632: Chapter 627 It's not about stealing anything.

Shen Yan shook his head.

"Three months ago, he died in an 'accident.' A yacht fire, leaving no remains."

Fang Zhizhuo's body went limp, and he slowly slid down to sit on the floor, leaning against the workbench, his eyes vacant.

Dead...

The person who was both his mentor and friend, but ultimately betrayed everything he held dear, was just... dead.

He didn't know how he should feel.

Relief, or sorrow?

"Did he tell you?" Fang Zhizhuo muttered to himself.

"He left behind an encrypted report, and luckily, my people found it," Shen Yan explained with a half-truth.

"The report mentioned you, mentioned the 'Spark Laboratory,' and also mentioned the name that turned you into what you are today."

Shen Yan squatted down to meet Fang Zhizhuo's gaze.

"Yongsheng Group."

When those four words left Shen Yan's mouth, Fang Zhizhuo's body erupted in violent tremors.

It wasn't fear.

It was the monstrous, surging hatred suppressed for fifteen years.

"They found me."

Fang Zhizhuo's eyes turned bloodshot, as if he were trapped in some painful memory.

"At that time, the theory of the 'Resonance Matrix' had just taken shape. I shared this good news with my mentor, the person you mentioned."

"He said he would help me secure investment and establish the best laboratory."

"Three days later, people from Yongsheng Group arrived."

"The leader was the second young master of Yongsheng, Mei Hongyuan."

This name caused Shen Yan's eyebrow to twitch almost imperceptibly.

Mei Jinning's older brother.

It turned out the people on that line had intersected with Fang Zhizhuo long ago.

"They weren't here to invest," Fang Zhizhuo's voice was filled with pain and self-mockery.

"They were here to snatch it."

"Mei Hongyuan took a liking to my theory, but what he saw wasn't a new world. He saw the ultimate weapon that could monitor the globe, manipulate finance, and precisely strike any target."

"He wanted me to modify the core of the theory, to turn the 'brain' into 'shackles,' and turn 'God' into a 'tyrant.'"

"I refused."

"Then, everything happened."

"My mentor, right in front of me, handed over all the core data to them. He took five hundred million and a position as a technical director at Yongsheng Group."

"My laboratory was burned to the ground in a massive fire, officially ruled as circuit aging."

"My wife and daughter died instantly on their way home when a truck lost control..."

"My leg was also broken in that 'car accident.'"

"And I, a person who should have died, was saved by them. Mei Hongyuan told me that dying would be too easy for me. He wanted me to watch with my own eyes as they used my theory to create a monster."

"He wanted me to live, to live in regret and pain."

Having said this, Fang Zhizhuo seemed to have all his strength drained away, leaving only a deathly gray despair on his face.

"I escaped."

"I destroyed all backups, erased every trace of my existence, and hid like a dog in this corner that no one knows about."

"I thought I could take this secret to my grave."

Shen Yan listened quietly, not interrupting him.

He finally understood why Ning Ke had said this was a deal struck while walking on a tightrope.

Yongsheng Group.

This behemoth entrenched in the capital city far surpassed any opponent Shen Yan had encountered before.

If they could make a person 'erased' from the world, they could do it to a second, and a third.

No wonder Fang Zhizhuo had become this way.

Numbing himself with alcohol daily, wasting time on scrap metal.

Because he dared not touch that theory again.

Every touch was like licking his own bloody wound.

The courtyard was terrifyingly quiet.

After a long pause, Shen Yan finally spoke slowly.

"Did they succeed?"

Fang Zhizhuo raised his head, a flicker of disdain and pride flashing in his cloudy eyes.

"Without me, what they obtained is just a pile of meaningless formulas."

"The core of the 'Resonance Matrix' lies in a special chiral composite material; only I know the formula."

"Without the correct 'foundation stone,' they can never build that 'brain.'"

"They searched for me for fifteen years; perhaps they are about to give up."

"No," Shen Yan stood up, looking down at him.

"They haven't given up."

"They just found another path."

"They are currently acquiring top AI companies worldwide, gathering the best talent, trying to stack up an inferior product through brute force and massive data feeding."

"Maybe in a hundred years, maybe in fifty, they will eventually succeed."

"When that time comes, the 'tyrant' Mei Hongyuan desires will still descend upon this world."

Fang Zhizhuo suddenly looked up, staring intently at Shen Yan.

"What are you trying to do?"

"Since you know about Yongsheng Group, you should know the consequences of opposing them!"

"Consequences?"

Shen Yan laughed.

"There are many people in this world who want me dead; Yongsheng Group is just the latest addition to the list."

His tone was calm, yet it carried a heartbreaking arrogance.

"Professor Fang, I didn't come here to steal anything from you."

"I came to give you a chance."

Shen Yan extended his hand, just as he had when he first walked into this courtyard.

"A chance for revenge."

"A chance... to complete your dream."

Sunlight streamed through the alley entrance, illuminating half of Shen Yan's figure.

He stood in the light, looking at Fang Zhizhuo sitting in the shadows.

"Spark Laboratory, a good name. A single spark can start a prairie fire."

"I will rebuild a 'Spark' for you."

"Funding, equipment, team—I will give you the best in the world."

"I will give you absolute freedom to realize your grand concept."

"I have only one request."

Shen Yan's gaze deepened.

"When that 'God' is born, its control must be in my hands."

"I will not let it become a tyrant, nor will I let it become anyone's shackles."

"It will be the key to opening a new era."

"And you, Fang Zhizhuo, will be the one to forge this key with your own hands. Your name will be carved onto the monument of history, not rot in the dirt of this nameless town."

Fang Zhizhuo stared blankly at the hand Shen Yan extended.

That hand was clean, long, and full of power.

Fifteen years of darkness and despair seemed, at this moment, to be violently cleaved apart by a ray of light.

Revenge.

Dream.

These words, long buried deep in his heart, were now reawakened by this young man, carrying a fatal temptation.

He remembered his wife and daughter who died tragically.

He remembered Mei Hongyuan's ferocious, grinning face.

He remembered his own great dream, which had perished before it could be completed.

His blood seemed to begin warming up again at this moment.

He looked into Shen Yan's eyes; those eyes held no sympathy, no pity, only an equal invitation tinged with appreciation.