065 Fulfillment of the Contract

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After the bomb incident, winding through pitch-black underground passages for over ten minutes, the three finally emerged from an old-fashioned confessional in a dilapidated church.

“Ah-ha, we’re finally out,” Skip Taylor exclaimed with apparent excitement, though inwardly he fretted over whether Yang Tang would kill him.

In truth, Yang Tang was wrestling with the same dilemma. The process of replicating the “King of Hackers” skill had begun a few seconds ago, and with a replication time of only one second times fifty (the time loop multiplier), it would be finished in fifty seconds. He was confident it would be done soon.

“So, where to now, sir?” Taylor asked.

“Don’t panic. The police won’t find us here anytime soon, and your rowdy friends are still drawing the fire at the White House!” Yang Tang joked. “Let’s catch our breath here for a minute before we leave!”

Taylor, his legs ruined and wits dulled, actually believed the lie, staying quietly under Yang Tang’s control for a minute.

Once the skill had been quietly copied, Yang Tang suddenly acted. He shoved Taylor under the pew where parishioners usually sat. “Farewell, Mr. Taylor, I have to leave now!”

Taylor was stunned and quickly began to beg, “Hey, sir, sir, you can’t just leave me here!”

Bang!

Yang Tang raised his gun and shot through Taylor’s exposed toes poking out from the bench.

“Ow! Ow! Geez!”

“Stop your howling, Taylor. You should be glad I’m not planning to kill you,” Yang Tang said, then led Emily out through the church’s arched doorway.

Outside, on the street.

“Billy, why didn’t you kill that man?” Emily asked.

“Oh, Emily, whether to kill or not isn’t for a little girl like you to ponder.”

“But Billy, you killed three people right in front of me. You made me think about it!”

“All right, all right, I made you think about it. But look, Taylor’s legs are useless now. Shooting him dead would be a mercy. Prison is where he truly belongs.”

Emily shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

“You’ll understand when you’re older! Hey, taxi!”

A cab pulled up beside them.

Yang Tang forced the driver out at gunpoint, stuffed Emily in the back seat, and took the wheel himself, driving off in a hurry.

“Do you know the way to your house?” he asked.

“Yes, I do.”

“Good. You’ll guide me.”

Soon, the car stopped in front of Emily’s house.

“Billy, where will you go?” Emily asked.

“West,” Yang Tang lied offhandedly. “Just don’t come looking for me. If I need to, I’ll come find you!”

“Really?”

“Of course. But you have to promise me, don’t go back to the White House for your father. He’ll come back alive.”

“I understand.” At this, Emily’s eyes brimmed with tears.

Yang Tang said no more. He pinched her nose, then drove the taxi away, vanishing down the road.

Yang Tang returned to the golden mist. The “King of Hackers” skill plaque hovered as always in midair.

“I want to redeem a skill!”

Currently, there is one skill available for redemption, costing 146.4 points of merit and sin. Confirm redemption?

“Yes, redeem with merit.”

Additionally, this skill may be strengthened with a one-fold amplification, costing 73.2 points of merit and sin. Confirm amplification?

“One-fold amplification? Wouldn’t that double the skill’s power? No, wait, if it’s double, the cost should also double. How should I understand this amplification?”

“King of Hackers” is a knowledge-based skill. Over time, as technology evolves, its potential will only grow. Amplifying it once means that within sixty years, the minimum utility of the King of Hackers will be one hundred percent of its current effect, and the maximum will be two hundred percent.

Yang Tang understood at once. Martial skills change little over centuries, but scientific knowledge advances every day, so “King of Hackers” may not always reign supreme.

“All right, I’ll redeem the skill—and amplify it!”

In that case, 219.6 points of merit will be deducted. Confirm?

“Yes.”

Deducting 219.6 points of merit!

Current merit: 2.9 points.

In the sixth dream, redeeming a single skill will cost 161 points of merit and sin.

Would you like to solidify the skill “King of Hackers”?

“Solidify.”

Skill solidification will take 57 minutes.

Skill cannot be used before solidification is complete.

Would you like to amplify the skill “King of Hackers”?

“Amplify.”

Skill amplification will take 33 minutes.

Skill cannot be used before amplification is complete.

Using skill solidification slot one!

Solidification begins; amplification will start automatically after solidification.

Currently, 24 skill solidification slots remain!

A series of realizations made it clear that this did not enhance his physical attributes; Yang Tang immediately realized his intelligence and spirit had already surpassed ordinary humans.

Of course, high intelligence only means deep potential for absorbing advanced knowledge; it doesn’t mean one can’t do stupid things. Even Zhuge Liang, whether in folklore or history, made his share of mistakes.

Besides, a half-meter of water can drown a man nearly two meters tall. Everyone has their moments of mental short-circuiting—so intelligence does not equate to shrewdness in dealing with daily matters!

Conversely, if one’s intelligence is lacking, even with a clear proof for a mathematical conjecture laid out before him, a year’s study might not make him grasp what’s being proven. A highly intelligent person, however, even with only a smattering of college mathematics, might figure out the entire proof in three days of study.

Thus, intelligence comes in many forms: “logical analysis,” which Conan and Chu Xuan excel at; “mathematical and scientific inference,” where Hua Luogeng and Hawking shine; and “rote memorization”—those who can memorize hundreds or thousands of digits of pi after a glance surely aren’t lacking in intelligence. Could you do better? Probably not!

After exiting the Fifth Dream, Yang Tang’s mind had not been at peace. He wanted to open his eyes and wake up but couldn’t, so he continued to debate with himself—what is high intelligence?

At last, his mother’s familiar voice sounded at his ear, “Xiao Hong, what’s wrong this time?”

“Mom,” Yang Tang called out instinctively, finally forcing his eyes open. “What time is it?”

“It’s nearly noon, time for lunch,” his mother replied. “Jiani and Yuhua were so worried, they got the lobby manager to open the door and let me in to check on you!”

“Mom, I’m fine!”

“Good. I even took your temperature—thank goodness it was normal. If you hadn’t woken up, I’d have called an ambulance!” Her eyes grew moist as she spoke.

Seeing this, Yang Tang sprang from bed, striking a pose of robust health. “Mom, your son is as strong as an ox. I’m not that easy to hospitalize! I just slept a bit longer, no need to worry.”

“How can I not worry?” his mother chided. “This morning, your homeroom teacher, Cen Li, finally got in touch with your dad and said you scored over 530 on the mock exam—the highest in your room—and wants you back at school to share your experience!”

Yang Tang scoffed, “What experience? I just stay home and do practice tests every day!”

“Then how come you never scored over five hundred before?” Clearly, his mother didn’t buy his excuse.

“It’s hard to explain right now, Mom. Anyway, Cen Li is up to something. She—” He then spilled the story about the exam room to his mother.

His mother’s eyebrows shot up in outrage. “What? The whole exam room was filled with underachievers and students from other schools? No wonder you had the highest score!”

“All right, all right, Mom, don’t be upset. It’s not worth it.”

“It isn’t, but your father and I have decided. We’ll head back to Mist City as soon as possible. If you can score 530 in practice, we can’t risk your real college entrance exam.”

Yang Tang nodded. “No problem, we can go back soon. But I have a contract to fulfill first, or I’ll have to pay a penalty—five million!”

“How long will the contract take? It can’t be a month, can it?”

“No, three days is enough.”

Over the next two days, Yang Tang, now armed with the “King of Hackers” skill, holed up in the special computer rooms provided by Chenxun and Qiandu, coding at high intensity for at least eighteen hours a day. By the morning of the third day, he had finally entered all the code for the “Power Saver” program onto a specific USB drive.

After removing the USB drive, Yang Tang thoroughly wiped the computer—not just once, but over a dozen times.

Soon, all three parties gathered in the conference room.

“Mr. Yang, do you have the source code?” someone asked.

Yang Tang flashed the USB drive and countered, “Do you have your matching program ready?”

“Of course. You’ll see the results momentarily.”

Yang Tang tilted his head noncommittally. “I suggest the encryption of the source code 5 be handled solely by my proxy attorney, Lawyer Mao, with your two lawyers supervising.”

The precaution was obvious, but Chenxun and Qiandu couldn’t object. After exchanging glances, Zhang Yujie, Deputy Director of Tech at Chenxun, said, “We have no objection, but can Lawyer Mao handle the encryption?”

Yang Tang waved it off. “Don’t worry about that—I’ll guide him through it.” It’s worth noting that Mao was part of the Fang family’s legal team and could be trusted.

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