the clan that absorbed the Chen family would immediately become even more powerful; their strength would skyrocket.

Of course!

The Chen family was not weak and could not be easily pushed over. Over the years, they had devoted nearly all of their spare resources towards weapons R&D and the expansion of armaments. They had also built a huge military fort in their family base with an area of more than 30,000 square kilometers. Countless weapons were stacked inside the fort.

It gave one a sense of being rather belligerent and militaristic.

Many Protoss clans had noticed the creation of the rather excessive military fort and suspected that perhaps the Chen family had succumbed to paranoia; they seemed so terrified of death knocking on their doors.

But it was precisely because of this that all the Protoss clans with only average strength had stopped thinking about devouring the Chen family.

It was also the reason why the Jinwu clan did not take any action against the Chen family immediately after they had become the asylum provider for them. The Jinwu clan was assessing the damages that would result from the forced annexation, figuring the ins and outs of the matter and formulating the most appropriate plan of action.

In the end, they decided to send eight masters from the Shenguang Order and made preparations for 30 expert destroyers from the Zhesun Jushen Order. With 90% confidence of winning this incursion, they finally made up their minds.

“The most powerful human clan, the Chen family, will soon be ours!” The senior members of the Jinwu clan exclaimed. They even prepared and agreed on a plan to divvy up the final spoils in advance.

“By the way, I want all the dozen or so of A-list female celebrities from Xing Hai Entertainment, especially Qianshan Xueye. This woman belongs to me,” an exceptionally talented young Protoss from the Jinwu family said as he licked his dry lips.

Qianshan Xueye was a major actress in Xing Hai Entertainment and had appeared in dozens of excellent film and television dramas. She was also a top-rated singer and had sung nearly a hundred songs. There were countless fans of her movies and music.

Moreover, her looks were outstanding. She was also elegant and multi-talented.

She had more than a billion fans following her on social media platforms; she was an idol worshipped by countless people.

As such, she was the cash cow of Xing Hai Entertainment, bringing in untold riches to the company every year.

Based on the heavy atmosphere and the flushed appearance of the youth from the Jinwu clan as he talked about Qianshan Xueye, there was no doubt that he was also one of her fans and worshipped her to the extreme.

He considered using the opportunity of absorbing the Chen family to realize his dream of getting the goddess’s body and heart… Though, getting her body first was not a bad thing.

Hearing his words in the main hall, the eyes of many senior members of the Jinwu family lit up.

“There are indeed plenty of celebrities and beauties in Xing Hai Entertainment. Once the Chen family is eliminated, those dozens of stars…”

“Haha, let’s have a celebratory feast in a few days and call all the celebrities over to serve us drinks.”

“Nephew, Qianshan Xueye is my ideal wife. It’s quite inappropriate to have her all to yourself. It is better for me, as an elder, to take care of her for a period of time, and then introduce her to you later.” There was even an elder Protoss who turned his sight towards the female celebrities as his mind was occupied by various lecherous and devilish thoughts.

“No! Qianshan Xueye is mine, no one can have her!” The young Protoss was so mad he nearly exploded. He released a boundless and forceful aura, feeling so aggravated that he could kill someone on the spot.

In the midst of the uproar, many senior members of the Jinwu family had, unconsciously, began to breathe heavily with their eyes full of anticipation.

…

Through a tiny spy device that could hardly be detected by the naked eye, Chen Jin knew every move made by the members of the Jinwu clan.

He could not help clenching fist with a very angry expression on his face.

“Does every single one of you treat the Chen family like a fat sheep going to the slaughterhouse?”

He looked at another screen.

Another event was taking place almost simultaneously. The representatives of the Tonghuang clan and the Mugu clan held a meeting in a mysterious hall. They agreed that each of them would provide half of the master practitioners needed and rush into the Chen family. They would strive to slaughter the entire Chen family in the shortest possible time and to destroy or take those science and tech results and materials with them.

Moreover, they had to be fast and ruthless!

Even if they couldn’t get their hands on the advanced technologies of the Chen family, they must not let the Jinwu clan gain any unfair advantage from the situation. They had to stop them by force!

Chen Jin’s frowned.

The purpose of the Jinwu clan was to “gobble up” the Chen family. They would break up the resistance of the Chen family, and “digest” their resources. They would not necessarily kill many people in the process.

The Tonghuang clan and the Mugu clan were purely about destruction. They had no intention of leaving anyone alive, starting from their very first attack. It was an intense military strategy. They were not considering holding back; their potential destructive power was huge.

If Chen Jin had a choice, he would not want to face the joint efforts of the Tonghuang and Mugu clans.

However, the Tonghuang and Mugu clans were planning to make their move three days later.

There were many factions in the Jinwu clan, and their quarrels over the distribution of interests and benefits were rather serious. The Jinwu clan intended to make their move against the Chen family within the next couple of days, but they might not be able to resolve their differences in time and act as planned.

Currently, it was impossible to judge who would be the first to take action.

As for Chen Jin, who possessed the key information, what was he going to do next?

He returned to Haierfa to discuss the matter with Nuwa and Alice.

…

“Nuwa, there are, at most, two or three days left, what should I do regarding the issues on Earth?”

Chen Jin grabbed his head. He felt rather conflicted and was at a loss of what to do.

“Master, you have to make the first move if you don’t want to suffer any damages. Otherwise, it would be difficult for the Chen family fortress to withstand the attacks,” Nuwa said.

“I know.” Chen Jin nodded. At this point in time, his only choice was to strike first and gain the upper hand. “Which clan should I strike first in order to solve the crisis that the family is facing?”

He had a few options at this juncture.

One option was to launch a crackdown on the Jinwu clan by inflicting serious damage or even to eliminate the entire clan. While he was eliminating this threat, he would also shift the focus of the other two clans at the same time.

The second option was to launch a crackdown on the Tonghuang and Mugu clans by inflicting serious damage or to eliminate both. While he was eliminating this threat, he would also shift the focus of the Jinwu clan at the same time.

The third option was to attack all three Protoss clans at the same time. He would eliminate all clans harboring ill intentions against the Chen family.

Chen Jin first ruled out the second option.

“Even if the Tonghuang and Mugu clans have been hit hard, thus shifting the attention of the Jinwu clan towards them. This change in their focus would only last a few days. After this, the Jinwu clan will still carry out their previous plan to swallow up the Chen family. This option would only delay things for a short period of time.”

On the other hand, after the second and third most powerful clans were hit hard, the Jinwu clan would probably become even stronger and more difficult to resist.

Chen Jin thought about the remaining two options and ruled out the third.

“We could eliminate three threats by striking three clans at the same time. However, after an investigation by the Protoss’ senior administration, they will coincidentally discover that these three clans have recently been plotting against the Chen family. But they were also attacked at the same time. The biggest suspect can be easily inferred.”

And when that moment arrived, the Chen family would be facing the full force of all the Protoss on Earth; they would be facing the oppression of countless Protoss from all sides.

Even though the aces he had up his sleeves were strong, it was impossible to fight against billions of Protoss.

Once such an incident occurred, the Chen family would be done for. He could only escape to Haierfa to avoid the fallout and he would never dare to return to Earth again.

Then, this was the only option left – to take action against the Jinwu clan.

“Master, the reason why the Tonghuang and Mugu clans want to deal with the Chen family is because the strength of the Jinwu clan has been increasing at an unprecedented rate for the past two years. Hence, they felt threatened. They can only re-balance the power between the three clans by taking action against the Chen family.”

“However, if we attack the Jinwu clan and inflict heavy damages on them, the Tonghuang and Mugu clans would have no reason to do any more checks and balances against the Jinwu clan. There would be no need for them to unite against the Chen family.”

“After the Jinwu clan has been hit hard, their benefits and interests will be up for grabs and this will trigger large-scale chaos. The Tonghuang and Mugu clans will definitely join in the fight for the loot. This will at least buy us a few months.”

“A few months later, the Tonghuang and Mugu clans will probably, once again, think about swallowing up the Chen family. However, there’s no possibility of the two families joining forces. They will independently target the Chen family to maximize their own interests… It’s better to have the treasure all to themselves than to split it between two forces.”

“But when that time comes, our family would have made adequate preparations in all aspects. Even if we could not hold off the practitioners of the Shenguang Order, I am confident that the Chen family’s fortress would be able to kill or injure practitioners from less powerful Orders. Forces that plan to take action against us must be prepared to suffer losses.”

“Of course, the best choice would be to take the initiative to win over the Tonghuang and Mugu clans. We’ll share some of the benefits to temporarily appease them. At the same time, we will have to display our ability to defend ourselves so that they would have second thoughts about attacking us.”

“If the above measures turn out to be ineffective, and there remain forces determined to eliminate the Chen family, then we would have no choice but to have a showdown, use all the aces and try our best to kill all the Protoss.”

However, Chen Jin did not want the situation to deteriorate into that critical stage.

“All right, this is the only way.”

Chen Jin nodded and a murderous glint flickered across his eyes. “Let the Jinwu clan have a taste of the full force of our aces.”

…

The next day, at 4:00 a.m.

Even the Protoss were sleeping deeply.

At this moment, just off the East China Sea and at a depth of 10,000 meters in the Mariana Trench, a huge submarine with a length of more than 200 meters seemed to have awakened from a deep sleep. It suddenly activated the water spouts around its body, drilling out from the seabed sludge.

The stirring in the deep sea caused the water around the submarine to turn muddy and foul.

Five kilometers… four kilometers… three kilometers…

The mysterious submarine was rising towards the surface without stopping at all. It was like a shadowy mass, like a large beast from ancient times as it moved towards the surface.

Glug glug glug

Many air bubbles were generated on the surface of the submarine, which was made of a special material.

One kilometer… eight hundred meters… five hundred meters…

It reduced its speed as it approached the surface, the water pump at its tail started up. The submarine began to adjust its attitude and direction to maintain a relative balance.

Three hundred meters… two hundred meters… one hundred meters.

The submarine fixed its position.

Immediately, several mechanical sounds could be heard inside the fully automated cockpit.

“Receiving target’s position parameters…”

“Parameters entered successfully. Activating missile and warhead, opening missile launch lid…”

“Ready to launch!”

“Start launching!”

Boom boom boom

Glug glug glug

After the missile launch lid was opened, a thick missile covered in a large amount of spray and bubbles rushed towards the surface of the water with the aid of the ejector.

Within a few seconds, a water column rushed out of the calm sea. Then the motor ignited, and the thick missile was dragging a dazzling flame on its tail. It first shot straight into the sky before turning towards the northwest direction according to the position parameters on the homing system.

It was accelerating.

It gained an increasingly higher altitude and quickly entered outer space.

Then, it re-entered the atmosphere with ever-increasing speed.

Five Mach… Ten Mach… Twenty Mach.

The missile took only five minutes to arrive at the spot where it would launch its attack; it was a distance of nearly two thousand kilometers.

…

At the headquarters of the Jinwu clan.

It was a free city covering more than 50,000 square kilometers.

The Jinwu clan occupied the most central zone in the area. They had built a shrine-like city that was also surrounded by nine other cities.

The essence of the entire free city was concentrated in this zone.

Most of the master practitioners in the Jinwu clan, the clan’s vast resources, and the entrance to an “alternate space” were all concentrated inside a radius of 100 kilometers.

But at this very moment, a beam of light reminiscent of a meteor flare lit up the southeastern horizon. The beam of light was moving straight towards the central area.

Just as the beam was approaching the area, causing heart palpitations, the resplendent meteor flare suddenly split into ten offshoots, corresponding to the central shrine and the nine acropoleis; depicting the red colored trajectories. The missiles reached the air above the ten targets.

Subsequently, the black was dyed a pure white.

Ten suns suddenly appeared in the night sky.

Multiple ring-shaped shock waves destroyed everything on the surface.

…

The next day, early morning.

A piece of news hit the solar system at the speed of light.

The Jinwu clan had suffered a mysterious attack in which ten cities were turned into ruins and countless powerful practitioners were dead. In addition, more than one million innocent Protoss were dead or injured.

Chapter 452 - All Stars Federation

Rumble.

An uproar broke out across the various social media platforms of the Protoss society. All of a sudden, it was chaos.

“Who did it, who is the killer?”

“More than a million Protoss civilians have been killed, Besides our enemies, who else would slaughter innocents indiscriminately?”

“Humans, it must be those despicable humans! They deserve to die!”

“Based on the impact at the scene, it seemed to be something called ‘nuclear weapon’ that was created by human beings using their advanced technologies right before the advent of our era on Earth. Only nuclear weapons can produce effects like the huge mushroom cloud and shock waves that spread out. ”

“Impossible! The humans’ nuclear weapons have all become useless as their power has been eroded by our celestial powers. How could such weapons appear again? As long as humans launch tens of thousands of such nuclear bombs, the combined destructive power of the bombs would be enough to kill the masters from the Shenguang Order. We will certainly be driven out of Earth by humans.”

“Who did the Jinwu family offend? How did they provoke this kind of revenge?”

“It’s over for the Jinwu clan. Almost all of their leaders, elders and elite disciples have passed away. More than 70% of their master practitioners have been injured and a million people have been annihilated. The rest are so terrified that they’ve fled and scattered in all directions. The Jinwu clan has been rich and powerful for tens of thousands of years; they had possessed an infinite amount of knowledge and information. Now, not only are they seriously debilitated, they might even be removed from the ranks of the top family clans.”

“It is not just a possibility but a certainty. As Protoss, we have always respected strength. With so many master practitioners injured, the Jinwu family has lost the right to be the top family clan. This title will automatically fall onto another clan. The clan rankings will change.”

“The Jinwu clan is over.”

…

These were the human public opinions on social media platforms.

Many people were surprised, but at the same time, they exclaimed in excitement and joy…. Their comments were rather schadenfreude.

“Hahahaha, this is so funny. They died well.”

“The Jinwu clan deserve this ending. This family is extremely fierce and unreasonable. Who knows how many evils they have committed that included killing, harming and humiliating human beings. This is retribution.”

“Only a million dead or injured? This is far too little. Years ago, more than a billion humans were slaughtered on Earth. Their crimes are extensive. Compared to the damages done to human society, this little bit of loss can’t even be described as painful. It’s just insignificant.”

“It is doubtless that, nuclear weapons, the weapon that was used in the attack on the Jinwu clan, have been ineffective for many years. Experts estimate that the yield of those nuclear bombs was about one million tons. How can they still exist? The scientific community has long declared that the universe is too polluted, there is no possibility of creating nuclear weapons anymore. What the hell is going on?”

“A trump. That will be the trump card of human beings. With nuclear weapons in our possession again, the Protoss will not dare to act rashly. It was only later when the plan of the universe had changed that it had resulted in us losing the all-important nuclear deterrence, and by extension, also our peace and homeland.”

“Are there more? Are there more of those nuclear weapons or those mysterious resistance forces? They should create more, or they could share the technology so we can put an end to the Protoss’ arrogance!”

“In the last three “Wars of the Humans and Protoss”, we humans have tasted the humiliation of being defeated three times in a row and lost countless stakes and profits. However, if nuclear deterrence returns, humanity will gain equal status. We could even recapture Earth that should belong to us.”

“Mysterious resistance forces, please do a good job. We absolutely can’t let those Protoss look down on us humans anymore!”

“…”

Many cheers arose.

…

The third day.

Inside the villa.

“Grandpa, about that incident, did you… send someone to do it?”

Even though Chen Junfeng was filled with apprehension and breaking out in a cold sweat, his gaze was expectant as he asked Chen Jin who was in front of him.

“Why do you ask that?” Chen Jin looked at him indifferently.

“Many Protoss investigators came for a visit today and asked some questions. They even raised the suspicion that the attack on the Jinwu clan the day before was our result. The Chen family is a major suspect in this investigation,” Chen Junfeng explained.

He was very worried. “Grandpa, the investigators were so aggressive. Not only did they request a detailed investigation of our various factories, they even insisted that we are responsible for the nuclear attack. They want to condemn our family immediately and punish us.”

“Deny it, deny it straight up,” Chen Jin said. “The Chen family did not participate in the attack, they have even less knowledge of the situation. We will never agree to the oppression of our family, framing us for this crime and the false charges against us! We will not be sitting ducks if they insist on using force to oppress the Chen family. In the worst situation, we’ll go for mutual destruction.”

In short, the family must deny the charges with all their strength.

“I know.”

Chen Junfeng raised his head and his gaze was lively. “This must be the trump card that Grandpa talked about? With a trump card of such a high level in our hands, there should be no major issues with the Chen family standing like a giant on Earth without dying. Grandpa, I am more confident now.”

It turned out that even on Earth, where the Protoss was extremely powerful, the Chen family could still retain their power to have the last word.

Good, this was really good.

“Don’t say anymore. If you say too much, you’re bound to slip up at some point.”

Chen Jin frowned and glared at him, “The Protoss are still investigating our family. No matter how they ask their questions, we have to maintain that we don’t know anything about the incident at all, this should be sufficient. If we think too much, they will try to catch our loopholes.”

Even at the very beginning, Chen Jin knew that this was a high risk. The Chen family would definitely be investigated.

The only way for the Protoss investigators to detect not even a single problem was to carry out and complete the attack on the Jinwu family alone. Everyone in the Chen family was unaware of it. Naturally, the investigators would not detect any issues.

Therefore, this was Chen Jin’s style. The secret could be better kept if there less who knew or were involved in the execution.

“I know, I won’t ask Grandpa anymore questions.”

Chen Junfeng nodded and blinked. Everything was between the lines.

…

In the next few months.

Regarding the heavy damages suffered by the Jinwu clan.

The senior administration of the Protoss dispatched a lot of forces and employed a variety of methods to no effect.

There was absolutely no news about the mysterious attacker. It remained difficult to lock down on the identity of the one responsible for the attack.

The Chen family was the key suspect. A large number of personnel were dispatched, and a major search was carried out three times. The family had been interrogated many times, and the investigators even employed the soul-search technique to secretly control a senior member of the Chen family. They had probed and searched the episodes of the member’s memories without finding any obvious signs that proved their suspicion.

Basically, the Chen family could be ruled out as a suspect.

So the investigation team withdrew most of the investigators, leaving only a few elite investigators to lurk around the Chen family… Intuition told a certain high ranking member of the Protoss administration that there was definitely something off about the Chen family.

Even if whatever they were hiding were not exposed now, it would be exposed in the future, hence the Chen family must be scrutinized at all times.

In addition, as expected, a large number of interests were freed after the devastating blow on the Jinwu clan, triggering a crazy struggle between the Tonghuang and Mugu clans as well as other less powerful clans.

The rules of robbing were very simple and crude. The two sides sent their powerful practitioners to slaughter each other. They used their corresponding strength to obtain a proportionate amount of benefits.

However, there was a terrifying amount of knowledge and information accumulated by the Jinwu clan, which surprised the less powerful clans. This also intensified the struggle between the clans for their loot.

After more than two months, the stakes and profits of the Jinwu were divided among the major clans. Among them, the Tonghuang family took over 25% of Jinwu clan’s interests and the Mugu clan took over 20%. But correspondingly, the two families that got the biggest cut of the meat also paid a heavier price.

They had lost 20% of their powerful master practitioners.

However, after five to ten years, the two clans, Tonghuang and Mugu, would surely rise to become new super clans.

But, now, the Chen family had become a huge variable.

They had enough weight to cause an imbalance.

Of the Tonghuang or Mugu clans, whichever annexed the Chen family, would certainly be the biggest clan.

Two sets of greedy eyes were fixed on the Chen family, and a dangerous plan was brewing in their ambitious hearts.

Feeling the atmosphere of greed, the Chen family once again chose to strike first.

Of course, it was not a nuclear strike this time around. The senior administration of the Protoss blockaded the surface of the sea and it would be difficult to implement such a strike again.

Chen Yanfei, an eloquent and articulate child from the Chen family, visited the senior members of the Tonghuang and Mugu clans to explain the current attitude of the Chen family.

“My family is willing to offer 60% of our profits, with the condition that Tonghuang and Mugu will each receive half of that 60% in exchange for providing asylum for my family.”

“In addition, advanced high-precision products of all varieties will be preferentially supplied to the two families at discounted prices and unlimited quantities. We will prioritize service to the interests of the two families.”

“The stakes and benefits that the two families will gain from the Chen family would definitely be more than what you can gain after swallowing the Chen family using military force, then controlling our interests and squeezing us dry…. That is, if the Chen family decide to resist to the death, in a state of desperation, we would rather destroy all the research and production facilities until only the scorched earth is left than to allow the enemy to gain an advantage from us so easily!”

Thus, the value that they could obtain from the Chen family had dropped from a score of 10 that corresponded to the marvel that they had envisaged to one or two, with a maximum of only three.

Even if they had to destroy themselves, they would not let others gain any advantages… This dispelled the beautiful fantasy of the two clans.

What was more, the Chen family were not sheep who would not resist, but a hedgehog covered with spikes.

Especially the Chen family’s fortress, which could definitely be called “the strongest fortress on Earth.”

For all forces and powers, if they wanted to take down the Chen family’s Fortress, they must be prepared to suffer heavy losses.

Chen Yanfei introduced, “The only thing my family fear are the practitioners from the Shenguang Order or the Sage Order. If more than ten practitioners of the Shenguang Order are dispatched, my family would rather offer everything that we have and surrender.”

“However, if there are less than ten master practitioners of the Shenguang Order, then my family would still have the power to wage war.”

This was because a colossal lineup of various defenses was recently installed in the Chen’s Fortress. After the defenses were fully activated, it would be able to withstand the joint attack of ten practitioners from the Shenguang Order!

In addition, the large array of defenses could remove all traces of the natural spiritual energy inside the fortress to form a “vacuum zone” with only a minimal concentration of spiritual energy. As long as the practitioners entered this zone, it would be difficult for them to draw upon the spiritual energy in the air in order to enhance and maintain their combat ability.

Even the Shenguang Order would see their strength greatly reduced in such an environment.

Moreover, they had prepared countless high-tech weapons such as missiles, mechas, laser cannons, etc. in the fortress. They had way too many of such weapons, thousands and tens of thousands of them, the amount of firepower packed in the fortress was shocking.

Coupled with some even more powerful “celestial weapons.”

Even if one or two practitioners from the Shenguang Order broke through their defensive lineup, they would face the possibility of death.

Practitioners of an order lower than the Shenguang would go straight to hell where they belonged.

Chen Yanfei said with a curt finality, “This is the conclusion that we obtained from the computer simulations which had been done more 10,000 times – to breach the fortress and take down our family, you must pay the price of losing 40% of your powerful practitioners, or one or two immortals of the Shenguang Order! Are you willing to try?”

He also took out a video projector and played the simulation of the possible war that had been loaded inside.

The risk was clearly presented to the two clans.

Then again, would this work?

Naturally.

And the effects were very obvious. The expressions of the senior members of the Tonghuang and Mugu clans fluctuated for a long time. They gradually gave up on their risk-taking intention.

After all, the master practitioners of the Shenguang Order were extremely rare. There were at most five or six of them in the Jinwu family. In the Tonghuang family, there were only three; the Mugu family only two.

They had less than a handful of the strongest high-quality combat power, and not only would they have to participate in the battle personally, which was not usually done, they would also suffer heavy damage if even one of them was lost. If all the master practitioners fell, then the ranking of the clan would immediately fall to the point that they would be in a totally different league – they would become an ordinary family.

Sending a master from the Shenguang Order to attack the Chen family fortress, where they would face a large number of weapons with a probability that 40% of them would be injured all in exchange for low-value ruins; nobody would do that.

Moreover, the two clans had just absorbed the interests of the Jinwu clan, and they needed time to digest and stabilize themselves.

It was merely the Chen family. There was no need to be so eager to slaughter them. They could continue to raise them for some time.

In this way, the Chen family had once again won some valuable time to develop their projects.

…

Haierfa.

Recently, a big event had taken place in this universe.

That was after the Sela civilization was conquered by Mu Yunhua and merged into one civilization, it had become a very powerful force.

It ruled over more than a thousand star systems.

The ruling class population and the slave population combined were more than 500 billion.

They had more than a thousand powerful warships. Their large number of resources and technology was also undergoing rapid development.

He believed that it would not be long before it would occupy a very important role in the Milky Way galaxy.

But… Chen Jin found that there was a rather deadly flaw in this new type of power.

“The structure of the upper ruling class is loose, and its overall cohesiveness is only average. Such a structure exudes a free and beautiful vibe, but its centripetal force and sense of honor are not very strong. Although it is united now, it is also based on a group reaction that arises from a survival crisis. Now that the crisis is solved, the war over the dividends is unending. And it seemed that political institutions are still using the original voting system. It takes a majority vote against a minority vote to decide whether a motion is passed or not. In fact, it has bought huge party disputes that could present a potential danger.”

“The rights are very scattered and leaders have insufficient authority.”

“If they continue down this road, at most 50 years, the All-Stars Federation in your hands will experience a crisis, and even become a stage for all kinds of ambitious players and conspirators. There will be no peace, not even for a moment.”

Hearing this, Mu Yunhua’s expression became painful, she said helplessly, “‘It is easy to conquer a civilization but difficult to maintain it and to keep oneself in power.’ Since you said so, it should have a high probability of happening. So… What do you think I should do?”

In fact, she did not want to do anything else now. Now that she had her great vengeance, why not abdicate promptly so that she could do the things she liked, and just lead a simple life.

It was never her wish to be a politician.

“Yun, maybe… your All-Stars Federation needs a revered and prestigious queen to lead it onwards.”

Chen Jin said calmly.

Chapter 453 - Mass Producing Geniuses

A queen?

Mu Yunhua’s eyes widened. What was this?

“You didn’t hear wrong. Yun, I think you should be the queen and become the supreme ruler of the All-Stars Federation,” Chen Jin’s said.

“Why? You know that I’m not interested in power or being a queen.”

“But this may be a responsibility that you can’t evade. The future of the All-Stars Federation rests on having a steady and reliable ruler at its helm.”

“But… if you want to achieve a good centralized state power… There’s no need for me to take up the burden of the parliamentary eldership, or the most supreme leadership.” Mu Yunhua always felt that she was a scientist at heart. She was not meant to bury herself in government affairs every day. She was also a little tired and wanted to change her lifestyle.

“It’s useless, the citizens of the Federation will only acknowledge you. Others would become a dictator when they’ve experienced the taste of power for a long enough time and they will be leveled by public criticism. This will cause violent shockwaves. The senior administration of the Federation will fall into instability…. Power is like poison, and not everyone can resist its corruption.”

“But a feudal queen wouldn’t be accepted by people. For most countries, the democratic system is the current system in place. Moreover, because the queen or emperor holds the definite power, many incompetent and muddle-headed rulers had appeared in the process of changing powers. Such a system is no longer suitable for the present trend.”

“Others are indeed unsuitable, but you are an exception.”

Chen Jin listed the following points, “First of all, you are the leader who saved all human beings and led mankind into the light. You took your revenge and created the All-Stars Federation single-handedly. In terms of credit and effort, you are incomparable.”

“Secondly, you are a princess. You are the princess of the Great Hua Empire. You were born noble, with royal blood in your veins. You are destined to become a queen.”

“Also, we’ve been working together for so long and I’ve provided you with so much help, but until now, you still haven’t repaid me satisfactorily. I wonder how much of my total investment I can get back after you leave the central seat of power?”

“So, you need to continue working; continue serving the Federation. At the same time, you’ll also be working for me. Our cooperative relationship has not been terminated yet.”

In fact, this was Chen Jin’s real purpose.

Over the past few decades, he had invested a lot of resources into Mu Yunhua and provided help on countless occasions. This was not some kind of pastime to amuse a beautiful woman because he felt bored. There were careful thoughts and a purpose behind his actions. Why would he do such a lame and childish thing as an adult?

He did not send Mu Yunhua the advanced warships that he possessed solely to test their combat abilities.

Mu Yunhua was the chosen spokesperson for his interests. She would always be the representative for the interests of the All-Stars Federation and provide services and reciprocation to him. She would also be executing all the tasks he arranged…. This working relationship would continue until Chen Jin felt that the bills between them had been paid and one owed nothing to the other.

“This…”

Mu Yunhua immediately understood the meaning of his words and smiled bitterly. Yeah, it had been so many years. Who knew how much debt she owed to Jin? There was so much debt accumulated that she kind of did not feel like repaying him.

If she chose to leave the central seat of power, it would practically mean that she did not want to pay her debts. How would Jin ever agree to that?

“Ok, I was childish in my thinking. Jin, I might never be able to repay all the help that you’ve provided for me. But regardless, I still have to try to repay you. So, I’ll work for you in the days to come, I’ll help you do the few things that you need me to do.”

“Until the day you are satisfied.”

Mu Yunhua issued her promise.

Chen Jin nodded when he received this reply.

…

After a few months.

The All-Stars Federation Alliance, which was founded less than a year before, experienced a big event.

The leader of the Federation, who was once the princess of the Great Hua Empire, had rejected the request of the people and officials 18 times. At the 19th request, faced with an overwhelming petition and a public support rate of over 95% on the Internet that confirmed that everyone in the Federation sincerely wanted to hail her as the queen, she finally relented. She put on the gorgeous robe fit for a ruler and a grand crown.

She stepped onto the high platform and accepted the worship from her millions and billions of subjects amidst all the cheering.

The leader, savior, and helmsman of the Federation had now become their eternal queen. As a symbol of honor and glory, she would continue to lead the country and its subjects.

“The country that had originally run on a parliamentary system and was all about freedom had actually completed the transformation into an imperial regime so easily. Even though I expected opposition, there’s only very little of it. Just like this, I’ve become the queen to billions of people.”

After the celebration ceremony ended, Mu Yunhua felt a little depressed as she sat on the throne. The process was so smooth that she was thrown for a loop.

“This is very natural.”

Chen Jin’s voice sounded in her ears, “Most people have some sort of attachment to their mothers, and they feel more dependant on women who are mature and reliable. Memories of the matriarchal society from ancient times have been engraved in human genes… People can accept the leadership of a queen.”

“In addition to this, there is another important reason that everyone knows very well.”

“And that is my support and help, they are very important to the All-Stars Federation. Our partnership must be maintained.”

“Especially when it comes to the A-class warships like the Silver Gun Lord, or the powerful and invincible S-class warship, the ‘Black Emperor.’ With the current development standard of the Federation, you will not be able to produce such warships, not even in a hundred years…. Much less hold onto such weapons permanently.”

“Without my help, you might not even have survived, much less take revenge.”

“And you were the one who brought this opportunity to them. It is because of you that they can borrow advanced warships from me and a guarantee of security… You have the ‘golden finger’ that brings good luck and happiness to the people.”

“And you, who have the ‘golden finger,’ as long as you maintain a partnership with me, they would be able to have everything that they are enjoying now long-term.”

Therefore, she easily won the position of the queen and completed the transition to an imperial state in a short period of time.

“Ok, everything will be done according to you. Do whatever you want.”

Mu Yunhua gave a helpless smile. Then again, just what was this relationship? To be precise, the relationship that had been established between her Federation, even including herself, and the mysterious and powerful force represented by Chen Jin could not be regarded as a superior/subordinate relationship. But its essence was not dissimilar to the relationship between a man who was keeping and supporting a mistress.

However, the All-Stars Federation, unfortunately, needed such a relationship, it begged for support just like this type.

She even hoped that the Federation would receive a greater number of powerful A-class and S-class warships. The more the better, and the relationship would also become more solid.

…

After ascending the throne, the reform of the upper level of administration was quickly completed. The Queen + Parliament system guaranteed a good centralization of power and could also continue to attract elites.

As long as the supreme ruler was not particularly stupid, the prospects of this Federation would get better. They had a bright future.

…

Earth.

Before he knew it, three years had passed.

Chen Jin had been paying close attention to the situation on Earth. He paid attention to every move of the Protoss.

He had lived through the past three years with great caution.

In order to avoid attracting the attention and to dodge the relentless hounding by the Protoss Investigation Department, every single move made by the Chen family for these past few years could be thus described.

Low key.

Extremely low-key.

It was as if they wanted to turn into thin air so that no forces could detect them.

To this end, the Chen family had made many difficult decisions.

For example, They sold Xing Hai Entertainment, which had a market value of more than one trillion dollars.

They had even sold the company’s hundreds of outstanding actors, celebrities, stars, dozens of music groups, film and television production teams, the gold-medal program planning team, etc. All were packaged and sold… And they were mainly sold to the Tonghuang and Mugu clans.

This strategy was called “de-entertainment strategy,” which aimed to reduce the attention that the Chen family received.

After all, the TV dramas, TV programs, music, animation, and other products produced by Xing Hai Entertainment were simply amazing and of high quality. Not only did the company’s works have countless fans among human society, but they also had billions of Protoss fans.

It was known as the top entertainment company that was also the most ethical. It had never disappointed.

Some works were so popular that they managed to gain a large following and considerable attention before each broadcast.

But the Chen family had sold Xing Hai Entertainment.

Hence, it was a disaster for many fans of the company’s movies, music, and animations.

The quality of a variety of film and television works produced by the company had dropped drastically after they lost the management and control of the Chen family. There were all sorts of spectacles too horrible to endure.

A famous celebrity signed to Xing Hai Entertainment quickly got involved in a large number of scandals and his public image collapsed dramatically. There were also a large number of entertainers who wanted to cancel their contracts and jump ship.

In just three years, the global reputation of Xing Hai Entertainment had taken a nosedive under the management of the Tonghuang and Mugu clans. Its reputation was bad and its comprehensive market value was less than 100 billion.

What was the cause of this situation?

Netizens and critics from human society got right down to the heart of the matter.

“Besides using force; besides conquest and destruction, what contributions can the Protoss make in other fields?”

“The arts need professionals. They need to let the creators express themselves freely. The Chen family had achieved a peak in this area. Even the stars who were signed with Xing Hai Entertainment Company were rarely involved in sex scandals. They maintained excellent public images. Their only desire and focus were to produce the perfect work.”

“It was such a good entertainment company, but what happened after it has been handed over to the Protoss?”

“The first thing they did was to place a large number of incompetent administrators in key positions. The clans’ management led to them being only concerned with making money for themselves. All of them have become a bunch of greedy, exploitative rulers.”

“Those higher ranking Protoss set their sights on female celebrities. Their eyes are full of desire, and they use all sorts of coercion or semi-coercive measures to seize their bodies to satisfy their perverted desires; as for the creative staff and professional directors, they no longer have a free and easy working environment. They face countless interferences, criticisms, and arbitrary orders. How can they produce marvelous works when even a lot of the original works have wrecked?”

“A top modern company had immediately become a disaster after the Protoss started to manage it.”

“I believe that in the next year or two, the well-known, 100-year-old Xing Hai Entertainment that has already become garbage, will disappear completely. There are thousands of companies that disappeared in a similar manner.”

“Haha, this is the Protoss then. They are smart with powerful military strength, but they are a backward population that will only lead to the detriment of civilization.”

The vast numbers of netizens expressed their endless regret.

The Chen family did not significantly reduce the attention they paid to this incident. However, they had achieved their original goal via Xing Hai Entertainment.

They had dispelled the idea that the Tonghuang and Mugu clans had of further attempting to devour the Chen family.

After all, Xing Hai Entertainment had collapsed way too fast and in too ugly a manner. Originally, it could have brought them hundreds of billions in annual profit; however, after the torture inflicted by the Protoss on the company, it had become a rubbish company reviled by all in just three years. Its annual profit was less than 10 billion dollars.

Using this as an example, if the Chen family was really swallowed by them and they surrendered all their companies and research institutes and turned them over to the Tonghuang and Mugu clans to manage, the Protoss would only create another Xing Hai Entertainment since they were ignorant amateurs. They would mess up every single factory.

The benefits that they could obtain every year might be less than what they could receive if they allowed the Chen family to exist independently… Even an average person could work out this calculation.

This was the conclusion that was reached–it might be better to let the Chen family operate independently to maximize the benefits.

However, the Tonghuang and Mugu clans still could not admit their mistakes.

“Xing Hai Entertainment is just an exception. We have the experience of running a company and we have enough advanced management skills!”

“Why don’t you give us another company to try? We’ll definitely do a good job this time around. We will at least keep it running!”

The Chen family’s representative shook his head disdainfully. “Tonghuang and Mugu clans, you have dozens of cities and a population of tens of millions in your territories. But the Tonghuang clan had earned 800 billion in total fiscal revenue the previous year, and Mugu clan less than 700 billion. On the other hand, the Chen family’s total profit reached 260 million last year, which is more than the combined profits of the two clans. Even the previous Jinwu clan received annual fees that were more than their fiscal revenue after they had become the asylum provider for the Chen family.”

Hence, this also led to a power imbalance.

“And you Protoss have more land, more people, and more resources, but you are not doing better than the Chen family, who only has a few companies. The management ability of the Protoss has been made clear. There is no need to analyze it further.”

The words by the Chen family representative stabbed at the hearts of the senior members of the two clans.

…

Due to the huge gap in their respective management abilities, the two Protoss families agreed to temporarily give up on the seemingly better plan of annexing the Chen family.

Time.

The Chen family gained valuable time for development.

On this particular day.

Cheers rang out in an underground research facility.

“We’ve succeeded!”

“We’ve succeeded in the transformation that will turn one into a practitioner with the aptitude and innate skills to become a Sage!”

“The effect is so good it’s shocking. If an ordinary person has a spiritual cultivation efficiency of one, this efficiency will increase to two to 3.5 after a ‘biochip’ has been implanted in their brain. On this basis, if a person was to start cultivating after undergoing genetic transformation and optimization, thus achieving the physical body of a Sage, the cultivation efficiency could be increased to an astonishing eight to ten.”

“If we add the brain crystals that will aid cultivation by 30% into the equation and arrange layouts of motifs that would help to amass spiritual energy to increase its concentration in the environment, a sufficient concentration could help to increase the cultivation efficiency to an astonishing 12 to 15.”

“This means that the ‘geniuses’ that have been transformed by us would achieve the same results after one day of cultivation as an ordinary person who had been cultivating for more than ten days. The effects of cultivating for one year is equivalent to the effects of an ordinary person cultivating for ten years!”

“More importantly, the current comprehensive success rate of implanting the biochip and gene optimization experiments is 45% and the mortality rate is no more than 20%. The partial and total success rate is close to 70%…”

“And it can be industrially mass-produced and is suitable for most people.”

“Oh my god!”

“We’ve done something that only God or a madman can do. We can mass produce geniuses, exceptional cultivation geniuses!”

“We humans now have 100% confidence in surpassing and crushing the Protoss!”

Chapter 454 - Returning Home

Inside the villa.

Chen Junfeng rushed in like a gust of wind.

When he saw Chen Jin, he said excitedly, “We’ve succeeded. Grandpa, our Sage Plan is a success, an unprecedented great success!”

“Oh!” However, Chen Jin only shifted a little and his expression was unchanged. He put on a stern face and said, “What’s with this impetuous behavior? The success of the Sage Plan is as expected. In fact, it even arrived a little later than we anticipated. Yet you’re beaming with joy; don’t let others think that we will be a problem.”

“Yes, yes, Grandpa, I got ahead of myself.”

Chen Junfeng quickly wiped the smile off his face and regained his calm composure. In his heart, however, he had great admiration for his grandfather’s psychological qualities. “But, this is indeed a good thing. Our people will no longer be inferior to the Protoss in terms of spiritual cultivation talents.”

“We’ve also achieved a big breakthrough in the biological mechanics recently. We’ve bred biomechanical armor with a cultivation standard that is equivalent to the later stage of the core formation. Combined with all kinds of powerful celestial weapons, there will be no issues when it comes to resisting the practitioners from the Jushen Order.”

“The most important thing is that the incubation time of the naga mecha is only ten years! It can also be mass-produced in batches.”

“Top geniuses + mass-produced mecha, grandfather, it may take even less than fifty years. Our Chen family will definitely become the most powerful family on the planet.”

“Plus, the last ace that was previously used…”

Chen Junfeng grinned from ear to ear, “Grandpa, the Chen family, will definitely become the most powerful family on Earth again! No one will dare to humiliate or beat us down in the future. We will be able to protect all our interests with our own efforts.”

He rambled on as the haze that had shrouded his heart dissipated, his face was filled with exuberance, hope, and expectation as if he had received a transfusion of chicken blood.

Chen Jin only shook his head slightly. He was not particularly moved.

“The two pieces of news you reported today are really very good, but it’s too early for us to be happy.”

“The Sage Plan has just succeeded and has not yet matured into a strength that we can count on. The next thing to do is to recruit a group of suitable personnel and carry out the transformation to create an army of Sages with power cultivation abilities. The number of people cannot be less than 10,000.”

“We can expand the production line for the naga mecha and strive to produce 100,000 units in the shortest time. After long-term training, it will be equivalent to having 100,000 practitioners in the later stages of the core formation. Combined with the celestial military equipment, even the most powerful Protoss clan might not be our match”

“However, the Protoss population living on Earth has exceeded 15 billion. Their base numbers are huge. Of those 15 billion, the practitioners at the core formation stage and after production may be in the magnitude of tens of millions. There may be tens of thousands of powerful practitioners from the Shenguang and Jushen Order.”

“Even if the Chen family is very strong, I still don’t see the possibility of us defeating the Protoss within the next 50 to 100 years.”

“And the Protoss are not that weak. They have a huge amount of knowledge and information. They also have renowned celestial weapons and the magic treasures whose might and power we know nothing about. Anything that you can think of, they probably have it. They could also have all kinds of powerful practitioners that they have hidden from the world and other kinds of protection. We definitely do not have the ability to resist all of those things or to even destroy them.”

“Our current goal is just to be able to protect ourselves. We can’t suddenly let this get to our heads.”

“When the goal of this stage has been completed, and if the tension between the humans and Protoss remains irreconcilable to the point the two sides cannot coexist, then we will have no choice but to play our cards and strive to make ourselves invincible.”

“Finally, after those two basic goals are achieved, as long as we are strong enough, we will be able to realize the dream of annihilating the Protoss and other enemies.”

In short, Chen Jin hoped to continue to accumulate strength, and, when they were confident enough, to give the Protoss a surprise.

But…

In his heart, he was also testing out a possibility. That was the possibility of trying for a situation where human beings and the Protoss could coexist.

Rather than just thinking about killing the other side.

Chen Jin’s did not have a saintly character. On the contrary, he could be ruthless and he absolutely hated being at a disadvantage.

But the Protoss were also intelligent lifeforms.

The honest Protoss who stuck to their proper sphere and duties in life accounted for about 80% of their population; the good guys about 5% and the wicked about 15%… Similarly, ordinary people also dominated the mainstream, and there were certainly good people.

But the Protoss lack good legal system, powerful law enforcement agencies and administration, and an advanced civilization’s culture. As a result, it was difficult for the bad guys to be punished. Certain vile and nasty behaviors were considered as such in the Protoss culture.

The unconstrained use of evil and violence, as well as the traditional concepts, such as ‘power, talked the loudest,’ etc., this had allowed evil to roam freely in the world.

But some things could actually be changed.

Especially in terms of culture, compared with the original backward culture of the Protoss, the culture of the Earth Federation was undoubtedly the most advanced and civilized. It was way ahead by miles and miles.

This was because no large-scale war had broken out for nearly 200 years in the Earth Federation.

Generally, the people enjoyed a high quality of life which included high-end residence, cars, rich food, perfect welfare guarantees… There were very few who were starving.

But what about the Protoss?

Even though every Protoss possessed strength and a spiritual cultivation base, about one-third of their population were struggling to get enough food and warm clothing.

All kinds of behaviors that exemplified the concept of “the strong bully the weak” could be found everywhere. The lives of some ordinary people who had no power were like hell.

Their average happiness index was actually very low, and life was very oppressive.

But what about humans?

The quality of life was so good it was shocking.

The improvement and guarantee of human rights were surprising.

The status and equality that individuals enjoyed were also surprising.

Not to mention the various welfare protection systems.

A group of ordinary human beings, with wisdom, had created a heaven-like dreamland.

And it was always difficult to ignore the surrounding good things.

The excellent culture and governing system often made one want to achieve and learn.

Especially for those Protoss with little power at the bottom of their society. Even though they expressed disdain verbally, in their hearts, they wanted to live like the humans.

The lower they were in Protoss society, the greater their yearning.

It was to a point where they saw no hope in their lives and chose to take a risk.

Immigration.

In order words, they were “smuggled over.”

A small number of Protoss, in order to seek better treatment and life, took the initiative to go to the human realm where they found a job and changed their living environment.

The Earth Federation had decisively seized this wonderful opportunity.

For the Protoss willing to join the Federation, almost none were refused, and they received proper help to settle down. The Federation also set up a program, Earth Federation = Happiness.

20 million.

Within a decade or so, the Protoss who chose to join the human society had actually reached an astonishing 20 million.

Naturally, after living in the human world for a long time, they had slowly assimilated with human beings.

The Earth Federation had more than 20 million “Protoss citizens.”

The senior administration of the Protoss would never let those living at the bottom of society go simply because their lives were hard. Instead, they strictly controlled the border crossings, and if they found anyone attempting to crossover, they would kill them immediately…They absolutely did not tolerate betrayal.

As for the Federation, they could only take a second approach–ideological transformation.

The specifics of the process were a bit like how good old America exported democracy–propaganda on the concepts of freedom, democracy, the rule of law, and other values. Once deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, the effects would be similar to that of missionaries’ preaching. Those who fell deeply for the propaganda would see their IQ falling by a few dozen points.

But, it was this method of thought that turned out to be very useful, leaving a very good impression in the middle and lower classes.

Acceptance followed…Then, the wooing of new people….and expansion of their influence…establishing parties…and fighting for rights.

In just a few years, the launch of the Federation’s campaign of exporting democracy was extremely successful in Protoss society.

Hundreds of parties were established, with more than a billion members. After this, the parties wanted to have rights. They wanted to fight.

They even imitated the Earth Federation by establishing their own countries and leading the political power of their countries.

And…they did not want those practitioners who were extremely powerful to sit on their heads and control their destinies.

They even put forward slogans like “Remove The Feudal Landlords,” “Restrict Practitioners’ Family Clans,” “The People Are The Masters Of Our Own Affairs,” and others. They were simply committing the most heinous crime with these slogans.

Hence, the iron fists of social hierarchy were imposed on them.

The ruling classes cracked down on all parties.

Hundreds and thousands of Protoss had their heads cut off daily.

Many places sank into a depression.

The senior administration of the Protoss who possessed great military force could sometimes wipe out a party with one targeted attack.

For the vast numbers of lower-class Protoss who were trying to change their fortunes, it was futile and way too difficult.

Even if their party garnered a public opinion support rate that far exceeded 50%.

Even if they were loved and respected by the lower classes who lived without hope.

When faced with those who were extremely strong, whose individual strength was strong enough to change the rules, all their activities and plans were largely ineffective.

They wanted to live as well as the humans, to enjoy the same kind of fairness and happiness. But this was only possible if their votes had power to fulfill their dream.

Only with power could there be the possibility of a total transformation.

Chen Jin intended to undertake this task. He was about to send hope to the lower class Protoss by making a little contribution.

Dream Fantasy: 8th Generation.

The latest generation of VR headgear produced by Xing Hai Game Company.

It had integrated many great achievements in technology; the terminal realism of the game was as high as an astonishing 97%…It was one entire generation ahead of the previous model.

The company wanted to at least organize a lively and large-scale launch event for its new product at the start of a new era.

However, they also wanted to keep things low-key, so there was no new product launch event for Dream Fantasy: Eighth Generation. It entered the market without making any noise…Its appearance was almost indistinguishable from the Dream Fantasy: Seventh Generation. It was very difficult to tell them apart.

The price also remained unchanged, at $4,999…Additionally, the Earth Federation provided a subsidy of $2,000 per unit.

As long as they could get those Dream Fantasy: Eighth Gen VR headgear to the large forces formed by the lower classes of Protoss; the game company was half selling the products and half giving them away.

The purpose behind this large-scale sale was completely related to the function of the headgear.

Because the simulation had a 97% realism level, some of the players’ behaviors in the game could have an impact on reality.

For example, spiritual cultivation.

If the player entered the deep level of cultivation in the game, Galaxy Era 2, he would soon be able to absorb a portion of the experiences and enlightenment that he had gained in the game.

Due to the high degree of realism, the skills and combat experience in the game could also be brought back to reality.

“More importantly, in the Galaxy 2, there are a lot of cultivation methods that are effective when carried out in reality. Their qualities are generally good after they have been optimized by the supercomputer. It is not difficult to learn and master those cultivation methods.”

“And when you’ve entered the state of deep learning, the exercises and combat skills that you’ve learned during in-game cultivation can also be practiced in reality.”

“Moreover, after the physical condition of the player was scanned by the headgear scanner and the association mode is activated, even ordinary people who have no aptitude for spiritual cultivation can carry over their cultivation base from reality into the game. It wouldn’t matter how many monsters you kill in the game or how much your experience increases.”

“If one has entered the stage where he is able to control and direct the flow of his Qi to areas of his body in the game and successfully establishes this foundation, then he should also be able to do the same in reality…without any guidance from others.”

Therefore, the VR headgear, Dream Fantasy: 8th Generation became the “spiritual artifact” for many lower-class Protoss, it had nurtured countless practitioners, breaking the monopoly that the family clans and sects had on the ancient books and records on spiritual cultivation. Everyone had the opportunity to consult the immortals, ask for the way and the chance to strengthen themselves.

What was even more ridiculous was that by relying on the intelligent manual guidance of the intelligent system in the game, even the lower class Protoss whose aptitude for cultivation was average was able to achieve a success rate of more than 80% in establishing their Foundation, instead of the 20% under normal circumstances.

After a while, their success rate improved four times.

With the huge population base of the lower class Protoss, it was estimated that it would not take long for those Protoss who yearn for freedom, democracy, and the rule of law to have enough power to let their voices be heard.

In this way, the Federation could make use of the conflicts within the Protoss classes; continue to promote and intensify those conflicts such that those Protoss would resonate, integrate, and fully recognize the ideas of the Federation, at least in terms of culture. Hence, the Protoss might ultimately not be destroyed with military force, instead, it might collapse on itself first.

Using ideas as a weapon and turning an enemy into a friend was far more powerful than any real artillery.

Chen Jin was looking forward to it.

…

Haierfa.

Everything was on the right track.

Under the leadership of Mu Yunhua, the All-Stars Federation, led by the all-new constitutional monarchy under Mu Yunhua was becoming more prosperous with each passing day.

The Selains, who had been relegated to slaves had now basically resigned to their lives. The rebellion was doomed to failure, and they could only work honestly for the All-Stars Federation.

Therefore, the sporadic sparks of resistance quickly dissipated.

The territory, population, and resources of the original Selain civilization have all been integrated and absorbed…The All-Stars Federation was unprecedentedly powerful.

Considering that they had more warships and were stable internally, Mu Yunhua enacted the Intergalactic Colonial Encouragement Law and strongly encouraged the people to participate in the intergalactic development activities. Ten Silver Gun Lords with their warp engines were also started. They carried scientists on board as they went to 10 high-value galaxies.

The road to expansion would be reopened.

But a small incident happened.

There were many elderly who had accompanied Mu Yunhua in her fight since fleeing Haierfa; they had chosen to retire after the war. But on this particular day, they suddenly sought her out and made a request.

“Your Majesty, it has been more than a hundred years, and most of the Federation’s subjects have taken Walf to be their homeland.”

“But we know, have always very clearly known that our homeland is the blue planet of Haifa.”

“It’s been more than a hundred years, and we’ve wandered for so long. It’s time to go back. No matter whether the planet is destroyed or reborn, it’s time to go home!”

“Your Majesty, please give us an A-class warship. Let us go home and take a look, no matter what it becomes, we would at least be back home.”

An old man said with tears.

“Go back home?”

A tremble went through Mu Yunhua’s body and as she muttered those three words, her eyes misted over.

Why wouldn’t she want to go back to that blue planet for a look?

But…

Chapter 455 - Mobilising The Sages

They could not go back.

At least not for now.

Because Mu Yunhua had raised the suggestion to Jin. She wanted to go back to Haierfa for a look, and asked if she could borrow a “Silver Gun Lord” so that she could go home at a faster speed.

She wanted to see if there were any remaining survivors.

To see if the planet had recovered.

It would take at least a few decades for a round trip using a traditional spacecraft that was not equipped with a non-warp engine. The only way for them to arrive quickly was to take the superluminal spacecraft which could cut down the travel time by more than 90%.

But all the A and S-class warships belonged to Jin and they could only borrow.

No matter what purpose or use, one must go through the application process and get the Jin’s consent.

But this time.

No, you can’t go back to Haierfa for the time being.”

Unexpectedly, Jin had refused without hesitation.

“W… Why?”

Mu Yunhua was stunned. This was a small matter. It was as simple as lifting a finger. Why did Jin disagree?

“Because… I can’t tell you anything yet, but you can’t go back to Haierfa, no one can.” Chen Jin lived in Haierfa, it was his private territory. Of course, he did not want Mu Yunhua and those human survivors who left Haierfa to return home.

He did not want to share his territory with others.

Moreover, he had adapted very well to his current lifestyle, and he did not want any significant changes to occur.

“I beg you to help me? Satisfy this little wish of mine. After all, it is my hometown. I want to see what it is like now. I want to see if anyone else exists.”

“Unfortunately, the humans of Haierfa is extinct. The civilization in lays in its apocalyptic ruins and has not been reborn. However, the environment has changed a lot. It could be said that it has been restored to its original beautiful ecology, but all humans are dead, there is no point reminiscing about the planet. In fact, you would only feel a greater sadness. There is no need to return.”

“So, do you know the situation of the planet Haier?”

Mu Yunhua was very surprised. As she listened to the tone of Jin, it seemed that her hometown of Haierfa was in his control. He was very familiar with the past and present situation. She could not help but say, “Jin, can tell me some details about my hometown? Why wouldn’t you want me to go back and see?”

She asked a lot of questions, and she had a lot of complicated thoughts in her mind. Her brain churned like crazy and she thought about Jin’s purpose and intentions.

If not for the overwhelming amount of assistance that Jin had provided her with over the years, and deep friendship between them, she would have come up with a lot of conspiracy theories in her mind.

“Stop asking so much.”

Chen Jin was a little impatient: “Now is not the right time. Why would you want to go back to Haierfa?”

“And we made a promise a few years ago. That is, I will provide you with assistance and in exchange, you have to agree on one condition.”

“Now, I will state that condition. Before your All Stars Federation controls more than one million star systems, no one can return to Haierfa, including you.”

“Work hard and do your work well. Make greater contributions, and no matter what dreams you have, they will naturally come true.”

“In addition, I don’t want to keep this from you anymore. Haierfa is now my private galaxy. It has changed a lot since the past, and it has great value….. Think of ways to fulfill my request. Your journey is far from over.”

A millions star systems.

Mu Yunhua took a deep breath.

This was 1,000 times the current territory of the All Stars Federation.

Assuming that they fully occupied and developed 10,000 stars every year, Jin’s request could only be achieved in 100 years.

It was a heavy burden and the road was long.

Going home became a distant dream.

But Mu Yunhua could only accept this.

After all, the Federation was not very strong yet.

She owed Jin too many favors, so she could only agree to his request.

Now, she could tactfully refuse the pleading of the old men in the Federation.

“Now is not yet the right time to return home, the higher civilization backing me has given me a more difficult task. Only after meeting his request can we hope to return to our hometown… We have to push forward with all our strength. There’s no time to look back.”

Mu Yunhua said with a stern face as she poured the metaphorical bucket of cold water.

The old men below the stage lowered their heads as they saw there was no other way. They could only go back in disappointment.

…

Haierfa.

“Ah, although I have been trying to delay this moment, what will come will always come. After the threats have been eliminated and life becomes stable, there must be a considerable portion of survivors who want to return to Haierfa to search for their roots and their forefathers or those who wish to return home to live out their old age in their hometown,” Chen Jin sighed. This day had arrived earlier than expected.

“Master, there are not that many people who want to come back. Those who are homesick are mostly survivors who were on board the ‘Blue Space’; there are less than 100,000 of them.”

Alice analyzed, “With several wars against the Selains, suicides and mental breakdowns, there might be less than 30,000 final survivors. The remaining billions of humans regard the Walf galaxy as their homeland all their lives.”

“Assuming that about half of the remaining 30,000 people want to return to their hometown, they would only make up the carrying capacity of a medium-sized passenger spacecraft. After returning to Haierfa, we could build them some facilities and settle them down, they will not disturb our control of the planet.”

Thus, they more than 10,000 native humans from Haierfa would be added to the planet’s inhabitants.

Chen Jin shook his head, “No, this is my territory. I don’t like so many people here. If there are only one or two people, I can still accommodate them. Too many and it will be really difficult to manage.”

He actually did not have much experience as a ruler and could not do a good job of many things which required him to make connections and interact with people.

Many of his interests laid at home.

“Master, we could just receive the Queen alone, it will be a more lively here,” Nuwa suddenly made a suggestion.

Hearing this.

Chen Jin was slightly stunned. Some images appeared in his mind, some were healthy and some were not. There were also many fantasies that made him smile.

Unconsciously, the expression became very expectant.

But as he saw Guo Yan, who was sitting on the sofa not too far away, drinking tea and watching TV, Chen Jin could not help but shake his head, flinging those absurd ideas aside.

“Friends, we’re just ordinary friends, and I can’t be a scum anymore in this universe.”

…

Earth.

Protoss society.

The situation had become more complicated in recent years and circumstances grew increasingly chaotic.

Large-scale conflicts that resulted in more than 100,000 deaths and injuries had occurred more than 10 times in the past two years.

Anyone with a discerning eye could see that the social structure of the Protoss was undergoing intense turmoil and changes.

There was a phrase that could be used to most precisely describe this extremely chaotic situation – the rise of political parties.

Every Protoss party with their extraordinary organizational capabilities were rapidly advancing as they rose to power. They were shaking up the old ruling classes of the Protoss that were teetering in the balance.

What was the original ruling structure of the Protoss?

There were sociologists who had analyzed this and came up with this conclusion. Strong family clans + lower class slaves = Protoss system.

Each clan and sect which had continued for thousands and tens of thousands of years made up the ruling class at the top of their society.

The authority of rulership was based on violence.

There are very few middle classes.

Most of the Protoss that belonged in the lower class were severely oppressed by slavery.

There was no well-developed legal system that worked according to standards. There were only individual clan laws and regulations….. That were usually harsh. The execution of a punishment could be quite arbitrary. One could even be trampled and ignored….. Everything was mainly dependant on the individuals.

In short, it was the rule of man.

Moreover, there were tensions and disputes between the top family clans and sects, it was to the extent that they would never stop fighting unless one of them was dead. They would only unite when they were faced with a huge crisis where they had no choice but to work together to resolve the crisis. Otherwise, they only grew more and more divided.

But political parties had risen to power in the past few years.

And what these political parties had learned was based entirely on human society. They had a program of action, specific goals, and a path of struggle. Many ambitious Protoss applied this set of skills that they had learned, and they could always gather up a very powerful force in a short period of time.

And it did bring a lot of advanced ideas.

For example, everyone was born equal and those with power must not be allowed to abuse it; the wicked should be punished, and a fair and stable order must be established.

Then, the parties organised seminars to brainwash their audience and to take in members with the same aspirations. These actions also attracted military campaigns of “encirclement and suppression”.

At the beginning, these political parties suffered heavy losses, and many large parties were destroyed. They could not make a splash.

Later, there were practitioners who joined the parties. Many of the lower class Protoss learned a lot of advanced cultivation exercises and skills with the help of the virtual helmet, Dream Fantasy: 8th Generation.

In addition, in the process of contending with the powerful clans, they came across a red colored book from which they learned guerrilla warfare, mobile warfare, sparrow tactics, and the people’s war that made one think of the vast ocean.

The political parties also seized their advantages.

And that was numbers.

Generally, there were no more than a thousand people who were exceptionally strong in a typical large-scale clan or sect.

However, as long as the main ideas of a party were sufficiently tempting and the rewards narrated suitably impressive, the party could gather more than 100,000 people in a short period of time.

There were even more ridiculous numbers in the hundreds of thousands and millions.

They had the advantage of numbers, an advantage that was a few hundred times, thousands of times larger than their opponents.

Hence, for every war fought against the parties, it was like a tiny minority encircling a majority.

At the beginning, those family clans and sects could deal with the fights against the parties. But as time went on, when they had to encircle and suppress the party forces daily, they gradually failed to keep up with the exhaustion of their minds, the consumption of the spiritual energy, etc. …. The numbers of powerful practitioners who were beaten to death by mobs were increasing.

The local tyrants, and their once hired thugs and lackeys were trampled in the mud by a group of weaklings. They died very unwilling and unhappily.

A few years later.

There were clans who could not take it anymore. They chose to compromise. They helplessly agreed to reduce rent, increase salary, promised not to arbitrarily kill people, and no longer required the lower class to be conscripted into the army etc. The ruling classes would never have agreed to these requests in the past.

When there was a first, there would be a second, third…

Of course, there were many clans who were unwilling to surrender their rights and interests. On the contrary, they became more cruel in their military campaigns.

Until the first Protoss family, who was rather famous, was destroyed by a political party because of their heavy slaughter.

There were more Protoss family who saw the situation clearly.

There were even some political parties who succeeded in capturing the governing power of an area.

This spark of success that lit up the metaphorical stars was an encouragement to even more political parties, and their struggles became more intense. The appeal of the lower class became even louder and clearer.

The family clan + sectarian rule that had lasted for a million years was actually seriously shaken.

The extremely important authority of control over “people” was actually about to slip away and go to the hands of the lower class. Even the ruling class had to be bound by the so-called “law” and had to stop doing whatever they want.

…

“Bam~”

A table was smashed to pieces by a fist.

“The absolute disgrace of the ‘Protect People’s Party’! Those damn scummy rabble! How dare you get our Tonghuang clan to give up our rights to the entire free city, to hand over our taxation rights, exempt corvee labor, and to give the people one tenth of the revenue as taxes paid to the higher authorities.”

“Who do you think you are?!!”

“We are the Tonghuang family clan, the number one clan of the Protoss!”

“You dare to provoke us, you actually… make demands of us?”

“Good, you’re courting death, this is what you are looking for!”

“Even if you have millions of members under the Protect Peoples’ Party, the experts from my Tonghuang clan will definitely slaughter every single of you!”

Enraged.

After receiving the notice, the Tonghuang family was enraged.

Soon, a troop of more than 3,000 high-powered practitioners were gathered and they vowed to slaughter every member of the Protect Peoples’ Party from top to bottom.

But…

They met with countless traps and ambushes during the encirclement process.

It was okay if they stuck together for safety, but once anybody was accidentally left out, he would encounter horrible collective attacks.

In just three months.

More than half of the 3,000 powerful practitioners that were sent out by the Tonghuang family were lost. There were also hundreds who collapsed and left hundreds of people. The number of people who came back covered in dirt, dejected and depressed were less than 1,000.

The vigor of the Tonghuang family suddenly suffered a great injury as they had lost half of their mid-strength military forces.

Of course, there were still a few ancestors of the Shenguang Order within the Tonghuang family. Once they make their move, they could kill thousands of those insignificant beings with a wave of their palms.

But…

Under the strategy of guerrilla warfare, where the enemies’ soldiers were scattered, only about ten of them could be killed at a time.

In a situation where millions of those insignificant beings were scattered, even the experts from the Shenguang Order couldn’t do anything about it.

Moreover, a clan could not rely on a few practitioners from the Shenguang Order as support, without a backbone and cornerstone, whatever that was left was just a castle in the air.

Compromise.

The Tonghuang clan, the strongest clan, also had no choice but to accept certain conditions laid out by the parties. They took out some of their benefits; they just wanted to end this endless nightmare.

Hence, individual party forces began to occupy the mainstream on Earth and began to establish a formal ruling structure.

A new era seemed to be coming soon.

Moreover, even the Chen family on Earth had to handover 30% of their profits to a powerful political party in this whirlpool so as to gain the protection of the party, and to get rid of the Tonghuang and Mugu clans.

The vast numbers of the lower class Protoss were celebrating and cheering. Their faces were filled with longing and hope, some were covered in tears or burst into tears, shouting “long live freedom”, “long live equality”.

The surging momentum of history was seemingly unstoppable.

A new chapter was about to begin.

But at this time.

Suddenly, films of giant light membrane landed on Earth and they painted separate grids on the ground.

And then, there was a gray hole in outer space that seemed to open and countless natural spiritual energy of a high concentration poured down.

An incomparably imposing voice, fell from the sky like rolling thunder, ringing in the ears of all Protoss and humans on Earth.

“All clans, listen to your order!”

“I, as a Sage, has laid down an inescapable net where you are to kill all within this short time frame. Only those from the Jushen Order and above can travel in and out of the net freely to direct and attract an endless amount of spiritual energy so that the practitioners do not need to worry about the lack of energy…”

“I order all practitioners with exceptional abilities to proceed to the strongest grid, and start to gather your murder energy from here. Kill everyone who joins the political parties in the mortal world. Leave none alive!”

“Those who follow our orders will prosper and those who do not will die! All who rebel against us will face punishment by the Sages! We will execute them on behalf of the Heavens! All the major clans, make your move noe!”

Once this statement was heard.

The expressions of numerous people underwent a crazy change, there was also a minority who looked ecstatic.

They had made their moves.

Faced with the rise of party power, the peak of the practitioners’ strength – the Sages – actually made a move personally.

And it seemed that the first thing out of their mouths was to kill all everyone from the parties!

The historical trend of rolling forward had suddenly encountered an unimaginable individual strength.

Chapter 456 - Merging Of Two Worlds

The large, net-like defensive spell was a trap laid out by the Sages that enveloped the entire earth.

There were a total of 360 grids set out in the formation.

Excluding the oceans and the sparsely populated areas of the North and South Poles, there were about a hundred grids covering the landmasses.

The Protoss clans and the masters sent by the sects could proceed with clean up, grid by grid.

They would destroy all members of the political parties by exterminating everyone involved or related to said parties.

If it took three days to “clean” each grid, then it would take about a year to complete the task.

As for the effects of this extermination, it was very likely that the total population of the Protoss would be reduced by 1% to 5%, depending on how thorough the cleaning process was.

At least hundreds of millions of Protoss would die!

But…

They were just insignificant beings in the eyes of Sages, who easily and decisively sentenced them to their fate.

Even though they were from the same race.

“Why?”

In the villa, Chen Junfeng had a stunned and puzzled expression, “Why are the Sages of the Protoss doing this? Why would they be so ruthless?”

He found it difficult to understand. Great responsibility came with great power. The Protoss Sages had always attached the greatest importance to their people. Back in the Heavenly Realm, four Sages had laid out their defensive spell formations, placing themselves as the backbone of the formations to deal with the crisis of the primordial chaos. They hung on and resisted the chaos for thousands of years.

It was a glorious and noble image that left a deep impression.

But suddenly, the Sages were making a move.

Moreover, it was a move against the Protoss that they used to protect and care for. Their words were cold as if they were handing out a death sentence.

How did things turn out like this?

Chen Junfeng was in a state of confusion.

Chen Jin was also silent for a short period of time.

After thinking about it, he said indifferently, “I think it might due to resources, specifically resources for cultivation.”

“I ran this through a supercomputer. Assuming that the amount of natural spiritual energy is expressed in standard units, then an ordinary practitioner who is cultivating his Qi would probably need one unit of the spirit energy; a practitioner from the Condensate phase or Order 10 units, and a practitioner from the Jiedan Order or phase, 100 units…As for those of the Shenguang Order who could create and arrange such a huge spell? They would have to use a terrifying amount of power. Based on that, a Sage must consume at least 10 billion units of spiritual energy.”

“While they are draining the natural spiritual energy, they must also consume a huge amount of medicinal herbs, magic weapons, and minerals. The amount of energy needed is hard to measure.”

“This universe is very big, and the Heavenly Realm is not smaller than our world in any way. But ultimately, the total amount of natural spiritual energy is still limited.”

“Resources are limited, but practitioners are emerging in an endless stream. Just like the growth of the human population, as long as the environment stabilizes, the competition will be reduced. There is no doubt that the Protoss population is about to usher in a period of explosive growth.”

“Once the population has reached a certain level, available resources would slowly become scarcer.”

“And the emergence of those political groups means something; something that anyone, who is even a little intelligent, will know. The emergence of the parties means that social stratus will become more fluid, the labor force will be liberated, and the low-cost distribution of resources for cultivation.”

“And after the release of the ‘Dream Fantasy: Eighth Generation’ virtual reality headgear, due to its ultra-high degree of realism and the popularity of a PK game, “War of Glory,” any Protoss with a beef against each other, could solve their issues inside a fighting ring within the game. They don’t have to fight to the death in reality.”

“With the emergence of a good alternative product and its in-game competitions and arenas where the player can show off their true strength The mortality rate of the Protoss has dropped dramatically.”

“The aristocrats of the Protoss will be subject to various laws and restrictions. The new governance system will also enable all aspects of their society to become more civilized and developed.”

“As for the lower class Protoss, their bellies are full and they have nice clothes to wear. They could even easily get their hands on the more advanced cultivation methods and exercises.”

“The number of practitioners has experienced explosive growth, an increase that was probably more than twice their original number.”

“This may be what the higher classes do not wish to see. Due to personal interests, even the Sages cannot accept how the more advanced and civilized system is taking away some of their resources.”

“Our people have also gathered legends about the Protoss. It seems that there were typically only four saints in the history of the Protoss, which spans millions of years. The largest number of Sages at any point in time was also four. Occasionally, one or two will fall and there will be some fluctuations. ”

“But the upper limit seems to be only four!”

“This explains that resources for cultivation may support only up to four Sages. If there were more practitioners at the lower levels, it would be difficult to maintain sufficient resources for even four.”

“So for the sake of their interests, they can only destroy the elements that are now bringing their society into the future. They have to kill members of those political parties and try their best to restore the previous order. Certain advances cannot be allowed to emerge.”

They would rather keep the status quo!

Chen Junfeng couldn’t help but clench his fists. So, it was like that. The Sages, who were the so-called savior of the people were just selfish men.

Suddenly, his expression changed again!

“Grandpa, after the success of our “Sage Plan,” in the past year, we have nurtured thousands of “geniuses.” They are cultivating at nearly 10 times the efficiency of ordinary people. The speed of their progress is unbelievably good.”

“However, if this is discovered by the senior administration of the Protoss, or by their Sages, will they immediately kill all the ‘geniuses’ in our hands for the sake of saving resources? After all, those geniuses are horrifying. Sooner or later, it will be found that they aren’t normal. This secret could even be exposed.”

“And with the character of their senior administration, the domineering ways and ruthlessness of the Sages… The geniuses that we’ve nurtured will surely be slaughtered!”

They would never be accepted by the Protoss.

Chen Junfeng looked at Chen Jin with an anxious expression. The mass production of geniuses; this kind of behavior, once exposed….. it might provoke frantic killings or lead to them being besieged by the Protoss.

The Chen family could not even hope to be a match for the Sages. Faced with the Sages, the Chen family was weak like a worm or a fly.

So… what should they do?

Should they avoid risks and pull back in time?

He put forward his views and concerns. He had developed the idea of retreating.

“There’s no need for that, the “Sage Plan” has to continue.”

Chen Jin shook his head, “The Sages, are indeed terrifying. They could even destroy the earth just by lifting a finger. But…there is no need to retreat.”

“The Sages are not a big deal. There are even records of them being damaged or lost. That is even greater proof that they are not invincible. There’s no need to be too afraid of them. As long as the geniuses we nurture are sufficiently strong and they slowly reach or exceed the level of the Sages in their cultivation…You have to give certain things a try in this universe.”

“Grandpa, please speak cautiously!”

Chen Junfeng’s expression changed significantly. He walked forwards and said, “Our entire planet is now under the control of the Sages. They can perceive any malicious thoughts or ideas generated by all living things within the quarantine circle. You must stop talking. If they hear what we say, our family will be finished!”

“Ok.”

Chen Jin shook his head and secretly said to himself, “The Sages, I wonder if the anti-matter bomb with a yield of 10 billion tons could kill a Sage, thus achieving the feat of slaughtering all the Sages?”

However, with the power of the Sages and their variety of mysterious yet formidable tactics, the possibility that such an attack would be successful was destined to be low.

Ah ~ low-key.

Even if the Chen family seemed to have a lot of aces up their sleeves and lots of money and resources, they still had to appear modest and low-key in front of the Sages.

…

For the next few months.

All of Earth was enveloped in an atmosphere that reeked of blood caused by the frenzied killings.

Under the fierce and ruthless attacks by the powerful practitioners, large numbers of political party members were brutally killed, none were taken as captives, and even those who surrendered were killed.

Even their souls were drawn out after their deaths to be pulverized…To be blunt, it meant that both body and soul were destroyed without exception; there was no mercy.

The horrifying slaughter caused all Protoss from the lower class to tremble in fear. The spark of hope that used to reside in their eyes was gradually extinguished. They had to accept the original system that they had lived in. To survive, they had to abandon everything they had. They stopped having their extravagant expectations of freedom and dignity.

But…

The most sensational event these days was not the defensive spell formation or the killings arranged by the Sages.

The Heavenly Realm was about to come to an end.

Just like a star whose life had come to an end. There would come a day when its light would be extinguished.

The crisis of the primordial chaos in the Heavenly Realm had become so serious that it had already transformed 99% of the land into the formless mass before creation, killing countless civilizations and races in the process.

It had turned the region that was originally full of vitality into an endlessly turbid air of primal chaos.

For now, no one knew anything about the source or cause of the primordial chaos crisis. Investigations produced no results.

They could only come to the simplest conclusion — The Heavenly Realm was about to come to an end.

It was useless even if there were Sages who were giving their all to hold up the Realm.

There was a Sage who suddenly left his post and came to earth to intervene in the internal affairs of the Protoss. He completely supported the position of the family clans and sects. He was extremely icy towards the various parties who represented the lower classes.

There used to be four Sages on duty and now there were three.

When there were four, the primordial chaos, in form of a gas could not wear down and enter the Realm, but with only three Sages, it immediately broke through a corner of the Realm and engulfed the world and all the living things in it at a fairly quickly, like a substance that transformed everything into sand.

If a Protoss was exposed to an excess of this gas, it would be akin to incineration. In the absence of much pain, the Protoss would be turned into ash and be scattered in all directions.

The specifics of the process were a bit like how Thanos snapped his fingers, and turned half of the universe into ash, making life disappear in an instant.

Currently, this was the situation of the Heavenly Realm, and it was even more serious. After all, the gas of the primordial chaos would melt everything.

Now that one of the Sages had come to the earth, the other three could not stop the onslaught of the primordial chaos. They could only delay the inevitable for a little longer. They were striving to move the entire Protoss population, all their supplies and treasures to the solar system in this last final stretch of time.

The other three Sages would probably be the last to leave.

So…the most rigorous challenge had arrived again.

An intelligence officer privately reported to Chen Jin the latest situation that he had gotten wind of.

“There should be less than 5 billion Protoss who are still living in the Heavenly Realm…Most of them have been evacuated.”

“The senior administration of the Protoss hoped that the Earth Federation would assist by renting out a group of passenger ships, which would be remodeled. They strive to complete the final evacuation within five years, so that the entire Protoss population, a huge group of more than 20 billion, will coexist with us in the solar system.”

“The four Sages will also stay in the solar system. Several large palaces would have to be built, and we would have to provide some superior services to help the four Sages settle down.”

“Besides, the most important thing is this: As the Heavenly Realm is being thoroughly transformed into part of the primordial chaos, at this particular time when the Realm is about to disappear, many of the Sages who had arrived in our universe suddenly came up with an idea.”

“That is, they want to combine our universe and the Heavenly Realm by completely merging them to become one new universe.”

Wait~

Hearing this, Chen Jin felt very puzzled, “Merge, how? The Heavenly Realm is about to disappear completely, only the gas of the primordial chaos is left. Are we supposed to merge with the primordial chaos? If that happens, wouldn’t our universe be transformed into part of the chaos too? Who came up with this idea? There must have a problem with their brains?”

“There’s no problem with this.”

“The primordial particles found in the gas of the primordial chaos has been dispelled to our universe a very long time ago. The concentration of these particles is not low. There is a higher concentration of the primordial particles than celestial particles.”

“But after intensive research, the scientists discovered that the primordial particles, which have the characteristics of being highly active with a strong melting effect in the Heavenly Realm suddenly become blunt and passive when it was dispelled to Earth. This is perhaps due to the differences in the laws of our universe compared to the laws of the Heavenly Realm’s universe. The primordial particle cannot melt any substances here, and it does not participate in any chemical reaction, its existence is like an inert gas.”

“It could be said after arriving in our universe, the gas of the primordial chaos has completely lost its combat power.”

“Also, by colliding particles at a relatively high energy level, scientists have observed that the primordial particle split into a variety of celestial particles. These celestial particles have absorbed a lot of energy during the collision process. The result is that scientists have gotten a variety of particles with active natures.”

“From this, they saw the hope of walking out from the crisis of the primordial chaos towards a brilliant era of cultivation.”

“So the Sages intend to open the time-space portal, link up the two worlds, and use various methods to release the gas of the primordial chaos into our universe.”

“The concentration of the gas of the primordial chaos is very high. If the primordial chaos was transferred to our universe in its entirety, it is estimated its concentration will far exceed that of the celestial particles (including the particles of the natural spirit energy). It would become the most common celestial element.”

The two universes must be integrated into one from then on.

Regarding this matter, anyone with a discerning eye could see that there would be nothing beneficial for the natives of Earth.

The natives of Earth would even have come up with more resources and living space to satisfy the appetites of the remaining five billion Protoss.

And with the explosive increase in the concentration of the celestial particles in the later period, it is the Protoss who would benefit from the merging of the two worlds. It is also the Protoss who would see a rapid increase in their level of cultivation. The humans would have to be good servants to those arrogant, lazy bums.

In addition, the Sages would be coming over. They were people who were so powerful that they could make the planet explode with a pinch of their fingers. Humans would not even dare to talk bad about them behind their backs, much less provoke them.

Moreover, with the arrival of the Sages, who represented the ultimate force, the days of mankind would probably worsen. Humans would all the more have to suffer in silence and swallow their anger.

Even Chen Jin had silently decided to keep a low profile, and he could no longer put himself in the limelight.

However, Chen Jin suddenly thought of something, and he said, “Can the gas of the primordial chaos be used for cultivation?”

“Probably not.”

The expert who had been researching celestial particles for a long time said, “The primordial particle has a very lazy nature and can hardly sustain the energy dispensed by our mental power. It is difficult to guide and control. And the requirements for the fission of the primordial particles are very high. Even if it could be split into a variety of active celestial particles, the energy that is consumed in the process far exceeds what is harvested.”

“The only interesting characteristic of the primordial particle is that it is very easy to collect. It has four masses, which is equivalent to the helium element. It can be compressed, and as long as the pressure is great enough, the particle can be compressed to a hundredth, a thousandth, and even a ten-thousandth of its original mass. The ratio of compression could even be higher where it would finally be compressed into a solid object, such as a diamond.”

Primordial particles in the solid state.

Didn’t that mean that it could be conveniently carried on one’s person and easily transferred in large quantities?

If he got his hands on some compressed primordial particles, brought them to Haierfa and got Nuwa to do some research on it, would she acquire some unexpected results?

As he thought of this, Chen Jin developed a very strong interest in the primordial particle.

Chapter 457 - A Special Key

A few months later.

All the “political parties” of the Protoss on Earth had been executed. None were left alive.

The evil rebellion that was recorded in the history of the Protoss had been resolved. It was represented by a scant few strokes in the history books and the specifics of the rebellion were brief.

Naturally, the victors were just. After seeing their hope light up only to be quickly extinguished, the vast numbers of the lower class Protoss returned to their lives full of darkness. They could only struggle for survival in the world where only the strong were respected.

After completing his task, that powerful Sage removed the defensive spell formation and disappeared in a flash of light. No one knew where he went.

Besides the certainty of being extremely terrified in this climate of fear, the Chen family had passed this frightening period without experiencing any serious losses.

Afterward, they quickly got their people to prepare gifts for the presentation. They found the Tonghuang and Mugu clans again and approached them to give their apologies. They took the initiative to offer their stakes and benefits. Their previous asylum relationship was restored.

Since then, everything seemed to have returned to normal.

The Chen family still did not implement any counter-attacks against the Protoss, nor did they regain their status. Instead, under the potential threat of the unit force formed by the Sages, they became even more low-key than before.

“Send them away.”

“Send the hundred-plus Institute-trained geniuses to the Zhuo planet.”

Zhuo was a planet located 105 light-years away, and it was relatively remote. However, it was a planet with an area of one-billion square kilometers that was also rich in water resources. After its transformation was completed, countless living areas could be developed.

“The proportion of human beings who are suitable for spiritual cultivation is very low. There are only about one in a thousand. If they were to stay on Earth as they secretly develop their skills, someone would notice a problem sooner or later as their spiritual cultivation progresses at a ridiculous speed. I hope that those masterminds can grow in a stable and environment free from anxieties.”

“Grandfather, if the geniuses are all sent away, who will keep us safe? We can’t send all of them away,” Chen Junfeng said.

For days, he had been having a terrible headache as he struggled to ensure the safety of the Chen family’s fortress. In the end, he had reached a rather negative conclusion.

He would feel a little better if they had a large number of geniuses in their hands, but Chen Jin was asking for all of them to be sent away?

Wouldn’t they be fully putting themselves in harm’s way?

It would be better to leave a dozen geniuses on Earth, even three to five of them would be good enough.

Chen Jin shook his head, “It’s useless. A genius who has not realized his full potential is not a genius. If their spiritual cultivation has not reached a level comparable to the practitioners from the Shenguang Order, it makes no difference if they stayed on Earth or not. It’s better to send them away and have them return to Earth when they are strong enough. Only in this way can they play the role they are meant to play.”

Hence, Earth was just a “production” base.

“Okay, then.”

Chen Junfeng nodded in disappointment, “I will arrange a spaceship tomorrow to send them to the Zhuo planet.”

A deep sense of powerlessness suddenly welled up in his heart. He had hope; hope that was rarely felt and what he had thought was the imminent dawn of their counter-attack. But he did not expect that events would suddenly take such a big and unexpected turn. The internal administration and rulers of the Protoss were not thrown into chaos. Also, a Sage had suddenly arrived on Earth, forcing the Chen family to continue to keep their heads down.

They still had to pay their protection fees and put on a subservient act for a very long time.

Oh, how unwilling and unsatisfied he felt.

…

A few days later.

A spaceship carrying hundreds of geniuses left the earth. It first went to Mars, where they then took a super-light speed spaceship to the Zhuo planet hundreds of light-years away.

At the same time.

The Chen family also sent a small research spaceship straight into outer space It sped towards a time-space crack less than 10,000 kilometers from Earth.

It was through this temporarily opened crack that the concentration of the natural spiritual energy on the surface of Earth had increased by hundreds of times in just one year.

It had enabled Earth to have a high concentration of natural spiritual energy and to become a paradise.

It was extremely beneficial to the cultivation of the practitioners.

It could also be considered as welfare brought to Earth by that Sage.

In the beginning, the gas leaking through the space-time crack was mostly dominated by the beneficial “natural spiritual energy,” and the primordial particles were a very small component of the gas.

But almost a year had passed, and the natural spiritual energy had gradually become weaker.

The concentration and density of the primordial particles had begun to increase.

Towards the end, the primordial particles had slowly become the main component of the gas leaking through the time-space crack.

The research spacecraft dispatched by the Chen family was steered into the center of the time-space crack. An instrument was extended from the spacecraft to take measurements.

The concentration of the primordial particles had exceeded 90%.

The measurements in some areas were even more ridiculous; they consisted almost purely of primordial particles.

“Let’s start collecting them!”

Some instruments were stretched out from the research spacecraft, and just like straws, they began to vigorously suck up the gas particles.

The gas was made up of a large number of primordial particles were placed into multiple jars that were tightly sealed.

“Start the compression process.”

“We are at one standard atmosphere… Two standard atmosphere…”

“At 15 standard atmosphere, the primordial particles start to transform into a gel state from a gaseous state.”

“At 150 standard atmosphere, the primordial particles are completely compressed into a solid-state. It has a light grey appearance with a certain degree of gloss.”

“As compression continues into three hundred standard atmosphere, the primordial particles are transformed from a solid-state into a semi-transparent crystal state. Its density is now 100,000 times greater than what it was previously. This compression rate is extremely high; it is equivalent to compressing an elephant into the size of a cicada. The crystal formed in the latter half of the compression process can be labeled as the densest material. Moreover, it has very stable properties. The crystallized particles of the primordial chaos can maintain its crystallized state in an environment of low atmospheric pressure and normal temperatures.”

“Fantastic, it’s a very fantastical substance.”

Collect, continue to collect them!

The research spacecraft stopped at the time-space crack for several days. In total, it had compressed more than 100 primordial crystals (each crystal was as large as an adult’s fist and weighed more than a hundred kilograms). These were brought back to Earth, ready for research to be conducted on them.

Chen Jin took 50 of them and brought them to Haierfa.

…

Haierfa.

Crater City.

Alice and Nuwa had spent a few months studying the primordial crystals brought back by Chen Jin.

“Nuwa, have you achieved any results? Could those primordial crystals produce any significant effects or do they have any dramatic functions?” Chen Jin would ask this question every once in a while, hoping to get some exciting good news.

But…

“Currently, I still have not found any significant effects produced by those crystals or any dramatic functions that it can do. But it can be put to several small uses,” said Nuwa.

“Tell me about it.”

“The physical and chemical characteristics of the primordial crystal are very stable and it does not react with any substances. It cannot be eroded by strong acids and alkali, so it can be used to make special receptacles to contain some dangerous chemicals.”

“It can act as a receptacle…. and what else?” What other function did it have?

“The primordial crystal has a very high density. It will only rapidly decompose into the primordial particles in its gaseous state at high temperatures of tens of thousands of degrees. During this process, it will generate at extremely fast speeds so it can be used as the working fluid of an engine, or even the propellant for a rocket. Thus, it can be used to improve the performance of conventional military equipment such as aircraft, armor, and missiles.”

“Military equipment, conventional weapons….. This is not powerful enough, are there no more powerful uses?” Chen Jin was somewhat disappointed.

“For the time being, no. What kind of function do you have in mind?” asked Nuwa.

“Can it be used directly for spiritual cultivation like the spirit stones? It would be best if we could develop a manual such as ‘Formula for Cultivating with the Primordial Chaos’ so that people can cultivate within the primordial chaos.”

“Um… I’m afraid that’s not possible. The nature of the primordial particle is too lazy. It can hardly sustain much power that is given off during our mental processes. Although it could theoretically replace the natural spiritual energy in its circulation and workings inside the human body, to use the power generated by the gas of the primordial chaos is problematic. Its usability may only be a hundredth or a thousandth of other celestial particles. The primordial particle immediately becomes weak, and there is almost no future for it,” said Nuwa.

“But didn’t some experts discover that primordial particles are the result of the polymerization of a variety of celestial particles? If the polymerization bonds are broken and the primordial chaos subsequently decompose, wouldn’t we get a variety of high-energy celestial particles? A lump of primordial crystal may decompose into many spirit stones with pure compositions.”

“Yes, you can put it that way. But Master,” Nuwa shook her head and said helplessly, “I believe you should have heard of the concept called ‘entropy.’ Entropy behaves in the same way in any universe. That is, it’s easy to go from high to low, but difficult to go from low to high.”

“Even if I can break the polymerization bonds of the primordial particles and decompose the chaos into a variety of spiritual energies using a variety of methods, the energy consumed by this decomposition process is far greater than the power that is finally obtained; and ultimately, the gains will not be worth the loss.”

“Not be worth the loss?”

Chen Jin smiled calmly and shook his head, “I don’t think so. As long as sufficient natural spiritual energy can be produced, it will represent a big gain for me. I don’t care about any entropy. How much spiritual energy can I use by myself? If my needs are satisfied, what does it matter if the entropy of this universe is sped up for a few seconds?”

“So, do you have a way to turn those primordial crystals into the natural spiritual energy that I want?”

Chen Jin looked at Nuwa who said, “Let me think about it, Master.”

Nuwa entered the state of high-speed computing. Suddenly, her eyes lit up and she said excitedly, “I’ve found a way, Master!”

“The conditions for the reverse fission of the primordial particles are a combination of high temperatures and high energy. We can build a superfusion nuclear power plant with a power of 1 trillion megawatts, in which the flow of hydrogen atoms will be accelerated to 0.999 times the speed of light via strong magnetic constraints. Then the crystal of the primordial chaos will be put into it so the primordial particles can participate in the reaction.”

“Therefore, in the collision process of the stream of particles, the hydrogen atoms would be fused to form heavy elements, and those primordial particles will split into a variety of celestial particles and it will produce an unending stream of spiritual energies.”

“According to my calculations, in theory, the spiritual energy produced every day by this nuclear power plant would be enough to meet the demands of a practitioner from the Shenguang Order.”

“Of course, if we could increase the power generation of the nuclear plant to the extent where it is the same as the amount of energy given off by a small star, then the spiritual energy produced could even be used to maintain a Sage.”

Hearing these words, Chen Jin felt excited and a little incredulous.

Could they produce spiritual energy with a nuclear power plant and the primordial crystals? How could it be so simple? If people wanted to do this, why didn’t anyone on Earth think of this method and do it?

“Master, this method is only suitable for use in the universe where Haierfa is. It is ineffective on Earth.”

Nuwa explained, “You probably know that after the Revival of Magical Powers on Earth, large numbers of celestial particles have since filled every corner of Earth and polluted all the substances. The most direct consequence is that under the unusual impact of the force field of the celestial particles, the speed of the fusion reaction has slowed down. Hence, the nuclear bombs with their great power in the past have lost all their effects.”

“Even if the brightness of the stars has been reduced by 1.5%. It is difficult for the power generated by the nuclear fusion power stations in the human world to exceed the limit of one-billion megawatts.”

“But this universe has not been subjected to pollution. This is still a purely material universe, so we can build a nuclear reactor that meets the requirements; a factory for the transformation of the primordial particles into spiritual energy.”

“This is the advantage that we have in this universe, and it is also the ideal environment that can never be created on Earth.”

So it was like this!

Chen Jin was excited that he made a fist and slammed it into the palm of his other hand!

Great, this was awesome! Since the Revival of Magical Powers on Earth, many people developed extraordinary powers. This had caused him to feel a little despondent as he thought that the value of Haiefa’s universe had weakened. He thought that there was not much on which to rely.

It seemed that this was not the case at all!

Not only could Haierfa help him, but it could even become a production base for spiritual energy, which would continue to supply him with spiritual energy at the expense of accelerating the entropy of the universe.

It was equivalent to an amazing key.

“Oh, the decision not to leave was right. Haierfa is always the one that provides me with the greatest assistance and is the most valuable property in my hands! I can never give it up!”

However, after the excitement, he immediately thought of a problem.

“Nuwa, if after the nuclear plant is built, and the amount of spiritual energy produced reaches a certain level, will the celestial particles with their special force fields affect the universe here and even reduce the speed of the fusion reaction?”

After all, the production process described by Nuwa could also be a pollution process.

“Rest assured, Master. I have considered this problem and thought of a solution. The most ideal situation is that all varieties of celestial particles created from the decomposition of primordial particles are all recovered separately in a closed environment and synthesized to form many types of spirit stones with different properties. This would avoid contaminating the production environment.”

“That’s great!”

Chen Jin was overjoyed. Nuwa had considered all the problems. There were even ways to solve the pollution problem, which needed to be done quickly. The project of the giant fusion power station project would begin immediately!

“Yes, Master, I’ll immediately assemble the resources and start this project. I’ll strive to complete this project within two years.”

“Hmm~” Chen Jin nodded. In his sudden flash of understanding, he thought he saw an endless stream of spirit stones floating in front of his eyes.

He couldn’t help but smile.

…

However, after only a few peaceful days, an emergency interstellar dispatch was sent to him.

Mu Yunhua appeared on the screen in front of him, wearing a grave and deeply worried expression.

“What happened, Yun?” Chen Jin asked.

“Gold, my federation, has been attacked by mysterious higher civilization!”

Mu Yunhua said urgently, “That mysterious civilization is very powerful, and it also has the super-light speed curvature engine technology. Their fleet is very large, they probably have more than 100,000 ships! Not only do they have powerful capabilities, but they also attacked my All-Stars Federation without declaring war in the first place. They launched surprise attacks on over 100 border galaxies of my Federation in a flash and easily tore apart the resistance of those border fleets. They have now occupied those galaxies.”

“Not only that, but they’ve also adopted the role of the liberators and rescued the Selains, who have since been relegated slaves, saying that they want to help the Selains get revenge.”

“Gold, this is a powerful enemy, the likes that have never been witnessed, we may not be their match at all! We’re friends, please help me!”

Chapter 458 - SS-Class Warship

A crisis.

It was a major crisis yet again.

If it was mishandled in any way, Mu Yunhua’s previous efforts, experiences, and knowledge that she had accumulated would all be in vain.

Those Selains who had already submitted themselves to the rule of the Federation and were ready to survive as slaves would also join the rebel camp. The raging fire of vengeance against humanity would be ignited.

Besides, the total population number of the All-Stars Federation was only three-billion. They would be facing the Selains, whose population size was hundreds of times larger. Also, there was a more powerful and mysterious higher civilization. Even with the hundreds of A-class warships provided or leased by Chen Jin, it would still be a very challenging task for the Federation to resist the enemy.

If Chen Jin did not increase the level of support and did not provide more assistance, then the probability of the All-Stars Federation winning was undoubtedly zero.

Mu Yunhua could not see any hope of winning this war independently either. She could only fall back on old habits of reliance, of asking Jin for help.

“If Jin is willing to help, I am confident that we can survive this crisis!” Mu Yunhua said in a trembling voice.

…

After hearing about the situation as introduced by Mu Yunhua.

Chen Jin maintained a calm and light expression, it seemed as if he was not worried at all… even if this mysterious opponent had more than 100,000 advanced warships.

“Don’t panic!”

He said, “The enemy has arrived at an opportune time. Otherwise, you’d have too much leisure time on your hands with nothing to do and you’d keep thinking about returning home.”

This universe had a great many civilizations, and it was estimated that there were at least thousands of civilizations in their galaxy alone.

A portion of the civilizations was relatively weak, but there was also a portion of higher civilizations that were more developed and had advanced technologies… Their numbers were estimated to be over 100.

Even so, the human forces led by Mu Yunhua seemed to be riddled with bad luck.

First, it was the Selains who had extremely high potential and had pushed her civilization towards the brink of extinction with their schemes.

After decades, they had finally managed to conquer the Selains, though, they had barely survived.

No one expected that a new challenge would come sweeping towards them when they had only experienced a few peaceful days.

“Speak your mind. What kind of support do you want me to provide so that you will have the confidence to withstand this wave of attacks?” Chen Jin asked straightforwardly.

He preferred to have clear and direct indicators of the parameters, and then he could immediately set about fulfilling the requirements of the indicators.

“The enemy is very powerful!”

Mu Yunhua first introduced a rough outline of the opponent, “They originate from a force called the Lanyi civilization. The size of their territories and population are unknown. But the main warships that they pilot under their control are A-class warships, which are similarly equipped with the superluminal warp engines, anti-matter bombs, gravity bombs, and the more commonly used force field technology.”

“The average combat power of their A-class warships is about 60% of the Silver Gun Lord, their maximum speed is only one-fifth of our speed (a per hour speed of 20 times the speed of light). Areas, where their warships perform worse than ours, include military equipment installed on the ships. An A-class warship of ours can easily block three of their S-class warships. Once our main cannon is launched during the battle, it can smash their shields and penetrate the hull of their warships.”

“But no matter how good the quality of our warships are, in a situation where the generation gap between our warships is rather small, there are times when it is difficult to withstand their overwhelming numbers.”

“But our warships have obvious advantages in terms of speed, our warships can reach a maximum speed of 100 times the speed of light, and the maneuverability is five times better than theirs.”

“So…” Mu Yunhua thought about things carefully and gave a precise figure, “If you could give me 10,000 A-class warships, we would have a greater certainty of driving the enemy out.”

Pfftt~

If Chen Jin was drinking, he would have nearly sprayed all the liquid in his mouth.

Ten… Ten thousand A-class warships, his annual production of A-class warships was only 50, yet she was asking for 10,000 warships unabashedly.

“Cough cough~”

He coughed twice, feeling the awkwardness. Chen Jin said helplessly, “This request of yours is a little too much. I can’t meet the demand for 10,000 warships in the short term.”

“Then, can that lend me an S-class warship?”

It seemed that Mu Yunhua had expected this response and so she changed her plan, “The power of the S-class warship is ten times greater than that of the A-class warship. If you can give me 100 S-class warships, combined with a small number of A-class warships, I’m confident that I can strike down the fleets sent by the higher civilizations.”

Pfft~~

Chen Jin’s reaction was even more dramatic this time around. One hundred S-class warships. It took ten years to build one of those, and she was asking for 100 of them now.

He began to feel regret. He should not have been bragged so much to Mu Yunhua in the past or acted like he was all that awesome. Now he was getting Karma.

However, on the surface, he still said inadvertently, “Oh, I understand. But the numbers that you are requesting is a little high. I can’t agree to these numbers right away. How about this? You wait for a day or two, while I discuss this with my fellow countrymen before giving you a reply.”

“Okay, Jin, I hope you will have a reply to me as soon as possible.”

Mu Yunhua said.

…

After the communication dispatch had ended.

The projections of the artificial intelligence, Nuwa and Alice, appeared in front of Chen Jin.

“You two, say something. How can we resolve this?”

“Master, I judge that the situation is probably not as serious as what Mu Yunhua described.”

First, Alice said, “As compared to our warships of the same class, the A-class warships sent by the mysterious higher civilization that invaded the All-Stars Federation should be a simpler, low-performance version.”

“Their maneuverability is only one-fifth of ours, their defense capabilities are only a third of ours, and their attack power is slightly weaker. The comprehensive combat power of their A-class warship should be 0.33 of the Silver Gun Lord. One of our higher-grade versions should be equivalent to three of their warships.”

“And taking into account that we have the advantage in terms of maneuverability, where our warships are five times more mobile and flexible than theirs, there is no need to provide 10,000 A-class warships in reality. It is basically enough to provide five or six thousand warships.”

“However, the production of the Silver Gun Lord is on a reduced level and the craftsmanship is complex. Even if we were to produce at full capacity, we can produce only up to about 100 ships per year. It would take 50 years to complete the production task.”

But it was clear that Mu Yunhua and her Federation could not wait for 50 years. At most, they could only hold up for five years.

“So what should I do now?”

Chen Jin wrinkled his brow. He had gone overboard with his boasting in the past, and now he could not do what he had boasted about. This was so shameful; he would be losing so much face.

He muttered, “Don’t tell me I have to admit that I can’t do anything about it and the support that can be given is limited, so they have to depend on themselves for everything?”

He could not accept this.

“Master, I do have a few solutions based on compromise,” said Nuwa

“Quickly say it.”

“It’s very simple, and that is to adjust the production line, we will no longer strive for excellence, instead, we will mass-produce the ‘simplified version’ of the A-class warships.”

Nuwa said, “I have computed this, if you give up the layer of strong acting material on the surface of the battleship, only spread a layer of force field alloy over it, and then combine it with a weaker version of the protective shield, the defense capabilities of the warship would be reduced to half of the original version; we will longer use the most advanced technology for the power system, instead, the power system will lag behind the original by one to two generations. we’ll do just enough to ensure that the power output is sufficient. As for the warp engine, I also have the means to create a warp engine with a maximum speed of 30 times the speed of light at half the cost.”

“As for the weapons outfit, all would remain unchanged except for the main particle cannon at the bow of the ship, which will have its power weakened by half.”

“After a round of adjustments, we can reduce our shipbuilding costs by more than half, and increase our production efficiency by three times.”

That was to say, 300 simplified versions of the A-class warship could be produced every year.

“I know that even if we do things like this, the output is still far from enough. But the All-Stars Federation should play their part and not rely on us for everything.”

“So I designed a further simplified A-class warship based on the foundational idea of simplified equipment. This just means that we will be modifying the B-class warships. The All-Stars Federation can produce B-class warships, and they also have many warships in reserve. We’ll send the modification plan to them and then use the cargo spacecraft to transport the units for the warp engines and the defensive shields to them.

“As long as the B-class warships are installed with the warp engine and the generator for the defensive shield that we’ve produced, multiple ‘beggar versions’ of the A-class warships would be born just like that.”

“Of course, the combat power of this type of modified A-class warship is very weak. But as long as the Federation has numbers on their side, and the ships are equipped with our attack weapons such as anti-matter bombs, gravity bombs, etc., there shouldn’t be any issue in delivering a similar amount of fire exchange and damage in a fight with the A-class warships from the Lanyi civilization.”

“As for the production capacity, as long as they have a sufficient amount of B-class warships, they should be able to reach annual production numbers of one thousand ships.”

Add up all the available channels of resources.

If they were to fully mobilize all resources, under optimistic conditions, they could produce 1,300 A-Class warships outfitted with a variety of equipment each year.

“But… it’s still not enough.”

Chen Jin shook his head. If they were to deploy those low-grade A-class warships, they would need at least 10,000 warships to be able to just barely resist the enemy. But they did not have so much time available to them.

“Master, I do have a slightly better plan,” Alice interrupted.

“Speak,” Chen Jin looked at her.

“When a fleet of A-class warships fights against another fleet of A-class warships, what will happen is only a low-level war of resource consumption. In a situation when one’s total productivity and resources lag far behind one’s opponent, this type of war is not a sensible course of action as the possibility of failure is rather great.”

“So you mean to…” Chen Jin understood the meaning of her words a little bit.

“Master!” Nuwa suddenly reminded him, “Currently, we have three S-class warships in our possession. It is the trump card from our stores of secret information and technologies. In any case, we must keep one of those warships on hand so we can only rent out two of them.”

“Also, the manufacturing process of the S-class warship requires the use of many minerals and mineral products originating from the Heavenly Realm that are shipped to Earth. But the Heavenly Realm has been reduced to being a part of the primordial chaos. It is difficult to get more minerals. Of course, with the celestial particles acting as a catalyst, the planets in Earth’s universe would also produce some special minerals, but the process would take thousands, even tens of thousands of years….. In general, we simply don’t have enough resources to create more S-class warships.”

Of course, for some of the advanced materials, it was not necessary to use them in the manufacturing process, and there were substitutes for them. If they were to go along with the line of thought of producing warships with low configurations, the S-class warships could still be built here… However, the ten years needed to produce one S-class warship remain unchanged.

Chen Jin suddenly became silent.

They seemed to have reached a dead-end regarding the solutions for this problem.

No matter how hard they racked their brains to come up with ways to build a large army in a short time, they still could not think of a good way to solve the problem of the 100,000 A-class warships.

They were all silent for a while.

Suddenly, Nuwa found inspiration! “Master, I just thought of a brand new plan, maybe there is a way out of this predicament.”

“What is it, hurry and explain,” Chen Jin quickly asked.

“We should produce an SS-class interstellar warship! On the battlefield, one such warship would be equivalent to thousands of other lesser warships. We can realize this concept – one to represent a thousand – and destroy an entire fleet with just one warship.”

“An SS-class warship?”

Chen Jin was dumbfounded. “We are taking ten years to build just one S-class warship and we’re still bumbling around with the production process. Do we even have the technological capabilities to build the SS-class warship?”

“We do, Master.”

Nuwa had a confident expression, “This plan is related to your previous plan of transforming the crystals of the primordial chaos into spirit stones. Using the one-trillion-megawatt nuclear reactor as a foundation, we’ll build an SS-class warship with the nuclear reactor as the core of its functions.”

She projected a set of blueprints and continued to introduce the plan.

“The length of this SS warship is about 100 kilometers. It will be the largest warship that we have ever built…”

“The energy generated from a one-trillion-megawatt nuclear reactor would be enough to sustain all the needs of a planet. This energy should be sufficient to power the warp engine, the large defensive shield, and the main particle cannon at the ship’s bow that consumes a large amount of energy. ”

“And then, we’ll install more anti-matter missiles and gravity bombs to match the huge size of the warship. Its basic combat power should at least ten times that of the S-class warships.”

“But its strongest combat ability lies in those celestial particles that are formed from the decomposition of the primordial chaos crystal. The differing natures of the celestial particles formed can produce extremely strange and amazing effects in an attack.”

“For example, after stimulation, the speed of the collected particles of spiritual energy is more than one hundred times the speed of light. They can hit distant enemies in an instant. Moreover, the infiltration of the psionic particles into the atomic structure will reduce the rate of fusion reaction. It may cause the opponent’s nuclear weapons to fail and the rate of power produced by their nuclear reactor to drop.”

“Another example could be ghost particles collected from the decomposition process. After stimulation, the speed of the ghost particle is also seven or eight times the speed of light. Aim it right, and it will score a hit. This type of particle also has a strong cooling’ property; it can generate a low-temperature field, causing the temperature of objects in the field to drop to minus 110 or 120 degrees Celsius, even to the extent of nearing the absolute zero… Such low temperatures are enough to damage some spacecraft’s instruments and equipment that are not resistant to low temperatures, hence causing the lubrication system to freeze… its destructive power is not to be underestimated.”

“Each of the celestial particles collected through the decomposition of the crystals of the primordial chaos corresponds to a mode of attack.”

“The most important thing is that the celestial particles carry with them a special spiritual field, which is not restricted by the gravitational field, magnetic field, or electrical field. Therefore, the defensive shield discharged by the enemy battleship cannot withstand the scouring of the celestial particles at all. It can be said to be a means of attack that ignores any form of defense.”

Unless … the opponent could also control and manipulate the celestial particles, but there was no such possibility.

Therefore, more than a dozen unstoppable attack methods had appeared in a short time. The SS-warship designed by Nuwa could be described as the terminator on a battlefield.

“Good, good!”

Chen Jin rubbed his palms. He was filled with excitement, “This idea is so wonderful, you’ve turned the original decomposition reactor into an SS-warship. Genius! This is genius!”

“But there are also hidden dangers, Master.”

“What are the hidden dangers?”

“Pollution. This can lead to pollution. Every time a special attack is released by this type of SS warship, it will cause certain pollution in this universe, so it must not be used too frequently.”

“This is unavoidable,” Chen Jin nodded. “This is a double-edged sword. It has unimaginable destructive power, but it also has certain disadvantages. The perfect weapon system does not exist.”

“Do it, Nuwa! Build this SS battleship as fast as possible.”

“Yes, Master!”

…

The next morning.

Chen Jin took the initiative to contact Mu Yunhua and gave his reply, “I can’t fulfill the requirements you stated yesterday. I can only give you two S-class warships. I have 200 A-class warships left with me. These can be sent to you right away.”

“Combined with the 300 A-class warships in your possession, this is a total of 502 advanced warships. I believe you will not have any problems in stopping a fleet of 1,000 warships from the Lanyi civilizations.”

“I can also provide some advanced technological information. I’ll dispatch a cargo spaceship to send the core parts of the warp engines and the shield generator. I’ll let you assemble a batch of A-class warships by yourself.”

“Yun, I am not your nanny. I can only provide so much help for this war. You still have to overcome the biggest difficulty on your own.”

“Of course, I will not abandon you so heartlessly. Ten years, I’ll give you and the Federation ten years. If the Lanyi civilization still can’t defeat the Federation ten years later, then I will help you to thoroughly get rid of the Lanyi civilization.”

“Yun, this is a test, I hope you can show me a wonderful performance!”

Ah~

Mu Yunhua was at a loss. A test. When she absorbed that information, she started panicking a little. Jin, don’t be like this. This kind of test is very dangerous, let me grab onto you as support directly.

However, Chen Jin ignored her.

Chapter 459 - Time Was On My Side

After the establishment of the All-Stars Federation, as the Queen of the Federation, the first crisis for Mu Yunhua and the Federation suddenly arrived.

The mysterious higher civilization had dispatched 100,000 A-class interstellar warships all at once; they carried with them the power to crush the Federation under their feet. It seemed that they intended to swallow the entire Federation.

Mu Yunhua could not resist this wave of attacks. Through the years, she had developed a habit of relying on Chen Jin, hence the first thing she thought of was to ask him for help.

It was just that Chen Jin, who often bragged about how powerful and awesome he was, was not powerful at all.

Besides the small number of forces that he retained in his possession, he was only able to provide two S-class warships to assist the Federation. Together with 500 A-class warships that had previously been loaned out.

There were a total of 502 ships making up the main fleet.

Not surprisingly, this would form the core strength of the All-Stars Federation to withstand against the 100,000 warships of the mysterious and higher civilization.

The odds were against them at 1 to 200.

There was no problem in using these numbers for the defense of a single galaxy or escape.

If these numbers were used to fight 100,000 warships in a battle of force, even if only one or two warships sustained damages in every small-scale battle, it would become difficult for them to hold their own as time passed.

Countermeasures were discussed in a parliament meeting of the Federation.

“We are facing an enemy who is 20 times larger than us. It will be extremely difficult to resist them for 10 years. I’m afraid we won’t be able to hold on that long.”

“It is enough to resist for only five years or so. The fleet of the Lanyi civilization is slower. With the speed of their spacecraft, it will take them five years of travel to cross the distance of hundreds of light-years… During travel, they would still have to carry out repairs and replenish their supplies…Even if they were to come straight to the Walf galaxy, it will take them four or five years.”

“As long as we make full use of this period and dispatch advanced warships to contend with the enemy while we wait for the civilization behind Her Majesty to assist, we should be able to see the moment of victory.”

The method suggested by a portion of the parliament members’ was to delay events by dragging things out.

Then, they would cling onto the civilization backing Mu Yunhua for support.

“No!”

The military representative Bai Shengqi shook his head with a stern expression, “We cannot deal with the enemy so passively. We can’t just think about delaying the time, instead, we must actively seek opportunities to do battle with the enemy; we need to strive to hold them off while incurring the fewest damages.”

“We are fighting inside our borders. We have thousands of colonial galaxies. The Selain slaves are now the object of liberation by the Lanyi civilization….. If we give up more galaxies, the number Selains that will be standing on our opposite side with the enemy will increase.”

“As time goes on, our situation will only become worse.”

“So we still have to concentrate on the main fleet. We should set up a special fleet to block the enemy’s progress and fully take advantage of our mobility. We’ll take the initiative to attack and launch sneak attacks on the Lanyi civilization from all directions!”

“The enemy’s fleet is divided into hundreds of divisions. None of the divisions are very strong. If we were to fully develop our local advantages, each time that we annihilate a division, and as long as we destroy ten of their sub-fleets, they will act more cautiously. In this way, we can also hold onto the majority of the Selains so that they will not be liberated by the enemy and then stand as our opposition again.”

Take the initiative to attack!

This move was risky.

Though the risk was high, it would allow them to retain most of the stakes and benefits.

“Then we’ll take the initiative to attack!”

Mu Yunhua supported the opinion of Bai Shengqi. Cowardly and stupid retreats, again and again, were absolutely a no-go. She too could not accept such a course of action.

The Selains could not all be liberated. They were too valuable. Once they were freed, it would not be easy to conquer them again.

Moreover, the Lanyi civilization only had A-class warships. They had not yet reached the level where they were able to manufacture S-class warships. The enemy only had an overall quantitative advantage. If they concentrated on their elite fleet and attacked part of the enemy’s division by launching multiple crushing battles to split them up, the enemy might even retreat once they knew how difficult the situation would be when they become weak, slow, and fearful from the Federation’s attacks.

Thus, she passed the so-called “test.”

Mu Yunhua’s character could be prideful. But even if she did not have enough aces up her sleeve, she still hoped to submit a satisfactory answer sheet to prove her value.

“They dare to invade the All-Stars Federation. Then, they should get ready to be completely wiped out,” A chilling voice sounded in her mind.

…

On Earth.

Everything seemed to be calm and quiet.

But behind the calm facade, several major events occurred.

First, the Heavenly Realm had disappeared.

In other words, the Heavenly Realm had been completely transformed into part of the primordial chaos. The laws, materials, and soils in the realm had all turned into the gray and dusky gas of the primordial chaos.

Thus, a vast and brilliant high-energy universe had arrived at its end.

As for the cause of the realm’s destruction, the upper class of the Protoss had come to a common understanding of the cause long ago.

Its destruction stemmed from greed and damage.

It stemmed from the powerful practitioners of the different systems; the pollution and damage they caused during battles.

The Heavenly Realm was originally divided into seven large blocks of territories. They were independent and scattered. The power system of each large block was different and each had its unique characteristics.

However, after the practitioners became stronger, they gradually became unsatisfied with simply developing and growing on their own tiny and insignificant lands. Thus, they turned their greedy eyes onto the other six blocks.

Hence, wars of invasion and counter-invasion between the different blocks began.

The war had lasted for thousands, tens of thousands of years, and the scope of the war expanded.

As time went on, it became a super chaotic free-for-all between the seven big blocks.

Each block had its unique cultivation systems, such as magic, combat energy, spiritual energy, ghost energy, firepower, water power, and power over time and space… Thus, the different power systems and the different types of celestial particles represented by these systems had the opportunity to come into contact with each other.

The merging of all the different types of celestial particles resulted in the primordial particle.

Moreover, the particles of the primordial chaos had a catalytic effect. As long as a sufficient amount of these particles were accumulated, it could catalyze even the most basic substance into the same kind of particle as itself – the primordial particle.

Hence, the crisis of the primordial chaos transforming everything it touched began.

The strong, who did whatever they pleased with their power, tasted the consequences of abusing this power without any regularity or order.

The crisis finally got to such a severe stage that everything was about to turn into the primordial chaos. At that point, to survive, Earth and the universe it was located in, which had nearly no trace of any celestial particles become a refuge.

Then, the “Revival of Magical Powers” began on Earth.

More than 20 billion of the Protoss populations had emigrated to the solar system.

Recently, after the transformation of the Heavenly Realm into the endless chaos, the four Sages of the Protoss descended onto Earth.

The oppressive spiritual and psychological might of the Sages were so powerful that it could even be described as a law. If a Sage was to leak even a slight trace of that might, all intelligent lifeforms on Earth would not be able to help themselves but to kneel down or even lie prostrate on the ground as they trembled.

However, only one Sage had performed such intimidating actions.

Besides, the two space portals near the Jupiter orbit and Earth had not been closed. Instead, they were left in an open state as they frantically dispelled the gas of the primordial chaos with a purity that was close to 100%.

It might be that after the entire Heavenly Realm was completely merged with the universe here, that those portals would automatically close.

“The gas of the primordial chaos does not have much effect on those Protoss after they have emigrated here. What’s the point in continuing to merge their world with this universe? Logically speaking, it’s not necessary to do so anymore,” Chen Jin asked as he knitted his brow, he thought that the matter felt a little strange.

“Master, I do have a rather premature guess,” Nuwa’s voice rang out beside him.

“Say it.”

“I estimate that after escaping the crisis of the primordial chaos, a new crisis will arrive.”

“New crisis? What kind of crisis?”

“I think it should be the ‘Crisis of The End Of Buddhist Teachings and Cultivation.’”

Chen Jin immediately shook his head, “What kind of joke is this, magical powers had just been revived. How is it possible that the world is about to enter the so-called ‘Crisis of the end of Buddhist Teachings and Cultivation’? On the contrary, the golden age of cultivation should be arriving.”

“That seems to be the case on the surface. The concentration of the celestial particles has been increasing over the past few decades, giving people the misconception that the peak era of cultivation was arriving soon. But if you look closely, you will find that even for places like Earth, which can withstand the scouring of the celestial particles and is a paradise-like happy land, the concentration of the natural spiritual energy is still not very high. It is estimated that there is only a tenth of the spiritual energy here as compared to the Heavenly Realm.”

“A tenth?”

“Yes, and only one-tenth of the Heavenly Realm’s. Not to mention the golden age, this concentration level is not even good enough for a silver age.”

“It seems that this is a real reason, especially for the Protoss,” Chen Jin nodded.

“And the real pity is that when the only thing flowing from the portal is purely the gas of the primordial chaos, the concentration of the celestial particles will gradually fall from its current highest point. Then, the concentration will become lesser and lesser, thinner and thinner. In the end, the overarching trend will tend towards the era of the end of Buddhism and its teachings.”

“How could this happen?” Chen Jin asked in surprise.

“I believe that you’ve heard of the Brownian motion? The movement of the celestial particles is random. These particles will occasionally attach themselves to objects that they have a high affinity for, thus giving birth to the spirit stones, spiritual treasures… Moreover, the space in this universe is so vast that the concentration of those celestial particles will be reduced to 1% or even 0.1% in the future… According to the current dispersion rate, after about a thousand years, the celestial particles in the air would not even be enough to supply the practitioners in the phase of Foundation Establishment.”

“99.9% of the practitioners’ state of cultivation will regress, including the Sages who are standing at the very top. In a situation where celestial particles are insufficient, the stages of cultivation will seriously deteriorate.”

“So the current era is the best era, things will only get worse as time goes on.”

“But to cope with the situation that they will encounter very soon, the Sages chose to merge the two worlds. They intend to let in the primordial particles that occupied the greatest composition in their air into the universe here. They’ve considered cultivation methods that are developed based on the particles of the primordial chaos. They’ll become the final Cultivators of the Primordial Chaos.”

“Looking at the current situation, the primordial particles could keep dispelling from the portals for at least tens or hundreds of thousands of years. The concentration of the primordial particles will only get higher and higher. Finally, there will be more and more people cultivating based on the primordial particles.”

Even if the attack and destructive power of the primordial particles were only one-thousandth of the ordinary celestial particles, it would still be stronger in comparison to the time when the practitioners would lose most of their power during the era of the End of Buddhism and its teachings, including cultivation.

“I understand now. So, those Sages are preparing for the future.”

Chen Jin had a sudden realization and he immediately became excited.

“Since the Revival of Magical Powers and the Silver Age are evolving towards the era of the end of Buddhism as the spiritual energy is becoming thinner, it means that, figuratively, the Protoss are falling from a high narrow peak on a downward curve. Does that mean that the individual power of the Protoss will become weaker and weaker in the future? There will be fewer and fewer practitioners with excellent cultivation. Even the Sages with their great powers may experience a deterioration?”

“Yes, this is the reason why all the party forces within the Protoss were purged with lightning speed and efficiency. Those Sages do not want the commoners in the mortal world to wise up. If there are too many practitioners, there wouldn’t be sufficient reserves of spiritual energy to be divvied up between all the practitioners. This would affect their strength.”

“Moreover, if there are too many practitioners or too many people who have the innate ability for cultivation, they might also be attacked. Resources are limited, and the Sages will not care about the lives of lesser beings. When necessary, the Sages can be ruthless and kill them.”

Chen Jin took a deep breath, “So, my Chen family’s Sage Plan, the plan of producing geniuses in batches is like moving the Sages’ cheese. Once it is discovered, it’ll be taken down in one strike and beaten to a pulp… it was necessary to send them away.”

“And Master, as the competition progresses towards its end, you will possess a greater advantage… This is because the overall strength of the Protoss will become weaker and weaker, their advantages will gradually shrink. They could even be easily dealt with using the mechas.”

“Not to mention, Master possesses the technology of transforming the primordial crystal into spirit stones. The Era of the End of Buddhist Teachings and Cultivation that are experienced and perceived by others does not affect us at all. The masters that we cultivate are solid and true masters. They do not have the problem of deteriorating cultivation stages.”

“As long as we follow this trend and develop into the future for a hundred years, the Chen family can act in a high-profile manner back on Earth. There will be a need to take exchange your stakes and benefits for asylum. You can be a saint. Even if it were the Sages who insist on making trouble for the Chen family, we can first use an anti-matter missile to bomb them, and then we’ll besiege them with the masters. With our schemes, even if they are invincible Sages, they would still face the possibility of damage or death.”

“And after that, I believe that all powers would know who is the strongest on Earth and who is its master.”

Chen Jin nodded repeatedly as he listened.

Indeed, time was entirely on his side.

They only had to act low-key for about another hundred years or so, then the Chen family would be able to soar without having to fear challenges from any power.

Of course, the premise of achieving all of these laid in one thing.

Chen Jin raised his hand and operated the terminal to make a phone call. He contacted Chen Junfeng.

“Junfeng, I’ll be giving you an important task. During this time, you’ll make arrangements for the family factories to produce a few more spaceships. Then, get the spaceships to work in batches on this assignment. Go to the portal near Earth and collect the gas of the primordial chaos. They should preferably be compressed into a high-density primordial crystal.”

“Now, I need the crystals of the primordial chaos. I need them very much. Get as many of them as you can. There is no limit on how much you can collect…. Get the staff to work overtime and pull extra shifts to complete this task!”

“Yes!”

Chen Junfeng nodded, “Grandpa, I promise to complete the task you’ve given me.”

…

A few months later.

Six advanced spaceships took turns leading their group of spacecraft as they traveled towards the area nearby the crack in space that measured thousands of kilometers on length.

“Whooo~Whooo~”

With the effects of siphoning, large numbers of primordial particles rushed out of the crack at a faster rate of dispersion.

It was as if an eighth-grade gale was blowing around them. The spacecraft shook slightly.

Then, the gas collection tube at the front of the spacecraft was opened.

A large number of primordial particles entered the tube and were compressed by the device, combining to form blocks of transparent crystals, which were stored in multiple repositories and then sent back to the ground separately.

They were put in fully automatic, rotation mode.

The primordial crystals that he needed were continuously sent back to Earth by the thousands every day.

“These primordial crystals are my aces; time is my ally. It won’t be too long before the Chen family will crush everything under our feet!” Chen Jin said to himself as he shook his fist.

However, the affairs of life were impermanent, the number of changes was unpredictable. It seemed as if an unprecedented major attack was coming straight for the Chen family.

Chapter 460 - Strength To Face A Challenge Head-on

Inside a large hall.

Several voices whispered in a private conversation that gradually developed into a quarrel.

“Our two clans will join forces and after the Chen family is destroyed, the Tonghuang family should take 65% of the interests and profits obtained from them. It’s enough for your Mugu clan to take 35%.” This was said in a tough voice.

“35%?”

Several gazes turned sharply towards the speaker as if they were looking at an idiot. One of the Protoss said with a frosty expression, “Is this the sincerity of the Tonghuang family? While you’re treating us like idiots, why not call us beggars too?”

He said in a cold voice, “The Mugu clan must get at least 55%!”

“Impossible.”

An emotionless voice said, “My Tonghuang clan now has as many as six masters from the Shenguang Order, while the Mugu clan only has four. The Tonghuang clan is fully deserving of the title of the top family clan. With our strength, we ought to take 60% or more of the loot. Your clan doesn’t have the strength, hence you are only good enough to follow behind us and pick up our leftovers.”

The voice gradually started to sound quite oppressive, “Stop your nitpicking. We originally wanted to take 70%. Seeing as how your clan had agreed to contribute their strength, we’ve reluctantly given up 5%. This is the final plan. Just forget it if you don’t want to cooperate, we can do this alone.”

“Heh~”

The representative of the Mugu clan still kept sneering repeatedly, “So what if you have two more masters from the Shenguang Order? Previously, when all the political parties revolted, the masters from the Tonghuang clan were the fiercest in their suppression, they also suffered the greatest losses. Your clan had lost eight law enforcement halls and four of your armies suffered a total defeat. Less than half of the clan practitioners remain. You can only fall back on the masters of the Shenguang Order to support your clan’s image.”

“There are two reasons why your clan is looking to cooperate with the Mugu clan this time. One, you want to use our clan’s masters as cannon fodder. Two, you want to prevent the Mugu clan from making trouble behind your back so you can only pull us onto the same boat to war against the Chen family.”

“Moreover, although the Chen family is rich, they do not have the habit of saving their money; each year, their remaining savings are channeled into strengthening the Chen family’s fortress. Since the fortress has been running for decades, it’s probably been made impenetrable. Mobilizing the practitioners from the Shenguang Order may not even be enough to break through such a fortress. It would be even more impossible for ordinary practitioners to break through the fortress.”

“I am certain that you do not have the absolute confidence to take down the Chen family, and you are even more worried about suffering too many losses, that’s why you’re pulling the Mugu clan to your side to join forces before making a move! But you’re showing this sort of attitude. You want us to give our lives for just 35% of interest. Heh, heh, everyone, this is too much wishful thinking on your part, right?”

The representative of the Mugu clan saw through the purpose of the Tonghuang clan at once and could not help but make sarcastic remarks.

But those on the receiving end did not feel even a little bit of embarrassment.

“So what if it’s like that?”

The elder of the Tonghuang family said indifferently, “Its just some middle and lower-ranked practitioners. As long as the Tonghuang clan announces that we are recruiting, we can get as many practitioners as we want. The amount of cannon fodder will be instantly filled. There is no shortage of manpower.”

“Recruit? And where would you try to recruit? How many people can you find?” That taunting voice said.

After the chaos of the political parties, countless middle- and lower-ranked masters from various clans had fallen. The manpower count was exact; there were no extra numbers. This led to a supply shortage of guest practitioners joining the clans. Unless the salary and treatment were extremely attractive, they would not be many practitioners coming forward to be recruited.

Moreover, during the upheaval caused by the political parties, a large number of practitioners had joined their ranks. After this, they were then massacred by the joint forces of various family clans. It was likely that the remaining survivors would hold a grudge against the various clans. Recruiting these practitioners into the clans may be equivalent to introducing the enemy into their ranks. They would be an unpredictable landmine.

Therefore, recruiting practitioners was not a good move.

“Cough cough cough~”

The original confidence that the elder of the Tonghuang clan had started to deflate a little. Of course, he still acted tough, “It’s merely the Chen family, there’s no need to muster a large number of forces to deal with them. With the strength of the Tonghuang clan, wiping them out will be a piece of cake. This time, we are giving you a rare opportunity. If you don’t take it, you will regret it in the future.”

“In that case, there is nothing to talk about. We will be going back.”

The few representatives of the Mugu clan nimbly stood up and said without turning back, “The Chen family’s descendants have publicly made an official announcement – To break through the Chen family’s fortress, five masters of the Shenguang Order would need to die, or about 10,000 practitioners from the Jushen and Yuanying Order, only then will their attackers succeed in completely taking down the fortress…This would take nearly all the Tonghuang clan’s strength. Since your clan wants to go at it solo, let’s see you prove whether the claim by the Chen family’s descendants is a rumor or not.”

“If it is not a rumor…”

He said with a profoundly meaningful smile, “The title of the top family will belong to our Mugu clan, hahaha~”

“Wait!”

The elder of the Tonghuang family stood up and stopped him. His expression grew dark and ugly, “Don’t go! Let’s continue to talk.”

He felt extremely angry.

That damn Mugu clan, they had guessed what they were thinking!

They knew that the Tonghuang clan was worried about the Chen family fortress.

In reality, the extent of the strength of the Chen family’s fortress and how well it could withstand intense attacks has always been a legend and a mystery.

Legend had it that the practitioners below the Shenguang Order who intruded into the Chen family’s fortress without getting their permission would die.

Regarding this statement, many practitioners made futile attempts to break into the Chen family’s fortress to steal some secrets or treasures told the world the legend was true–it was really dangerous inside the fortress.

It could not be said that all the intruders from orders below the Shenguang Order had died. But it was true that none had made it out.

Perhaps to intimidate the various forces harboring ill intentions, the Chen family descendants living in the fortress often posted videos publicizing the strength and power of the fortress. They released various bold and lofty statements worthy of the worst kind of braggart.

“The strongest fortress since ancient times.”

“Except for several practitioners of the Shenguang Order teaming up, all practitioners from the lower ranks will die regardless of their numbers.”

“Do you see this laser cannon, its power can easily cut through the indestructible celestial body of a master from the Jushen Order.”

“The entire layout of the interior is similar to that of a defense tower’s base, but on a larger scale. There are no overlooked areas, no weaknesses, and the enemy can only choose to attack by storm.”

“It takes about one million deaths from the practitioners of the Yuanying Order before the enemy can break this fortress.”

“Now, even those of the Shenguang Order can forget about leaving the fortress alive!”

“…”

The Chen family bragged without restraint online.

When the Chen family’s content was noticed by leaders of the other clans, the corners of their mouths became pursed, and much of the greed clouding their brains dissipated.

“What kind of joke is this?!”

The elders of the Tonghuang family were extremely unhappy. Their expressions were ruthless and murderous, “No matter how hard of a tortoiseshell they have, I will break them! They are mere humans, how dare they boast shamelessly?”

As they considered the end of the political party chaos, where the middle ranks of the Tonghuang clan had been severely put out of commission, and the heavy losses that they had sustained, the only way to stabilize their status as the top family and to maintain the original influence was to absorb new stakes and profits to strengthen the clan’s interests.

Hence, the target was aimed at the Chen family.

However, they simply could not ignore the boasts made by the Chen family. They worried about the damages that they could incur and how it might lead to a situation where the gains would not be worth the losses.

A more secure method of executing they planned to get a powerful and fear-inducing ally to their side to share the risks.

However, they did not expect that the Mugu clan would have such a large appetite and how they were unsatisfied with getting 35% of the interests.

“Forty percent!”

The elders of the Tonghuang family said, “We can’t give more. If you don’t want to do it, we will find other clans. The strength of the Black Lion clan is not much inferior to the Mugu clan.”

The comprehensive strength of the Black Lion clan was ranked somewhere around the third or fourth place. There were two practitioners of the Shenguang Order overseeing the clan, and they had many middle and lower-ranked masters.

“Then go to the Black Lion clan.”

The representative of the Mugu clan remained unmoved, “55%! We must get at least 55%! The Black Lion clan will indeed serve as good cannon fodder, but the Tonghuang clan is sure to pay a certain price in the process of absorbing the Chen family. You could lose 20% to 30% of your strength. You might even lose one or two masters from the Shenguang order. By then, not only will your clan be removed from the position of the top family clan, but the third-ranked Black Lion clan would also be seriously weakened. I will be happy to witness these scenes.”

Hearing this, the expressions of the elders of the Tonghuang family grew dark as coal, but he still did not dare to take a gamble on the possibility that the power residing inside the Chen family’s fortress was not as strong as rumors stated.

Once their estimations turned out to be a mistake, the Mugu clan would probably be the third party that benefited from the fight between the Tonghuang clan and the Chen family.

“50 percent!”

He gritted his teeth and said, “It’s a 50/50 split, but you must contribute a sufficient amount of manpower!”

“Oh~”

Seeing the elder relenting, the representative from the Mugu clan smiled slightly and extended his hand, “Then we have a deal.”

The negotiations and quarrels that had gone on for several days were ended just like this.

A short-term alliance to divvy up the Chen family was formed.

…

Shanghai City.

Inside the villa.

The contents of the conspiracy plotted by the Tonghuang and Mugu clans in private were presented to Chen Jin and a few of his descendants.

Seeing the agreement that was reached on the screen and the sinister smiles given by both sides.

All of the Chen family’s descendants trembled with anger.

“They are simply not taking the Chen family seriously! Instead, they are butchering us.”

“These guys think that the Chen family has become so weak that we can be easily bullied?”

“Don’t underestimate our Chen family! I guarantee that you will never be able to return.”

But…

After venting their anger, they calmed down. Some started to feel nervous and concerned.

One by one, their gazes turned towards Chen Jin, and various questions were raised.

“What should we do now?”

“The Chen family fortress is extremely powerful, there are countless machines and weapons inside. We should be able to win against them?”

Chen Junfeng pulled Chen Jin slightly to the side. He leaned close to his ear and said, “Grandpa, the situation is dangerous. This time, it is better to do what we have previously done to the Jinwu family. We should do a pre-emptive strike. Let’s bring out our trump card”

Once they played that trump card, they could wipe out the Tonghuang and Mugu clans. The crisis encountered by the Chen family would be solved once again.

But…

Chen Jin shook his head, “After we’ve previously played our trump card, the Protoss’ investigation team had taken up their defensive position and squatted outside our compounds for five years. But because there was no conclusive evidence, they removed their surveillance. If we were to re-use the same tactic and expose our motivation again, I am afraid we won’t be able to bluff our way through as easily as before.”

Once the Chen family was exposed as the murderer who engineered the deaths of a million Protoss, the Chen family would probably become the public enemy of the entire Protoss population. He estimated that they would be drowned beneath the onslaught of countless Protoss in an instant.

“We are not using our trump card?”

Chen Junfeng frowned heavily, “That won’t do. The top and second-ranked clans have joined forces. They will dispatch countless masters. The Chen family’s fortress is very likely to be unable to withstand such an attack. When that time comes, we’ll all be dead!”

“Grandpa, these are two large Protoss clans, we might not be able to win this round if we don’t play our hidden trump.”

“If we play that card, we will certainly die.”

Chen Jin still shook his head, “If we don’t play the trump card, the outcome is 50/50. We do have the ability to engage in combat.”

Fifty-fifty?

This was unlikely? Was the fortress so strong that it was possible to not only hold off the two Protoss clans but also win against them?

Chen Junfeng’s face was full of disbelief. There was not even a 30% possibility of winning against the Protoss, much less 50%.

“I’m not talking big. This is what the artificial intelligence, Abao, told me based on the results that he had gotten via the computer simulation’s deduction.”

Abao was the control center of the Chen family’s fortress, and it was also an AI with an extremely high level of intelligence. Even he had made statements like ‘more than 50% confidence that the fortress could destroy the invaders.’

A green flashed the light in the air and Abao appeared to explain to Chen Junfeng, “We have at least 50% confidence in winning this defensive battle.”

“This is because we have three obvious advantages here:”

“One, after the end of the political parties’ chaos, the Tonghuang clan suffered heavy losses, and the Mugu clan had also lost one-third of their strength. Their current strength is not as good as before. Their level of threat is significantly lower than before. The practitioners that they send who are lower ranked than the Shenguang order may not even be able to destroy the three outer defense lines, much less break through the inner core defense line.”

“Second, we have become stronger! For the past few decades, the Chen family fortress has been undergoing non-stop construction to perfect and strengthen itself. The density of various defense weapons is unimaginable. Some weapons based on celestial technologies have become so powerful that it may be possible to kill practitioners from the Shenguang Order.”

“Also, we’ve already mass-produced a total of 800 units of bio-mecha that have been put into active service for eight regiments. They are stationed in eight corners. After many years of maintenance and self-cultivation, all of them possess the strength attained during the Yuanying phase. But because of their large volume, the amount of spiritual energy contained inside them is equivalent to that of a practitioner from the Jushen Order. Combined with a heavy offensive weapon like the celestial sniper cannons that have point and kill capabilities, it can penetrate the shield formed by the vital Qi of a master of the Shenguang order.”

“Then, they are spread and arranged into a killing spell formation derived from the computer algorithms. All the bio-mechas in each regiment can encircle and kill the practitioners of the Shenguang order.”

“Eight regiments correspond to the capacity to deal with up to eight practitioners of the Shenguang order.”

“To absorb the Chen family, the Tonghuang and Mugu clans will strive to send out all of their elite troops. But they can’t send out all of their masters of the Shenguang order. They could at most send out five or six….. This is within our tolerable capacity.”

“Finally, we have the advantage of intelligence. Our surveillance system has penetrated every corner of the two clans and we’ve learned all their movements and information. Their next actions will be completely transparent and will be displayed in front of us. We have achieved the tenet of knowing one’s enemy.”

“They don’t know anything about us, they don’t understand anything about our strengths.”

“So we have the intelligence advantage of knowing ourselves and knowing the enemy. We know their situation and trends in real-time, which gives us at least another 20% chance of victory.”

“From a comprehensive view, even if we don’t play our trump card, we still have a greater degree of certainty to resist this malicious attack. At the same time, we’ll also create a reputation that the Chen family must never be provoked.”

Abao analyzed.

Chen Junfeng nodded and said with some surprise, “Our Chen family has been strengthened to such an extent?”

“Prepare yourselves!”

A radiant light shot forth from Chen Jin’s eyes, “The Chen family has acted low-key for too long, leaving others with the weak image of one who can be easily bullied. This time, it is time for us to reverse this image! When the Tonghuang and Mugu clans have been soundly beaten by us, we’ll be paying no more of the asylum and protection fees.”

The Chen family could defend their interests now.

Chapter 461 - None Was Left Alive

Three days later.

A reconstructed area located in what was originally the northwestern desert region in Z country, an area of about 30,000 square kilometers.

After hundreds of years of operation, the area was rich in resources and was developed in the area of science and technology. Its development index ranked amongst the top in the world.

It was also once known as the Earth-Life Extension Center. Most of the life-extension treatments were completed in hospitals in this area.

After the return of the Protoss, the humans’ gradually lost their sovereignty over the lands on Earth; the Chen family included. They were once labeled as the third superpower. They had also given up countless free cities and pulled back their forces. Finally, only this base of operations was left.

The Chen family spent several decades of transforming the base into a military fortress. Countless resources, manpower, and materials were invested in the transformation project, it was as if the Chens were suffering from persecutory delusions. The base gradually evolved into the well-known “hen Family’s Fortress.

It was also known as the place with the highest level of defense in the world.

The strongest fortress and so on.

It gave off a very strong and intense feel.

Most of the Chen family’s descendants lived in the fortress. They worked and lived in peace. They did not live like humans in other cities, who lived in fear that their property and life would be threatened at any time.

Then, there were members of the Protoss who lusted after the riches of the Chen family and launched attacks on the fortress. But even if the Protoss lead their entire family to take the plunge, resulting in all of their deaths, they still did not succeed in breaching this fortress.

Many Protoss’s dreams of striking it rich were coldly dashed against the fortress, which was not to be trifled with.

The lessons learned from the many lives that were lost had created a deep impression that the Chen family should not be messed with. This impression was engraved in the minds of many Protoss.

Generally, if one’s forces were not strong enough, it was best not to get any ideas about targeting the Chen family.

However, around ten o’clock in the morning, a multitude of silhouettes flew across the sky above the fortress, like a cluster of dark clouds. The dark clouds bore down on the fortress with their momentum as they slowly approached it.

…

Thousands of kilometers in the air.

Two strong Protoss stepped on their magic weapon that enabled flight and marched side by side. They quickly arrived just above the fortress, hovering in the air.

They kept moving forward, preparing to go deep inside the fortress.

The air in front of them suddenly rippled, and a transparent wall seemed to be blocking their progress onwards.

As they looked, it turned out to be a semi-spherical saucepan lid that enveloped the entire fortress.

“A defensive formation?”

The leader, a Protoss man wearing a flaming red armor, swept his gaze downwards and smiled disdainfully, “The Chen family is indeed rich and overbearing. They have the resources to come up with such a large defense formation.”

This Protoss man was called Tonghuang Moshan. He was the leading commander sent by the Tonghuang clan. He possessed a high level of cultivation base and his leadership ability was outstanding.

“Haha, I had a good relationship with a few of the Chen family’s descendants. I’ve asked them many times, if they have the money, why not use it to enjoy life? What’s the use of building such a huge fortress? It is purely useless. How could it withstand me and the other Protoss?”

The Protoss man beside him, who looked refined in his fluttering white robes, tipped the corners of his lips in a smile and said, “But my friends from the Chen family said that they have no choice but to build such a fortress because there are always rabble-rousers who want to overthrow them as the ruling family… In hindsight, it seems that their thoughts are somewhat reasonable; their actions are not wrong.”

This man was called Mugu Feng, he was the leading commander of the Mugu family, and was also a genius figure.

“Rabble-rousers?”

Tonghuang Moshan’s expression was unpleasant, “Humans like them who are not willing to be captured quietly and easily are the rabble-rousers! We are the emperors! They did not even obey our orders to hand over their interests and lives. Instead, they’ve built this huge fortress, which seems impossible to me! And they stubbornly resist. They’re simply courting their deaths!”

His tone was so self-righteous that one was at a loss of how to criticize him.

“Moshan, this Chen family fortress took nearly 50 years to complete. It is extraordinary. We must not lower our guard. To avoid unnecessary losses, it is better to try diplomacy before violence. We’ll pressure the Chen family to stop resisting, and prevent them from destroying their factories, which is the same as damaging our property. Let’s try our best to advise them to surrender.” Mugu Feng said.

“Advise them to surrender?”

Tonghuang Moshan pointed to the defense shield below, “This attitude of rejecting their esteemed guests; is there a need to persuade them to surrender? We can simply murder our way through, why should we bother to talk so much nonsense?”

“Diplomacy before violence. It’s better to say at least something to them first.”

Mugu Feng did not want to start the fight in such an immediate manner.

…

After a few minutes, Tonghuang Moshan was convinced by Mugu Feng and agreed to talk with the Chen’s representative.

They arrived at the city center.

Tonghuang Moshan applied his “sound amplification technique.” A majestic voice fell forth like rolling thunder.

“The Chen family! The games are almost over. Face up to your position now and immediately offer all your land, properties, and technologies to our two families to show your allegiance. Say that you will become our servants who meet with our standards and wholeheartedly serve the Protoss. If your performance is good, we will reward you with a good position.” He said this in a charitable tone.

After a while, in the city below, a high-pitched horn was sounded. With a high decibel, it rang out above the city, “We apologize, the Chen family does not make a habit of serving others.”

“So, that means that you, the Chens, choose to die?”

Murderous energy burst forth from the eyes of Tonghuang Moshan.

“No?”

The high-pitched voice from the horn replied, “We may necessarily die. But those attacking the fortress will certainly pay a heavy price, which could even lead to a serious decline in their clan ranking, they will no longer have the innate awe-inspiring authority of the top first and second family.”

“I will ask you now, is it worth it to pay such a price to devour the Chen family?”

In addition to the vague warning, the voice also possessed the power to restore one’s rationality.

But…Tonghuang Moshan was so mad he nearly exploded on the spot. He immediately delivered a punch that carried a strong burst of Qi energy against the defensive shield below. “Who do you think you are? You’re just insignificant humans. How dare you talk like this? Die, all of you!”

It seemed like his powerful and energetic punch would smash the defensive shield into pieces.

“Bam~”

However, his rather confident punch only caused the shield to slightly sag. It quickly became calm again.

“There’s something to this defense formation, it can withstand the angry attack from a top master of the Jushen Order.”

Mugu Feng’s expression became concentrated. He felt that the Chen family was not bluffing. They had ample secret information not known to the world.

“Attack them!”

Tonghuang Moshan threw another punch.

“Attack!”

Negotiations would have no effects. The purpose of bringing so many master practitioners here today was to swallow up the Chen family by force…If it could be done without force, the Chen family would have been convinced long ago.

“Boom boom boom~”

“Bam bam bam~”

“This defense formation requires a huge amount of energy to keep it running. It needs a lot of spirit stones. It can’t be maintained for long.”

“Damn it, the Chen family is overlooking our kindness! The valuable spirit stones are being wasted for nothing! We must break through their formation to quickly reduce the loss of spirit stones!”

“Boom boom boom~”

In the air, large numbers of practitioners from the Tonghuang and Mugu clans released their attacks, tearing a hole in the shield.

On the other side, the battle was also carried out on the ground.

A large number of practitioners with weaker cultivation were organized by the two clans and incorporated into two divisions as they could not maintain their flight. The troops were further divided into different lines and they would attack the wall of the Fortress from the surroundings.

There were tens of thousands of them.

It could be said that the two big clans had spent a lot of capital to take down the Chen family.

…

About two hours later.

“Bang bang bang bang~”

The sounds of the attacks on the large defense spell formation were still on-going.

However, there were still no obvious changes to the defense formation in front of them. However, the attackers had lost more than half of the spiritual energy in their bodies.

“Why hasn’t this spell formation broke?”

“Perhaps the Chen family have a small mountain’s worth of spirit stones, we’ve given everything we’ve got; we didn’t hold anything back.”

The Protoss practitioners flying in the air were amazed and hurting over the riches of the Chen family, the amount of money and spirit stones they possessed must be way more than what they had imagined.

On the ground, the practitioners with a medium to a low level of cultivation base who were divided into multiple lines ranted while they attacked the transparent defense formation in front of them.

“Chen family! You’re just a scared turtle hiding inside. What skills do you even have? Dissolve the formation if you’re a man.”

“Stop struggling. Just quietly wait to be killed by our likes!”

“The ending is the same no matter how much you resist. After today, there will no longer be a Chen family on Earth. Quickly release yourself from this agony and die like a man.”

“Fuck, this damn formation has got to break soon!”

“Boom boom boom~”

The defense formation did not exhibit any significant changes amidst a background of countless foul curses.

…

After another two hours, the spiritual energy inside the bodies of all the Protoss practitioners participating in the attack had fallen to half or even less than half of what they were before the attack.

The defense formation still did not exhibit any significant changes.

“We should ask the ancestors to do something,” Tonghuang Moshan said helplessly.

Besides the practitioners from the Shenguang Order, ordinary practitioners could not do anything to the defense spell formation they were facing.

“My ancestors, the Chen family has got some backbone and skills. It’s really difficult to break this defense spell formation, please give us a helping hand!”

Mugu Feng went straight to their magical boat, which was above them. He found the six ancestors of the Shenguang Order who were observing the war and asked for their help.

“Hmph, how useless. It’s a mere human clan and they want to mobilize me and my likes.”

“Forget about it, don’t go down to look anymore, let us make our move.”

“This Chen family is a bit evil. If they are not destroyed today, they will only become more difficult to subdue in the future.”

“The greatest force of mankind on Earth is this Chen family. After the destruction of the Chen family, the remaining human beings will all be slaves and servants to the Protoss. Although they are weak, they have a few strengths.”

“The number of human beings living on the moon, Mars, and space cities is as high as 20 billion, maybe more. I just don’t know why, but why don’t the Sages simply make a move against them to kill these insignificant beings? To be honest, I don’t want to see one more human being in front of me. They are too weak.”

“Boom~”

The master of the Shenguang Order made his attack. The defense spell formation, which was unusually strong, seemed to have received a heavy hit as a huge portion of it sagged.

It was as if the entire formation would shatter like glass if they added more force.

“Boom, boom, boom, boom…”

The six Protoss from the Shenguang Order continued with their attacks, one after another. An intense change in the huge defense formation occurred. It seemed like it was about to give out.

“Continue! Those ignorant humans who don’t understand that times have changed will die today!”

…

About half an hour later, “Boom~”

After taking the attacks that pushed its limits, the defensive formation was finally broken.

A wave of cheers rose across the Protoss.

“Get in!”

“Treasures and delicate beauties, we’re here!”

“From today onwards, whatever the Chen family has accumulated over the past 100 years belongs to us!”

“Together, let’s kill!”

“Whoosh~”

There were thousands of flight-enabled practitioners in the sky, and tens of thousands of practitioners on the ground who charged wildly into the fortress with faces full of excitement.

The demise of the Chen family seemed to be just around the corner.

But…

Very soon, those who were among the first to rush into the fortress experienced the harvest of Death.

“Thump thump thump~”

The gun turret let out an angry scream.

“Zap zap zap~”

High-energy lasers were cutting with reckless abandon.

“Ping~”

“Bang~”

Muffled sounds rang out. These were the two different sounds that the celestial sniper cannon made in the silenced and unsilenced mode, respectively.

Either way, the damage was done just the same.

The Protoss practitioners who were hit by the celestial sniper cannon were immediately turned into a bloody spray as they exploded on the spot and instantly died. They never realized what had happened.

Indeed, after adding spiritual energy to some of the celestial particles, their speed was a hundred times faster than the speed of light. It could be suddenly stimulated, as long as the aim was steady on the target, the practitioners from the Shenguang and Jushen Orders would be severely injured, or simply destroyed on the spot.

It was a powerful celestial weapon that could kill two or three levels the enemy and it was now officially introduced to the world. It would play an important role in the years to come, intimidating countless masters.

“Boom, boom, boom…”

Naga mechas walked out from all corners and activated their free-hunting
mode.

The power of the naga bio-mecha was embodied in its bio-chip, which had extremely powerful computing abilities. This allowed each naga mecha to have the smartest and rational “brain.”

This brain could even clearly simulate the trajectories of their attacks and movements versus that of the enemy’s.

During the battle, it could independently select the most efficient battle plans after simulating hundreds of plans in just an instant.

The mechas were installed with a large number of sensors, giving them a strong sense of awareness and the ability to predict the enemy’s actions.

Their outer shells and skeletons were made of special metals. Their ability to resist hits were not any weaker than some of the practitioners from the Jushen Order whose body had undergone metamorphosis several times.

In short, the performance of the naga bio-mecha left an impression on everyone that could be described in two words–killing machines.

Strong, fierce, terrifying, and efficient killing machines.

After 800 naga mechas appeared on the battlefield, and amidst the booming noises they made, of the thousands of powerful practitioners, their casualties exceeded 2,000 in just a short half-hour.

Even Tonghuang Moshan, who rushed in closer to the front of the armies was fatally hit three times in a row. But he avoided those three fatal blows as his magic doubled repeatedly from the magical tool in his body.

Bearing a great risk as his actual soul had departed from his body, he turned and ran. But the fourth round of spirit cannon shells pierced his head from behind, and his head was blown into pieces.

Just like this, Tonghuang Moshan fell.

“Moshan!”

“The genius in my family has fallen so easily?”

“Kill! We must kill them!”

Suddenly, the eyes of the four practitioners of the Shenguang Order sent by the Tonghuang clan bulged as they became enraged. They stopped observing the war and rushed madly into it.

“Boom boom boom~”

These masters of the Shenguang Order only destroyed some naga mechas after some effort.

However, in the process of fighting, these masters of the Shenguang Order felt that the natural spiritual energy in the air was becoming increasingly deficient, and their consumption was gradually becoming more difficult to replenish.

Inadvertently, they raised their heads and looked upwards.

The defensive spell formation that was just broken had shockingly re-appeared in front of them.

“No, this is the Spiritual Energy Isolation Array, we’ve fallen for their trap!”

A Shenguang Order practitioner from the Mugu clan screamed.

But this discovery came too late.

…

About six and a half hours later.

Inside the Chen family’s fortress.

Everything had returned to its calm.

There were only tens of thousands of corpses. No one was left alive!

Chapter 462 - An Explosive Reaction

A victory.

Faced with the surprise attack by the allied Tonghuang and Mugu clans, the Chen family had won the perfect victory at a low cost.

Witnessing their splendid, great victory, even the previously estimated 50/50 chance of winning seemed to be conservative. This should be described as a surprise ending.

The Chen family had easily survived the crisis of being devoured and divvied up.

But…

Looking at the tens of thousands of bodies that continued to pile up and the many Protoss masters who had died with great distress.

The top decision-makers of the Chen family knew that this was just the beginning of their challenge.

They had gleefully won this battle. But the issue of how to wrap this up would be the most headache-inducing question.

“The Tonghuang and Mugu clans suffered such heavy losses. I’m certain that once the news reaches them, they would not be willing to resign themselves and let this drop. After roiling in anger and vomiting blood, they would try their best and think of all sorts of ways to attack our Chen family in retaliation; this would create an endless situation where they will fight to their last breath.”

“Of course, now that the two clans have suffered such heavy casualties, they are not powerful enough to fear. They do not have the power to present a huge threat to our family. Moreover, after their power has been seriously weakened, the interests that they hold as the top and second most powerful Protoss clans will become a target for the lesser ranked clans, who will attack them. In a world where only the strong are respected, only the strong are qualified to occupy more resources. So, the main efforts of the two clans after this is to consider how they can best hold onto their interests.”

“It’s just that our family’s performance is too strong and exaggerated this time around. Those Protoss with their arrogant characters have always looked down on humans; they are likely to feel greatly provoked. One possibility is that they will frantically spread doubts and skepticism about the fortress. The second possibility is to approach our homes and provoke us. They would aim to suppress our momentum and to restore the image and dignity of the Protoss.”

“So what the Chen family will be facing next may be the pressure exerted by the entire Protoss society.”

This was very easy to understand.

The Chen family’s performance was outstanding this time around. They had made full use of their advantages and strategies to eliminate the joint army of the top and second ranked clans. It could be said that they had rewritten the negative impressions of humans, such as human beings are weak and humans cannot withstand a single blow, and others.

It was like delivering a harsh slap to their faces; they gave a stinging slap to the faces of those Protoss who despised humanity.

However, the experience of being “slapped” was unpleasant, the feeling of suffering a counter-attack was hard to take and embarrassing. Those with a stronger ego might even want to give a slap in return immediately.

They would want to immediately suppress the arrogance and self-congratulatory attitude of humanity!

And so…the questions of how they should deal with the attack as experienced by the majority of the Protoss and how they should stop the Protoss society from launching the next wave of counterattacks were presented to the Chen family. These were issues that must be solved.

“Grandpa, what are we going to do next?”

Chen Junfeng looked at Chen Jin. He really couldn’t think of a very reliable method. He hoped that Chen Jin would give them some ideas.

“Uh…”

For a while, Chen Jin was lost in thought. Then, he immediately thought of a way and said, “All of the allied forces of the Tonghuang and Mugu’s clans were destroyed inside our fortress, where there are many electromagnetic disruptors. For the time being, the results of this battle will not spread to the outside world.”

“The first-hand information is still within our hands.”

“So, instead of a passive response, it is better to take the initiative to disclose the information. We’ll clearly explain and ascertain the clear-cut position of our family, to create the image of a helpless victim that saw no way out so that we can win some sympathy.”

“Also, announce the cause and effect of everything, pointing out that the Tonghuang and Mugu clans were arrogant and overbearing. Faced with the villains who had come knocking on our door, our family, which includes millions of people, do not wish to be sitting ducks. To survive, we could only resist with all our might. It was only by luck that we managed to survive.”

“In short, everything happened because we were forced into a corner. Resistance is our only choice when placed in a desperate situation. If the public was to put themselves in our shoes and think about the scene from our perspective, they will know that to kill all the Protoss who invaded the Chen family’s fortress will be the last choice of any power who was in a similar situation.”

Chen Jin’s method could be summarised in four words–act pitiful, win sympathy.

They had to gain a moral advantage in the public’s opinion.

“I understand, Grandpa!”

Chen Junfeng nodded, he immediately knew what he had to do.

It happened that after Xing Hai Entertainment was sold, several media outlets and organizations that had separated from the company remained in the control of the Chen family. These outlets’ influence and ability to disseminate information were not small.

Hence, a few hours later, the news outlet under the banner of the Chen family produced many eye-catching news reports that were published on various social platforms.

The title of the news reports was explosive.

“Joint forces from Tonghuang and Mugu clans slashed their way into the Chen’s fortress in broad daylight. Their purpose was to eliminate the Chen family branch; the use of violent means to plunder the Chen’s interests and profits.”

“Where did the Chen family fail? 60% of annual profits were served up, but we still have to suffer this sort of treatment?”

“Besides resistance, there is no road for us to choose!”

“Death is better than dishonor, Chen family swear on our lives that we will never become servants to another.”

“After a fierce battle lasting one whole day, the Chen family paid the price of sacrificing millions and won the battle of self-defense, killing all evil invaders.”

“We have won; a difficult and tragic victory. Don’t invade our Chen family’s fortress ever again!”

News articles were pumped out non-stop.

There were even some short videos showing the live battle. Through these videos, people could feel the desperation and the intensity during the battle.

The most shocking were the images of corpses piled high as a mountain and blood flowing like rivers. The degree of shock and impact on audiences was through the roof.

When these explosive news reports came out and were seen by the vast numbers of the Protoss, there was an overwhelming tide of impassioned reactions and chaos.

They immediately discussed the topic enthusiastically.

“The Tonghuang and Mugu clans went to attack the Chen family’s fortress?”

“The Chen family is sheltered by the two major clans. Each year, 60% of the profits are distributed to the two clans equally. But the two clans are still not satisfied, and they want to devour the Chen family?”

“Greed knows no bounds. Since they have taken the biggest chunks of profits, there’s no need to take a mile when the other party gives an inch.”

“They should have given those below their power an out to survive.”

“This is not a problem. The Chen’s counterattack is not too big a problem. If it was any other family in their position, they could only choose to resist too.”

“Sss~ This battle was fierce. The few photos of the blood-soaked event were full of corpses. It simply makes me sick. Fortunately, they have been marked with mosaics after being reported. Otherwise, these photos will leave shadows on the psyches of many Protoss.”

“Millions from the Chen family are dead or injured and they have destroyed all invading enemies? This can be considered a situation where both sides lost? If my Tengshe Clan was to make a move at this time, wouldn’t there be hope that we can devour the three major forces consecutively?” These internet communities were very excited.

“Hey, stop contributing to old traditions and stereotypes. We, as Protoss, have survived for millions of years, but have always been described as ‘barbarians’ and ‘powerful but unethical’ by the weak humans. Although this statement is somewhat biased, we have also entered the information age. We have indeed taken on the ideas of a somewhat civilized race.”

Following which, this Protoss netizen was harshly scolded. “Where did this Virgin Mary of the Protoss come from? Run as far as you can!”

Thus, the mud-slinging battle in the comments area began and the atmosphere soon became foul.

…

Following the situation that was announced by the Chen family, it was also reported through the news media.

On the side of the Tonghuang and Mugu clans, they were immediately shocked and they howled and screamed.

“Six ancestors of the Shenguang order, thousands of strong practitioners and tens of thousands of regiments, but the whole army was annihilated with no survivors in the rebellion of the Chen family’s fortress. This… How is this possible? How is it possible?!”

“Fake news, this must be fake news. It’s only a fortress, how can it withstand the masters from our families.”

But even if they strongly denied it verbally and found it difficult to accept this information.

It was an indisputable fact that the legion made up of tens of thousands of practitioners had never returned and no news had been sent back. This was an indisputable truth.

Even if they struggled with and denied the facts with their words, an endless amount of worry and fear welled up in their hearts.

After half a day had passed, through third-party logistics agencies, tens of thousands of corpses were shipped from the Chen family’s fortress back to the two major clans.

Looking at those cold bodies that were familiar yet strange.

The members of Tonghuang and Mugu clans felt as though they had fallen into an ice hole, their expressions were one of stupefaction.

Following which was a torrent of rage and fear.

“Father, brother, grandfather! Wake up!” Tonghuang Moshan’s sister, Tonghuang Feixue, an extremely beautiful woman, was crying to the point where she nearly passed out.

“The Chen family, the damned Chens! How dare you do this? How dare you?”

“Die! Everyone in the Chen family must die! We must get revenge!”

“Kill them. Organize the second batch of masters right now, they must kill everyone in the Chen family! Then extract their souls for burning and refining all day and night. We’ll let them understand the price of pissing off the Tonghuang clan!”

Shouts and screams to kill the Chen family rang out. The members of the two clans were red in their eyes and they clamored to take revenge on the Chen family immediately to leave not even a chicken alive.

But…

No matter how powerful were the screams coming from their mouths, there was not a single one who could move their feet and take action.

“Our Tonghuang clan had suffered heavy losses. The family’s interests would immediately become the target of other clans. We can no longer afford to suffer any losses, no matter how small.”

“The grudge against the Chen family has to be put aside. We have to be on guard against the other clans immediately to prevent them from taking action on my clan’s territory and interests. None of the masters from my clan can leave,” The Mugu clan held the same view.

After all, when their strategy to annihilate the Chen family had failed, the two clans had lost more than 60% of their powerful practitioners. Originally, they ranked as the top and second strongest major clans in terms of strength, but after suffering such heavy losses, their rankings would have fallen by at least a dozen places.

They couldn’t guard the huge interests and profits that they possessed.

With the Protoss’ traditional culture of “only the strong are respected,” the probability that other clans would not kick them when they were down was essentially zero.

Therefore, “holding onto the clan interests” became their priority ahead of “revenge.”

Even so, the two clans still did not want to let the Chen family have an easy time.

Hence, they also published a lot of articles in the media that frantically attacked the Chen family.

“The Chen family is treacherous and wicked, they are subservient on the surface, but in fact, they had the intention to rebel against the Protoss for a long time.”

“Everyone, look at the Chen family’s fortress, with those sorts of additions to their military equipment, are they not guarding against the Protoss? Their surrender is superficial and false, their conspiracy to oppose us is true.

“Nonsense! The Chen family claim to be paying 60% of their profits, but there are no books to check whether the sum paid was more or less. In reality, it is far less than 60%. It is because we knew the deception that we had to take punitive action using our military strength.”

“The Chen family is lying. Their losses did not number in the millions at all. The photos of the bodies were all composites. On the contrary, most of the masters from our clans who had died were cut down in one stroke. Traces of struggle were rare…The wicked Chen family must have developed some kind of powerful weapon.”

“We are the Protoss. How can we be deceived and bewitched by mere humans? Regardless of how the Chen family explains it, slaughtering the Protoss is a heinous crime! The Chen family must die!”

“The Chen family has inflicted serious damage on the Tonghuang and Mugu clans today. The next time, they will be inflicting serious damages on the entire Protoss race. To all my compatriots, please take off your rose-colored lenses and see the true face of the Chen family. We cannot allow any more deception from this sort of cunning humans. Our only option is to kill every last one of them.”

Towards the latter part of the public opinion war, the Tonghuang and Mugu clans were very clever in putting their focus on the conflict on the racial tensions between the Protoss and humans.

In reality, after years of fermentation, the tensions and cracks in the relations between the Protoss and humans had grown increasingly severe.

More and more, they had become a thorn in each other’s side.

The Protoss thought that human beings were timid, small, and weak, but they were also cunning and exceptionally shrewd. They often had many schemes, and their behaviors were erratic and all over the place. Moreover, the Protoss just could not seem to exterminate every single one of them.

In the eyes of the humans, the Protoss were even more unbearable. They were barbaric, brutal, totally unreasonable, and had no morals… They were simply a scourge in the solar system.

The conflicts between the two sides were rapidly increasing with each passing year.

And now the Chen family had taken away the lives of tens of thousands of Protoss in a day, including many strong practitioners of the Shenguang order.

This caused many Protoss to frown in resentment.

“How could we let the Chen family freely take away the noble lives of the Protoss?”

“Chens, how did you kill the ancestors from the Shenguang order? Have you developed a weapon with great destructive powers? Hand it over now or die!”

“How dare the Chen family resist when the Protoss wanted to destroy them! Why don’t you stay down obediently and wait for death? Are you looking down on the Protoss? Had you been thinking about rebelling for a long time? This Chen family really can’t be left alive, we must remove them!”

“That’s right! You’re despicable and wretched human beings. Killing you will be a reward bestowed by the Protoss. You should just die with a grateful heart. How dare you resist! Perhaps, you dare to go against the natural order of things?”

“It is better to eliminate the Chen family. This cancer can not be left alone anymore, otherwise, there will be hidden dangers!”

“On this earth, everything is determined by the Protoss. The Chen family and the rest of the human beings have no right to resist. Anyone who resists must die!”

“…..”

After a few days of fermentation.

In the public’s opinion, voices calling for the Chen family to be killed increased. Many conspiracy theories emerged, targeting and describing the family as harboring malicious intentions; accusing them of terrifying schemes. In any case, the Chen family had to be destroyed.

It was to the extent that public opinion had turned against them. The number of Protoss who sympathized with the Chen family or took a neutral stance was getting smaller and smaller.

…

In the villa, sweat beaded on Chen Junfeng’s forehead. He had no idea why the public opinion turned out like this. How did the voices calling for the demise of the Chen family increase practically overnight? This opinion had become mainstream.

“This is normal and has nothing to do with morality. It’s just like humans fighting with wild boars. Although human beings are the hunters and want to kill the boars, the boars win in the end and the humans are killed. Then, other humans will not sympathize with the wild boars that they struggled so they could survive. Instead, the humans would feel that wild boars are dangerous and should be removed.”

Chen Jin shook his head and smiled, “Compared to racism, it is even easier for this kind of matter to lead to factionalism. After all, the Protoss and humans are not the same species.”

Even if both species had high intelligence and could communicate.

The existence of other ethnic groups besides one’s own would always be perceived as the wild boars.”

“Then… what should I do? Grandpa, since public opinion does not side with reason, there will be some clans who are gunning for us next.

They could even join efforts to encircle and attack us. No matter how powerful we are, there is no way that we can stop a never-ending wave of attacks.”

“No need to worry about it~”

Chen Jin smiled at him, “The second step of our plans can be implemented. The secret weapon that the Chen family has been developing for decades – the naga bio-mecha that can surpass the ranks of practitioners to strike them down can be released to the public. Elaborate on the reasons behind our victory and signal that the naga bio-mecha can be sold externally. Interested parties can apply to purchase!”

To release a new model of weapon.

To sell the naga bio-mecha?

Chen Junfeng’s eyes brightened. This was a brilliant move. Although this would be another bomb for the public opinion, there was hope that it could turn the current unfavorable situation around.

Chapter 463 - Pulling Through A Crisis

Two more days passed.

The public opinion continued to ferment and the clamor to punish the Chen family increased.

There were even a small number of Protoss practitioners who had gathered near the Chen family’s fortress. They were only waiting for an opportune moment where they could have sufficient advantage to launch an attack.

They planned to take advantage of the crisis.

But on the morning of this particular day, the few media outlets under the Chen family’s control released some videos on several platforms in rapid succession.

“Our secret weapon – the weapon used to kill the strongest from the Shenguang Order effectively.”

“The naga bio-mecha, the magical object that we have refined through 30 years of hard work, the last thing the Chen family is counting on.”

“We’ll use this to talk reason. The Chen family will not be sheep to the slaughter. We want to survive.”

The style of the videos was either full of industrial style graphics, or solemn and heart-stirring. They very clearly showed the attitude of the Chen family.

That was, they had “magical and effective military weapons.” They had the right to survive and fight.

If the enemy insisted on being overbearing and aggressive; wanting to devour the Chen family, then they could only continue to battle it out.

And after these videos made apparent their stance was released.

Once again, public opinion was in a furor, eliciting countless heated debates.

Of course, most of the comments were ones expressing their dislike and discontent.

“Chens, what do you mean by this?”

“Do they plan to resist to the very end until both Protoss and humans are dead?”

“Heh, it is quite courageous. As Protoss, we respect the strong and were unreasonable. If you win the fight, we’ll respect you. If you don’t, we’ll behead all of you. But the Chen family has overestimated themselves in challenging tens of billions of Protoss. They are simply courting death!”

“Motherfucker, the Chen family is too arrogant. Everyone, let’s contribute the manpower and effort to exterminate this family!”

“The prestige and dignity of the Protoss is not something that you can trample on!”

“The naga bio-mecha that can surpass the ranks to kill practitioners from the Shenguang order, what kind of joke is this. You think you can scare us with this?”

“Even if the naga bio-mecha is somewhat powerful, there are tens of billions of Protoss. The Chen family would drown if every one of us were to spit on them. They act so recklessly!”

However, there was also a minority who wanted to understand more the naga bio-mecha.

“Is the naga bio-mecha really so powerful?”

“Their cultivation level is more or less on par with those at the Jiedan phase. With help from the celestial sniper cannons, it can kill the ancient freaks of the Shenguang order. this means that they’ve skipped over three or four major levels?”

“If your bragging is too ridiculous, you may hold your tongue. Can the masters of the Shenguang order be killed so easily? This is fake. The Chen family is deliberately scaring us! If it’s true, wouldn’t 800 units of naga bio-mechas be equivalent to 800 of the strongest practitioners from the Shenguang order? Besides the Sages, which forces can withstand this level of power?”

“The above comment speaks about the naga bio-mecha in a rather inferior way. The Chen’s propaganda may be exaggerated, but the naga bio-mecha really cannot be underestimated. Otherwise, there is no explanation for the fall of the Shenguang masters from the Tongguang and Mugu clans. Perhaps it does have a small portion of the ability shown in the propaganda videos.”

As humans only had 20 to 30 years in the field of cultivation, even the most genius of humans that would make the Heavens proud had only achieved the initial stage of the Yuanying phase. They could never be taken seriously by the Protoss.

And in the face of the strongest from the Shenguang order, those of the Yuanying order were like young and tender babies. They could kill a dozen of them easily with a lift of their fingers. No matter how far human practitioners deviate from justice and pursue evil to get more power, but they were still ants, albeit stronger ants. They were unable to cause much harm to those of the Shenguang order.

Therefore, when the Protoss who were saner reflected on the reasons why the six Shenguang practitioners died in the Chen family fortress, they would not think about the strength of the human practitioners, instead, they would think that the Chen family had scraped by their victory with the support of a powerful defensive spell formation or a mysterious magical weapon.

Contrary to expectations, the Chen family ‘s initiative to announce the naga bio-mecha was a logical answer.

But…

If that was the case if the naga bio-mecha did have the ability to kill the strongest Shenguang practitioners…

Rumble~

Two days later.

Public opinion underwent tremendous change again.

“Chen family, hand over the manufacturing technology for the naga bio-mecha!”

“Although the Chen family is guilty as sin and deserves to die, we can spare your lives against our will if you hand over the mecha technology.”

“Be sensible and surrender the mecha immediately. Resistance is death.”

“Eighteen clans, including the Tianji and Xuanfei clans have officially joined forces today to go to the Chen’s fortress to crusade against these criminals. We demand that the Chen family hand over this technology that represents a great threat to the Protoss. If you don’t agree, your fortress will be reduced to powder!”

There were many voices across the various social platforms calling for the Chen family to surrender the technology.

In private, the clans saw great interests and profits to be gained. They joined forces in succession and drafted their most capable troops, gathering them under the walls of the Chen family’s fortress wall. In just one to two days, more than 100,000 practitioners had gathered.

Up in the sky, there were also several strong practitioners of the Shenguang order, who were releasing a forcefield of universal consciousness and scanning the movements inside the fortress.

If not for the defensive spell formation that was always activated, the interior of the fortress would probably have been infiltrated by the countless Protoss masters like it was transparent.

Huge pressure was exerted on the Chen family.

Perhaps as long as there was a suitable opportunity, countless greedy maws would descend to frantically tear at the Chen family.

In such a tense atmosphere, on the fifth day, the Chen family held a press conference. Invitations were issued. A group of Protoss representatives whose cultivation levels were not particularly high, but whose status were not low either, were invited into the fortress. At the venue, they participated in the introduction to the product functions and exhibition of the naga bio-mecha.

At the press conference, they witnessed the fierce and powerful performance of the Naga bio-mecha which left a deep impression on all the forces present.

Some major announcements were made at the end of the conference.

“The Chen family intends to sell the naga bio-mecha! We have no intention of hoarding it all to ourselves. As long as you pay, all Protoss forces can buy this product!”

“There is no need to worry about the price. Most clans can afford it. It’s only 120 million for one unit! The manufacturing cost is more than 100 million.

It’s about small profits and large sales quantities. We do not hope to gain huge profits from this.”

“Technological upgrades, maintenance, and modification services will be provided later to ensure that the products will always be advanced and easy to use.”

“The Chen family guarantees that as long as you do not harbor the idea of damaging our family’s interests and have no intention of taking over our fortress, we are willing to be friends with all the friendly Protoss. We’ll share our interests and profits, enlarge the pie, and coexist peacefully!”

“This is the wish of the Chen family. It is an earnest wish. There is nothing to be gained from fighting, but everything to be gained for everyone from ordinary business.”

“…”

After a speech that was rather long-winded but filled with meaningful and heartfelt.

The forces that were hostile to the Chen family had been significantly reduced. Their thoughts about the Chen family had become a little gentler and more moderate.

However, the struggle for interests and profits always tended to be cold and cruel. With the Chen family’s childish declaration of their stance and their naive wishes, they suffered a warning in the form of an ultimatum from a large number of powerful clans the next day.

“No matter how cheap it is, we don’t want to pay for the naga bio-mecha! Hand over the technology right away!”

“Stop being so slippery! Don’t think that we don’t know what kind of trick you’re trying to pull. You still want to conduct business normally and maintain friendly exchanges after committing such a heinous crime? You’re daydreaming. If you’re sensible, you’ll quickly hand over the mecha technology. This is the only way to save your lives!”

“We don’t want the completed mecha, we only want the manufacturing technology!”

“This kind of technology cannot rest solely in the hands of the Chen family. We are the noble Protoss, how can we be restricted by humans?”

These Protoss forces were not fools, they knew what was more important.

The value of the manufacturing technology of the naga bio-mecha far exceeded a hundred thousand, or even one million naga bio-mechas… This was a logic that one could work out even with his toe.

The voices demanding the technology reached the Chen family.

It didn’t take long before the Chen family gave an answer that surprised all forces.

“Yes!”

“A copy of the complete manufacturing technology of the naga bio-mecha can be given to you.”

“But I hope that you’ll consider this carefully. This technology is not the kind of simple technology that can be easily realized.”

“Without a perfect industrial system and over a thousand master refiners of magical objects, you will not be able to easily gain a thorough understanding of the technology of the naga bio-mecha.”

“Moreover, the investment for research funding will not be less than one trillion, and the development cycle will not be less than ten years. It might be even longer!”

“Most importantly, even if you meet all the conditions and build the naga bio-mecha ten years later, the comprehensive manufacturing cost will be at least 200 million, which is twice that of the Chen family’s. But the performance of the bio-mecha will be similar. ”

“As one can well imagine, this product will not have much market competitiveness. The mechas produced can only be used for yourselves. In the end, the comprehensive cost will be much higher than if you purchased it from us.”

“So, if you still want the technology and insist on autonomous production, we are willing to offer the technology for free and even provide certain technical consulting services.”

“In short, you should consider it properly and weigh the pros and cons. The Chen family will fulfill your demands.”

All the Protoss clans were stunned.

The Chen family was willing to provide the manufacturing technology for the bio-mecha.

But it would take at least ten years to “digest” that information.

And investment exceeding one trillion.

The performance would be the same, and the final selling price might not even be as good as the Chen family’s original naga bio-mecha’s.

The combined meaning was this–it was better to buy.

Therefore, should they take the free technology of the naga bio-mecha?

Was there even a need for it?

Many Protoss clans sank into deep thought.

But they replied after less than a few seconds of consideration.

“Yes! Of course, we want the technology.”

Since it was free, it would be a waste if they refused it.

In just a few hours, hundreds of copies of the manufacturing technology of the Chen’s naga bio-mecha proliferated.

If not for the warning tone of some clans reminding them not to give the technology to other clans, the Chen family even intended to upload the technological information package to the Knowledge Bank and set it to the “free download” format, so that anyone could download it for free.

Hence, at this point, skeptics and critics might arrive with their questions.

Wasn’t this kind of idiotic or silly of the Chen family?

Do they want to freely publicize such advanced technology? Just what was going through Chen Jin’s mind?

“The many high-precision parts of the naga bio-mecha are not produced on Earth, but imported from Haierfa.”

“The precision of many core parts processing has reached an astonishing level of one nanometer. This is very difficult to achieve even with the most advanced technology on earth.”

“The Protoss has low scientific literacy. It is unlikely that they could manufacture a generation of products that is the equivalent of the naga bio-mecha in ten years, maybe not even 30 or 50 years. The performance of their products would lag by at least 10%. ”

“Besides, the most advanced biochip that is implanted in the naga bio-mecha is state-of-the-art technology. Many technological principles can’t be understood by others. They can only do a rough imitation. They would know that it is so but not why it is so. It would also be very difficult for them to discover that there is a hidden ‘back door’ and to crack it.”

Therefore, there was practically no threat or impact on the interests of Chen’s family by publicizing the technology.

As such, Chen Jin was not afraid of technological leaks at all.

“Haha, it’s a combination of the lateral plane technology, which is pure scientific tech, with the high-energy plane technology. Not to mention achieving a clone-like replication; to reach even 80% of the original’s standards for the products they manufacture would be considered pretty good. In terms of keeping our technologies under wraps confidentiality, we are in an invincible position! ”

But…

After distributing hundreds of copies of the free mecha manufacturing technology, it did not mean that the Chen family was safe, or that they had left a favorable impression on the Protoss and completely clear of the crisis.

On the contrary, there was a sudden increase in the number of forces that wanted to exterminate the Chen family. Moreover, their operative forces and determination were stronger.

“Since the technology has been handed over, there is not much use we can get out of the Chen family. We also have to prevent the technology from becoming even more widespread. The best way is to kill everyone in the Chen family and eradicate any future problems.”

“The level of difficulty in manufacturing the naga bio-mecha is very high? That’s not an issue. Isn’t there a ready-made production line in their fortress? We can just seize the line for ourselves, then the manufacturing process wouldn’t be so difficult anymore.”

“Is there only one type of treasure like the naga bio-mecha in the fortress? As the family with the strongest technological capabilities in the human world, there must be a lot of hidden treasures?”

“It’s better for everyone to join forces and break into the Chen family’s fortress. Their interests and the bio-mecha will equally be divided; all the resources will also be divided. How about it?”

Voices of the Protoss secretly conspiring rang out in many corners of the earth.

The senior administration of the Protoss were brimming with an agitated atmosphere.

An invisible pressure continued to hang over the Chen family. There was a feeling that they had dug their graves.

But at this time, there suddenly was explosive news!

“The Chen family and the Tonghuang and Mugu clans have settled. Both sides abandon their enmity and misunderstandings to take their relationship to a new level.”

“Order for 3,000 units of naga bio-mechas; Tonghuang and Mugu clans each account for half. This is the maximum production capacity of the Chen’s fortress in the next three years, they cannot supply other users within these three years”

“After the cooperation was agreed, Tonghuang and Mugu clans will continue to fulfill their obligation to protect the Chen family and ensure the normal production of the bio-mechas.

“First come, first served; orders will be queued. We welcome other clans to issue purchase orders for the bio-mechas.”

Woah~!

When this news came out, all powers were stunned.

They were extremely surprised, but at the same time, it felt normal.

“This is called ‘a group hug for warmth.’ Tonghuang and Mugu clans are extremely weak now, and they will soon be replaced by other powers. They could even be annihilated by other clans. But, they did not expect the Chen family to suddenly make such a play.”

“Brilliant! To protect the clans’ interests, they’ve chosen to let go of their irreconcilable hatred. The Tonghuang and Mugu clans can restrain themselves! I have great admiration for them!”

“I’ve miscalculated, I never expect these three families to be back in the same boat again. Although their power has been seriously damaged, it remains difficult to deal with them. Rather than paying such a high price to devour the Chen family, it’s better to give up on them.”

“Hmph! The Chen family should count themselves lucky this time around and act humbly. Don’t challenge the Protoss ever again!”

After a series of breath-stopping operations, the Chen family pulled through this crisis without a glitch.

Chapter 464 - Reward System

They had safely pulled through a crisis.

However, Chen Junfeng still felt rather puzzled about one aspect.

“Grandpa, a deadly hatred has been kindled between our family and the Tonghuang and Mugu clans. There is no possibility that this enmity will ease, why do we give the sales priority of the naga bio-mecha to these two clans? What if they recover their strength and keep thinking of old feuds; what if they paint a target on us?”

Without a doubt, Tonghuang and Mugu clans hated their guts. After their strength has been restored, they would consider retaliation. They could even take direct action, using the blood of the Chen family to wash away the shame brought onto them.

Enemies.

They were, in fact, the enemy from each other’s perspective.

But at the moment, the Chen family chose to help its two great enemies by strengthening their ability to take revenge.

Not only was this difficult to understand, but one would also think that perhaps the leader of the Chen family wasn’t thinking clearly. Was it not the best choice to kill every last one of them?

How could they do something as dumb as helping the enemy?

“Heh heh!”

Chen Jin smiled indifferently, “If they were to use our family’s technological products, there would be no possibility of them turning the muzzle towards us to kill our descendants. With robot products invented by the Chen family, the muzzle might even turn back towards them. The only people the robots will never target are people from our family.”

“Is it… the back door?”

Chen Junfeng became excited, “All the naga bio-mechas that will be sold will have a back door installed. There is no possibility of them becoming an enemy of our family?”

“Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!”

He laughed heartily, “Doesn’t this mean that the number of naga bio-mechas sold by our family is vaguely related to how much assistance we’ll have? This is equivalent to spending their money to strengthen our potential power.”

“Good, it’s just great to have a back door. You can do whatever you want if you have the technology.” He was reminded of that long-standing and well-known saying in the family.

Chen Jin did not say anything. Everything from the beginning to the present was within his control and expectations. He also got the results he wanted.

In this way, the Chen family had gained another valuable period to develop.

Initial estimations predict that this period would last at least 10 years or more.

Moreover, the Chen family did not need to pay those “protection fees” now.

The sales of the naga bio-mecha would bring about considerable benefits. They could also be recovered at the crucial moment through the back doors.

Things were stable now.

The affairs on earth could be summarized in one word–stable.

…

Haierfa.

Crater City.

Chen Jin’s primary attention returned here.

The large scale nuclear fusion reactor mentioned by Nuwa had been completed some time ago. The engine and power generation had started.

The crystal of the primordial chaos was put into the reactor and the power generated was increased.

Fission occurred during the violent collision of primordial particles and many varieties of celestial particles were dispelled.

The spiritual energy among the celestial particles that were continuously created was gathered together after purification. It was then compressed and synthesized.

Pieces of the top-grade, lustrous blue-colored spirit stones were manufactured.

“What’s the quantity of the spirit stones produced? How many pieces are manufactured every day?” Chen Jin asked.

“Master, the current fusion reactor’s operations has not reached its full power. So there are only about 300 top-grade spirit stones synthesized every day. If we can employ some methods in the future to use up the excess resources for power generation and achieve full-power operation, the spirit stones produced each day can reach about 1,000.”

Daily spirit stones production of three hundred.

All of which were highly valuable top-grade stones.

Suddenly, Chen Jin got a little excited.

Because these spirit stones were enough for his cultivation needs. It would be enough even for ten practitioners of the Jiedan order or below.

Also, because there were no veins of spirit stones available for mining on Earth, the existence of natural spirit stones were extremely rare. They were like an endangered type of mineral. The more that was used, the less that existed. Spirit stones tended towards total depletion.

However, due to their wide-ranging uses, the market demand for spirit stones was huge.

A piece of low-grade spirit stone holding a quantity of one unit of spiritual
energy would be selling for about $100,000.

A medium-grade spirit stone holding a quantity of 10 units of spiritual energy would be selling for about $1 million.

The typical quantity of spiritual energy in a top-grade spirit stone was about 100 units or more. There was a price but no buyers. It would be difficult to even buy a piece with just $10 million.

In other words, just three hundred pieces of spirit stones every day could bring in billions of income to the Chen family.

With full power output from the reactor, the value of the spirit stones produced every day would be worth tens of billions.

But Nuwa had an even crazier plan, “Master, after the SS-class warship was completed, I’d immediately launched a mini fixed star plan to create a device with a power output of one trillion megawatts, which is equivalent to that of a small fixed star. As the power output is sufficient, the isomerization efficiency of the primordial crystals will also be raised by multiple levels. We’ll achieve the goal of producing more than 10,000 spirit stones per day.”

Ten thousand spirit stones every day.

If these were brought to earth, it would become an important good that would make all the different powers jealous and crazy.

It could enable countless practitioners to accelerate their pace of cultivation.

This was equivalent to getting a short-cut that accelerated one’s rate of cultivation.

If such a huge quantity of spirit stones were supplied for use by the practitioners in the Chen family’s fortress, a large number of masters could be produced in a few years.

And then after ten, twenty, thirty years…

In the infinite universe, the spiritual energy was diffusing non-stop and becoming more diluted. The concentration of spiritual energy would drop to ten percent or even one percent.

An era of high martial arts mixed with fantasy, where one had the power to change or destroy the universe, would descend into an era of middle and low martial arts.

One could already imagine the extent that the Chen family could grow to, with the huge sources of spirit stones that had been in their possession all along.

Time was on Chen Jin’s side; this was not a false statement at all.

Even the few Sages, with their lofty status, had a greater possibility of seeing the boundaries of their ranks shrink. There would be a slight possibility of killing them.

“We still need to accumulate our hard work while waiting patiently, appear to develop in a wretched manner and be as low-key as possible. After a few decades, everything on earth would belong to the Chen family.”

…

With plenty of spirit stones in his possession.

Chen Jin spent three or four hours a day to cultivate and to delve into the path of cultivation.

His talent could only be said to be ordinary. His natural aptitude was average. Overall, in terms of cultivation, he could be classified as having zero talent. However, he had plenty of spirit stones at hand and he was not stingy about using it. In terms of cultivation exercises, there was a set of advanced exercises simulated and derived from “Galaxy Era 2.0” that was very suitable for him. The effects on his cultivation were not too bad.

He also took magical elixirs and miracle remedies regularly.

If this was a game, he would be a boss-level player, who had paid for and downloaded all the available in-game cheat-codes and weapons. As a result of all this combined effort, the speed of his cultivation was very rapid.

Before long, he would be a strong practitioner in the Jiedan phase.

Guo Yan had followed him into cultivation, exchanging their learned experiences. They had even combined to practice a set of dual cultivation exercises that was said to be very magical. They wanted to see if this exercise would lead to comparatively larger effects in their cultivation.

However, the results were not ideal, and it was rather damaging to the kidneys. Gradually, they gave up on it halfway.

Guo Yan flattened her lips and said, “I think that the set of dual cultivation exercises is very good; the cultivation process is very comfortable, much better than cultivating individually.” She did not understand why Chen Jin wanted to give up.

“Except for people with ten kidneys, others would die from the toil and exhaustion from this type of cultivation exercise before they can become a Sage.”

Chen Jin shook his head, the so-called dual cultivation exercises were perhaps more suitable for female practitioners. It was unsuitable for male practitioners due to the strain it placed on the kidneys.

…

Life was dull as dishwater. The simple daily routines made up the infinite loop of each passing day.

With Haierfa as the node.

The tensions between humans and Protoss were still mounting. The “War of the Races” was unable to resolve their deep-seated tensions, and small-scale wars had begun in reality.

In Haierfa’s universe, the All-Stars Federation led by Mu Yunhua was struggling with one difficult battle after another to stop the enemy’s progress in their resistance against the large-scale invasion of the Lanyi civilization.

On this day.

Chen Jin took the initiative to send a communication application, he wanted to get an understanding of the latest situation from Mu Yunhua.

“Yun, the war has been going for more than three years. Are you able to hold on over there?” Chen Jin asked.

“There are no big issues, we can hold them off!”

Mu Yunhua introduced the situation, “We may have significantly overestimated the strength of the Lanyi civilization at the beginning.”

Although their fleet is large enough to block out all the stars, their quality is indeed, only so-so. They employ only the lowest level of naval tactics.

They’ve drowned one civilization after another using their advantage of numbers.”

“But they don’t know much about our strength. And they have an even poorer understanding of the A-class and S-class warships that you’ve rented us. They don’t know how powerful they are,” she had easily and nonchalantly toadied to Chen Jin.

“Although we have the same A-class warships, the combat indicators for our A-class warships are at least three times of theirs. One of our A-class warships can directly and openly destroy three of theirs.”

“In terms of quality, we have the advantage of being ahead of them by at least half a generation or more.”

“In just two years, our counter-attack fleet has destroyed 33 of the Lanyi civilization’s sub-fleets. We’ve destroyed more than 30,000 enemy ships, and eliminated one-third of the invading forces.”

“But, seeing that we are not a pushover, the remaining Lanyi sub-fleets have begun to gather together to form groups of three or five teams to avoid being split up and destroyed.”

“This has made our recent campaign rather rocky. Although we’ve used the tactics of harassment to annihilate a fleet of 3,000 warships two months ago, we were at a disadvantage in terms of numbers as they had six times more warships than us. This had offset the advantage of quality that we possessed. We’ve suffered losses for the first time in that battle; we lost ten A-class warships.”

“I’m afraid that the rest of the campaigns will not be easy. I estimate that the most difficult moment will be coming soon. I am very confident that we will be victorious, but the Lanyi civilization cannot be underestimated. Their fighting style and the character of their ethnicity are very similar to the former Red Empire. They like to engage in tactics of overwhelming numbers and naval tactics. Moreover, their generals and soldiers are ferocious and not afraid of death. Even in desperate circumstances, few chose to surrender. I find this hard to believe–Even as invading forces, they have such a strong will to fight.”

“They’re simple like…a stubborn beast.”

“I estimate that it’ll be hard to annihilate them if we don’t pay a certain price.” Mu Yunhua said in a gloomy tone of voice. Faced with such an opponent, she should mentally prep herself to give a good response to the situation. She must not make mistakes that would result in unexpected losses.

“Then employ more harassment tactics, don’t fight them head-on.”

Chen Jin thought for a moment and said, “To be able to hold off the Lanyi civilization fleet and delay their attacks; it is enough to achieve this goal. On my side, I’m speeding up the construction of a secret weapon. It will make its debut probably after another six or seven years. At that time, all these problems that you are facing will be easily solved.”

“Thank you~”

She knew that Jin was giving her words of assurance and was suggesting to her to adopt a conservative strategy in her resistance, but…

“We can’t be coddled by the nanny all the time. We should also show the skills that we possess to prove our ability.”

After more than a dozen destructive wars that brought optimistic news, their confidence and ease of mind had grown significantly. Mu Yunhua and her military advice department came up with a plan. With their 501 main battleships as the primary force, they would split up and encircle the invading fleets, then they would destroy them one by one.

They would strive to annihilate all 100,000 invading warships in a decade!

In other words, they would not need the “higher civilization” represented by Chen Jin. They would win the entire war and overcome this crisis with the small number of assets that they had right now.

“How can this be possible?”

Upon understanding the thoughts of Mu Yunhua, Chen Jin was so surprised that he shook his head repeatedly. Over 500 warships to PK against 100,000 invading warships. They were facing 20 times the odds. They wanted to realize the idiom of “using the few to defeat the many.” This was simply an impossible task.

“Yun, please, don’t try to be brave. Do whatever you can according to your skills and capacity. With the power that you have in your hands, protecting yourself is enough. To realize a counter attack is not possible, please, don’t have the misconception that you can win!”

“I will try my best to speed things up here. The support force will reach you soon. Choose to act steadily in your battles. Don’t rock the boat! In short, listen to my suggestion, this crisis will end soon.”

Chen Jin persuaded her many times, hoping that Mu Yunhua would follow the guidelines he had laid out.

“I got it, Jin. I will learn and know my limits well. If the strength of my forces is insufficient, I will reassess my capabilities and act accordingly. Please believe that I will do a good job,” Mu Yunhua said.

This let Chen Jin feel a little more at ease. After all, she was an adult. Whether she should not take a risk, whether she had the confidence; Mu Yunhua should be clear regarding these as the leader. There was no need for him excessive reminders on his part.

…

For the next few years, the war between the All-Stars Federation and the Lanyi Civilization had become more intense.

Mu Yunhua and her military advisors still chose a riskier strategy. They adopted the tactical strategy of “the quick fish will eat the slow fish” and frantically attacked the fleets of the Lanyi civilization who huddled together in groups.

Less than 500 ships harassed enemy ships of 3,000.

By deploying space minefields, superluminal ambushes, drilling by the S-class warships, and a large number of outrageous tactics. They used all available advantages to divide, encircle, and eliminate the enormous enemy fleet.

“Boom~”

The first 3,000 warships of the Lanyi civilization’s fleets were destroyed.

The All-Stars Federation’s ambush fleet had lost less than ten ships. After this, it was a different battlefield and a simple repetition.

The war was at the beginning of its ninth year.

After losing 90,000 warships, the Lanyi people, who had always been ferocious and unafraid of death, finally had a nervous breakdown.

They simply chose to escape, which evolved into a rout, fleeing pell-mell, and surrender.

In the end, there were less than 5,000 ships in working condition that returned to the Lanyi civilization.

Mu Yunhua realized the goal of destroying 100,000 of the invading enemy ships with just the power of over 500 warships in her possession.

Seeing how powerful the Federation was, all of the Selains who betrayed them surrendered. The land that the Federation lost was all recovered, and the situation quickly stabilized.

Seeing such a strong performance.

Chen Jin could only exclaim “Fuck!” in secret. He felt as if he had been slapped.

He sent a dispatch to Mu Yunhua. He gave a reluctant smile and said, “Yun, you’ve won. You can win even without my support. I admit that I’ve underestimated you. What rewards do you want? Feel free to say it. As long as you say it and it’s within my abilities, I’ll agree.”

Reward?

Mu Yunhua thought about as she rested her chin in her palm. She suddenly said, “I want to go home. Is that ok?”

Chapter 465 - Meeting In Person

“Go back home?”

Chen Jin understood what she meant, “You want to come back to Haierfa, is that right?”

“Yes,” Mu Yunhua nodded. “I want to go back and take a look around.

This my strongest desire. Can you help me achieve it?”

“But we’ve promised that you can’t return to Haierfa before the All-Stars Federation conquer a million stars…You have not reached this goal yet.”

“I know, but I can’t wait that long. I want to go back earlier just to see it. Even if it’s only for a short time, I still want to see how’s my hometown now.”

At this point in the conversation, a sheen of tears had appeared in her eyes.

It had been too long.

It had been too long a time since they left.

It had been so long that a lot of familiar memories had gradually disappeared. Memories had faded and many continued to disappear. That restraining rope that was tightly tied would soon be unable to bind her soul.

There was only one obsession in her heart that was constantly deepening–to see her home.

“…”

Silence.

Chen Jin was silent for a while.

He fully understood the yearning and feelings of Mu Yunhua. He knew that the only worry she could not let go of was the place where she was born and raised–Haierfa.

Because it was her home, there were many happy memories as well as sorrowful events that she had experienced there. But whether they were good or bad, whether they were satisfactory or regrettable… she had left many memories in Haierfa.

The fetters of memories, even if one’s memory had seriously worsened or even if one had forgotten everything, would always stop there.

It was difficult to obstruct such yearning.

Chen Jin took a deep breath and said, “If I tell you that the planet of Haierfa had been destroyed, with no survivors left and everything related to civilization was buried in the soil underground, would you believe me?”

The ending was somewhat sad and regrettable. He had to give her some warning in advance.

“I…believe,” Mu Yunhua said after a pause. She took a long breath. The trace of hope and luck in her heart disappeared. It was as if she had been mentally prepared.

“Also, I am in Haierfa….. I have transformed this planet. It is my personal property now,” Chen Jin revealed another important information.

“Oh, Jin, you are in Haierfa?”

Mu Yunhua had a happy expression, “I didn’t expect that I could see you too. This is good!”

“You don’t think that it’s strange?”

Chen Jin was very surprised, “You should have a lot of questions in your mind. For example, why would I be in Haierfa? Why I am so helpful towards you? Is my assistance a conspiracy? Am I a good person? You must have these doubts in your mind?”

“They’re not important.”

Mu Yunhua breathed a long sigh of relief and said calmly, “I believe you. Through the help that you’ve provided me for so many years, besides proving that you are a good person, I really can’t find any other reasons why you would do it… Ah, I’m already very tired and I don’t want to work my brain too much.”

Unconditional trust.

She did not have the energy to doubt and question Chen Jin. To do that would kill countless brain cells. It was enough for her to set her mind on the fact that Jin was a major support and then brainlessly ask for and accept the help that he provided.

It had been decades. Her body was still young, but her soul had aged a long time ago. She had less anxiety now than in the past. Even if she was entrusted with the life and death of the human race, she did not want to carry this burden anymore… She had already completed her mission long ago.

To go back home was her last wish.

As long as this wish could be realized, she could accept death.

Feeling the attitude and willpower of this woman.

“Ok, you can make a trip here, alone. I will arrange a spaceship for you and approve the flight route.”

Chen Jin nodded in agreement…Even if the spaceship that he had previously leased to the All-Stars Federation, could fly to at a hundred times the speed of light and arrive at Haierfa from Walf within two months, but without his consent, the smart brain of the spaceship would lock in its route, and navigation to anywhere else would be banned.

Only after approval could the spaceship carry humans from the planet of Walf to Haierfa.

Now, Chen Jin had made a special exception for Mu Yunhua.

“Thank you, Jin.”

Mu Yunhua smiled. A happy smile blossomed on her beautiful face.

She could return to her mother planet.

…

One and a half months later.

At a spaceport on the planet of Walf.

A small, streamlined luxury spaceship docked quietly in the port.

This spaceship was dispatched by Chen Jin and it was equipped with the most advanced warp engine. The engine’s maximum speed was as high 120 times the speed of light.

Mu Yunhua had prepared her luggage and was about to enter the spaceship.

A group of aristocrats and officials who were sending her off urged continuously, “Your Majesty, You must come back, the Federation can’t do without you even for a single day.”

“Your Majesty, please reconsider. It’s not appropriate to go alone. Perhaps, there is a conspiracy by an alien civilization.”

“Since Haierfa has been destroyed, there is no need to go back. Your Majesty, the subjects here are more important. If you want to go back to the mother planet for a look around, it is enough to send a representative there.”

“Your Majesty…”

Many voices were discouraging her from making this trip.

Most of the new generation of subjects who had no memories and feelings for Haierfa did not want the Queen to go.

They thought about the mysterious higher civilization, which provided a great amount of assistance to the Federation over several years but to allow the Queen to go alone was inappropriate. They simply did not know if there was any hidden conspiracy. Some of those with greater imagination had already thought of many bad things that could be related to this trip. After all, Her Majesty was also a goddess in many peoples’ hearts. She could just protect the Walf galaxy forever, without doing anything risky.

“Don’t persuade me against this anymore. I have decided. There’s no need for more words.”

Mu Yunhua flung her arms away and strode into the cabin before closing the hatch.

The warp engine at the tail of the spaceship was activated.

In the distorted and formless space.

The spaceship ferrying her quickly disappeared in front of everyone.

The Queen of the Federation was gone.

…

In the boundless and vast emptiness of the universe’ space.

A small luxury spacecraft seemed to be surfing on a seabed as it left behind a track that was reminiscent of a long strip of bubbles in the formless time and space.

The starlight outside the window turned into elongated lines.

In the silent and tranquil cabin, the woman’s eyes were half-closed and her mind was empty.

Then she went deep into her mind and began to recall some of the past episodes in her memory.

Many fragments of memory, broken scenes, and some short videos that were linked played in her brain.

There was a dazzling and magnificent palace.

There was a pair of dignified and awe-inspiring middle-aged couples who guided her on all the little details in her life.

She recalled her interest in science and her ambition to become a great scientist.

She thought about the colleagues in the lab who worshiped and yearned for her.

She remembered the negative comments and insufficient understanding that society had regarding works undertaken in the scientific sphere.

There was also a private episode where she had felt extremely defeated.

There was also the helplessness that she felt about the scheming behavior and infighting among the royal family.

After hearing the news that her father and mother had died in the rebellion, she was a little stunned and was immediately surprised that she did not experience much sorrow.

And then her thoughts turned to the ninth princess who had often hung around her feet. The rumors that she had become a victim in the chaos of the war saddened her for an entire night.

And this state of recall lasted for two months.

She had more or less dug out every memory that she could recall.

There were many areas of confusion and errors; the memories were not accurate enough.

But…They represented the fetters deep in her memories that she could not give up on.

So much so that after each revival and sorting out of her memories, she would unconsciously cry her eyes out.

“I…. am back.”

…

Haierfa.

As Chen Jin was preparing to welcome her.

He was also having a headache over another matter and thinking about how to solve it.

Guo Yan.

He would have to tell Guo Yan the news that Mu Yunhua would be arriving so that she could prepare herself mentally.

However… Chen Jin was a little afraid to speak.

Because certain changes have taken place in Guo Yan’s temper and character in recent years.

In the past, she was born in a remote county to an impoverished family and her educational background was poor. Her status was plebeian and she had very low self-esteem. Hence, she was willing to become that ordinary flower in Chen Jin’s harem even if she did not receive any official status by his side.

She willingly dedicated her youth.

For decades, the number of times that he had kept her company in a year hardly ever exceeded ten times.

However, she gladly endured the hardship and her face was filled with happiness.

Chen Jin felt very guilty towards her; he felt that he owed her something.

Therefore, the moment when he saw how she ignored the dangers and willingly stayed on earth to be by his side, his heart was finally moved. He revealed all the secrets to her.

They came together to Haierfa and lived together, becoming the only one for each other.

Their relationship was so pure to the extent that they were the only two people in the entire galaxy and no one would disturb them.

They were so happy it was like a fairytale.

“I can live like this for a thousand years, no, forever.”

Guo Yan had said this more than once. She was very satisfied and contented in her present life.

This was also the compensation that Chen Jin gave her.

But…Maybe it was a little of going beyond the limit is as bad as falling short.

Over-compensation had led to a little problem in her mentality.

To be more straightforward–she had become possessive and greedy.

Moreover, the more interactions that two people had with each other, the stronger their possessiveness.

Therefore, Guo Yan’s character was no longer as gentle and considerate as before.

Instead, she had become a little sensitive and would often emit a dark aura.

Furthermore, her sixth sense had become extremely sensitive.

She was very concerned, especially towards the interaction between him and Mu Yunhua. She had asked a lot of questions.

Even though Chen Jin had said multiple times that “it’s pure friendship,” Guo Yan’s eyes still shone with a dubious light.

Fortunately, Mu Yunhua would not come here. No matter how good their relationship was, and it was only a “kindred souls sort of relationship” between online friends.

Even if Guo Yan was suspicious, it was not to the point where she would become jealous, demand information from him or interrogate him. She would only occasionally make insinuations in a passive-aggressive way, which had little effect on daily life.

But this time… Mu Yunhua was coming over.

Chen Jin’s biggest headache was this–how to talk to Guo Yan about this matter.

Would she be as gentle and generous as before?

“That’s not going to be the case,” an obnoxious part of Chen Jin said.

It stressed, “Stop deluding yourself, it’s 100% that she will not react as generously as she had in the past. You have no more chances to be a scum.”

“A scum? What are you talking about, how am I a scum?” He muttered to that obnoxious persona in his mind.

“Humph!~”

It snorted disdainfully with arms akimbo, “You know just what you are thinking. And you also know what is it that you’ve repressed and restrained. The thing that, although you long for very much, you dare not show it.”

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

Chen Jin’s eyes became evasive. He raised his head and looked up at the sky, “I’m so old now. What I should have had possessed, I did. What more would I yearn for? Do you know?”

That vile persona continued to be disdainful, “Don’t ask me, ask your own heart.”

Chen Jin ignored him.

…

After sitting on the dilemma for more than ten days.

With the mentality of “there’s no way I will ever be successful in hiding things from her,” Chen Jin gathered his courage and came to the room. He spoke to Guo Yan about this.

“That… that is, wife, an old friend will come to visit me in a while and will probably stay for a few days. That… would you agree to that?”

“Friend?”

Guo Yan’s eyes slammed open, and a beam of light seemed to have shot forth as her gaze became extremely sharp.

She scanned Chen Jin’s body with this sort of gaze and saw some slight evasion in his demeanor. Her heart jerked, but she still chose to sit tight and bide her time. She calmly asked, “Which friend, the one who lives on earth, or the universe here? ”

“The universe here,” Chen Jin said.

“Is it a male friend or a female friend?” the woman asked again.

“Uh, fe…female,” Chen Jin lowered his head slightly.

“Mu Yunhua?”

It was as if she had been expecting this. Guo Yan immediately guessed the answer. The beam from her eyes became even brighter, so bright that it stabbed painfully at one’s skin.

“Yes.”

Chen Jin nodded in affirmation. His head lowered even further. He felt apprehensive.

“No, it’s best not to let her come,” The woman directly and firmly refused, leaving almost no room for negotiations.

“This… Why?” Chen Jin was blank. He had not finished speaking and was rejected? Wasn’t this too much.

“I don’t think it’s very good. This is our private world. It’s okay if it is a male guest. As for Mu Yunhua, forget about her coming here. I don’t welcome her.”

As she spoke, Guo Yan took his arm. She batted her eyes and said, “Husband, you still love me very much, right? Isn’t it best that our private world is not disturbed by a third party?”

“…”

Chen Jin’s forehead sweated. He was at a loss for words.

Love.

A woman could block a man’s escape route with just that one word–love. It might seem unreasonable, but it contained within it the most persuasive power.

After all, love could never tolerate being mixed with even half a grain of sand. And Mu Yunhua was that sand. Regardless of how Chen Jin guaranteed and explained, Guo Yan would stick to her position.

“The planet, Haierfa, is not mine. I merely found it and picked it up. Mu Yunhua and her people, they are the natives of this planet.”

Chen Jin said with utmost seriousness, “Mu Yunhua has been away from Haierfa for a long time. She is a little homesick and wants to come back for a look. This is human nature. As a friend, I’ve also agreed to this small request.”

“Wife, please make an exception, let her come and have a look around. She’ll leave after a few days. She is the Queen of the All-Stars Federation. She has a lot of work and missions so she’ll leave. Don’t be so sensitive. ”

Chen Jin said as he put his arms around the woman. He used a gentle tone as best as he could, and his attitude during this negotiation was very sincere.

The woman just turned her head and looked at him with a smile. But there was a trace of loss that could not be concealed in the depths of her eyes.

She was silent for a short while.

Guo Yan, who knew she could not stop the man, nodded and said, “Okay, so she’ll stay for a few days. It’ll be unreasonable if I keep opposing this, and…” She said with a serious look, “Will you promise me that you won’t fall in love with her? Let me be the last woman in your life, Ok?”

There was a trace of pleading in the woman’s tone.

What was this? Why?

Chen Jin smiled grudgingly. They were an elderly couple. Why drag in the idea of love, not love, and whatnot in the conversation? She was thinking too much. But he still raised his hand in a pledge, “Hmm, I promise you.”

…

More than a month later.

On this day, a breeze stirred across the blue sky and white clouds.

At the planet’s airport in the east of Crater City.

A small passenger spacecraft slowly docked.

“Zing~” The hatch opened.

“Tap tap tap~” A woman in a silver uniform carried a suitcase as she moved her steps and slowly walked out.

Standing in the ferry passage.

As he looked at the figure, Chen Jin’s pupils suddenly contracted with no clear reason and his heart suddenly throbbed.

Chapter 466 - Unable To Return?

Thump~ Thump~

Unmistakably, Chen Jin felt his heartbeat speed up.

This was something that he had never experienced before.

Besides the beautiful and noble woman, he saw the silver spaceship behind her, the azure sky, and the huge building, which instantly blurred into nothing. They were completely ignored by Chen Jin’s brain.

There was only the woman.

Looking at her coming closer, her delicate and beautiful face gradually became clear.

For a moment, Chen Jin appeared to be entranced as his expression became stupid and blank.

Until they were less than one meter away from each other. The beauty stood in front of him, and the slight breeze sent a scent towards him that tickled his nose.

Only then did Chen Jin react. He looked at the woman and faintly greeted her, “Yun, you’re here.”

“Mm, I’m here.”

Mu Yunhua also sized him up roughly. Her face was full of doubts, “Jin, you’re human too?” He was not a two-dimensional figure with a big head, big eyes, and ill-fitting body proportions.

While this greatly astonished her, it was also expected at the same time.

What she believed to be a higher civilization and the group representing this intelligent race, was human.

Moreover, there was nothing unusual about his appearance, they were ordinary; the man before her only had a pair of eyes with unfathomable depth.

Many speculations rushed to the forefront of her mind. Could it be that Jin was a survivor who remained on Haierfa planet and that he had created such a civilization?

“I guess.”

Chen Jin did not want to answer too many questions. After all, they had just met. They were far from the point where they could lay all their cards on the table and have a heart to heart.

“Let’s go and get you settled for the time being. And if there’s anything you don’t understand, you can take your time to ask your questions.”

…

The two got on the shuttle bus and 20 or 30 minutes later, the bus arrived near the core area of the Base of Operations and they alighted. They entered a tall building.

“This city was built on a bomb crater after the outbreak of the use of nuclear weapons, so I called it Crater City…”

“Currently there are only two permanent residents in this city, this planet and even this galaxy – my wife and me…..”

Chen Jin introduced the general situation.

However, Guo Yan was not by his side. She did not go to the airport to meet their guest but took the initiative to prepare lunch–the perfect expression of a virtuous and generous wife. She seemed to have lost the wariness of previous days.

However, Chen Jin knew that this was a retreat to avoid any awkwardness and to restrain her inner feelings and to secretly observe and collect useful information.

They were all over the age of 100. They were very clear in their minds regarding what was the most suitable and appropriate course of action.

“Wife?”

Mu Yunhua glanced at Chen Jin and noticed a trace of awkwardness on his face.

However, she still did not show any expression on her face. Even though she knew in her heart that Jin was deeply passionate inside, he was outwardly reserved. In their past few decades of communication, they had conducted some special exchanges more than once.

Jin understood very well the content during these exchanges, including her body and some secrets that could not be said to outsiders. He was very familiar…An inexplicable connection that was beyond ordinary friendship existed between the two of them.

This would cause some awkwardness or embarrassment. At least, Chen Jin felt rather uncomfortable about it and was a little overcautious.

Even so, Mu Yunhua still wore an unflappable expression, giving one a noble and aloof feel.

It was as if she did not have any of those embarrassing memories.

…

He arranged a detached villa for Mu Yunhua.

She set down her luggage.

He arranged dozens of nanny and chef robots to do their duties after she had settled down.

Afternoon.

In the large living room on the first floor of the main villa.

Sumptuous dishes fill the entire table.

There were more than a hundred dishes, including lobster, shark’s fin, sea cucumber, steak, lamb, fruit salad, and common vegetables. All of them were made with purely natural and organic ingredients. The smell emanating from the food would make one drool and greatly increase one’s appetite.

It was just that the long table was too big. After the three of them were seated, there was not an atmosphere of warmth and grandeur.

On the contrary, it felt cold and empty.

Seeing that Guo Yan was present, Chen Jin made a round of introductions. Chen Jin did not act too enthusiastically after the greetings were made. He only said to “eat more” to Mu Yunhua who was sitting across him, and then he did not speak anymore.

On the other hand, Guo Yan was acting like a very competent hostess. She continuously told Mu Yunhua to eat more and showed kind concern for her well-being by asking many questions.

Mu Yunhua responded politely and said a lot of situationally appropriate things.

It seemed that the relationship between two women tended to progress towards friendship.

But Chen Jin knew that everything that was happening was only on a superficial level.

Although the two women got a rhythm going on in their conversation and were full of warmth to each other, the cold and indifferent element remained in the overall atmosphere.

Chen Jin did not like this atmosphere very much.

After lunch.

In the late afternoon, Chen Jin took Mu Yunhua out of the villa and got them on a sightseeing aircraft. The cabin seating was arranged in a single row and each of them had their seats.

He maneuvered the aircraft and it ascended into the sky.

Chen Jin took Mu Yunhua on a tour of Haierfa with its all-new appearance.

“Over 88% of all areas are covered by forests and plants. The transformation of the entire planet has been completed.”

“The marine ecosystem has been restored and the variety of biodiversity now is as rich as it was before the outbreak of war.”

“Whew, air pollution has disappeared, and the concentration of oxygen is a little on the high side. Besides the rainy season, blue sky and white clouds are the normal weather in most areas.”

“There are many beautiful birds in the sky. There are many deer herds and wolf packs in the forest. Cattle and sheep can be found all over the grasslands. It is lively everywhere in this beautiful nature.”

“A beautiful world; a beautiful planet.”

Looking at the white, snowy peaks not too far away, and the clouds in the sky that were whiter than cotton.

The beautiful scenery that seemed to belong in a painting made the woman shut her eyes slightly in fascination.

After a thorough transformation, the hometown in front of her was much more beautiful and environmentally friendly than the Haierfa she remembered.

The scenery in every corner could be shot to produce a wallpaper-quality image.

The most original, earliest ecology.

But… Although it was perfectly beautiful, the only thing about it that made one regrettable and feel that something was missing, was the kind of human energy and bustle that used to be present.

Humanity had disappeared.

The city was gone.

Roads, railways, dams….. Many man-made facilities had disappeared, or only their rough outlines could be seen.

Only the beautiful and original planet remained.

It looked beautiful and full of vitality. It allowed one to easily let go of body and mind; penetrating straight to one’s soul.

But in fact, it seemed to have lost its soul.

Only peace and loneliness were left; peace and loneliness that were impossible to get rid of.

It was no longer the planet in her memories.

After she finished appreciating the natural beauty, an inexplicable sadness and sense of loss flashed across Mu Yunhua’s face.

“It’s all gone, there’s nothing left.”

She whispered to herself, “All that existed had dissipated in the long river of time, there is no way to reminisce or commemorate. They’re all gone, not a single thing remains.”

Disappointed.

She was very obviously disappointed.

Mu Yunhua, who originally held some expectations, could not see anything that evoked her memories. Even most of the desolate ruins of her memory were turned into green hills and clear water, buried in the endless green.

It was as if the traces of civilization had been erased, with no way to rouse her nostalgia.

Mu Yunhua found it somewhat difficult to accept.

However, she did not blame Chen Jin about why he had transformed the environment so thoroughly.

He turned around and noticed the expression on the woman’s face. Of course, Chen Jin knew the emotions in her heart.

He thought about it and said, “Yun, when I first arrived, this planet was like dead cancer cells. Radiation and pollution were everywhere. There were drought and dust that blocked out the sky, it was very ugly… I can only invest a huge amount of energy and resources to carry out a thorough transformation.”

“However, the robots did not employ destructive methods of cleaning during the process of clearing up the ruins, instead, they’ve collected some high-value items.”

“There are library books, CDs and other audio products, some oil paintings, ancient paintings, calligraphy, and other works of art. There were also gold and silver jewelry, previous film and television works, games, documentaries, and industrial technology materials…”

“As long as the collection value was high, I let the robots collect and store them in a museum.”

“If you want to find some memories related to the past, I can take you to the museum to see if there is something you like.”

The museum was called “The Commemorative Museum And Tomb of Civilization.”

The area of the museum was extremely large, and the materials stored exceeded hundreds of thousands of PBs. The contents could be said to be extremely complete.

One could find any information that he wanted.

Of course, Chen Jin was not the one who wanted to collect so much information, it was Nuwa, who had received the transformation project for the planet. In the beginning, it was a conscious act. One could consider the museum to be the fruit of unintentional labor.

As Mu Yunhua listened, she became blank.

A large number of books.

Valuable art.

Past film and television works, games, and documentaries.

An extremely complete database.

There should be some clues about what had happened during the Great Destructive War and information about what happened to the senior administrators of the Great Hua Empire.

“Jin, take me to the museum. I do want to check some things out.”

Mu Yunhua said with some urgency.

Chen Jin understood her attitude.

He knew that she had a few riddles in her mind that she wanted to solve, or perhaps she was eager to understand some past events.

This was like the final review of a suspense drama. It made one want to do a summary review from the overall perspective.

Some historical lessons had to be drawn.

And to summarize some experiences and so on.

Then again, what there any meaning to this?

In Chen Jin’s eyes, there was not much meaning to this. The tragedy had already happened. There was not any use in reviewing, analyzing, and summarizing events again. Under the cloak of history, the mistakes that were made would still be committed.

Development had become a necessity.

Just as the increasing entropy of the universe.

But…

“Ok, I will take you there!”

Chen Jin changed his direction and returned to Crater City.

The next day, he brought Mu Yunhua with him and entered the huge museum.

…

An underground space that covered more than 10,000 square kilometers.

The two of them wore protective suits with oxygen supply and entered an environment filled with nitrogen at room temperature.

Looking up, circular bookcases or lockers were filled with a wide variety of items.

An advanced and complex data retrieval system could intelligently collect data according to the questions asked by the user, then it would use its robotic arm to capture it. Its retrieval efficiency was very high.

After Mu Yunhua came in, her emotions were all astir, and it was immediately revealed on her face. She raised a lot of questions about the intelligent retrieval system.

For example, she asked how the destructive war erupted and the attitudes and behaviors of the ruling classes of each country.

She asked about the modes of operation of each survival base during the nuclear winter.

As well as some scientific and technological doubts.

She also asked about some small details in the long river of history and so on.

Her inquiry was extremely detailed.

Moreover, she received rather definite and specific answers to more than 70% of the questions which made her nod in repetition.

…

Hence.

In that huge underground museum.

Half a year.

Mu Yunhua stayed in it for half a year.

She asked a large number of questions every day and downloaded some research materials.

Like a historical research scholar, she was so engrossed in her work that she neglected her sleep and forgot to eat.

Because information was readily available and complete, they were also generally of a higher level of credibility. Therefore, it was rather rewarding for her. She had never considered leaving this place.

She even told Chen Jin that the knowledge she had gained in the past six months had improved her information by 5%.

She would know the entire truth after about ten years or so.

Seeing her like this.

Chen Jin felt that it was kind of a pain in the ass.

“What is the use of this research?”

He said that it was very difficult to understand. “Even if you know the truth, so what? What’s the difference between knowing and not knowing the truth? Can time be reversed, can you stop the tragedy?”

He shook his head. It was just a waste of energy and time.

He had some opinions.

However, what he largely felt was embarrassment.

Because he had said to Guo Yan that Mu Yunhua would only be staying for three to five days, she would be leaving soon.

In the end, she had sunk into an obsessive state for half a year.

What should he do?

He did not even know how to mention this to Guo Yan. After all, Mu Yunhua was an esteemed guest. If he mentioned this, wouldn’t it mean that he wanted to chase Mu Yunhua out?

Guo Yan understood this reason too. Although she wanted Mu Yunhua to leave, the only thing she could do when she saw her condition was to take care of her meals and smile, as if to say, “It’s not a problem to stay for longer.” It was difficult to say something impolite.

Other than that, after half a year of understanding and contact, doubts also developed in Guo Yan’s heart. She was not sure if Mu Yunhua was a “threat.”

One, Mu Yunhua was too cold, only focusing on her affairs. She was very polite to her, and would occasionally approach her for a heart-to-heart. But she seemed a little aloof towards Chen Jin. She frequently showed disinterest towards Chen Jin which embarrassed him.

The state that she was in could be described as the researcher state. Besides the things that she was working on, she would not care about anybody or anything else.

Two, what happened to Mu Yunhua elicited sympathy. The more contact she had with her, the more her emotions were moved and then she started to feel admiration towards her.

Over time, she lowered her guard and her wariness disappeared.

Guo Yan even came to this conclusion, “A woman like Mu Yunhua is simply out of Chen Jin’s league. There was no possibility that things between them could develop to the point that they were together.” Her worry was purely redundant.

If Chen Jin understood the thoughts in Guo Yan’s mind, he would probably cry. Was he so terrible?

But no matter what.

Chen Jin and Guo Yan gradually became familiar with Mu Yunhua’s existence on Haierfa. They even thought that it was pretty good. After all, people were social animals, they needed to feel the energy from other human beings.

However, on this day, Mu Yunhua realized that she had stayed for too long and that she had forgotten to go back as early as possible.

“It seems that I have to go. The All-Stars Federation still needs me. But I will not stop my research here. Please arrange a few remote robots for me so that I can control them remotely for my studies,” Mu Yunhua stood up and said.

She seemed to want to depart immediately.

“Wait~”

Chen Jin raised his wrist and looked at a message that he had just received. His expression changed, “Yun, you might not be able to return. A situation seems to have arisen in the All-Stars Federation.”

“???”

Suddenly, a bewildered expression came over Mu Yunhua’s face.

Chapter 467 - Rise Of The Human Race?

“What happened? I’d only left for a little more than half a year,” Mu Yunhua said.

Looking at Jin’s flustered expression, it was like how he used to tease her in the past and played a joke on her.

“It’s a coup.”

Chen Jin said in a serious tone, “There was a coup d’état that caused some turmoil in the upper echelons of the All-Stars Federation. In just a few days, they had passed a “Bill of Rights to Restrict the Queen’s Authority.” Most of your rights have been taken away.”

“If you go back now, you will either become a puppet whose symbolic significance is greater than your actual significance or you’ll trigger a large-scale bloody conflict and use hard-line means to seize back your rights. Your situation is currently dangerous.”

Chen Jin said as he played a video.

The images in the video showed the Federation’s parliament. A portion of the federal parliament members accused the Queen of having too much power, they demanded restrictions to be put in place, and that power must be returned to the people… They shouted all kinds of slogans in stern voices born from a sense of righteousness.

And in the final voting round, the bill of rights to restrict the authority of the Queen was passed with support from 71% of members.

More than two-thirds were in support and the bill was successfully passed.

“This…” Mu Yunhua looked stupefied and she felt surprised. She had never imagined such a scene.

She was the leader of human civilization.

The highest leader of the All-Stars Federation.

She had repeatedly led mankind out of crisis and made indelible contributions for the good of society.

Her tall and large bronze statues or sculptures could be found across every planet and were revered by billions of subjects.

History books had many passages praising her.

She had deep roots among the masses and her public support rate was unmatched.

She never imagined that she would be betrayed by the upper echelons.

Looking at the faces of each of the members who so vehemently opposed her in the video, she was incomparably stunned.

A voice in her heart said, How could this be like this. It’s only been half a year, but those who privately opposed her had grown so strong to this extent?

“What the hell is going on? How are there so many people against me all of a sudden?”

Although the quality of her psyche and attitude was excellent, Mu Yunhua could not help but ask this question.

“Interests.” Chen Jin stretched out a finger and waved it slightly, “The bottom line has always been interests.”

He turned to look at the woman. She still had an elegant temperament that seemed unwavering. Then he said, “From the moment the Blue Space left the moon’s orbit, besides the 10 odd years in the middle, you’ve held all the rights in your hands for the other hundred plus years.”

“You had become an old face that can’t be moved or prodded.”

“The administrative system you’ve formulated, the system you’ve designed, they have been running smoothly for hundreds of years without errors, but they have also led to the solidification of the hierarchy and made the moving around of interests very difficult.”

“Now that the war had been won, the sweet and delicious fruits of success can be found throughout the land. It will not take long before they invade the Lanyi civilization in the wake of the counterattacks and occupy a larger territory.”

“What they see in this process of expansion and conquest are endless benefits.”

“But with your character, such huge benefits would be split 50/50 between the upper echelons and the middle-lower classes. But after overthrowing you, the upper echelons can take 80% of the interests, and the middle and lower classes will only get the peanuts that they leave behind.”

“Comparing the two systems, the latter system can better stimulate their enthusiasm for expansion, so they chose to take a little risk.”

Which led to this current unique situation.

With this, her spirit wanned, as if she was not present. Especially when she saw the “old members” who gave the best performances and the many familiar faces.

Sadness bloomed in her heart.

The corners of her mouth tipped upwards in a helpless smile. Betrayal. There was nothing they could not do for the sake of greater, more profitable interests.

She had given everything she had for hundreds of years and spent countless days and nights working carefully and diligently. Right after becoming a stumbling block in their way to greater interests, she encountered such a situation in just a short six months.

Even if her face was calm with no great changes or shock in her expression, her heart must still be hit hard.

“No~”

Mu Yunhua looked at Chen Jin with a cold and severe glare, “It’s not logical for them to do this. It’s very risky! You’re the one supporting me from behind. You provided the S-class and A-class warships that had brought victory to the Federation. Once betrayed, you can give the order to recover them and the Federation will lose their biggest bargaining chip.”

“My value and role are irreplaceable. So much so that if they leave me, the All-Stars Federation will be pulverized by the Lanyi civilization… They are bringing harm to themselves and others. Those with a little bit of common sense and negotiation skills can see the benefits and losses in this situation. How can they lose their heads through material greed and do such stupid things?”

Her suspicious gaze scanned Chen Jin from top to bottom. She was a little skeptical. Did this guy plan this? So that he could keep her in Haierfa for a long time.

“Can you please stop looking at me like this?”

Chen Jin saw the meaning in her eyes and spread out his hands. “You’re already here, why would I engage in those manipulations? I can make you stay here directly, why make those unnecessary moves?”

“This time, it’s the politicians on Walf who are out of their minds from the rush they got thinking about the interests. They only saw the immediate interests and neglected the later risks. As for why they utilized the official federal army to come here and launch an attack… The probable purpose is to kill you.”

A dead man could not talk.

“And no matter how close our relationship is, a third party can never be very clear or specific about the details of the relationship. So, they can make mistakes in judgment or act contemptuously. They could even think of ideas like ‘not a big threat’ or ‘they can replace you and launch a new role to be in negotiations with me.’”

“They are betting that as an alien force, I will not intervene in their internal affairs or fall out with them by canceling the previous cooperation. They think that the All-Stars Federation is like a sword in my hands and that I can’t bear to throw it away or destroy the treasured sword. Hence, they feel that so long as they do not go overboard, our cooperation can continue.”

Therefore, they launched that absurd coup.

He had to say that the way they thought was too optimistic and naive.

“Yun, as long as you give the word, as long as you give me a nod, I will help you to suppress this coup and get back your the power that belongs to you. I will immediately dispatch the Ultimate Battle warship to resolve this crisis.”

Chen Jin said in a serious tone, “Yun, just nod your head and it’ll be done. I’ll send you back immediately.”

The Ultimate Battle warship that he said was the SS-class warship he had mentioned before. It could face off against ten enemy ships on the battlefield. Its existence was invincible. Once it was mobilized, the crisis would be reduced to a small problem in Mu Yunhua’s eyes.

She could take back her advantage at any time.

As for the price, of course, a large number of people would be killed or injured… But all the dead would be humans, and the seeds of internecine strife within themselves would be buried.

Such an ending must never be realized.

Mu Yunhua was silent for a little while. Suddenly, she shook his head and said, “No, forget it, I’m not going back. I’ll stay here for a while more.”

“Uh, why?” Chen Jin was stumped. This was not her style.

“I’m tired.”

Mu Yunhua signed. She raised her head and looked into the distance, “I have no interest in power from the very beginning. There are many people whose management abilities far exceed mine. The only reason I sat in that position was so that humans could become more cohesive. ”

“Now, that crisis has passed, and the businesses of various industries are booming. It is no longer necessary for someone to stand up and unite them as one.”

“Instead, I have become the source of disasters. I have become a hero who should sacrifice everything after victory. When I return to the planet of Walf, I will set off an environment of crazy slaughter and create more casualties for no good reason.”

“In this case, I will not go back. I’ll disappear from their sights and attention. Maybe their future will be brighter without my leadership.”

At this point, Mu Yunhua, who had always kept a noble, cold, and bland expression, revealed a pure smile.

She turned and looked back at the huge museum that was akin to a burial site and thought, “This place may be my home for the latter half of my life.”

“You’re not going back?”

When he heard these words, a warm feeling flooded his heart. Somehow, the incomparably ancient Chen Jin revealed a sense of joy that was difficult to contain.

He said in welcome, “Yun, this place just happens to be quite cold and lonely. You can stay here for a while. Stay for as long as you want. Even if it’s forever, I very much welcome it.”

He had a companion.

He would have one more companion by his side!

The level of liveliness in Haierfa had increased by 50% in an instant.

It could be said that this was worth celebrating; this was very exciting.

But…

Guo Yan walked over to Chen Jin’s side and reached out to pinch the flesh on his waist. Grabbing the flesh, she made a 90-degree twist with her wrist, causing a wave of pain. When this happened.

Chen Jin looked at her.

From the woman’s eyes, he saw the feelings of disappointment, sadness, anger, helplessness and more.

“I didn’t deliberately make her stay here.”

Chen Jin grabbed her hand and looked into her eyes, “You’ve seen the situation too. As soon as Yun returns to Walf, her life would be in danger and war will inevitably erupt. Many humans will die. But there is no good way to resolve this, so the only thing she can do is to stay here for a while more.”

“What has that got to do with us?”

Guo Yan said in a cold voice, “You can’t handle your affairs well, and you’re still willing to handle other people’s affairs?”

She held onto Chen Jin’s hand, “Can we live in our private world again? Where it’s just the two of us? I will come up with new ideas and methods to make you feel satisfied and happy. Although it can be very cold and empty here, I am willing to go on like this.”

“You haven’t gotten a taste of waiting. It was long, waiting for the person you love to return to your side. That process was too long. Each passing day felt as long as a year. I don’t know how long I’ve endured before getting this reward.”

“But now, there is a woman who wants me to share a portion of the love that belongs to me. This is very difficult to bear for me. I don’t agree to this. Please think about my feelings carefully.”

Almost as if she was venting, Guo Yan said the words that had been buried in her heart for a long time, depicting the course of her train of thoughts.

It was very emotional and deeply moving.

The person involved, Chen Jin, felt extremely ashamed. Indeed, amongst the three women, Guo Yan had invested the most time and energy into the relationship with Chen Jin. The times where she got the company of Chen Jin was, on average, less than ten times a year. She had lived as a “grass widow” most of the time. Besides taking care of the children, the only thing she did was to wait like a sentimental idiot.

There were many temptations in the outside world, but she had never fallen for them, not even once.

She dedicated her body, mind, and time to the man who only treated her like a charity case.

Even if Chen Jin did not believe in the so-called idea of love, he had to admit that Guo Yan absolutely, truly loved him.

A worshipful and yearning sort of love that had slowly transformed into a dependent love that sought to monopolize.

There would only be a few women who could be as pure-hearted in love as she was.

It was like her level of loyalty was fixed at 100. She was the type who would not go on living alone if something happened to Chen Jin.

Now that he was faced with the entreaties of such a woman, could Chen Jin harden his heart to reject her request; to ignore her voice?

“Ok.” Chen Jin sighed. He felt that his biggest shortcoming was his soft-heartedness. It was difficult to harden his heart. Especially towards women, he never had any definite opinions or a will of his own.

But this time, he still chose to reduce the “problems” he had on hand. After all, one less problem was always better.

He called Mu Yunhua over. In front of Guo Yan, Chen Jin said, “Yun, I have more than 1,500 star systems under my control. How about this, you can pick any one of those and live there. It will be your private star.”

“In addition, besides Haierfa, you can also choose between the moon, Mars, and space city in this solar system. It’s only Haierfa where only two people can live for now.”

“So, Yun, make your own choice! Whether you want to stay close to us or further away, its completely up to you. I will not interfere with or influence your decision. Once you’ve confirmed your choice, I’ll immediately send you to the new place.”

“I am very sorry that I cannot fully fulfill the honors and duties of a host.” Chen Jin said with a calm tone. Sunlight scattered across his face and he looked very upright.

His meaning was very clearly conveyed. The meaning was a little like a notice to leave. He believed that Mu Yunhua also understood his intentions. She nodded and thought about which place would be better for her to live in.

On the contrary, it was the emotionally sensitive Guo Yan, who became a bit sensitive at this moment. She gradually became flustered.

Misunderstanding.

This might be a misunderstanding.

It was purely overthinking on her part. She thought that Chen Jin and Mu Yunhua had non-platonic feelings for each other in secret or perhaps they were committing adultery in private.

She never thought that Chen Jin would do as she asked, leaving no room for negotiations.

Mu Yunhua was also cooperating. She finally chose to move to the moon and live in a large scientific research institution to carry out some work that she was interested in.

If there were any problems, they could contact each other via dispatch. Even if they were separated by billions of light-years, real-time audio and video conversations could be achieved with quantum entanglement technology.

Since they could contact each other every day, why would they need to stick to each other every day?

From this point of view, Guo Yan did not seem to be very generous. For the time being, it seemed that she had acted in a rather stubborn, spoiled, and petty manner.

However, although Chen Jin’s behavior had deeply moved her, at the same time, she also worried that she had left a bad impression in his mind… A man’s impatience with a woman often started from a small aspect and then it fermented. Before you knew it, the problematic issue would have blown up.

Like cracks appearing beneath the calm surface of the ice.

Guo Yan was also worried that some sort of crack would appear in their feelings for each other. After Mu Yunhua moved to the moon, she reflected on herself and made some changes. She no longer overreacted to the extent that she did before.

…

After Mu Yunhua settled, with the loss of this “link,” the scope of cooperation between Chen Jin and the All-Stars Federation had significantly narrowed. The technology transfer was no longer as generous as it was in the past, and the rewards given were much less than before.

But overall, the relationship between Chen Jin and the All-Stars Federation was primarily a peaceful one. Concerning his dealings with the Federation, he had the leisure to enjoy that ordinary and beautiful life.

But…

Recently on earth, the situation had slowly changed. The opportunity that would benefit the development of the human race was coming.

That was, direct supplementation of the concentration of all kinds of psionic particles had stopped. After the dispersion of the particles, its concentration had been reduced by more than one fold.

The era of the “Revival of Magical Powers” gradually slipped into the “era of low adherence and belief in Buddhist teachings.”

The performance of many pure high-tech weapons was improving every year, and the pace of the “tendency towards technology” was accelerating.

Cultivation methods had become extremely efficient with the help of supercomputers.

Slowly, it seemed that the slogan, “Rise of the Human Race,” was bellowed out.

Chapter 468 - The Terrifying Sages

On Earth.

Ever since the beginning of the “Revival of Magical Powers” and the return of the Protoss.

The fortune of mankind begun its continuous decline.

As the concentration of the spiritual energy increased and the Protoss continued to get stronger, human beings could be said to have become more and more miserable.

Of course, when the concentration of spiritual energy became insufficient and the tendency towards the technological side of things became dominant, humans gained three consecutive victories in the three “War of the Races.”

But the Protoss was on a winning streak for the next ten games.

Human beings were forced to make compromises ten times.

For example, in the most basic aspect of territory, humans had lost their mother planet. Billions of humans had emigrated to other places.

Then, they lost the moon. All humans on the moon were all driven away and the Protoss, again, occupied their territory.

Then they offered 20 space cities to the Protoss and other benefits too.

Ten times that they had lost; ten times that they had made compromises.

Each time that they had to make a difficult compromise, they had to dig out a portion of their “cake” from their gradually dwindling interests and profits.

It was akin to cutting off part of their flesh.

Until the humans only had Mars left as their very last home base in the end.

There were few immigration bases on Mercury.

Most of the human population lived in space cities.

The resources that they controlled were less than one-third of the Protoss’.

Even so, the strength of humans had still been growing for the past number of decades.

For example, the growth of the human population was originally stagnant and was even slowly getting smaller and smaller. But, it had grown to 40 billion in the past few decades… which was about twice the Protoss population.

The total economic output had increased by more than five times.

More importantly, human cohesion, scientific and technological strength and cultivation power had all increased dramatically.

What was more, under the modernized system, the organization, mobilization, and operative power of human society far exceeded those of the Protoss.

In the outbreak of border frictions between the human and the Protoss, even though the Protoss army could always emerge with an amazing fire exchange ratio, in general, they could not withstand the attacks of the human army. If the Protoss insisted on forcibly seizing the territories, it would only result in casualties.

A strong cohesion and organizational strength ensured that human beings would never be completely overwhelmed when faced against the Protoss.

And decades passed.

Human beings were also finding their way when it came cultivation; they were accumulating knowledge and skills and growing. Hence, they had made very significant progress.

This kind of progress was mainly manifested in the human masters of the Jiedan order. There were only five years between the emergence of the first Jiedan master and the ten-thousandth.

Now, the Jiedan phase practitioners in human society had exceeded one million.

There were also more than a hundred super-geniuses among human beings–the practitioners who first broke through the Yuanying phase to enter a new realm of cultivation.

As for the most genius among all geniuses, there were rumors that he or she had already entered the Jushen phase… Even in the history of the Protoss, this was also a rare genius that would only appear once in ten thousand years.

The number of master practitioners had exploded.

This indicated that the implementation of the federal plan of “Cultivation For Everyone” had been extremely successful.

However…It was the so-called “technology” that brought about the greatest help to mankind and quickly compensated for the gap between the strength of humans and the Protoss.

For example, the cultivation mecha, which enabled practitioners who were only of the Ningye and Jiedan order to raise their attack power by one or two steps, all by themselves. With this rise in their attack power, it became possible for practitioners at those phases or orders to kill other practitioners from the Jushen order.

The highest grade of the cultivation mecha could allow its driver, if he or she was at the later stage of the Jiedan order, to have a chance to kill one of those ancient freaks of the Shenguang order.

There were also a variety of magical weapons that brought about a very large increase in combat power.

As time marched onwards, this sort of accumulation, which was quantitative at first quickly led to qualitative changes.

The reason why the general public opinion was shouting, “the rise of the human race” was not to feel good about themselves. Instead, this was because analysts had seen a clear trend via several incidents.

One, the 14 “War of the Races.” After 40 years of war, the human army finally defeated the Protoss once again and achieved a triumphant victory.

In the course of the battle for victory, the process made one’s heart alarmed and tremble in fright, it was extremely heart-wrenching. A lot of things had been due to luck.

All of mankind was impassioned. It was the first comeback of ten consecutive defeats.

However, some analysts believed that it was also somewhat inevitable that human beings would win.

“In the first ten consecutive losses, we can see these trajectories. In our first losing battle, the human army was destroyed, but the other side was completely unharmed; in the second, the human army was destroyed, and one member from the other side was slightly injured….. Although the human armies were all annihilated In the next eight sessions, on the Protoss side, the number of minor injuries had increased from one person to two, three, five, ten…and then the first person to be seriously wounded appeared, followed by the first casualty.”

“These two key nodes have made the humans excited and impassioned, and they have played a hugely inspirational role to lift our spirits; these two key nodes had also caused the Protoss to fly into a rage, it made them extremely angry… The morale and courage inherent in the struggle of human beings have never dissipated.”

“And thus we gradually saw hope.”

“And in the 14th “War of the Races,” we humans have deployed as many of our best personnel as we could. We’d dispatched 1,480 masters at the peak of Jiedan order and 20 Yuanying geniuses. All of them drove the latest ‘Tianshen Mecha,’ with a 95% death rate in this battle, we’d killed 18 of the ancient Protoss freaks of the Shenguang order.”

“We’ve scored a brilliant victory this time with a ‘counterattack by the weak against the strong.’”

Of course, this is also something that we have to be glad about because the Protoss underestimated their enemy, they did not dispatch the naga bio-mecha produced by the Chen family’s fortress into the war….. But the naga bio-mecha is a biological mecha, which belongs to the category of unmanned equipment and it cannot replace personnel to be deployed in the war.

However, the Protoss would request to amend the rules of the game. In the next War of the Races, the Protoss would recruit 100 naga bio-mecha to take to the field, using mecha to fight against mecha.

Second, the technology of human beings had finally developed to the extent that the Protoss would be afraid of their consequences.

In particular, the celestial technology, which was a combination of the celestial powers and science and technology. After decades of research, development, and progress, an extremely horrible level of strength had erupted from technology.

Among them was a weapon called the light bomb, it had an explosive yield of more than 20,000 tons.

Its power was equivalent to the atomic bomb at the end of World War II.

In the face of the light bomb, practitioners who were of a lower order than the Sages could be killed if they were too near to the core of the explosion.

More crucially, the manufacturing cost and technology contained in such a weapon were not very high. As long as some funds were invested, the raw materials were sufficient, they could produce more than 1,000 of those bombs annually.

Of course, the light bomb was a highly kept secret in the human world, the Protoss were even less aware of its existence. Chen Jin also learned about this through some special intelligence channels.

He understood that humans now had a trump card in their hands that could provide a sufficient level of self-protection.

Besides, with more than 100 times the organizational and mobilizational abilities of the Protoss, it was estimated that after another decade or more, the Protoss would not be able to suppress the humans with their power any longer.

From this one could know that, in the face of adversity, human beings could always break out 100 times, 200 times the potential harnessed in their bodies. They must not be taken lightly.

The pros and cons, the reversals of the humans and the Protoss; their contrasting strengths that rose and fell in succession; the nearing of their gap and overtaking of the Protoss. A reversal might soon be seen in the upcoming years.

If the Protoss kept their promise in good faith.

Possibly after the end of the last few “War of the Races.”

Venus, the moon, and some asteroid resources would all return to human hands.

Humans might even take back some land on their mother planet where they could settle, which many humans could not stop thinking about and longed to return to.

The pre-requisite was that the Protoss would keep their promise.

But…the strong were used to make rules; they were not good at obeying rules.

The strong could win ten wars, a hundred wars, but if they were defeated in even one war, they found the fact difficult to accept. When that happened, they would fly into a rage.

Under extreme anger, forget about the rules agreed by the two sides, even the tacit understanding that had been nurtured for a long time would all be tossed aside at this moment. They would just want to take vent their rage!

At that point, they would only want to kill human beings, their behavior would be just like that of a sore loser.

Thus, in the border areas where friction often occurred, the Protoss suddenly increased their troops on a large scale. The troops were increased by five times, ten times. Countless masters were dispatched, and they crashed through the ranks of the human army, launching an incomparably crazy attack.

In a short period, humans lost countless strongholds in outer space.

More than one million soldiers were killed in battle.

The soldiers who had surrendered to become prisoners and the human civilians were all killed by the Protoss army.

They looked to be killing off every single human, none were left alive.

They were simply trampling on the most fundamental aspects of civilization and morality. They were demented.

The massacre by the Protoss army caused tens of billions of humans to tremble fiercely. They vowed to avenge the victims.

It was just that…the individual combat strength of the Protoss was very strong.

It was hard for the human army in the border areas of the earth to hold them off. The human army could only retreat.

If the line of defense collapsed, the Protoss army would enter the human residential zones. The consequences of coming face-to-face with those aggressive and overbearing were self-evident.

Not only would there be loss of property and the deprivation of life, but certain Protoss warriors also had the hobby of raping human females. They would even go so far as to rape then kill them.

That scenario…was just hell!

To resist the Protoss army, to defend their home.

The upper echelons of the Earth Federation had no choice but to lift the ban on the light bomb, allowing this strategic weapon to be revealed and utilized in advance.

“Boom~”

“Rumble~”

“Ah, my eyes, my eyes!”

“Ah~!”

The damage caused by the first light bomb was very satisfactory.

All the Protoss practitioners within a radius of one kilometer were killed. As long as they were too close to the core of the explosion, even those of the Shenguang order were also killed.

3,000 Protoss fell under the impact of the first light bomb.

Then the second one was launched…

The hundredth…

The number of Protoss warriors that became casualties ranged from 1,000 to 5,000.

In just a few short days, a total of 500,000 Protoss warriors were dead, including the 28 masters of the Shenguang order.

Their strength was greatly injured.

The Protoss army suffered heavy losses within a short period. Many of the warriors sent by the Protoss clans disappeared in entire units, they were swallowed up in the brilliant rays of light.

Although some of the Protoss acted as if the enemy was beneath their contempt, thinking that the human army was still not powerful enough for them to fear.

Most of the Protoss were nearly blinded by the rays and they found it unbelievable.

It was then followed by nervousness and panic.

They were afraid that a light bomb would suddenly fall onto their community.

The danger of mankind had once again magnified to a degree that was more terrifying than those wild magical beasts.

Views purporting to “A discussion on the threat of humanity” and “We must kill all the humans” flooded countless reports.

The entire Protoss society had fallen into collective anxiety. They were at a loss of what to do.

They had realized the tenacity and intractability of human beings.

They also referred to the performance of the human army’s counter-attack in the 14th War of the Races.

Feeling the gradually decreasing concentration of spiritual energy in the air, some of the Protoss came to a helpless conclusion–if they were to take the long-term view, time seemed to stand on humans’ side.

If they were to continue the marathon competition, the Protoss would probably lose!

“What should we do?”

“How can we kill those damn monkeys completely.”

“We, as powerful and noble Protoss, will lose to them?”

“As the saying goes, ‘There can only be one winner at the top.’ Let’s unite and do our best. We’ll put on a spurt of energy and kill all the humans.”

“We can’t go on like this anymore. Those despicable humans are about to go overboard.”

Countless cries were calling for violence and the deaths of human beings.

They came to the conclusion that “human beings were the greatest threat, and they should be quickly destroyed.”

But… the power of the light bombs was such that it left a lingering fear in their hearts. They had no courage to withstand the power contained in those bombs.

Other clans were welcomed charge into battle selflessly to fight against the humans. But when it came to one’s forces, it was a different tune; their forces must be retained… Internally, the clans did not agree and they were wary of each other. Hence, they couldn’t come together to create mutual trust, cooperation, and a single purpose.

But there was a clan called Tianyin, who thought of a way.

“Sage ancestors.”

“Each clan will contribute to a pool of resources that we’ll use invite the Sage ancestors to step forth. We’ll let the Sages be in charge!”

“That new type of weapon in the humans’ possession is very powerful, even those practitioners of the Shenguang order can’t withstand it. But to the Sages, it won’t even be enough to light up the dark.”

“As long as we invite our Sage ancestors to make an appearance, the humans will exist no more!”

“We are so sick of this. Those insignificant beings are not surrendering and they’ve even gone against us repeatedly. Since a long time ago, there’d been no need for them to be alive. Kill all of them and get this over with!”

Hearing the words from this Protoss, a high-ranking Protoss asked him, “The Sages have always refrained from getting involved in the mortal world. Will they agree to make a move against our enemy?”

“Why wouldn’t they agree? As long as all the clans come up with some treasures to offer as tributes, the Sages will listen to us if they find the gifts satisfactory… If the tributes are rich enough, the Sages will be ecstatic. They will help us to make a move against humans after understanding their deceit and cunning.”

Tribute?

The other clan representatives looked at him, they suddenly understood.

A Sage had emerged from the Tianyin clan, who was later known as the Tianyin Sage. He was very powerful and was one of the last four remaining Sages.

Of course, the time between when the Tianyin Sage had ascended to a Sage and now was not long. Among the four Sages, his strength was the weakest, however, it still was not a level that the ordinary Protoss practitioners could look up to.

It was was like comparing a lake and the sea.

If the Tianyin Sage made his move, the mere human beings would not even be worth mentioning.

It’s just that they had to pool their resources together to offer a tribute that could satisfy the Sage. It was not something that could not be done

They also considered the proponent, a clan that was founded by the descendants of the Tianyin Sage. The relationship between the Sage and his clan was tight. The attitude of the Tianyin clan could be the attitude of the Sage.

Hence… Tribute, get them!

Miracle drugs, buy!

Spirit stones, collect them!

In just a few days, they had gathered a sufficient quantity that would satisfy the Tianyin Sage.

…

Soon.

A Protoss with blurred facial features and dressed in snow-white robes appeared. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back in the empty air.

His physical body traversed across space, flying to an area near Mar’s orbit.

Towards the densely populated cities on the planet below.

He stretched out a hand, and countless gusts of mists rushed forth below him. The mists transformed into an invisible giant hand that wrapped around Mars entirely.

Then, the hand grabbed the planet carelessly but lightly.

“Boom~”

More than half of the surface of Mars was covered by the giant hand.

Only less than 30% of the billions of humans living on Mars survived.

He took another step and arrived in front of Mercury which was tens of millions of kilometers away.

He gently punched with a fist.

Mercury was turned into countless fragments of space debris.

He went to the surrounding areas of some space cities. Similarly, he lightly swatted the space cities. The survival rate was less than 1%.

…

Half a day or so later, more than one billion human lives disappeared in the hands of the Tianyin Sage.

The contrast of the power between the humans and Protoss once again underwent a tremendous reversal; the excellent impetus that the human race had for their revival was broken by one powerful man.

The power of the Sages could be described as terrifying.

Chapter 469 - Plan To Slaughter The Sages

A calamity.

An inhuman, brutal, calamity of unprecedented and unmatched proportions.

With the Sage’s move, the momentum of the rise and revival of the human race was interrupted in an instant.

The Earth Federation suffered heavy losses, more than 10 billion humans died. Wails of grief and bitter cries abounded. The civilization fell into a state of semi-collapse.

Even though the Sage did not cause any explosions on the human base camp at Mars, ruins covered the land contiguously. Less than 30% of the population on Mars survived.

With just one Sage stepping in the scene personally, he had damaged more than half of the vitality that humans had accumulated over the decades.

And it seemed that the Sage had held back a little as if fearing retribution or getting involved in the cycle of karma. Hence, the Tianyin Sage did not exterminate all of them, leaving a little leeway.

Even so, n towering wall of hatred rose within the humans.

Countless people clenched their fists, cried until there were no more tears to be shed, and quietly vowed–they must kill all the Protoss and the Sages!

“Revenge for our fellow human beings!”

Slogans of vengeance rang out above the ruins.

Humans and Protoss were caught in an extremely confrontational state of war.

They were caught in momentum where they would fight to their last breath. It was only possible to end this war if one side was completely defeated with no hope of ever making a comeback.

This was also the moment when human beings entered the state of “enduring humiliation as part of an important mission” and “recalling one’s humiliation to maintain one’s resolve for revenge.” They licked their wounds and plotted to make a comeback.

But their foundations and morale had been hit hard. Who knew how many years it would take to complete the process of this counterattack.

…

Earth.

Shanghai, in the villa.

“Representative Min, what’s the situation like regarding the casualties of the Chen family?”

Chen Jin was put through a mysterious dispatch and he contacted a senior representative of the Federation on Mars to enquire about some situations.

“It is not too clear. There are not many descendants of the Chen family who stayed here to develop. Most of the core members of the Chen family are participating in the Interstellar Voyage Plan, they’d flown away in the superluminal spacecraft and became the owners of other galaxies,” said Representative Min.

Chen Jin nodded.

The federal government had suffered heavy losses during this attack and fallen into a state of semi-paralysis.

However, the loss of Chen’s family was only limited to a dozen or so space cities….. it was not to the extent where it could be considered a serious blow to the family.

An overwhelming majority of descendants from the official lineage had carried with them precious resources and boarded the superluminal spacecraft, embarking on a pioneering journey of the surrounding galaxies to open up new horizons.

They had already established a considerable amount of influence in more than 50 galaxies.

Adding up their total strength, they had a population of nearly 10 billion, a massive GDP output…The comprehensive strength was equivalent to that of a federal government.

Moreover, they were completely out of the scope of attack by the Tianyin Sage this time round.

The Chen family’s loss could be said to be negligible.

The Chen family fortress still towered among those humans who lived on earth. The Chen family kept an extremely low profile on earth, including maintaining a neutral stance with regards to the War of the Races and did not get involved in the disputes.

They also took out large amounts of assets and prepared a long-term partnership contract; they had achieved several partnership agreements with the Tianyin clan.

Therefore, the Chen family branch that descended from the unofficial lineages, they who had almost become the butt of public criticism, still survived and remained healthy and active.

Due to the previous incident, the countless Protoss powers, who would think about futile attempts to profit from another’s misfortune, no longer dared to pile themselves around the Chen’s fortress and break into it seize the treasures and women inside.

Upon thinking of the treasures and women inside, a group of Protoss, who were not afraid of death, rushed into the fortress. Then, they fell under the attacks of all kinds of weapons from the defense towers. Not one remained alive.

This had a great deterrent effect. The conclusion derived from this incident – the Chen’s family fortress was a tough nut to crack. Unless the Sages were to attack them or the top ten Protoss clans unite their efforts, it would be difficult to breach the fortress with minimal loss.

But, at this time, accompanied by a few shouts, the three thousand Naga bio-mechas of the Tonghuang and Mugu clans, as well as large numbers of master practitioners from the two clans, broke into the fortress and besieged it on all sides. The formation of the surrounding Protoss launched the most violent attack.

Caught off guard, the entire mob of Protoss that had planned to devour the Chen family died. There were no survivors.

The second defensive counter-attack by the Chen’s family fortress was a complete victory.

…

Haierfa.

Just when the news from earth reached Haierfa, the human race was hit hard and humans were caught in an unprecedented crisis.

Chen Jin and the AIs immediately set out to study the power of the Sages and how to deal with them.

In the video, he saw the huge palm holding Mars in its entirety. The hand gently closed together and billions of lives disappeared in an instant.

The degree of shock caused one’s mouth to hang open.

Chen Jin gasped in surprise, “The strength of the Sage is so powerful to this extent. And it seemed that the Sage did not use all his power, he had downplayed his hand. If he had used his full power, I am afraid that it would be something akin to the astral wind generated in combat. It could even easily push earth out of the way.”

It was estimated that the Sage would not have much difficulty in making a planet explode with a single punch.

This was simply unimaginable.

Nuwa opened her tiny mouth slightly, “I am afraid that our antimatter bombs and gravity bombs will achieve a similar destructive effect only after increasing their yield.”

“A Sage is equivalent to the anti-matter bomb in human form, a Sage is even more powerful than a nuclear fusion bomb with a yield of a quintillion tons.”

“A Sage’s indicators of combat power cannot be compared to those of the practitioners from the Shenguang order. It is like mastering the celestial law. Under the influence of the enormous spiritual power, he can display a power that is thousands of times superior to that of a practitioner from the Shenguang order.”

The power of a Sage was so strong to the point that it was ridiculous and abnormal.

Only a Sage of the same class might have had the potential to stop another Sage.

All those who were less powerful than a Sage were insignificant! This was the logic.

But…Seeing the Tianyin Sage attacking ordinary human beings, and using an unreasonable method of killing billions of humans, Chen Jin clenched his fists. He was so angry he thought he was about to explode.

It was unfair, just like adults hitting children or people carrying machine guns gunning down unarmed civilians. The action of that Tianyin Sage was too despicable, his behavior was too ugly and monstrous. It was like those adults who deliberately killed a nest of ants by stepping on it.

It almost made one so angry that he could foam at the mouth.

Chen Jin said, “Nuwa, Alice, do you have a more suitable way to kill the Sage and avenge the dead humans?”

“Master, let me think about it.”

Nuwa’s head wrinkled, and after running on full power for a few seconds, she presented two sets of plans.

“The first one plan, manufacturing three to four antimatter annihilation bombs, each in a class that produces a yield of one quintillion tons. They will be exploding within a range of 5,000 meters from the Sage. The bomb will generate temperatures of millions of degrees, and it can cause heavy damage or death in the instant when he is teleporting away.”

“The probability of death is about 30%.”

“If three or four anti-matter bombs are exploded in close range, the probability of death will increase to more than 70%.”

“The second plan – engulfing the Sage via a black hole.”

“Nuwa estimates that a Sage’s greatest combat power may be comparable to a fixed star, moreover, he has learned many rules of the universe. Therefore, even an anti-matter bomb might not be able to kill him instantly.”

“If a black hole bomb is used, a temporary black hole that he cannot escape from will be created and all objects within a radius of 100 kilometers will be sucked in. It is difficult to use teleportation in warped space. Even a Sage will not be able to escape, and the probability of killing him is 90% and above.”

“The difficulty is that the black hole bomb is more difficult to manufacture. It takes a few years and only one or two could be produced during that time. There will not be many opportunities to make our move.”

“Moreover, after the black hole bomb is exploded, the black hole will not disappear. It will remain there forever. The resulting suction will make the space within a radius of 100,000 kilometers into a dangerous area. It will be easy for passing interstellar material to get sucked into the black hole.”

This was equivalent to creating a polluted zone.

Summing up the two methods.

It seemed that each had its advantages and disadvantages.

But to Chen Jin… Which should he choose?

“No matter which perspective I take, the second black hole engulfing method seemed to be more reliable.”

Chen Jin muttered, the fact that the black hole bomb had a 90% and above the probability of killing a Sage; just considering this success rate alone, he already felt that it was a lot of more reliable than the anti-matter bomb.

“Master, the latter method is not necessarily more dependable than the former.”

Alice put forward her opinion, “A black hole bomb is very difficult to manufacture and it is very dangerous to use. It takes four or five years to produce one. It is difficult to store more as backup or reserves. Once the assassination is started, you’ll have only one chance to do it right.”

“If it’s a success, the probability of the Sage dying is 90%; but if it fails, with the anger of the Sage… all humans will die. This is extremely risky.”

“And it will put the Sages on guard, and it will be much more difficult to mount a sneak attack on the Sages in the future.”

“The success rate of the first plan is lower, but it is possible to prepare ten, a hundred anti-matter bombs. We can increase the quantity and raise the success rate of killing the Sage… After all, the output of anti-matter bombs is much higher.”

If hundreds of anti-matter bombs were used at the same time.

The probability of killing a Sage could also be increased to 90%, without leaving a black hole as pollution.

The same effect, and no pollution; the repercussions would be much smaller.

“There is more than one Sage; there are four in total. If you kill only one, you will alert the rest, resulting in a more difficult time dealing with the remaining three. This will also increase the risk of humans being slaughtered. You can only use the first method and prepare a large number of anti-matter bombs to attack the four Sages at the same time.”

If all four Sages could be killed, the biggest stumbling block in front of the human race would be completely kicked aside.

Without the protection offered by the Sages, the Protoss would no longer be so fearsome.

“So what you mean is…. killing the Tianyin Sage is not enough, it is best to kill all Sages at the same time?”

Alice nodded. With the sage’s bug-like combat power, even if one was left, he would be enough to turn the universe upside down.

Chen Jin’s expression changed, “This is a bit difficult…”

…

After repeated planning and discussions over a few days.

A more feasible “Sage Slaughtering” plan was formulated.

The main content was as followed.

First, using the anti-matter bombs. One hundred bombs would be detonated in the effective range of damage. The success rate of killing the Sage would be increased to 95%.

Second, recruit 800 soldiers to die.

Third, there was only one target – the Tianyin Sage. This Sage had to die no matter what.

Chen Jin’s target had turned into one.

“It is too difficult to kill four Sages at the same time. The probability of success is too low. It is better to focus on the Tianyin Sage and let them experience the fire and rage of vengeance enacted by humans. We’ll let them understand them even if the other party is a Sage, human beings have the definite ability to strike back. ”

“Humans cannot be humiliated!”

“The blood debts that the Tianyin Sage carries must be paid immediately. He must repay it right now!”

…

The specifics of the plan was confirmed.

But how should they implement this Sage Slaughtering Plan? It was a rather complicated project.

Including the transportation of weapons, the recruitment of soldiers to die, how to approach the residence of the Tianyin Sage and how to launch the attack; it was a very complicated project.

From the planning stage to the very end, it would take a total of four or five years.

This was nothing to Chen Jin.

For example, in the phase of recruiting soldiers to die, he had privately released the news to the human base camp on Mars.

It could be said that countless of the best human personnel were eager to participate, they were undaunted by the dangers to themselves!

“Count me in as part of the dead soldiers! My parents, wife, children, all of them died because of the Sage. I want revenge; I must take revenge!”

“Let me go, let me go! I want to be the dead soldier!”

“Wife, daughter, I will get the Sage to go to hell immediately to accompany you.”

A large number of human practitioners or elite soldiers had cried rivers. They filled out the application form in droves, hoping to become a dead soldier.

He had received tens of thousands of applications in just a short period.

Hence, it could be seen from this that there was no need to worry about the shortage of manpower.

Seeing the number of applicants, the federal government selected a group consisting of the most elite 3,000. After several rounds of brutal screening, only 800 of the best personnel remained.

Suddenly, he had the manpower that he needed.

Besides, Chen Jin made a lot of preparations on earth.

For example, he got the robots to move the anti-matter bombs to earth… He was extremely careful throughout the whole process. Otherwise, one-third of the earth would be destroyed if just a small amount of positive and negative matter came into contact with each other.

Besides the weapons, there were crucial pieces of information that they needed to know, including the whereabouts of the Tianyin Sage so that they could get a lock on his location.

The problem was that the Sage had disappeared without a trace. The Sage Palace that he lived in was always moving. Combined with the cover provided by various spiritual arrays and dimensional spaces, there was no way to know where the Sage lived… It felt a little like a hide-and-seek game.

What should he do?

How would one find a Sage?

Finally, Chen Jin thought of a way. He found a clue–the Wuyin clan.

“The Wuyin clan must have a way to contact their Sage or to know where he is.”

“It was also due to the instigation of the Wuyin clan that drew the Sage to make a move the humans. The Wuyin clan had received countless benefits and used a portion of the treasures as remuneration to the Sage. So as long as we work on the Wuyin clan and send them some benefits, we’ll soon get a lock on the location of their Sage.”

The Wuyin clan?

Chen Jin smiled. They could be persuaded simply by giving a little benefit. The Chen family’s fortress had countless money and treasures. He would take out a small amount and give them to the Wuyin clan to worm his way into being their friend. After leaving a favorable impression on them, wouldn’t he know where the Sage was?

Finally, five thousand pieces of top-grade spirit stones and one hundred units of the naga bio-mecha.

The Chen family paid this mere price through a third-party and received the specific coordinates of the Sage Palace.

Five days later, ten small spaceships headed straight into the cosmic space that was several astronomical units from Earth.

Then, they reduced their speed and slowly got closer.

On the top of a giant and a rather regular-looking meteorite, was a faintly discernible door just behind a defense spell formation.

Through the gate, was a dusky and strange space. A small amount of fog spilled over from time to time.

It was like paradise on earth.

They continued to approach.

At the door and surroundings of this secret space in this dimension.

One hundred cylindrical antimatter bombs were evenly laid out all over.

Subsequently, the light that was hundreds of billions of times brighter than the sun suddenly blossomed.

Chapter 470 - Awe, Reversal Of Power

After the piercing rays of light, the huge meteorite disappeared.

The dimension of the secret space disappeared.

Including the Wuyin Sage who lived in the secret space and sealed himself off, it seemed that he had also disappeared.

To cope with the era of disappearing Buddhist laws caused by the decline in the concentration of natural spiritual energy, the Wuyin Sage had even thought about targeting the spirit stones and ores of ordinary Protoss. This Wuyin Sage disappeared thusly in the endless white light.

Not even the smallest fragment of his remains could be found.

The Wuyin Sage, with the blood of billions of human lives on his hands, had since disappeared without a trace.

…

About a month later, inside an underground building in the Chen family’s fortress, a small secret meeting was convened.

“Have all the dead soldiers been safely returned? What’s the death and injury count?”

“All returned. There was no death or injury, the operation was smoother than expected.”

“Are you sure that the Wuyin Sage has fallen?”

“Uh… it’s not completely confirmed. We are certain that the meteorites and the secret sub-dimensional space have all disappeared. They were probably annihilated in the high temperatures and light waves.”

“This could be tricky. The strength of a Sage is beyond any natural logic. Even the explosion from an anti-matter bomb may not be enough to kill him. He may have escaped to another place in just an instant.”

“But it has been a month, and the Wuyin Sage has not made an appearance. So the probability that he has died should be greater than 50%. This butcher of the human race has received the retribution that he deserves,” this man gritted his teeth and said.

“Perhaps.”

The in-charge from the Federal government nodded. He couldn’t help but sigh in admiration for the other party, “The secret information and capabilities possessed by your family is amazing. Even if it is a broken branch, you’ve stood tall for 50 years amongst the Protoss. You’ve escaped being swallowed up time and time again. Privately, you’ve also come up with terrifying weapons that could kill a Sage to get revenge for humans. The Chen family really cannot be underestimated.”

“You flatter us, we’re not that powerful.”

“No, you’re being modest. The contributions of the Chen family this time around will never be forgotten. I express my deep and sincere gratitude on behalf of the Federation!”

The representative got up and gave a deep bow. He collected himself but revealed a pleading expression in the next moment. “The federal government has met with a catastrophe. Your family has upheld justice by undertaking this task of vengeance, and you remain the most outstanding as our fellow human compatriots. But… now, more than half of the federal population, economy, and military have been greatly damaged. Resources are seriously damaged. Recovery is weak, I don’t know how many years it will take to return to our previous state.”

“We’ve heard that many of the Chen family’s official branches have boarded superluminal spacecraft to go to the peripheral galaxies where they had set down roots and developed. They’ve reaped huge rewards decades down the road. It is rumored that there are seven or eight galaxies controlled by the Chens and that prosperity and level of development in these galaxies is comparable to those of a large country.”

“By now, the total population is close to tens of billions.”

“Overall, they are forces that we cannot look down on.”

“And when the human race was plagued by disasters, the Chen family has provided valuable help and got rid of the Wuyin Sage together. But what is of greater necessity to the Federation remains resources that can be used for production and some essential assistance which will help to accelerate the recovery of the Federation’s vitality.”

“I hope that the Chen family can help us a little in this regard so that the Federation can get out of these troubling situations and restore its strength as soon as possible. We’ll wait to destroy all the Protoss at a later date.”

“So, I’m asking your family to help me, please.”

In the video, the representative from the Federation gave another deep bow. His expression could almost be described as beseeching, “We need the assistance from your family.”

In the Chen family’s fortress, the representatives from the Chen family looked at each other in dismay. They could not come to a decision.

Because what the Federation was requesting was a little too much, it was like giving an inch and taking a mile. The Chen family had taken on great risk and had just helped to kill the Wuyin Sage. They contributed 70% to 80% of the efforts in that operation. But, let’s put that aside as it was a duty that they had to complete from the standpoint of the human race.

However, the Federation now wanted the Chen family to help in its reconstruction and restoration. They hoped that the Chens would provide the resources, equipment, and technology. The Federation had no intention of paying. They wanted the Chen family to provide all of that for free.

This behavior was rude! They were trying to take advantage of the Chen’s generosity.

The Chen family representatives could not make up their minds about these requests. Hence, they consulted Chen Jin’s opinion.

“Providing aid to the Federation…”

Chen Jin propped his chin on his hand and was lost in thought for a while.

After some thought, he sent a secret dispatch. He planned to understand how the situations of his official lineages had developed.

After half an hour, an electronic version of the “Development Report” landed in his hands.

He spent some time scanning through the report and could not help but open his mouth in awe.

Fast.

Too fast.

The development of the branches from his official lineages these past years was too fast.

It seemed that they had developed 16 high-value galaxies in a short period. After “setting off” the population bomb, the total population currently under their control had expanded to 22 billion (one-fifth of which went by the surname of Chen).

There was no need to mention the economic aspect. Each one was more prosperous than the next. They had maintained an average annual growth rate of more than 10% for several decades.

As for resources, he could pick a galaxy at random and its reserves of usable resources were ten times as much as solar system’s.

It could be described as a place full of opportunities, a place where the metaphorical gold was scattered everywhere.

There was no disturbance from the Protoss.

Two time-space cracks had been found in two of the galaxies where a steady stream of spiritual energy burst forth from the Heavenly Realm. The two galaxies were places that were very suitable for practitioners.

Therefore, due to the presence of such excellent conditions, the Chen family organized a large number of people with the aptitude for cultivation to go to these two galaxies to specifically nurture the practitioners.

Chen Jin also sent some research assistance to them by transferring most of the 5,000 geniuses to them. These were experiment participants who had been transformed into geniuses with “genius aptitudes” in the laboratory. This transformation had taken more than a decade.

Countless copies of the brilliant cultivation exercises derived from the server of the “Galaxy Era 2.0” were sent over.

Therefore, the combination of the above factors.

The development of those from Chen Jin’s direct lines of descent in these years could be described as heaven.

It seemed that there was almost no pressure at all. Their strength swelled like a balloon, growing wildly.

Chen Jin frequently received video communications from two other women who persuaded him to leave earth. They wanted him to go to the planet where they were and to freely enjoy life in retirement.

But Chen Jin refused both of them. He made them so mad.

And the meaning behind this lengthy description was this. It was a piece of cake if the wretched Federation that was so abused by the Sage wanted to restore its strength and get external assistance. As long as Chen Jin and a few of the seniors in-charge in the official branches of the Chen family gave the ok, aid supplies would soon reach the base camp at Mars.

But…Why should the Chen family do this?

Although the Chen family was a part of the federal government, they had a high degree of autonomy within the internal governance.

Before the Revival of Magical Powers and the return of the Protoss, the federal government has always firmly maintained a vaguely oppressive attitude towards them. They had employed many tactics to weaken the Chen family’s power.

The relationship between the two sides was not very good in the last hundred years or so. There was a lot of friction.

Now that the Federation had fallen on hard times, the Chens had to unanimously display some sympathy on the surface. But privately, many in the Chen family were happy by others’ misfortune.

They even thought that there was no way that the Federation could lead the fate of all mankind in its current state. It seemed that only the Chen family had such a capability.

As to whether or not to assist the Federation, only a few of the Chen family’s descendants expressed positive statements.

However, Chen Jin believed that they ought to assist the Federation as appropriate.

“The Federation are human beings, after all, it is the representative of the most supreme regime and it is also the target of the Protoss collective ire. It will be of no benefit to us if the Federation collapsed.”

“The power of the Protoss has been growing during these years and their numbers have also been expanding. They need more resources and living space. A mere solar system cannot satisfy their appetites. It will not be long before they start to make interstellar spaceships and announce that they will be expanding externally.”

“But if the Federation is gone, it will be our family who faces the direct expansion of the Protoss.”

“So…the Federation must not collapse! It is not yet time for the ultimate war with the Protoss. The Federation must stay.”

“How about this, give one billion tons of our precious mineral supplies every year and send over a few hundred of the geniuses who had participated in the Sage Plan to join the special task force that would fight against the evil encroachment of the Protoss.”

“As for how many geniuses would each branch send and how to apportion the resources, you can discuss and decide by yourselves.”

After finishing his words, Chen Jin hung up.

His agreement to aid the Federation was easily approved….. Although the official statement was that Chen Jin had separated from the branches, as their founder, his opinion still held weight.

…

On the other side, the Protoss had fallen into a bit of a mess.

Suddenly, they were offering rewards and initiated countless search activities.

Activities to find out the whereabouts of the Wuyin Sage.

This was because a certain space near the meteorite belt had suddenly lit up with a blinding light more than a month ago.

Although that instant of brightness lasted only a fraction of a second, all the creatures on earth felt as if there were two suns in the sky… They even thought that the second sun that appeared was brighter.

Then, it quickly disappeared.

But, visually, the scene was so exaggerated. Any normal person would subconsciously think that something had happened.

Then the senior administrators of the Protoss sent an investigation team to examine the situation.

But it happened in the complete vacuum of the universe, what could be found?

More than half a month later.

The head of the Tianyin Clan on earth suddenly discovered that the Tianyin Sage could not be contacted. The coordinates of the temple hidden in the meteorite belt were only known to a very small number of senior leaders in the clan.

After a round of verifications, suddenly, the head of the Wuyin Clan sat down on the ground, as if paralyzed. He did not want to think about it, but he could not stop the idea forming in his mind.

The supreme offering of the clan–the “Wuyin Sage,” had gone missing.

He also published several “searching for XXX notices” and listed the Sage as a missing person. They stopped pursuing the Sage’s whereabouts.

On the other hand, they announced to the outside world that “everything was all right, it was a false alarm, the Sage is still with us” to appease the people. But in fact, they feared causing chaos so they put on a calm facade.

…

A few months later.

They looked in every corner but could not find him.

The Tianyin clan and the three other Sages who joined the search concluded that the Wuyin Sage had died.

When they reached this conclusion, the top leaders of the Wuyin clan and the three Sages were stupefied.

“Who… Who did it? Who has the guts and the ability to kill the Sage?”

“Humans, it must be those humans,” A Sage said in a low voice.

“How is this possible? Do they have the ability to kill a Sage with just themselves? Impossible!” The elders of the Wuyin clan cried out in fear.

“In terms of cultivation prowess, it is impossible. But those humans know how to use the powers of various objects. The ultimate weapons they create can instantly produce a ‘second sun.’ Another Sage said, “This weapon was formerly known as a nuclear weapon. I never thought they would master it again.”

“This is also a warning.”

Finally, that Sage shook his head and said, “The Wuyin Sage had killed so many of these insignificant beings and it was not long before he received his retribution. This indicates that those humans are not simple, they still have some aces up their sleeves. We shouldn’t meddle or intervene in the war between the humans and the Protoss.

“Who do they think they are, they dare to threaten retaliation against us?”

“They are mere insignificant beings, they are nothing to fear… But the fall of the Wuyin Sage has proved their abilities.”

“In the future, we will not get mixed up in mortal affairs, no matter how bad the situation. We do not want to be stained by the cycle of karma.”

“Damn humans!”

They cursed them fiercely, but the three Sages had still reached a tacit understanding to “not intervene in mortal affairs.”

…

Since the Sages did not intervene in mortal affairs.

In a PK against the Protoss using conventional power, human beings were not afraid of the Protoss.

Under such circumstances, human strength and capabilities were getting stronger and stronger. Once again, the number of practitioners surged. Countless masters burst onto the scene.

On the Protoss’ side, they were riddled with chaotic fights internally; it was difficult to unite. Only profit was in the picture and only the strong were respected… The power of the Protoss steadily weakened under the disorderly and barbaric rule.

Chapter 471 - Human Victory, Protoss Intregation

Time was like water, passing by in the blink of an eye.

It had been about 20 years since the death of the “Wuyin Sage.”

For those who were used to a life of triviality, this little bit of time was just like the blink of an eye.

And if you had a well-adjusted mentality, if you had not experienced too many disasters or ups and downs in life, even the passing of 20, 50, 100 years would feel like three or five days.

In the past 20 years, Chen had adjusted his mentality. He was no longer so old-fashioned, gloomy, and without vitality. He seemed to have entered a grave in his psyche.

“Absolutely not!” Chen Jin gritted his teeth and said, “I’m only in my 200s. If it’s according to the time ratio of 1:10 set in certain online games, I am in fact, only in my 20s, I am a fine youth and in my prime. I am exceptionally confident and at ease. How could I come up with excuses that allow me to act like an old person?”

In some online novels, the authors would always have the protagonist who was hundreds of years, even thousands of years old playing out this cliche – the protagonist was forced to hide the full extent of his powers for most of the story only to fully unleash it on his opponents in a showdown. These cliches seemed to be created by a primary school student for primary school students. In contrast to that, he knew that he had a lot of room to grow.

It was because he could play out better cliches. A level suited for middle schoolers or university students… Much higher levels of that same trope.

Each level would require practice for two or three hundred years.

He was still far from retirement.

At this thought, Chen Jin resolved to stop being that person who was obsessed with computers and went about the mundane day-to-day life with no dreams, who simply passed the time while waiting to die. Hence, he actively participated in social activities.

For example, he put on the virtual reality headset and entered the upgraded “Cosmic Era 1.0” where he transformed into the most common player – a newbie beginning from level 0. He killed monsters to level up, was accidentally caught up in adventures, formed unforgettable bonds with beautiful women, had battles of intelligence and waged wars against the enemies… It was such a wonderful journey, there was no shortage of novelty and joy.

It was almost enough to start a new book with millions of words.

Besides this, he also asked Guo Yan and Mu Yunhua to enter the game with him. They had formed a three-person team, experienced countless events, and made a big name for themselves.

But…They only played that game for about ten years, then they announced that they would be quitting the game together. This had caused a great sensation and a storm of protests.

They felt that there was no other option but to quit the game and the reason behind this was very simple: Chen Jin’s luck with the ladies remained strong as ever and it had become a romantic calamity for him, causing him much headache.

He rubbed his head. He really couldn’t figure out what were his good points. It turned out that by just playing a game, he attracted the attention of more than a dozen female players who liked him. They were madly in love with him. When they saw that Chen Jin was about to get angry and lay all his cards on the table, these female players quickly stopped their fierce battles with each other and became unified in their positions. All of them ran to Chen Jin at the same time, saying that they could accept him having many wives. As long as he promised to treat every one of them well…..

Pffft~

He nearly vomited at that moment.

He felt greatly exasperated looking at all the ladies surrounding him.

This was such a melodramatic and contrived scene that would not even be found in third-rate online novels.

Seeing this scene, Guo Yan and Mu Yunhua, who had been with him all this time, also felt very exasperated. They looked at Chen Jin next to them and seemed to be vaguely dissatisfied.

As his legitimate and official wife, Guo Yan gritted her teeth and secretly pinched Chen Jin a few times. She could not imagine how this even happened. Mu Yunhua and she stayed by his side every day, and yet when they were occasionally absent for one or two days, this guy could somehow stir up the emotions of more than a dozen lovesick women who wanted to marry only him.

This guy had the skill of being scum, just how strong was this skill?

Seeing Chen Jin’s innocent face, and his words, “I don’t know that things would turn out like this,” all the other issues that she was also pissed off about converged into this boiling rage. She wanted to pounce on him and strangle him to death.

Mu Yunhua shrugged, she did not get herself mixed into the mess, but she quite understood Chen Jin’s situation. After all, he was a treasure that had been made solid and steadied by the passing of time. How could those young and inexperienced ladies ever resist him?

As for her, the reactions she got was even more ridiculous. The male players who pursued her numbered in the millions. There were also tens of thousands of female players who pursued her… She was the most famous fairy in the server and the most perfect goddess in the hearts of countless players who saw themselves as protagonist material. If they took her down, the sense of accomplishment for that feat would be even greater than that of the ruling the universe.

But unfortunately, Mu Yunhua was not like Chen Jin, who was warm and friendly to everyone. She kept her distance with everyone and maintained her indifference. Conquering the universe would be an easier task than to conquer her.

The game players also saw that fairy Yunhua was very close to Chen Jin every day, and she often smiled at him. Because of this scene, Chen Jin was met with challenges and provocation from other players wherever he went in the game. Wherever he went, he was forced to reveal and use his full abilities in a showdown. His life in the game was like a cliched novel.

This description might seem exaggerated, but it also showed the popularity of Mu Yunhua.

As for Guo Yan, she was treated as if she was invisible and was often ignored. The longer she played in the game, the angrier she felt.

One day she couldn’t bear it anymore. She had a breakdown and got into a big argument with them.

The three decided to withdraw from the game at the same time.

Only with this decision where they were able to emerge from these endless disputes and returned to an ordinary and mediocre life.

…

Of course, life on earth had not been ordinary during these past two decades.

It was no exaggeration to say that the War of Races had been escalating.

They had long ago shed all pretense of cordiality, ignored previous agreements, and fell into a state of war that would only end when one side was annihilated.

In the beginning, humans were the ones who bore greater stress. After all, it was a short time ago when they had suffered heavy losses.

However, after the Chens agreed to assist, it took less than five years for the federal government to regain its vitality, complete the reconstruction and stabilize the morale of the people. It had quickly established a firm foothold.

Then, the federal government managed to get a large number of resources, equipment, and technology from the Chen family through trade agreements, loans, etc. They even acquired the extremely powerful phoenix mecha.

With the cooperation of the two sides, it took another ten years before the strength of the Federation returned to what it was during its peak.

Immediately, the Protoss launched the opening of their counter-attack.

In just five years, through hundreds of large-scale battles, the Protoss suffered defeat after defeat. They lost hundreds of space fortresses, more than a dozen secret dimension spaces and the moon. They had no choice but to withdraw back to the earth where they were strictly sealed off from outside contact. The feeling of negativity and failure continued to spread and exacerbate.

The rise of mankind and its recovery was so fast. In just a little more than a decade, the humans had trained and accomplished enough to reverse the situation. Now, they forced the Protoss into desperate circumstances… This stunned every single Protoss; they found it unbelievable.

After putting aside their contempt for the humans and carefully analyzing the reasons for failure, while at the same time neglecting their incompetence, a human family entered their sights.

The Chen family!

With the help of from official branches of the Chen family, those humans had become more and more arrogant. And now they turned around to counter-attack them.

“Bang!”

This was the sound of someone furiously flipping a table.

A high-ranking Protoss roared, “The Chen family, it’s them again. They are always pitting themselves against us!”

“And that Chen family on earth, and even their relatives that originated from the Chen maternal lines. They may seem polite and respectable all these years, but in fact, they’ve been colluding. They are traitors that have repeatedly trapped and framed the Protoss.”

“The disappearance of the Wuyin Sage has an indistinct relationship with the Chen family.”

“And not to mention the human army’s phoenix mechas. Those mechas are one generation more advanced than our naga bio-mecha. All the weaknesses in the naga bio-mecha are completely under control in the phoenix mecha. We can’t deal with the new mecha… It is only the Chens who so clearly know the weakness and made targeted improvements, causing the Protoss to suffer great losses.”

“Evidence, evidence, you have always been demanding evidence all these years. But the many suspicions listed are conclusive evidence.”

An area of doubt did not constitute evidence, but when there were ten, even a hundred doubts, then there was no need to produce tangible evidence before one could directly conclude.

The Chen family on Earth was the largest group of renegades. They must be destroyed; they must be slaughtered!

After the upper echelons of the Protoss reached a consensus.

More than a hundred powerful clans dispatched powerful practitioners and mechas to the Chen family’s fortress, where they surrounded by the Chen family.

The troops of practitioners were like a mass of dark clouds. They numbered in the millions.

There were more than 50,000 of the naga bio-mechas that could kill the old freaks from the Shenguang order.

Such a huge force on earth was enough to destroy any organization.

Even the Tonghuang and Mugu clans who had always closely collaborated with the Chen family and were allies did not shield the Chen family this time around. Instead, they mobilized all of their master practitioners to join the party encircling the Chen family.

The Chen family was done for.

The leaders of the Tong Huang and Mugu clans had secretly issued the death penalty to the Chen family in their hearts.

“Offending three or five clans is one thing. How dare they double-deal and reveal the secrets of one clan to another clan, thereby offending all Protoss?”

“They’re dead! This branch of the Chen family on earth will all be slaughtered, all of them from the top to the bottom.”

“You must defeat the Chen family! We must use the blood of the Chen family to wash away the shame that the Protoss have suffered.”

“Yes, we’ll annihilate the Chen family and show them what we’re made of.”

Curses abounded~

The joint army of the Protoss appeared on the outskirts of the Chen family’s fortress in their vast entirety and launched its attack.

Countless ripples appeared on the huge protective shield.

One day.

Two days.

Three days.

The fortress was met with continuous and fearsome attacks by millions of Protoss practitioners over three days and nights. Even so, the defense formation of the fortress remained rock steady and impenetrable.

The eyes of many Protoss suddenly grew green with envy.

“To maintain such a large formation for three days and nights, just how many spirit stones does the Chen family have?”

“Even if they have a mountain of spirit stones, there’s no way that it can last through such use!”

“Attack, we continue to attack, there must be endless treasures waiting for us in this fortress!”

The more the Protoss practitioners attacked, the redder their eyes grew, and the fierier their hearts became.

Hence, the reserves of spiritual energies in their bodies were gradually and unconsciously reduced. Some had even spent it all.

In the absence of spirit stones, supplementary efforts such as meditation to restore themselves would take far longer than three days.

This showed that their level of cultivation had been reduced to some extent.

Until the afternoon of the fourth day.

Hundreds of Shenguang practitioners launched their attacks at the same time.

There was a moment when the defense formation of the fortress became extremely distorted. It burst like a soap bubble with a bang.

The defense formation was broken.

Countless Protoss grew excited. Infinite treasures and spiritual stones, here we come!

“Rat-tat-tat~”

Suddenly, an intense and dense, yet fragmented sound rang out from behind. It sounded a bit like the cutting sound made by a chainsaw.

“Ah!”

“Ah ah!”

A large number of Protoss practitioners were shot in the back, and they fell screaming onto the ground, where they died.

Those still alive turned around and looked.

Countless Protoss died.

Unwittingly, the naga bio-mechas dispatched by the clans gathered together and stood in a neat arrangement. They lifted the celestial sniper cannons on their arms and poured spiritual energy into it. Locking onto the Protoss as their targets, the cannons were violently fired.

It took only for a moment.

Tens of thousands of Protoss practitioners died due to the defection of the naga bio-mechas.

The “back door” installed inside the naga bio-mechas played a huge role at this moment.

Then, the mechas continued to raise their cannons, gather energy, aim and shoot… They entered an unrelenting killing mode.

There were also more than 100,000 of the naga bio-mecha second generation in the fortress. They took to the sky or occupied higher points and lifted the celestial machine guns or sniper cannons on their arms, cruelly harvesting lives.

“Ah!”

“Ah ah!”

“Hurry, run!”

There were countless screams, and deserters who had lost their minds.

Hundreds of Protoss clans suffered heavy casualties. The entire race was nearly wiped out.

There was no possibility that they could restore their vitality even in another hundred years.

A small number of Protoss, who lost their bravery, threw away their dignity to leave some offspring and prevent the whole race from dying out. They knelt on the ground and expressed their surrender, begging the Chen family to let them live.

The Chen family discussed these requests. They agreed to the concept collected a group of Protoss lackeys.

At this time, the Federation’s special attack fleet stationed outside the atmosphere received news that the Protoss coalition had failed in their besiegement of the Chen family fortress and lost 80% to 90% of their troops.

They too announced that they would launch a counter-attack against the Protoss.

Innumerable fighter jets drilled into the atmosphere, dragging a trail of fire behind them, and joined the final pursuit.

…

Two weeks later.

After destroying all remaining resistance forces, the human federal army gained control of all the situations on the planet.

After a hundred years, the control of earth returned to human hands.

Human beings had regained their homeland.

Tens of millions were deeply moved by the event and the celebration went on for several days….. The success of the counter-attack and the defeat of the enemy was touching.

But recapturing their homeland was just the beginning.

The difficulty laid in what was after – administration… It was the principle of conquering the world is easy, managing it is difficult.

Because of the intelligent lifeforms living on the earth, the billions of Protoss… They occupied almost every corner of the earth. They had proliferated for generations and set down deep roots.

If the humans were to relocate so many Protoss, it would cause a rebellion and the stability of the regime would drop sharply.

After all, the earth was also the “homeland” of the billions of Protoss.

Violent evictions would only lead to severe consequences.

And if they were not evicted? Then there would not be half an inch of unused land on earth suitable for human immigration.

The tens of billions of Protoss… became a troublesome issue.

One representative gritted his teeth and said, “Why don’t we kill them all, just like how they treated the humans.” He proposed an extremely cruel plan.

But it was rejected… After all, human beings were civilized and intelligent creatures. It was impossible to make such a cruel decision that had no limits.

At this time, the representative from the Chen family suggested that everyone found agreeable.

“Integration. Let the Protoss and human beings merge. From now on, we are one regardless of race. We will become one civilization.”

“Actually, under the oppression and exploitation by the various Protoss clans, ordinary Protoss from the middle and lower classes have very low requirements when it comes to survival. It is enough for them if they could ensure that their family has sufficient food and clothing. They had never thought about fighting for human rights, freedom or to make trouble. The clans have destroyed their abilities to think.”

“Now, we are here and we’ve overthrown the degenerate upper echelons of the Protoss. We’ve freed them from oppression, freed them from their shackles, then brought them food, warmth, equality, and dignity… After giving them these, the middle and lower classes will no longer see us as the enemy, but friendly liberators.”

“Most of the Protoss at the bottom of the hierarchy will wholeheartedly protect the regime of the Federation. They’ll even be willing to against the evil forces to protect this Federation and defend the good life. They will defend all those that have not come easy to them.”

“The tens of billions of Protoss will be a very obedient part of the Federation in the future,” Chen Jin said with a smile.

“But…”

Under Chen Jin’s oppressive gaze, the hard-core representative opposing the Protoss had no choice but to say, “I support this solution, but… Don’t forget that there are three Sages left within the Protoss. Each of them has the power to squeeze our Earth until it explodes.”

How could humans change the direction of control under the scrutiny of the Sages and incorporate the Protoss under the control of the human beings of the earth?

Even in theory, it was impossible to succeed in this.

“Haha, the Sages?”

Chen Jin laugh chillingly, he let Chen Junfeng replace him, who said calmly, “Let us handle this matter. It will take three to five days. Even if they are the Sages, the Chen family will have a way to make them obedient to us and serve us.”

…

Sure enough, three days later.

The three Protoss Sages did not take any action. They had, incredulously, tacitly agreed to a new structure that was dominated by the humans and in which, the Protoss were subordinated.

Chapter 472 - A Portable Portal

The Sages were so terrified that they had given in.

It was impossible to believe this if it was made known, but it was true.

Because the power of the weapons that the Chen family had come up with, was too shocking.

The anti-matter bombs with a yield of 10 billion tons. Even a Sage could be destroyed by that.

Even if the Sages could not be killed, as long as a few of those bombs were distributed evenly across the earth and detonated at the same time, the billions of Protoss representing the foundation of their race would be instantly destroyed.

The Protoss… would be declared extinct.

Indeed, the powerful Sages could regard all the common people in the world as insignificant beings. But if the Protoss were annihilated, and there were only the three Sages left as the Protoss?

The Sages could still survive after losing their roots and live a life as long as the universe. But they would only be three lonely people.

Moreover, without the fate of the Protoss as a group, with the loss of the support from the fate flowing through an entire race, even a Sage would not be able to carry on for long. They would be riddled with various disasters, inexplicably struck with bad luck, and their opportunities and destinies would even be plundered by those with greater luck.

Therefore, even the Sages must make certain compromises on the safety of the tribes… The two are interdependent and mutually reinforcing.

…

The humans were victorious.

The Protoss were forced to integrate.

The war on earth finally ended with peace and they entered a new era.

Everything would develop towards the bright side, at least for a while. There was no need to no be too worried.

Therefore, Chen Jin put a lot of time and energy into cultivation.

As a legendary player who spent a lot of money to buy all the cheat codes and extra weapons, his cultivation could be described as having all the advantages that others did not have.

Such as the best of cultivation exercises.

Inexhaustible spirit stones.

All kinds of supplementary magical elixirs and treasures.

Each element of cultivation was flooded with as many supplementary materials and actions that money could buy.

But even so, his achievements through the decades of cultivation were only comparable to that of an ordinary genius.

It took more than 40 years for his cultivation level to reach the middle of the Yuanying phase.

Until the last ten years, when he took a genetic evolution drug with a safety factor of 99.99%. After more than 30 rounds of continuous evolution, he had the body of a Sage; the aptitudes of this ‘body’ went against all natural order.

Then again, what were the uses of such a body?

Based on the most direct observation of its uses, one could see that the efficiency of one’s cultivation increased by five times on the spot.

After the genetic upgrades were completed, the efficiency of one’s cultivation improved tenfold.

These aptitudes and qualities that went against the natural order made Chen Jin somewhat speechless. He keenly felt the many resources that he had invested in cultivation previously; those had turned out to be a waste. Comparing those with the body of a Sage and those who did not, these were completely two sets of different configurations.

When the effects of the cultivation supplements were added to the body of a Sage, it could be described as going against all natural orders.

In the middle of the Jushen phase, less than five years after transforming his body into that which was qualified to be a Sage’s, Chen Jin had risen through several cultivation levels in a row.

When one arrived at the Jushen phase, the practitioner’s consciousness would skyrocket and his soul would expand. He would undergo tremendous changes on the spiritual level.

At this stage, as long as one’s aptitude and qualifications were good enough, one could start to gain enlightenment regarding some of the laws of the universe and understand the deeper mysteries to a certain extent.

Say, what was the law that Chen Jin wanted to know the most?

Time and space.

There was no doubt that it was the law of time and space.

Because the space portal located in his old villa where he had stayed for more than a hundred years had still not been moved.

Until today, it remained a hidden danger that faced the threat of discovery.

In the past 100 plus years, not a year went by where Chen Jin did not think about how to solve this major potential pitfall.

However, due to insufficient technical capabilities, no significant progress had been made.

However, things had changed a bit recently.

It was possible he could move the portal elsewhere, even carry it on him.

Then again, how was this possible? The idea that the portal could change.

This was natural.

Fortunately, Nuwa and Alice had been researching the subject of space technology for more than 150 years, and they had achieved countless vital results long ago.

They even produced space technology by themselves. Amongst all the original technologies in Haierfa, the space technology was the one with the highest standard and the most advanced. It was the original technology that generated the most pride in him…With this technology, Haierfa was much more advanced than many higher civilizations.

If the cost factor was ignored, currently Haierfa could create the warp engine, the bi-directional portal, an intergalactic highway… There was a way to compress an area with a radius of hundreds of light-years into a one-year life circle.

Besides, they had the most advanced space leap technology that enabled a spacecraft to arrive somewhere that was 50 light-years away.

The above space technologies were only space technologies developed based on the aspect of science and technology.

After the Heavenly Realm was integrated with earth, the space technologies brought by the Protoss practitioners, such as the space storage ring, conveyance formation method, instant transfer, and other space technologies, represented different ways of using space.

Also, with Chen Jin’s current ability, with just the space technology that was purely based on the material aspect of science and tech, it would be very hard to understand the workings of the portal. He might even damage the stability of the portal and cause some malfunctions.

What if it space technologies based on the aspect of cultivation was added to the mix?

Combining the two technological systems and then deducing the essence of the law of space to achieve better uses, to the extent that he could manipulate the portal… Was there such a possibility?

Of course, the theory was only a theory. In the end, as to whether it would work, it still had to be put into practice.

Chen Jin spent a lot of time on experimentation.

With more trials that were conducted, he achieved some amazing results!

Chen Jin divided the operation of the portal into these categories. From the easiest operation to put into practice to the most difficult: shrinking and enlarging the portal, moving the portal, fixing the portal to one location, and the creation of the portal.

The first was to attempt compressing the portal. He wanted to see if he could carry out some works on the edges of the portal and slightly reduce its size.

He reduced the original diameter of about one meter to about 80 to 90 centimeters.

There was a saying that everything was difficult at the beginning. There had been ten years of research. Chen Jin used a special method to remove a corner of the portal. The area of the portal was suddenly reduced by the size of a one yuan coin.

But this was still very heartening progress!

It was not excessive to describe this as a major milestone.

Because the portal had been shrunk slightly – this was the truth. He made a crucial step.

However, changing the size of the portal should not only be a one-off thing, such as only shrinking but not able to enlarge it. He must be able to shrink and enlarge it as and when he liked

However, in the course of the experiment, he found that it was much harder to enlarge the edges of the portal than to shrink it.

After all, barriers of space were not that easy to manipulate. If each time that the portal was shrunk meant that the barriers would be fused, then when the portal was expanded, it would be equivalent to tearing apart the barriers.

The energy needed in the two situations was on totally different levels.

It would only be possible to tear open the barriers of space to expand the portal’s area if Chen Jin possessed tremendous mental strength coupled with the enlightenment of the law of space.

Hence, to solve this problem, Nuwa spent many years to create an amplifier for mental energy that had a state-of-the-art biochip embedded in it… This amplifier employed a large number of Protoss souls. When the amplifier was used, the intensity of one’s output of mental energy could be increased by more than 100 times. This was comparable to what the strongest practitioners in the latter phase of the Shenguang order could do.

The only shortcomings were its short effective time (only three or five minutes), it consumed a large amount of power (the ordinary practitioner would not be able to bear this kind of power drain), the effective scope of action was small (adjustment range could not exceed the area of a one yuan coin each time). The advantages were its accurate operation, low consumption of mental energy as measured in units and its high efficiency.

There was a sense of deja vu that one was making the idea of skipping over step-by-step operations into a reality with the help of props.

In short, with the help of the mental energy amplifier, he could break the space barriers and expand the area of the portal… But the efficiency of such a task was somewhat low.

The first stage of manipulating the portal was thus achieved.

Then there was the “moving” of the portal.

How to make space flow?

Naturally, the answer was warp.

Space warp.

He would be able to move the portal as long as a space warp machine was created.

However, if this machine was made according to the principles of the science and technology side, its size might be bigger than a villa. There was no way it could be operated or manipulated. It could not be kept secret either.

It was best if the space warp machine was the size of a suitcase.

Only the space technologies based on cultivation principles could be employed.

Hence, the machine to move the portal had been built after a few years. It was slightly larger than a suitcase. After inputting the user’s divine sense and the machine began operating, it could move the portal, which had been compressed till its diameter was 30 cm, to a position equal to or less than 500 meters away.

As Chen Jin strengthened his cultivation and expanded his divine sense, this moving distance could be extended.

Just like this, the problem of moving the portal that he most wanted to solve had been solved.

In addition!

What Chen Jin wanted, even more, was to affix the portal to a certain tool or machine such that he would be able to move the portal anywhere together with the tool. He could bring the portal with him wherever he went. When he wanted to use the portal, he could open it with his divine sense, set it in a safe place, and then squeeze into it to cross over into the other universe.

This sort of attachment was not impossible. For example, there was a rare mineral ore called the “void rock,” which was an important tool for the creation of magical storage items. If the void rock was of high quality, it could even open up an independent space inside of itself. Pour some laws into it, and it could be made into multiple sub-dimensional secret spaces…

This was what Chen Jin was considering–he wanted to inject the portal into the void rock, then open a small secret space in the rock where the portal would be installed. He would achieve what could be described as “interior crossover.” With an added layer of “insurance” on the outside, the entire process would feel safer.

Moreover, it would be more convenient and useful.

It was just that Chen Jin did not have such a high-quality void rock in his hands yet. He was trying to purchase it from everywhere.

The final option was to split and duplicate the portal.

A universe that corresponded to only one portal; obviously, this was not enough. This was not too safe or secure.

If something went wrong and that one portal was destroyed, it would be equivalent to losing the entire universe.

The best way was to have more than one entrance to the universe by getting a few more backup portals.

Then again, how to create those back-up portals?

Naturally, that would be done using the original, only portal as a basis. A portion of the portal would be “deducted” and stabilized. Then, he would carry out the works to enlarge that portion to get a brand new portal.

This was a bit like cell division. No, it should be compared to the propagation of spores…He would make a brand new portal using a small amount of space from the original.

In theory, this should be achievable as long as the space was strong and stable enough.

But space barriers were not as stable as imagined. Once they leave the original framework, they immediately become unstable and would even dissipate in an instant.

To solve the problem of stability, Chen Jin and the AIs spent a decade before they finally solved this difficult problem and achieved the backups or the copies of the portal.

It took a few years of effort, but they created ten backup portals.

At this time, they also managed to buy a high-quality void rock at a high price and a small secret space was opened inside the rock. Then the portal was put inside the secret space. Finally, space was solidified and sealed.

After a series of operations, a magic weapon called the shuttle device in a palm landed in Chen Jin’s hands.

Not only was it portable, but it also had a built-in large capacity storage space of more than 10,000 cubic meters. After entering the shuttle device in a palm and stepping into the portal inside. The other universe would be waiting for Chen Jin with open arms.

Thus far, the problem of the portal had been completely solved.

Chen Jin would be able to go wherever he wanted on earth. His flexibility, in terms of freedom of movement, had been greatly increased.

“Whew~”

He sighed in relief and opened his arms wide as if he had gotten rid of his bindings. He felt that the world was a really big place where he could freely use his talents to the fullest. He could go anywhere in this big world.

Of course, the portal in Haierfa remained fixed to one location. If he wanted to make adjustments, he would have to buy another high-quality void rock and proceed with injecting the portal into the rock and sealing it from the other end at Haierfa. His flexibility of movement was only half of what it could be.

But for the moment, this was enough.

…

Haierfa.

Someday in a certain year.

The All-Stars Federation had sent out a huge fleet to swallow up the Lanyi civilization. After this, they found a mysterious ruin on a strange planet, attracting Chen Jin’s attention.

“An ancient transmission array that is more than one billion years old?”

“A star formation with the centers of eight stars facing each other?”

“If this array is activated, it’s possible that it would lead to another universe?”

Chen Jin was extremely surprised. How did the universe where Haierfa was located come to have such strange things?

Looking at the mysterious ruin on the projection screen, the vast stone building, the precise drawing and form of the array, and some pictographs that seemed similar to oracle bone inscriptions… The traces of a mysterious civilization were presented to him.

As it was a ruin that had been slightly damaged, it made one feel a strong urge to explore its mysteries.

It was filled with a strange sense of attractiveness.

Moreover, the data detected showed that there was a definite spatial fluctuation located in the center of the huge eight-pointed star array.

Once this array was activated, the spatial fluctuation would increase, opening a passage to a strange area.

“Nuwa, what do you think of the situation? Why does this a kind of array exist here too, isn’t it a universe that is still leaning purely on science and tech?” Chen Jin was very puzzled.

“Master, according to the symmetry and relations of the multiverse, if there is a Heavenly Realm associated with Earth in the other universe, then there is a high probability that there is also a related plane in this universe here… It’s just that the related plane has not found itself in a difficult situation and is very stable. There has been nothing similar to the return of the Protoss in a billion years. The so-called ‘Revival of Magical Powers’ will not happen here. Only some transmission arrays have been left as a sign of its association to this universe.”

“So what you mean is… as long as you the array is activated, I can go to that mysterious world?”

“Yes master, and there is a greater possibility that is a high-energy universe based on cultivation.”

“A world based on cultivation? A world where one could cultivation to become an immortal? Another Heavenly Realm?”

“Almost, its nature should be similar.”

Chen Jin’s eyes slightly brightened. He secretly reckoned, the Heavenly Realm that was associated with Earth is beyond repair, it has completely collapsed. Not even a high-quality void rock can be found. I wonder if the mysterious cultivation world associated with this universe here would have some resources that I want?

Besides, staying at home was so boring. Shouldn’t find somewhere where he could play and let go?

Chapter 473 - The Mysterious World of Immortals

Haierfa.

Crater City–inside the villa in the center of the urban district.

Sitting on the sofa in the living room, Chen Jin expressed his thoughts – he wanted to go outside of Haierfa and make his way.

“It’s a great wide world, and the universe is boundless. It’ll be very exciting, I want to go out and see,” he crossed his legs and said calmly.

“You mean… an adventure?”

Guo Yan, who was sitting across from him, looked at him. She was quite surprised, “You don’t want to stay home anymore? You want to go out and have fun?”

“It’s not really about having fun, I just want to see some different sceneries, moreover…”

Chen Jin twisted his neck and shoulders, causing his joints to crack. He said in a low voice, “I’ve stayed home for more than a hundred years, it’s about time that I got sick of this lifestyle. You wouldn’t want to live such a boring life too, right?”

“I don’t feel it’s boring.”

Guo Yan blinked and said, “There’s internet, games, delicious food, and you at home. How could I be bored? If the days could remain like this, I could stay home for a thousand years.”

“A….. A thousand years?”

Chen Jin put his leg down. He nearly spilled all the air in his lungs. Someone who did not even want to go out of her home for a thousand years; she must be the ultimate king of all homebodies. And with the way she was playing it down, did it mean that she could stay home and be a homebody for ten thousand years, a million years, or forever? Maybe she could even stay home till the apocalypse arrived? Such a thing would not be difficult for her at all?

“When you feel bored and want to go out and have a look at the outside world, breathe the fresh air outside, feel the beautiful world, see the different people outside, taste some food that you wouldn’t be able to enjoy at home, make some new friends…After such a day has ended and you return home, you will feel that it’s still better to squirrel yourself at home.”

He heard this. Guo Yan told him a dialogue that sounded as if it could come straight out of a theater sketch.

“Puuuu~!”

Chen Jin spewed and looked at Guo Yan incredulously. This woman, who was always gentle and considerate, actually had such a cheeky side to her.

“Cough cough~”

He coughed twice and adjusted his composure. Chen Jin put on a serious face and said, “Wife, I am serious this time, we need to go out for a short trip, I’ve found that I am not that kind of homebody who can squirrel himself at home until he dies. My mind is filled with thoughts of going out and making my way in this universe…I must go.”

Chen Jin’s attitude was quite firm and his stance could be changed.

Guo Yan’s eyes fell on his face and she looked deeply at him for a while.

After a long time, she said a little helplessly, “If you want to go, then go, but…”

Her gaze bore holes into him, “Mu Yunhua can’t go with you, only the two of us can go on this trip.”

“This…”

Chen Jin opened his mouth wide, “I have already talked about this with Yunhua. She has also agreed. Everyone is still together for this.”

“I say no means no!”

The voice of the woman became sharp. Her beautiful facial expression suddenly became somewhat fierce and malevolent. Was she the leaves in the background that acted as a foil for the flowers? To be honest, she had done enough. She would no longer be the foil to that woman… Even if the other party had no intention of putting her in such a position.

But she really couldn’t stand it anymore! This was not jealousy in any form, but simply, an intolerance, a refusal to accept that had no reasons or origins!

Her life was not about being the leaves in the background.

“Wife, Yunhua didn’t do anything bad. You know that we are purely friends and have always keep a polite distance. Why did you suddenly become so stingy?” Chen Jin asked.

All of a sudden, he felt that women were somewhat impervious to reason.

“No, absolutely not! Only the two of us go or we don’t go at all!” Everyone would just stay at home.

The woman said wilfully. She was completely different from her gentle and rational personality in the past. Now, she was like an angry girl in her adolescence.

“???”

Chen Jin was blank. His head was full of questions. Just what was going on, how did Guo Yan suddenly become like this?

Looking at her state again, Chen tactfully backed down from quarreling. He was not a young man anymore. Quarreling could not solve the problem, instead, they would only intensify the tensions. The most urgent task was to find the reasons for her state, calm her emotions, and try to convince her.

…

“It’s very simple. The reason why the Mistress is angry is because she is jealous.” Chen Jin approached Nuwa to analyze the situation and she quickly found the reason.

“Jealous?”

Chen Jin smiled. He was so mad that he smiled, “But that level of jealousy? Now I can’t even have an ordinary female friend?”

“There is no friendship between men and women. Master, are you still deceiving yourself?” Nuwa blinked.

“You…” Chen Jin smiled bitterly and looked at her, “Even you are making a joke of me.”

“It’s probably because your mentality towards her is one of compensation so you have been too good to the Mistress all these years. Because of your attitude, she has gotten to a place where it’s hard for her to relinquish her position or your attention. She has developed a strong possessiveness. Moreover, Queen Yunhua is so outstanding that she blocks the light of the Mistress. So in addition to the possessiveness, there is an aspect of jealousy. Hence, she cannot tolerate three people going together.”

Chen Jin shook his head. Jealousy? When the two women were together, they looked like the best girlfriends in the world. They talked and laughed, twittering non-stop. Sometimes, even he felt gratified and happy. But she was secretly jealous of Yuhua?

Ah, women were too complicated.

However, he did not want to continue digging deep into women’s psychology. He did not have the time to study that topic either. He just hoped that Nuwa could help to come out with some ideas and think of a way to convince Guo Yan.

…

Three months later.

After persuading Guo Yan with sex, working so hard that his back ached and he couldn’t walk, she agreed to take Mu Yunhua on their adventure.

Recalling how, for three months, he worked like a robot to please his wife to the extent that she was disgusted with him. Chen Jin understood that women were not that difficult to deal with.

After all, because of her, a man was willing to do her to the point that there was no sperm left in him. Did this not prove that this man loved her?

Chen Jin’s love was so long-lasting and tenacious, it was even to a point where he had nearly given his life away and made his partner feel that she could not take it anymore. If Guo Yan remained that possessive, it would be way past one’s limits.

The consequences of greed were very tragic.

With this in mind, Guo Yan sensibly compromised.

…

After everything was ready, on this day, it was the day of their departure.

In a huge spaceport in the universe, three people stood on the platform of the spaceport and looked straight ahead.

An ellipsoidal giant spacecraft with a maximum diameter of more than one hundred kilometers presented itself in front of them.

The surface of the spacecraft was painted a silver-gray, which was quite conspicuous. The abdomen bulged like a bucket, and the lines were smooth but not elegant enough. The changes in the undulations were not significant.

It was like a fat spaceship; it felt a bit bloated and fat.

But this spacecraft was the extremely terrifying SS interstellar warship… It looked a little bloated because it held an extremely large nuclear fusion reactor inside.

Invincible Little Fatty was the name that Guo Yan gave to this warship. It was quite the image and was adopted.

“Let’s go in.”

The hatch was opened and the access bridge started building itself.

Chen Jin took two silver suitcases and took the lead, taking large strides into the warship.

Guo Yan and Mu Yunhua looked at each other and followed behind him.

…

“Warp engine is starting up, the current warp is one.”

“Increase power, starting to accelerate.”

“We are expecting to enter the superluminal state after 160 seconds.”

Invincible Little Fatty had a somewhat clumsy and awkward body, but it had the best acceleration.

In the control room of the bridge.

Chen Jin and others saw the lines of light lengthening and flowing backward.

In the main screen, the dark blue planet of Haierfa gradually blurred and stretched, turning into a small dot.

“I want to go out and play. I want to go to that mysterious world and have my fun. But I’ll probably think about coming back after a few years.”

After all, it was a place where they had led happy lives for more than a hundred years.

But life was like this, there were separations, reunions, comings, and goings. One yearned for peace of mind but also yearned for the wonders and excitement of the outside world. One was bound to experience the crazy times at least once.

…

In space, the Invincible Little Fatty sailed for nearly two years.

Eight space leaps were made in the course of their travel.

They finally arrived at the Qila Galaxy, which was 850 light-years away… The ancient and mysterious transmission array was found on the fourth planet of this galaxy.

…

At the outer space orbit of the fourth planet.

The Invincible Little Fatty remained relatively stationary to the planet below it.

Dozens of unmanned space fighter jet were released. They dispersed themselves around the planet, drawing a map of the entire fourth planet and scanning all the geographic information.

After they determined that it was an uninhabited planet and that it was very safe, Chen Jin, Guo Yan, and Mu Yunhua boarded a medium-sized aircraft and flew straight towards the mysterious transmission array.

…

In the remaining vestiges of the mysterious transmission array.

“There are eight stars and each star has three notches. A spirit stone has to be placed in each notch to activate the spell formation.”

A total of 24 spirit stones.

Chen Jin nodded. He had no lack of spirit stones. He had so many spirit stones that it was impossible to use up all of them. A few robots were dispatched immediately, and a piece of top-grade spirit stone was placed in each notch until all the notches were filled with spirit stones.

Bursts of fluctuations in the spiritual energy were generated.

A tiny vortex began to form in the center of the array, seemingly without any wind. The vortex slowly expanded, its shape became clearer and it stabilized. It was a “mouth” that was just of the right size to accommodate an adult.

The space transmission array was successfully activated.

“I didn’t expect that spirit stones can be used to activate this large array too.”

Chen Jin was quite excited. This indicated that the cultivation system used in the high energy plane behind the transmission array was more or less based on spirit stones too.

The two sets of cultivation systems could be said to be similar and roughly compatible.

This would a natural advantage, meaning that if he crossed over into the other plane, his cultivation would remain, his strength would still exist in him. He would not be back to square one in terms of cultivation.

With his cultivation in the middle of the Jushen phase and order, he could personally destroy meteorites measuring several tens of kilometers in diameter with ease. As long as he did not meet with the ultimate, most powerful figure that existed in that plane the moment he crossed over, he should not have any big problems wandering about and having fun in that mysterious plane.

Chen Jin was confident about this.

However, to guarantee his safety, he did not test the risks using his own body. Instead, he first sent 10 human replica robots with a certain level of cultivation over there.

The robots would find some facts and get a clear view of the situation!

They took cameras, video recorders and paper, and pen for quick sketches. They would get some photos or videos for Nuwa and Alice to analyze.

Ten human replica robots disappeared into the transmission array.

…

Three days later.

According to the agreed time, the transmission array was turned on again, and the ten human replica robots returned one after another without any incident.

They brought with them the first batch of intelligence.

“Master, these pictures were all drawn by hand. The cameras and video recorders can’t be used there. We can only draw some of the things we saw by hand. We can’t guarantee that the color is accurate, but there is no problem with the overall outline.”

Chen Jin nodded. He immediately took the paper drawings proffered to him and put them on the table to look at them.

The two women, Guo Yan and Mu Yunhua leaned closer to observe the drawings together.

“Its a forest. The other end of the transmission array seemed to be located in a forest. There are no traces of other human activities around.”

“Wow, those trees are too tall, they are piercing straight into the sky. I think ten people can encircle those trunks with their arms. The height of those trees should be hundreds of meters?”

“Those flowers and plants are quite pretty too. Hey, look at that shrub that is about half a meter high, it has many bright red fruits. There is even a black snake beside the shrub, guarding it. Could that be a legendary magical elixir of immortals? It is said that there is always a spirit beast guarding the fruits of the elixir.”

“Now that you say it, I’m noticing it too. Look at this picture, it’s a nocturnal shrub with two sets of six greenish hues, red flowers are growing at the top of the shrub. The roots have some white nodules, it looks a little like the roots of some grass plants. There is nothing remarkable about it, but a leopard is guarding its surroundings… This should be a better elixir.”

The two women looked and checked through the drawings continuously.

After a while, among the hundreds of pictures, they found 30 to 40 plants that had a guardian spirit beast around it.

The human replica robots said that they did not venture far in the past few days and only roughly probed the surrounding area, up to one or one and a half kilometers.

The density of the elixir plants was beyond their expectations.

And based on the density of the spirit beasts, they were able to derive a lot of key information.

Nuwa said, “Master, the concentration of that world’s spiritual energy varies extremely. The concentration should be at least a hundred times that of earth. Moreover, the fog in the woods is strong, and visibility is poor, indicating that it is somewhat like those paradises that have an extremely high level of spiritual energy. It is only in a paradise that you can see the kind of fog that is called immortal clouds.”

A high concentration of spiritual energy!

This was the first important piece of information.

Then, according to the hundreds of hand-drawn drawings, the distribution of the stars in the sky, the scene of the sunrise, as well as the gravity parameters and the curvature of the ground, some important pieces of information were derived.

For example, the land on the other side should not be a sphere, like earth, but a flat plane that was spread out.

The area was much larger than the earth!

The virgin forest with no indication of human development stretched across a large area. It was estimated that it would take more than a few days for one to walk out of this forest.

Besides, due to the high density of the spirit beasts in the forest, the level of danger when venturing into the forest was high. Without definite skills, one would only end up in the stomachs of the various spirit beasts.

And some other information, etc.

“Nuwa, do you think that I should go to the other world or send robots to explore for a few months? The robots can help to determine that it’s safe, and then we can crossover,” Chen Jin inquired.

“There is no need to be so cautious, Master.”

Nvwa said, “I assessed the level of danger to be in the C-class. Moreover, the cultivation of Master and Mistress is enough to deal with the dangers of the S-class, so there is no need to waste a lot of time to probing the environment. Let the robots find out the situation within a radius of five kilometers, after which, Master, you, can crossover.”

Chen Jin nodded. With his strength, there was no need to be overly cautious. He said, “Okay, I’ll let the robots scout out the land for a little longer and then we’ll go over.”

…

Another three days passed.

All preparations were done.

Looking at the portal in front of them, Chen Jin, Guo Yan, and Mu Yunhua first took a deep breath, prepped themselves mentally, and immediately stepped towards the portal.

“The mysterious world of cultivation, here we come!”

Chapter 474 - Stirring Up A Storm

Among the azure sea was an island with immortal fog rising. There were all kinds of strange and alien flowers and grasses with no known names on the island. The immortal deer, white cranes and the spirit monkeys could be found everywhere. Airborne creatures rushed across the sky in droves while the four-footed beasts cavorted on the ground.

Although Chen Jin, Guo Yan, and Mu Yunhua had seen the drawings brought back by the robots, and were mentally prepared for the sights, he was still shocked by the scene that he beheld.

He looked up and saw a giant waterfall. The spiritual energy had condensed into water, and water had evaporated into water vapor. Below the waterfall was a mass of haze. The concentration of the spiritual energy here had reached a shocking level. He felt that he was about to float away to the heavens with every breath that was taken here.

When the two women looked at this scene, they were stunned yet elated. So the immortal land of legends looked like this. What was described in the books was true.

As Chen Jin looked at how happy they were, he bowed his head and sighed. In his heart, he felt very worried. As the saying went, “A remarkable place produces outstanding people.” This place had great Fengshui, which would certainly bring lots of fortune and luck. What kind of people would such a place foster? But in any case, there was no way he could resist anyone from this place with the way he currently was.

He told Guo Yan and Mu Yunhua what was in his mind, and they reacted in an instant. They couldn’t help but worry.

Although Nuwa said that the danger level was a C-class. To be completely safe, Chen Jin still sent the two women back and explored the environment alone first.

Chen Jin followed the waterfall to go upstream and trace the source. He did not know whether to laugh or cry when he was followed by a group of monkeys. The monkeys chattered and yelled as they swung between the branches. They were not even a little bit slower than him. He looked just like a monkey king.

Having said that, at this point, Chen Jin found that his strength had greatly deteriorated. The speed of his movement here was more than a little slower compared to what he was capable of in the other universe.

This was because the laws of this world were more complete, they were more secure and powerful. But of course, he did not know this and did not think too much about it.

The trees here were so high that they blotted out the sky and blocked his line of sight. Chen Jin did not know where to go.

So, he followed the river and walked in the opposite direction of the river flow. It would be easy to return too.

And as he walked along the river, a monkey followed him. It was a golden little monkey with a very bright coat. Its fur was just like a brocade. It grabbed at his clothes from behind and then quickly retracted its paws or it would throw small stones at him. It had a pair of dark brown, watery eyes and it watched him like he was the monkey.

Chen Jin cursed the monkey and his mother. He couldn’t stand it anymore and rushed towards the monkey all of a sudden.

The monkey shouted, climbed up a tree, and shuttled itself back and forth between the branches. It followed behind Chen Jin. It also attracted other monkeys, more and more monkeys joined its group. The numbers kept increasing, and the sight was as magnificent as a wildebeest migration.

No other creatures could stop the monkeys, other animals stepped aside. Among those creatures, there were many ferocious animals, including tigers and leopard-like beasts. There were also some strange beasts that he had never seen before, and even some sinister and vicious-looking beasts.

But he did not see a person during his journey.

And just like this, with the monkeys following, he arrived at a towering and majestic palace. It would be more appropriate to describe it as a group of palaces. Large and small palaces were built on the hills in a picturesque disorder. Clouds and mists curled up around them like they were like palaces of the Heavens.

Chen Jin stopped to wait and see. Erm, he was hiding behind a boulder and peeking around it. He sighed, deeply moved by the scenery. But not a moment later, the group of monkeys caught up from behind.

They faced him, baring their fangs and brandishing claws. Their chattering voices were ear-piercing and noisy. They then picked up small stones and threw them at him, especially the little golden monkey.

Chen Jin’s heart raced, he had no choice but to rush into the palace to escape.

The monkeys outside amused themselves and played around for a while, then they scattered and dispersed into the woods. Only the little golden monkey followed on the heels of Chen Jin into the palace. It did not forget to grab a handful of small stones.

Upon entering the palace, Chen Jin’s sight was flooded with an array of ancient weapons displayed on a wall. There were more than a thousand objects–swords, spears, two-edged swords, and halberds, as well as the classic 18 classes of weapons–every variety of ancient weapon was present. Chen Jin picked a knife at random and found that he could not move it. He tried several pieces besides the knife and found that he could not move any of them either.

He tried picking up more than a hundred pieces before he finally lifted one.

It was a sword about a meter long and its entire body was a light blue-green shade. The hilt was carved with a common engraving of clouds, and the edge of the blade was suffused with a dim and cold light. He could not tell what material was the sword made from. He took this sword with him because he was too lazy to try picking up another weapon.

In another place; inside the Imperial Palace of the Great Wei Dynasty, the Emperor of the Wei State knelt deferentially in front of a middle-aged man and said, “Ancestor, there were violent transmissive fluctuations in a forest in the west of the empire. Your child guesses that such a huge sign of activity should be fluctuations coming from the transmission array connected to that little spiritual world that we’ve abandoned, so I quickly reported this to our Ancestor. Because of this, I’ve disturbed the Ancestor’s cultivation, I ask for your punishment.”

Hearing this, the middle-aged man couldn’t help as a bright gleam flashed across his eyes.

He turned around and murmured to himself, “Perhaps the spiritual energy of the subordinate’s little spiritual world has revived, and the cultivators from the mortal world are relying on the transmission array to lift themselves heavenwards to the world of immortals? Interesting, interesting.

Then, the middle-aged man soared into the sky, the harnessed light that he rode on flashed by, leaving only a voice which fell onto the emperor’s ears, ” Continue your investigations from here, I’ll go on a trip outside. A conservative estimation will see me away for a few decades, a more generous estimation, a hundred years. Report to me when I’m back.”

When the emperor heard this sentence, in his heart, he couldn’t help but feel the cold sweat running down his loosened back.

The man in front of him was not an ordinary person. He was the ancestor of the royal family of the great Wei Dynasty. Leaving aside the fact that he was a cultivator who had attained the pinnacle of a highly respected immortal, and just focusing on the fact that he came to this continent more than 30,000 years ago and killed every single member of the royal family so that his descendants could become the royal family of the country, even when his country underwent great changes, the Wu and Shu states did not dare to invade them – solely because of the Ancestor. Although he did not kill as much in the latter days as he did at the beginning where he killed people whenever they disobeyed him, at least 30% of his descendant emperors were killed by him. So this was a good thing too, that the devil was gone. At least he could live for another hundred years. At this thought, the Wei emperor stood up here, “Men, send out the Eagle Guard (similar to the Mianyi Guard), they must investigate this matter thoroughly.”

At the same time, the cabinet of the Wu state was also discussing this matter. “I heard that there was a violent fluctuation, suspected to be related to movement between two worlds, originating from an abandoned transmission array located in the common border between the Wei and our state. Is there really such an incident?” Zhang Jin said.

“Replying to your question, Cabinet Elder Zhang, indeed, there has been such an incident. But the spiritual energy in that world has long been exhausted. It is impossible for cultivators to arise over there or to activate the array. So this humble official speculates that it’s probably a powerful cultivator who had crossed the boundaries between worlds and the broken channel happened to be where he arrived. The transmission array may not have been activated,” a young member said solemnly. Zhang Jin looked at him, and then he looked at the officials, “What do you think?”

“Cabinet Elder Zhang, according to the opinion of this humble official, rather than discussing this matter, why don’t we send a messenger to the Wei capital and ask their emperor about this, at the same time, we’ll send a scout to the area in question to check things out. After all, the ownership of a small spiritual world can change many situations. The strength and great potential of a cultivator who has flown up to the Heavens are awe-inspiring. This continent has not seen a cultivator taking to the Heavens for many years. If it is really a cultivator bound for the Heavens, our state of Wu must find that cultivator and gain control of the transmission array,” Shi Mengkui finished speaking.

Zhang Jin’s voice rang out, “Lord Shi’s suggestion is reasonable and I think it is feasible. Let’s start voting now. I vote in approval.”

“I approve”

“I approve”

“I approve”

…

“All right, this suggestion will be adopted.”

Chapter 475 - Imperial Court Assembly Discussions

From this side of the mountain range, Chen Jin combed through everything the whole way. He walked across valleys, crossed over mountain ridges, and turned over mountain tops to arrive at this side.

He found that this side was the “front,” where there was an even more majestic palace. Looking further, he saw the boundless sea. It was a big villa with a sea view, you couldn’t deny it.

Though he had combed through everything as he traveled, he had only gained that one double-edged sword. Those palaces either had magical elixirs or cultivation exercises, but a ban had been placed on them, preventing Chen Jin from taking them. He preferred that there wasn’t anything at all in the first place. Seeing them but not being able to take them; it was very difficult to bear.

He would cut his speech here and fly into the palace.

The palace was very unique, it was much like the kind of houses in southern China. He entered into the grand foyer, then took a turn around a screen to the patio. Behind the patio was another grand foyer, with rooms and kitchens on both sides.

This palace was relatively larger, and upon entering, he could see that it was similarly a great hall too. Inside the hall was a large, open altar. The altar was densely covered with glowing runes that were suddenly bright one moment and dark the next.

However, it had been badly damaged and was no longer whole. The brilliance that was faintly emitted by the runes seemed to be struggling still.

Chen Jin worked his spiritual power, wanting to fly up to get a peep and see what was going on, but he found that his body had become exceptionally heavy. His feet could not leave the ground.

But he experienced no abnormality in walking. There were no problems when he tried hopping and jumping,

He did not know what was happening, but since there was no threat to his safety or his life, he shelved his concern.

Then, he continued to walk inside. It was an ancestral hall, and at the top of the hall, there were a few memorial tablets placed in a scattered manner. Chen Jin did not recognize any of the names on the tablets.

Not only did he not recognize the people, he could not even recognize the script.

Chen Jin had never seen this kind of script before, which meant that there was another civilization here.

However, there was no one here, not even one intelligent life form, only a bunch of animals.

That civilization was either destroyed or they had abandoned this place.

He was not going to think so much about it now, he would take a look at the altar first.

He could not fly in this space, but he could move around, so Chen Jin climbed up the altar.

The entire altar was a circular platform. After climbing up, he could see that part of the platform was badly damaged, and the runes there were melted.

In the middle of the circular platform was a pool of clear water, he described it as a pool of clear water, but in fact, this altar was very big, so the pool was more like a swimming pool.

Chen Jin jumped in even as he was still thinking about it.

He never imagined that a gale would rip through the island at this moment. Spiritual power poured into the altar for a time, and brilliant light erupted from the runes.

The gale stopped in the next moment and the runes dimmed completely.

On the surface, it seemed that nothing happened on the island, but most of the spiritual energy had disappeared.

Chen Jin was in a disaster. He had been sinking further down since jumping into the water. It seems that there was no buoyancy with this water. In his mind, he thought that he was finished. This was impulsive of him. Fortunately, with his cultivation, it was unlikely that he could die from drowning.

As he continued sinking, his surroundings grew increasingly darker. Suddenly, a scene appeared in front of his eyes.

There was a man in white clothing and a high crown on his head. He grasped a double-edged sword in one hand, and a wine gourd in the other as he sat on a pitch-black coffin. The coffin floated on the river, and the man drank as the coffin moved ahead.

The scene quickly disappeared and his surroundings grew dark again.

Then Chen Jin felt the water pressure around him getting heavier. The water seemed to want to drill into his body. His body became hot again. It grew hotter and hotter. He felt as if his clothes had decomposed at the bottom of the pool. Chen Jin’s eyes closed and he passed out.

When he next opened his eyes, he found himself surrounded by trees. He did not know where he was.

He checked himself over. His cultivation had entered a new realm. He was not a Sage anymore. He had no impurities in his body. His whole body was elegant as a jade carving, and he had great depths of spiritual power in his body, it was like a vast, inexhaustible ocean. His very own fundamental essence of life sat with the spirits of heavens.

There were additional memories in his mind, including a method of practice called the Emperor’s Scripture. There was also some general knowledge about cultivation, such as the divisions of the cultivation realms, after which he found out that he had stopped at the Mahayana phase. He would attain immortality in the following phase.

However, becoming an immortal was indeed an extremely difficult task. The most important part of this was Dujie–the process of gaining special powers via cultivation. However, because this is against the Heavens, the cultivator would be struck with disasters. After he rode out the worst of these disasters, he would be able to ascend to the Immortal World.

Chen Jin thought that this was the so-called “inheritance.” He had found a treasure, and he was elated.

He looked at the sky, it was almost dark. He had to find a place to reorganize.

He had just checked the condition of his body. But there was nothing on of his body. He had no clothes or anything like that. There was a sword stuck into the ground beside him and a little monkey sleeping away.

The little monkey had awakened too and it looked around vacant eyes. It found itself in a strange environment. When he saw Chen Jin, its eyes that had dimmed brightened again. Obviously, it knew this unlucky wretch.

The Ancestor of the Wei dynasty changed himself into a stream of light, heading to the forest in the west. There was nothing there. The transmission array was still there, but there were no changes to it. There were no signs of even a single person crossing through the array.

The transmission array could not be used because there was no spiritual power on the other end. Even the Ancestor, with cultivation that was at the pinnacle as a powerful immortal, could not cross over into the other world using the array.

The Ancestor of the Wei dynasty frowned, then turned into a stream of light and left.

After a few days, the young man named Zhang Jin also brought a few men with him here. They left after staying for a few days.

The Wei Ancestor did not say anything when he returned to the palace. He went to the place where he usually secluded himself.

Zhang Jin of the Wu state returned and during court assembly the next morning.

Zhang Jin took a step forward to present his account, “Reporting to Your Majesty, no abnormality has been found in the border between Wu and Wei. I think that it’s only a case of someone with great power passing through, hence causing the spiritual fluctuations of the transmission array.”

“If that is so, then there is no need to take keep an eye on it. Esteemed officials, do you have any documents to present?”

….

“Then I will mention one thing. Yesterday, the messenger from Shu came to confer with me about formalizing the alliance treaty. I strongly agree with this. My esteemed officials, what are your thoughts on this?”

“The land under the Heavens has existed for a hundred years. Today, Wei has nursed the vitality of their state back to health, built up troops and stored up energy. Wei Wudi is ambitious as a wolf. He will undoubtedly raise troops and sent them to the south. The Wu-Shu alliance will certainly be left to their own accord,” The Prime Minister said.

“Also, the Wu State is currently on its third generation of emperors and they are adored by the commoners. Their sects, both large and small agree with us. Every influential family stands united in heart and mind, they are not afraid of Wei,” The head of the Zhou family said.

“The Shu State has fertile land stretching thousands of miles, it is also a rising power. They have several cultivators at the Mahayana phase which means they can go on long campaigns and perfect their warfare. They also train their soldiers with the correct methods. Their Mentors of State are so wise and knowledgeable that they nearly seem to be demons. If we form an alliance with Shu, we will be able to resist Wei!” The head of the Yunxia Sect said.

“Then the matter of the alliance is thus concluded. I will send people on a diplomatic mission to Shu tomorrow. Which of my esteemed officials are willing to go?” The King of Wu asked.

“I recommend someone for this mission. He will achieve success!” The Prime Minister said.

“Who?”

“He is the Director of the Board of Rites, Zhang Jin!”

“Is the esteemed official Zhang willing to do this?”

“I will not disappoint your expectations. I will return with news of success,” Zhang Jin said

“Good.”

……

Besides, Chen Jin went to a small village, and with his Mahayana cultivation, stole a linen garment. Wearing the garment, he could finally walk on the road.

The monkey saw that he was wearing clothes and wanted to wear it too. It grabbed and pulled at Chen Jin with no sign of stopping. What surprised Chen Jin was that this monkey has a Mahayana phase cultivation too. It was no wonder that this monkey appeared to have considerable intelligence. Moreover, it had also gone into that pond of water with Chen Jin and had its essence “washed” and its energy refined.

Hence, we saw a swordsman clad in white and a monkey with golden fur, clad in red walking together on the road. It looked very strange.

Chapter 476 - Detecting One“s Root Of Immortality

Chen Jin walked aimlessly in his search for signs of human habitation as he digested his inheritance.

The boundaries of inheritance were different from the divisions of the Protoss on Earth. The Jushen phase corresponded to the Merging period. The Jushen cultivation method of the Protoss was to condense the mind and the body so that the soul could better experience Heaven and Earth, thereby laying down the foundations of the law of enlightenment. basis. The Shenguang phase corresponded to the pinnacle of the Merging phase–the half-step Mahayana. As the saying went, as long as one’s spiritual light was not extinguished, his immortal power would never end. During the Shenguang phase was an important phase whereby the magic power in one’s body was transformed into an immortal’s power. When the body’s magic power had been completely transformed into immortal power, one would enter the Sage phase (Mahayana). With the law of enlightenment gained during the Mahayana phase and after one had fully adjusted to the immortal power in one’s body, one could start his Tribulations Survival (Dujie) to become an immortal. Therefore, after Chen Jin had been through a physical metamorphosis and fully transformed the magic power in his body into immortal power, he naturally advanced to the Mahayana.

“So the ‘Emperor’s Scripture’ is only a basic cultivation method. Fortunately, the inheritance allowed me to directly understand the meaning. If it was conveyed through words. I really wouldn’t be able to understand anything,” Chen Jin could not help but shake his head and smile bitterly. “It seems that I can only be an illiterate person in the immortal world.”

As Chen Jin absorbed the inheritance in his mind, a youth in traditional Chinese attire walked straight towards him. The young man was still a distance away but his voice had already reached Chen Jin’s ear. “Fellow Brother, are you also going to participate in the entrance examination by the Xintan Sect?” Chen Jin was over two hundred years old, however, after his metamorphosis, his appearance had returned to how it was when he was seventeen or eighteen years old. Because the magic power in his body had all been transformed into immortal power, cultivators who were at an equal or lower realm than Chen Jin would not be able to discern his cultivation level.

When Chen Jin heard the voice, he could not help but draw a blank. Oh no, what is he saying? He couldn’t understand a word. He could not even understand the language and script of the Immortal World, how could he communicate with other people?

As Chen Jin was pondering this issue, the youth had already arrived in front of him. There was no way they could communicate by simply staring at each other. After a while, the youth seemed to have realized something, he retrieved a rolled-up scroll made with strips of jade. Although it was only a slight casting, the youth’s forehead was covered in a sheen of sweat. He then raised his hand and pointed to Chen Jin’s forehead. To Chen Jin’s surprise, a segment of information was transmitted into his mind. Chen Jin tidied up the information in his mind and discovered that the information transmitted was the language and script of the Immortal World. Naturally, it was not difficult for Chen Jin to master this language since he already had a smart chip implanted in himself.

“Much thanks, fellow brother. I am Chen Jin, and you are?” Chen Jin said. Although he said it very awkwardly, at least he had learned the language of the Immortal World.

The young man could not help but become speechless. Even a spiritual master would need the time that it took an incense stick to burn down (about 30 minutes) to fully process and accept such a huge amount of information. This guy appeared to be on the same level of cultivation as him, but he had learned and mastered the information in a short period. He was a freak.

The youth quickly said, “I am Fang Bin, are you going to participate in the entrance exam of the Xintan Sect?”

“Entry exam? What is that?”

“It seems that you are not going to participate,” The youth was slightly disappointed. He said, “The entrance exam is for those who want to join the sects and become their disciple. But the sects don’t just accept anyone, hence the entry exam. For those like me who have just joined the cultivation-immortal world, it is better to conduct my studies within the system of the sects than to be self-taught.” The young man’s words ended. Chen Jin’s eyes grew brighter. Of course, it was better to join the sects if he wanted to know more about the immortal world.

“That’s good too, I want to join a sect as well. May I request my fellow friend to bring me along for the application.”

“Yay, let’s go,” In his heart, the young man couldn’t help but feel happy. He heard that participants who brought along a friend for the application would get two lower-grade spirit stones if that friend successfully joined the sect.

The youth was very enthusiastic all the way to the exam. He was afraid and that Chen Jin would back out if they were late. Chen Jin’s brow scrunched slightly in a frown. There must be an ulterior motive behind the youth’s enthusiasm. On second thought, it was probably nothing. After all, he was already in the Mahayana phase. The youth had such a low level of cultivation, Chen Jin didn’t have to be so fearful and nervous about the slightest thing. By the way, where did the monkey go? Let’s just forget about it.

In the morning light, Chen Jin and the youth became companions as they traveled. The youth was a chatterbox, he introduced to Chen Jin the country and its local customs. Although he was very noisy, he gave Chen Jin a lot of useful information. This continent was called All Nations’ Mainland. These were the three largest dynasties – Wei, Shu, and Wu. The three states had a similar level of power and none was subservient to any. Although they carried out mutual punitive military expeditions, the relationship between the three could still be considered peaceful. Of the three, Wei’s military was the most powerful, and Wu was the most populous and affluent. The inheritance of Wu had never been broken. No matter how harshly the state was suppressed, its city could still be revived from the dead through a course of lectures. The Shu state was the most mysterious of all three countries. It was said that Shu had, at one point in time, almost unified this continent but then it quickly disintegrated and the continent returned to its original boundaries. Of course, all these were based on what he heard from the elders in his family who traveled long-term. He did not know the specifics of the situation either.

At the same time, Chen Jin also told him that he came from a very distant place. Chen Jin secreted a part of his immortal power in Fang Bin’s body. If he dared to harm Chen Jin, this trace of immortal power would immediately explode from his body and kill him. If the youth did not harm Chen Jin, then this immortal force would slowly improve his constitution, such that he could get further along on his path of cultivation. It could also be considered as his way of repaying the youth’s kindness in passing on his knowledge.

Time flew, and it was about noon when the two finally arrived at the application venue, but there were already tons of people at the venue. The youngest was only seven or eight years old, but the oldest were 15 or 16. Chen Jin was vaguely overage. Chen Jin touched his nose, he could not help but laugh in self-deprecation. A 200-year-old grandpa coming to take the entrance examination with a group of children. What a stretch.

“The root of your immortality is not pure. Rejected, next.”

“Rejected, next”

Soon, it was Fang Bin’s turn. With an expression of apprehension, Fang Bin went forward. He reached out and put his hands on the test instrument. Suddenly, the instrument emitted a faint green light mixed with a trace of yellow in the center. If one did not take a closer look, one would miss that trace of yellow. The middle-aged man dressed in traditional Chinese clothing conducting the test looked at the instrument with a hint of consolation in his expression. “You have the four grades that a root of immortality should possess. You’ve passed the qualification test. Go and stand there,” As he spoke, he pointed to an area not too far behind him where there were seven to eight children.

“It’s my turn. Even though my body had become more suitable for cultivation after going through the Body of A Sage’ Plan, and I’m already at the Mahayana phase, one’s natural aptitude can’t be changed. My original aptitude for cultivation is terrible. I don’t know the exact extent of this test but I am looking forward to it,” Chen Jin thought.

Just as he was preparing to go forward to take the test, the youth who was lined up behind him said, “You’re so much older than me, but you’ve only awakened the roots of your immortality at this age? You’ll fail. It’s shameful to try your luck when you’re so old.”

Chen Jin’s speechlessness was not caused by the mocking of the child, but by how unintentionally accurate his words were. Although his appearance was that of someone who was only seventeen or eighteen years old, he was more than two hundred years old. Perhaps it was because he was already an old age and had lived through a lot of experiences, he was not angered by this little incident. He hoped that this original aptitude could show up a little higher. It would be so shameful if he failed.

“Shut up, don’t think you can make a racket here. One more word and I’ll cancel your eligibility to take the test.” Perhaps he hated noise of any sort or perhaps he disliked witnessing ridicule, but the middle-aged man conducting the test slightly raised his brow and berated the child in a loud voice. Suddenly, it became so quiet that the sound of a pin dropping could be heard. Only the footsteps of Chen Jin walking towards to the test instrument could be heard.

Chapter 477 - Test Of Perseverence

“This, this is the little five-element constitution.” When Chen Jin put his hand on the test instrument, the middle-aged man could not help but exclaim. But when he looked at the instrument again, he seemed disappointed.

Although only a faint blue-green light was emitted from the test instrument, there was also a wisp of dazzling violet within the color.

Chen Jin cupped one of his fists with his other hand and said, “May I ask, Senior, what is this little five-element constitution?”

“The so-called little five-element constitution is a type of special constitution. It is well known that everyone has spiritual roots, but with varying degrees of strength. Some people have one single root, so it is very pure. This kind of spiritual root is called the celestial root. This kind of person would have a certain probability of possessing the special constitution corresponding to the spiritual root. For example, for a genius who only has one single fire spiritual root, he may have the body of a flaming sun and a fire body of eruptive flames. Of course, this is relatively common, those of a higher level could possess the acquired body of fire. In legends, it is said that are even higher levels of bodies classed within the overarching body of spiritual fire–there is also the innate fire body, the body of the primordial fire, etc. But even within the ranks of cultivators who have a celestial root, there’s not even one in a million who possess a special constitution. Most of the cultivators with a celestial root have no special constitution, but because the roots are relatively singular and unadulterated so the speed of their cultivation is much faster than that of other cultivators with ordinary spiritual roots. As long as they cultivate to a certain level, they can gradually upgrade the adapted spiritual energy in their bodies’ to an acquired spirit. It is rare to see someone like you, who has the mixed spiritual roots of five elements, to also possess a special constitution.” The middle-aged man said calmly.

“Oh? So what is the difference between one’s constitution and spiritual roots?”

Perhaps the middle-aged man had expected that Chen Jin would have this question in mind, he continued to speak, “The spiritual roots are used to understand the Path of Heaven and Earth and a force used to communicate with nature. The stronger the roots, the higher the potential, and theoretically, one’s level of cultivation would also be higher. But it is not enough to only understand the Path of Heaven and Earth. If there is not enough magic power in the body, its still impossible to elevate one’s cultivation to a higher realm. Some people can elevate their cultivation to a higher realm, but they are limited to the current realm due to insufficient magic power. Some people have enough magic power but because they don’t have enough understanding of the Path they can’t continue to advance to the next level and have to stay in their current realm. With a special constitution, one would have a greater affinity for the spiritual energy and it becomes easier to absorb the spiritual energy. It is almost impossible to have a special constitution when you possess mixed spiritual roots of five elements. I don’t know how you came to have a special constitution either.”

Hearing this, Chen Jin secretly shook his head. It seems that his natural aptitudes were bad. Leaving aside the mixed spiritual roots of five elements, even the special constitution was created from through the Sage plan. It seemed that he was a piece of junk before.

Not waiting for Chen Jin to complete his thought, the middle-aged man regained his calm composure and said, “Although I cannot pass you based on your mixed spiritual roots, you have a special constitution, so you pass as well. Go stand over there. Next.”

Chen Jin’s gloomy expression disappeared. As an old freak who had lived for more than two hundred years, this little thing was not a blow to him. He slowly walked over and when he halted in his spot, he heard Fang Bin whispering, “Congratulations for successfully passing this test, Brother Chen.”

“Erm, congratulations to you,” Chen Jin said. At the same time, he also realized that something was a little strange and he asked, “Why does everyone come alone without their family elders accompanying them?”

Without waiting for Fang Bin’s reply, the old man behind him started to speak, “Because this is a test in itself. The nature of cultivation is to struggle for mastery with nature, to fight with the Heavens, to compete with the land and to compete with other people. There is no concept of time in the cultivation of immortality, you practice Daoism in the morning and by evening, you realize that decades have passed. It is very normal for cultivators to be separated from the families. If you are preparing to start on the road of Daoism but still let your family come to send you off, you can just forget about cultivation.”

All the youths around them were silent. After listening to the old man’s words, they seemed to be thinking about something. Only Chen Jin’s face remained indifferent. Seeing Chen Jin’s expression, the old man could not help but have a more favorable opinion of him. One so young had such a mindset. It was just that his spiritual roots were rather poor, otherwise, he was a good candidate. When his words ended, the old man closed his eyes slightly and stopped speaking. However, Fang Bin was confused and did not know what to think for a while. After a moment, he became resolute and steady again.

The sun had set behind the mountain in the blink of an eye. The first stage of the exam had ended. With the addition of four or five children to the group after Chen Jin, there was no difference before and after.

“Okay, the 30 of you have passed the first stage–the aptitude test. Now, the second stage of the exam, the test of perseverance, will begin. The assessment content is also very simple. Disciple Lin and I will walk in front of you and you will follow behind us. If you can follow behind us until just before dawn and arrive with us at the mountain gate, you would pass the test. If you get lost, you would lose your right to continue participating in the exam. Do you understand?” the old man asked.

“Yes, we understand,” the crowd said.

After that, the old man did not turn back as he walked ahead. In the next scene, they saw the two old men move at a seemingly slow pace, but the speed was extremely fast. The group of youths rushed behind them, fearing that they would be lost.

As for Chen Jin, the speed of the two old men was still not fast enough. As long as he wanted to, he could easily overpower their speed. But to keep his abilities under wraps, he could only do what the youths did. He pretended to sweat buckets as he rushed along on the road.

In the beginning, everyone was able to follow behind the old men. Although they were panting harshly, the pace was not so hard on them to the extent that they lagged so far behind as to get lost. Then, they arrived at the foot of the mountain and the two men at the front seemed to have no intention of slowing down. The youngsters behind could only push themselves to follow, but they still lost two or three people.

Dawn had not yet broken. In front of a huge stone wall, there were only a dozen or so teenagers left from their group. Naturally, Chen Jin and Fang Bin were included. There was no need to talk too much about Chen Jin. His cultivation was already at a high level and it was normal to be able to keep up. It would be strange if he could not keep up. Fang Bin’s body had a trace of immortal power that was left by Chen Jin. Whenever he was lacking in strength, the immortal force inside him would automatically provide strength. Therefore, it was natural that he was not tired even after walking for a whole night. Fang Bin also found it very strange. He thought it was the test was too simple, but after seeing the few people around him and how ashen and dirty they looked, he knew that the assessment was not simple.

“Okay, all of you have passed. Everyone, enter.” As this sentence ended, the first ray of morning light landed on everyone’s faces. Some people looked excited, some were filled with anticipation and some looked dubious.

In front of them was a huge stone wall, there was no path that they could enter. How did they even enter?

They had no time to overthink the instructions. The old man and the middle-aged man walking into the stone wall side by side, without any hindrance.

“This array is a superb achievement. Compared to the arrays and formations created on earth with its rarefied spiritual energy, this is so much stronger.” Chen Jin muttered his head but did not rush into it.

It didn’t take long before a youth, who seemed to know something in advance, to quickly run towards the wall. The same stone wall did not cause any obstacles for him. After a wave of fluctuations, the stone wall returned to its calm again and the figure of the youth disappeared within the front of everyone.

When there was one who took the lead, there would naturally be a second. Soon the second teenager gritted his teeth and slowly walked towards the wall. At the face of the wall, he seemed to still be somewhat hesitant. Who knew that an eccentric girl would sneak up behind him. Before the teenager could even think things through, only a loud “Ah!” remained of him as he was pushed into the wall. After pushing the teenager in, the girl dusted off her hands. Looking like a child-sized adult, she muttered to herself, saying that “Brother Hua Qiang is just so timid. He’s older than me yet he’s so cautious and indecisive. I am not afraid even though I’m eight years old, what is he afraid of when he’s already 15?”

Chen Jin saw this scene and could not keep from laughing lightly. The girl suddenly turned around and said, “What are you laughing at. Although Brother Hua Qiang is timid, he still went in. What are you waiting for? Do you dare to go in? It’s a stone wall, you could just break your head into a bloody mess.”

Chen Jin saw how cute this little girl was and suddenly his temperament was roused. He decided to be a bit screwy, “Why wouldn’t I dare, I’ll enter right now and hide your Brother Hua Qiang so you’ll never find him again.” He took Fang Bin along with him and walked towards the wall.

Chapter 478 - Inducted Disciples

Before going in, Chen Jin didn’t feel anything. He didn’t know how it felt before entering, it was only when he entered the wall that he felt a sense of amazement. To describe that the stone wall was like flowing water and how it allowed him to freely pass through engendered a sense of incredulity in him. After all, that was a stone wall, it was not an environment but a real entity. And inside the stone wall was another thing that was simply out of this world. It was a dark green lake. The area of the lake was not large but it was extremely deep. All kinds of buildings were constructed around the lake, row upon row and their quantity was innumerable. The concentration of the spiritual energy was so high it was shocking, it seemed to almost be a tangible thing. Upon a second look, the concentration of spiritual energy in the lake seemed to only be a little denser than other places. But Chen Jin knew that things would not be so simple, so he applied the full strength of his eyesight and carefully looked at it. The pool did not contain water, instead, it was spiritual energy that had been transformed into a tangible substance because its concentration was too dense. The spiritual energy was like water, and a fine mist rose from the surface. There was a thread of dense celestial vapor in the depths of the water, there is a sigh of scent. If one could cultivate in the pool of spiritual energy, it might even be better than absorbing spirit stones directly. This was a great paradise, a great immortal cultivation sect. The first impression that Chen Jin had of this scene was “A city on the valley floor and outstanding scenery.”

On the other hand, the little girl saw Chen Jin entering the stone wall, unwilling to admit defeat, she plunged into the wall headfirst. Seeing this, everyone else went into the wall headfirst, too.

As Chen Jin sized up the scenery, he took out his cellphone and took several photos. Although he had the chip in his brain and could take photos by linking the chip with his eyes if he wanted to, with the years of habit behind him, he still took out his phone like he was used to. Others had seen the scenery and they were all astounded, so no one noticed him.

Before he could take more than a few photos, the old man who led the group said, “Welcome to Xintan Sect. Since you’ve entered this place, you can be considered a disciple. Our sect does not have too many rules, we only have a few. Remember these rules well. One, disciples must not kill each other. Two, you need to complete the routine tasks set out by the sect every month. Three, except for completing your tasks and special circumstances, you must not go over the heads of the superiors and enter their areas. You must remember these.”

“We understand,” everyone spoke in unison.

The old man nodded with satisfaction and said to the crowd, “Then, jump into the water. This pool of water is a treasured place of cultivation in the land, it is the road that you must take when you are inducted and an induction welfare for new disciples. After jumping in, you can sit quietly for half an hour. Although you have not yet officially started to cultivating, this pool of water can greatly nourish the physical body, so that your journey of cultivation will be smoother in the future. You need to know that you will have to make some contributions if you want to come here later.” After making this speech, the old man turned around and shut his eyes, no longer speaking a word.

Although the lake was deep, there were also schools of fish. When they heard that they only had half an hour to use the lake, everyone rushed headlong into the water, fighting to be the first.

“Even though the lake is described as water, it’s spiritual energy. It’s somewhat thick but it’s not suffocating,” Chen Jin touched his nose and muttered.

He brushed his hand against the surface of the water and saw the spiritual energy threading into hand wave after wave. It could greatly nourish the physical body even if one did not cultivate it. If one was cultivated in the “water,” wouldn’t it be comparable to the absorbing lower grade spirit stones? The effect was still far from good enough, it was only equivalent to absorbing the lower grade spirit stones. As someone who had been using middle-grade spirit stones for cultivation regularly throughout the years, the effects of the lake weren’t as good as he wanted. If he could reach the bottom of the pool, he should be able to satisfy his own cultivation needs. This was what Chen Jin thought. Of course, only he dared to think this way. If others knew what he was thinking, they would be so depressed. They would probably say, “Motherfucker, I feel so blessed to cultivate here, yet you are reluctant, what the hell are you?”

Their half an hour ended. Everyone was excited, they felt that they had benefited a lot. Only Chen Jin showed an indifferent expression. Seeing that everyone had gotten up, and the old man slowly raised himself without a word and walked towards the cluster of buildings. The people followed behind and glanced left and right, they were like a group of people who had never seen the world and was about to go into the capital. Not long after, a large hall appeared in front of them. On the plaque were two big words “Xintan Sect.” Although the font was not aesthetically pleasing, it gave people a feeling of honor and integrity. With one look, one could tell that it was an upright and decent sect.

The old man led the crowd and walked for a couple of hours. He stopped on a mountain ridge with lush vegetation. A dense group of houses entered their vision. These single-story houses were made up of large rocks piled together, and they looked very simple and crude. Moreover, not a single person could be seen in the many houses, it seemed to be an empty city. It seemed that all of the houses were vacant and there was not the slightest sign of human habitation. This caused the group to have some misgivings! “You can stop overthinking, these houses are indeed empty, no one lives here. Because this is the living area for the new disciples who have just been inducted. Although the houses are somewhat crude, all the basic facilities for your first time settling here are complete. It will not affect you in your initial phases of cultivation,” The old man calmly said when he detected the doubts of the people. Suddenly, everyone understood. But what made them speechless was the state of the houses, weren’t they just too much of a hole in the wall. Even if they were cultivators, shouldn’t they at least have a comfortable environment during cultivation? Chen Jin felt more depressed than the others. After all, everything in Haierfa, including his clothes, food, accommodation, and transportation was custom made. When had he ever lived in this sort of tiny run-down house? Thinking about the fact that he had to stay here for a long time, Chen Jin decided that he must go back to Haierfa through the portal and bring back all his custom equipment. Otherwise, things would be too unbearable.

As Chen Jin thought about his affairs, the old man had not stopped walking. Instead, he was taking everyone all over the alleys between the stone houses. After leading them through so many turns that everyone was confused, a wooden garret appeared in front of their eyes–the only wooden turret here. This turret was larger than the average turret. There was a medicinal garden in the courtyard; everything that was needed was readily available. Among a group of stone houses, the turret appeared particularly tall, large and imposing. But compared to the grand hall that they had seen before, the wooden turret still looked too poor. The old man stood at the door and without explain anything, he shouted, “Disciple Wang, quickly come down and open the door. I’ve brought a new group of disciples to collect their things!”

The old man had just finished speaking when everyone heard the groan of the door as it started to open. The door slowly opened, but there was no one behind the door at all. If everyone present were not immortal cultivators, they would have thought that they saw a ghost. When the old man saw that the door was opened, he did not hesitate to take the lead and walked in. The people looked at each other and followed him into the house.

They saw that the interior area of the house seemed to be bigger than the size of the house as it appeared on the outside. Everyone was curious and thought that the house must have been tampered by someone. However, Chen Jin appeared calm and indifferent. After all, when he was on Earth, he had even witnessed the secret space of a Sage. A very small place could open up into a space as big as a few football fields put together. To him, this little tactic was not a big deal, it could even be considered child’s play.

Although the turret appeared to be neatly planned when they looked up at it from the outside, the inside of the turret was neater and more uniform. The attire of the sect was stacked neatly together, and various weapons were placed on different shelves according to the grade and type. In addition to these things, there were storage bags and books, which were also placed in their respective positions. It seemed that these were the things they were going to collect.

Chapter 479 - Storage Sacks

Looking at one side of the room, a long rectangular table was placed there. The long table faced the doorway and sitting behind the table was a middle-aged man dressed in the robes of a scholar. This middle-aged man did not pay attention to the people entering the house. He held an emerald green brush in his hand and continued to sketch on a piece of paper where a few plum blossoms had been painted.

When the old man saw this scene, he frowned slightly but immediately recovered his composure. He seemed to have no intention of going up to disturb the middle-aged man. Instead, he took a chair from the side and sat down not too far away from the middle-aged man as he quietly and waited for the man to finished the painting.

Chen Jin saw this situation and blinked. Together with the crowd, he went to stand behind the old man without speaking and waited discreetly.

Perhaps seeing that everyone had entered the house, the middle-aged man couldn’t help but paint a little faster. The group saw a lot of images appear on the paper that originally didn’t have much content. In about what was probably 30 minutes, a blooming plum tree amidst a sea of rocks appeared on the blank paper. It was as if the whole room was filled with the aroma of plum blossoms.

“Why have you sought me out?” the middle-aged man asked calmly with an expressionless face. It seemed that a painting of this caliber was only something of a normal standard to him.

“We have an event today but it’s not a big deal. A group of new disciples has just been inducted this year. I am merely bringing them to collect some benefits from our sect,” The old man said slowly.

“If this is the case, then you can go and collect the items yourself. One set for each person and don’t mess anything up. After you’ve collected your stuff, come to me for registration.” When he finished speaking, he gave the old man a list. It was probably a list of the items that they had to collect.

“One low grade long double-edged sword, one bottle of a basic magical elixir to strengthen one’s constituents; it can be freely selected. Two low-grade spirit stones, one sect attire, one external disciple logo, one book on basic cultivation skills and exercises, one guidebook for new disciples (including map), one bottle of fasting pills, an instrument to record contribution points for contributing to the sect, an inferior storage sack. Numbers are from one to nine, go take the items by yourself.” When he finished speaking, he gave a faint smile to the group. He secretly thought that these little fellows had really good luck. The sect had just unearthed a new mine of spirit stones and hence two spirit stones per person were added as part of the welfare for newly inducted disciples. It seemed that the recent salary of the sect would be increasing again.

After a while, everyone got a set of their things and registered them. The middle-aged people slightly scanned everyone over. It was probably because he could tell that no one took any extra items so he said, “I believe everyone has taken their items. I have nothing here that would require more of your time. I will be asking my fellow disciple brother to bring everyone out. I’m continuing to paint,” After he finished talking, he stopped paying attention to the group and casually crushed the previous painting into a ball. He threw it aside, retrieved a blank sheet of paper from the drawer and continued to draw.

When the old man saw this, he held one of his fists in the other hand as a sign of respect and without saying anything else, quietly went out. It was as if he was afraid of disturbing the middle-aged man. Everyone imitated the old man slowly went out of the door without making any noise.

“All right, everyone, put your things in the storage sack now, and follow me for the assignation of your housing.” Looking at the dazed expressions of the group, the old man made a motion and one of the disciple’s storage sacks appeared in his hand. He pointed to a groove in the storage sack and reminded, “For some of you have not cultivated, you can set the spirit stones that you just received on the groove and then aim the sack at the items you have on your hand. Pull the rope on the sack and the items will be automatically collected into the sack. Then, tighten the sack and its done. Those who have cultivated magic power in themselves, inject your magic into the groove, the remaining steps are the same.”

Everyone followed the old man’s instructions, and indeed all the items on the ground were all taken into the storage sack. Everyone found it magical. They couldn’t help but touch their storage sack like it was a treasure. Chen Jin did not feel particularly excited about this feature. His storage ring was of a much higher level than this, and the storage area was much larger. He was only curious about the activation of the sack via spirit stones. It seemed cultivation through self-teaching and trial and error on his own could not be compared to what was taught in a sect. Even a small storage bag could also be activated by spirit stones. If other items could be activated or propelled by spirit stones, it would help to save a lot of spiritual energy.

The allocation of housing was also a simple affair. Because there are so many stone houses, except those who were willing to live together, everyone got an empty house to themselves. Fang Bin did suggest living in a house with Chen Jin, but Chen Jin refused, joking that he had so many secrets, how could he live with him? Besides, Chen Jin had also chosen a very remote position. But Fang Bin chose to stay next to Chen Jin. What was surprising was that the little girl also pulled her brother Liang Hua Qiang along with her and chose to live next to Chen Jin. With this, Chen Jin had three neighbors, and things would not get too boring.

Very quickly, Chen Jin arrived at his place of residence according to the map. He opened the door with the key and walked in. Although the stone house looked somewhat simple and crude on the outside, the interior was still pretty good. There was a practice room, a small medicine garden, an alchemy room and an equipment room that contained all sorts of items for cultivation. There was even a small watering hole that was gushing with water. There should be no issues with daily drinking water and water for bathing. After strolling around in the stone house, he arrived at the bedroom. In the bedroom, there was a bed and a table. There was a small booklet on the table. Chen Jin opened the booklet and found that what was written was every function and use of this stone house. For example, the alchemy room and the equipment room were each equipped with an alchemy furnace of the lowest grade and some basic folk prescriptions that were commonly seen. But the corresponding refining materials were absent. According to the book, the alchemy materials could be cultivated by themselves in the medicine garden. They also had to purchase the seeds by themselves. As for the cultivation method, it was very simple. After all, it was only the cultivation of some low-grade herbs. He only needed to plant the seeds, water them and then bury the spirit stones in the soil to hasten their maturity. The soil in the medicine garden was first-class spirit soil, so its efficiency of absorbing the spirit stones was not fast. It also required the use of magic power to promote and hasten the absorption of spirit stones by the spirit soil. Reading this, Chen Jin became curious. There was such a thing? But there was no such thing on Earth. It seemed that the level of cultivation in the immortal world was much higher than that of the Protoss. Cultivation would not end when one had reached the level of a Sage (Mahayana). Thinking of this, Chen Jin, who had been preparing to go to the medicine garden to experiment with the spirit soil stopped. He couldn’t help but give a bitter laugh because he had no seeds. It seemed that he should go and earn some contribution points whenever he had free time so he could buy seeds.

Shaking his head, Chen Jin took out the new disciple’s guidebook from the storage sack. He read it for a while and then closed the book. Chin Jin memorized the contents of the book, leaving aside the chip in his brain, by now it was piece of cake to remember these things simply because of his current cultivation level.

“Complete the sect mission to earn contribution points as a reward. And I must complete a task every month. Spirit stones can also be exchanged for contribution points or completing tasks. However, if I rashly present a lot of spirit stones, I will raise suspicions. I should go to complete the task first,” Chen Jin muttered to himself as he went out. According to the suggestions on the map, Chen Jin arrived at a house with a brick-and-wood structure. This was the mission venue for external disciples as marked on the map.

Entering the house, Chen Jin saw a man who looked to be only a few years older than him in terms of appearance. He was holding a book and engrossed in reading it. So Chen Jin said, “Disciple brother, I am Chen Jin, a new disciple who was just inducted. I have come forth to receive the mission.”

Chapter 480 - Identity Token

“Junior disciple, you don’t look familiar to me, I wonder what kind of task do you intend to undertake?” The youth sitting upright in front of the large room said and laid down his book.

Chen Jin had some doubts hence he said, “I am one of the new disciples who were just inducted. I’m ready to undertake a task to complete the monthly mission. But based on what you’ve said, there are other tasks as well. May I know how are they differentiated?”

Hearing Chen Jin’s question, the youth decided to clear up the confusion, “The tasks are, of course, grouped into different categories. Not only are there categories, but there are also levels. There are many categories, such as hunting monsters, planting herbs, performing alchemy, creating or refining magic artifacts, etc. Although both of these fall under the category of alchemy, can a task that calls for the creation of a first-grade elixir be on the same level as a task that calls for the creation of a second-grade elixir? However, you have just been inducted, you might not have even started cultivating yet. According to the rules of the sect, you don’t have to complete the mission for this month. Cultivate for the first month, and you complete the mission next month after you have gained some cultivation. You’ll be able to complete the mission more easily and smoothly then. You don’t need to be so anxious.”

Chen Jin gave a slight smile, “Heh heh, it’s all right! I want to find something to do now. I don’t know if I can get the work of planting and growing herbs?”

The youth looked at Chen Jin’s and scrunched his brows, saying, “Junior disciple, it seems that your level of cultivation is not very high. I don’t think that growing advanced magic herbs is suitable for you. However, the task of planting and growing low-level magic herbs is very time-consuming. Without nourishment from spirit stones, you will not be able to hasten the ripening of the fruit. It would be better to change to a different task.”

“Senior disciple, thank you very much for your reminder, but I have already decided to undertake the planting task. I hope that senior will fulfill my decision,” After finishing his words, Chen Jin raised his fist and cupped it in his palm. What a joke, he was here for the mission precisely because he wanted to do some experimentation. He had a high level of cultivation, how could he fail to complete this type of task?

“Since you have already decided, go to that wall and choose a task. Just place your identity token against the task and you will be entered into the mission,” the youth immediately felt a little displeased when he saw that Chen Jin had disregarded his advice, the tone of his speech also grew cold.

“But I wasn’t given any identity token,” Chen Jin said doubtfully as touched his nose.

“I forgot about this. You are a new disciple so your contribution points recording tool has not been exchanged for an identity token, you can simply touch the recording tool to the task,” the youth said awkwardly.

“The contributions points recorder tool can also be used to exchange for the identity token?” Chen Jin did not understand.

“Of course, a new disciple can take the contribution points recorder tool to exchange for a token after completing the three monthly missions in succession. This is because disciples who could not complete the monthly mission for three consecutive months will be demoted to an odd-job worker, then, there is no need to issue the identity token. After all, the identity token also has a high construction cost and it comes with a comprehensive set of functions. Not everyone can wear it,” The youth smiled, he seemed to be alleviating the awkwardness of before.

“Thank you, Senior Disciple, for clearing up my confusion. I will be selecting my task now,” Chen Jin walked towards the wall.

Looking at the tasks that changed regularly on the wall, Chen Jin secretly thought that this novelty was like an LED display, it was quite interesting.

“Planting one Mu (a 15th of a hectare) of live blood grass and handing in 100 jin (50 kilograms) of the grass every season.”

“Attending to three flowerless trees and handing in 500 fruits a year.”

“Create grade one spirit soil, hand in one jin a month.”

“Maintenance of grade three spirit soil …..”

After staring at the wall for a long time, Chen Jin found that were all sort of tasks available, it was really difficult to choose. Just when he was about to switch to viewing a different category, the wall refreshed itself to another task – “planting a meditation orchid (seeds can be collected)” Chen Jin was very satisfied when he saw this task and stuck his recording tool onto the task. After receiving the task, he went to the youth and said, “Senior Disciple, I have received my task but I don’t know where are the seeds. Do I collect it from you?”

“Well, you are a new disciple and you have no identity token. Naturally, you’ll collect the seeds from me. After you have completed the three monthly missions, you will be able to take the contribution points recording tool, the storage sack, and the entry disciple logo in exchange for the identity token. When that happens, you won’t need to collect mission items from me anymore. The items will be automatically transferred to your token. The reason why the token is expensive is because of the small built-in array. Many functions are gathered in the token, including storage, the transmission of small items, communication, etc., you will understand in the future. ”

With this information, Chen Jin had a sudden realization. Such a small token had immense use. It seemed that the standard of cultivation in the Immortal World was indeed much higher than that of the Protoss practitioners.

After receiving the task and the seeds, Chen Jin immediately returned to his house and entered the small medicine garden to begin his experiment.

According to the instruction notice in the medicine garden, he would first have to put the seeds on the soil, sprinkle it with water, and wait until the water has thoroughly permeated the soil, then bury the seeds. After this, he would have to retrieve a spirit stone and bury it near the seeds. Finally, he would have to use his magic power to prompt the spirit stone so that the spirit soil would absorb the spiritual energy in the spirit stone. The soil would use this energy to nourish the seeds. It did not seem very difficult. As he was thinking about the process, Chen Jin took out seven or eight top-grade spirit stones consecutively from his storage ring. There was no other way, he could only do this since the only spirit stones he possessed were the top-grade ones. The effects of using top-grade spirit stones should be similar to that of using lower grade ones. Fortunately, there was no one next to Chen Jin, otherwise, they would be way too shocked. They would probably think, everyone else wants to complete a few tasks to earn some contribution points to exchange for spirit stones for their cultivation practice. But Chin Jin was in a great position; he was directly using spirit stones to complete his task.

When Chen Jin used the magic power in his body to prompt the spirit stones, the seeds did not experience any reaction tentatively. On the contrary, the grade of the spirit soil was rising like crazy.

Grade one spirit soil, grade two, grade three, grade four, grade five, grade nine… The grade finally stopped rising when it reached the ninth grade. If he wanted to continue upgrading the spirit soil until it was at a peerless grade, then he would require a spirit stone of a similar grade. However, Chen Jin did not know all of this. He merely felt that the spirit in the spirit soil had become fuller and deeper.

After completing the upgrade of the spirit soil, it took only a little effort on Chen Jin’s part for a while and then the seeds of the meditation orchid was growing at a pace that he could see with his naked eye. It was germinated and bore leaves.

Within the time that it took one stick of incense to burn down (thirty minutes), a meditation orchid that was larger than the one introduced in the book had been grown. As time passed, the color of the orchid body began to turn into a dark green. The grain on the branches grew coarser and older, its appearance gradually became aged. At the same time, the seven to eight flower buds that grew were all blooming. Suddenly, the fragrance of the meditation orchid pervaded the entire garden.

At the same time, near the meditation orchid, three small orchids began to grow, two small dark green soft shoots emerged. Not long after, a few small orchids were growing at the same time, they germinated, and bore leaves. The same process was repeated. In a short time, the entire small medicine garden was filled with blooming orchids, the plants were verdant and lush, their growth was excellent. It felt as if the orchids were about to burst out of the garden. This made Chen Jin somewhat speechless. “It seems that I’ll have to pluck all the flowers. After all, it is a crop from the immortal world. It would be good to take them back to Haierfa and give them to Guo Yan and Mu Yunhua. Maybe it can calm Guo Yan down so that she would not be so jealous anymore. Thinking of Guo Yan Chen Jin couldn’t help but develop a headache. He rubbed his head and began transplanting the crop.

“Hmm, I have to take out the spirit stone first, otherwise the flowers will just keep growing even after I’ve plucked them,” Chen Jin muttered to himself as he put the picked orchids into the storage ring.

After a while, all the orchids were stowed inside his ring, only one plant remained for him to submit his completed task. So Chen Jin took out the naga human replacement mecha. The robot should be able to handle things here while he was away for a while. The robot hid the travel device in the palm of its hand under the bed. Chen Jin had already passed through the portal to Haierfa.

Chapter 481 - Training The Body With Primordial Particles

At the base in Haierfa, Chen Jin handed the orchids off to the robots for transplanting. He returned to his room to continue to deciphering the inheritance. After all, he came back through the portal so he arrived nearly instantaneously. Guo Yan and Mu Yunhua should still be on their way in their interstellar flight. With the SS-class warship that they were on, safety was a given, but they would still be slower than him. At this point, Chen Jin stopped concerning himself with the two women and started to read the Emperor’s Scripture.

The opening of the emperor was already different from other exercises. The way of “inheritances” was that the information and skills were directly branded into the mind. He only needed to do some simple learning to master the contents of the scripture.

The Emperor’s Scripture did not begin with methods of cultivation, instead, it introduced its origins. It was not only one person who founded this scripture. The scripture was finally made into a book after it had passed through five emperors. Secondly, this book was not about cultivation methods or exercises from the immortal world, it was about training methods that originated from a different world, a different plane. These methods and exercises were completely different from those of the immortal world. There was not one iota of information on immortal power. It emphasized the training of the body; by strengthening and training the body, one could nourish his cultivation. The body and one’s cultivation could be compared to a canteen. If one was to pour water into the canteen of one’s body until it was full, then the water would overflow and spill into the “canteen” of cultivation. However, this alone did not mean anything. There were many capable people and people with unusual abilities in the immortal world, there must be some who had thought of such methods. But the things used to cultivate or train the flesh were very strange, they were not spiritual energy or immortal energy. Instead, they were the force between planes and the primordial particles that had been dispelled from the primal chaos from damaged positions between planes. It was almost impossible if one was practicing such training methods in a stable world or plane, but for Chen Jin, it was a perfect fit. Seeing this point, Chen Jin’s eyes could not help but brighten. These kinds of methods and exercises seemed to be tailor-made for him. There were large amounts of primordial particles dispelled from the Heavenly Realm into the Milky Way where the earth was. He had to strongly suppress the urge to go to Earth immediately to train. He continued to read.

The guy who brought this scripture to the immortal world had trained his body for a long time in the immortal world. Because it was impossible to train according to the original methods in the book when one was in the immortal world, there was a long time when he was unable to train. This was also because he was reluctant to break up previous efforts and cultivate from scratch using methods and exercises of the immortal world. However, he had stunningly achieved the peerless feat of creating a method to manifest another body. With this method, he was able to use his little finger to nurture his doppelganger and inject part of his consciousness into the other him. After cultivating the doppelganger for a while, it would be equivalent to having another self. This other self had no cultivation. Naturally, the doppelganger could cultivate using the methods of the immortal world. The doppelganger created this method from the average doppelganger. At a crucial moment, it could be merged with the original body causing one’s strength to skyrocket. When the bodies were merged, the person would have his own body that had been trained according to the scripture and the cultivation of the doppelganger. Wouldn’t his combat power double? It was as simple as one plus one equals two. Of course, this practice method of creating a doppelganger was also written into the Emperor’s Scripture.

“Hmm, this is a good practice method. How one should train the flesh is rather complicated. It’s not as good as my method,” Chen Jin had the technological support from Haierfa. There was no need to go through the trouble of nurturing a doppelganger. He could just command Alice, “Alice, clone one of me. It should have no consciousness. How long would it take? Hmm, I want an adult’s body.”

After careful analysis, Alice said, “Master, it takes a year to clone in the usual way, and if it needs to grow to adulthood, it would take 19.2 years. But it will be much faster if we use the nutrient stores and spirit stones to nourish the body and transform it into a Sage’s body at the same time. It would take about a year or so.”

“Why is it faster to do both processes at the same time?” Chen Jin asked doubtfully.

“Heh heh, because if both processes take place at the same time, the genes would be changed. And the body of a Sage is achieved by changing the genes, which results in changes to the body’s constitution. By modifying the body of a Sage just a little, we’ll be able to directly modify the genes to that of a youth, thus avoiding the infancy and childhood stages. The body would grow directly into an adult, and the speed would naturally become faster,” Alice smiled facetiously at Chen Jin.

When Chen Jin heard this, he couldn’t help but touch his nose and said, “Ok, you are more of a professional at these things than me. Go ahead and do it. I also need to train myself on how to employ the technique of splitting one’s consciousness and strive to splinter away a thread of my consciousness as soon as possible. ”

The transfer of ones’ consciousness might be unfamiliar to others, but it couldn’t be any more familiar to Chen Jin. After all, it was not just once or twice that he had materialized the NPCs of games into the real world. So there was nothing to worry about. The key was the splitting of consciousness. He indeed knew nothing about this. No, it was better to do more research into the rare scripture before experimenting.

Consciousness was not an illusory thing, it was real. If you wanted to split your consciousness, it had to be strong enough in the first place. With Chen Jin’s cultivation at the Mahayana phase, his consciousness was of course powerful enough. His divine sense could even spread to cover a planet. But from the time that he started cultivation to the present, Chen Jin had always been divorced from the practical applications of his cultivation methods and power. He rarely used his cultivation. He had always been using technology to fight against his enemies. He did not understand many types of common cultivation knowledge. He could be described as an idiot with a high level of cultivation. Fortunately, he had a rare scripture, otherwise, he wouldn’t even know how to begin splitting his consciousness.

After a month or so, Chen Jin had split his consciousness, and he raised that separated thread of consciousness tenderly in his body. Although this thread of consciousness was much weaker than his main consciousness, it would sometimes interfere with himself. This drove him mad. What was this anyway? He was fine but now he had messed with himself to the point that he was just like a schizophrenic. Fortunately, there was a soul in the body of the clone so he did not need to split a portion of his soul for the clone. Otherwise, he couldn’t even predict what kind of muddle he would create.

“Alice, it’s almost been a month, how is the clone coming along?” Chen Jin asked Alice.

“Master, the clone is almost fully mature. It will be ‘out of the oven’ tomorrow.”

“Okay, okay…” Out of the oven? Chen Jin was exasperated. Motherfucker, this is my body that we’re talking about. Out of the oven, do you think I’m a dish of food?

No longer paying attention to Alice, Chen Jin massaged his forehead and walked into the transmission passageway. He returned to the palm-sized travel device in the immortal world and then went through the device again to arrive at the Chen family’s fortress on Earth.

He felt the celestial particles in the air, it was as if the concentration had gotten even lower. In a few years, even the Sages wouldn’t be able to maintain the current realm.

Chen Jin sat on the master seat and ordered the people around him. “Fetch Chen Junfeng,”

A moment later, a middle-aged man arrived in front of him and bowed his head. He was flabbergasted but still said obediently and cleverly, “Grandfather, congratulations on the great improvements in your amazing powers and breaking through into new realms. You’ve only regained your youthfulness as you age. I have nothing but the deepest admiration for you.”

Chen Jin palmed his forehead with a gloomy expression. What was this? When had this well-behaved grandson learned to be so glib? Regaining my youth? It would be great had he stopped at saying how my powers had improved, why add that part about getting young again. From the moment that he returned, he was either needled by Alice or his grandson. It seemed that he had to “educate” them well, otherwise, what was this even?

“Ok, Junfeng, stop with the compliments. Did anything happen when I wasn’t around?”

Seeing the strange look on Chen Jin’s face, Chen Junfeng immediately rectified his expression and said, “Grandpa, everything is still normal, but the concentration of the celestial particles have been getting steadily lower. As a result, many practitioners here can’t continue cultivating.”

“So it’s like that,” Chen Jin seemed to have predicted that he would say something like this. He continued, “I will pass onto you a method of practice that you can use to train your physical body. It doesn’t use celestial particles, but primordial particles.”

Chapter 482 - I Am Chen Jin

“The primordial particles can even be used for cultivation? Although it can only be used to train the body, this is a wonderful thing when we an in an era of weakening celestial particles. It is just like rain arriving during a drought. Thank you very much, grandfather,” Chen Junfeng knelt on the ground and respectfully kneeled to Chen Jin.

Chen Jin saw this scene and could not help but claw his head. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The grandson of his was good in all aspects, except for the fact that he was heavily influenced by rubbish concepts of feudalism. When Chen Jin was with his grandfather, he was frequently impolite and impudent. He had nearly plucked out all the hair in his grandfather’s beard. Recalling how he had plucked the beard of his grandfather when he was a child, Chen Jin unconsciously touched his chin. Forget it, he couldn’t blame Junfeng for this when he didn’t have a beard in the first place; there was nothing for him to pull. And even if Chen Jin asked Junfeng to pull his beard, he would not dare to do it anyway.

“Jun Feng, not only can this method be used to train one’s body, but it can also nourish one’s cultivation when the body has been trained to a certain extent. Although one’s cultivation will always be weaker than one’s body, it will slowly increase.” As Chen Jin spoke, he pointed a finger at Chen Junfeng’s forehead. The ability to transfer information via the soul was nothing to Chen Jin since he was at the Mahayana phase; it was merely the transfer of a practice method.

Chen Junfeng, who received the method, sat cross-legged on the ground. He scanned through the exercises briefly and felt so excited that he could not wait to practice.

Chen Jin took in his grandson’s expression and calmly said, “Don’t be too excited. Make a copy of this method, select some of our core family members to receive a copy of this practice method. But remember that you can’t leak the exercises. Otherwise, you will be severely punished according to family law. Do you hear me?” Chen Jin’s tone was very flat and dull, but his attitude was unquestionable. Chen Junfeng was so scared that he repeatedly promised not to disclose this secret.

Looking at Chen Junfeng’s behavior, Chen Jin was satisfied. He nodded slightly. This grandson had always been reliable so nothing should go wrong with this.

“I’ll probably be training here for a long time. You can ask me directly if you have any questions about cultivation. I’ve put you to the task of managing the family recently, it must have been hard on you. Also, you have to continue the research and development of the plan, Body of a Sage. There are still many areas of the human body that can be developed. Strive to create a body that has even better, more perfect aptitudes.” Besides the little five-element constitution that he had, Chen Jin also thought about the existence of many other varieties of constitutions that were even more powerful. Thinking of this, he suddenly felt an itch in his heart. If he gained a more powerful constitution, then wouldn’t he cultivate at a much more rapid pace? Once he got to a higher level, perhaps the remaining Sages of the Protoss would no longer be a threat.

Because the body of his doppelganger was still not mature (author’s note – the time needed for the doppelganger to mature was written incorrectly yesterday. It was written as a month, but please take it as a year. It’s not an important detail, no harm done). Hence Chen Jin handed over the family affairs to the AIs to manage for the coming days. After all, since their development to the present day, whether it was the company or the family, everything was running very smoothly. Usually, there were no big issues. If there were some minor problems, it could be handed over to the AIs who could solve such minor problems very well.

Chen Junfeng could be said to be temporarily liberated from his tasks. Chen Jin took Chen Junfeng with him to board a spacecraft. They arrived at the passageway leading to the Heavenly Realm and saw that the primordial particles had transformed the entire Heavenly Realm into part of the primal chaos, even the passageway had become congested. Chen Jin saw this and alighted from the spaceship. He floated in the area just above the primordial particles. Chen Junfeng saw this and was so scared that he nearly lost his soul. He was about to remind his grandfather to wear a spacesuit before going out when Chen Jin had already stepped out of the spacecraft. Chen Junfeng closed his eyes and dare not look any more. After a while, he heard Chen Jin’s voice, “Junfeng, why haven’t you alighted? Are you not done with putting on the spacesuit?”

“Grandpa, you are not dead,” Chen Junfeng opened his eyes and saw Chen Jin sitting cross-legged as he floated above the primordial particles, looking at him with a gloomy expression.

In his heart, Chen Jin felt depressed when he heard that. What did he mean by “not dead”? He thought I was only born a little earlier than you. How could I die so soon?” Cough, cough. “I forgot to tell you, my cultivation has reached the Sage phase. I can freely walk in space now.”

Chen Junfeng finally let go of his worries. He put on the spacesuit and slowly came to Chen Jin’s side. Due to the advancement of science and technology, as human beings entered the era of interstellar colonization, the design of spacesuits had improved. Besides the fact that the spacesuit covered all of one’s skin, it was almost like a set of tight-fitting clothes in all other aspects. It did not look cumbersome.

Chen Jin saw that Chen Junfeng had arrived at his side and dropped his concern. He quietly started working on the practice method. Traces of primordial particles broke away from the ocean of the chaos and entered his body. The primordial particles were quite powerful. They could decompose everything that they touched into the primal chaos so the particles could not be absorbed in large quantities. If too much was absorbed, Chen Jin’s body would be crushed and decomposed into particles in an instant. But a small amount was fine. Just like how water could extinguish a fire, but using a cup of water to put out flames from a burning cart of firewood was utterly useless.

With the entry of primordial particles into his body, the cultivation inside Chen Jin’s body was slowly corrupted by the particles. The boundaries of his cultivation seemed to have shrunk a little, but his physical body had become a little stronger. A relative balance was maintained between each plus and minus. His strength neither regressed nor progressed. It seemed that the two types of forces could not co-exist in the body. If he cultivated using this type of practice method, the immortal energy and cultivation would slowly disappear. Although he would not see the benefits for a while, as time went on, the cultivation of the physical body would increase. Chen Jin did not want to get his knickers into a twist over these things, and instead slowly cultivated his body.

There was no concept of time when it came to cultivation and training. A year had passed in the blink of an eye. Chen Jin was sitting cross-legged when a ripple suddenly went through his body without any warning signs. The first layer of the body was a great accomplishment. By this time, Chen Jin’s body could not be pierced by ordinary bullets. However, his original cultivation had become faintly unstable. He estimated that his cultivation level would fall to the level of the “pinnacle of merging” by the time he trained his body to attain the second layer of achievement. Although his cultivation had been somewhat reduced, a special power had appeared in his body which was different from magic power and immortal energy. This should be the power of the primal chaos that had been nourished by the body as mentioned in the book. The performance of the new type of training was very weak, it was similar to the lowest level of cultivation–the phase of practicing Qi or spiritual energy. There was a long way to go if he wanted to replace the old immortal cultivation with this new type of cultivation.

Chen Jin opened his eyes and looked at Chen Junfeng, “Continue to train here, I’m going back, I’ll return in a short while. I’ll be leaving the spacecraft for you.”

When Chen Jin finished speaking, he flew back towards earth. With his cultivation at the Mahayana level, he flew extremely fast and quickly returned to earth. He went back to the family fortress and without alerting anyone, Chen Jin arrived at the Base of Operations in Haierfa through the portal. The base of the Great Planet of the French planet (Chen Jin had left one end of the portal in Haierfa and the fortress, the other end of the portal was in his palm-sized transmission device).

“Alice, is my body ready?” Chen Jin smiled at Alice.

“Yes, Master, I will take you to it.”

Soon, Chen Jin arrived at the nursery room. Alice, who had manifested herself was trailing behind him.

Chen Jin saw the nursery in front of him, and in the nursery laid a quiet, naked body that looked the same as Chen Jin. Both of its eyes were closed and it looked very serene. Chen Jin’s face was flushed in embarrassment when he saw this scene. Although he had not used this body yet, he felt rather embarrassed that it had been seen by Alice every day. Chen Jin shook his head and stopped thinking about it. He put his palm on the forehead of the doppelganger and started running through his practice method at the same time. It didn’t take long before a thread of consciousness passed through the palm of his hand into the body.

In a split second, the doppelganger opened its eyes, which brightened. It looked into Chen Jin’s eyes and said, “Hello, I am Chen Jin.”

Chapter 483 - Do You Have Any Spirit Stones On You?

“Hello doppelganger, I’m also called Chen Jin,” Chen Jin gave a faint smile.

Both of them were Chen Jin himself. The difference between them was like the difference between his left hand and right hand. For a moment, he was overcome by a sense of novelty so he greeted the doppelganger to amuse himself.

Chen Jin tried out his new body for a little bit and then he took out the spirit stones from the storage ring and cultivated for a while. After the transformation was done on his body through the Body of A Sage and never-ending nourishment of spiritual energy, the natural aptitudes of this new body was not too bad. It could cultivate quite quickly.

He would let this new body go to the immortal world. He could simply stay on Earth since he was training himself using the methods in the Emperor’s Scripture. If the two of him were in different universes, then naturally, his chances of survival would increase greatly. Although the new body had no cultivation yet, it could better adapt to his identity in the immortal world.

He finished taking care of things on that end. It just so happened that Mu Yunhua and Guo Yan had returned early.

Through various forms of coaxing and pestering, Guo Yan finally agreed to go to earth to cultivate. Mu Yunhua also agreed to his invitation to go to the earth. Hence Chen Jin passed the practice method to the two and returned to the passageway connecting earth and the Heavenly Realm, where he settled down to train. The doppelganger and Chen Jin were the same person. The two individuals’ consciousnesses were interlinked. The doppelganger moved all the spirit stones from the Base at Haierfa, where the production of spirit stones had been going on for a long time and returned to the immortal world, which the Chen Jin on earth perceived through their linked consciousness.

In the immortal world, Chen Jin climbed out from the bottom of the bed. He exhaled some turbid breath and sighed, “Everyone crawls out from their birthplace on the first day of birth, seems that I’m not exempt.” When the naga robot saw Chen Jin, it came over and said, “Master, you’re back.”

Chen Jin looked at the robot, “Hmm, did anything happen recently?”

“Everything was peaceful for the past year and 43vdays. I have rejected participation in the sect’s grand tournament on your behalf. I have also completed the monthly missions. The mission for the first month was…”

“Ok, ok, stop talking, I know.” Hearing how the robot was about to do an information dump on him by reporting everything in full detail, Chen Jin’s head began to swim. He quickly stopped the robot from talking and put it back into the storage ring.

“Since my cultivation is essentially zero, it’s better to practice first so that I can have a little cultivation,” As he thought this, he took out the top-grade spirit stones. The spiritual energy in these was amazing. Chen Jin silently ran the practice method. He saw the spiritual energy from the spirit stones rise like smoke and entered his body through his arm. A large circulation of spiritual energy was running in his body, and at his abdomen, this spiritual energy slowly condensed into magic power. Chen Jin’s cultivation successfully entered the first level of Qi cultivation.

After half an hour, Chen Jin’s cultivation reached the fourth level of Qi cultivation and he stopped. At present, this level of cultivation was enough to dupe others into believing his identity. It wouldn’t be good if it was too high, as it would be easy for others to see that something was fishy. Of course, if others knew that he broke through to the fourth level in half an hour, they would surely be extremely shocked. But if he said that he had reached this level of cultivation after sealing himself off for more than a year, no one would have any suspicions.

The top-grade spirit stones are really powerful when applied to me in this realm. My cultivation had improved so much in such a short period, moreover, I’ve only consumed a little of the spiritual energy in the spirit stones. The increased spiritual energy can be said to be next to nothing,” Chen Jin muttered to himself.

Chen Jin stopped cultivating and stepped out of the room. It had been more than a year, but the surrounding scenery had not changed much. There were a lot of new faces, Chen Jin thought that they must be newly inducted disciples. He did not know if Fang Bin and others of his batch had changed their residences. He was about to go to Fang Bin’s accommodation when he saw Fang Bin walking towards him. “Brother Chen, your seclusion is finally over. The last time you secluded yourself was half a month ago. You won’t be completing the mission in a rush so that you can seal yourself off again right?” Fang Bin blinked at Chen Jin.

“Erm, not this time, I’m tired of staying at home. It’s time to come out for a stroll. Exercise is vital for our bodies to function.” Chen Jin smiled awkwardly. It seemed that this robot had stayed in the house and did not come out. Hmm, it was quite a homebody.

“‘Exercise is vital for our bodies to function.’ Brother Chen, this is correct. This sentence tells us that only exercise is the true essence of life. Cultivation without exercising is like cultivation without a soul,” Fang Bin’s eyes brightened. It was as if he had heard a particularly wise saying or something.

Cough, cough. What’s he going on about? It was just something that he had said casually, there wasn’t some sort of great logic to that sentence.

“Why are you looking for me?” Chen Jin was afraid that Fang Bin would say something useless again so he quickly spoke before Fang Bin did.

“You didn’t participate in last year’s grand tournament, this year’s tournament will be starting soon. If you don’t participate in this year’s tournament again, both of us might be relegated to being odd-job workers since we’ve not yet participated, we can’t say that we have to be turned into a chore,” Fang Bin said resentfully.

Chen Jin was doubtful, “Didn’t you participate?”

“I participated, but my capabilities were too poor and my cultivation too insufficient. I was one of the last few at the very bottom of the rankings, so I didn’t pass,” Fang Bin said helplessly.

Chen Jin looked at Fang Bin, “What about now? Do you think you can pass?”

“My Qi cultivation is at the fourth level now, I think I should be ok,” Fang Bin said uncertainly.

To better understand the situation, Chen Jin asked, “What were the participants’ cultivation levels in the last tournament?”

“Most of the people in our area had a Qi cultivation level of two or three. After all, everyone had only been cultivating for a short time–only for little more than a month–before they participated in the tournament last year. The sect took into account that we’ve only been cultivating for a very short time so they relaxed the conditions for us. We can choose to participate or not. Those who pass can move to a living area that is one grade better. And if we chose not to participate, we would not be downgraded into servants. But there is no way out if we don’t pass this time around.” Considering that Brother Chen did not attend the event last time, he probably did not understand the situation, so Fang Bin gave Chen Jin a detailed explanation.

“Others got to the second or third level after cultivating their Qi for a month. You have been cultivating for a year but you’ve only attained the fourth level. You’re so confident that you dare to say that you’ll pass?” Chen Jin shook his head, he was speechless.

“Aren’t you also at the fourth level,” Fang Bin mumbled.

Chen Jin couldn’t help but give a reluctant smile. Yes, he was only at the fourth level of Qi cultivation. It seemed that he still needed to improve his cultivation. Otherwise, it would be so shameful if he was relegated to doing odd jobs as a servant.

Seeing Chen Jin’s bitter smile, Fang Bin continued, “But there is still a month to go, we can improve our cultivation some more. Maybe, just maybe, it’s not too late for us.”

“Well, it’s too late to only rely on seclusion. Let’s go and see if there are other ways to improve our strength,” Chen said without thinking. In fact, for Chen Jin, as long as he continued to cultivate from now on, he would have built his Foundation in one month. But in order not to follow his old path of cultivation, he decided not to cultivate according to his original practice methods. He chose to cultivate using new practice methods.

Listening to Chen Jin, Fang Bin began to feel excited. He said rather sadly, “Then we can go to the method transmission pavilion to learn some martial skills or buy some powerful weapons from the market, but we don’t have any spirit stones, so it’s useless even if we go.”

“Is there no place where we can earn spirit stones?” Chen Jin felt like he was about to be driven mad. What was this? He had a lot of spirit stones, but he couldn’t use them. If a new disciple took so many spirit stones with him to purchase items in the market, others would find it strange.

After staying there for more than a year, Fang Bin was more familiar with everything than Chen Jin. He said, “It’s possible to earn spirit stone but it’s too difficult. We can earn them by gambling with treasures in the Memorial Market. We can also earn them by completing various missions. But for us, they are even more difficult than passing the exam, we can forget about the missions.”

“That’s all right, let’s go gambling with treasures. Oh yes, do you have any spirit stones?” Chen Jin said with some embarrassment.

Chapter 484 - Gambling With Stones

Although Chen Jin was somewhat embarrassed, he was in a situation where he could not use his top-grade spirit stones so he had no choice but to borrow them from Fang Bin. After all, he did have top grade spirit stones. The nuclear fission converter in Haierfa only produced top grade spirit stones. He would give more of the treasures won from gambling to Fang Bin.

“Yes, of course, I have spirit stones. Because I brought you to join the sect and you’ve also been successfully inducted, I received two lower grade spirit stones as a bonus. Hehe, I’ll give them to you,” Fang Bin said and threw the spirit stones to Chen Jin. Anyway, just two lower grade spirit stones wouldn’t have much of an impact even if he used it for his cultivation, he might as well give them to Brother Chen to try his luck.

Chen Jin caught the spirit stones. Although the spirit stones were not a big deal for Chen Jin, he was still moved. After all, the uses that Fang Bin could get out of them were still rather significant. Therefore, he was emotional and raised his hand and said, “Let’s go.”

Where there were people, there was a scene that existed independently of official laws and customs (Jianghu). Although they were in the sect, there were still various categories of entertainment. After all, this was a big sect with hundreds of thousands of people cultivating. If everyone cultivated in seclusion, then this sect would not have a normal existence. It was like how Mu Yunhua had originally led the surviving population of Haierfa. She only allowed them to learn mathematics and the sciences. There was not one activity that belonged to culture, recreation, etc. Maladies soon appeared within society. If not for Chen Jin’s guidance, the survivors of Haierfa would be in big trouble sooner or later.

Soon, the two arrived at the Memorial Market. Although it was only one of the many squares built by the sect in the districts of foreign disciples, its scale could be considered as very large. They saw two stone lions about one to two zhang (three to six meters) in height on the left and right of the entrance to the market. The lions were exquisitely carved. It made one unconsciously feel a sense of magnificence and awe. But for Chen Jin, even if a real lion came back to life from death in front of his eyes, he would not find it scary. To say nothing of these stone lions. The great leader had said this before–All reactionaries were paper tigers. Maybe referring to them as stone lions wouldn’t be too far off the mark too.

Looking at the plaque above the stone lions, there were two large gold-rimmed characters written on it “Memorial Market.” The characters appeared dazzling under the reflection of the sun.

When they walked into the market, they saw many booths on both sides of the market, leaving only a narrow passage in the middle. The bustle in the passage made it very crowded.

“Come take a look, this three-year-old 100-leaf flower is only selling for one spirit stone.”

“Boss, look, all your rare books have some damaged portions, can’t you sell them cheaper? After all, I can’t use them to cultivate any way, I’ll only be using them as a reference.”

“A grade one Yellow Dragon Elixir that can be used to improve your cultivation; it costs 10 spirit stones, anybody interested?”

The two have not even come upon the sellers, but their voices could already be heard. All kinds of voices filled Chen Jin’s ears; some were hawking their wares and some were bargaining. “Although they’re cultivators, the flavor of their life’s activities are just like mortals.”

Chen Jin and Yang Bin walked through the market and saw a dizzying host of things that they had never seen before. Even though Chen Jin had been in the big shopping malls on earth, the dazzling lineup of items was too much for his eyes to process. His vision was pulled left and right, it was as if he was a country bumpkin who had never seen the world.

The two continued further into the market, and gradually the number of booths lessened. Surrounding passers-by also lessened. However, the number of shops increased and the cultivation level of the passers-by were also higher. They were the only two with their Qi cultivation at the fourth level or thereabouts. Soon enough, under Fang Bin’s lead, they had arrived at the front of a shop.

The shop was very tall and large. In such a place like the Memorial Market where every inch of space was worth its weight in gold, the rental costs of such a huge store must be astronomical. Chen Jin had opened a gold and jewelry store before, so he, of course, knew that the higher the rent, the higher the profits. It seemed that those who were able to purchase at this store would not be your average Joe.

Chen Jin had just arrived at the entrance when a maid came to greet him, “Hello, I am the shopping guide here, let me show you around.” Although she could tell that the two men’s cultivation was not high, she still very politely welcomed them into the shop. But that was all. Seeing how the two men were looking left and right, they appeared to be a pair of country bumpkins, hence she casually showed them around before dismissing herself.

“Heh heh,” Chen Jin secretly laughed. It was the first time that he treated as a poor man. He was so rich that he could buy a country. Her judgment was terrible.

The shops were large. There was a hall for every category of items. There was a medicinal hall that sold elixirs. There was a weapons hall that sold weapons. Chen Jin strolled around through the twists and turns and finally arrived at the gambling hall.

Surveying the hall, all he saw were stones. There were more to these stones than the eye could see. They were gemstones that had been panned from rivers or ruins. The local storage technology was to employ an array of spell formation to seal all items in the stone and then stick a label on it. However, as time went on, the items that had been preserved might be lost due to various reasons or the labels might have either rotted away or fallen off. The gemstones had also been mixed with countless stones and without any indication as to whether the gemstones were real storage stones or fake. After many years, these stones were found and put into the market for sale. So their appearances looked just like ordinary stones. Only when it had been ground and cut apart would they know what was inside.

Chen Jin viewed the items broadly, all kinds of large and small stones filled his vision. Some stones were messily piled together, regardless of size, while some were placed on the counter with clear price tags.

“‘One piece of spirit stone for one item’, let’s go to that side,” said Chen Jin as he pointed to a messy pile of stones.

The two walked over. Fang Bin looked at the chaotic pile of stones and couldn’t help but twitch his lips. This was motherfucking expensive. A gemstone cost one spirit stone. The pile of stones with varying sizes was made up of at least tens of thousands of stones. If this entire pile was sold, it would mean earnings of about tens of thousands of spirit stones. The owner of this shop owner must be making a windfall.

While Fang Bin was still thinking nonsense in his brain, Chen Jin had already started up his super-strong x-ray vision through the chip in his brain. In his eyes, these stones held no more secrets. Most of them were ordinary stones without any value. Only a minority could be seen clearly but he could tell that most were worthless. There were only a dozen or so that were obscured by spiritual energy, hence he could not “see” them very clearly, but he estimated that those were the valuable ones. Only one or two of the dozen had an intense spiritual energy. Whatever was sealed in the stone could not be seen by Chen Jin even with his super x-ray vision. This was a good thing with great value.

Chen Jin smiled slightly, he found one of the stones and lifted it. It seemed that this would be his first “bucket of gold” since his arrival in the immortal world.

He went to the front desk and paid the money. Chen Jin handed the stone over to the professional stone-cutting master. The people next to them got curious when they saw two youths coming to try their luck with the stones. They saw the raw stone in their hands and couldn’t help but shake their heads. The condition of the stone looked terrible. A much older disciple even gave them a dressing down, “You’re so young, you should be cultivating properly, not learn from others to come to the gambling hall and try your luck with the stones. What kind of shitty stone did you even choose.”

Chen Jin had witnessed much mockery and ridicule so he was just going to ignore it. Seeing how Chen Jin had ignored him, this person felt that he had lost face, he said “Hmph, you’re young but your attitude is big. Don’t you hear that I’m talking to you?”

“Stupid cunt,” Chen Jin cursed lightly and wanted to continue to ignore him. Who knew that this person’s ear was so sensitive, “What did you say? You’ve got guts. I’m Jia Xinlin and you dare to curse even me? Are you looking to die?” As he spoke, his Qi cultivation which was at a consummate level surged forward.

Seeing that something was going on, the surrounding people raised their heads and looked towards Jia Xinlin. All of a sudden whispers abounded.

“Who offended him? His Qi cultivation is at a consummate level.”

“I heard that Jia Xinlin’s cultivation has stagnated precisely because he is addicted to gambling with stones. He has never been able to break through the consummate level and successfully built his foundation. But he still has a pretty good feel for the stones. After all, he has been gambling with the stones for many years”

The old man’s repeated provocations for no rhyme or reason pissed Chen Jin off, “I called you a stupid cunt, you’re so old, are you deaf too?”

Chapter 485 - Grade Six Antiques Master, Li Wei

“What? You dare curse at me? Do you want to die?” Jia Xinlin said while releasing a force of spiritual energy that raced towards Chen Jin and Fang Bin in an attempt to push them down.

The pressure of the spiritual energy reached their bodies, and before the two could even react, they vomited blood and collapsed on the ground. They saw that Jia Xinlin had made no other moves against them, and it seemed that he only wanted to teach them a lesson. Chen Jin secretly let out a sigh of relief. Fortunately, he had secretly used a wisp of the spiritual energy from the naga robot to protect the two of them. Otherwise, this doppelganger would have died. He should improve his strength as soon as possible.

Chen Jin wiped the blood on the corners of his lips and said, “We are on the grounds of the sect, and you still want to kill us using your cultivation?”

As for Fang Bin, he was so scared that he had turned as white as a ghost. He pulled on Chen Jin’s sleeves in a silent request to stop talking. However, Chen Jin found nothing to be afraid of. It was inconvenient for him to use the naga robot because he did not want to expose its existence.

Jia Xinlin was somewhat shocked. He had just used a force of spiritual energy to suppress them. The two men’s Qi cultivation was only at the fourth level. Even if they were not seriously injured, at the very least, they should not be able to get up from the ground after collapsing. They had only vomited blood, how did that happen? Although he found it rather strange, he still said, “You have to know this, although the killing of fellow disciples in banned in this sect, no one cares if new disciples taught a little lesson.”

As Chen Jin listened to his words, he grasped their real meaning in his mind. Although what the other party said might not be completely true, the sect would not seriously punish those involved in this little thing. Even if he squealed to the higher-ups, it wouldn’t make a big difference. Hence Chen Jin thought for a little bit and said, “I don’t know if the sect will even care about this, but what right do you have to say that the stone I chose is good or bad?” Chen Jin thought, Hehe, even though you can’t be punished by the sect, I can still take a dig at you.

“Because I have been studying this for more than ten years. How could I not be clear about which stones have a higher probability of turning out to be a real storage stone and which stones are duds?” The old man saw that he had gotten his “face” back and acted like he was a very capable person by flinging out his sleeves in a very affected manner. He said calmly, “First, that stone of yours is very small. Although a small size does not mean that there is nothing good inside, its common knowledge that a big stone has a greater probability of containing treasures than a small stone. Secondly, the stone has a blueish-green hue. But the stones that come into the market are mostly stones originating from ancient times, and very few people sealed their treasures into the blue-green stone in the ancient times. Lastly, the goods are sealed within the stone via an array so a little residual power from the array would more or less remain on the stone. Even if it’s been a long time, this residual power can be detected. But your stone has no trace of any residual power from an array, so I conclude that it’s a just a piece of junk.”

“Ok, you say it’s junk, I say it’s the real thing. Let’s bet on this if you have the guts. If you win, I will pay you one hundred pieces of spirit stones. If you lose, get on your knees and apologized to me.” Chen Jin was provoking Jia Xinlin’s wrath while deliberately raising the stakes. When a person was angry, they were likely to agree due to the impulsivity generated from the rage.

Sure enough, when he heard that Chen Jin wanted him to kneel, Jia Xinlin immediately became fired up and said, “Good fellow, you’re the one who’s giving away free money, don’t blame me for this. I’ll bet you. You win if the value of the goods inside the stone is worth more than 500 spirit stones.”

When Chen Jin heard what Jia Xinlin said, he cursed him in his mind for being so shameless. A gemstone that cost one spirit stone turning out to contain within it goods that were worth more than 500 spirit stones? Jia Xinlin was very cunning too. But it didn’t matter, the things inside this stone were worth more than 500 spirit stones. He could be as cunning as he liked.

“Then, I would like to humbly request everyone here to act as witnesses. Afterward, I am willing to offer each person a spirit stone.” Chen Jin saw the opportunity and quickly made his request.

“I am willing.”

“Yes, I am willing too.”

While everyone was giving their response, Chen Jin had already come forth to the stone-cutting master, “I’ll be troubling you with this.”

“Hmm,” the stone-cutting master nodded without speaking much and applied his professional stone cutter to the stone.

In a short time, the “outer garments” of the gemstone were all cut off. In the fine stone pattern, the edge of a wooden box was faintly visible, its material was red sandalwood.

The master carefully cut open the blueish stone along the edges of the wooden box. He made a surface cut on the wooden box, and finally retrieved the box.

There was something inside. When the onlookers saw that after a wooden box was cut out from the gemstone, they looked at Jia Xinlin strangely. Their eyes seemed to be saying, didn’t you say that there was nothing inside? Didn’t you say that it’s junk?

With everyone staring at him, Jia Xinlin seemed to feel somewhat embarrassed, “It’s just a wooden box, and even if it is something, how much can a wooden box be worth?”

“You’ve never thought that there could be something in the box?” As Chen Jin spoke, he took over the box that the stone-cutting master handed to him.

“Quickly, open and see what’s inside,” Fang Bin looked excitedly at Chen Jin. Looking at the red sandalwood box, Fang Bin’s breathing began to speed up.

Chen Jin couldn’t help but smile in self-deprecation. He wanted to take a further dig at Jia Xinlin, but Fang Bin couldn’t wait any longer. Ah, forget it, he should open the box.

Chen Jin opened the red sandalwood box, and immediately, everyone’s expressions became weird.

There was a ring in the red sandalwood box. Looking at its color, the ring seemed cast in bronze, it was very ordinary. Everyone in the room had never seen it before, it did not seem to be anything valuable.

Seeing this, Jia Xinlin laughed heartily, “You lost, it’s just a useless ring. How much can it even be worth? Come, hand over the one hundred spirit stones.”

“Just because it looks ordinary doesn’t mean that it’s worthless. Magic weapons of immeasurable power always look plain and ordinary. It’s better to hand it over to the antique master for an evaluation before making any conclusions. Who knows, you might have to kneel to me after it’s been evaluated,” Chen Jin said calmly.

At the same time, Fang Bin consciously took the ring to the front desk and handed it to the antique master.

Master Li Wei was a six-star antique evaluation master. He had originally come out for a stroll to clear his mind and to check on how the business of the external disciples was doing. Who knew that he would witness this scene just when he arrived here. Hence he remained standing at the sidelines and watching the fun.

Fang Bin handed the ring to the antique master at the front desk.

The treasurer took the ring and looked at it carefully. It was only after a while that he said, “I’m sorry, forgive an old man’s corroded brain and foolishness. I’ve been looking at it for a long time and I still don’t see what it is. It might just be an ordinary ring.”

His voice had just landed on the audience, and Jia Xinlin who was standing at the side secretly sighed in relief. Fortunately, it was nothing, otherwise, things would get embarrassing for him. He was about to berate Chen Jin, when a middle-aged man in the crowd calmly said, “Let me have a look.”

“You want to have a look, and what are you anyway? The antique master has said that it is an ordinary ring, you dare to deny his conclusion?” Jia Xinling couldn’t help but snarl in rage. The situation had already be settled conclusively and now a monkey wrench had suddenly been thrown in his way, halfway through the road to kill a squad, Jia Jialin could not help with the anger.

“Oh? You’re asked what am I?” Li Wei did not seem to be angry. He spoke calmly, “Guo Guanghui, you tell him what I am.”

The middle-aged man did not react. But the emotions of the antique master sitting upright at the front desk was turned upside down. “He, he is our Pavilion Master and a grade six antique master evaluator, Li Wei. Pavilion Master Li.”

Thud, Jia Xinlin’s heart immediately sank. He was finished, his life would end here. The sect wouldn’t pursue the matter if a grade six antique master evaluator killed him. His knees gave out all of a sudden and he found himself in a kneeling position.

Seeing how Jia Xinlin had put on such an awe-inspiring presence towards Chen Jin and how he was acting right now towards him, Li Wei lost interest immediately. He waved a hand and the ring in Fang Bin’s hand suddenly appeared in Li Wei’s hand, “Little disciple, can you sell this storage ring to me?”

Chapter 486 - Creating A Set Of Cultivation Methods

“It’s a storage ring. This person is about to strike it rich.”

“Jia Xinlin has lost.”

“Why does this kind of good thing never happen to me?”

“This, this…”

Tongues were wagging, but Chen Jin knew that there was other great stuff inside this storage ring.

“Senior Li, it’s not impossible to sell this ring to you, but what’s the price of this ring?” Chen Jin neither refused nor agreed.

Li Wei looked at Chen Jin. This youth had gained a significant treasure but he did not lose his mind over it. He could not help but nod his head, “This storage ring has five cubes in its interior, which includes three bottles of elixirs, 200 pieces of low-grade spirit stones, one medium grade magic item, and five low-grade magic items. It seems that these things have taken up all the space in the storage ring. You can have all the things inside, I just want to buy the ring. This is where the storage ring wins out over the storage sack, the ring can recognize its owner. Once it has recognized the owner, nobody else can open it, and it’s faster when putting items inside. This is very important in a fight. I’ll give you five medium-grade spirit stones. When you get something good the next time around, you can sell them to me again.”

Chen Jin had to give it to Li Wei, he did not keep the real worth of the ring to himself. He also gave a very fair price, in fact, the price that he quoted was even a little higher than the market price. This made Chen Jin somewhat suspicious but he thought better of it and understood what Li Wei was doing. It seemed that Li Wei was trying to be friendly, after all, there were not many who had his “eyesight.”

So Chen Jin said, “Since senior has spoken, I’ll sell it to you. But I dare not accept five medium-grade spirit stones, I’ll simply accept three medium-grade spirit stones from you.” What a joke, why would Chen Jin care about spirit stones? As for accepting fewer spirit stones from the other party, his purpose was to sell his “goodwill” and “friendship” to Li Wei. It would also prevent others from lusting after his riches.

Li Wei seemed to have seen through Chen Jin’s intentions and did not decline, “That’s good too. Guo Guanghui, fetch the spirit stones for this little disciple give him a VIP card to our pavilion. In the future, this little brother will be a friend of our pavilion.”

“Yes, Pavilion Master.”

There were some in the crowd who had planned to extort from Chen Jin, but they ditched their plans with this announcement from the Pavilion Master.

Li Wei took out a storage sack, he put the items from the storage ring into the sack and gave them to Chen Jin. Soon Guo Guanghui had fetched the spirit stones, Chen Jin took a brief look at them and swept them into the sack as well.

Ignoring Jia Xinlin, Fang Bin and Chen Jin went out of the market, leaving the old man to kneel alone in the market, not knowing if he should leave or stay.

On the way back.

“Brother Chen, we’ve made a windfall. With so many resources, they’ll be enough for us to cultivate to the peak level of Qi cultivation. Theoretically, a medium grade spirit stone can be exchanged for 100 pieces of low-grade spirit stones. But because the spiritual energy in medium-grade spirit stones is much purer, no one is willing to exchange,” Fang Bin said excitedly.

“Hmm, we’ll divide the things. You can have two medium-grade spirit stones, a medium grade magic item, and three of the low-grade magic items.” These things were completely dispensable to Chen Jin. He only kept some spirit stones so that he could have a plausible excuse for the improvements in his strength.

“Brother Chen, this, you have given me too much. Giving me a medium-grade spirit stone is good enough. After all, you won these,” Fang Bin quickly spoke.

“Just take them as I say or I won’t take you with me when I go to gamble with the stones next time,” Chen Jin’s put on a straight face acting like he was serious.

Although Fang Bin didn’t want to accept it, his gaze still burned when he looked at the treasures, so he accepted them without further refusal.

“Ok, we have the resources for cultivation. I’ll be going back to cultivate, you should return too,” Chen Jin looked at Fang Bin’s burning gaze and smiled reluctantly.

“Hmm, ok, thank you, Big Brother Chen.”

Chen Jin did not pay attention to Fang Bin, he turned and returned to his stone house, leaving Fang Bin with a view of his back that seemed to be confident yet at ease.

After the matter was done, he brushed himself off and went away quietly, not wanting to reveal his abilities or make a name for himself.

Back at the stone house, Chen Jin did not cultivate. Instead, he waited until Fang Bin left before making his way to the practice hall for external disciples.

Night had just fallen when he walked out of his residence, there were still many pedestrians on the road.

The bright moonlight cast a hazy glow on the ground as if a layer of silver had been scattered across. Many couples were indulging in the forbidden desires, they snuggled under trees and whispered their lovers’ talk. It was still and peaceful.

Chen Jin didn’t have time to look at these things. He sped up his steps and soon he arrived at a towering building.

The practice hall was divided into two major areas–cultivation methods and martial arts. The hall had a collection of various rare books and practice methods from the sect. It was one of the most important places of the sect.

“Old Song!”

He arrived at the entrance and bowed towards an old man sitting not too far from the door.

Old Song was one of the guardians of the library. No one knew how powerful he was. It was rumored that he was an upper rank who could even rank in the branches of the external disciples. But he had not taken any action for many years, so no one knew his exact strength. Before coming here, Chen Jin had already inquired about the news regarding the practice hall and so he knew of this Old Song.

“Hand over the contribution points and enter,” Old Song did not open his eyes. He did not bother about Chen Jin and minded his own business.

“Yes” Chen Jin patted his storage sack and the contribution points recording tool appeared in his hands. Then he raised his hand and 200 contribution points were transferred. Because Chen Jin had used his spirit stones to exchange for contribution points before coming here, he had no lack of points. But with the value of the contribution points and low-grade spirit stones, in an instant, he was once again transformed into a poor man.

“Remember, you only have four hours,” Old Song’s voice carried to him.

“Yes!” Chen Jin did not say more and stepped into the room.

Indeed, the Practice Hall of the Xintan sect was not small in any way. It was comparable to the libraries on earth.

Chen Jin quickly walked to the cultivation practice methods’ area and saw that there were at least hundreds of thousands of books on cultivation methods on the bookshelves. Chen Jin scanned some of them casually.

Sure enough, the cultivation methods here were completely different from those used by the Protoss. It could even be said that the lower-level exercises were of a much higher caliber than those of the Protoss. It seemed that there were indeed many problems in the Protoss’ Heavenly Realm.

Chen Jin didn’t think too much and communicated with the chip in his brain to activate the scanning function. He quickly flipped through the book. All the contents of the book had been recorded in his brain. He had read a book in just a few seconds. The speed was so fast that it raised one’s hackles.

Crash!

The sounds of pages flipping rang out in the room continuously.

“A weak nature, fickle, impatient, and boastful!”

Old Song wrinkled his brow when he heard the noises of pages being flipped at lightning speed.

Old Song criticized Chen Jin from outside the hall. But Chen Jin did not hear it, so he continued to scan the books. Soon all the contents of the cultivation exercises were put into his brain.

Thus, Chen Jin went out of the Practice Hall.

“You’re done?”

“Yes,” Chen Jin found it a bit strange, this old man was never one for so many words?

“Forget it, go, you’ll be paying 500 contributions points next time you come,” Old Song did not look at Chen Jin.

“Didn’t you say that it’s 200 contribution points for four hours? Why do I have to pay 500 points the second time round?” Chen Jin asked, feeling puzzled.

“Heh heh, you call that learning? I, Song Jiawei, has never seen anyone who reads like you,” Old Song sneered.

“Since there’s nothing else, I’ll bid farewell now.” Chen Jin shook his head helplessly. It seemed that he couldn’t use this sort of scanning method again, or else someone would find something fishy about it sooner or later.

After returning to his stone house, Chen Jin entered the palm-sized transmission device and uploaded all the practice methods he recorded to nuwa.

“Nuwa, create a set of cultivation methods that would be the most suitable for me according to these exercises.”

This was Chen Jin’s true purpose. Only by cultivating using a set of methods that were created by amalgamating hundreds of thousands of methods could he better develop the natural aptitudes of his body.

Chapter 487 - Technology Was Top Productive Capability

“Yes, Master, it would take about three days according to the current computing speed. During these three days, I will simulate the cultivation method 200,000 times and then modify it constantly. This will create the best method for you,” Nuwa reported seriously.

Hearing that it would take three days, Chen Jin couldn’t help but become speechless. With the supercomputing prowess possessed by her, the cultivation methods that she created through three days of computing would be extremely powerful.

“Okay, then just focus on computing that,” After which, Chen Jin took out the palm-sized transmission device and moved the high-tech products brought from the base in Haierfa to the stone house.

He could just let the robot handle the renovation of the stone house, He should hurry and sleep. After all, it was already late at night. So Chen Jin returned to the palm-sized transmission device. The area inside the device was huge. There was also a cave house built into the device. Because a lot of spirit stones had been placed inside, so there was ample spiritual energy. There were no problems in staying there for a while.

Early the next morning, Chen Jin exited the transmission device and returned to the stone house.

Only to see that there were all kinds of modern facilities in the stone house, even the ground fire used to create and refining magic items was changed to an artificial sun. A small nano-lithography machine was also placed beside the furnace for alchemy, and it could be used to carve a nano spirit pattern on a weapon which would help to enhance the quality of the weapon. It was extremely powerful, but there was no need to worry about it. The indigenous people of the immortal world were quite illiterate in science and technology. There was no need to worry that they would be able to understand these things. If Chen Jin had not emphasized that the exterior of the house must be kept in its original state, the robot would also have renovated the exterior of the house.

“Great, I’ve got everything now. I just need to look for some production materials in the immortal world and then I’ll be able to create the items that I need. It’s a pity that the Heavenly Realm has been transformed into part of the primal chaos, not many natural resources were left. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have to go look for materials and resources in the immortal world,” Chen Jin muttered.

The practice method had not yet been created, so Chen Jin could only wait. While waiting, he went to collect several tasks so he could complete them.

Before going, he changed his contribution points recording tool to an identity token. After a year, Chen Jin once again arrived at the venue where external disciples came to get their missions.

“Fellow Disciple Brother, you’re here again, what tasks are you planning to take up this time?” The youth had been interacting with Chen Jin for about a year, so they were familiar with each other. But Chen had been using a human replica robot in place of himself to collect and also complete the tasks. Although he felt rather awkward now, he quickly adapted.

“Disciple Brother, are there any suitable tasks?” Chen Jin smiled.

“It seems that you want to take up a unique task,” The teenager seemed to have guessed something. “Your Qi cultivation is at the fourth level now. You probably find it boring to keep doing the same ordinary tasks. How about this, you can have a look upstairs and see if any unique tasks are suitable for you.”

“Thank you for your guidance,” Chen Jin smiled slightly and walked upstairs.

He arrived upstairs. The number of tasks was lesser, but most of them were external assignments, such as protecting certain important mortals, mining at the spirit stones mines, etc. Chen Jin was not interested in these tasks.

After looking for a long time, Chen Jin finally found a suitable task.

“Go to the Zone of Trials and bring back one piece of moon mountain stone. ”

Chen Jin had heard of the Zone of Trials. First of all, only cultivators at the Foundation level or below could enter the Zone. The next was that the Zone was extremely strange and there were dangers everywhere. There were even spirit beasts with cultivation at the Golden Core level. But the area was also rich in natural resources and materials. There were all sorts of precious ores, various types of spirit plants and herbs could be seen everywhere. There were even rumors of rare treasures in the Zone.

If the items that one brought back was worth more than a thousand spirit stones, then he would have passed the Zone of Trials, and when the time came, he would be upgraded to an “inner disciple.” As compared to an external disciple, an inner disciple was fully accepted as part of the sect and would receive greater and more focused training from the masters. Before going into the Zone, the sect would issue a recording tool that would record all the items gotten from the Zone. Half of the items must be handed over to the sect. The disciple couldn’t conceal any item. The recording tool would automatically record all items even if it was placed in the storage sack. Moreover, most external disciples had the goal of becoming an inner disciple, so nobody wanted to hide anything.

In this case, he would just complete this task. Chen Jin wanted the Base to have better production materials from the immortal world and to use them more effectively, hence he could only become a mover again.

Chen Jin waved his hand and put the identity token on the mission wall. He had collected this task.

Soon, Chen Jin arrived at the Zone of Trials but saw only a few people on a wide and empty meadow. Everyone was minding their own business and busy with their affairs. They seemed to be doing their final preparations.

It didn’t take long before he heard a clear and bright voice, “The door to the Zone of Trials has opened. Everyone, come in once you’re ready.”

Only when the people heard the voice did they start to enter the Zone groups in twos and threes. Chen Jin also followed the crowd and walked in.

“Fellow disciple brother, your current cultivation is too low. Do you also choose to enter the Zone of Trials?” The disciple in charge of the Zone stopped Chen Jin.

Chen Jin was a little depressed, why did they only stop him? There were so many people nearby. But after thinking about it, Chen Jin understood why. He was the only one with a Qi cultivation at the fourth level. Among the others, even those with the lowest Qi cultivation were at least at the seventh level. The highest level had attained the consummate level of Qi cultivation. Stopping him was only a normal thing to do.

“Thank you for your trouble, fellow disciple brother, but I have decided!” Chen Jin looked at the other party with a determined look.

“In this case, I won’t stop you, but it’s better to be careful. Not only are there natural disasters, but there are also ‘man-made disasters.’ Besides our sect’s entrance into the Zone of Trials, other entrances belong to other sects.” The disciple in charge of the Zone looked at Chen Jin. It was as if he was seeing the younger version himself who had just been inducted. At that time, his strength was weak, and he too had come to test the Trials to fulfill the goals that he had. Hence, he kindly reminded Chen Jin.

Chen Jin looked at the disciple, he had a favorable impression of him so he cupped his fist in his other palm in a sign of respect, “Thank you, fellow disciple brother, for your reminder. I will keep your words in mind.”

After that, Chen Jin turned around and entered the passage.

The passage was not long. The distance was about 20 zhang (60 or so meters) and it passed in a flash. Chen Jin walked out of the exit. Before he could even see the scenery, he felt his head spinning and his vision blurring. He disappeared from the exit without a trace.

The ground was covered with grayish-black water; a muddy puddle that spewed out pink smoke continuously, grotesquely twisted branches. Under his feet were as blood-red weeds that he had never seen before. A strange acrid smell permeated the air. This was the scene that he saw and felt when he first arrived.

Although the landforms were a bit unique, Chen Jin had nothing to fear. The first thing was not to size up the environment but to throw the recording tool straight back to the base in Haierfa. Then, no matter how powerful the recording tool was, there was no way that it could record anything.

Then Chen Jin took out a large number of ultimate neutrinos from the storage ring and disperse them. After all, the strange place that he had arrived in probably did not have a very large area. These neutrinos should be able to help him build a complete map. These neutrinos had an upload speed of 100k per second upload speed, and they could travel at nearly the same speed as light. It shouldn’t take long for the map to be made. As long as a map was constructed, he would know where the treasures were, where the danger lay, where were the dead ends, the through roads, etc. Everything would be clear at a glance. It would be less likely that he would take the wrong roads or the detours and he could also do real-time monitoring of the different areas.

Thinking of these, Chen Jin smiled to himself. He could not help but sigh in appreciation, “Indeed, technology is the top productive capability and force.”

Chapter 488 - Servants

After a short time, the ultimate neutrinos uploaded some images to Chen Jin in succession, and he used the chip in his brain to synthesize the uploaded information into a map of the Zone of Trials.

The more time that passed, the more complete the map was drawn in Chen Jin’s mind. After an hour, Chen Jin’s ultimate neutrinos finally covered the entire area of the Zone in a dense layer, including the water pool, caves, and cliffs of the Zone. The neutrinos also detected various kinds of spirit beasts lurking in the vicinity of rare plants and minerals as well as the presence of humans.

It was said that humans were the scariest creatures. This sentence was also true in the immortal world. When humans were from the same sect, there was no conflict of interest, so they would be able to consider their friendship that was born from being in the same sect. But things were different when the people were from two different sects. Even if there were no conflicts, murdering someone else to rob their treasures was a normal thing to do once they entered the Zone of Trials. Just like the real-time images playing out in Chen Jin’s mind, there were four places where people were busy fighting one another. Only one of the fights was due to competition over a magic elixir. The rest of the fights were about murder such that the victors could rob the victims of their treasures.

In the absence of any proper laws, this sort of “law of the jungle” was played out thoroughly and without restraint. Although Chen Jin grew up on Earth in a society with proper laws from a young age, since the invasion of the Protoss, he was no stranger to the law of the jungle.

There was a cliff wall to the northeast of this secret land. Water rushed down from the rock wall. The constant scouring of the water had created a deep pool of water under the rock wall. Beside the pool was a type of grass called Dragon’s Beard, which grew year-round. The grass was called thusly because of its shape was similar to a dragon’s beard. Although it did not grow in great quantities, it had many uses, hence it was extremely expensive. It would not be inaccurate to say that it would still be difficult to get your hands on Dragon’s Beard even if you had the money. So, this cliff wall became Chen Jin’s destination.

After Chen Jin confirmed his destination, he released seven or eight Naga dragon robots that were at the Yuanying phase. He also released two robots that had transformed themselves into the Shenguang phase. Chen Jin changed into servant’s clothes and put on a mask. People would not recognize him and this would ensure his safety.

Not long after traveling for about five kilometers, Chen Jin heard the sound of water and knew that he had arrived at the cliff wall.

He parted some of the sogon grass blocking his way and a deep pool with a dark green color appeared. He had not even drawn close to the pool when a forbidding chill in the air made him tremble.

The area of the pool was not large; it was surrounded by a large swath of trees that were scattered about. It was early summer and although it could be cool in the middle of the night, it was almost noon now. But he could see with his naked eye wisps of cold air rising from the surface of the water. Some faintly discernable ice floes had also formed on the surface of the pool. One could see just how cold the pool was.

Perhaps the cliff wall was too tall and it blocked out all the sunlight from reaching the water pool, or perhaps the pool was too deep and silent and that was why the cold felt so distressing.

Chen Jin stopped thinking about all this and came to the pool. In a particular area beside the pool that was heaped with rocks was a small tract of deep green grass. This grass was extremely slender and its entire body was a dark green color. It hung down from a relatively higher position, just like a dragon’s beard.

Chen Jin took a large stride and came to the place where the dragon’s beard grew. But he did not collect the grass and instead said loudly, “Come out, I have already spotted you.”

The cultivator hiding behind the woods was appalled. He was already holding his breath as much as he could. How could the party still find out his existence? On second thought, he understood the situation. Perhaps the other party was only trying to draw him out. He quickly dismissed his intention to show himself.

Chen Jin saw that the other party did not come out and he found it a little funny, so he picked up a stone and threw it. The stone penetrated the thicket of trees and smashed into the center of the other party’s cheek. Chen Jin said, “Sir, are you still not coming out? Don’t tell me you’re waiting for me to make a move against you.”

Chen Jin had just finished speaking when the trees swayed. A middle-aged man jumped out from the thicket. The middle-aged man was suntanned but he had a big red dot on his cheek. It was exactly the stone that was thrown by Chen Jin. Although he was hit by the stone, his face received no serious damages.

“What a big attitude, you’re just a little cultivator, your Qi cultivation is only at the fourth level, yet you make a move against me, Wang Shuangshuang?” The middle-aged man, Wang Shuangshuang dusted his clothes while he berated Chen Jin.

So he was called Wang Shuangshuang. He was such a dark and ugly person but he had a woman’s name? He actually took the name of a woman, Chen Jin felt a chill of disgust.

Wang Shuangshuang sized up Chen Jin and looked at the robots again. He could tell Chen Jin’s cultivation but not the robots. There were no fluctuations from any sort of magic power, they were just like ordinary mortals. Wang Shuangshuang did not care about them either. He thought that they were merely cannon fodder Chen Jin had brought along as he scouted the land explored.

“I dare to enter the Zone of Trial land even though my Qi cultivation has only reached the fourth level. Sir, don’t you wonder about the reasons why? You should quickly retreat.” Chen Jin said calmly as he lightly swung his cuffs. He did give off a rather otherworldly, divine air–well he was putting on airs.

On the contrary, Wang Shuangshuang did not become fearful after listening to Chen Jin’s words. If the other party had attacked him directly he would have made a run for it. But he had spoken and allowed him to leave of his own volition. That felt like a coward trying to act fierce. Wang Shuangshuang sneered, “The reason? Where does your confidence come from? Numbers? Heh heh, who goes out without bringing some cannon fodder as he scout the land?” Wang Shuangshuang said and shifted his storage ring. All of a sudden, about ten cultivators who were at the fourth or fifth level of their Qi cultivation fell to the ground.

The cultivators who had just landed on the ground seemed to have resigned to their fate. They stood obediently behind Wang Shuangshuang.

“How’s this, kid? You still want to compare who has more men? You’re afraid that you can’t even win against my servants right? Hahaha.” Wang Shuangshuang laughed boastfully.

Chen Jin squinted his eyes. It seemed that this Wang Shuangshuang was not a good person. Wielding his cultivation, which was at the half-step Foundation level, he had forcibly enslaved a dozen cultivators that only had low levels of cultivation. Hence, he turned to the Naga robot and gave an order.

Suddenly, the overflowing force of the robot’s spiritual energy blasted out. The robot had not even really made a move when it had pressed Wang Shuangshuang firmly into the ground. Wang Shuangshuang was drenched in sweat from his struggles but he could not move an inch. He could only open his mouth to ask for mercy, “Senior, please spare my life. I’m not even human; I’ve lost my conscience. That’s why I would even make trouble for you. You are the bigger person, please disregard this villain’s mistakes and spare my life.”

Chen Jin did not speak, he simply got the robot to knock the man out, and threw him back to the base. There was no better person to conduct experiments on. It was much better to let Alice use him to check out whatever gene issues she was researching on than to kill him directly.

After dealing with Wang Shuangshuang, Chen Jin looked at the dozen slaves and developed a headache, “What about you guys, what are your plans?”

“Thank you very much for your help in saving our lives, sir. I was originally cultivating by myself in my own special spot. Wang Shuangshuang, that thief, had gotten wind of my ancestral storage ring, so he seized me. If not for you, I am afraid that my life would still be in danger. We are willing to serve you hand and foot to repay the favor of saving our lives.” It was a young man who spoke. Perhaps he was afraid that Chen Jin would kill everyone to keep his secrets and that was why he said that.

Chen Jin saw how discreet the youth was behaving in this delicate situation. He nodded. “That’s very good. It’s too dangerous for you all here. It’s better to go into the storage ring and hide.”

Although Chen Jin had a robot that he could order about, it was not good for the robot to show its face in public. Cultivators who did not have a high level of cultivation wouldn’t be able to tell that anything was amiss, but if there was a cultivator who had attained the Huashen phase, he would be able to use his divine sense and easily sniff out the differences between the robot and the humans. When the time came, the robot would immediately be revealed for what it was. It was better to take on a few servants to run errands for him.

After transplanting the Dragon’s Beard into the cave house in his palm-sized transmission device, Chen Jin muttered to himself, “Okay, it’s time to go fish that thing out from the bottom of the water.”

Chapter 489 - The Strange Sludge

The water was cold. When Chen Jin tested the water temperature with his fingers, he knew that there was no way he could enter the water with his current level of cultivation.

Feeling helpless, Chen Jin could only go to the base at Haierfa again.

Due to the multiple breakouts of interstellar war, the base was mostly producing interstellar warships, and the submarines had not been updated for a long time. Although it was a relatively outdated product, it was still far ahead of the submarines on Earth from the same time. Without thinking too much, Chen Jin collected two or three submarines into his storage ring and returned to the pool.

He put the submarine in the pool and boarded it with the robots. The cabin hatch was closed and the submarine sank into the depths of the water.

A buzzing sound arose and the submarine descended. At first, everything was still. There was no sign of movement in the water except for the sound of the submarine. However, as time went by, some fish-shaped spirit beasts appeared in the surrounding water. Spirit beasts who lived in this sort of environment possessed frightening levels of physical strength. They slapped the submarine with their bodies until it swayed, but Chen Jin was not surprised by this. After all, the ultimate neutrinos had covered the entire pool of water. These fish-like monsters were within his expectations. He simply sent a few naga robots at the Yuanying phase of cultivation to kill them.

The submarine moved on, and the water became increasingly terrifying. The water pressure was getting higher and higher. The water also possessed a characteristic–it had a wisp of corrosive spiritual energy. If the submarine was not a purely technological product without any trace of spiritual energy, this water alone would corrode the submarine until rusty spots could be seen.

Before long, Chen Jin’s submarine finally reached the limits of the area covered by the ultimate neutrinos.

If he continued to go further down, even the ultimate neutrino would lose its effectiveness.

However, in this final area covered by the ultimate neutrinos was a tangle of vines that had seemingly withered away. This climbing plant was stuck onto the rocky side of the pool at an oblique angle. When the submarine turned its headlights towards the plant, it even reflected a metallic glare. But Chen Jin knew that if a climbing plant could remain uncorroded in such a place, then this was certainly not an ordinary plant.

Chen Jin controlled the submarine’s working arm and grabbed the roots of the plant back to the submarine. Chen Jin looked at the tree roots in front of him, he had never seen this thing. This was extremely hard and very tough. One might think that it was made of steel. Then Chen Jin looked at the cut-off area of the vine and saw its bark and fibers, it was the root of a plant. It seemed that he would not be able to get a clear understanding of its uses for the time being.

After diving for so long to pick up something useless, Chen Jin could not help but feel depressed. But he thought about it again, he was the only one who could dive to such a deep place. It would be impossible for others. Of those who were able to enter the Zone of Trials, there was not one of them with a cultivation beyond the Foundation phase. Who else besides him could go so deep?

The area further down was not covered by the ultimate neutrinos, but he had already dived so far into the pool, it would be a pity to just return. It was better to go on and see what’s below.

After this, Chen Jin descended deeper into the water. The water in the pool gradually turned pitch black, even as it remained just as bone-piercingly cold. The effects of the corrosive spiritual power grew scarier. Even if it was a successful cultivator fell into the pool, his strength would also disappear, and he would quickly sink and die.

Chen Jin even dared to conclude that no one had come to this place except himself. After all, when this water came into contact with something with spiritual power, it would corrode a person until there was nothing left. Unless that person was an immortal, which meant that all the magic power in his body had been converted into immortal power. Only then would he have nothing to fear from this water.

However, this mattered not to Chen Jin. The submarine did not have one iota of spiritual energy, so the water had no corrosive effect on the submarine at all.

As the submarine got deeper, the buzzing sound of the engine became faint and indistinct. It felt weird. Just what kind of special characteristic did this water have that it could even swallow sound?

The submarines produced by the base could travel at a speed of 2,000 or 3,000 kilometers per hour. This speed was usually more than sufficient, but Chen Jin had sat in the submarine as it traveled for an hour before reaching the bottom of the pool.

He saw that the sludge at the bottom of the pool was absorbing wisps of spiritual energy through the water. After seeing this, Chen Jin finally realized that the water in the pool had no corrosive properties, it was the terrifying extent of the sludge’s ability to absorb spiritual energy that caused the water to also absorb spiritual energy everywhere.

Chen Jin was very curious as he looked at the sludge. He did not know why some mud could absorb spiritual energy to such a scary extent. Hence he tossed a low-grade spirit stone into the water. Before the spirit stone had even landed in the sludge, it was sucked dry by the water in an instant. The stone turned white and landed on the mud.

Weird. This sludge was too weird. If he was to exit the submarine, he would probably be sucked dry by the water instantly and then crushed into fine powder by the terrible water pressure.

I have to take some of the sludge to study it, Chen Jin thought to himself.

Chen Jin operated the mechanical arm and grabbed a little bit of the sludge and put it into a hidden area in the submarine. As the sludge would be separated from him by a thick alloy plate, it would not be able to absorb the magic power in his body.

Chen Jin’s research method was also very simple. Didn’t this thing like to absorb spiritual power? Anyway, he lacked everything but spirit stones. He wanted to see just how much spiritual energy could this object absorb.

In a split second, Chen Jin put more than 300 top-grade spirit stones into the hidden area. The spiritual energy in top-grade spirit stones was vast and incomparably pure. Chen Jin did not believe that just some mere sludge could absorb all of the spiritual energy in more than 300 top-grade spirit stones.

What Chen Jin didn’t expect was that it took only a little time and work before the more than 300 top-grade spirit stones started to become discolored, and after persevering for a little while, the spirit stones had turned completely white.

Witnessing this scene, Chen Jin was stunned. Since when could spiritual energy from top-grade spirit stones get sucked dry so helplessly?

Gritting his teeth, Chen Jin cleared up the white spirit stones that had been sucked dry. He took out 2,000 top-grade spirit stones from his storage sack and stuffed the submarine’s entire hidey-hole to the brim. Since the sludge could absorb the spiritual energy to this extent, he would let it suck all that it could in one shot.

According to the absorption speed of the mud, it would take less than ten minutes to absorb the spiritual energy. After ten minutes, most of the spirit stones been sucked dry and turned white. There were only a couple left that still possessed the luster of spiritual energy. The sludge was buried in the pile of spirit stones and there was no trace of it.

After another ten minutes, the spiritual energy in the spirit stones remained. Chen Jin now knew that the sludge could not absorb any more spiritual energy.

The corners of Chen Jin’s mouth twitched. This was too scary, such a small amount of sludge had absorbed more than 2,300 top-grade spirit stones. If the entire mass of sludge at the bottom of the pool could absorb spiritual energy, how many spirit stones would that be?

He shook his head and stopped thinking about it. He waved his hand and the white spirit stones were swept aside, leaving only the sludge that was filled with spiritual energy.

Chen Jin carefully sized up these spirit stone-eating monsters. The sludge no longer looked like sludge. After absorbing all the spiritual energy it could absorb, it was in a jelly-like state, completely different from its previous sludge form. Chen Jin rubbed the “jelly.” It had a similar texture as spirit soil. After everything, it was still mud. He didn’t know what it could be used for.

Yes, that’s right. Spirit soil. This was spirit soil; sludge was also soil. Wouldn’t he know for sure once he planted something in it?

He lifted his hand and several Dragon’s Beard appeared on the sludge.

Chapter 490 - Inheritance Stele of Fuel and Fire

“Not good,” Chen Jin said softly. The expensive and scarce Dragon’s Beard instantly covered the entire submarine. Chen Jin and that small amount of sludge were also covered by the Dragon’s Beard.

In the end, it was the robots who cleared the Dragon’s Beard and pulled Chen Jin out.

Chen Jin scrutinized the Dragon’s Beard in his hand while he pulled out the Dragon’s Beard that he found beside the pool. Good fellow. The Dragon’s Beard grown from the sludge was more than five times larger than the ones he found beside the pool.

Although he still didn’t know what this sludge was, at least he knew that its effects were much stronger than spirit soil. With this sludge, he wouldn’t have to fear that he would run out medicinal ingredients. As long as he had the seeds or even a root, he would be able to cultivate a large number of plants using this sludge. Besides the excessive use of spirit stones, the advantages of this sludge were obvious.

Chen Jin made up his mind that he would get his hands on all the sludge.

“If you could not bear to sacrifice your child, you wouldn’t have a chance of trapping the wolf.” Chen Jin gritted his teeth and threw all the top-grade spirit stones from his storage ring into the sludge at the bottom of the pool. But the spirit stones that fell into the mud were sucked dry in an instant and turned white. More than 20,000 top-grade spirit stones and he still couldn’t see a wisp of spiritual energy remaining.

There was no other way. The spirit stones were still far from enough. Chen Jin could only remotely control the robots to return to the base at Haierfa and fetch all the spirit stones.

He saw a small mountain of spirit stones appearing on top of the sludge with a loud rumble. According to the robots’ report, there were more than 200,000 top-grade spirit stones. He had no other way if this was still not enough.

Because there were too many spirit stones, the speed at which the sludge absorbed the spiritual energy was slower than before. The mountain of spirit stone gradually turned white. After about six hours, the last spirit stone had been completely absorbed. Chen Jin cleared away all these junk spirit stones and the sludge was revealed again. Although it did not suck up spiritual energy like the little amount of sludge did before, it also would not cleanly absorb the spiritual energy instantaneously like in the beginning. The sludge did not even absorb spiritual energy from the two medium-grade spirit stones that Chen Jin threw into the water. The sludge only absorbed the top-grade spirit stones that were thrown on it and at a slow rate.

It seemed that it was not dangerous anymore. Chen Jin operated the robotic arm to carry the sludge, scoop by scoop, into the submarine. After a while, the jelly-like sludge was piled up across half of the submarine. The weight of the sludge seemed to be in the range of tens of thousands of tons. Chen Jin raised his hand and collected all the sludge into the storage ring. This was a rare treasure, but when Chen Jin thought about the two or three top-grade spirit stones that he was left with, his heart couldn’t help but cramp in pain. It was fortunate that the scale of the production of spirit stones at the base had expanded a lot. It should be possible to produce the number of spirit stones he had used today in a year or two.

After emptying all the sludge, the land that was covered by the sludge was exposed. There was an incomprehensible pattern on the ground and in the middle of the pattern was a sign. The sign was not part of the pattern, it was a plaque that was embedded into the ground.

Soon after, Chen Jin lifted the plaque and scrutinized it. It was not made of gold or wood and it looked light and graceful, but it was really heavy. Chen Jin was struggling to hold it up.

It was not a weight brought about by a dense volume; the weight was a responsibility entrusted by the meaning on the plaque.

The plaque instantly sent a message to Chen Jin, “It’s so heavy because you don’t know what kind of responsibility it is. Once you understand, it will be the weight of responsibility that you feel.”

The “Inheritance Stele of Fuel and Fire” did not need to be understood. When Chen Jin understood the words on the front of the plaque, the weight of the plaque disappeared without a trace.

It turned out that this tiny plaque was a stele. Chen Jin turned over the “Inheritance Stele of Fuel and Fire.” The back was engraved with a dense and endless script. The text was extremely small, like micro-carvings. He used all his eye power and looked closely at the script, which was an article of cultivation method.

This script was not part of the current texts that existed in the immortal world, it was something that Chen Jin had never seen before. But since the “Inheritance Stele of Fuel and Fire” had passed a message onto Chen Jin, he could now understand the text.

This was a cultivation method for cultivating “wood” attributes. The cultivation method was completely different from the mainstream cultivation method used in the immortal world. It was simply unimaginable. He could use various plants to cultivate his magic power, immortal power, his soul, and even his body. After cultivating to a very high level of success with this method, his body and soul would have powers of recovery and regeneration just like plants. His magic power and immortal power would also be able to regenerate like a plant, even reaching a point where they were inexhaustible. When he had cultivated to a perfect stage, he could even revive himself by dripping blood.

What shocked Chen Jin, even more, was that there were five such Inheritance Steles of Fuel and Fire. He had the one for cultivating “wood” attributes but there were others for gold, water, fire, and earth. There was a cultivation practice method on each stele. One could even cultivate using all five practice methods at the same time, allowing one to reach an incredible state.

Chen Jin calmed his emotions, and the submarine rose under the control of the built-in intelligent system. Chen Jin began to cultivate using this method.

This exercise method was called the Five Elements of Certain Survival or Execution of Wood Circulation. He had to swallow raw elixirs as he was cultivating, then run the essence of the wood properties in the elixir in his body according to the practice method for one cycle. Then, he had to swallow the elixir and run the cycle back and forth.

This was a practice that got more and more costly towards the end. In the early stages, swallowing some low-end elixirs was sufficient. In the later stages, he would need to swallow some heavenly elixir for the effects to occur. Fortunately, the only quantity was required, varieties did not need to be taken into account, which made things much easier for Chen Jin.

After taking a mouthful of the Dragon’s Beard, Chen Jin began to cultivate. He didn’t need to absorb spirit stones. He could only get the essence of the plants to transform himself all around. As he ran through the practice method, Chen Jin felt the power of the plant flow into his limbs and bones. After one cycle of running the method, the Dragon’s Beard that he had consumed had been thoroughly digested without a remaining trace in his stomach.

Seeing that the transformation effects of the Execution of Wood Circulation were so obvious, Chen Jin quickly and efficiently ate a whole Dragon’s Beard plant. He ate until his stomach swelled and he could eat no more, then he started cultivating.

After running the cycle for few more times, Chen Jin’s belly flattened. His Qi cultivation that was at the fourth level was imbued with a slight spiritual power that had a wooden nature. Although his cultivation level did not increase, the purity of his magic power had increased a lot.

Originally, Chen Jin’s magic power could only be regarded as “condensed” but not pure. Now the purity of the magic power in Chen Jin’s body had reached the medium grade of magic powers.

Magic power was divided into three grades – top, middle, and lower. The lower class magic power was the most spotty. The magic power cultivated from ordinary grade practice methods was a lower grade. Those cultivated from mortal grade practice methods were medium grade, those cultivated from land grade practice methods were top-grade. Lastly, only by cultivating using a heavenly grade practice method could one’s magic power be considered perfect. As for the Magic Power of Heavenly Law in legends, no one had ever cultivated it.

The submarine ascended as Chen Jin slowly cultivated.

The submarine was extremely fast when it descended, but it was much slower when it ascended. Chen Jin surfaced after three days.

He exhaled a stale breath and fiercely took in a breath of fresh air. The stuffiness of these past few days was too much. However, despite the difficulty, Chen Jin felt that it was worthwhile. His Qi cultivation had reached the fifth level. Besides leaving one Dragon’s Beard plant for other purposes, he had consumed all of them. His body’s recovery ability had been greatly improved. His healing speed was much faster than before. His previous magic power was about to be completely transformed into magic power with “wood” attributes, and its purity level had reached the peak level of medium grade magic power. Expending a lot of time and resources also meant that the rewards were huge.

Chen Jin took out the recording tool and prepared to collect some treasure to complete his task. Then, he could go back.

Chapter 491 - Total Metamorphosis

Soon, Chen Jin arrived at the designated mission venue after beheading several spirit beasts with Foundation-level cultivation and successfully obtaining the moon mountain stone. At the same time, he had also obtained medium-grade magical artifacts. It could be considered that he had completed his mission.

“I can finally leave the Zone of Trials ground, that pool at the cliff feels like a lifetime ago,” Chen Jin could not help but sigh ruefully.

When Chen came out of the Zone, he once again encountered the disciple in charge of the Zone.

“Greetings, fellow brother,” Chen Jin turned towards the other party and slightly cupped his hands in obeisance.

“I, Xie Yumeng, have been standing guard here for more than three years. I have seen more than thousands who have entered the Zone of Trials. It is not an easy thing for most to return safely. Not only have you returned safely, but your cultivation has also improved slightly. It seems like you are someone with great fortune, “Xie Yu click his tongue in wonder.

“Heh heh, fellow brother, you might not know but I had many a narrow escape. It is only because of Heaven’s blessings that I managed o escape unscathed, I will live nine lives. I simply retreated from the sky to get rid of my whole body. Now, I have reaped a few rewards, but they are nothing to brag about.” Chen Jin forced a laugh and said, “I got some medicinal herbs from the Zone; I’ll just give them to you, I hope you won’t look down on them. ”

As Chen Jin spoke, he took out one strand of Dragon’s Beard from his storage sack and handed it over.

Xie Yumeng’s eyes suddenly brightened, he said, “Pardon my greed” and took the herb.

“Since you are so generous, as your fellow disciple, I can’t be stingy. I have a set of tips on breaking through the Foundation phase. Take it as a gift for our first meeting,” With a wave of his hand, a handwritten letter flew towards Chen Jin.

Chen Jin gave this thanks and grabbed the letter with a stretch of his hand. He put it into the storage sack.

After a short period of effort, Chen Jin returned to the mission office for the external disciples.

“Fellow brother, I’ve come to submit my task,” Chen Jin cupped one of his fists in a sign of respect to the youth.

“Ah, you’re not slow at all. You’ve completed the task in such a short time. It seems that there will be another genius among the ranks of the inner disciples,” the young man said while helping Chen Jin submit his task. The youth also instructed the servant to take out a set of garments for the inner disciples which he handed to Chen Jin.

Chen Jin took the inner disciples’ garments and said, “It was just a fluke.”

The two of them exchanged a few words briefly before Chen Jin left the mission office for external disciples and returned to the stone house.

In the ordinary course of events, Chen Jin could move to a better place to live since he was now an inner but Chen Jin didn’t care about it. After all, he just didn’t pay much attention to where he lived before registering for his new status.

“Nuwa, has the practice method been created?” Chen Jin counted the time, three days had already passed and the practice method should have been created.

“Master, it has been created,” as Nuwa spoke, the information was uploaded to Chen Jin’s chip through quantum entanglement technology.

“Hmm, not bad.” Chen Jin did not go through the practice method but said, “Go to the base and expand the output of the spirit stones. I have a severe shortage of spirit stones on my side.”

“Yes, Master,” Nuwa was in the palm-sized transmission device, and it was very convenient to go back to the base.

Chen Jin had a good night’s rest. The work during the last few days had been too intense. He would collapse without rest.

Chen Jin got up early the next day. He got the robots to bring an exquisite breakfast from the base. Chen Jin absent-mindedly ate a little and started cultivating.

Nuwa had mixed numerous cultivation practice methods to created one set of methods. This practice method that resulted from the amalgamation of various practice methods suited Chen Jin’s cultivation very well. To others, this practice method might have varying levels of defects, but it was suitable for Chen Jin.

“Let’s try it!”

As he ran the practice method, his magic power slowly nourished his physical body with the help of both heavenly and earthly spiritual energy. At the same time, the magic in his body was also slowly increasing. The magic that was dispelled was fed back into the body. Although the two aspects were working on two different tasks at the same time, they did not interfere with each other.

Grr grr grr

Spiritual energy was increasing in his body, and it gradually formed a stream of air which flowed along Chen Jin’s sturdy meridian channels. Like a current of water, the spiritual energy trickled all over the body’s acupuncture points. The actions of the magic power could be likened to mending a bridge. The magic filled all the gaps and overcome the weaknesses in the body where the spiritual energy had flowed through but could not precisely correct or repair in time.

The time taken for this process was not very long. About an hour later, after Chen Jin had been infused with spiritual energy and magic at the same time, his muscles and bones were fully tempered, like how pig iron was forged into steel. The changes were tremendous. However, his skin had become gleaming and translucent, emitting a jade-like glow.

The magic flowed through his body for an unknown number of cycles. His body shook, and Chen Jin felt as if he had broken through a bottleneck, then he felt a wave of relaxation.

Looking inward, he found that a mass of magic without the attributes of any element had been created in his lower abdomen, this new mass of magic was right beside the seat of the magic that was aligned to the wood element. According to Nuwa, it was a type of magic that was the closest to the original power of the immortal world. Although it was very weak for now, it was still much stronger than other types of magic of a similar level. Moreover, even though this magic power had just been cultivated, its purity was in the ranks of the top-grade magic. Compared to his previous magic power, it was so much purer.

After his introspection, Chen Jin opened his eyes and felt extremely uncomfortable. His skin was sticky and it was accompanied by a faint stench that was emanating from his body. He didn’t know when this happened, but he was covered from head to toe in a layer of jet black and viscous filth–the toxins expelled from Chen Jin’s body. This was a metamorphosis inside and out.

The Earth Chen Jin was no stranger to total metamorphosis. He had already experienced it once. Perhaps it was because this Chen Jin was a newborn body, which was the reason why the effects of this metamorphosis were not so obvious.

Smelling the stench and looking at the dark layer of filth, Chen Jin couldn’t bear it any longer. He went to the newly renovated bathroom and turned on the warm water. He sighed in relief while taking a bath.

“It seems that my ideas work. By amalgamating the strengths of hundreds of schools of thought, the resulting practice method is incomparably powerful. The results from cultivating according to the method that is customized for me cannot be compared to the universal practice methods meant for everyone to use.” Chen Jin was somewhat gratified. At the same time, he was proud of his wise decision, “Hehe, when the other me was cultivating my Qi, I was never so powerful. The other me was wiped out after some having sex with Guo Yan just a few times.”

Soon, Chen Jin had finished cleaning himself up. It was only now that Chen Jin discovered how his muscles were as sparking and translucent as jade and as smooth and shiny as a mirror. The dark circles from not sleeping for the past few days had disappeared. At this point, it was like he had returned to the moment when he had just come out of the nursery room. His skin was even smoother than it was before.

The two masses of magic, one large and one small, were no longer colliding as fiercely as they did in the beginning. Although they were still very distinct from each other, they could get along quietly, like the yin-yang fish intersecting with each other.

If this scene was witnessed by outsiders, they would be astounded. The magic cultivated by everyone was a murky mix. Even the top-grade magic powers were mixtures of several attributes. Unless the cultivator possessed a celestial root, which had pure attributes from only one element; only then would the cultivator have magic with pure attributes. But even for those with a celestial root, they could only cultivate one type of magic with its corresponding pure attributes. They had no qualities to cultivate the second type of magic power.

Also, the magic created by Chen Jin, according to the cultivation practice method customized by Nuwa, had no attributes and was not aligned to any element.

This was the scariest thing.

Chapter 492 - Alchemy

Magic without attributes also meant that the cultivator did not have any spiritual roots. But how could a person who did not have spiritual roots cultivate his magic power?

Chen Jin was also shocked when he observed the magic inside his body. Why was his newly cultivated magic the same as the power of the primordial chaos? It had no attributes, but at the same time, it seemed to contain all the attributes. Everything about this magic power seemed to restore things to their original state.

Unfortunately, this magic could only be used as an ordinary sort of magic. Chen Jin still did not fully understand this mysterious magic power.

“Forget about it, I’ll drop this line of thinking for now. Anyway, these gains from this trip to the Zone of Trials are huge,” Chen Jin muttered to himself.

Chen Jin turned around and got up. He stopped cultivating. Although he could cultivate much faster with spirit stones, the spiritual energy in the spirit stones were not directly converted into magic. It still needed to be refined through cultivation to be converted into magic. Only elixirs could very quickly transform its medicinal power into magic power.

So Chen Jin went to the Memorial Market to buy a folk prescription and the necessary medicinal materials and then began to prepare for the alchemy process.

Alchemy, the process of creating magic potions and elixirs, was similar to creating and refining magic items. The more the product was refined, the greater the success rate. Creating magic items was not a big deal for Chen Jin. He had assembly lines in factories that could easily create or refine a good magic weapon. But alchemy was different. The success rate of each elixir was different. You could be a master at creating a Nature’s Luck Elixir but be a total amateur at the Yellow Dragon’s Elixir. Of course, due to previous experiences in creating and refining elixirs, rudimentary errors were unlikely to occur.

For this reason, even the Masters of Alchemy in the Xintan Sect dared not claim that they could create all elixirs with a 100% success rate. They could only guarantee the elixirs they had perfected.

For a newbie who had no experience in practicing alchemy, the most fundamental difficulty was that there were very few materials for practicing making elixirs. Although the price of medicinal materials could be high or low, the refining process had to be carried out multiple times. Especially for high-quality elixirs, not counting the supplementary medicinal materials, just the primary medicinal materials alone cost hundreds or thousands of spirit stones. The average small sect of immortal cultivation clans could, at most, only train one or two alchemists. They could not afford to train more. This was the reason why the immortal world could be considered as having rich resources. On the other hand, there were merely a few alchemists among the hundreds of millions of Protoss on Earth.

But this was not a problem for Chen Jin. First of all, he had as many spirit stones as he needed, it was just that he was a new disciple so it wasn’t easy for him to use them freely in public. Second, he had that mysterious sludge. With this thing, he could grow as many magical medicinal herbs as he needed. The key was the seeds or even a root system, as long he had one of those, he could quickly cultivate a pile of magical medicinal herbs. Even magical herbs that took thousands of years to grow were not a problem for him.

There was a very important thing if you wanted to make alchemy potions–the scarlet flames used in alchemy. Without a suitable flame, the chances of success in alchemy and the quality of the elixir would be much worse than if one had proper flames. Although there was a fire from an underground seam in the alchemy room, Chen Jin didn’t want to use it. What a joke! It was fire from an underground seam in an external disciple’s place of residence, how good could its flames be?

Chen Jin didn’t have to worry about this at all. He was a man of science and technology. The artificial sun project had been completed long ago and the equipment could even be compressed to a portable sized and carried around. With the flames brought by this advanced technology, why would he need some nonsense fire from an underground seam? Of course, it was useless to have only the fire. The alchemist must have a certain degree of confidence and skill in controlling the heat of the fire. The fire could not be too big or else the elixir would be nothing but a pitch-black slag. But a fire that was too small would not work either. The elixir had to come out of the fire when it was time to do so, and if it was not ready to be taken out of the fire, the effectiveness of the herbs would be halved. Besides, the elixir would just be junk. It was even worse if the flames were irregular and unstable. Not only would there be no effective elixir produced, if one was not careful, but there would also even be the risk of exploding the furnace.

However, in terms of fire control, Chen Jin had nothing to worry about. He only needed to set the temperature by operating the equipment. The temperature controller would help Chen Jin master heat control. Others would have to experiment and practice their movements countless times. Without a few years of hard work, there was no way that they could control the flames. If one couldn’t control the heat and the flames, how would he even start to make the magic elixirs and potions? But this was too simple for Chen Jin.

Chen Jin sat down cross-legged and controlled the artificial solar device with the chip in his brain. He then released a small wisp of flame. As soon as the flame that was transformed from the energy generated by nuclear fission came out, the temperature displayed on the temperature controller reached 100,000 degrees with incredible speed. The change reflected in the temperature controller was instant. But the temperature inside the room did not increase by even a tiny bit. One could see that the heat isolating effect of the device was excellent.

Chen Jin also knew that alchemy couldn’t be done with such a high temperature. If he put the furnace in, it would probably melt into liquid iron instantly, or it would vaporize, leaving nothing behind in two or three seconds. Chen Jin could only slowly lower the temperature. When the temperature stabilized at 2,000 degrees, he then opened the equipment and put the alchemy furnace into it. This was the best temperature to create some low-level elixirs.

Celestial grass, spirit beast bones, spirit fluid that was 100 years old, and some miscellaneous herbs… He threw these supplementary materials into the burnt hot furnace. A short time later, they had melted into a thick and sticky liquid. These were only supplementary materials, so there was no need to refine them individually. The celestial grass had melted into a turquoise liquid, the bones of the spirit beast had turned into a milky white mud. After the spirit fluid was poured into the furnace, it sizzled as it burned and became increasingly thick. But it also protected the other medicinal materials and allowed the other melted liquids and juices to float on it so that the medicinal materials would not be burned black.

At this time, Chen Jin’s infiltrated the concoction with his magic power and lightly stirred it a few times. He saw that some liquids with different colors had mixed, fusing under the effects of the heated temperature. It seemed as if the pastes of various colors were being stirred together.

The high temperature was maintained for a while and the pastes of varying colors had been stirred together. Their colors were no longer distinct. However, as time went by, the liquid surface became increasingly thicker and it started to bubble. A granular substance came tumbling out of the bubbles.

These granular substances were impurities. Chen Jin controlled the magic power with wood attributes and slowly let it re-enter the furnace. He slowly lifted those impurities with his magic, but they had only risen in the air for a short time before those tiny impurities turned into dust under the high temperature and floated to the sky.

The time spent alchemizing was endless. An hour later, all the impurities from the liquid in the furnace had been eliminated. After the refining of the supplementary materials had been completed, the main material was placed inside the furnace. The main material was the Dragon’s Beard that Chen Jin was heartily sick of. Chen Jin had also chosen this particular prescription because he had seen that the main material was called for Dragon’s Beard. It was not as if he could afford any one of the primary materials in other prescriptions with the “legal” money that he had.

Chapter 493 - Final Chapter

There’s nothing to write about at the end. The protagonist Chen Jin has become invincible. No matter what villain appears, the protagonist can easily get things under control.

If I continue to muddle along, that would be cheating your money. This book should have been over a long time ago.

I apologize to all readers for letting you down.

As early as the beginning of the book, I had a strong premonition that the book would collapse towards the end. It was not bad that I maintained the chapters until the word count reached the millions. This is the common problem of stories with an invincible protagonist. The story is invigorating and pleasant in the beginning, and the readers like it, but later on, the aesthetics of the story become exhausting, and the author can’t spin the story anymore. It could only end hastily.

Of course, I also have some gains and insights.

First of all, after writing the book “A Simulated Life In The City,” the pace at which I had written the other books that followed had been fast. Perhaps its because I’ve become more practiced at writing outlines in an endless stream and that my brain circuit has become “fixed.” Time passes very quickly, resulting in a lack of details in which only the main framework has no details. The ups and downs, the twists and turns were not large, and the collapse came faster.

This is my flaw, a flaw that must be overcome, I need to walk out from the habit of writing outlines at a rapid pace continuously. Otherwise, my books will fail, one by one.

I haven’t coded much in the past few months. I’ve been watching animation and reading novels most of the time.

I’ve watched at least 100 animation series and read 400 or 500 novels. Of course, the animation series were viewed at double the speed and the novels were speed read. This was just to speed up efficiency and to learn more useful things.

This is probably also a kind of learning.

But could this kind of learning allowed me to break through the bottleneck and enter a whole new level? There is no guarantee. After all, it’s difficult to change a mindset. I’ve also started on two new books, but I always feel that whatever I type, it’s trash; that I haven’t improved.

Maybe I have to accumulate and absorb more things

Second, there are gains too.

With this book, I’ve made money for the down payment of the house (in the range of 100,000). The financial strain has eased a little. My “writer level” has reached LV5. This is something that I have never dared to imagine. It seems that I’m not too far away from being a great writer. Even if I do know that I can’t even be considered as a middling writer. I’m at best, an old failure.

Also, this book has spurred a wave of “I’ve found (something)” and led a wave of popularity. There are at least two or three author friends around me who want to use the pattern of the title of this book and start with “I Found A” in the opening. There are even more imitations. In the end, I “laid myself out as a failure” and generated some results, which was unexpected.

I even feel a little surreal.

Of course, I also know that I’ve received a torrent of curses in some forums, which reminded me to be clear to myself about my real capabilities and not overestimate myself. There is still room for improvement.

The last is about my new book.

The new book is in progress! The outline is done, and I have a rough story in my heart.

Also, this time I want to break through my standards and overcome weaknesses in character description (in other words, I want to make progress in this area).

Therefore, I want to create a group of exciting characters in my new book, using the characters as the framework. The characters will be the center, and stories will develop around each character. There will no longer be cliched, unrealistic and illogical plotlines

Moreover, the “cheat codes” given to the protagonist will not be too powerful, the protagonist will not be invincible in the early stages. He would slowly grow and rise in power, encountering many setbacks and difficulties along the way. The road will not be smooth.

I am well aware of the situation, this attempt to transform my style has a 70% probability of failing.

Whether the editors will give me a chance, whether the novel will make it to the shelves, whether its a done deal or not, I can only put a bold face on and try.

I hope everyone will support my new book and vote for it after it is released on July 1st.

At this point, I don’t know if the reader will be angry at me or scold me, but I still hope that you can support my new book, take a look at my story, and give a little encouragement.

The finale of all finales.

I recommend a few books written by my friends.

One is “I Duplicated an Earth,” by Qin Geng Shan Shui, which was written by a fan in my book group. He has also now joined the ranks of the writers because of his hobby. His previous attempt, a book titled, “I Found An Immortal Realm” failed, but the improvements in this book are amazing. 100 points for creativity! Even I am chasing this book, I recommend it, I have a hunch, even if he does not become some great writer in the future, he will at least be a middling writer no worse than me. I hope everyone will add this book to their collection and support it!

There is another book, “I’m Really Not A Pop Star,” by Master Sun’s Words Become Poems. He is an old friend of mine, and he’d tried to transform his style in his last book. His first order called for more than 1,300 copies. I feel this is a pretty good result, if he maintains this result and keeps the plot from collapsing, it could finish off as a perfect work. But he’s still not satisfied, and then he started this new book. I can only sigh. We all need to support our families, and we all have pressure. So, I hope that everyone will also collect this book. Give him the occasional vote and contributions. I give you my thanks!

And I want to repeat this, my new book will be making its debut on July 1st. For those who support me, I hope that you will give me a little support and encouragement. I can’t say that everyone will be satisfied, but at the very least, some supporters will see a different story and feel a little anticipation.

I hope that everyone will look forward to my new book on July 1st. We’ll meet again in the new book.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - The Mysterious Portal
Chapter 2 - I Found A Piece Of Metal Scrap
Chapter 3 - I Found A Robot Trash Collector
Chapter 4 - The Robot Wawa
Chapter 5 - The Silly Wawa
Chapter 6 - I Found A Battleground
Chapter 7 - I Found A Gun
Chapter 8 - I Found A High Efficiency Battery
Chapter 9 - Repairing A Robot
Chapter 10 - The Skilled Mother
Chapter 11 - Collecting Rent (Part 1)
Chapter 12 - Collecting Rent (Part 2)
Chapter 13 - The Robot Squad
Chapter 14 - An Uncovered City
Chapter 15 - The First Billion
Chapter 16 - Fixing A Car
Chapter 17 - Wedding Anniversary
Chapter 18 - A Crazy Electricity Bill
Chapter 19 - Raiding the City of Tereese
Chapter 20 - Blind Date
Chapter 21 - A Mommy’s Boy?
Chapter 22 - $3,0,0
Chapter 23 - Laser TVs
Chapter 24 - Zhao Xin
Chapter 25 - Zhang Nan
Chapter 26 - Rover No. 1
Chapter 27 - A Transition Program
Chapter 28 - Mom’s Suspicion
Chapter 29 - The Opponent Is Too Strong
Chapter 30 - A Deal
Chapter 31 - Fort Worth City
Chapter 32 - One Ton of Gold
Chapter 33 - I Found A Car Factory

Chapter 34 - Returning from A Rewarding Journey

Chapter 35 - Planning on Starting A Jewelry Store

Chapter 36 - Chiu Wan-Ting
Chapter 37 - Confused Dad
Chapter 38 - Atomic Clock
Chapter 39 - Nowhere To Be Found

Chapter 40 - Remedying the Situation with Urgency

Chapter 41 - The Purchase Channel
Chapter 42 - Repairing the Super Calculator
Chapter 43 - Guo Yan Lost Her Job
Chapter 44 - Making a Wind Turbine
Chapter 45 - The Power Shortage is Resolved!
Chapter 46 - Gold In Exchange For Gold
Chapter 47 - The Grand Opening
Chapter 48 - Cooking The Books

Chapter 49 - The Campground At The Huge Crater

Chapter 50 - Xing Hai Technologies
Chapter 51 - High Tech Wa-Wah
Chapter 52 - Recruiting
Chapter 53 - Robot Wa-Wah
Chapter 54 - I Found A Military Base
Chapter 55 - A Rewarding Journey
Chapter 56 - A Coal Mine At Home

Chapter 57 - The Prototype Was A Great Success

Chapter 58 - Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) Factory

Chapter 59 - The Dramatic Sales Of Gold
Chapter 60 - The Goods Are Delivered
Chapter 61 - Dad And Mom Received A Shock
Chapter 62 - Silly Mode
Chapter 63 - The He Family
Chapter 64 - Someone Who Brings Pride
Chapter 65 - The First Wave Of Publicity
Chapter 66 - The Second Blast Of Publicity
Chapter 67 - An Enthusiastic Response
Chapter 68 - It’s Selling For…
Chapter 69 - Pre-orders Of Over 500,0 Robots!
Chapter 70 - Su Yun Got A Shock
Chapter 71 - I Found a Country
Chapter 72 - I found a Wind Farm
Chapter 73 - Excellent Reputation
Chapter 74 - The Visit

Chapter 75 - The Pre-orders Broke Two Million!

Chapter 76 - Rejection and Regret

Chapter 77 - Supply Chain Crisis

Chapter 78 - The Need to Master the Core Technology

Chapter 79 - Acquiring Shares by Providing Technology

Chapter 80 - You Ying Motor
Chapter 81 - Repairing A Large Airplane
Chapter 82 - I Found 20,0 Tons of Gold
Chapter 83 - I Found A Nuclear Bomb

Chapter 84 - A Futuristic Technology: Simulated Reality

Chapter 85 - The Script
Chapter 86 - Divorce
Chapter 87 - A Treat To A Meal
Chapter 88 - Suspicions
Chapter 89 - Quality Control Process

Chapter 90 - The “Counterfeit” Outstripped The Imported Originals

Chapter 91 - End of the World

Chapter 92 - An Experience With Virtual Reality

Chapter 93 - Chief Executive Officer
Chapter 94 - A Call From A Notable Personage
Chapter 95
Chapter 96 - Launch Event of a New Product
Chapter 97 - An Inventory of Assets
Chapter 98 - The Second Project
Chapter 99 - The Ultimate Exploration
Chapter 100 - I Found 100 Nuclear Missiles
Chapter 101 - I Found A Spaceship
Chapter 102 - I Found Four Nuclear Submarines
Chapter 103 - A Mysterious Signal
Chapter 104 - A False Alarm?
Chapter 105 - The Last Survivor
Chapter 106 - A Special Meeting
Chapter 107 - Everything Was a Conspiracy!
Chapter 108 - A New Journey
Chapter 109 - An Outstanding Youth
Chapter 110 - Globalization Strategy
Chapter 111 - Investments
Chapter 112 - Terraforming
Chapter 113 - A Mysterious Phonecall
Chapter 114 - Three Major Challenges
Chapter 115 - The State Owes Me a Sister
Chapter 116 - She Is My Cousin
Chapter 117 - Into Chips

Chapter 118 - 8% Shares, Ten Million Order Requests

Chapter 119 - An Astonishing Ambition

Chapter 120 - Hot Media Discussion

Chapter 121 - The Real Appearance Of Wa-wah 2.0

Chapter 122 - The Real Upgrade to a New Generation

Chapter 123 - The Ultimate Optimization
Chapter 124 - Launch of Wa-wah 2.0
Chapter 125 - A Sensation!
Chapter 126 - Nationwide Shopping Spree
Chapter 127 - Movie Release
Chapter 128 - Upsidedown
Chapter 129 - Uncle’s Grudge
Chapter 130 - Guard Robots and Avatar Robots
Chapter 131 - An Amazing Teammate

Chapter 132 - Being Ordinary Was Not Necessarily a Bad Thing

Chapter 133 - ‘Little Star’ Learning Machine
Chapter 134 - Making a Personal Appearance
Chapter 135 - Played For a Fool
Chapter 136 - Plight in Sales
Chapter 137 - A Radio Wave from Beyond
Chapter 138 - Yang Dan’s Way
Chapter 139 - WeChat Business Mode

Chapter 140 - 10,0 Banners, Innumerable Appreciation Letters!

Chapter 141 - Little Star Registered for the Senior High School Entrance Examination

Chapter 142 - Discussion by the Department of Education

Chapter 143 - Approval

Chapter 144 - A Shockwave in Science and Tech Circles

Chapter 145 - The Senior High School Entrance Exam That Was the Focus Everyone’s Attention!

Chapter 146 - Authorize the Country

Chapter 147 - Fall of the Demon Lord

Chapter 148 - Do Not Fill the Brain, Let the Mind Flow!

Chapter 149 - The Scariest Conference in History

Chapter 150 - More Interaction

Chapter 151 - Rubbish is a Resource!

Chapter 152 - What Kind of Technologies are Needed to Build an Interstellar Battleship?

Chapter 153 - Medical Technology to Extend Life

Chapter 154 - Su Yun’s Shock
Chapter 155 - The Generous “Son-In-Law”
Chapter 156 - Trouble at Da Mi Technologies
Chapter 157 - Brother Lei’s Helplessness

Chapter 158 - Proposing the “Absolute Wages” Concept

Chapter 159 - Entering Many Fields
Chapter 160 - With Core Technology at Hand
Chapter 161 - Human Answering Service
Chapter 162 - Ten Questions from the Brats

Chapter 163 - The Three Questions of Philosophy

Chapter 164 - Virtual Factory

Chapter 165 - A Fantastical Device for Development

Chapter 166 - The True Meaning
Chapter 167 - An Expert in a Terrible Fix
Chapter 168 - The Dawn of Light
Chapter 169 - Repairing the Particle Collider
Chapter 170 - Analysis

Chapter 171 - Invitation to the World Internet Conference

Chapter 172 - A Gathering of Big Shots

Chapter 173 - Jie Kema Regretted Establishing Ali Corporation

Chapter 174 - An Unmarried Daughter
Chapter 175 - The Speech Anticipated by Many
Chapter 176 - How to Solve the Bald Crisis?

Chapter 177 - Declining Google’s Request for Cooperation

Chapter 178 - Already Famous
Chapter 179 - Military Pledge
Chapter 180 - Stern Warning
Chapter 181 - A Powerful Assistant
Chapter 182 - A New Product: Bang Bang Robot
Chapter 183 - Bang Bang is Too Awesome!
Chapter 184 - Ill-fated
Chapter 185 - Wa-Wah Robot 2 — A New Family”
Chapter 186 - Doomed Without the Machine!
Chapter 187 - Vicious Conspiracy
Chapter 188 - Chips Above Gold
Chapter 189 - Picturesque
Chapter 190 - Smash-Hit Movie Wa-wah 2
Chapter 191 - A Big Discussion

Chapter 192 - Everyone Was Concerned About The Price

Chapter 193 - A “More Value For Money” Deluxe Edition

Chapter 194 - Slaughtering the Scalpers

Chapter 195 - All the Relatives Wanted to Invest

Chapter 196 - The Formula for the Grand Unification

Chapter 197 - An Invitation to the Star Charity Night

Chapter 198 - The Reason for Invitation
Chapter 199 - A Watch
Chapter 200 - Little Brother Ze
Chapter 201 - Making a Sci-Fi Movie

Chapter 202 - Our Memory Chip Factory is on Fire Again

Chapter 203 - Shock and the Explosion of Sentiments

Chapter 204 - A 100% Domestic Mobile Phone
Chapter 205 - Work Assistant 1.0
Chapter 206 - The X Team
Chapter 207 - Google’s Suppression Arrived
Chapter 208 - Star Cloud OS 1.0

Chapter 209 - Launching the League of Star Apps

Chapter 210 - Army of Inferior Brands
Chapter 211 - The Company’s Financial State
Chapter 212 - Both Were Upgraded
Chapter 213 - A Frank Talk
Chapter 214 - Rapidly Rising Temperatures

Chapter 215 - Milky Way Special Effects Rendering Engine

Chapter 216 - Starry Sky Game Engine
Chapter 217 - The Backdoor Incident
Chapter 218 - Support of the Government
Chapter 219 - A Series of Layoffs
Chapter 220 - Trend of Entrepreneurship
Chapter 221 - The Real Purpose of Exams

Chapter 222 - Was There a Need to Study Abroad?

Chapter 223 - How Should the College Entry Exam Be Modified?

Chapter 224 - Red Pepper Z1
Chapter 225 - Thinking out of the Box
Chapter 226 - Launch of the First Phone Model

Chapter 227 - Shockingly Good Value for Money!

Chapter 228 - Sales Volume Exceeded Ten Million!

Chapter 229 - Da Mi Joined the Star Alliance

Chapter 230 - Law of the Downswing

Chapter 231 - Conquering the 7-Nanometer Production Techniques!

Chapter 232 - Skyrocketing Share Prices

Chapter 233 - Shocking the Rivals

Chapter 234 - Hua Yao Joined the Xing Hai Alliance

Chapter 235 - Announcing the Entrance into the Field of Home Computers

Chapter 236 - Fusion Energy
Chapter 237 - No Longer A Young Lad
Chapter 238 - Registration?
Chapter 239 - Engine Sales Ban
Chapter 240 - Harsh Terrain

Chapter 241 - A Game of Ever-Increasing Expenses

Chapter 242 - A Military Representative
Chapter 243 - Detonation Engine
Chapter 244 - A Million Dollar Prize
Chapter 245 - Spies
Chapter 246 - Admission
Chapter 247 - Perfect Solution
Chapter 248 - Rental Crisis
Chapter 249 - Clear Outcome
Chapter 250 - Scavenged an Alien Spaceship
Chapter 251 - The Riddle Of Its Death
Chapter 252 - Photolithograph Machine!
Chapter 253 - The Most Challenging Obstacle
Chapter 254 - Legalised Counterfeitsa
Chapter 255 - The Richest Billionaire
Chapter 256 - In Abundance
Chapter 257 - Flawless Architecture

Chapter 258 - Chapter 258 - Xuanyuan Operating System

Chapter 259 - Loongson’s Decision
Chapter 260 - Light Years of Love
Chapter 261 - The Power Of Culture

Chapter 262 - Possibility Of Moving The Portal

Chapter 263 - Launch of SX-900

Chapter 264 - Xinghai First Generation Computer

Chapter 265 - Strategy of the Big Boss

Chapter 266 - Wait 115 Days

Chapter 267 - To Fight Against Piracy, to Defend Microsoft’s Interests

Chapter 268 - Microsoft Is Flustered

Chapter 269 - The Grandmaster Era

Chapter 270 - Wish to be a Monopolist of Knowledge

Chapter 271 - Knowledge = Money

Chapter 272 - I Have No Regrets Joining Xing Hai Technologies

Chapter 273 - Successful Mass Production of C919!

Chapter 274 - Old Friend, Do You Still Want To Buy The Engine?

Chapter 275 - The First Flight of The Sixth Generation Fighter Jets

Chapter 276 - Global Sensation
Chapter 277 - Quantum Computer
Chapter 278 - Conquering the 5-nanometer Chip
Chapter 279 - Playing It Big!
Chapter 280 - The Rise of Local Chips!
Chapter 281 - Wailing Like A Banshee
Chapter 282 - Safe And Sound
Chapter 283 - Intelligence Report
Chapter 284 - Lin Lichung
Chapter 285 - $500,0
Chapter 286 - Pressure
Chapter 287 - Operation ‘Punch of Justice’
Chapter 288 - Run Jack, Run!
Chapter 289 - Into Thin Air

Chapter 290 - Are You Afraid? This Is Our ‘Core’ Deterrent!

Chapter 291 - Recruiting Bootlickers

Chapter 292 - Xing Hai Technologies Made A Compromise?

Chapter 293 - It Was A Major Misunderstanding!

Chapter 294 - Death Note on Weibo

Chapter 295 - Sorry, Cousin! We Want To Collaborate With Xing Hai Technologies!

Chapter 296 - Lapdog, Licking All
Chapter 297 - A Hero
Chapter 298 - A New World Pattern
Chapter 299 - Returning Cultural Relics
Chapter 300 - Mom Retired
Chapter 301 - Material Of A New Era
Chapter 302 - Graphene CPU
Chapter 303 - Qualcomm’s Predicament

Chapter 304 - Acquiring 40% Of Qualcomm’s Shares

Chapter 305 - Bruce’s Angry Roar
Chapter 306 - Star Cloud Developer Convention
Chapter 307 - The Greatest High-Mindedness

Chapter 308 - Imagination Drives Scientific Advancements

Chapter 309 - ‘100% Science Lab’

Chapter 310 - The Most Hardcore Game in History

Chapter 311 - Reversing The Standard Around Them

Chapter 312 - What? Rejecting The Advanced?

Chapter 313 - Entering The Field Of Entertainment

Chapter 314 - Holding Onto A Support

Chapter 315 - Releasing Many Small Updates Or One Major Update?

Chapter 316 - High Energy 1

Chapter 317 - Blockbuster

Chapter 318 - Only Forty to Fifty Years Left for Oil Exploitation?

Chapter 319 - Continue Being Patent Hooligans
Chapter 320 - High Military Value
Chapter 321 - Brain Drain
Chapter 322 - The Target of Public Criticism

Chapter 323 - Recruiting The Second Batch Of Bootlickers

Chapter 324 - Four Places

Chapter 325 - Falling Over Their Feet To Become “A Friendly Nation”

Chapter 326 - 62,0 Square Miles

Chapter 327 - High Tech Causes High House Price?

Chapter 328 - The Dumbest Investment in History?

Chapter 329 - Freshwater from Lake Baikal
Chapter 330 - Golden Age
Chapter 331 - Earning 500 Billion In A Day

Chapter 332 - The Wise And Sensible Xing Hai Technologies

Chapter 333 - Living Space
Chapter 334 - What Just Happened?
Chapter 335 - Bruce’s Senses
Chapter 336 - Manned Landing on the Moon?
Chapter 337 - : Rapid Moon Landing
Chapter 338 - The Final Comeback
Chapter 339 - Saving World Peace?
Chapter 340 - Sales Agent
Chapter 341 - Investment
Chapter 342 - An Incurable Disease?

Chapter 343 - Rescuing The Entertainment Industry

Chapter 344 - Ultimate
Chapter 345 - Acquisition
Chapter 346 - Assassination
Chapter 347 - This is Impossible!
Chapter 348 - Reformation, Layout
Chapter 349 - Planning Ten Steps Ahead
Chapter 350 - Seawater Desalination
Chapter 351 - Domed Bases
Chapter 352 - Countries Jumping Eagerly
Chapter 353 - : Profit Model
Chapter 354 - The Biggest Winner
Chapter 355 - Taking Out 2%
Chapter 356 - Virtual Technology
Chapter 357 - Space Mining Industry

Chapter 358 - Renowned Scientist Mysteriously Disappears

Chapter 359 - Complicated Family
Chapter 360 - Ten Years
Chapter 361 - Crazy Assassination Attempts
Chapter 362 - City No. 9
Chapter 363 - A Major Relocation
Chapter 364 - Free Cities
Chapter 365 - A Three-Pronged Approach
Chapter 366 - Warm Up
Chapter 367 - Without Delay
Chapter 368 - Great Value
Chapter 369 - Bargain
Chapter 370 - Blacklist System
Chapter 371 - A Millenium Of Peace
Chapter 372 - Envisaging The Earth Federation

Chapter 373 - Number One and Two Playing Gangste

Chapter 374 - Acknowledging Your Identity
Chapter 375 - Stabilizing Mechanism
Chapter 376 - Resignation
Chapter 377 - Second Ultimate
Chapter 378 - Northwestern High-Tech Center
Chapter 379 - Full March into The Universe
Chapter 380 - Space City
Chapter 381 - Making Arrangements
Chapter 382 - No Way of Returning
Chapter 383 - The Transformation Is Completed
Chapter 384 - Li Dong
Chapter 385 - The Reason
Chapter 386 - New Game
Chapter 387 - Galaxy Era”
Chapter 388 - On Sale
Chapter 389 - Introducing the Closed Beta
Chapter 390 - Conclusion
Chapter 391 - End Of Internal Testing
Chapter 392 - Enter
Chapter 393 - Look, What’s This? Ores!
Chapter 394 - Technology That Violates Taboos
Chapter 395 - Experiencing Life
Chapter 396 - The Mysterious Identity
Chapter 397 - The Mystery Intensifies
Chapter 398 - Stand Treat
Chapter 399 - Basketball Club
Chapter 400 - Underground Boxer
Chapter 401 - Denying Rumors
Chapter 402 - Making A Game
Chapter 403 - Promotion
Chapter 404 - A Dazzling Star
Chapter 405 - Partner
Chapter 406 - Secretary and Assistant
Chapter 407 - Aristocrats
Chapter 408 - Tsundere
Chapter 409 - Life is a Game
Chapter 410 - Monitoring Device
Chapter 411 - Arrival
Chapter 412 - Worries And Complaints
Chapter 413 - Super Light Speed Engine
Chapter 414 - Effective Realizing
Chapter 415 - Alien Spies?
Chapter 416 - The Best Option?
Chapter 417 - Disunion
Chapter 418 - Impending Arrival
Chapter 419 - A Seventy Year Layout
Chapter 420 - Thoughts on a Cooperation
Chapter 421 - Protector
Chapter 422 - Poor Man’s Dignity
Chapter 423 - Return Of The Arts
Chapter 424 - The Crystal Brainers’ Abilities
Chapter 425 - A Terrible Storm
Chapter 426 - Awakening

Chapter 427 - The Essence of All Things is Science

Chapter 428 - An Outlet?
Chapter 429 - An Enemy by Default
Chapter 430 - Research
Chapter 431 - An Exercise
Chapter 432 - The Protoss’ Shock
Chapter 433 - Trade Exchanges

Chapter 434 - Had The Trump Card Lost Its Effectiveness?

Chapter 435 - Concessions Began
Chapter 436 - Conflict!
Chapter 437 - Lockdown
Chapter 438 - War

Chapter 439 - The Crystal Brainers Strike Again

Chapter 440 - Assistance
Chapter 441 - A Silver Warship
Chapter 442 - Rise Of The Protoss
Chapter 443 - A Clan Meeting
Chapter 444 - Staying To Take Care Of Things
Chapter 445 - Killer Ace
Chapter 446 - Mu Yunhua’s Revenge
Chapter 447 - Bionic Chips
Chapter 448 - The Brain’s Super-Evolution

Chapter 449 - Death to the Selain Civilization

Chapter 450 - Gains and Crisis
Chapter 451 - A Million Dead Or Injured
Chapter 452 - All Stars Federation
Chapter 453 - Mass Producing Geniuses
Chapter 454 - Returning Home
Chapter 455 - Mobilising The Sages
Chapter 456 - Merging Of Two Worlds
Chapter 457 - A Special Key
Chapter 458 - SS-Class Warship
Chapter 459 - Time Was On My Side

Chapter 460 - Strength To Face A Challenge Head-on

Chapter 461 - None Was Left Alive
Chapter 462 - An Explosive Reaction
Chapter 463 - Pulling Through A Crisis
Chapter 464 - Reward System
Chapter 465 - Meeting In Person
Chapter 466 - Unable To Return?
Chapter 467 - Rise Of The Human Race?
Chapter 468 - The Terrifying Sages
Chapter 469 - Plan To Slaughter The Sages
Chapter 470 - Awe, Reversal Of Power

Chapter 471 - Human Victory, Protoss Intregation

Chapter 472 - A Portable Portal

Chapter 473 - The Mysterious World of Immortals

Chapter 474 - Stirring Up A Storm

Chapter 475 - Imperial Court Assembly Discussions

Chapter 476 - Detecting One“s Root Of Immortality

Chapter 477 - Test Of Perseverence
Chapter 478 - Inducted Disciples
Chapter 479 - Storage Sacks
Chapter 480 - Identity Token

Chapter 481 - Training The Body With Primordial Particles

Chapter 482 - I Am Chen Jin

Chapter 483 - Do You Have Any Spirit Stones On You?

Chapter 484 - Gambling With Stones

Chapter 485 - Grade Six Antiques Master, Li Wei

Chapter 486 - Creating A Set Of Cultivation Methods

Chapter 487 - Technology Was Top Productive Capability

Chapter 488 - Servants

Chapter 489 - The Strange Sludge

Chapter 490 - Inheritance Stele of Fuel and Fire

Chapter 491 - Total Metamorphosis
Chapter 492 - Alchemy
Chapter 493 - Final Chapter