When an AI chip was implanted in his brain, he rose to power

Untitled Part 14

Jason breezed through his final exams and welcomed the arrival of the 2004 Spring Festival. This year, instead of visiting his grandparent's house, the family simply called to exchange holiday greetings. Jason's side hustle took a hit, with fewer hongbao (red envelope) cash gifts coming in. But given the profits from his joint venture, the loss was barely noticeable.

During the holiday, a massive wave of viruses wreaked havoc on the internet. Network congestion, computer crashes, and software corruption caused widespread, enormous losses. People started to ask, "Aren't there any proactive solutions to fight these viruses instead of relying on passive antivirus programs?"

Intrigued, Jason dived into virus research.

Winter break flew by, and before he knew it, the new semester was already starting. The first thing Jason did was inform Fathead Fish that it was time to register their new software company. They pooled together 2 million yuan as startup capital—a tiny fraction of what they'd earned in the past few months.

Fathead Fish and Jason had long since patched things up, becoming fast friends. Of course, they kept their partnership a secret from Fathead's cousin, not wanting to stir up any trouble.

After a year of collaboration, Fathead Fish was in awe of Jason's programming skills and even jokingly suggested making Jason the godfather of his 11-year-old son, hoping Jason would teach the boy to code. Though Jason politely declined the godfather role, he did agree to let the father and son call him "big brother."

Jason also discovered that Fathead Fish had excellent connections in Huadu, with influence in both legal and not-so-legal circles. He was a natural-born leader, great at planning and eager to take risks. Giving him a company to promote was like lighting a fire under him—he'd be excited for months. And within that time, a small company could easily take off.

And so, "Fury Software" quietly entered the scene, unnoticed. But by the time people realized its presence, it had already made a big splash.

The homeroom teacher was very pleased with Jason's grades for the first semester. Overall, no student in the class was falling behind. It seemed like his "Top Teacher" and "Tsinghua's Ten Outstanding Young Educators" titles were in the bag this year.

At the first class meeting, Jason shared lessons learned from the previous year and outlined the plan for the current semester. The most notable point was his suggestion that the students get a head start and gain real-world experience by participating in a software research and development project. The teacher, eager to see how the students would perform, readily supported the idea.

Enter the "business mogul" of the software world—Mr. Yu Dayong—who waddled up to the podium, his belly leading the way.

He gave a textbook presentation on the current state of China's software industry, past, present, and future, then introduced his "group company." He went over the requirements and goals of the software development project and encouraged everyone to participate enthusiastically. Finally, he opened the floor for questions.

University students can sometimes ask the most naive questions, and sometimes the sharpest ones. Fortunately, all Yu Dayong had to do was brag, and he was more than capable of handling that.

"Mr. Yu, how come I've never heard of your company before?"

"Well, we've mostly been operating out of Silicon Valley in the States. But with the global economic downturn and the excellent investment environment here in China, we've recently established a subsidiary in Huadu. It's just getting off the ground, so we'll need everyone's support!"

"Mr. Yu, how much are you planning to invest in this venture?"

"That's sort of a business secret, haha, but I'll give you a little hint. We're planning to invest at least 100 million USD this year alone. If things go well, we're looking at a total of 1 billion USD over the next three years."