The richest man started taking advantage of loopholes after joining Alibaba.

Dafang County, Guizhou Province.

This is the scar on Earth.

The rolling karst mountains were shrouded in thick fog, with only the slippery mountain road winding like a black snake into the belly of the mountains.

There's no sunshine or coconut groves like in Sanya here.

It was only cold and damp.

A bone-chilling cold.

"Tick-tock".

A drop of cold limestone water fell from the 30-meter-high dome and hit Lin Che's safety helmet.

The sound was crisp and clear, echoing through the vast, empty cavern.

Lin Che did not wipe it.

He stood on a huge steel pier, with openwork gratings beneath his feet, through which he could see the bottomless underground river below.

A complex smell filled the air.

It was the smell of mold that had been there for millions of years, mixed with the smell of brand-new rust-proof paint, and a faint, barely noticeable ozone smell from electronic devices.

"Boss."

Wang Jian carried a laptop and walked very carefully.

His face was pale, whether from the constant 18-degree Celsius chill here or from nervousness, it was hard to tell.

"The physical partition between Zone B and Zone C has been completed."

Wang Jian pointed to the area deep inside the cave that was covered by a huge black tarpaulin.

"As you instructed, all the core computing units, those twelve thousand GPU racks, have been moved to the deeper parts."

"The current area A..."

Wang Jian swallowed hard and pressed the Enter key.

Several rows of high-pressure sodium lamps overhead lit up, illuminating the most conspicuous area A at the entrance.

Empty and desolate.

The hundreds of racks that should have been filled with servers were now empty except for a few dangling network cables and power cords.

The wind blew in from the cave entrance, causing the cables to sway gently, like a group of hanging snakes.

The scene was desolate and bleak.

It presents a tragic picture of "broken funding chains and unfinished projects".

Lin Che reached out and touched the cold steel pillar beside him.

A rough, grainy texture came from my fingertips.

"very good."

Lin Che's voice sounded harsh in the empty cave.

"This is what I want to show them."

In his mind, the memory of his past life was churning.

2016, S6 World Championship.

That was a catastrophe for the live streaming industry.

In the previous life, because all platforms underestimated the traffic surge on the night of the finals, major manufacturers—especially Tencent Cloud—were frantically reducing bandwidth redundancy in order to make their financial reports look better.

The result was disaster.

That night, the entire internet crashed, and countless live streams went black.

That was a physical collapse.

And in this life.

Lin Che wants to dig this pit even deeper.

If Tencent knew that Weiguang Cloud had massive computing power reserves, they would definitely be alert and would spare no expense to expand their capacity in preparation for the battle.

In that case, the glimmer of light would have no chance.

Only by making them feel that Weiguang is already dead.

They felt that their last bit of hope had been exhausted.

That's why they're arrogant.

That's why they'd cut corners on that last lifeline just for that damned profit margin.

"How much longer until they arrive?"

Lin Che glanced at the mechanical watch on his wrist.

A thin layer of water mist condensed on the surface.

Shen Nan emerged from the shadows, holding a walkie-talkie in his hand.

"The convoy has passed security check."

"The delegation led by Hillhouse Capital was an investment inspection team, but we checked the list."

Shen Nan paused, his tone turning icy.

"The accompanying technical consultant is named Liu Zhiping. Although his business card says he is the vice president of a consulting firm, his actual social security payment unit is Shenzhen Tencent Computer Systems Co., Ltd."

Lin Che's lips twitched slightly.

It's not a laugh.

It's the muscle twitching of a hunter when he sees a wild boar step into a trap.

"The eyeliner is here."

Lin Che took off his helmet, ruffled his hair, and casually unbuttoned his shirt collar, making himself look even more disheveled and anxious.

"Wang Jian, remember your lines."

"You're a scientist, you don't know how to lie, so all you need to do is show anger."

"Anger over the lack of funds."

Wang Jian took a deep breath and nodded.

He doesn't need to act.

Whenever I think back to the day six months ago when someone pointed their finger at me and called me a liar, a feeling of indignation automatically wells up inside me.

................

Twenty minutes later.

A convoy of black Audis stopped on the gravel ground outside the cave.

The car door opened.

A group of people in suits came down.

They covered their noses, frowned, and carefully stepped on the muddy ground. They didn't look like they were there to inspect a high-tech project, but rather like they were forced to come to the countryside to sweep tombs.

The leader was a middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses, with shrewd eyes.

The so-called "technical consultant," Liu Zhiping, followed behind, holding a portable signal detector and glancing around nervously.

"Mr. Lin, I've heard so much about you."

The middle-aged man extended his hand, his smile carrying a hint of perfunctoriness.

"To conduct cloud computing in such a... pristine place, Weiguang is truly ingenious."

Lin Che shook his hand.

The force was great; my palms were covered in cold sweat.

This is the effect of the ice water he just soaked in.

"Adapt to local conditions."

Lin Che's voice was a little hoarse.

"The natural cooling here saves a huge amount on electricity bills. Please come in, everyone."

The group entered the cave.

A tremendous roar instantly enveloped them.

That's the sound of an exhaust fan.

But Liu Zhiping's brows immediately furrowed.

He could tell.

This sound is wrong.

If it's a data center running at full load, the noise would be a high-frequency howl, the sound of tens of thousands of CPU fans spinning wildly.

Now, there is only the hollow sound of the wind.

Liu Zhiping walked to the rows of empty racks.

He reached out and touched the dusty shelf, then turned around, looked at Lin Che, and revealed a glaring mockery on his face.

"President Lin."

Liu Zhiping patted the dust off his hands.

"Is this a micro-light cloud?"

"It looks a bit empty to me."

"Based on the computing power scale you've advertised, there should be at least five thousand servers running here."

"Are they all running invisibly?"

Laughter broke out sporadically.

The members of the inspection team were all smiling.

The smugness and disdain that came from seeing through the scam were openly displayed on his face.

Lin Che's body stiffened for a moment.

He didn't speak, he just stared intently at the ground.

Wang Jian, who was standing next to him, suddenly erupted.

He slammed his laptop onto the table.

"Bang!"

A loud bang startled everyone.

"It's all because of money!"

Wang Jian's face turned red, and he pointed at Lin Che's nose and roared—this was a script they had rehearsed, but Wang Jian had clearly brought in real emotions.

"How many times have I said this! Nvidia won't ship the goods unless the hardware payment is settled!"

"Lin Che! What about the two hundred million you promised me?"

"You're just going to expect me to do research and development while sitting on these empty shells? I'm a tech guy, not a magician!"

The atmosphere froze instantly.

The sarcasm in Liu Zhiping's eyes intensified.

He even took out his phone, pretending to check the time, but actually secretly took a picture of the scene.

Lin Che suddenly raised his head, his eyes bloodshot.

He grabbed Wang Jian by the collar and shoved him aside.

"Shut up!"

"What are you doing making such a scene in front of outsiders!"

Lin Che, panting heavily, turned to face the inspection team, forcing a smile that looked more like a grimace.

"Everyone... I'm sorry for making this a laughing stock of you all."

"This is temporary."

"Once the Series C funding is secured, the hardware will be ready immediately. Our technical architecture is fine..."

"President Lin."

The middle-aged man interrupted him.

He glanced at the desolate surroundings, then at his team who were "out of control."

"I think we've seen enough."

"Your company's technical architecture may be fine."

"But the financial situation..."

He shook his head, not finishing his sentence, but the meaning was already clear.

Just then.

Shen Nan's phone suddenly rang.

The sound of the bell was jarring in the empty cave.

Shen Nan answered the phone, listened for two seconds, and his expression changed drastically.

He covered the microphone, quickly walked to Lin Che's side, and lowered his voice, but the volume was just enough for Liu Zhiping to hear:

"Boss...it's a call from China Merchants Bank."

They said our loan was overdue, and if we didn't pay the interest today, they would freeze the company's account.

Lin Che's pupils contracted sharply.

He snatched the phone, hung up immediately, and then slammed it to the ground.

"Snapped!"

The screen is cracked.

The shards splashed onto Liu Zhiping's leather shoes.

"Tell them! I'm raising money!"

Lin Che roared, the veins on his neck bulging.

"Give me three more days! Just three days!"

A dead silence.

Only the sound of dripping water in the distance could be heard.

Tick.

Tick.

Liu Zhiping pushed up his glasses, concealing the smile on his lips.

He doesn't need to look anymore.

The glimmer of light has faded.

This is just an empty shell, all show and no substance.

All the rumors are true—Lin Che has been burning through money on useless social and payment wars, and the cloud service base here has long been abandoned.

"Mr. Lin, please calm down."

Liu Zhiping offered a perfunctory word of comfort.

"Starting a business always has its difficulties."

"Then we won't disturb Mr. Lin's fundraising."

Goodbye.

The inspection team turned and left.

This time, their steps were much lighter.

That was the relief of getting rid of a huge burden.

................

Lin Che stood at the cave entrance.

Watching the Audi convoy disappear at the end of the winding mountain road.

The cold wind howled.

He blew the cold sweat from his forehead.

The anxious, angry, and desperate expression on his face vanished instantly, like a mask being torn off.

Instead.

It was as still as stagnant water.

Shen Nan bent down, picked up the broken phone, removed the SIM card, and put it into the spare phone.

"Boss, how was your performance?"

Shen Nan asked.

"Well enough."

Lin Che took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and lit it.

The flames danced in the wind.

He took a deep breath, the pungent smoke filling his lungs and dispelling the chill in the cave.

"That guy surnamed Liu just sent an email."

Wang Jian had turned on the monitoring terminal at some point.

Although he was a tech geek, he had already deployed signal sniffing equipment around the cave at Lin Che's behest.

"Although it's encrypted email, depending on the size of the data packets and the sending frequency..."

"He must be giving a report."

Lin Che exhaled a smoke ring.

The white smoke stood out sharply against the dark background.

"He will tell Tencent."

"Weiguang is out of money."

"Weiguang's computing power is fake."

"The dim light poses no threat to the S6."

Lin Che turned around.

He looked at the dark abyss behind him.

He pressed a red button on the wall.

"Click—Buzz—"

A dull, mechanical hum filled the air.

The huge black tarpaulins in areas B and C slowly rose.

A deep blue light.

Thousands upon thousands of points of eerie blue light simultaneously shone in the depths of that darkness.

Those were 12,000 high-performance servers that had already been installed and debugged.

They stood there silently, like a silent legion of ghosts.

The emptiness and desolation we felt earlier were just an illusion.

This is the truth.

This is the grave that Lin Che prepared for Tencent.

"Wang Jian."

Lin Che threw away the cigarette butt and stubbed it out with the sole of his shoe.

"Full power preheating".

"The S6 finals in three days."

"I want all of China to know."

"Who is the computing power overlord of this era?"

"As for Tencent..."

Lin Che sneered and turned to walk towards the sea of ​​light.

"Let them save their money."

"Every copper coin saved will eventually become a stone to kill them."

................

On the bus.

Liu Zhiping sat in the back row, his fingers flying across his Blackberry phone.

Outside the car window, the mountains of Guizhou were rushing past.

He looked at those barren mountains, his heart filled with the superiority complex of a big-city elite.

In his eyes, Lin Che was just a country bumpkin who had been blinded by capital.

Why would they bother with cloud computing in this godforsaken place?

And it even caused the financial chain to break down.

It's a joke.

[Report: The Weiguang Guizhou base has been inspected on-site.]

[Conclusion: Infrastructure development is severely lagging, with rack vacancy rates exceeding 80%. On-site observation revealed the company facing debt collection from banks, indicating a severely deteriorated financial situation.]

[Recommendation: During the S6 finals, Weiguang will not have any technical capacity to support the project. We can safely reduce bandwidth redundancy and concentrate resources on optimizing financial statements and profits.]

Click send.

The screen displays "Sent successfully".

Liu Zhiping breathed a sigh of relief.

He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.

He could almost see his year-end bonus beckoning to him.

Saving the company tens of millions in bandwidth costs is definitely a great achievement.

But he didn't know.

Just as that email was being sent to Tencent's headquarters in Shenzhen.

Behind him.

In that deep mountain cave that he despised.

A real giant whale.

It is opening its eyes in the darkness, its blood-red maw wide open, waiting to devour the impending storm of traffic.

This round.

It's not just about the Empty City Stratagem.

It was a decisive blow.