The atmosphere was a bit subdued during the drive. Wu Yun focused on the road, occasionally glancing at the pensive Bai Yue without disturbing her.

Bai Yue suddenly broke the silence, voicing the worry that had been on her mind. "Wu Yun, with us being in a long-distance relationship like this, will you fall for some other girl?"

Wu Yun hadn’t expected Bai Yue to ask this question. He thought for a moment, then relaxed and said, "Of course not. You’re so beautiful, and I’ve liked you for three years. I definitely won’t give up on you easily. Unless..."

Wu Yun dragged out the last word.

"Unless what?" Bai Yue turned to stare at Wu Yun and asked.

Wu Yun checked the road ahead, then glanced over. His eyes immediately caught a glimpse of black from under her short skirt where she was turned sideways. He grinned and said, "Unless *you’re* the one who finds someone else!"

"Hmph! If you don’t come to Capital City, I’ll be the one to cheat on you!" Bai Yue huffed lightly and sat up straight.

For the rest of the drive, Wu Yun listened to Bai Yue chatter about her recent experiences in Capital City. Through some subtle probing, Wu Yun learned the specifics of Bai Yue’s family situation. Both her parents were employees at a state-owned enterprise, likely in high-ranking positions; otherwise, they couldn’t have afforded a house in Capital City.

Wu Yun also told Bai Yue about his recent experience starting a company, though he omitted the part about his nights of revelry.

Bai Yue was very envious of Wu Yun. At their age, he was already doing something he loved, while she could only wait for school to start under her parents’ supervision. Although she could travel, there were always restrictions.

As they neared Jingyang, Wu Yun asked for Bai Yue’s opinion and saw that she agreed to stay the night at his place.

"Don’t get the wrong idea. I’m just crashing at your place. I know you have a spare bed. Nothing is happening tonight. I’m on my period!" Bai Yue told a little lie, hoping to dampen Wu Yun’s excited thoughts.

The excited look on Wu Yun’s face gradually faded. He had no desire for a bloody battle, and he said regretfully, "What kind of person do you take me for! Am I the type to break my promises? I promised you I’d come to Capital City. When that time comes, you’d better be clean and waiting for me!"

By the time the two arrived at Huilu International, it was already eleven o’clock. Wu Yun didn’t shamelessly follow Bai Yue to her room; he just gave her a kiss in the living room, said goodnight, and went to his own bed.

Wu Yun was afraid he wouldn’t be able to control himself, so he went straight to bed to sleep.

That night, Wu Yun tossed and turned. Half-asleep, he heard the system’s notification sound, but he ignored it, rolled over, and fell into a deep sleep.

"Shocking! Modu Phoenix Bicycle Co., Ltd. and Rongcheng’s Nirvana Technology Reach a Cooperation Agreement Worth Nearly 3 Billion!"

The next morning, the business headlines on all the major online platforms—Sina, Tencent, UC Browser...—were all about the collaboration between Phoenix Bicycle and Nirvana Technology.

Such a massive sum brought the previously unknown Nirvana Technology into the sights of industry insiders and venture capitalists. Several companies immediately dispatched people to dig up more details.

Due to a signed non-disclosure agreement, Phoenix Bicycle did not reveal the specific details of the partnership, only posting a "stay tuned" message on its official website.

For ordinary people, however, the most noteworthy part was probably the enormous 3 billion figure! It became post-dinner chatter, a topic about something that felt very distant from their own lives.

Wu Yun also saw the news when he woke up. He just clicked on it, glanced over it, and then closed the article.

Today was August 1st, the start of a new month.

Wu Yun eagerly opened the system in his mind. He saw that many options had been updated, especially the one for his monthly basic quota; the option to claim one month’s worth was now lit up. (16,200,000 / 16,200,000)

Wu Yun mentally selected ’Claim’. His phone immediately received a text message from his bank, notifying him of a 16.2 million yuan deposit, bringing his new balance to 24,997,338.5 yuan.

Character Level 5 (60,053,708 / 100,000,000)

The double rebate quota had also been fully replenished. Wu Yun calculated that with the 32.4 million from the rebate, he would be able to raise his Character Level by one more this month.

Wu Yun had injected 40 million yuan into Nirvana Technology, which was enough to support the development of the Little Red Car project. Phoenix Bicycle’s 30 million yuan advance payment hadn’t arrived yet, but the remaining nearly 10 million yuan was enough to last until the Little Red Cars launched.

Wu Yun spent one million to purchase the development history of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds from the system store. Since he only bought the development experience and not the corporate plan, it was very cheap.

In his past life, Wu Yun had seen news that Tencent spent US$500 million to acquire a 10% stake in the Blue Hole Company, which was the developer of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

When PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds took the world by storm, Blue Hole Company’s valuation couldn’t help but skyrocket. Unfortunately, in his past life, cheaters ruined the game; otherwise, Blue Hole’s valuation would have likely been even higher. In the end, they were short-sighted, getting greedy and trying to profit from the cheats.

The overseas version of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds was first released on March 23, 2017, while the domestic release was on November 22, 2017. Even factoring in development time and pushing it back a year, the very concept for the game likely didn’t even exist yet.

Even H1Z1, the progenitor of the battle royale genre, only entered early access this year. Wu Yun’s idea was to let H1Z1 release first and build up a player base for a while. That period would be the perfect time to develop PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

Deciding to act on his idea, Wu Yun sent a message to a headhunter, asking them to find a gaming company that was up for sale with a valuation not exceeding 20 million, preferably located in Rongcheng.

After sending the message, perhaps because of his increased Intelligence stat, Wu Yun started recalling many famous, up-and-coming companies from his past life as he thought.

Pinduoduo, that much-maligned app, was an absolute beast for being able to carve out a bloody path for itself while being besieged by Ali and Jingdong. You could curse its disgusting, deceptive promotional model of "slash the price to get it for free," but you couldn’t deny that the model perfectly exploited the human weakness for taking advantage of petty bargains. Add to that Pinduoduo’s development strategy of "encircling the cities from the countryside," and with just these three tricks, it became one of the top three shopping platforms in his past life.

This was another golden goose. Wu Yun made a note of it on his phone. Pinduoduo couldn’t be rushed; it would require a massive capital investment upfront. He would have to wait until he leveled up at least one more time.

Just as Wu Yun was still pondering his next move, a knock on his door interrupted his thoughts.

"Wu Yun, are you up yet?" Bai Yue’s pleasant voice rang out. "I’m coming in!"

The door swung open, and Bai Yue’s head peeked in. Seeing Wu Yun lying shirtless on his stomach on the bed, playing with his phone, Bai Yue spread her fingers to cover her eyes and cried out, "Aah, you exhibitionist! Hurry up and put a shirt on."

Wu Yun got up, revealing his six-pack abs and pectoral muscles that would make some flat-chested girls envious, which made Bai Yue’s face flush an even deeper red.

Seeing Bai Yue come in, Wu Yun suddenly scooped her up, tossed her onto the bed, and then pounced on top of her.

A few minutes later, Bai Yue, feeling weak all over, got up from the bed. She straightened out her disheveled top and said with a coquettish pout, "It’s all your fault, now I have to go comb my hair again! Get up, quickly. After breakfast, you need to take me to sign the contract."