I, the Rock King Emperor with 21 billion in power, have joined the chat group.

“Since he’s family, Elio, you should take better care of him. If he continues to be a NEET, it will be very difficult for him to enter society in the future. To be honest, if he is really a little reluctant to meet strangers because of his past, becoming a virtual YouTuber is a really good idea.” Otome Voice was a bit older, so she couldn’t help but give him earnest advice.

"Haha, it should be fine." Elio laughed heartily in his signature way. "My Mingjun isn't some useless NEET. I heard he's published a light novel on a website and earns a considerable amount in royalties. My mom even mentioned it to me, saying that Mingjun gives her a monthly allowance, and the amount even surprised her."

"Hmm, it's probably not me worrying too much." Otome quickly changed the subject: "We haven't gotten together in a long time. Since we're free, how about we go find Koshou? It would be nice to have a meal at her workplace."

“Oh, good idea.” Elio nodded immediately.

“I think so too.” Qian Lingming’s eyes lit up.

“Let’s go then. These two thousand-yuan bills are enough for our expenses, which saves us some money.” Otome-on said with a smile as she stood up.

Section 0 VTB (4)

After leaving the coffee shop in Roppongi, Sato Mei walked a few steps toward the subway station and came to a relatively wide street.

Standing under the eaves of a convenience store by the roadside, he reached out and took out his phone to make a call.

"Ring ring~"

A simple, crisp ringtone sounded, and the call was answered instantly.

“It’s me.” Sato Mei’s voice was very soft, completely different from his tone in the coffee shop just now.

If his voice was merely slightly cold before, indicating he wasn't easily able to blend in with a group, now it could be described as icy.

"Hello!" The voice on the other end sounded very respectful: "Are you in Tokyo right now?"

Sato Mei didn't reply immediately; he first glanced at the time on his phone.

It is 11:40 a.m. now.

He thought for a moment and said, "I'm at the 7 Days Inn in Roppongi Shopping Street. Come pick me up."

"Okay, I understand."

"Oh, and remember to bring Tony and Anzai's as well. We need to find a place to eat, and I also want to hear their work reports," Sato Mei added.

"No problem, boss."

After putting down his phone, Sato Mei noticed that the two high school girls in short skirts sitting on the bench next to him were frequently looking at him and whispering to each other.

These two people are not particularly good-looking, but their age is an advantage; their beautiful, youthful faces and vibrant bodies always make people feel good.

Although their whispers were soft, Sato Mei could hear them clearly.

"Wow, so cool! Is this person a celebrity from somewhere? Or an idol or a model?"

"He's so handsome, even though he's a bit short."

"I like the younger type; tall guys aren't cute at all. I really want to take him home; his hair is so fluffy, I want to ruffle it."

Sato Naruto didn't like hearing that.

He glared fiercely at the girl who said those words.

The other person saw his cold gaze and paused abruptly, seemingly startled.

However, a few seconds later they returned to normal, still chattering away, even more noisily than before.

"Wow, he has such a handsome gaze. Was he glaring at me just now?"

"A younger, dominant character, really good, really good."

"I'm thinking of getting a LIN number. How about coming with me?"

"No, I'm a little scared."

"Don't be afraid, you might just encounter a perfect romance!"

"Then Xiaochun, you can go by yourself."

"No, I'm scared too..."

"......."

Finally, even after the black van that came to pick up Sato Mei stopped, the two high school girls still didn't have the courage to go up and strike up a conversation.

Xu Ming got into the car, and the sedan quickly drove away from the Roppongi shopping street and onto the main road.

Inside this three-row van, two blond, blue-eyed young Caucasians were sitting.

A man wearing headphones is fiddling with his laptop, on which a two-dimensional anime character appears to be singing.

A woman was leaning against the back of the vehicle, chewing gum and idly playing a handheld game.

Xu Ming got into the car, snorted coldly, and glared at the two of them fiercely.

"Is everything ready?"

The anime character fiddling with the computer noticed the look and immediately turned it off, took out another business laptop from his backpack, and opened a spreadsheet.

The blonde woman who had been playing the handheld game console quickly adjusted her posture and sat up straight.

"Boss, get ready."

They both greeted Sato Mei in unison.

Sato Mei's expression softened; he was very satisfied with their performance.

Then why weren't those two girls scared? Is it some kind of potential unique to high school girls?

Having confirmed that he wasn't the kind of cute little guy he was supposed to be, Sato Mei quickly got down to business.

"Show me the report, Tony."

"No problem, Boss."

The blond young man turned his business laptop upside down, facing Xu Ming.

He opened a file and began to dictate it.

"We are currently investing in three main areas. The first is electronic currency. As instructed by you, Boss, we disposed of it all last month, using some less-than-honorable methods, resulting in a loss of about 15%. We now have approximately 30 million US dollars in hand."

"The second issue is the shorting of the Turkish coin. We haven't finished settling this yet, and I'm still hesitating, not knowing whether to run away or continue."

“Take all the goods. You can take a small loss. Don’t hesitate. I have some better things to do.” Sato Mei made the decision without any hesitation.

“Okay…” Tony frowned slightly. “If all goes well, we can get around sixty million US dollars.”

"The third item is small money. I don't see any hope of making money from the things you asked me to invest in, BOSS. But they are all small projects, so they won't cost much or earn much, maybe two or three million US dollars."

"Hmm... close to one hundred million?" Sato Mei pondered for a moment, "That's enough."

Then, he turned to look at Anzai behind him: "What about you?"

"Boss." For some reason, Anzai was noticeably more nervous: "The company registration in the tax haven is complete, and the registration of the Japanese branch is also finished. But... Boss, are we really going to do real business?"

“Of course. Are you going to question my decision?” Sato Mei raised an eyebrow.

“No, no.” Anxi shook her head; she would never question her boss.

She personally witnessed how the BOSS used miraculous methods to grow an initial investment of less than one million US dollars into a prize pool of one hundred million US dollars in just over a year.

She idolized the BOSS's extremely keen and accurate financial sense to the extreme; otherwise, she wouldn't have resigned from her position as an investment manager at a multinational bank to serve him alone.

However, finance is finance, and industry is industry.

The relationship between these two is not so much different as to be completely different, but rather that they have absolutely nothing in common.

Is a boss who is a financial genius also a genius in running a real business?

She was indeed very uncertain.

“I know what you’re worried about.” Sato Mei was well aware of what his team members were thinking. “Don’t worry, I have a new technology here. According to my estimates, as long as there are proper means of secrecy, it’s enough to create a new monopolistic unicorn before others can catch up.”

"Huh?" Tony was clearly surprised.

"Really?!" Anzai exclaimed with surprise.

“Of course,” Sato Mei said with a smile.

Section 0 VTB (5)

"This technology involves many things, and it's impossible for me to carry it with me at all times."

Inside the black van, Sato Mei took a memory card from his jacket pocket.

"This contains a key description of the technology, as well as some possible application scenarios. Take a look first, and we can discuss it during dinner later."

After tossing the memory card to the two men, Sato Mei leaned back in his car seat and began to close his eyes in deep thought.

Actually, Sato Mei's use of this technology was not originally part of the plan.

Although wealth acquired through financial means is not very stable and is easily plundered by real tycoons or financial oligarchs, it can still be hidden until it reaches a certain size.

For Sato Mei, this means that the $1 million in his possession will only be in danger after it has increased to $2-3 million through financial means, and only when it reaches that scale will it be noticed by others.

His plan is to decisively withdraw from the financial sector before attracting the attention of those financial tycoons and oligarchs. After that, whether he moves into the real economy or does nothing and lives a carefree, NEET life, it's all very simple.

If he has great ambitions, he will improve the world's technology to the level of the original world's science and technology.

If he didn't have this idea, several hundred million dollars would be more than enough for him to squander, and the money might even grow with his prudent investments.

The political history and economic conditions of the world that Sato Mei originally lived in were basically the same as those of this world. Only some minor details were different, such as someone creating a certain song, someone writing a certain article, or the Chinese team winning a certain World Cup. These were the minor differences.

However, the far-reaching events have remained largely unchanged compared to the last world. For example, the emergence and speculation of electronic currencies, the political and economic crisis in Turkey, and the conflict between Islam and European colonists have all taken center stage on the international stage in an orderly manner.

According to Sato Mei, the biggest differences between the two worlds are twofold: one is the difference in timelines, where one world is in 2019 and the other is in 2020.

Logically speaking, there should be no technological gap in a year, but strangely, Sato Mei's original world was far more advanced than this world in some aspects of technology.

This technology is artificial intelligence.

In Sato Mei's original world, a young man named Xu Ming published a paper in 2011.

He overturned the logic of all artificial intelligence operations to date.

Low-level artificial intelligence, which relies primarily on big data learning, was completely defeated by the computational logic AI developed by Xu Ming in just five years.

By around 2020, artificial intelligence based on this computational logic had reached a level of sophistication in the civilian sector. It is said that in the military, there has even been a true strong artificial intelligence that can learn and add data on its own, and write its own data and underlying code.

He even heard that China's successful research into controlled nuclear fusion in 2020 was also aided by that artificial intelligence.

Of course, all of this has nothing to do with the current Sato Mei.