Dreaming of Studying

August, Peiyang City, Southern Province, Daxia Country.

Pearl Residential District, Building 5, Room 601.

Inside the study, the air conditioner's vent released a steady stream of cold air, bringing a refreshing chill to the room.

The rhythmic clatter of a keyboard echoed incessantly, while lines of code continuously appeared and multiplied on the display screen.

Before the computer, Ning Yifan's fingers danced across the keys. He didn't need to think; he had performed every step tens of thousands of times. It was nothing more than pure, practiced skill.

With a heavy tap of his thumb on the spacebar, Ning Yifan let out a long breath. He checked the time on the screen—it had been just over half an hour since he started, and the small website app requested by the client was already finished.

To Ning Yifan, this speed was neither fast nor slow, but if an industry insider knew, they would be absolutely stunned. Developing an app from scratch in just over half an hour? What kind of god-tier speed was that!

With the development task complete, Ning Yifan ran a diagnostic program, focusing his testing on areas prone to bugs. After spending a few minutes confirming everything was flawless, he opened the freelance platform and sent the finished work to the buyer. Just like that, a three-thousand-yuan app development job was done.

Ning Yifan stretched his back in front of the computer and muttered to himself while checking the time, "It's already eleven. Time to sleep—no, time to study."

He shut down the computer and stood up. Through the window, he watched the cars speeding along the road. The streets were bright with the endless flow of traffic, and commuters hurried home after work. He felt exceptionally satisfied with his current life.

Having a system really felt great!

As for where the system came from, Ning Yifan wasn't entirely sure himself.

He still remembered three months ago, while camping on a cycling route in Sichuan-Tibet. He had just finished cooking dinner, eating hot pot and singing, when suddenly, his vision blurred and everything vanished.

Before he disappeared, in a fleeting glimpse, he saw a snow-white, magnificent winged horse galloping through the void, shattering the space around it into fragments as it charged toward him. In an instant, his body was ground into dust by the spatial shards.

His memories after that were very hazy. Ning Yifan only recalled seeing someone who apologized sincerely, mentioning something about "trans-dimensional speeding" and "choosing compensation."

When he regained clear consciousness, he was already a man with a system, still on that same Sichuan-Tibet cycling route, with his hot pot broth still bubbling away.

The earth-shattering, world-collapsing scene from moments before had left no trace; everything felt as if it had been nothing more than a dream.

However, it hadn't been a hallucination after all.

In the bathroom, Ning Yifan looked at his reflection. He was incredibly satisfied with the face staring back—it was eighty percent similar to his old self, but far, far more handsome. He was better looking than Daniel Wu!

He took off his short-sleeved shirt to reveal a near-perfect physique: eight-pack abs, serrated muscles along his ribs, a V-taper torso, well-defined pectorals, deltoids, trapezius, and biceps. It wasn't the exaggerated, bulky kind of muscle, but a physique full of aesthetic lines—the kind that looked lean in clothes and muscular without them. It was exactly the body Ning Yifan had dreamed of.

It wasn't just about looks; his physical stats were off the charts. Ning Yifan had tested himself before—he could easily run a hundred meters in under ten seconds. His jumping ability, flexibility, and everything else were at peak levels. He had a hearty appetite and felt incredibly healthy.

Ning Yifan was satisfied with every aspect of his body. Beyond this strong, handsome frame, he had his golden finger. Becoming a CEO, marrying a beauty, and reaching the pinnacle of life was just around the corner!

After washing up, at 11:30, Ning Yifan lay on his bed on time, closed his eyes, and whispered, "Enter system!"

His vision blurred, and the dark world behind his closed eyes underwent a heaven-defying transformation.

The ground was a platform made of an unknown metal, stretching beyond the horizon.

Looking up, the sky was filled with brilliant, dazzling stars, dotted with colorful, dreamlike nebulae—a spiral nebula resembling a deep blue Eye of God, planetary nebulae like iridescent bubbles, and countless others.

Among the vast expanse of stars, a sun was surrounded by a cluster of stars, emitting a warm light that illuminated the entire sky.

From time to time, planets of various colors and sizes drifted across the sky: an icy blue planet like a crystal ball, a crimson desert planet, a yellowish planet encircled by rings, a giant planet so massive it blotted out the sky with visible craters and mountain ranges, and a life-bearing planet covered in green vegetation and flowing water.

Gazing at the stars, everything was so magnificent and beautiful.

The vastness of the universe, contrasted with the insignificance of the individual, stirred infinite emotions deep within his heart.

Even though Ning Yifan had witnessed this scenery hundreds of times over the past three months, he couldn't help but be deeply intoxicated, admiring it carefully. Every time he entered, the stars and the sky had changed!

After being lost in the view for several minutes, Ning Yifan finally regained his focus.

Though the stars in the sky were extraordinarily beautiful and seemed to contain the truths of the universe, they were merely scenery. What he truly looked forward to was the endless knowledge on the ground.

On the seamless, unknown metal floor, centered on where Ning Yifan stood, the area was clearly divided into two sides.

The left side was empty and vast, save for a small tree composed of thirty-some bright, thumb-sized stars.

On the right side, as far as the eye could see, was an endless ocean of dim stars. Between each star, faint lines of light connected them—some forming small trees of a dozen or twenty stars, others forming towering ancient trees made of thousands or tens of thousands of stars.

The Technology Tree was the name given to these stars on the metal floor.

Turning toward the right, Ning Yifan navigated the ocean of technology trees of various sizes with practiced ease. Before long, he arrived at a small tree. Compared to the dim trees around it, this one was much brighter, with only the final star at the very top left unlit.

"Tonight, this should be about it," he muttered to himself before reaching out to gently grasp the star. "System, enter learning mode, seven hours of study time."

"Notification: Estimated time for remaining learning content is three hours!" a pleasant voice rang in Ning Yifan's ears.

After a moment's thought, Ning Yifan said, "Then change it to three hours of study, and use the remaining four hours for deep sleep."

"Ding, settings complete. Black Tech System learning mode activated!"

As the system's voice faded, Ning Yifan closed his eyes. When he opened them again, the world before him had undergone another earth-shattering change. It was a spacious, bright laboratory, as large as a football field, filled with all sorts of equipment, both familiar and unknown.

Inside the lab, a figure in a white coat with an obscured face spoke to Ning Yifan: "Today is the final lesson. We will learn the last step of projector manufacturing. In the previous content, we have already learned various methods for manufacturing light sources, bulbs, driver panels, lenses, circuit boards, optical paths, and other components from scratch."

"Next, we will complete the final step of projector production: assembling the various components into a functional projector."

"The duration of this teaching session is ten years of dream time. The lesson begins now."

As the figure spoke, they waved a hand, summoning a sky full of various components.

"To assemble a projector, we first need a casing to house the components. There are over 3.756 billion recorded types of casings for this ancient display device, the vast majority of which differ only in appearance with no significant difference in actual function."

"Today, we will primarily learn 653 different projector assembly methods. By selecting different casings and components—from the most ancient projectors that used natural light and shadow to achieve display effects, to laser projectors, and finally to late-stage nanophotonic projectors—once you have mastered these 653 assembly schemes, you will have learned all there is to know about projector manufacturing..."

As the figure explained and operated, Ning Yifan followed along, tirelessly assembling one projector after another.

Time slipped away unnoticed. Over the course of a year, the figure guided Ning Yifan through the construction of every projector.

Then came the second pass, the third, the fourth... a full ten times!

To study a single subject with unwavering focus for ten years without eating or drinking allowed Ning Yifan to deeply engrave all that knowledge into his mind.

Within the system space, the final star on the Technology Tree lit up, instantly shifting to the empty plot on the other side. With a faint flicker of light, the names of the new skill and the adjacent small tree were revealed.

Beginner Computer Software Programming.

Beginner Projector Manufacturing.

At the same time, among the vast, dim sea of stars, lights began to glow on various other branches of the Technology Tree. Although the technological items produced were different, much of the knowledge was interconnected; the system could monitor Ning Yifan's learning progress to avoid redundant or useless study.

Inside the room, Ning Yifan remained fast asleep, his breathing gradually deepening as he entered a state of profound slumber.

Dreaming is an innate human ability, and within a dream, one often lacks a sense of time or even self-awareness.

Leveraging this, the ten years within the system-controlled learning dream passed for Ning Yifan in the blink of an eye. Throughout this process, the entire dream remained steeped in a relaxed, pleasant, and joyful atmosphere.

During the learning process, Ning Yifan possessed no self-awareness; he felt no fatigue, hunger, or annoyance, nor did he ponder questions like "Who am I?" or "Where am I?"

Dream-based learning was excellent, yet it was not entirely without flaws. To ensure the quality of his sleep, learning the material only once—even with Ning Yifan's near-photographic memory while awake—was insufficient to fully retain all the content.

After all, things that happen in dreams are often forgotten upon waking. Only by repeating the process multiple times could all the knowledge be firmly etched into Ning Yifan's mind!