The Nerd Who Conquered The World

Chapter 16

That evening Lin Chen sat alone at his desk.

The apartment was quiet. Outside the window the city moved the way it always did, indifferent and continuous, full of people who had no idea what was being built in this room.

He looked at the blank project file open on his screen.

A week ago he had been sitting on a curb outside a restaurant with ¥15,461 in his account and a velvet box in his hand that nobody had wanted to open. He had walked back to a dormitory full of books that everyone told him were useless and drunk himself into unconsciousness and accidentally set his laptop on fire.

And from that night from that exact low point everything had changed.

Now, he had paid off his student loan, rented his own apartment. Built a tool that half the country's cybersecurity industry was now running. Sold source code for thirty million yuan. He stood on a stage in front of everyone who had ever doubted him and said everything he needed to say without naming a single person.

He hadn't started yet.

That was the thought that settled over him as he sat in the quiet. Everything so far, the money, the deals, the speech, the face of Wang Hao crossing that restaurant floor with his folder held against his chest, all of it was just the foundation.

The real work hadn't begun.

Then the system chimed.

DING. DING.

[Level 1 — Beginner Scholar: COMPLETE.\]

[Cash reward phase concluded. Foundation has been established.\]

[LEVEL 2 UNLOCKING — Industrial Master.\]

[Advanced Intellect granted.\]

[Advanced Analysis granted.\]

[New knowledge frameworks incoming:\]

[Artificial Intelligence Architecture.\]

[Robotics Design Principles.\]

[New Energy Technology.\]

[Biotechnology Research Foundations.\]

[Industrial Empire Construction.\]

[The empire begins now.\]

Lin Chen read through it slowly. Then he read it again. AI. Robotics, new energy and Biotechnology. The beginning of a commercial empire construction.

He waved the notification away. Opened a blank project file. And started Typing

Meanwhile, in an unmarked building across the city a corner office on an upper floor that appeared on no public directory, registered to no company name.

The man behind the desk had the aura of someone who made decisions that other people felt the consequences of long before they understood the source. His hands were folded on the desk in front of him still, deliberate, the hands of a man who had learned patience as a professional discipline over many years. On the wall behind him there was nothing.

His subordinate placed a tablet on the desk and stepped back two paces.

"Sir. We've been monitoring an account that has been receiving significant deposits, large amounts, irregular intervals, from what appear to be legitimate domestic sources. But the accumulation pattern is unusual." He paused carefully.

"For someone with no registered business entity and no employment record, the speed of accumulation shouldn't be possible."

The man behind the desk looked at the tablet. He scrolled through the figures without changing expressions.

"Have you identified the account holder?"

"Yes sir. Lin Chen, a recent graduate of Lintong University. Twenty-three years old." The subordinate hesitated. "He also appears to be the developer behind the ClearShield antivirus and the thirty million yuan source code deal reported this week."

The man behind the desk was quiet for a long moment.

"Keep watching him," he said finally. "Don't approach. Don't interfere." He set the tablet down and looked at the grey wall. "Someone that age, moving that kind of money, that cleanly" He paused. "Either he is very lucky."

"Or sir?"

"Or there is something behind him that we haven't found yet." He unfolded his hands and placed them flat on the desk. "Find out which. And do it quietly."

"Yes sir."

The subordinate left. The door closed without a sound.

The man behind the desk sat alone in the grey room and looked at the figures on the tablet for a long time.

Somewhere across the city a twenty-three year old was sitting at a desk in a quiet apartment, opening a blank project file, and beginning to build something that nobody had asked for and nobody had predicted.

Neither of them knew yet that they were already on a collision course.