Monday arrived like a wave—students groaning, traffic honking, Jiangcheng Tech's offices buzzing once again.
But Lin Yi's mind was somewhere else.
The previous night, GhostNet had successfully completed its first real-world test simulation: processing multi-layered data from Liu Fan's decentralized crawler, cleaning it through Lin Yi's compression algorithms, and making short-term product demand predictions for several small businesses in Jiangcheng.
All without a single human touching the system.
It had worked.
And now?
It was time for impact.
After his morning shift at the internship, Lin Yi took a detour to a local delivery startup near the university, QuickBox Jiangcheng.
A small, scrappy operation run by students and recent grads, QuickBox had been struggling to maintain delivery efficiency and customer retention.
Late orders, wrong item drops, confused routing—it was a mess.
Lin Yi had once overheard their manager ranting at a noodle shop: "We need smarter route planning or we're dead next semester!"
That was three weeks ago.
Today, Lin Yi walked in during their lunch break.
He spoke directly to the guy at the front desk, a freckled senior with tired eyes and an oil-stained hoodie.
"You're the one who handles dispatches, right?" Lin Yi asked.
The guy blinked. "Uh, yeah. Why?"
"I built something. It's free to try. It'll optimize your delivery routes and timing predictions using live city data. Five-minute integration."
The guy stared. "You serious?"
Lin Yi handed over a flash drive.
"Just run the installer. You'll know within two hours if it works."
Then he left, without even leaving his name.
[System Notice: GhostNet Integration Module v1.01 Deployed]
[Monitoring Enabled – Pilot Test: Small Business Tier]
Two hours later, QuickBox's dashboard lit up.
Average delivery delay dropped from 19 minutes to 4.
Wrong drop-offs? Zero.
Customer rating submissions increased by 33%.
Drivers who used to rely on slow Google Maps directions were now being directed through dynamic AI-adjusted paths that accounted for traffic, weather, and order weight.
The freckled manager called every delivery guy into a meeting and shouted, "Who installed this thing?! What even IS this?!"
No one knew.
But it worked.
That night, Lin Yi watched it all unfold from his dorm—monitoring the GhostNet logs silently.
Request spikes.
Feedback pings.
New businesses pinging the endpoint automatically after their systems detected the improvements through QuickBox.
It was spreading.
Not because he advertised it…
But because it worked.
[Mission Update: Build Your Own Empire – Phase 1 Completion: 100%]
[Reward Unlocked: ¥500,000 Cash Injection + System Evolution Boost + GhostNet AI Tier 2]
Lin Yi's breath caught for a second.
Then the system interface shimmered before him.
A sleek black card appeared in his system wallet.
[Shenhao Shadow Account Created – Available Funds: ¥500,000]
[New System Tools Unlocked:]
– GhostNet AI Tier 2: Adds voice command interfaces and real-time analytics dashboard
– Asset Web: Begin acquiring influence in companies using GhostNet tech
– Seed Accelerator (Passive): Every startup improved by your system gives Reputation + Capital points
His empire had begun.
And it wasn't loud.
It wasn't flashy.
But it was real.
Meanwhile, back at Jiangcheng Tech Ventures, Xu Rong was furiously refreshing her company's private analytics dashboard.
"We're getting unusual API spikes from delivery companies in Jiangcheng," she muttered. "Someone deployed an external optimization module we don't control. But it's outperforming ours."
Chen Wei stepped in. "How is that possible?"
"No idea," Xu Rong said, clearly irritated. "It's not on GitHub. Not in any open library."
"Can you trace it?"
"Not unless they make a mistake."
Chen Wei paused for a second… then whispered, "You think it's him?"
Xu Rong didn't answer.
But her silence said everything.
Back in the dorm, Lin Yi stretched, then stood up from his desk.
Zhang Chao was snoring on the couch, phone still in hand, TikTok videos on loop.
He glanced at Lin Yi, half-awake. "Hey, bro, you still messing around with your school project?"
Lin Yi smiled faintly.
"Yeah. Just a little side thing."
"Must be boring," Zhang Chao mumbled, rolling over. "You should get a part-time job or something."
Lin Yi chuckled softly.
[System Balance: ¥512,780]
[Daily Passive Revenue (GhostNet Tier 2): ¥6,400/day]
"Maybe one day," he said quietly.
He grabbed a water bottle and stepped outside into the warm night.
The wind whispered softly across the campus.
Above him, the stars blinked like distant servers—cool, silent, powerful.
Just like the empire he was building