After the college entrance examination, life began to follow one's heart

Chapter 321 Breaking into North America (Career)
After a discussion with Masahiro Yamaguchi, Xu Lin successfully secured a factory in the eastern suburbs of Tokyo, covering an area of ​​150,000 square meters. This factory was to accommodate a server training cluster built with 100,000 GPUs, so the required area was very large, requiring 100,000 square meters of space.

The conversation went smoothly.

However, Masahiro Yamaguchi only thought that Xu Lin was coming here to invest in and build a factory.

After taking over the factory.

Xu Lin did not stay in Tokyo either.

After all, he doesn't have the money to operate yet; he's just making some preliminary arrangements.

In the afternoon, Xu Lin took a plane to Hawaii.

In mid-March, Xu Lin's game was set to enter the North American market.

After arriving in Hawaii, Xu Lin took his yacht directly to Moon Island.

Li Yongsheng was quite efficient; within a month, he had completed all the work Xu Lin needed, including the power and network infrastructure.

As for those servers, Xu Lin came here today to assemble them.

He had Li Yongsheng call a group of people to help move the server to the underground base.

Currently, several hundred workers are busy with the construction of Moon Island, and everything is in full swing.

For the next four days, Xu Lin spent assembling and debugging the server.

These tasks were not difficult for Xu Lin; they just took a long time.

It was late March.

Xu Lin contacted Tilin.

"The game will be launched in North America at 6 PM tomorrow, North American time."

Xu Lin's message came rather abruptly, after all, he hadn't sent any other news for quite some time.

"Scientist, it's been a long time."

"Well, long time no see."

"How will it be priced?"

"One hundred and fifty cuts."

Xu Lin's game costs 100 RMB in China, which is a little over 14 USD.

But Xu Lin would never sell it for such a low price here.

Previously, Xu Lin had considered a price of one hundred dollars, but after thinking about it, he realized that the average monthly salary of workers here is between 2000 and 5000 dollars, which is roughly the same as the average salary in China, but the unit here is US dollars.

Therefore, Xu Lin ultimately decided on 150 dollars.

Americans' spending power should not be underestimated; they are the world's largest consumer nation.

Moreover, if it's nominally a pirated product, wouldn't it be okay for middlemen to make a profit?
As for whether fantasy games will have no market here.

That won't happen.

A monopolistic game, with no competitors and being a groundbreaking phenomenon, doesn't need to consider those messy issues.

If all goes well, it could even launch a cultural invasion here.

In the past, Western values ​​were introduced into China through various Hollywood movies; now it's time to reverse the roles.

Tilin: "Okay, by the way, is there anything I need to prepare?"

"Not for now. Just lie there and collect your money. Wait for my message tomorrow."

"Okay, love you, scientist!"

time flies.

It was almost six o'clock the next afternoon.

Tilin contacted Xu Lin again.

"Scientists, are you ready to begin?"

"Yes, everything is ready."

Six o'clock sharp.

The game "Immortal" has officially entered the North American market, except for the graphics, which remain unchanged. The language has been completely changed to English.

But hardly anyone knows about it now.

Therefore, Xu Lin still needs to use some technical means.

So at 6:10, advertisements for the game's North American release appeared on the overseas versions of TikTok and YouTube.

Xu Lin uses targeted push notifications, specifically targeting gamers and gaming influencers.

The number of people is about 300,000.

Once a portion of these people buy his game, word spreads quickly, from one person to ten, from ten to a hundred.

Xu Lin could have made a bigger splash, but since he's new here, it's better to keep a low profile. Once he's more established, he'll have nothing to fear.

"How many scientists are there?"

At eight o'clock in the evening, Tilin sent a message.

"More than 30,000 people, I guess."

"More than 30,000 people already?"

"We've underestimated the numbers. We can't be too blatant about it. For now, we can only develop our strength stealthily."

With over 30,000 people, converted to RMB, Xu Lin earned over 30 million in just two hours.

But Xu Lin remained unmoved, because without 50 billion in his pocket, he couldn't even make artificial intelligence; 30 million was nothing.
Xu Lin: "If we get caught later, you'll have to take the blame for now."

Tilin: "Don't worry, I've got your back."

The company that distributes this game in North America is called Tilina Technology, which is a shell company that Tilina registered in advance.

The government investigation will eventually uncover this company.

When the time comes, it will be Tilin's turn to shoulder the burden.

It sounds like Xu Lin is making Tilin take the risks, essentially acting as the legal representative: "I make money, you go to jail."

However, that's not the case. Capital is profit-driven. If you can earn hundreds of millions, billions, or even more in a month, capitalists can trample on all laws and morals. In any case, Tilin is making a killing.

At midnight, four hours later, Xu Lin's game had already sold 130,000 copies in North America.

Even if it's only $150 a serving.

However, North America is a major consumer market, and people there don't have the habit of saving money.

One hundred and fifty dollars is a small portion of one's salary, but it is obviously manageable.

Of course, some people were also complaining, saying that the game only costs 100 RMB in China, which is 14 USD, but when it came to North America, the price increased more than tenfold. They said the distributor was simply inhuman.

In North America, there are also many people who go abroad to work or study, and the number is quite large.

The news quickly reached China.

"Young Master Xu's game has been released in North America?"

"Yes, there's an agent, called Tilina Company."

"Is it the official version? I haven't heard that this game is going to be released overseas."

"I don't know if it's genuine, but it's definitely expensive over there, $150, which is over a thousand RMB!"

"Holy crap, a game costs over a thousand!"

"Looking at it from another angle, all the great powers miss the Qing Dynasty. Now, we can make one product cost 100 yuan domestically and 1000 yuan abroad. It's time to teach them a lesson!"

"Haha, that's right!"

"Just out of curiosity, did Young Master Xu allow me to log in to the game?"

“I’m in North America, and it seems this game entered the market illegitimately without government approval.”

While this matter was being discussed domestically, it was also causing a stir online in North America.

As word spread, more and more people learned that Mr. Xu's game had entered North America, and that they could download it from the login platform and make purchases via mobile payment.

One hundred and fifty US dollars?

Some people think it's too expensive.

But many people still took it without even blinking.

This game had already become a hit on YouTube more than two months ago, and many people were extremely eager to play it, but unfortunately there was no platform to play it, not even a pirated version. After all, it's not like other games where tech experts can immediately create pirated versions as soon as the game is released. Xu Lin's game is different; your skills can't be put to use here, so there are no pirated versions.

Now, the game has finally been released in North America.

As for whether the channel is legitimate or not, many people don't really care about that.

So, by 8 p.m. on the second day, the number of paying users of the game had reached one million, which is more than 1.07 billion RMB, which is quite staggering.

"A million copies already?"

Tilly was quite surprised when she heard the news, because that was $1.5 million in just one day.

Neither arms nor pharmaceuticals can make money at this terrifying speed.

Xu Lin: "In a while, we will break through ten million copies. Once we break through five million copies, I will launch the game store. The game store is my channel for making money."

"Scientist, it seems I underestimated how fast this game can make money. By the way, how much money has this game made in your country? I can't find any sales information."

"I won't disclose the sales information. As for the profits, it's over 30 billion RMB."

"Over 30 billion? In just over three months?"

"Correct."

"Terrible!"

Tilin was startled.

Xu Lin: "You might investigate my game tax payment later, and you'll be under scrutiny. So, the money allocated to you will be placed in several overseas virtual accounts..."

Xu Lin explained to her how the money would be used. This was Xu Lin's special channel: Tilin herself had a card that was connected to Xu Lin's accounts. If there were a billion US dollars in the account, then as long as it was used through this card, the billion US dollars could be used without the bank system being able to detect it.

This time, Xu Lin will not evade taxes in North America.

Therefore, most of the revenue from the game went into his account, while the rest went into Tilin's account. After all, it was not compliant with regulations and taxes had to be paid. It was hard to say whether all the revenue would be confiscated in the future.

Do you really think the United States is some kind of great country?

Xu Lin had learned that wealthy immigrants from China all end up childless here. The higher-ups would find ways to squeeze their value dry. For example, white elites would take their daughters and granddaughters, drain their wealth, dilute their bloodline, and make each generation worse than the last, causing their wealth to shrink continuously until they eventually become just another ordinary person.

The Chinese are inherently intelligent. For a long period of history, the Chinese were the center and core of the world. Therefore, the North American leadership would never allow these people to enter their core ranks. Obviously, they would just get rid of them. For example, if they were rich, from powerful families, or from aristocratic clans, they would spend time making them childless and extinct. In the end, the wealth they brought would belong to the white people, which is to say, they were doing the work for others.

After all, many people went there starting from the late Qing Dynasty, but now, more than a hundred years later, the descendants of these people have no voices to speak of. Not a single prominent figure has appeared, not even a high-ranking official. You know, the Chinese have always been highly accomplished. The top leaders of several Southeast Asian countries are of Chinese descent. Now, there are countless Chinese or people of Chinese descent scattered overseas, and it's hard to say how many of them are outstanding.

The problem is that there are no places for Chinese people here, and North America is also wary of Chinese people.

Therefore, Xu Lin felt no burden whatsoever when evading taxes in North America. He simply treated the country as his personal ATM, ultimately using it to accomplish what he wanted.

Tilin teased, "Okay, I get it. Technicians like you are really scary. I'm afraid that in the end I'll work my ass off for you and still not get any benefits!"

"What are you afraid of? When you're counting the money, don't say you were crying while doing it."

"Haha...I'll count while laughing!"

"Speaking of which, I'd like you to help me buy 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs in a while."

"How much was it again? I don't know."

"About four billion US dollars."

"so much?"

Tilin was startled by Xu Lin again.

"Training artificial intelligence is not cheap."

"Since I met you, I've realized that money has become worthless. The speed and extent at which you earn and spend money are simply outrageous!"

"You'll spend a lot of money on big projects, and I'll give you a separate reward of 100 million dollars."

"I don't care about the compensation. Your game is enough for me to make money, and it seems like I don't even have to work hard. Besides, it's the company we invested in before. Now its market value has exceeded three billion dollars. All things considered, I can get quite a lot."

Tilin said, "Actually, I'd really like to see how far you can go."

"Then let's wait and see. I expect you to help me purchase this batch of GPUs in mid-April."

"Ah."

For the next ten days, Xu Lin stayed on his private island and remotely controlled the situation.

As the number of players in the North American market increases, Xu Lin has a lot of game optimization work to do. As for the player count, it surpassed five million in the early morning of the fourth day after the game's release.

On the same day that the number of users surpassed five million, Xu Lin launched the game store, featuring items such as flying swords.

This flying sword is priced at $60, and now almost everyone has one.

On the eighth day after the game's release, the number of people who bought the game reached ten million.

This number, spread throughout North America, coupled with the speed of its spread, can be described as sweeping across the entire country.

Will fantasy-themed games face a lack of audience in North America?

Traditional games.

But Xu Lin's game won't.

Because his game has no competitors and is a groundbreaking live-action game.

The characters are real people who can think, and the special effects are even more explosive than those in Hollywood blockbusters.

Another thing is that the characters in it are very, very beautiful.

While there are differences in aesthetics globally, they are actually quite similar.

North America is the country most severely affected by LGBT. In reality, the vast majority of people have no problem with aesthetics, but everyone is held hostage by capital. If your game character or movie character is good-looking, it is considered appearance bullying and unfair. As a result, everyone has to suffer the consequences.

Therefore, Xu Lin's game has been on the market for ten days, and the beautiful women in it have made this group uncomfortable. They say they feel that their appearance is being bullied and that it is unfair to ordinary people, and they have started to speak out and criticize it.

Besides this group, there is another group of people. The game market has been dominated by this game, which is currently trending on mainstream social platforms and forums. As a result, paid online trolls have sprung up everywhere.

But Xu Lin ignored them.

Xu Lin's attitude was, "If you're so capable, then shut me down."

The afternoon of the tenth day.

Tilin sent me a message: "The government has its eye on me."

Xu Lin: "Can you handle it?"

"They can't do anything to me, don't worry, I just wanted to let you know."

"Okay, feel free to let me know if you have any questions."

"Oh, by the way, is there anything wrong on your end?"

"The technicians are looking for my server, but it's not a big problem. They can't pinpoint my location, so there won't be any issues on my end."

"Scientist, it's been a pleasure working with you. I will delete our chat history."

Xu Lin sent a "no problem" emoji.

That evening, Tilin was taken in for questioning by higher-ups.

However, strictly speaking, it should be "please go there".

Xu Lin stole the surveillance footage from Moon Island.

This is an interrogation room.

He needed to make sure Tilly wouldn't reveal his location. She could say whatever she wanted about other things, but Tsukishima couldn't.

Tilin knew he was on Moon Island.

At the same time, Xu Lin also turned on several recordings, including those from Tilin's and several other people's phones.

Wherever there is internet access, Xu Lin can ensure that he is omnipresent, even in a private intranet.

"Miss Tilin, do you know Mr. Xu from China?"

"know."

Tilin sat there, saying, “I’ve only contacted him four times so far, and each time he was the one who contacted me first. I can’t contact him in return.”

"So what exactly did you say during those four meetings with Young Master Xu? We need to record every single word."

Tilly's brain was working at lightning speed. She was a highly intelligent person and could quickly fabricate many things that didn't exist.

Furthermore, there will be no logical flaws.

"The first time was on the evening of October 25th last year. He contacted me first. He said he was Mr. Xu. He said I was very beautiful and wanted to see me naked."

"And then, what happened?"

“I admire him a lot, so I had a video call with him. He was wearing a mask and his voice was also altered. I asked him if he could show himself so I could see him, but he couldn’t. He told me to take off all my clothes, which I did.”

"How can you be sure he is Young Master Xu?"

"intuition!"

"intuition?"

"Yes, he was sitting there, and I could feel his immense vitality through the screen. You may not have seen someone like him before. He gave me a very powerful feeling. He had a kind of transcendent magic. I was attracted to him the moment I saw him, so when he asked me to take off my clothes, I did."

The group exchanged bewildered glances, because in their opinion, what Tilin said was a bit far-fetched.

The big shot waved his hand, indicating that he should continue asking questions.

"and then?"

“I took off my clothes, and he told me to turn around a few times to see what I looked like. He said I would taste delicious. I asked him if we could meet, and he said we would meet when we had the chance. Then we ended our first call.”

"there is none left?"

"Nothing."

"What about the second time?"

"The second meeting took place on the morning of November 2nd. He contacted me first again. He asked me to take off my clothes, which I did. He then asked me to masturbate in front of him, which I also did. After that, we ended the chat. This time, he didn't say anything."

Everyone looked at each other.

The big shot waved his hand, indicating to continue.

"What about the third time?"

"The third time happened on the evening of January 25th. He said he wanted to enter the North American market and asked me to act as his agent for the game. So I registered Tilina Technology Company, but obviously, as you can see, it was just a shell company."

Tilly continued, "The fourth time was on March 15th. He said everything was ready and his game was about to enter North America, and as you can see, it was the fourth time."

The group exchanged glances, having gotten no answers.

We can't just use torture, can we?

Tilly's family would never allow such a thing to happen.

What kind of person do you think he is?

"He is an unfathomable and unimaginable person."

Tilin laughed and said, "I am willing to submit to him and serve him."

Everyone looked at each other again.

After half an hour.

Tilin was released because her family intervened.

It was only when Tilin turned on her phone that she realized her recording function was already enabled.

Just then, Xu Lin's message popped up: "You passed."

"Scientists, you're terrifying!"

Tilin replied.

Tilin: "They didn't even mention that I bought you the server. Theoretically, they should have been able to trace that connection."

"Because I removed the traces a few days in advance."

In fact, a few days ago, Xu Lin had erased all traces of Tilin's acquaintance with him that could be found on the internet.

This is the convenience of the internet; humans are now too reliant on it.

Or, to put it another way, surveillance has increased the efficiency of police investigations countless times since the advent of surveillance.

In other words, what if there were no surveillance cameras?

In the past, some fugitives could hide for decades, and the evidence was never fully investigated.

But with surveillance, things are different.

Xu Lin, on the other hand, directly erased all surveillance footage of him appearing in North America.

“I’m being watched. They’re monitoring me, and I probably won’t be able to help you buy a GPU anytime soon.”

"Don't panic, I have other channels."

"Well, okay, be careful."

The interrogation of Tilin was conducted quietly, known only to the North American leadership.

However, that same evening, a press conference was held in North America, stating that Xu Gongzi had hacked into North America, posing a serious threat to North American cybersecurity.

Tilin told Xu Lin, who rarely goes online, about this.

Xu Lin remained calm.

However, the world is not calm, because this is the first time in the world that the power of an individual has risen to the point of threatening national security.

It's quite frightening.

Xu Lin was oblivious to what was happening around him. Recently, his game had been subjected to a large number of technical attacks, and North America wanted to shut it down, but they couldn't do anything about it.

Xu Lin is working on defensive works on Moon Island.

Because they couldn't handle it, they came up with the claim that it threatened cybersecurity.

But Xu Lin was not flustered and had no moral burden. Since he had decided to do something big, he didn't need to consider these small details.

Even if he goes to jail, even if he is executed, as long as he succeeds, he will be a hero and he will be innocent!

Eight days later.

It's almost mid-April.

Xu Lin's game revenue in North America has officially surpassed 3 billion US dollars.

That is approximately 214 billion RMB.

Including his current income in China, Xu Lin has a total of nearly 40 billion yuan in his account.

But not enough.

Xu Lin needs 100,000 H100 GPUs, plus more than 10,000 high-performance servers to meet the configuration requirements.

Xu Lin calculated that these two demands would evaporate at least 10 billion of his money.

"I could make it onto the rich list with 40 billion, but when it comes to artificial intelligence, that amount of money is still a bit lacking."

The next day, Xu Lin arrived in Tokyo again.

With AI training imminent, the factory still needs to get things done.

This includes connecting to the network and connecting to the city's power grid.

From a procedural standpoint, it's quite troublesome.

It's also worth mentioning that Xu Lin was put on the wanted list in North America today, with a bounty of 300 million US dollars.

Recently, Xu Lin's game has been unable to be shut down or its address locked, which has angered North America, leading to a huge bounty being placed on Xu Lin's head, causing a global uproar.

Chi Linyue and Pei Danqing were startled and immediately called Xu Lin.

Xu Lin could only comfort the two of them in the small group chat, telling them to calm down.

Xu Lin: "Damn it, someone of my level only has a bounty of 300 million dollars. They underestimate me. In a while, they'll know what a nuclear bomb-level danger level is."

Pei Danqing: "Where are you now?"

Chi Linyue: "When are you going back to China?"

Xu Lin: "I'm in Tokyo, and my return date is uncertain. The situation has changed. I'm preparing to train artificial intelligence, so I might not be back for several months."

Pei Danqing: "Then you should let us know you're safe from time to time, instead of acting like you've been arrested all the time."

Chi Linyue: "Remember to let us know you're safe, like popping up every ten days or so."

Xu Lin: “OK.”

After sending the message, Xu Lin vanished without a trace.

(End of this chapter)