Chapter 243: 100,000 Human Flame Points, Spiritual Illusion Object! User Breakthrough 10

April 1st, morning, Teacher's Apartment 0418.

Chen Yansen sat on the sofa and summoned the system panel; March's quarterly bonus had accumulated a staggering 100, 00 Human Flame Points.

Yunsu, after absorbing Quanfeng Express and massively expanding its workforce, had seen its employee count surge from 43, 00 to 57, 00.

The total number of employees across all subsidiaries under Senlian reached 83, 00!

The Human Flame Points totaled 101, 70 strands—enough to synthesize 1, 11 strands of Divine Flame Points!

"Allocate points!"

As Chen Yansen focused his will, the 100, 00 strands of Human Flame Points instantly transformed into over a thousand strands of Divine Flame Points.

Golden mist materialized out of thin air, enveloping his body, then shot swiftly into his third eye.

Chen Yansen was already accustomed to the enhancement process; within seconds, all was calm—the Divine Flame Points were fully consumed, and the Human Flame Points column showed 70 strands remaining.

His mental stat rose from 24. 3 to 34. 4!

The range of his spiritual sense expanded again, extending from twelve meters to over thirteen meters in radius.

Several books on the coffee table, whose characters on pages four and five had previously been indistinct smudges, were now clearly legible.

Even when stacked page upon page, his spiritual sense could clearly "see" the content of each individual page.

In his perception, surrounding objects became sharply visible, as if a colorblind person had gained extrasensory awareness beyond normal senses.

Chen Yansen smiled faintly; if he went to Aodao for a visit, the gambling king would be changing his surname to Chen by tomorrow.

This spiritual sense perception talent—if its range continued to expand—would let him dodge bullets, given his reaction speed.

"Maybe I won't even need to dodge!"

Chen Yansen gazed at the hundreds of toothpicks floating in midair, murmuring softly.

Though his mental stat had only increased by 10. 1, the weight he could now lift had clearly multiplied over tenfold.

Each toothpick weighed 0. grams; his previous limit was six, now it was 103—equivalent to the weight of an egg.

Chen Yansen attempted to control just one toothpick, using his mental force to fling it.

"Thud!"

It penetrated the door by one millimeter, barely piercing the wood.

Was his control method wrong? Could he only achieve this level of power?

Chen Yansen furrowed his brow, pondering repeatedly.

He imagined his mental force as a palm-sized recurve bow—the grip, limbs, and string gradually solidifying from nothingness.

The toothpick embedded in the door was swiftly "plucked" out and placed upon the mental-force bowstring.

"Twang!"

This time, the force was several times stronger—the toothpick pierced three to four millimeters into the door's wooden panel.

Chen Yansen was inwardly startled; he'd known it made no sense that hundreds of thousands of Human Flame Points had been spent with no remarkable effect.

It was simply that he hadn't found the right method!

Realizing this, he immediately opened his computer, found a Glock 17 engineering blueprint, and began intensely visualizing it.

The slide, frame, magazine, and even the bullets—all were meticulously conjured into existence.

Should he fire one?

Chen Yansen hesitated; this was purely a mental construct—form without substance, lacking even a primer or gunpowder—how could it possibly discharge?

But he dared not risk it; if it made any noise, he couldn't explain it.

Chen Yansen stepped out the door, drove downstairs, and headed to the northeast corner of Xuyuan, finding an empty field of rapeseed.

Then, using his mental force to pull the trigger, he compressed the firing pin against the bullet's base—unexpectedly, the bullet shot out with a hiss.

But after flying several meters, the bullet instantly dissolved into pure spiritual energy and returned to his body.

Chen Yansen thought for a moment, then fired several shots at the ground; to his surprise, the expected impact didn't occur—the spots struck merely scattered a few grains of sand, as if brushed by wind.

What if it hit a person?

Chen Yansen raised his arm, glanced at it, then calmly let go—he used his spiritual sense to scan nearby and quickly found a frog.

Sorry, froggy!

Without hesitation, he pulled the trigger—the frog's hind legs kicked once, then it collapsed unconscious.

So this was a spiritual attack?

Chen Yansen quickly realized this—but he still dared not test it on a human.

He knew clearly: even if it had no effect now, once his mental stat broke through 100, then 1, 00, then 10, 00, even an elephant wouldn't survive.

Chen Yansen drew a sharp breath, finally grasping the terrifying potential of spiritual sense.

He stood still, lost in thought for a long while, then turned, got in his car, and drove toward the Tech Park.

'At least, for now, I'm still probably, maybe, sort of human.'

Chen Yansen thought silently.

Ten minutes later, he parked on the first floor and walked into Building 9.

Today's Headlines had launched; he needed to review download, installation, and registration data.

As he stepped out of the elevator, he saw Liang Bo standing before a screen, staring anxiously at the numbers.

"How much longer until the creator backend is ready?" Chen Yansen asked as he approached.

Liang Bo immediately stood up to report: "Estimated launch by end of April. The data, revenue, and fan management modules are complex—I didn't want to rush and make mistakes, so I gave the dev and QA teams ample time."

"Downloads: 1. 7 million. Installations: 1. 8 million. Registered users: 910, 00. Too many drop off during registration—simplify the process, reduce form fields, and add joint login options via QQ, WeChat, Orange Pay, and Pinbei."

Chen Yansen instructed.

"Understood, boss. I've designed three versions—A, B, and C—for the login interface. I'll adjust based on tomorrow's data," Liang Bo nodded.

"Focus on user retention. If Today's Headlines' new-user retention doesn't match the three major portals, our recommendation engine is flawed—user stickiness is too weak."

Chen Yansen added.

"Yes, I understand," Liang Bo replied, nodding firmly.

Half an hour ago, Zhang Yiming called him; they had a huge argument and were now completely severed.

For him, Today's Headlines had to succeed.

Otherwise, if he lost the boss's support and trust, his position would become unbearable.

Chen Yansen was unaware of this—but even if he knew, he wouldn't care about Zhang Yiming's opinion.

There were plenty of algorithm and big data engineers in China; Ali, Baidu, and Tencent had long since built technical reserves in this area.

But their research directions differed: Ali aimed for personalized product recommendations, optimizing traffic efficiency to boost platform sales.

Therefore, regardless of whether Liang Bo agreed to join Today's Headlines, Chen Yansen would launch this project.

The only difference would be that the product lead would become Zhou Bo, Zhao Bo, Wang Bo, and so on.

Meanwhile.

Users in Yancheng, Hucheng, Shencheng, Jin Ling, and elsewhere, after installing Today's Headlines, spent hours scrolling through their phones without realizing it.

When they finally looked up, they found the app incredibly useful and eagerly shared it with colleagues, classmates, and relatives.

Since Today's Headlines had secured news APIs from Sohu, Sina, Tencent, and NetEase, it had no shortage of content—many users became addicted within minutes of opening the app.

But some noticed: the app was analyzing their browsing preferences. Those who liked tech news saw eight out of ten articles related to it; those who favored entertainment, sports, novels, or images saw the same pattern.

Though its core was nearly identical to Lingxi Browser, its launch was worlds apart.

In just three days, Today's Headlines surpassed ten million cumulative downloads, with organic traffic steadily increasing.

In 2012, when app numbers hadn't yet flooded the market, users still enthusiastically recommended good apps to friends.

Xiaomi's MIUI and Orange Tech's AuroraOS had both grown under this relaxed online environment.

On the other side.

Zhang Yifeng led his team to the Aucos headquarters building in Yongcheng.

Chairman Zheng Jianjiang personally met them downstairs; logically, given his wealth, he didn't need to—his wireless division head could have handled it.

But over the past half-year, Pinbei had become Aucos's most critical online sales channel.

Compared to Gree and Midea, Aucos had weaker brand power; during Taobao and Jingdong promotions, it rarely received free traffic.

Only by paying for premium placements and paid promotions could it gain sufficient exposure.

But Pinbei was different.

If prices were low and sales high, the platform's algorithm would continuously elevate Aucos's products in its traffic pool.

Combined with Zhang Yifeng's promotion to Director of Pinbei's Merchant Operations Department, Zheng Jianjiang had granted him this courtesy.

"Chairman Zheng, I'm truly sorry to trouble you personally! I've brought many new cooperation proposals—I hope we can discuss them in depth."

Zhang Yifeng politely greeted, shaking Zheng Jianjiang's hand.

Though Aucos couldn't match Gree, Midea, or Haier, it was still a major home appliance brand with annual sales exceeding 40 billion yuan and 20, 00 employees.

"Mr. Zhang, you're too kind. Let me show you around first—I've arranged everything for tonight, I'll make sure you feel at home."

Zheng Jianjiang smiled ambiguously, pulling Zhang Yifeng toward the elevator.

This guy was Aucos's golden goose—he had to be treated like royalty.

Zhang Yifeng tried to refuse, but Zheng Jianjiang didn't care; as a veteran entrepreneur who'd built his fortune since the late 80s, reading people was effortless.

To him, a young upstart like Zhang Yifeng was nothing but easy to handle.

Zhang Yifeng was indeed inexperienced in business and interpersonal relations before Zheng Jianjiang—but he was young, sharp-witted, and held his ground in negotiations.

For this 418 Home Appliance Festival, while Pinbei needed Aucos's support, Aucos also needed Pinbei's traffic—both sides were perfectly aligned.

Communication went exceptionally smoothly!

Zheng Jianjiang couldn't openly favor Pinbei in pricing, but the contract stipulated: if Pinbei met fixed sales targets at fixed times, Aucos would offer a 5% to 10% rebate.

It was equivalent to OXUS giving up another 5% to 10% gross profit on top of its hundred-billion-subsidy pricing.

Zhang Yifeng outwardly expressed gratitude, but inwardly couldn't help muttering: Could this guy be offering the same policy to every platform?

But since the other side didn't speak, he couldn't tell for sure.

The next day, Zhang Yifeng brought his team to the Shuaikang headquarters in the same city and arranged to meet the head of Fangtai's online business the following day.

Yuan Wei, Li Hui, and others were likewise racing across the country, making final preparations for the Pinbei 418 Home Appliances Festival.

Zhang Jindong, far away in Jin Ling, began his store inspection routine and notified the 4, 00 employees at Suning's headquarters that overtime would continue until the price war ended.

For a time, the office echoed with curses—"dumbass," "fucking mess," "fucking asshole"—but no one knew whether they were cursing Liu Qiangdong or their own boss.

(End of Chapter)