Rejection

Damn it!

Guo Dazhuang gritted his teeth. The air of privilege he had cultivated over the years had vanished completely. At that moment, he looked more like a gambler who had lost everything, with nothing left in his eyes but irrational fear and madness.

Damn it, what method had the other side used? There had clearly been no flaws on his end. How had they infiltrated him without him noticing in the slightest?

This was a humiliation!

As a hacker—a top-tier hacker—being utterly unable to fight back under another hacker's attack was the greatest humiliation imaginable!

Guo Dazhuang—or rather, King—had not tasted defeat in a very long time, whether in reality or in the online world.

Just like his username, he was destined to be king of the internet, able to command the winds and rain, capable of anything!

With that thought, Guo Dazhuang directly unplugged his computer, turned around, and walked out the door.

"Boss, where are you going?"

The secretary seated by the door hurriedly rose and asked.

"I have something to take care of. You don't need to follow me." Guo Dazhuang expressionlessly pushed the secretary aside and left the company beneath the gazes of countless employees.

Although the other side had discovered his real-world identity, that did not mean he had lost. As long as they did not make his identity public, the moment he found their true identity, he would immediately turn the tables.

Guo Dazhuang had tremendous confidence in that.

For no other reason than that he was King, one of the leaders of Anonymous, the Earth Federation's largest hacker organization!

At the same time, Chen Chen, the instigator of the whole affair, had just risen from his computer and stretched lazily.

It had to be said that unlike the other three, who had caved early, King possessed remarkable willpower. Even at this point, he still refused to admit defeat.

As for his identity being exposed, Chen Chen had already thought it through. If he wanted to grow, sooner or later he would be exposed to the public eye. Since that was the case, why keep hiding?

Wouldn't it be perfectly natural to enter high society directly as a successful entrepreneur?

Besides, his background was spotless. Unlike hackers such as King, exposure would not put him at risk of prison.

Moreover, even if he stood before those people and told them that he was X, would they believe him?

Truth mixed with falsehood, reality intertwined with illusion—the smarter someone was, the harder it was for them to tell the difference.

In the end, however, all four agreed to meet at the place Chen Chen specified. The four were all from Shangdu in the Central Continent Region, so three hours was more than enough for them to reach the agreed location.

Checking the time, Chen Chen saw that there was still an hour and a half until the appointment. He tidied himself up and set Little X Translation Assistant to standby mode.

After locking the warehouse door and setting up the alarm along with the dozens of surveillance cameras around the warehouse, he rode his newly purchased little electric scooter toward the main road.

As an international metropolis, the suburbs were over an hour away from the city center within the inner ring. Chen Chen had to leave early if he did not want to be late.

It was the height of summer, and the sunlight was as blinding as a ball of fire. Chen Chen could only ride beneath the shade of the trees lining the road, which eased the heat somewhat.

Looks like it's time to buy a car.

Chen Chen thought silently. There was still over a hundred thousand in his company account now, enough to buy an ordinary car.

But there was no need to rush. Before long, forty million would be deposited into his account.

In truth, with Chen Chen's current hacking skills, if he truly wanted money, he could easily obtain a considerable sum through money laundering, gambling, Bitcoin trading, and similar methods.

Although there would still be some trouble using that money within the Central Continent Region, as long as he registered a few shell companies in other continental regions and injected those funds into Heiguang Company as financing, Chen Chen would be able to secure a substantial income.

However, that would not only make it easy for him to be exposed, but it also would not solve the problem of having backing.

Yes, backing.

As mentioned before, starting a company—especially a high-tech company with highly sought-after technology—was like a child carrying gold through a busy market. It was all too easy to attract attention.

And the ones watching were competitors and venture capital firms.

People often said that the market was like a cake, and keeping it all to yourself would never work. The best choice was to join hands with others and make the cake bigger and stronger. Although you would only receive a portion in the end, compared to the small cake at the beginning, you would still get more.

But what if you alone had the ability to make the cake bigger and stronger?

That was why this logic did not really hold up. It was more like a glossing-over of the venture capital industry. At its core, it was still a pack of wolves dividing up the food, yet laughably, many people considered it perfectly natural.

If you refused others' investments, they would find every possible way to obstruct you and trip you up until they destroyed your cake and left you with nothing to eat.

Or those people would band together, make the same cake as you, and then crush you with their overwhelming advantages.

This was already a well-known unspoken rule.

To prevent such things from happening, Chen Chen had to accept outside investment.

King, SB, CZH, and ZF were the people Chen Chen had found after entering the Dark Web, with Little X Translation Assistant's help.

All four were from Shangdu. They had no complicated backgrounds, having all started from nothing and climbed step by step to the peak of success.

Each of them owned their own enterprise and had net assets exceeding one hundred million. They were already members of the capitalist class.

Since that was the case, rather than letting venture capital choose him, it was better to choose his own investors and keep the initiative in his hands.

That was why all of this had happened.

Of course, Chen Chen was not some miser who refused to part with a cent. Since he was asking others for help, he would offer part of the profits as well. Two percent equity in Little X Translation Assistant was already a substantial compensation.

After all, based on estimates, Chen Chen could earn at least several billion from this groundbreaking product.

Even if these people were furious now, once they understood the potential of this software, it would naturally become a different matter.

There were no eternal enemies, only eternal interests.

And with those few people providing cover, Chen Chen's company would naturally be able to rise gradually.

As he silently considered his next plans, Chen Chen's phone suddenly rang.

Chen Chen pulled his electric scooter over to the roadside and took out his phone, only to discover that the caller was Xia Yin.

Four months had passed since Chen Chen left school. At first, Xia Yin had often called him during that time, but because Chen Chen had always been neither warm nor cold toward her, the calls had gradually become less frequent.

This was Xia Yin's first call in the past month.

"Hello, Senior Sister. What is it?" Chen Chen answered while starting his electric scooter again.

"Chen Chen, I have good news for you—our paper has been published in a journal!" Xia Yin's voice was brimming with excitement over the phone. "The school held a meeting to commend Wang Wei and me."

"Congratulations."

As the corresponding author, Chen Chen naturally knew when the paper had been published. However, everything he had done before had merely been a means to apply for a university student entrepreneurship loan.

By now, Chen Chen had already achieved his goal, so those two papers had lost all meaning to him.

"Oh, right. When are you free? To celebrate this victory, I'll treat you and Wang Wei to dinner."

Xia Yin continued asking.

"Sure." Chen Chen smiled. "If I'm free, I'll definitely come."

After casually chatting with Xia Yin for a few more moments, Chen Chen used the excuse that he was driving to hang up.

In truth, Chen Chen understood Xia Yin's feelings toward him.

But with the USB Drive in his possession, Chen Chen was destined to belong to a different world from her. His goal was not romance, but to use the USB Drive to fulfill all his desires.

Since he could not think of a way to face it, it was better not to face it at all.

Cutting through the mess with a swift blade had always been the fastest and most effective method...