The Plan

The meal at the Lin residence was a lively affair. Fatty Lin repeatedly toasted Yi Xuan, and even Yi Xuan, a cultivator, could barely keep up. Yet after drinking so much, Fatty Lin was still glowing with health.

Yi Xuan couldn't help marveling, Every trade has its own specialty.

Fatty Lin truly was an old hand in the business world. No one else could compare to him when it came to holding his liquor.

When they were enjoying themselves most, the two talked some more about the fans.

In Fatty Lin's opinion, the fans were their most profitable product. It would be unwise to give them up and switch to selling air conditioners now. They would make even more money by pursuing both at once.

Yi Xuan disagreed and instead asked Fatty Lin how his business had progressed over the past year.

Although Fatty Lin said nonchalantly that things were going very well, Yi Xuan still caught a hint of worry on his face.

"Have all your other businesses become unable to take a single step forward, apart from the fans?"

With Yi Xuan having pointed out the problem, Fatty Lin could hardly keep up the pretense. He nodded in agreement.

Yi Xuan's products did not belong to this world. The introduction of the fans had dealt quite a shock to its existing market.

At first, the disruption was a good thing, allowing Fatty Lin and Yi Xuan to fill their pots and bowls to overflowing. But after a while, the other powers would notice that Fatty Lin's business dominated the market and that no one else could get a share, and they would start hatching crooked schemes.

They could band together to suppress him, control the market, or even resort to threats and inducements. Such tactics could hardly be called dishonorable; after all, they were all common business practices.

That was the situation Fatty Lin now found himself in. The other powers coveted his profits. At first, they had only tried to pressure him in other areas, hoping he would see the difficulty and retreat.

Yi Xuan guessed that if Fatty Lin continued to keep the profits from the fans to himself, he would face more than just suppression. His fortune and his life might be threatened.

Though Fatty Lin was highly gifted in business, the environment he had grown up in limited his outlook. Yi Xuan, on the other hand, had lived in an era of explosive information growth, so he could certainly see further than Fatty Lin.

Thus, Yi Xuan told Fatty Lin what he thought.

Fatty Lin understood as soon as it was explained, but he was still reluctant to accept it. "Brother Yi, is there really no other way? You're an immortal master. They might dare make a move against me, but would they dare do the same to you?"

Yi Xuan smiled and shook his head. "Business isn't a martial contest where whoever has the harder fist comes out on top."

"Business is like a pond, and you, Fatty Lin, are like a fish. The pond was perfectly calm to begin with, but after you entered, you started churning it up and kept the other fish from resting. Of course they'd want to drive you out of the pond!"

"But if you can find a way to make them churn up the pond with you, then you'll become fish of the same kind. As more and more of your kind join in, your enemies in the pond will grow fewer and fewer, and weaker and weaker."

"One day, when you can fully control the pond, you won't even need to lift a finger against the remaining enemies. Your own kind will take the initiative to get rid of them!"

Fatty Lin took Yi Xuan's words to heart. After discussing the matter with him for a while longer, the two finally decided to sell the fan technology and bring the other powers into the business.

Naturally, the details were left to Fatty Lin. Yi Xuan only needed to stay behind the scenes and count his money in peace.

After returning home, Yi Xuan used the True Qi in his body to expel the effects of the alcohol, then entered the secret room.

No. 01 should have finished digesting the information he had previously fed it long ago. It was time to see the results.

When he came to No. 01, sure enough, the progress bar for the earlier information input was gone, and the computer was in standby mode.

"No. 01!"

"I'm here!"

At Yi Xuan's call, the computer screen lit up again, displaying the familiar Windows interface. There was one difference, however: a man dressed in work clothes and looking like an engineer was sitting in a chair in the bottom-right corner of the screen.

"No. 01?"

"I'm here. What can I do for you?"

As the voice sounded, Yi Xuan saw the engineer on the desktop opening and closing his mouth in time with it. Apparently, this was the virtual avatar No. 01 had created for himself.

Yi Xuan felt some regret. If he had known, he wouldn't have fed him so much engineering knowledge. Now he had taken the form of a middle-aged man.

If he had fed him some pictures of beautiful women from his memories back then, perhaps the resulting avatar would have been a sexy, gorgeous woman.

But none of that was important. It was only a passing thought for Yi Xuan. The most important role of the artificial intelligence was still to assist with Yi Xuan's future scientific research.

"No. 01, has all the information been processed?"

"Yes. The input information has been processed!"

"Generate a design plan for an assistant robot and present it in the form of a three-dimensional model!"

As Yi Xuan made his request, the engineer in the bottom-right corner of the screen produced a laptop from who knew where, set it on the desk, and bent over it to work. It looked as though a real person were writing up the plan Yi Xuan wanted.

"Your requirements are too vague. I cannot provide a specific completion time. Please specify your requirements!"

Yi Xuan was not displeased by No. 01's response. On the contrary, he was delighted. He hadn't expected No. 01 to be able to ask Yi Xuan questions in return. That was no easy feat for an artificial intelligence.

Yi Xuan proceeded to give No. 01 all sorts of requirements for the robot design, covering not only its functions but also the technologies currently available, so that No. 01 could design it using the technology Yi Xuan already had.

At last, a progress bar appeared beneath the engineer hard at work on his computer. It showed that generating the plan would take fifteen minutes.

Yi Xuan could hardly have been more pleased with that time. Although he didn't know how the result would turn out, this level of efficiency already far surpassed the technology of his previous life.

Fifteen minutes passed quickly.

"Plan generated. Please review!"

As No. 01 spoke, a window popped up on the computer screen, displaying a strangely shaped machine. It looked nothing like a human, but Yi Xuan knew that "robot" was simply a general term humans used for things of this kind. In fact, many robots were developed without any humanoid form at all, yet that did not prevent them from meeting human needs.

Yi Xuan spent half an hour reviewing No. 01's plan. Although it still had quite a few flaws, he found that, overall, the robot was entirely feasible. As long as it was built according to the plan, the finished product could be put straight to use.

Yi Xuan was very satisfied with No. 01's performance. After having him save the generated plan, he entered more information for No. 01 and told him to continue learning.

Then Yi Xuan left the secret room, returned to his bedroom, and drifted off to sleep in his bed.