1: Chapter 1 Military Industrial System

Chu Ge has been graduated from university for a year. Now twenty-two, he still lives in a small rented two-bedroom apartment.

Yu Le is Chu Ge's girlfriend. During their school days, they were a perfect match, deeply in love and inseparable.

After graduation, faced with the trivialities of daily life, Yu Le's ambition grew alongside the comparisons made in the workplace. In her eyes, Chu Ge, who worked a nine-to-five job, was now the typical example of a failure.

Sometimes Chu Ge didn't understand why, even though the people remained the same, the atmosphere changed just because they moved to a different place...

He didn't understand Yu Le. There are two types of vain girls: one you can spot at a glance, and another whose vanity is deep in their bones. Usually, they seem harmless, but when they encounter the right temperature, soil, and moisture, the greedy branches in their hearts will expand wildly...

Yu Le belonged to the latter.

Early morning, in the rental apartment.

After giving Chu Ge a resentful look, Yu Le dragged her suitcase and left without looking back...

Smoking a cigarette and looking at the messy battlefield on the bed, Chu Ge gave a cold laugh.

"Heh, is this supposed to be a parting gift?"

Yes, Yu Le was gone. That first love who had once made solemn vows of eternal love had abandoned him just like that. Yu Le was rational; she had considerately given Chu Ge a year's time.

This was inherently blameless. If Yu Le was destined to be among the wealthy and powerful, Chu Ge felt he should let go.

Stubbornness gave Chu Ge his last shred of dignity. He felt no resentment; who told him to be so ordinary? After venting his suppressed emotions, he stepped out the door; he needed some fresh air.

Actually, Chu Ge's family background was decent. Not extremely wealthy, but his father, Chu Zhongliang, owned a small factory, so a well-off life was no problem.

Chu Ge was very ambitious. He wanted to make a name for himself instead of following the old-fashioned path of returning home to inherit his father's business...

Blue sky and green sea, seagulls soaring. The deep blue ocean was vast and boundless, with waves carrying a salty scent as they crashed against the reefs on the shore.

At the end of the coastline was a theme park where a decommissioned warship was docked by the sea. Chu Ge had boarded this warship many times.

Stepping onto the gangway, Chu Ge still wanted to see this warship that had accompanied him for four years. Consider it a farewell.

Today was a workday, so there weren't many tourists. Chu Ge arrived under the naval gun with practiced ease and stopped to watch. This was his favorite spot; he loved that majestic and domineering naval gun.

"How majestic you must have been in the past! A hero in his twilight years, lying here—don't you feel lonely and desolate?"

"..."

Chu Ge didn't notice that the sky had suddenly darkened. Directly above the warship, a stray cloud grew thicker and lower.

"Zzt!!!" A bolt of lightning struck straight down, electricity dancing across the naval gun.

Chu Ge was startled as he watched the jumping electricity.

"Hey, I was just speaking casually. Don't get angry, old-timer..."

"Zzt." The electricity grew stronger, merging into a single stream. With a "shoo," it shot straight toward Chu Ge's eyes.

"Holy crap!" Chu Ge's vision instantly went dark. Amidst the numbness, he felt an invisible force rush straight into his mind.

"Ah!"

Chu Ge snapped his eyes open, a faint current flashing through them for a brief moment. Before his eyes, the naval gun looked like a scene from Transformers, rotating and transforming. A moment later, a brand-new naval gun stood before him.

"Is this an All-Form Naval Gun?" Chu Ge knew his stuff. The decommissioned warship had been developed by Huaxia decades ago. Back then, Huaxia was poor and underdeveloped, and the Navy, which relied most heavily on equipment, was in an even worse state.

The predecessor of this 130mm twin-barrel naval gun was actually a coastal defense gun. Through the hard work of the older generation of experts, it was finally moved onto warships.

The naval gun manifested by Chu Ge was different: a fully automatic ammunition supply system, a stealth retractable turret, a faster rate of fire...

"Congratulations to the host for obtaining the Primary Military-Industrial System. As a first-day reward, the upgrade plan for the naval gun before you has been issued! The Military-Industrial System requires activation in specific military-industrial settings to upgrade. Good luck, host."

"I've awakened a system too? Oh wow, the ancestors of the Chu family must be looking down on me... I've hit the jackpot, hit the jackpot!"

"Wait, hey, System Big Brother, are there any tasks that can be directly exchanged for money? They don't have to be too hard, just something like a 1 billion reward."

The system ignored him.

"Or if not money, just turn me into Superman, Spider-Man, Captain America, the Hulk... uh, forget about the Hulk."

The system remained aloof.

"Big Brother? System? Daddy???" Chu Ge was in a daze. The system arrived suddenly and disappeared decisively!

"Well, it's better than nothing."

"I need to think about this carefully." Taking a reluctant last look at the naval gun, Chu Ge turned and left.

After a trip to the seaside and gaining a System Daddy, the gloom in Chu Ge's heart was swept away.

"First, set a small goal: 100 million. Then..." Chu Ge suddenly thought of Yu Le.

He stood by the sea and thought for a long time, finally deciding to let her go.

The prerequisite for a reconciliation is that there isn't too much discrepancy in the two people's values. A peaceful breakup like the one between Chu Ge and Yu Le is often the most irreversible.

This is fundamentally different from couples who usually bicker and break up in a moment of emotional heat.

Having thought this through, Chu Ge planned to set aside emotional matters for now. The top priority before him was this Military-Industrial System.

He needed to transcribe the upgrade plan the system had left him into text.

By the end of the afternoon, he finally finished the plan. Looking at the thick stack of letter paper, Chu Ge smiled.

The blueprints inside might pave a broad road to success for him.

With the letter finished, Chu Ge began to study how to get it to the right person.

Got it, the Yanjing Ordnance Research Institute. They are the ones who research this; they shouldn't fail to recognize its value. A quick search on Baidu, and there really was a mailing address. Chu Ge carefully tucked it into an envelope, double-checked the address, and rushed to the post office without stopping.

At the entrance of the post office, Chu Ge let out a long sigh of relief and looked at the sky.

"Heavens, the rest is up to you!"

A sleepless night...

The next day, Chu Ge woke up and, without even eating, squeezed onto a bus to go to work. He didn't want to be criticized by his supervisor for being late.

Chu Ge worked as a real estate agent. It didn't require much technical skill. He had only taken it as a temporary transition when he couldn't find a suitable job, but unexpectedly, with his persistence, his performance had been quite good.

In this industry, good performance meant high pay. No one would turn down money, so Chu Ge had been doing this for over a year...

Good times didn't last long. After the new year, the state began to regulate the real estate market. The market instantly entered a cold winter, and Chu Ge's performance dropped significantly.

The high salary was gone, and so was his girlfriend. Thinking about this, Chu Ge felt sorry for himself.

"The Research Institute is in the capital, Yanjing. Hmm, over 1,000 kilometers away. It probably won't arrive today. What an agonizing wait!!!"

"Chu Ge, what are you daydreaming about?"

Chu Ge looked up; Xu Hui was standing in front of him with her eyebrows raised.

"Meditating!"

"Ha, how come you can't even be bothered to make up an excuse now? Although everyone is having a hard time, you have to learn to be flexible. You should exploit loopholes when you can. Don't act so aloof all day. In this society, being able to get bonuses and high pay is what matters."

Xu Hui began to unload on him. She was the manager of this branch, and her salary was also linked to performance. She could only get more bonuses if Chu Ge and the others made sales. Therefore, she was always finding ways to get listings through her less-than-reputable channels, or picking on the weak when selling, using various under-the-table contracts.

Chu Ge never played along with her. He knew what a house represented to ordinary people—it was something they traded the pockets of two generations for. Chu Ge really didn't want to deceive them against his conscience for a few thousand yuan.

It was just that in today's society, people die for wealth just as birds die for food, so it was no wonder Xu Hui looked down on him.

"By the end of this month, Chu Ge, if you're still like this, just leave on your own. You're too noble; you don't fit in our small temple." Xu Hui threw down these harsh words and walked away, swaying her hips.

Chu Ge shook his head helplessly.

Yanjing, the Huaxia Ordnance Research Institute. Wang Yun was frowning at a letter. Her thick military uniform couldn't hide her feminine curves.

A beautiful female officer.

She was a clerk at the Military Research Institute, but she couldn't understand this letter: "Upgrade Plan for Naval Gun Systems." Logically, how could something so professional be sent casually in an envelope? A passionate youth among the masses? Or was it just some nonsense?

Wang Yun hesitated for a long time before deciding to let her superior deal with the headache. In the military, no matter is too small!

When Academician Chen saw the letter an hour later, he looked at it carefully for a long time, feeling a bit surprised! The content of this letter wasn't top secret, but it had reached a confidential level. He flipped the envelope over and saw it wasn't from a sister unit...

This was a bit bizarre. After a moment's thought, he picked up the phone.

"Wang Yun, book a flight for me tomorrow. Where to? Hmm... Y City."