Chapter 116 System Upgrade: Intermediate Defense Penetration Exchange Shop Opens

Lu Jingming's spine suddenly stiffened.

That emotionless mechanical voice was like a high-voltage current.

Rushing all the way up from his tailbone, it surged straight into the crown of his head.

His head buzzed, and his eardrums throbbed from the sudden notification sound.

Chu Xuan was still at his desk, wiping the greasy sweat from his forehead.

Watching Lu Jingming's sudden freeze, he swallowed hard.

"President Lu?"

Chu Xuan spoke tentatively, his voice carrying a weak tremor.

"What kind of new species doesn't need wires? Don't scare me, my heart just went through a massive roller coaster ride."

Lu Jingming snapped out of it.

He pulled a green plastic lighter out of his pocket and spun it rapidly between his fingers.

He forced down the fanatical excitement that was about to overflow from his eyes.

"Just go pass on the message like I told you."

Lu Jingming tugged at the collar of his faded black T-shirt, his voice carrying an impatient urge.

"Go tell Shen Qingqiu to freeze every single US dollar in Xinghai's accounts."

Chu Xuan didn't dare to ask more.

He haphazardly stuffed the wet tissue into the pocket of his floral shirt.

"Got it! I'm off to block President Shen's door at the finance department right now!"

He turned around and rushed out in his leather shoes.

A large, dark patch of sweat had soaked through the back of his shirt.

*Click.*

Chu Xuan closed the solid wood door behind him.

Lu Jingming walked over to the door in a few steps and flipped the metal lock.

It made a crisp click sound.

Immediately after.

He walked over to the French window and yanked down the cord of the blinds.

The slats of the blinds flipped, instantly blocking out the scorching sun outside with a whoosh.

The office instantly dimmed.

Only the whirring of the air conditioner's cold air vent remained.

Lu Jingming slumped back into his leather executive chair.

He closed his eyes.

His consciousness plunged instantly, diving into the deep system space.

A massive deep blue holographic panel slowly unfurled before his retinas.

He first looked at the primary mall module on the left.

The icons that were once lit up were now shrouded in a dull, dusty gray.

Xialong Chip architecture.

Xinghai OS underlying protocols.

Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machine blueprints.

These core technologies, which had once helped him smash through the US blockade, all had a red stamp in the bottom right corner.

It read: Sold Out.

Lu Jingming's Adam's Apple bobbed.

The primary technology tree was completely locked.

His gaze slowly shifted to the right, landing on the newly illuminated area.

Intermediate Breakdown Exchange Mall.

These large characters radiated a dazzling, dark golden light.

With just a single glance, Lu Jingming's breathing began to grow heavy.

It felt as if a ball of fire was stuffed into his lungs.

Hundreds of rotating fragment icons floated on the panel.

Beneath each icon was a breakdown point price tag that was enough to cause cardiac arrest.

He extended his conscious tendrils and clicked on an icon in the very front row.

[Complete Carbon-Based Chip Manufacturing Process Blueprints.]

[Breaking physical barriers, completely ending the era of silicon-based semiconductors.]

[Exchange Cost: 300 million breakdown points.]

The veins on the back of Lu Jingming's hands bulged one by one.

Carbon-based chips.

This was a mythical technology that global semiconductor labs had poured trillions of dollars into without even producing a single stable transistor.

If he slammed this thing onto the tables of TSMC and Samsung Group...

The CEOs of those companies would probably go into shock on the spot.

Panting heavily, he continued to scroll down.

[Graphene Solid-State Battery Array.]

[Energy density increased tenfold, supporting one-minute ultra-high-power fast charging.]

[Holographic Neuronal Projection Module.]

[Freed from physical mediums, achieving photon-level glasses-free 3D imaging.]

A dense array of black technologies.

They were like guillotines hanging over the necks of old-era tech giants.

Lu Jingming's eyes turned red with excitement.

He subconsciously clenched his fists, his fingernails digging into his palms and leaving a row of white marks.

This feeling of holding nuclear weapons of dimensional reduction strike was far too easy to drive someone mad.

"I need to pick something that can deal a fatal blow in one strike."

Lu Jingming muttered to himself.

Microsoft's desktop side was already being pinned to the ground and bled dry by the xinghai matebook.

That fat pig Ballmer was probably hiding in Seattle crying right now.

But across the ocean in California, there was still a tough nut to crack.

Apple's Cook.

Ever since Xinghai Mobile captured seventy percent of the market, although Apple was crippled, its foundation remained intact.

Cook was still barely hanging on, relying on his closed ecosystem and incremental hardware upgrades.

He had even come up with a magnetic charger that got so hot it could fry an egg.

Trying to save some face in the accessories market.

Lu Jingming curled his lips into a cold, grim smile.

His eyes swept rapidly across the system panel.

Suddenly.

His gaze locked onto a complex icon radiating an eerie green light.

[Magnetic Resonance Beamforming Spatial Power Transfer System.]

Below was a line of small text explaining:

[Abandoning physical contact to achieve kilowatt-level wireless power supply for multiple devices within a five-meter radius.]

[Exchange Cost: 50 million breakdown points.]

Lu Jingming opened his mouth wide and gasped.

The cold air rushed down his throat, sending a wave of goosebumps across his skin.

Wireless over-the-air charging?

The iron law of physics where energy decays to zero beyond a distance of two centimeters.

In front of this icon, it was like a laughable baby playpen.

If this thing were installed in Xinghai's next-generation devices...

Data cables? Power banks? Power strips and outlets?

They would all become relics in the trash heap.

"You're the one."

Lu Jingming gritted his teeth, a wolf-like fierce glint flashing in his eyes.

He glanced at the breakdown point balance in the top-left corner of the system.

With his global reputation skyrocketing and Microsoft being pinned to the ground and rubbed,

His balance had long since exceeded 80 million.

He was absolutely loaded.

His consciousness slammed down on the exchange button.

"Buzz—"

A long, dull roar exploded in his mind.

A massive amount of microwave array equations and RF antenna layout diagrams

poured into his brain like a bursting dam.

His temples throbbed violently.

His head felt swollen and sore.

Lu Jingming snapped his eyes open.

His chest heaved violently, and sweat dripped from the stray hairs on his forehead into his eyes.

It stung a little.

He reached out and fumbled around on the desk.

Grabbing the green plastic lighter,

he pressed his thumb hard against the flint wheel.

*Click.*

A faint blue flame leaped up, dancing in the dim office.

It reflected the undisguised, arrogant sneer at the corner of his mouth.

He casually snapped the lighter shut to extinguish it.

The plastic cap made a crisp clicking sound.

Lu Jingming leaned forward.

His finger pressed the intercom button labeled "Lab" on the landline phone in front of him.

"Beep—"

The phone was picked up after just one ring.

The sound of hard candy being crunched came from the receiver.

"What is it? I'm rewriting Pandora's underlying scheduler."

Xia Weiliang's muffled voice came through,

carrying the irritability of someone who had stayed up too late.

Lu Jingming leaned back in his chair.

His eyes fixed on a white charging cable pulled out from the wall on his desk.

That was a physical constraint that hadn't changed in decades.

He tapped his knuckles on the desk twice, "knock, knock".

"Weiliang, grab your lollipop and come to my office."

The other end of the line went quiet for a second, leaving only the sound of her slurping.

"Did you dig up some alien coffin lid again? Does it have to be right now?"

Lu Jingming stared at the sliver of sunlight leaking through the gaps in the blinds.

A fierce ruthlessness to restart the Silicon Valley meat grinder flared in his eyes.

"Get your fast-acting heart pills ready."

Lu Jingming snorted coldly, his voice low but carrying a hint of madness.

"I'm about to teach Cook a major lesson."