Thesis

Wiping down his backpack, he took out his ID Card and other documents. Looking at the button phone, Wang Yi could not help feeling a little wistful.

Before he had gone to the magical world, the domestic mobile phone industry had been at its most critical point, locked in a brutal battle in a red ocean. Then the Apple machine of this world had burst onto the scene.

With the preparations and accumulated groundwork he had made in advance, combined with startup capital, he could originally have secured an excellent start.

But after wasting three years, nearly every first-mover advantage had already been taken.

Shake Message, tied to the Penguin Empire, had swept all before it and begun to show its might. Little Broken Station had already gathered a loyal user base. Today's Hot Search had begun accumulating and exploring recommendation algorithms, while Kuaishou had started experimenting with short videos through GIF sharing.

Kangaroo and ride-hailing cars had also begun to take shape.

The news had already started dropping hints that the three major carriers would receive their 4G Licenses by the end of the year.

This was the nose of capital. After the Apple machine redefined mobile phones and reshuffled the smartphone market, capital's tentacles had almost instantly reached into every industry on the mobile side. It might still take several years for those ventures to grow, but the groundwork had already been laid long ago.

Right now, all kinds of capital were casting wide nets. Something was bound to break through eventually.

All that remained was a contest between capital. In the end, a victor would emerge from the slaughter, while the founding teams would earn a share through their ideas and hard work, squeezing their way in and becoming part of capital themselves.

That had originally been Wang Yi's plan as well. With his early preparations and startup capital three years ago, he had been quite confident that he could attract investment if everything went smoothly.

But today, three years later, trying to start from scratch and carve off a piece of the pie would be on an entirely different level of difficulty.

However, if he had some black technology capable of a crushing technological advantage, then every problem would be solved with ease.

Wang Yi lowered his head and looked at the ring on his hand. It took him five seconds to make his decision.

Then he would start by creating an Artificial Intelligence.

Much of the knowledge he had accumulated over eighteen years was in electronics and algorithms. Thus, while in the magical world, he had created a magic-version Artificial Intelligence to serve as the butler of his Mage Tower.

He was already quite familiar with this area. Using a Resentful Spirit as the core alongside AI algorithms could save him a great deal of trouble, and he could also add the hardware conditions that had been lacking before. Putting it together might even be easier...

"Grow properly, okay? When the time comes, I'll help you resolve your obsession, and you can be my butler."

Wang Yi stroked the ring on his hand.

As a Necromancer, he could of course control it by force. Even now, this Resentful Spirit was Wang Yi's summon and could not betray him.

But if he wanted to bring out the Resentful Spirit's initiative rather than turn it passively into an answering machine, maintaining friendly communication between them was still necessary.

Now that he had made his decision, he could begin preparing some of the initial hardware.

Even if it would primarily rely on the internet, he still needed a decent basic server setup.

Although he had tossed his brick phone aside for three years, it still worked after being charged. The only problem was that the phone bill was overdue.

Fortunately, all his bank cards were still there, and the money in them was enough.

Otherwise, he really would have had to swallow his pride and ask Uncle Li for his deposit back...

"Once you've suffered a loss, don't make the same mistake again. This is the key to Room 301. It's next to your old room."

After taking the warehouse key, Uncle Li lectured him for a while longer, then made Wang Yi a bowl of duck blood and vermicelli soup for dinner.

"Thank you, Uncle Li."

Wang Yi accepted the room key, picked up the vermicelli, and began slurping it down.

Uncle Li ran the shop purely as a hobby. Aside from basic seasonings, there were absolutely no artificial additives, and the taste was excellent—delicious and affordable.

However, thinking of the Resentful Spirit of Uncle Li's eldest son and the faint sorrow between Uncle Li's brows, Wang Yi knew that this Landlord had troubles of his own as well.

Wang Yi checked his bank card balance at an ATM machine. He had 120,000 left, all money remaining from selling songs. It was enough to put together a basic server setup, but if he wanted something better and more convenient, the funds would be a little tight.

As for money, he needed to find a way to open up some new income first. After all, his Artificial Intelligence was somewhat shady in its early stages and could not be quickly monetized.

The fastest way to generate income was probably to sell a few more songs. With his previous channels and reputation, the turnaround should be quick enough.

He had sold his previous songs before the cheat had activated. Although the memories strengthened by two lifetimes were powerful, there were not many songs he could reproduce in full.

Besides, most of them were Children's songs. He remembered Battle of the Reverse and Brave One relatively clearly.

The initial prices had not been high, but after he had made some sales, the later prices had been quite good. They went from a few thousand to tens of thousands, and the last song, Brave One, had sold for a hundred thousand.

Lyrics and composition had never commanded particularly high prices. Only famous top-tier masters could earn six figures.

But after three years of buildup, the price for new songs should be able to rise a little further now.

Still, song production could not be too high. It would not be wise to dump every song he had heard that did not exist in this world all at once.

Since mobile payments had not yet become widespread, Wang Yi paid 2,999 by card for a Hanwei P1 phone. After fiddling with it for a while, he found it very similar to the one from his previous life.

He could predict the era and development trends to a certain extent.

Having returned to the smartphone era, Wang Yi began registering mobile accounts. When he had left, he had been right at the turning point of the era, so he had not opened things like Shake Message.

He also picked up a laptop for future use. Then, using the internet at the Golden Arches next door, he expertly found the music copyright registration platform and began registering the two newly prepared songs he intended to sell.

Although this world's overall development was very close to that of his previous life, there were still some differences. People here placed greater importance on copyright, and academic journals were more standardized as well.

Registering patents and copyrights was relatively easy.

By the time he had bought everything, used the internet at the Golden Arches to complete some basic operations, and left, the sky was already completely dark.

As the streetlights came on, the streets teemed with people and were even livelier than during the day.

Wang Yi, dressed in a standard plaid shirt with a laptop bag slung over his back, spun his keys around his fingers as he headed home.

Yet when the night breeze blew, the sharply defined contours of his muscles could vaguely be seen through the gaps between his shirt buttons.

His perfect physique raised Wang Yi's originally six- or seven-out-of-ten looks to an eight, perhaps even a nine in some people's eyes.

That was the well-proportioned physique of a Great Knight.

He went up the stairs into the lived-in rental building. When he reached 301, Wang Yi glanced at 302 next door, which had once been his. Liu Xiaoke, that damn bit-player, still had not returned. She looked like she had it pretty rough.

As for the money, he would not be paying it back. If he got the chance, he would lend her a hand along the way.

He turned the key and entered 301. Like 302, it was cramped and narrow, though at least it had a window. There was also a musty smell lingering in the air.

The bed frame was bare as well, but Wang Yi did not care much.

His mental power was still there. Although the magic in the outside world was far too inert, leaving his projected mental power without a medium to work through, making it viscous and nearly useless, it was still enough to sustain himself and keep him alert for long periods. Whenever he got tired, a brief meditation would leave him full of energy again. He had long been accustomed to using meditation in place of sleep, so whether he had a bed or not made little difference.

"I need to get an internet line installed. Once the money comes in, I'll also need to rent a bigger place for a server room. Uncle Li seems to have one here."

He casually pulled his laptop onto the desk and opened it, then began typing rapidly.

It was not that he was already starting preparations for artificial intelligence. The core had yet to awaken, and the hardware was not yet in place, so there was no need to rush.

For now, he was merely going to publish an academic paper first.

This was no longer for making money. Rather, he had encountered some difficult problems while researching magic.

The overclocking ability was powerful—powerful enough to make him feel as though he had become an entirely different species—but overclocking itself had its limits. It could not provide "inspiration." No matter how great his computing power was, it was useless if he had never thought of something in the first place.

Blue Star was full of exceptional talents. What Wang Yi wanted to do now was put forward some of his research problems and ask everyone to help take a look.

Of course, if he wanted those academic bigwigs to pay attention to him, he had to throw out some real substance as well. He would start with a paper as a greeting...

That's two updates done~ Following the new book is extremely important, especially on Tuesdays. Please give it your support.