An Ordinary Day

The next day, 5:30 AM.

Without any need for an alarm clock, as the system's deep sleep function deactivated, Ning Yifan naturally woke up, his spirit extremely refreshed, without the slightest urge to go back for more sleep.

"What an absolutely perfect feeling, waking up fully!"

After muttering this to himself, Ning Yifan sprang up from bed with a carp-like flip.

Putting on a short-sleeved shirt and shorts, swapping into running shoes, he headed straight out the door.

Have you ever seen the city at 5:30 AM?

The sky was still dim, the streets nearly empty of pedestrians. Under the dim glow of the yellow streetlights, Ning Yifan jogged slowly forward along the road, the melodious sound of songs playing through his Bluetooth earbuds.

First, a two-kilometer warm-up jog, then he ran at a steady pace through the city streets.

In this sweltering summer, the city had cooled down slightly after a night's rest, and even the cicadas that had chirped all day had ceased their noise.

Early morning was a rare time suitable for running.

The streets, bustling with traffic during the day, now seemed somewhat desolate. The commercial avenues, usually crowded with people, had their doors tightly shut. Occasionally, a 24-hour convenience store had an employee dozing off at the cash register.

The lively clamor of daytime, contrasted with the quiet stillness of this early morning, had its own unique charm.

Circling the streets around the neighborhood, Ning Yifan ran a full ten kilometers in thirty-eight minutes, finally stopping at the entrance of a school near the community.

"Boss, three meat buns, three veggie buns, and a bowl of porridge, to go!" At the school gate, a small shop that opened early to prepare breakfast for students emitted steaming hot air. In front of the shop, Ning Yifan pointed at the cone-shaped pile of buns.

"Coming right up, young man, out exercising so early again!" said the shop owner, who was wearing a mask, as he picked up buns with tongs and bagged them. "Not many young people live such a disciplined life."

"Just keeping fit, you know. A healthy body is the most valuable treasure—no amount of money can buy it!"

The owner gave a thumbs-up, handed over the packed food, and said, "Impressive. Here are your buns!"

Taking the breakfast, Ning Yifan put away his phone and said, "I've already scanned the payment."

"Take care!" The owner waved goodbye to his first customer of the day.

Waving back, Ning Yifan headed toward home.

Along the way, he wolfed down the buns in a few quick bites, and by the time he finished the porridge, he had just arrived back at the community entrance. He tossed the plastic bag into the trash can.

At the base of the apartment building, Ning Yifan completed his post-run stretches. Today's exercise was done—time to go home!

He showered, brushed his teeth, and tidied up his personal hygiene.

When Ning Yifan entered his study, the time had just hit 6:30 AM.

Through the study window, he could see the distant horizon, where the morning sun was slowly rising. Another clear day!

He stood by the window for over ten minutes, appreciating the sunrise—a common yet beautiful sight—until the sky was fully bright.

Only then did Ning Yifan turn on his computer and immerse himself in his work.

Having lived a second life, with no more survival pressures, Ning Yifan had settled into the leisurely lifestyle he had once dreamed of.

Of course, leisurely didn't mean lazing around and waiting for death.

With life free of stress, he had more energy to pursue spiritual fulfillment. Sharing joy was better than keeping it to oneself—what fun was it to play with all those black technologies alone in secret? Creating things that everyone could enjoy the convenience of was Ning Yifan's goal.

And incidentally, making a bit of money along the way was only natural, right?

Through over twenty years of experience, Ning Yifan had deeply understood the importance of money. With money, you could do whatever you wanted, buy whatever you wanted, eat whatever you wanted!

Though money wasn't everything, not having money was absolutely impossible!

Logging into his computer account, Ning Yifan entered the online order-taking platform he used. The last transaction from the previous night had been completed. The buyer had unhesitatingly given a five-star review and left a comment in the feedback section.

"As expected of the platform's universally acknowledged Tentacle Monster, it only took a little over an hour to develop the APP software I needed! Very satisfied with the functionality! Tested it for a while with no bugs—no question, five-star review. I'll come back for cooperation next time!"

Another three thousand yuan in hand. Ning Yifan smiled slightly and chose to withdraw the balance in his account to his bank card.

"Come to think of it, only about ten days have passed this month, and I've already earned over a hundred thousand yuan on this platform!"

"Adding last month's income of over two hundred thousand, that's nearly four hundred thousand in cash!"

This speed of earning money made Ning Yifan sigh in admiration—this was the experience of being a top-tier expert in the industry. It was way too comfortable!

Choosing computer software programming as his first black technology had been absolutely right. Now, Ning Yifan only needed to take on two or three outsourced jobs a day, spend two to three hours completing them, and smoothly live a comfortable life earning hundreds of thousands a month, without ever having to grind away at a company again!

He browsed the order-taking platform for a while but didn't see any outsourced work that caught his interest. Ning Yifan didn't bother waiting around.

Checking it a few times a day was enough. After all, he had enough money for now, and it would only keep increasing.

Leaving the study, Ning Yifan went to another bedroom in the house that had been converted into a workshop. Inside, it was already piled high with various projector components, to the point where it was hard to find a place to step. In the middle of these components was a workbench made from a dining table, also covered with parts, but these were much more neatly arranged compared to the mess on the floor.

The components on the workbench were the result of Ning Yifan spending nearly two hundred thousand yuan to buy and disassemble hundreds of projectors from physical stores and online sales. From those parts, he had picked out the ones that barely met his standards.

That's right, the first black technology product Ning Yifan planned to bring to this world was a projector—or rather, it wasn't exactly a black technology product. All the components inside were made from existing materials and manufacturing processes.

For this projector, the motherboard was designed by Ning Yifan himself, then sent to a factory for production. The driver software was also programmed by him, followed by later testing and calibration.

The rest of the components were all sourced from the projectors he had disassembled over this period—some qualified, some not.

The qualified components went without saying, but among the unqualified ones, he had picked the best available on the market, like choosing the tallest among the short.

With the motherboard he personally designed and the driver software specifically developed to match the components, Ning Yifan could bring out 100% or even 120% of each part's performance. Combined with his unique calibration, even using components cobbled together from other projectors, he could create products far surpassing the industry standard!

It couldn't be helped—even the cleverest housewife can't cook a meal without rice.

Ning Yifan also wanted to pilot a Gundam or wear mecha armor, but the conditions just didn't allow it.

Black tech products like mecha and Gundam were packed with extremely high technical content. Even the earliest generations of such products inevitably contained technology that surpassed the current era—from chips to engines to manufacturing materials and so on.

And if Ning Yifan wanted to build them, he would have to manually advance the technology himself, which required a massive amount of money. Raw materials were one thing, but top-tier processing equipment was another.

Everything was difficult at the start, but once he managed to create a machine tool, obtaining those black tech products would become much simpler. At that point, black tech products could be churned out in batches, just like files downloaded from a P2P client.

Last night, he had finished learning the last projection technology. Returning to his workspace, Ning Yifan didn't swap out the originally selected component products; he only made minor adjustments in his mind to the outer shell of the products he planned to order.

The next period of time was going to be quite busy.

The company had already been established. A few days ago, Ning Yifan had gone to the city's industrial and commercial bureau to complete the registration. The entire company, from boss to employee, consisted of only Ning Yifan himself.

As for how one person could register a company—wasn't the minimum requirement two people? Well, there was a trick to it.

The shareholder was naturally Ning Yifan himself, and the legal representative was his mother. He had gone home and secretly photocopied her ID card. Since his mother rarely used her ID and always kept it in the wardrobe at home, the whole process was far too easy. Finally, the proof of residence was the apartment he was currently renting.

As for the first batch of product components, most of them had already been shipped from various cities across the country to Ning Yifan's city. They were expected to arrive tomorrow or the day after, ready for assembly.

Before that, Ning Yifan quickly tidied up the messy room. All the unnecessary parts were packed into large cardboard boxes and stacked in a corner of the living room—they might come in handy later.

After cleaning up the main battlefield, Ning Yifan returned to the study to work. He made a few changes to the projector shell he had drawn on the computer earlier, then opened Taobao on his phone and contacted a manufacturer that produced plastic shells.

The store was one Ning Yifan had already picked out. Even with the same plastic material, quality could vary depending on the raw materials used. Ning Yifan naturally chose the best, and the price was equally impressive: one hundred thousand yuan for five hundred sets of the projector shells he needed. That worked out to an average cost of two hundred yuan per shell!

Compared to projectors sold online, the cost of just one shell was almost equal to the price of the cheapest projector!

Of course, if he ordered in larger quantities, the price might come down a bit, but even if it were cut in half, a plastic shell costing one hundred yuan per set was still extremely expensive.

High price came with high quality benefits, and Ning Yifan didn't mind. He sent the production drawings to the other party, discussed a few technical issues, and the store agreed to start production immediately. Once finished, they would ship it via SF Express air freight to Ning Yifan's delivery address, expected to arrive within a day or two.

With that, the product production was all set, just waiting for the final piece.

By the time Ning Yifan finished all this, it was only eight in the morning. He opened the freelancing website, refreshed it, but found no suitable jobs. He didn't force it and simply closed the site, opened Steam, and started playing the newly released Sword and Fairy 7.

The female lead from the Wind Spirit Moon Shadow Sect danced in her white dress as the story steadily progressed. Before he knew it, an entire morning had passed.

At noon, under the blazing sun, Ning Yifan rode his road bike, which he had bought for over ten thousand yuan, weaving nimbly through the city traffic. Following the navigation, it took him over ten minutes to reach a restaurant a bit far from his neighborhood for lunch.

"Not bad taste. I'll come again if I get the chance!" The lunch cost Ning Yifan over two hundred yuan—not too expensive, not too cheap, right within his spending range.

In the afternoon, Ning Yifan got lucky and picked up two software development jobs, earning over five thousand yuan in total.

For dinner, Ning Yifan bought a fish at the market near his neighborhood and made a sour cabbage boiled fish at home. Though it couldn't compare to dishes from a hotel chef, he knew his own taste, and it was still a decent meal.

In the evening, the green onion girl from Sword and Fairy was still bouncing around energetically, and before he knew it, it was eleven at night.

The day passed leisurely and comfortably.

At half past eleven, after washing up, Ning Yifan went to sleep right on time.

Within the vast Technology Tree, Ning Yifan followed the system's guidance and found the next branch he had long planned to study.

Automatic Mechanical Processing Arm.

In the future, there would be all kinds of black tech equipment to produce. Ning Yifan couldn't do everything himself—even the production team's donkey wouldn't be worked that hard!

If he wanted to hire workers, high-precision tasks weren't something just anyone could handle. Training employees alone would take a huge amount of effort, and given Ning Yifan's future pace of black tech development and updates, training workers would never keep up with demand.

Not to mention that some equipment production couldn't be solved simply by training workers. It involved many complex scientific theories that might take years or even decades to learn, making it hard to put into formal production in a short time.

Even if he directly hired some high-level talent, it would be fine in the short term, but as Ning Yifan's tech products surpassed the world, even those experts would eventually be baffled.

Manufacturing fully automatic production equipment, on the other hand, would be much better. He only needed to write the program, and the processing arms could work around the clock according to Ning Yifan's desired methods. As for the equipment processing programs, they weren't difficult for Ning Yifan at this point.

This was a Technology Tree with seventeen dim stars and five bright stars. Ning Yifan gently grasped the lowest star and said softly, "System, enter dream learning mode. Learning time: seven hours."

"Ding, settings complete. Black Tech System learning mode activated!" The system's pleasant voice rang out.

The scene shifted. This time, a massive factory appeared before Ning Yifan. Mechanical arms flew up and down, continuously working on the products on the assembly line below.

An engineer whose face couldn't be seen appeared in front of Ning Yifan and said to him, "Fully automatic processing equipment starts with the simplest mechanical processing arm. Bearings, universal joints..."