Reborn in America, I'm serious about making money.

Yesterday's events left Zhang San distracted last night, and Helen noticed this as well, so she tried to comfort him.

"That's how it is in North America. Guns are legal here, and some people there just want to get something for nothing..."

Zhang San felt Helen was a decent person, although... if you count feelings that develop over time, there were definitely feelings between them. He interrupted Helen's words of comfort, saying, "Helen, thank you, but this is still too slow to make money. We should change our approach."

What did Zhang San do in his previous life? He was a programmer, an Android system developer, or more precisely, an optimizer.

Even so, he still knows the source code of Android. In this era, Android hasn't even appeared yet; it won't be developed for more than 20 years. Who is that person? Oh, that's not important. That person should have come from Apple.

But does it matter? No, it doesn't.

"Do you have a plan?"

Helen was nestled in Zhang San's arms, the fan above her creaking and groaning, and then a faint sound came from outside—it was Jessica.

"I've got it, but we'll have to wait."

In the following days, Jessica and Allen continued to go to work as usual, and Jessica became the store manager as she wished. With Jessica's help, Helen also joined Blockbuster.

Zhang San then drove the pickup truck and began shuttling back and forth between the garbage dumps.

After several days of effort, he managed to get three more computer hosts. This time he was unlucky and didn't get any monitors, but he did manage to get a few TVs and three printers, the old-fashioned kind with ink cartridges.

After keeping one 386, he sold the remaining three 286s to his classmate with Jim's help, earning another two thousand dollars, which made him happy and dispelled the gloom of the past few days.

He was preparing to use that 386 to begin his own plan.

Zhang San bought a lot of books on North American patent law, copyright law, and international patents. In the following days, he went to his small room and began his plan.

Developing a system independently is certainly not an easy task, but with a template, developing or recompiling a system becomes much easier.

The original DOS was compiled from the CP/M operating system. Therefore, Zhang San could also compile it using C or other languages, but C is more suitable for system development, mainly because it has better compatibility.

The three people around Zhang San noticed that he had become a homebody. His house only contained bread, sausages, and some apples. When he was hungry, he would eat bread, sausages, or apples, and when he was thirsty, he would drink beverages.

It's not that he never goes out; he goes out once every two weeks to earn money. He goes to dumps or junkyards to scavenge abandoned old computers, TVs, and printers, then repairs them or replaces parts. He then gets Jim to dispose of these things, which earns him more than five thousand dollars a month.

"Stephen, you should go out and see the world. This kind of life will ruin you."

"Thank you, Helen, but it's okay, I'm almost there." Zhang San's beard was stubble, and his hair... he had shaved it all off, so he was now bald. His clothes, if Helen hadn't washed them for him... if he hadn't washed them in the washing machine, would have smelled terrible.

"I will definitely repay you when I succeed."

Helen was surprised to learn that Zhang San was actually a software engineer; what surprised her even more was that he was familiar with North American copyright law.

As Christmas approached, Zhang San completed the registration of a bunch of patents. He used all his recent money and hired a patent lawyer to apply for North American and global patents. He spent all $50,000 and now he has no money left, relying entirely on Helen's financial support.

At this moment, Zhang San looked like someone who had just come out of a mental hospital, with sunken eyes, heavy dark circles, and messy new hair.

Fortunately, winters in Los Angeles aren't that cold, which made him feel a little better. The clothes he was wearing didn't fit him well; he had found them at a storage site, and they were still quite new. He washed them and put them on himself.

"I'm probably the most pathetic of all time travelers. I've disgraced the time traveler community."

As Christmas approached, he relaxed. He had been so exhausted beforehand that he felt completely drained after relaxing. Fortunately, he didn't get a fever or get sick, otherwise, in North America, it might have made things even worse for someone who was already poor.

"Helen, I will definitely repay you in the future."

Zhang San had said this countless times, and Helen had also lost count; it was Zhang San emphasizing the matter, as if he wanted to make sure he remembered it.

In the time that followed, he had nothing to do but wait. During this waiting time, he began designing another software, a visual version of Office. As everyone knows, Office only has black background graphics, you can't use a mouse, and when you make a mistake, you have to use the arrow keys to move over it, which is very inconvenient.

After New Year's Day, Zhang San was expected to calm down, but unexpectedly, he came back again. However, this time it was much better than last time, and he didn't work day and night as much. When the weather improved, Zhang San heard some news: 486 was going to be released.

The 80486 is the last generation of CPUs named with a number. The number 80586 cannot be used because Intel's competitors followed suit, and other manufacturers also named their products with similar names, which made it unusable.

When Zhang San saw this news, he wondered if he should register those trademarks. But then he thought better of it. What was the point? The other party could just change the name. CPUs are all about performance, what does the name matter? He could just change the name.

How did Zhang San know about this news? Of course, it's because after the 80386 was launched in 1985, no new CPUs were released. Therefore, after a four-year hiatus, once it was released, it was immediately publicized. Unlike later generations, when a new generation was released every year, and even later, there were instances of two generations being released every year.

He saw this guy and remembered him vividly. However, it was also related to him. He heard Jim say when they contacted each other after returning from spring break, "The prices of the 286 and 386 have dropped a lot."

Just like when the new generation of iPhones came out, the price of the old secondhand ones dropped significantly. Although it was free, the price drop still made him uncomfortable. But there was nothing he could do. The IT industry is all about rapid updates and replacements. If you are too slow, you may be rejected by consumers and eventually be phased out.