After my divorce at thirty, I developed an intelligence network.

Gong Yuelong focused his mind, and a blue light screen appeared.

[Current Status]

Total debt: 4199728 yuan

Deposits: 862.5 yuan

Key contacts: Engineer Chen (Gold Coast Materials Clerk, Goodwill +1), Convenience Store Girl (Goodwill +1), Jiang Yan (Creditor, Dangerous, Attention +1), Widow Qin (Attention +10), Old Niu (Attention +2).

【Target】

Short-term: Process waste timber, target net income > 400 yuan.

Mid-term: Obtain stable permission to enter the construction site for leak detection through Engineer Chen.

Long-term: Resolve Jiang Yan's 80 yuan crisis before the end of the year.

Upon seeing this information, Gong Yuelong breathed a sigh of relief; his network of contacts and savings were steadily growing.

Things will get better, but... it'll be a little slow, 400 yuan a day...

Hmm, what's going on? He saw a small message in the upper right corner of the screen: You have five questions left today.

What?

Gong Yuelong laughed. "Wait, buddy, you've also started using small characters like Yu Tianjun? Five questions a day? And can't you save up these question opportunities?"

Expired and void? What kind of heartless developer designed this rule!

Also, what does +10 in attention mean? System, could you elaborate? A friend of mine would like to hear more about the part concerning Widow Qin.

Gong Yuelong's eyes twitched. This system... why does it seem a bit unorthodox?

But he calmed himself down and tentatively asked in his mind:

"System, what questions can I ask?"

On the light screen, the small text gradually faded, replaced by a simple line of blue text:

"Intelligence system...five questions per day..."

"Key information about people, things, and events within the accessible range can be obtained with a probability..."

He sat on the wooden bed, repeatedly processing the simple instructions that flooded his mind when the system was activated, trying to suppress the dizziness he felt caused by the intertwining of enormous changes and tiny hopes.

After smoking half a cigarette, the unreal feeling of walking on clouds finally settled into a feeling of being grounded.

"It's not a dream... this thing is really in my head."

Gong Yuelong's initially tense mood relaxed slightly.

He looked again at the shared room that could barely fit a bed and a table, and at the scattered lights of the construction site in the distance outside the window; his mindset had already subtly changed.

The mountain of 4.2 million yuan in debt that had previously driven him to near despair now seems to have... a glimmer of hope.

"Intelligence...information gap...that's my only asset for turning things around," Gong Yuelong pondered silently.

"But industry-related information is too broad. Even the price fluctuation of a single grain of sand on a construction site is considered information. What use is that to me right now?"

I need to know, right now, at this very moment, what information can be exchanged for money without causing trouble.

He had a slight thought: in this day and age, without connections, nothing can be accomplished; to get rich, one must have connections.

Following the system prompts, he attempted to construct a question in his mind:

[System, tell me which potential contacts I can reach in the near future and with whom I can establish initial connections.]

Ripples spread across the light screen, and words appeared:

[Target Area: Networking]

[Information retrieval took 100 seconds...]

……

[Information 1: Mr. Chen, the materials clerk at the Gold Coast project, has authority over on-site small-scale procurement and waste disposal. Due to recent family commitments, his need for reliable and easy-going temporary staff has increased.]

[Intelligence 2: Jiang Yan has infiltrated multiple projects through building materials channels, posing both significant power and danger. Currently, we are maintaining a state of observation and pressure towards you, with the potential for extreme transformation, either into a deep alliance or complete hostility.]

[Intelligence 3...]

……

"this……"

Gong Yuelong's eyes quickly swept over several messages, his heart skipped a beat, and then his brows furrowed.

The system did provide direction, and it was more down-to-earth than expected, focusing on people he might come into contact with.

Engineer Chen is the one he's going to meet tomorrow;

Jiang Yan is an unavoidable creditor.

But upon closer inspection, the problem immediately becomes apparent.

Chen's path seems the most direct, but it is essentially still doing odd jobs, which is too dependent, has a low income ceiling, and the complicated family affairs mean that the other party's emotions may be unstable and there are many variables.

Jiang Yan's path... was even more precarious. The words "extreme transformation" sent a chill down his spine. To negotiate with a tiger for its skin—one wrong move and it would be utter ruin.

"It seems... my question was too idealistic." Gong Yuelong realized his mistake.

The question, "It's possible to make contact and establish initial contact," implies his optimistic expectation of establishing contact.

But for him, who has now lost almost all his bargaining chips, why would the other party establish contact with him?

What he needs might not be someone to become my connection, but rather someone from whom my current meager value is most needed and can be exchanged for something tangible.

What he needs the system to help him find is not a vague node, but a precise point of value exchange.

He calmed himself down and pushed the issue toward a more practical level:

Given the urgent need to dispose of these ten tons of steel bars, and considering my current resources, what specific, low-risk actions can I take to gain initial benefits from this intelligence?

Om-!

The light screen rippled again, and the blue light became more concentrated, as if adjusting its calculation direction in response to his focused thoughts.

[Item investigated: Strategies for realizing high-value intelligence in stages with low risk]

[Perform path decomposition and minimum feasible step derivation...]

[Related to Chen Gong's trust level variable, Wu Pangzi's behavioral pattern simulation...]

[Estimated simulation time: 10 hours...]

"Ten hours, it was almost noon, and I was at the Gold Coast project site at that time. And..."

"It seems that the more detailed the breakdown, the closer it is to the real-world dilemma, the more controllable the system's deduction time becomes..."

As Gong Yuelong looked at the status on the light screen, the tangled mess in his mind gradually began to unravel.

He no longer aspired to swallow ten tons of steel bars in one gulp, but began to think about how to carefully scrape off a little cream from this big cake.

"Wait! We must wait until a feasible first step is achieved!"

He took a deep breath, suppressing all unrealistic fantasies.

When someone in dire straits suddenly sees a mountain of treasure, their first reaction is not to try to empty it, but to find the path that will allow them to safely reach the foot of the mountain and pick up the first piece of ore.

Only those who have truly suffered setbacks and injuries from the harsh realities of life understand how important it is to break down enormous opportunities into manageable, manageable steps.

Turning your life around isn't about a single high-stakes gamble, but about countless calm and precise next steps.

……

At 4:30 a.m. the next day, Gong Yuelong woke up on time. He usually had to get up at this time to go to the labor market to grab good jobs. In winter, he could get up a little later, at most sleeping until 5:30 a.m.

He paused for a few seconds, thinking about how he didn't have to work for several days and earn 160 or 200 yuan a day. Today he was going to the Gold Coast.

Thinking of this, his eyes quickly cleared from drowsiness, and with a slight shift in his mind, he looked inside.