Chapter 1

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

Through the gap in the curtains, a ray of blinding sunlight shone into the room—the world outside was bright, the day already in full swing.\n

Lin Xun glanced at the clock: nine in the morning. After a long, code-fueled all-nighter, his bedtime was finally approaching.\n

As he closed his compiler, a push notification slid onto his screen—a news headline. Normally, he didn’t pay much attention to these things, but something in the headline caught his eye.\n

“Milky Way Enterprises throws their money to the wind, investing thirty million in Lions Incorporated!” \n

He clicked into the article. Sure enough, it detailed Milky Way’s multimillion-dollar investment, going on to cover the meeting between the founder of Lions Inc. and the CEO of Milky Way Enterprises. They’d chatted about their company’s roadmaps, looking forward to all the grand technological revolutions that their new neural networks were sure to bring about. \n

His face blank, Lin Xun closed the page.\n

Over the past few years, Lions had made waves in the tech world, though they only had one trick up their sleeve: their neural network design. They’d unveiled it at some industry conference, catching the attention of countless investors. Back when Lin Xun was still in school, he’d even met Lions’ founder; after he graduated, that same founder had even offered him a job. \n

But Lin Xun had never been impressed by them: he’d scoffed at the offer, turning it down without a second thought.\n

In any case, it wasn’t Lions he cared about—it was the first two words of the headline that’d caught his attention: Milky Way.\n

Milky Way’s CEO was a legend of the programming world, a veritable coding god, and his beloved idol—and, well, the idol of most programmers these days. His idol had built his fortune from the ground up. He’d started out working on IoT tech, then moved swiftly onto AI, his finger always on the beating pulse of the industry. Before long, “Milky Way” had become a technological empire, with subsidiaries in every industry imaginable. \n

If not for Milky Way, some people argued, the age of the Smart City wouldn’t have come for another twenty years—at the least.\n

In other words, someone he’d looked down on had managed to get up close and personal with his beloved idol—and, on top of that, they’d even made off with thirty million dollars of his idol’s money.\n

Of course, if that thirty million had gone to me instead, I’d do a better job.\n

After a few minutes of wallowing in bitterness, Lin Xun’s head started to hurt, his temples pulsing in pain. Probably my all-nighter coming back to bite me. \n

Just as he was about to call it a night and catch up on his sleep debt, his phone’s ringtone suddenly broke the silence. He glanced over: the caller ID showed an unknown number.\n

Lately, he’d been getting way too many of these calls—from his landlord pressuring him for rent to his countless overdue bills, the stress never ended.\n

Besides, if I still had money to spare, I’d do myself a favor and get another energy drink. At least then I wouldn’t be so damn tired.\n

Lin Xun picked up his phone. “Hello?”\n

A sweet and feminine voice replied. “Hello. Am I speaking to Mr. Lin?”\n

“That’s right.”\n

“Good morning, sir. I’m calling on behalf of Jianzhi Networking Incorporated about your ‘Luoshen’ proposal. After two rounds of discussion, we’ve decided that at this point in time, it’s not a good fit for our company’s growth model. At the same time, we want to assure you that it’s not…”\n

Lin Xun leaned back against his chair, massaging his brows. When he spoke, the hoarse exasperation in his voice was palpable. “I understand. Sorry for the trouble.”\n

After hanging up, someone pushed open his bedroom door. A round head peeked in, almost perfectly circular. “How’d it go? Which company was it? Is the dream alive?”\n

It was Lin Xun’s friend-turned-business-partner, Wang Anquan. He wore a green plaid shirt over his plump frame, looking every bit the textbook programmer—if not for the fact that his narrow eyes gave him the permanent impression of looking a bit shifty.\n

Lin Xun tossed his phone off to the side. “It’s dead. Jianzhi turned us down.”\n

Wang Anquan sighed, collapsing limply onto Lin Xun’s bed.\n

Just as the room fell silent between them, an angry shout echoed from the living room. “Motherfucker!”\n

“What’s up with Infra?” Lin Xun asked.\n

“Guess the business plan’s chosen violence,” Wang Anquan replied.\n

Something clattered in the living room, sounding suspiciously like a chair being kicked over. Moments later, Zhao Jiagou burst into Lin Xun’s room, ruthlessly stabbing a USB drive into his innocent computer. “I’m finally fucking done!”\n

Zhao Jiagou, born Lewis and nicknamed Infrastructure—or Infra, for short—was a blond, blue-eyed Norwegian with the slightest hint of Asian ancestry. He had a shocking talent for picking up languages, and he was more or less fluent in Chinese.\n

The three of them had formed a team before they’d even graduated; since then, three years had passed. Lin Xun was in charge of algorithms and core coding, Wang “Safety” Anquan—as his name suggested—was in charge of web and data security, and Lewis handled the system infrastructure. Back when Lewis was still studying Chinese in university, he’d realized the novelty of Wang Anquan’s name being so closely connected with his field of study. His name was a true stroke of genius, Lewis proclaimed, and so it was that he chose his own Chinese name—dubbing himself Zhao “Infrastructure” Jiagou.¹\n

Disheartened, Wang Anquan shot the business plan an unimpressed look, muttering, “Even if we upload it, what’s the point? We can’t even make rent, guys. No one wants Luoshen. Maybe we should just… call it here.”\n

Zhao Jiagou spoke up. “Call it here? I’ve been wanting to call it for months! Eagle’s been trying to get me to sell out for the past year.”\n

The two of them turned in unison to Lin Xun. \n

Wang Anquan sighed. “Look, we’ve wasted three years on this.”\n

Three years. \n

Since before they’d even graduated, they’d thrown themselves into developing Luoshen. And now that they finally had a rudimentary framework to show for their efforts, not a single tech company was willing to give them the time of day. From the network’s complexity to its high development costs—not to mention its unknown chances at success—there were a million different reasons why investor after investor had backed out.\n

And now, after three years, they were finally giving up.\n

To his credit, Lin Xun wasn’t too broken up about it. He was just about to say something—when suddenly, a wave of dizziness crashed over him, a sharp pain erupting behind his eyes. His vision went blurry, turning Wang Anquan and Zhao Jiagou into indistinct smudges—and then, two strange, blue blobs seemed to rise from each of their heads.\n

Hallucinations? Had the sleep deprivation finally gotten to him?\n

With perfect timing, his phone began to ring again.\n

The damn thing goes off every day, and all it brings is bad news, Lin Xun thought. The familiar ringtone was starting to grate on his nerves.\n

Zhao Jiagou glanced over at his phone. “Who is it?”\n

Wang Anquan picked it up, about to pass it over—when suddenly, he froze in place, his eyes going wide. Slowly, he looked up at Lin Xun. “B-bro…”\n

Don’t tell me it’s the landlord on my ass again.\n

As he was desperately trying to remember his credit card limit, Wang Anquan raised the phone, holding the screen up before Lin Xun’s eyes. \n

On the screen were two words. Even through his blurred vision, he could still make them out: Milky Way.\n

Wait—Milky Way??\n

Lin Xun’s mind went blank. Slowly, he took the phone from Wang Anquan.\n

“Hello. Am I speaking to Mister Lin Xun?” Again, it was a female voice, pleasant and sweet.\n

“Hello. Yes, that’s right.”\n

Lin Xun put the call on speaker, so that the other two could hear it.\n

“Good morning, Mr. Lin. My name is Ruan Zhi, Assistant Manager of Milky Way Enterprises. Would you happen to have time for a chat in the near future?”\n

The three of them stared at each other.\n

Wang Anquan’s jaw dropped open.\n

Lin Xun’s pulse raced in his chest. “Anytime.”\n

“Great,” the woman replied. “Recently, we’ve been quite interested in your team’s Luoshen network model. If you have the time, would it be convenient for you to pay our headquarters a visit this afternoon? There are a few things we’d like to discuss.”\n

“Y-yes, that’s fine,” Lin Xun replied, after a beat of silence.\n

The voice over the line gave a gentle laugh. “Then I won’t disturb your work any longer. I look forward to the meeting.”\n

The caller hung up.\n

Slowly, Lin Xun put his phone down.\n

“Lin Xun. My dear brother. My bro.” Zhao Jiagou got up, standing directly in front of him.  “I apologize for my previous statement.”\n

Wang Anquan quickly followed up. “Xun, I too would like to express my sincerest apologies for ever doubting us. From the bottom of my heart. You, me, him—Algo, Safe, Infra—the three of us are brothers for life. Life, you feel me? Until the seas run dry, until the end of ti—”\n

“That’s enough.” Lin Xun cut off Wang Anquan’s sickening confession of brotherly love, but couldn’t help the smile that tugged at his lips. In an instant, the fatigue that’d plagued him was swept away, his vision slowly coming back into focus.\n

But his hallucinations were still there: two blue squares seemed to hover over his friends’ heads. It was strange, but after considering what he’d been through in the last twenty-four hours… Maybe it was understandable, he thought. A symptom of overexcitement, maybe. \n

Maybe it’d go away after he got some rest. In any case, there were more important things at hand: namely, the best news of his life.\n

Milky Way Enterprises!\n

Thirty million!\n

His idol!\n

As if drunk, Wang Anquan stumbled dizzily back into Lin Xun’s bed, clutching a pillow tightly to his chest. Clearly, he’d read the same article Lin Xun had, blankly muttering to himself. “Thirty… thirty million… Infra, how are our shares split? Did you just make it up?”\n

Zhao Jiagou grabbed Lin Xun’s second pillow, sprawling out across from Wang Anquan. His face looked equally blank as he muttered back in reply, “Yeah. I totally made it up. It’s just an even split.”\n

Wang Anquan’s eyes went glassy, lost in sheer capitalist joy.\n

Zhao Jiagou slapped the headboard. “Can’t believe that just a few minutes ago, I was this close to being seduced by Eagle’s 600k offer…”\n

Wang Anquan gently caressed the pillow in his hands. “Yeah, I was feeling good about Lions’ 700k, too…”\n

“Wait, why the hell did you get a higher offer?” Zhao Jiagou’s Chinese seemed noticeably better whenever he was riled up.\n

“Clearly, it’s because Python is the language of the gods.”\n

“You mean Java, right?”\n

Within moments, the debate devolved into a full-fledged pillow fight.\n

Lin Xun didn’t stop to pay attention to them. Unlike them, he was about to have a meeting with Milky Way Enterprises—though to be fair, he still didn’t know who he’d be meeting. \n

Maybe it’ll just be some low-ranking product manager.\n

<hr class="wp-block-separator">\nThe meeting was quickly approaching.\n

After getting out of the car, Lin Xun took one last look at himself in the windows’ reflection, making sure he was dressed the part. He had on a white dress shirt—of course, that wouldn’t be a problem. Over the dress shirt, he’d picked out a light grey suit with faint stripes, one that leaned business-casual. Not bad, if I do say so myself.\n

Zhao Jiagou rolled down the window, giving him an appreciative whistle. “Looking good, my dude!”\n

Lin Xun cracked a grin. “Then here goes nothing.”\n

From inside the car, Wang Anquan let out an inhuman shriek. “Thirty million!”\n

Ahead, the towering glass walls of the Milky Way headquarters shone brightly under the afternoon sun.\n

Lin Xun had planned to ask for directions upon arrival, but a secretary came out to greet him the minute he walked through the building’s doors. “Mister Lin Xun?”\n

Lin Xun followed the secretary into a fancy-looking elevator, watching as he pressed the button for the building’s top floor. \n

He was getting the feeling that this meeting wouldn’t be as simple as he’d expected.\n

He blinked a few times, vigorously. Floating above the secretary’s head was another translucent blue square, just like the ones he’d seen above Wang Anquan and Zhao Jiagou.\n

Ding!\n

The elevator slowed to a stop and the doors slid open. Assistant Manager Ruan Zhi was standing before him with a smile, another blue square hovering above her head, same as the ones he’d seen back at home. Lin Xun was starting to feel like something was seriously wrong—but he could look into it later, he told himself. There were more urgent matters at hand.\n

Ruan Zhi was a familiar face: she was a permanent fixture at all of Milky Way’s major press conferences, always by the CEO’s side. It was Assistant Manager Ruan who’d called him. And it was Assistant Manager Ruan who was here now, waiting to usher him inside.　　\n

So who, exactly, was he about to meet? \n

Lin Xun could only come to a single conclusion. \n

It had to be his idol himself, the coding god himself—otherwise, why would they bust out the red carpet and call in Ruan Zhi?\n

All his hallucination-related worries disappeared: his entire brain was filled solely with thoughts of his beloved idol. He wasn’t even bitter anymore. The Lions’ could keep their thirty million, for all he cared—today, he was going to get thirty million of his own.\n

Ruan Zhi pushed open a wooden office door; inside, the room was spacious and spartan, kept meticulously neat and tidy.\n

Sunlight spilled into the room through tall French windows; on the other side of the minimalist office, beams of light flowed across the white walls like sun across snow. Lin Xun entered the office, a strange chill going up his spine, as if the air around him had suddenly gotten colder. It was quiet, his footsteps the only sounds in the dead silence.　　\n

At the end of the office, a single man sat behind a long desk.. His head was lowered, his gaze focused on the file in his hands. He wore a simple white shirt, his posture relaxed, yet perfectly straight; the strict cut of his figure cast the room in a strange, lonely light.\n

It was the young founder and CEO of Milky Way Enterprises, the ruler of its tech empire.\n

Even though Lin Xun had seen him in countless articles and interviews, seeing his idol in the flesh was still a bit of a shock. At the same time, it seemed the shock had managed to reboot his eyes: there was no blue square above the man’s head. He breathed a sigh of relief.\n

The flipping of pages caught Lin Xun’s attention, his eyes drawn to the man’s long, slender fingers; his skin was quite pale, faint blue veins visible just under the surface. His hands were elegant, suited to a pianist—Lin Xun couldn’t help but think that they were wasted on leafing through documents.\n

Those same hands could fly across a keyboard just as skillfully as any pianist, responsible for writing some of the most elegant code the world had ever seen. When Lin Xun and Wang Anquan were teenagers, they’d spent days just browsing through this man’s Github, admiring his code. They’d come to a singular conclusion: his right hand must have been kissed by von Neumann, his left hand held by Turing himself. By the time he was in college, Lin Xun had a healthy respect for his own coding skill—but by then, his idol had already designed his own programming language: Glax.\n

In the end, Lin Xun had ended up specializing in algorithms instead of core programming. Perhaps it’d been because on some level, he knew that when it came down to the nuts and bolts of writing programs, his talent could never match that of his idol—the idol he was approaching at this very moment.\n

He took a step closer.\n

The god in question finally looked up from his papers, and the noise of the world faded away into nothingness.\n

Lin Xun was ascending. 　　\n

The man before him had long, black hair and wore thin, gold-rimmed glasses. As he shifted, the thin gold chain hanging from his glasses swayed gently, sparkling in the light.\n

Behind those glasses were a pair of cold eyes, which calmly met Lin Xun’s gaze.\n

The man was handsome, with sharper features than the average Asian; with his chiseled face and light-brown eyes, one could almost assume he was mixed—though there was no evidence to suggest that was the case. With his striking looks and his cold, emotionless eyes, there was something about him that seemed almost… otherworldly.\n

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Lin.” His voice matched his appearance; there was a detached nature to it, bordering on ethereal.\n

“Nice to meet you,” Lin Xun said, considering his words carefully. “Dong Jun.”\n

It was a well-known personality quirk of the CEO’s—no matter how formal the setting, he preferred to be called by his name, not his title: Dong Jun. Dong Jun’s name seemed to be the same as the ancient Lord of the East, the mythological Chinese god of the sun; his name alone gave him an impressive air of mystery.\n

Dong Jun’s lips curved up at the corners in a small smile. “Please, take a seat.”\n

Lin Xun complied, relaxing as he sank into the chair. Admittedly, his nerves were wound a bit tight.\n

Dong Jun’s finger landed gently on the paper in front of him, turning it around before sliding it across the desk towards Lin Xun. “I invited you here today because I’d like to discuss a certain matter with you.”\n

Lin Xun met his gaze, fighting to keep his expression calm—internally, he was already bouncing off the walls with excitement. He could already picture tomorrow’s headlines: “Milky Way invests thirty million into up-and-comer Luoshen!”\n

Thirty million.\n

He could feel himself floating away, wings of money carrying him off into the clouds. With a single signed check, he’d break through the stratosphere.\n

He could buy a new server, or expand their databases, or move out of his crappy apartment and into a shiny new office—Luoshen would finally launch, ushering in a brand-new age of technology… with thirty million dollars!\n

As if sensing his train of thought, Dong Jun paused before continuing. “I was thinking of investing in Luoshen under my own name, not the company’s. For two hundred thousand dollars, I’d like to buy a portion of Luoshen’s shares.”\n

Luo Shen was speechless.\n

<hr class="wp-block-separator is-style-wide">\n[1.] The “Anquan” (安全) in Wang Anquan’s name translates literally to “security” or “safety,” so it’s a happy coincidence that he works in network security. As you could probably guess, Jiagou (架构) quite literally translates to “infrastructure” or “framework.” These two also call Lin Xun by a matching nickname (算法) that means “algorithm” or “calculation.” For the sake of mildly-ridiculous hacker name flavor, we’re translating them as “Safe,” “Infra,” and “Algo,” respectively.\n

[2.] Thirty million RMB, if anyone was interested, is approximately 4.6 million USD. Might sound like a lot, but the net worth of comparable Chinese tech giant Tencent in 2020 was 69 billion USD. (Obligatory nice.)\n

<hr class="wp-block-separator">\n < back. | root. | next. >