sinovels Chapter 250 The Formation of an Empire
Chapter 250 The Formation of an Empire
Two messages appeared simultaneously on the phone screen. Forbes said 402 was valued at $50 billion, a tech empire taking shape. The other message, signed Chen, said it was time to go to the Sahara.
Zuo Cheng's hand paused at the top of the screen. Chen Xinghe had passed away four years ago.
He read both messages, and then did something that surprised Yu Ying. He first opened the valuation report.
Forbes, Bloomberg, and Morgan Stanley simultaneously released 402's latest valuation: $50 billion. This means that 402 has increased fivefold in less than a year, from $10 billion to $50 billion. Global tech company valuation rankings: Apple $3 trillion, Microsoft $2.8 trillion, Google $1.7 trillion, Amazon $1.5 trillion, 402 $50 billion. Although there is still a gap in absolute value, 402's technological dominance in quantum computing, brain-computer interfaces, and space photovoltaics has led to its assessment as a near-trillion-dollar potential company.
The ranking of Chinese technology companies has been updated: 402 has officially surpassed Huawei to become the highest-valued unlisted technology company in China. Domestic financial media used the headline: "A New King is Crowned." Zuo Cheng disliked this headline. In an internal email, he replied: "There are no kings, only those who are on their way."
Han Lu compiled 402's milestones from its inception to the present day into a scroll. The white scroll paper, with black calligraphy, stretches nearly ten meters long. Starting from the first line: winning the first phase of the Tianqiong project, launching the first IoT platform, activating the artificial intelligence backbone, launching the first rocket, performing the first brain-computer interface surgery, establishing quantum supremacy, passing three international standardization organization standards, and discovering 217 origin nodes globally.
Each line is followed by the date and the number of team members at that time. The earliest lines only had five people. The latest lines have five thousand people.
Zuo Cheng read it from beginning to end, and at the bottom of the last line, he wrote a sentence: "Not the end, but the beginning of the next journey."
After finishing writing, he rolled up the scroll and returned it to Han Lu. Han Lu's eyes were red when she took it. She had been the business director of 402 for so many years, signed contracts worth hundreds of billions of dollars, and seen all kinds of situations. This was the first time she had ever had tears in her eyes in a conference room.
Just then, the system panel suddenly opened automatically.
The progress bar for the ninth branch started jumping from 40%. It wasn't the slow, chapter-by-chapter increase from before. 45, 52, 59, 67, 72. Each time the progress bar jumped, the global light pillars on the civilization perception interface flashed synchronously. It wasn't the light pillars on Earth that were driving the growth; it was humanity on Earth that was driving it.
Zuo Cheng realized that every communication, every treatment, and every unit of clean energy was contributing to the technology tree. It wasn't the system growing; it was civilization feeding back into it. Four hundred million people lived their lives using 402's technology every day; those data flows weren't just commercial traffic, but a civilization-level energy injection.
The progress bar stopped at 80%.
The system displayed a message: "The ninth branch has reached the activation threshold. Activation conditions: First, the advanced fusion algorithm for the three branches has been verified and is now met. Second, the global civilization perception coverage has reached level seven or above and is now met; Earth is currently at level ten. Third, physically arriving at the second origin relic and completing consciousness authentication is not yet met; the Sahara is pending activation."
Zuo Cheng showed the text message to Yu Ying.
That short message, just one line long. That signature.
After reading it, Yu Ying didn't say, "This is fake." Nor did she say, "Old Chen is gone." She did something more calm. She used the internal database of room 402 to check Chen Xinghe's death record.
The official records were clear: Chen Xinghe died in Hangzhou four years ago from late-stage cancer, and the death certificate and cremation records were complete. But she didn't stop there. She continued her investigation. In the medical records from the day before his death, she found a detail: thirty-two electrodes had been implanted in Chen Xinghe's brain. Thirty-two channels, the standard configuration of the NX-30. The implantation surgery took place at 3:17 PM, and the surgeon's signature on the surgical record was a holographic code. His body was cremated the next day.
Yu Ying looked up at Zuo Cheng, her voice very low.
"He's gone. But his consciousness may not have left."
Zuo Cheng stared at the text message on his phone. It was a message with only one character in the signature. He remembered the moment Professor Gu Feng stood up in the digital space. He remembered Chen Xinghe's words in his farewell video: "I was chosen." He remembered another sentence Chen Xinghe said when Starry Sky Technology was founded: "Prepare yourself before opening the box."
He remembered the NX-07 patches provided by Star Technology. He remembered the day he activated the system. He remembered the starting point of it all. If he hadn't used that patch that day, he might be doing an ordinary job in some office building now. The tech tree wouldn't have sprouted nine branches in his mind. Chen Xinghe wouldn't be waiting for him in the Sahara.
Maybe the box isn't the one from the Taklamakan Desert. Maybe the box is Chen Xinghe himself. Maybe he's the first person in the world to successfully upload his consciousness. A full four years earlier than Gu Feng. Four years before 97% of the completeness was proven feasible, he had already gambled with 43%.
Forty-three percent. Not complete consciousness, but forty-three percent more than non-existent. This forty-three percent allowed him to wait four years in the Sahara, until 402 was valued at 50 billion, until Zuo Cheng saw that text message, until everything was ready. An incomplete digital entity waited four years, just to send a text message with a signature of only one character.
Zuo Cheng laid out all the information on the table: the valuation report, the system panel, the civilization perception light pillar, the Sahara coordinates, Chen Xinghe's brief message, and the thirty-two electrodes in the medical records. He picked up his phone and sent a message to Yang Hong.
Send me the coordinates of the Sahara.
The reply came almost instantly. Get ready to head into the desert.
Zuo Cheng replied: It's not that we're ready. It's that we can't wait any longer.
He looked up at the system panel. The progress bar for the ninth branch was still bobbing slightly at 80%, like a heart waiting for the final condition to be met. A new prompt appeared in the lower right corner of the screen: Origin Branch Preview. This branch will not belong to any currently known technology category. Activation will unlock the first stage of the complete technology tree.
Yu Ying stood beside him, looking at the line of text. She didn't ask what the system interface was. She simply placed her hand on the back of Zuo Cheng's hand.
"I'll go with you."
The lights were still on throughout the 402 headquarters building, but no one knew that the place he was about to head to was not a business destination.