"Lin Chen,Lin Chen!!."He heard his name before he could open his eyes. Looking up at the white ceiling. His felt like his head was splitting apart.Where am I?When his vision finally cleared, he saw Liang Hao sprinting across the hospital room toward him, his chubby body moving at surprising speed, tears streaming freely down his face."Lin Chen! You're awake! Thank God" He grabbed his shoulders and started shaking him."Stop, stop shaking me" Lin Chen pushed his hands away. "I won't be okay if you keep doing that. Tell me what happened?"Liang Hao wiped his face with his sleeve. "I should be asking you that. I left you outside, you said you were fine, but when I came back there was smoke everywhere. Your laptop was burnt and books were releasing smoke. If I hadn't come back when I did, you'd have choked and suffocated in there." He shook his head. "I rushed you straight here."Lin Chen said nothing as he was confused by what he heard.."Don't kill yourself over Su Xiaowan. She is n

Although he had already gotten some money, there was still time left on the window. Looking at the time he still had 6 hours left and he could still continue. Even though he was no longer at the risk of the system self destructing, he had to make the most of this opportunity. After all, he didn't know if the system was going to suddenly disappear.So had to milk this opportunity for all it was worth.So he opened his bag, took out an energy drink, mixed it and drank it down. He felt tired, but every time his eyes wanted to close, all he had to do was take a glance at his balance and he felt boundless energy erupting as he kept going. He opened different books at once and started reading, not stopping for anything as he devoured the contents one after the other..His phone buzzed, distracting him from reading. It was a message from Liang Hao.Ling Chen, are you okay? I haven't heard from you since this morning.Lin Chen glanced at it and typed back to assure him.I'm fine, just busy

Lin Chen sat at his desk and closed the biomedical engineering book. He finally had the idea. And not just any idea, the one that had been forming quietly at the back of his mind since the night he walked out of that hotel room. Before any of this happened, before the system, before the money, he had always made his living writing codes for programs, algorithms, and solutions for companies that needed things built that their own teams couldn't build. That had always been his way in. And now with everything the system had unlocked in him it was going to become something else entirely.He opened his laptop and started working on it as he researched, the next three days passed quickly.He read everything he could find on cybersecurity not just textbooks but technical papers, case studies, exploit documentation, vulnerability reports. With the beginner's intelligence the system had granted him, knowledge that would have taken weeks to absorb was locked into place in hours. He could feel

The morning after Lin Chen uploaded ClearShield, Wang Tech Industries opened for business as usual.Chen Dawei arrived at his desk at eight fifty-five, five minutes before his shift started, the way he always did. He was a reliable man with ten years in customer service, never late, never dramatic. He handled complaints for the e-commerce division with patience of someone who had heard every possible problem and knew that most of them had simple solutions.He sat down, logged in, and started going through his morning emails.Most were routine mails with two client follow-ups. One internal memo about the quarterly review. Then a vendor update notification near the bottom of the list software maintenance, routine patch, sender address looked legitimate enough. He had seen hundreds like it.He almost didn't open it. His coffee was still too hot to drink and he was waiting for it to cool and the email was the kind of thing that could wait until after the morning briefing.But he had a f

Lin Chen finished his last set and stepped back from the equipment.Coach Chen crossed his arms and looked at him with open surprise. "You must really be something. I demonstrated that movement only once and you already do it better than students I've been training for six months."Lin Chen smiled and reached for his towel. Just then the system pinged.[Basic Exercise — Understood. Reward: ¥100,000.][Combat study and full body alignment — yet to be mastered. Reward pending.]He made a mental note, as he turned to Coach Chen. "Can I add some basic self-defense to the sessions?""No problem at all." Coach Chen waved toward the far side of the gym. "But our self-defense instructor is away this week. Come back next week and we'll start on it.""Sure."When he went back upstairs. Liang Hao was still lying on the bed, one arm hanging off the side, snoring with complete commitment. Lin Chen went to the kitchen and started making chicken soup. He had read three recipes on it before and had