Chapter 132: Dreamscape

"Class monitor, you finally made it."

Upon seeing Yu Jia push open the door, Zhang Hu was the first to react, immediately rushing over to greet her. He had heard rumors about Yu Jia’s background from his father; she was suspected to be the largest landowner on White Bridge Star. If he wanted to develop his career on White Bridge Star in the future, he couldn't afford to neglect this connection.

"Class monitor."
"Monitor Yu."

Others in the private room greeted her one after another. Yu Jia smiled and responded to everyone, a feeling washing over her as if she had returned to her school days. However, after scanning everyone in the room, her brow furrowed. She didn't see the person she was hoping to find.

"Didn't he come?" she wondered. "That makes sense. He should be busy with his own career right now; it's normal for him not to have time for a class reunion."

She whispered this to herself as an explanation, then followed Zhang Hu to the table where Jin Shen was sitting.

"This is our class monitor, Yu Jia. She was always top of the class in exams and is currently working as an operations manager at Qiyou," Zhang Hu introduced to Jin Shen and the others, while giving Jin Shen a subtle look. He was reminding him that Yu Jia’s background was not simple. He didn't state her status explicitly because her identity was considered confidential, known only to a very select few. If he dared to expose it without permission, there would be hell to pay—his father alone would make his life miserable.

However, to Jin Shen, Zhang Hu's warning look was interpreted entirely differently. *Brother, this is the best girl from our class; I’m introducing her to you.* Jin Shen instantly understood and shot Zhang Hu an affirmative look. *This kid is good; worth building a deep friendship with.*

After exchanging glances, both men assumed the other understood their intent. Zhang Hu said no more, yielding the floor to Jin Shen.

"Hello, I'm Jin Shen. Since you're a classmate of Zhang Hu, don't stand on ceremony—just call me Brother Jin," he said. "I'm currently an executive at Jidian Headhunting. If you ever want to move to a better platform, come find me. I have access to recruitment resources for many major corporations."

Jin Shen boasted about his business scope, his position in the company, and his social capital. Yu Jia, however, only nodded with a distinct lack of interest. For some reason, her mood had soured. She had been in such a good mood before walking through the door.

One of the people who came with Jin Shen, seeing his attempt to woo Yu Jia, quickly chimed in to assist: "Brother Jin, your monthly salary must be quite high, right?"

"Not much, not much, just a hundred thousand or so a month. This job is just nice because it’s leisurely, and I can wander around outside every day," Jin Shen replied with a smile.

"A hundred thousand a month! That’s over a million a year! Brother Jin is truly worthy of the name. While the rest of us are still trying to figure out how to earn a monthly salary of ten thousand, Brother Jin is already an elite professional making millions a year."

"I wish I had even a tenth of Brother Jin's capability."

As the group showered him with praise, Jin Shen beamed. After all, who doesn't like hearing nice things?

"He’s running around trying to show off with only a hundred thousand a month."

Lu Guo shook his head. Having seen the amount Yin Jian brought in every month, he now felt that anyone who couldn't earn a hundred million a month was a complete failure. Even though he hadn't reached that level himself, that didn't stop him from thinking it.

"Is a hundred thousand not enough? Lu, how much do you make a month?" Bai Yan asked, hearing Lu Guo's comment.

"A little under a hundred million," Lu Guo said calmly.

"..." Bai Yan’s mouth twitched. *Why don't you go to heaven? I make three thousand a month, and I'm not even close to a hundred million.*

"A hundred thousand is not a small amount," Yin Jian joined the conversation.

"Isn't a hundred thousand something you can get just by having hands?" Lu Guo blurted out instinctively upon hearing Yin Jian’s words. The data from their new game had given him this confidence. However, after saying it, he immediately realized something was off. He turned to look at Yin Jian, his face full of suspicion: "Where did you just go?"

"To the restroom."
"Really?" Lu Guo looked skeptical.
Yin Jian nodded very seriously: "Really."

Bai Yan, watching the two of them at it again, quickly interrupted: "Lu Guo, what exactly are you doing now?"
"Selling jelly noodles."
*Huh?*

Seeing Lu Guo and Bai Yan talking, Yin Jian turned his gaze to Yu Jia’s table. He could faintly hear her talking about her recent work, teaching Jin Shen and the others the very philosophies he had once taught her.

"Sigh... it feels so embarrassing." Yin Jian shook his head, completely abandoning the idea of making himself known to Yu Jia. He shifted his gaze to Yue Ren. After a moment of thought, he didn't walk over, but instead opened his optical computer and sent a message.

*Yin Jian: Look up at your right-hand side.*

Yue Ren, who was frowning while listening to the boasting around him, received the message and instinctively turned to look in the direction indicated. He immediately saw Yin Jian, who was greeting him. He froze for a few seconds before reacting. He truly had not expected to meet him again in this manner.

"I didn't expect Mr. Yin to be my senior," Yue Ren muttered. He said a few words to the people beside him and stood up to walk over to where Yin Jian was.

"How have you been lately?" Yin Jian asked as Yue Ren approached.

"Not bad. With the money you gave me last time, I’ve managed to file a few more patents," Yue Ren replied with a smile. Seeing a familiar face made him feel much better. He really didn't enjoy attending these dinner parties that lacked any real practical significance.

"What kind of patents?" Hearing that Yue Ren had come up with more patents, Yin Jian immediately became interested. The success of *Mystic* owed a great deal to the memory-shielding technology.

Hearing that Yin Jian wanted to talk about patents, Yue Ren perked up and quickly listed his recent achievements, clearly hoping Yin Jian would buy a few more. After all, one can never have too much research funding. However, the patents Yue Ren mentioned were mostly for civilian use and were of no help to the game. Yin Jian was a bit disappointed, but he knew he couldn't expect such good luck every time. He quickly steered the conversation elsewhere: "So, what are you researching lately?"

"This? It’s about deep-level dreams," Yue Ren said, not noticing the change of subject. "I read in a paper that human dreams are divided into many layers. People are most familiar with the dreams they have during subconscious sleep. People have some impression of these dreams after waking, but the memory doesn't last long and is soon forgotten. When a person enters a deeper stage of sleep, the dreams become much more realistic, and time in the dream world feels much longer. But after waking, people have absolutely no memory of the dreams from this period. I’m researching how to make people remember the content of dreams from this stage, and whether it’s possible to change what happens in them."

Yin Jian’s eyes lit up: "Have there been any breakthroughs?" He felt this technology had potential.

"Some progress," Yue Ren said excitedly. "I’ve conducted several experiments using gray mice. Using some special methods, I’ve been able to give them independent consciousness in deep-level dreams, allowing them to autonomously change the world they’ve created in the dream. However, there’s a problem... once they enter a deep-level dream with consciousness, they can never be woken up. I tried many things during that period, but all ended in failure. To be honest, I came out today because I wanted to sell my existing patents to get some research funding."

Yue Ren looked at Yin Jian with anticipation, clearly hoping Yin Jian would save him from his predicament again, just like last time. Yin Jian didn't answer immediately but furrowed his brow in thought. He had some understanding of deep-level dreams. In this layer, the time one perceives can be infinitely elongated. He had a vague intuition that if Yue Ren succeeded in developing this technology, the entire gaming industry would undergo an unpredictable transformation. It was highly possible they would enter a "Dream-World" era!

Yin Jian felt he was about to take off, but he quickly calmed down. The cost of this research, the time required, and whether it could actually be realized as ideally as he hoped were all unknowns. Of course, with high risk came high, unpredictable rewards.

After careful consideration, Yin Jian cautiously refrained from showing his hand immediately and instead asked: "Do you have the experimental process for those gray mice? Preferably with records of their dreams."

"I do." Yue Ren nodded and sent several videos to Yin Jian via his optical computer. Yin Jian nodded and opened one to watch.

The screen showed a room illuminated by white light. In the video, Yue Ren placed a fingernail-sized device on the forehead of a gray mouse the size of two palms. These mice were specially bred for human experimentation—more sensitive, but also more resilient. Yin Jian had a vague impression of the device used; it seemed to be called a "Dream-Manifestor."

The reason he remembered it was that its origin story was quite ridiculous. According to reports, a wealthy woman suspected her husband was cheating because she heard him calling out someone else’s name in the middle of the night. Because he mumbled it too vaguely to hear clearly, she spent a fortune hiring someone to develop this gadget. Though it sounded absurd, the event was real. It had stayed on the top ten trending topics for a long time, which left a deep impression on Yin Jian.

In the video, after Yue Ren set up the Dream-Manifestor, he started the device. Soon, a materialized image appeared in the air not far from the gray mouse. It was a world filled with food. Various dishes, magnified countless times, fell from the sky. In the image, the movements of various animals and humans were incredibly fast, as if they were superheroes with super speed. Yin Jian knew this wasn't because their actual speed was that fast, but because time in the gray mouse’s dream was not equivalent to reality, creating this peculiar phenomenon.

After quickly watching the videos, Yin Jian was silent for a moment before looking into Yue Ren’s eyes: "How much more funding does this project need?"

Yue Ren’s eyes lit up: "Senior Yin, are you interested in investing?"

"Yes," Yin Jian nodded, "but once this technology is developed, you must give me 50% ownership of the patent." Patent research was usually conducted by an organization where one side provided the money and the other provided the intellect, with profit-sharing based on a pre-negotiated contract.

"No problem!" Yue Ren agreed without a second thought. Not to mention that he was more interested in research than money, the condition Yin Jian proposed was not excessive—it was, in fact, incredibly generous. Usually, in such situations, the investor would demand the lion's share of the rights.

"How much do you need for the initial stage? How long do you expect it to take to produce results?" Yin Jian asked. He trusted Yue Ren’s character, but he needed to be clear; science could easily turn into a bottomless pit.

Yue Ren snapped out of his excitement and explained, "Because this is dream research, the costs aren't like physical products that require large amounts of precious materials. I only need some professional instruments. About fifty million... thirty million should be enough. As for when the results will come, I can't guarantee that. After all, this is scientific research, not construction."

Yue Ren had originally quoted based on the lowest-spec instruments, but fearing he would scare Yin Jian off, he painfully lowered his estimate, thinking he could manage with fewer instruments, even if it meant wasting more time.

"That's it?" Yin Jian raised an eyebrow at the quote. He had expected Yue Ren to ask for tens or hundreds of millions; it didn't even reach a hundred million. His psychological preparation felt like it had hit a pile of cotton.

"How about this: I’ll give you a hundred million, and you pick up the pace. As for the specific contract, we can discuss it in detail when we get back," Yin Jian said calmly, looking at Yue Ren’s nervous expression. A hundred million was nothing; he’d make it back in less than a week.

"Ah." Yue Ren stood there, stunned, wondering if he had misheard. "O... one hundred million?"

"Yes."
"Thank you, Senior Yin!"

Receiving confirmation, Yue Ren almost jumped for joy. At this moment, he felt that meeting Yin Jian was the luckiest thing to happen in his life. After finishing their discussion on the dream research, Yin Jian asked Yue Ren for recommendations of reliable talent. Yue Ren did not hesitate and introduced several friends who were capable but, for various reasons, unable to unleash their potential. These friends all shared one characteristic: they were all extreme homebodies. They were clearly the elite of the elite.

...

"Lu, didn't Yin Jian say he would be happy for days if he made fifty bucks now? This... how are they..." Bai Yan, hearing the conversation between Yin Jian and Yue Ren, felt it was all somewhat surreal. When would he ever be able to eat with such big shots who talked about tens of millions and hundreds of millions so casually?

Lu Guo glanced at Bai Yan, then at the two men still deep in conversation. He sighed. He wanted to show off at that level, too!