2026-06-29 22:12:53Although 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 reading. He put the phone face down and kept reading. Only he knew what was really happening in this library right now. Liang Hao didn't need to know yet. When other students finally came in the next morning, some noticed him still at the same corner table, with red eyes rapidly flipping through pages as he moved between different books. "Wasn't he here since yesterday?" "Yes, that's Lin Chen. I guess he's turning his grief into motivation." "What's the point though? Studying harder won't make her come back." “What's the point of just reading? Connections and money matter more in this life.” He wasn't even concerned by their words. He didn't look up once as he just kept taking book after book, moving without stopping. More whispers increased as some students watched him read. "Is he even actually reading? He's swiping through pages like that?" “I think he’s just showing off.” “Maybe he had really gotten crazy.” He didn't respond to their words, he only gave a glance at the timer he had 2 hours left. After finishing financial market theory he moved straight to behavioral economics, going through from part one all the way to part four, even pushing through PhD level material. At some point a coursemate pulled a chair nearby and tried to strike up a conversation. "Hey Lin Chen, you've been here since" "I'm busy." He didn't look up as he cut him off The coursemate left, leaving him alone. He kept reading as most people just watched him, by the time it was already 9 AM the system pinged. \[Financial Market Theory — Mastered: 88% → ¥600,000\] \[Behavioral Economics — Mastered: 91% → ¥720,000\] \[Bonus Detected: Cross-discipline connection — Algorithm + Finance = Quantitative Trading Insight unlocked.\] \[Bonus Cash Reward: ¥400,000\] He stared at the quantitative trading bonus for a moment longer than the rest. Algorithms combined with finance. Two things he had already mastered and the system had found a connection between them he hadn't even thought to look for yet. That was a point for another time. His phone lit up with bank notifications. Your account xxxxxx in Agricultural Bank of China received: ¥1,720,000. He checked his balance with bloodshot eyes, his hands already trembling. ¥2,535,461. He stood up slowly from his chair. "2.5 million," he whispered first, then louder. "2.5 million yuan." He was certain now. This was completely real, and with this money he was going to show them all the true power of knowledge. He raised both arms and cheered loud enough that every student left in the library turned to stare as they gossiped. "Has he finally gone crazy from all the reading?" "Who knows. Better stay away from him." Lin Chen didn't mind them at all. Only he knew the kind of power he was quietly building right now.
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Chapter 20- The Recruitment Booth.
The next day Lin Chen woke up with only one thing on his mind.Today was the day.He took his bath, put on a white shirt under a black blazer with black pants, looking clean and simple. There was no way he was putting on a suit, he wasn't trying to impress anyone, he just had to look like someone worth working for. This was the first real step in building the company, capital was in place, and deals came later so what he needs now are the first people who would build Athena Technologies with him. And he needed to get it right.His phone rang before he was even done, Lin Chen checked to see who was calling.Fatty Hao’s calling.He picked up. "Fatty Hao.""Lin Chen, where are you? I'm already waiting downstairs. Come down fast."He came down to find Liang Hao leaning against the car with both arms spread like he was posing for a magazine cover. His hair was gelled so aggressively it looked glossy. The suit he wore was a size too small for him and he had clearly tried to style it."How
Chapter 19- Building the team
Tap, tap, tap….The sounds of Lin Chen typing filled the room as code upon code kept popping up on the screen.He was building out the architecture of Athena OS, drawing on the artificial intelligence knowledge now sitting in his head, though still beginner-tier, and in preliminary stage, but even at this level he could feel the shape of something bigger taking form under his fingers: a compression algorithm that could genuinely change how software ran on old hardware.Most legacy devices couldn't run modern software not because the processors were too weak, but because of space. Storage and memory overhead choked them long before raw processing power ever became the real bottleneck. If he could compress data efficiently enough, old machines wouldn't need to be replaced to run new software. All they would need would be Athena OS. That was the idea taking shape, line by line, and the deeper he got into it, the more certain he became that it would work.Two hours had passed before he
Chapter 18: Athena Technologies
Lin Chen looked down below as the busy city as he plans of his empire unfolded in his head. When he heard the sound of something rushing at him as Liang Hao threw both arms around Lin Chen before he could even dodge, nearly knocking him into the wall."Lin Chen! Look at us! We're going to be the Steve Jobs of tomorrow, the Mark Zuckerberg of tomorrow! And when we've built the empire and people ask how it all started, I'll be the one telling the story. How I was there from day one, supporting you, well you deserve ay least sixty percent for the effort but I will at least have contributed forty percent and we can hire pretty secretaries with curvy bodies." By this time Liang Hao was already drooling as he was already lost in his imagination his eyes somewhere on the horizon of an imagined future.Lin Chen reached up and flicked him on the forehead. "Come back down. We don't have office supplies, we don't have workers, and the product isn't finished yet."Liang Hao rubbed his forehead
chapter 17: The Empire's Blueprint
Lin Chen finally stopped typing, his fingers hurt and he was tired already. He closed the laptop and moved to his bedroom, the exhaustion from the celebration hit him the moment he stepped through the door, as he switched his phone off without even reading the flood of messages waiting there, congratulations from people he knew, and from plenty he didn't. Tomorrow, the real work will begin. And the plan for his empire will start. He slept off as soon as he hit the bed dozing when he heard sounds that woke him up. Thud!! He woke up to the sound of knocking. Groggy, he stumbled to the door. "Who is it?" "It's me, Fatty Hao." He opened it to find Liang Hao standing there in a suit, a suit that had clearly declared war on his stomach. It looked too tight for his chubby stomach, only the middle button could close, and even that looked like it was losing as it was about to burst. Liang Hao sucked in his gut, held the pose, and announced with a straight face, "Comrade Liang Hao, report
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
Chapter 15
On the day of the graduation, the graduation hall was fully packed.Every seat taken, the high ceiling above them catching and amplifying the collective noise of hundreds of people in gowns. Family members were in the galleries all waiting. Two local media camera crews at the back of the room.The ceremony moved through its formal stages. With the songs and administrative announcements. A long address from Dean Xu about the institution's legacy that the front rows listened to attentively and the back rows tolerated politely.Then Dean Xu adjusted the microphone."Knowledge and character have always been the twin pillars of this institution. Today I want to invite someone to this stage who has demonstrated in the three weeks since he graduated what those two pillars can build when they are combined." He looked out across the hall. "Our outstanding graduate. The student who used his knowledge to create a cybersecurity tool that secured a thirty million yuan deal before the ink on his
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