Chapter 24: Change a Code Name

"How did you do it?"

"A distributed computing cloud platform plus an adaptive quantitative trading model."

"What about the latency?"

"Microsecond - level latency."

"How did you achieve that?"

"It's just a general system vulnerability in Micro - Image."

Wang Wei leaned over and whispered to Director Zhou, "It's like infecting the other person's computer with a virus!"

"Hiss!"

Director Zhou took a sharp intake of breath. The enemy was right in the command center!

No wonder he was so confident about getting ahead. Although Director Zhou still didn't understand what Song Han was talking about, it didn't stop him from looking utterly shocked.

When communicating with someone with high emotional intelligence, especially when the other person is willing to flatter you, you'll feel as smooth as silk.

"Isn't there a risk of being discovered when you do it this way?"

"Since the establishment of NASDAQ, the world's first electronic stock exchange market, in the 1970s, people have been using computer technology to assist in trading decisions and adopting programmed trading strategies.

Currently, the trading frequency I've set is 50 times per second, which is much lower than the current mainstream quantitative trading models. However, when the price starts to rise, I'll be the first to make a purchase, and when the price starts to fall, I'll also be the first to make a sale."

"I'm talking about the virus - infecting thing."

"When I started to use their company's computers, I'd already patched the corresponding system vulnerabilities."

Suddenly remembering something, Director Zhou asked eagerly, "Is your program stable?"

"Stable!"

"Then what happened just now?"

"The single - profit target was set too low to cover the cost. Fortunately, I set a minimum warning indicator for the account balance. The software's adaptive model adjusted the trading strategy in time and raised the single - profit target."

"What does that mean?"

"I forgot that there's a handling fee for each transaction. The more than two hundred thousand just now was almost all used up on the handling fees."

With sufficient funds guaranteed, the once - deserted office building gradually became noisy again.

After the one - hundred - million - dollar foreign exchange went through Yingguo, the United States, Hong Kong, and finally reached Song Han's hands, after layers of transfers, only more than sixty million was left.

Looking at the suddenly sky - rocketing number in the account, Song Han cursed loudly.

"So greedy!"

Director Zhou, who had come again, gave a dry laugh.

"Capital financial gain tax, transit tax. If it weren't for the domestic channels, you'd be lucky to keep half of this money, let alone sixty million.

Moreover, didn't the head office specially approve a financial account for you?

A maximum leverage of 50 times should be enough for you. After all, you can't hog all the benefits and leave nothing for others, right?"

"I'm not talking about you!"

Song Han pointed angrily at the screen in front of him.

"They've frozen my account and are asking me to provide a legitimate trading explanation!"

"What?"

Hearing this, Director Zhou quickly leaned over. "I have to say those foreigners are really good at technology. They've even developed a website translation in just a few days."

Song Han said speechlessly, "It's the plug - in on my computer that does the automatic translation."

"Dear user, as your personal account operations have been reviewed and found to be in violation of regulations recently, all operation instructions within 48 hours will be deemed invalid. Please supplement the explanation materials and pay the fine as soon as possible."

"Why is there a fine? How much is it?"

"One hundred million dollars! Transfer back the money you transferred out last time!"

"What's going on?"

"I forgot to turn off the quantitative trading model when I went to sleep last night!"

"How much more did you earn?"

"Five billion!"

"Hiss!! They're really f***ing greedy!"

"In US dollars!"

"No way!"

Director Zhou suddenly stood up excitedly and said, "Let's go and contact the Yingguo embassy right now. They must give us an explanation for this!"

Song Han shook his head indifferently. "This account is just a randomly generated test account. The identity background is that of a local homeless man in Yingguo. It doesn't matter if it's gone."

After much persuasion, Song Han managed to pull Director Zhou back. Looking at Song Han meaningfully, he said, "Anyway, little brother, with your skills, you don't have to go for a huge profit all at once. After all, with your methods, making money subtly is the real way to go."

"Such as?"

"Such as in the world's top five foreign - exchange futures trading markets. The combined daily trading volume of these markets is nearly 3 trillion US dollars!

Grab one or two million dollars from each market every day. In total, you can have a daily income of nearly five million US dollars. With the domestic cash balance of 41 million, you'll be the world's richest man in less than two years!"

Song Han silently did some calculations. After a long time, he let out a long sigh. "Time waits for no one!"

Although he was in a hurry, Song Han wasn't that impatient. Instead, he accepted Director Zhou's suggestion.

He didn't know how many people's efforts were behind this suggestion, but it was indeed the most suitable plan for his current needs.

After all, his demand for funds was determined by his temporary requirements for using the money.

"Manager Luo!"

"What's up, boss?"

"How much money is there in the company's account?"

"That's exactly what I was going to report to you. In recent days, the head office of the commercial bank has been settling foreign exchange for our company with 40 million in cash every day. Now, there's nearly 600 million in the company's account."

"Get it ready. We'll need it soon."

"Is there a new project? And is this money legitimate?"

This mysterious company, the mysterious boss, and the mysterious boss's bodyguard. All the things that had happened recently made Luo Xiang feel that life was always full of surprises.

"Keep stocking up, but this time, do it all over the world! Then hire more people to do bounding and labeling for me!

You arrange people to handle the domestic part, and you lead the team abroad yourself!"

"So, I'm the one doing everything?"

As he said that, Song Han wanted to pat Luo Xiang on the shoulder. But sitting in the wheelchair and looking at his own empty trouser legs, after sizing up Luo Xiang's sitting height, he reluctantly gave up the idea and patted the other man on the thigh instead.

"I don't know if the money is legitimate. As long as I can spend it."

Luo Xiang didn't quite understand Song Han, who had suddenly become so enthusiastic. He also didn't understand the logic of bounding, labeling, and training guidance for AI after 2020.

However, just as Song Han had said, it didn't matter if the money was legitimate or not, as long as it could be spent. It was just that this time, he was going to offend a large number of industry peers again.

"Out of stock?"

"Raise the price by 20%!"

"Huh? Out of stock again?"

"Raise the price by 40%!"

"What? Double the price? Dude, when I inquired about the price of a 512M DDR4 last week, it was still 150 yuan. Now you're asking for 300 yuan?"

"There's a big client sweeping up goods in Beijing. They've already offered 140% of the retail price. Now many of our peers are hoarding goods. If you don't double the price for bulk goods, no one will be willing to sell."

"Are the parts for 100 computers still considered bulk goods?"

"Boss, is there any new stock?"

"Here it is, here it is! 1,000 units of 41.8A Intel Pentium III, 3,000 sticks of 512M DDR4 memory. There's really no stock of graphics cards. The NVIDIA and ATI ones haven't arrived yet. If you need them, I still have more than 300 Integrated Systems graphics cards. Do you need them?"

"By the way, what did you just say?"

The visitor stared at the boss in shock as he finalized a deal worth tens of millions in the conversation. His tone also subconsciously became much softer.

"Double the price then! Give me 50 sticks of 512M memory!"

Hearing this, the boss spread his hands.

"Sorry, out of stock!"

The next day, the so - called surprise arrived as expected.

"Is this the absolute security you guaranteed?"

In the pitch - black room, the pungent smell of charred objects lingered around the nose. 

"Push me in!"

The wheels of the wheelchair rolled over the remaining water, leaving two shallow ripples.

"With the intervention of the protection team, the server operation wasn't disrupted, and the important files in the company have been transferred. It's just that there were quite a number of people involved in the other side's actions, so there were some oversights."

"How many people?"

"A total of six waves, over a hundred of them!"

"Call your boss out!"

Huh?

Hearing the voice, Wang Wei said helplessly, "Now there are seven waves."

Song Han turned around. Seeing this, Wang Wei turned the wheelchair around and pushed Song Han out.

"I'm sure you've seen my methods. In business, we should make money in a harmonious way.

It's understandable that you want to hoard goods to drive up the price, but you can't leave us with no way out, right?

I have three internet cafes with over six hundred computers. The venues are all set up, and we're just waiting for the computers. No matter what price you paid for the goods, I just want the parts for six hundred computers at the regular price!"

A man with a crew cut and a long gown was twirling a string of beads in one hand and fanning himself with the other. A young man followed behind him. When he saw someone coming out, he bowed slightly to Wang Wei, who was pushing the wheelchair.

"Everyone respects me and calls me Lord Fu. May I know your name?"

Song Han looked up at Wang Wei. Since Luo Xiang was on a business trip, on the surface, it was Wang Wei who was dealing with things for Jian'an Technology.

"Did you set this fire?"

As he said that, Wang Wei also lowered his head to explain to Song Han.

"Over a hundred people were arrested yesterday. The one who splashed gasoline is still being interrogated. We don't know who the real mastermind behind this is yet."

Song Han nodded silently. "Well, I understand. The business competition in 2002 is really intense!"

The other man ignored their whispering and replied with a fake smile, "You can eat food randomly, but you can't talk nonsense."

He pointed at Song Han sitting in the wheelchair and sneered, "After all, no one knows whether tomorrow or an accident will come first!

You can't do whatever you want just because you have money in this world!"

"Yeah!"

Wang Wei nodded obediently. "If you also have power, then you probably can."

He waved to the crowd watching the commotion on the side. "Take them away!"

Suddenly, the passers - by who had pretended to be just onlookers rushed forward.

"Hey! Hey! Let go of me! Do you know who I am?

Young man, you're not playing fair! Have the guts to let me go!"

Ignoring the shouts of the man, Wang Wei looked at Song Han with a smile. "So, in the business wars a hundred years from now, do you really just fire a missile? Just one missile?" 

"Doesn't the state interfere?"

Song Han shook his head with a smile. Somehow, he thought of the asteroid mining fields and the space pirates around them, as well as the local conflicts in the news caused by foreign business competition.

Whether it was the country in the 21st century single-handedly pushing the surrounding countries back to the era of cold weapon confrontation, or the country in the 22nd century forcing the countries that couldn't leave the Earth back to the era of chemical weapons, the country has always been that same country. 

The human world has never been peaceful. It's only this country that has peace.

"Actually, it's not always certain. After all, you never know what's going to happen."

...

"We need to re - evaluate the destructiveness of 'Code Name: Mike Connor, abbreviated as Mike' and the authenticity of the description of the individual's origin provided by the other side!"

"What's going on?"

"The other side used a new Western trading method to make 100 million dollars in the British foreign - exchange trading market through the international Internet!"

"A financial genius?"

"It only took 10 minutes! And now, it has evolved to the point where he regularly accumulates a daily profit of 5 million dollars from the five major foreign - exchange exchanges in the UK, the US, Country R, Singapore, and Hong Kong and transfers it to a domestic account."

"Slow and steady wins the race. I didn't expect this young guy to be so cautious."

"Actually, this is a pre - arranged plan after we understood his capabilities."

Silence...

"Will he use such methods in our domestic market?"

"No, we haven't opened up this kind of trading method."

"What's the opinion of the expert group?"

"They've classified it as a third - type contact. However, the medical expert group has added a case of savant syndrome to Mike's medical record."

"Still can't verify the other party's identity?"

"Even with the most optimistic estimate of scientific leap - forward development, it's still an out - and - out fantasy to achieve time travel in a hundred years.

This requires breakthroughs in fundamental physics across several dimensions.

In this regard, the expert group states that compared to time travel, a third - type contact and a genius with cognitive impairment are more in line with current scientific understanding."

"Wasn't there a detailed examination when the other party was injured before? No extraterrestrial vital signs were detected."

"Perhaps the form of existence of extraterrestrial life is beyond our human understanding or the scope of our observation."

"So, what's the conclusion?"

"Arrest him!"

"Use torture to force him to disclose all the scientific information!"

"Professor Yang Dian from the medical team has proposed a brain electro - shock treatment plan and wants to try physical therapy."

"The central bank wants to recruit him and specifically establish an active overseas fund to serve as a secret weapon in the country's financial field."

"Is there a more peaceful approach?"

"Maintain the status quo?"

Finally, the old man sitting at the head of the conference room made the final decision.

"Judge by deeds rather than motives. Regardless of what kind of being Mike is, as long as his actions are beneficial to the country and the people, he is a good friend of our country and the top - level target for united front work." 

Also, change the code name! Why on earth did you pick a foreign name?

...

"My young master, just how many graphics cards do you need? We've already contracted the entire production capacity of NVIDIA and ATI for the next year. Currently, we're in communication with SIS for customized production.

The prices of graphics cards in the market have already doubled. If we keep buying like this, the global supply of graphics cards will run out before long."

"Is there enough money?"

"Yes, there is. Before I left, Assistant Wang gave me an overseas account of a domestic commercial bank. There's already fifty million US dollars in cash in this account. After all, the goods are delivered in batches, and with this arrangement, the growth of the funds can just about cover the expenses."

Song Han rubbed his forehead and said helplessly, "Thanks to the improvement in basic mathematics for the LLM (Large Language Model) based on the Transformer architecture, the parameters of the basic model can be stacked without limit, exceeding the total number of human neurons.

Moreover, considering the current 130 - nanometer core manufacturing process limitation of chips, without an exponential upgrade in the manufacturing process of silicon - based chips, we'll probably need a similar number of GPU chips."

"What do you mean?"

"Probably ten billion pieces."

...

"Manager Luo? Manager Luo?"

There was a flurry of commotion on the other end of the phone. Moments later, Luo Xiang's voice came through, raised several notches in pitch.

"Currently, because of our large - scale purchasing, the ex - factory price of graphics card chips has climbed to two hundred. Calculated at the current price, it'll cost two trillion!

Our country's total GDP for the entire last year was only 1.4 trillion! Are you joking?"

"Is two trillion a huge sum?"

In contrast to Luo Xiang's agitated voice, Song Han appeared extraordinarily calm.

After all, a hundred years later, the market value of any company involved in interstellar business was no less than tens of billions.

"Even if you're earning five million a day right now, it'll still take you a thousand years to make two trillion! Where do you get the audacity to say such a thing?

Moreover, spending two trillion on this single - type economic activity, even a fool can tell there's something fishy going on.

Do you think the government of their country is just a useless figure?

Even if our country supports you whole - heartedly, can the country really come up with so much money?"