2026-06-29 22:11:46Lin Chen walked back into the room, as Fatty Hao watched him with a cautious expression.
"Are you okay? You're acting strange. Are you sure we shouldn't go back for a checkup?" Lin Chen smiled genuinely, for the first time since last night. "I'm perfectly fine. More than fine actually." He pointed at the noodles on the desk. "Hurry up, let's eat." They slurped together, with Lin Chen eating fast as rushed it then he dropped his chop sticks fast. The moment he finished he was already packing his bag. "Liang Hao, can I borrow your laptop? Mine is finished." "It's on the desk. Take it, I hardly use it at all, it's yours." "Thanks." He grabbed it and swung his bag over his shoulder. "Where are you going? Be careful." "Library!" he called back from the hallway, already running. People turned to stare as he moved through the corridor. "Has he gone crazy from the breakup?" "Who else runs to the library after getting dumped?" He didn't hear them. He was already calculating, he had twenty-four hours and he had to master something completely, not just read it. The system said master. Something understood deeply enough that it converted to real value. He pushed through the library doors. Mrs. Lee looked up from behind the desk, familiar with his face after years of visits. "Ah, Little Chen." "Mrs. Lee, I need these ones." He reached up and pulled five books on financial analysis from the shelf. She raised her eyebrows. "Going into new territory?" "Yeah, been thinking of trying something new." "Okay. Make sure you return them." She stamped them slowly, then looked at him over her glasses with genuine kindness. "And take care of yourself. Don't mind what they are saying out there." "Thank you, Mrs. Lee." He went to get some snacks and energy drinks from the vending machine and found a corner table, as he spread everything out. Putting his earplugs in, he opened the first book and began reading. Then he noticed something strange, after reading just two or three lines, the words were already imprinted in his memory. He could recite them back perfectly. Concepts that would normally take hours to absorb were clicking into place in minutes, one idea feeding naturally into the next, patterns forming before he even reached the next page. He glanced at the system notification sitting at the edge of his vision. [Attributes active: Beginner Intellect increased. Beginner Analysis granted.\] So that's why, I wonder how powerful the upgraded version will be. He kept reading advanced algorithm paper after paper, material that would take a PhD student a full semester were digested and understood in hours. He moved without stopping, without lifting his head straight into the night as he ate some snacks when hungry and grabbed an energy drink for energy. He continued reading late into the night as others left slowly and by 3 AM the library had emptied completely. Lin Chen sat back, closed the last paper, and exhaled slowly. DING. [Task Complete.\] [Advanced Algorithm Architecture — Mastered: 98%\] [Knowledge Conversion Applied.\] [Cash Reward: ¥800,000 deposited to account.\] A second later his phone vibrated on the table. Your account xxxxxxx in Agricultural Bank of China: received ¥800,000. Total Account balance: ¥815,461. Lin Chen stared at the notification. His hands were trembling slightly as he picked up the phone not from tiredness, but from excitement. ¥800,000. From studying one subject all in one night. If one subject gives this much, what happens when I stack ten? Twenty? He looked around at the empty library shelves stretching in every direction, thousands of books, every one of them a potential conversion as they all looked like money in his eyes and a slow smile spread across his face. He stood up, and looked at the notification one more time, and let out a long yell that echoed off every shelf in the building. "YES!" Tears streamed down his face as he yelled, everything Su Xiaowan had said, everything Wang Hao had said, even comments on that video. It had been sitting in his chest all night like a stone filling him with grievances But right now, he let all of it go as he felt so free but this was only the beginning as he would grab as much knowledge as possible till he became the richest and most powerful man on the planet.
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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
Chapter 14
The news of the thirty million yuan deal broke publicly by the next morning and by noon it had reached every corner of the university group chat.‘Did you see this? Lin Chen sold source code for Thirty Million yuan.’‘Lin Chen. Our nerd Lin Chen. The one who used to fall asleep in the library.’‘I can't believe it. If only I had been friends with him properly.’‘He also licensed the antivirus to three companies at two million per year each. That's six million coming in every year while he sleeps.’‘Su Xiaowan must be losing her mind right now.’‘Where is Su Xiaowan? I heard Wang Hao threw her out.’And Wang Hao's company is apparently completely paralyzed. They can't get the license for the one tool that could fix them.‘Karma is a patient thing.’‘I bet neither of them expect it’In a small apartment across town, Su Xiaowan sat on the edge of a bed she had borrowed from a university friend and read every message as it came in. She read them quickly, Thirty million yuan, getting lice
Chapter 13
Wang Hao arrived seventeen minutes later.Lin Chen watched him come through the door and cross the room. He took his time watching because the contrast was worth taking in properly.A week ago Wang Hao had stood in a hotel suite with his arm around Su Xiaowan looking like a man who had never experienced a consequence in his life. He talked with confidence of someone who had always had enough money that the world arranged itself around him.The man crossing the restaurant floor now was wearing the same expensive suit but it looked different now, slightly rumpled at the shoulders, the jacket not quite straight. He was sweating despite the air conditioning. He was holding a document folder against his chest with both hands like it was something he could hide behind. His eyes were moving around the room before they found Lin Chen, and when they did something moved across his face that he didn't manage to suppress in time.He stopped at the table."Lin Chen." His voice came out uncertain
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