Chapter 83: Chapter 84 Mr. Billion
As the conversation reached this point, Li Zhendong sighed and said, “Being fun is useless, you’ve got to be on the Falls list to really succeed!”
“What list are you talking about?” Zhang Yuan asked in surprise.
“The Falls list, you’re really out of the loop.” Li Zhendong lifted his head and said, “It’s something a guy named Falls came up with, ranking the wealth we young people have created on Earth. It’s basically a private list that evaluates the value of our work… and it has a certain predictive effect on future job rankings.”
“For example, if my game is valued at one hundred million, according to the equity distribution, I’d have a personal worth of twenty million.”
Zhang Chenchen spoke irritably, “Dream on, one hundred million? You couldn’t even sell it for a million! We’ve all been working for nothing these past few months, thanks to you duping us to come onboard… and to think I’m still a Level 1 staff member in the end.”
Li Zhendong furrowed his brows in retort, “Who said it’s worth nothing, it can’t possibly not sell for even a single Mao!”
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Zhang Yuan couldn’t be bothered with their bickering and curiously opened the so-called “Falls list” on his phone.
He discovered that the list had two different categories, the first being “academic influence,” and the second “wealth creation.”
“Why are there only people under thirty years old?”
“Isn’t that obvious?” Li Zhendong rolled his eyes, “Do you really want to compare influence with those Academicians? Besides, Falls can’t dig up the confidential information of those big shots.”
“Alright then…”
As he scrolled through the Falls list, Zhang Yuan finally spotted his name.
Academic influence: “1134.1”, ranked 66th, which was about what he expected.
Although Zhang Yuan had only published one paper on robot dynamics, the value of the paper was quite significant. It was just that the impact factor of the journal “Scientific Pioneer” wasn’t high enough, slightly dragging down his ranking.
Net worth “2 million”, ranking at number 1733.
Zhang Yuan was startled, wondering where Falls had unearthed his personal data.
And being ranked 1733 was far below his expectations.
It seemed that the Earth Era indeed boasted many capable individuals. In just a short half-year, his net worth of 2 million could only rank in the seventeen hundreds.
Can everyone really make money so easily? In such a short time, there are already so many new millionaires?
Knowledge can truly change fate!
Zhang Yuan finally understood why Li Zhendong was so anxious; with such a low net worth, he couldn’t show off anymore!
Haha!
But in an instant, Zhang Yuan’s mood lifted again. A ranking in the seventeen hundreds was definitely a good thing. He was indifferent to money.
He could finally walk down the street without the possibility of being recognized!
He liked keeping a low profile, enjoyed staying in on his own!
He didn’t like being in the spotlight, nor did he covet the feeling of being on stage.
Thinking about how he had become low-profile again, Zhang Yuan felt oddly pleased and forced himself not to laugh out loud.
“All those star projects got financing, all with high valuations!” Li Zhendong said with a troubled expression, “Like that gene-matching app, it was given a valuation of ten billion right off the bat, creating how many millionaires? Even the programmers have a net worth of several million!”
“The gene-matching app was successful?” Zhang Yuan showed some interest.
“Not completely successful yet, but it’s already in trial use… and it’s very popular. You could give it a try.”
“And there’s the VR-LIFE game, which also got valued at several billion, suddenly giving the startup team a very high net worth.”
“Big teams have the advantages of big teams, they can easily find venture capital on Earth and operating teams due to their connections, but it’s somewhat harder for small teams… They need to ask the Deep Space Foundation for help, fill out lots of paperwork, and go through multiple rounds of vetting.”
Zhang Yuan finally understood what this guy was thinking.
It seems they wanted to partner with me to leverage connections on Earth.
He coughed, “I only know Professor Wang on Earth. How can I help you? You’re not thinking of cutting in line to pass the review, are you? That’s impossible.”
Li Zhendong was a bit embarrassed, “… you also know Chairman Ma and Chairman Wang, don’t you? Isn’t this kind of thing easy for you? Please help, please, if I had any other choice I wouldn’t come to you! My damned father couldn’t care less about me…”
Okay, Zhang Yuan was stupefied for a moment, it seemed that was indeed the case, he had almost forgotten about it.
It was just a small favor, after all.
“Alright then, I’ll send out a message right away, but it may take a while for the other party to respond. Whether it will work out or not is still up to you to negotiate, after all, nobody’s money comes from the wind, they need to earn a profit to cooperate… ‘Remember old friends when you come into a fortune,’ right?”
“Of course, that’s a must! How many shares do you want?”
“Ha-ha, just kidding, how could I…?” Zhang Yuan edited some messages and sent them out.
After probably half an hour, his phone rang.
Chairman Ma had replied, “Zhang Yuan, I have received your message. The concept of ‘Arrow Tower Auto Chess’ is pretty good, though it has quite a few flaws…”
“Here, I am recommending a Manager Guo who specializes in operating games. Please discuss the specifics of the partnership with him…”
“I’ve got some terrific news! Regarding our collaborative project, the first phase has been successfully completed, and we are very satisfied with the true-to-life testing results. We have increased the investment, don’t worry, your stake is still at 10%. According to this, we really made a big loss!”
“I offer 1.2 billion to buy your shares, what do you think?”
From the elated tone of Chairman Ma, it wasn’t hard to hear that despite his words of loss, he actually made a profit.
This project might have more potential than Zhang Yuan had imagined.
“Ha, really made a deal? Send me the contact info quickly.” Li Zhendong, upon hearing the operator’s message, anxiously urged Zhang Yuan.
Standing behind him, Zhang Chenchen had her mouth wide open, staring at a number on the phone in a daze.
An incredulous look.
The Falls list, Zhang Yuan, wealth creation 100000000, one followed by eight zeroes, ranking first…
First?!
…
It was the first time on the Falls list that someone broke into nine-digit wealth, quickly causing a huge sensation.
“Wow, Mr. Billion has appeared!”
“Zhang Yuan, I think I’ve seen that name somewhere.”
“Hey, that’s him, he’s sitting right in front of us reading a book. Should we get a picture with him?”
Half a billion in half a year, definitely not an easy feat.
Do they really think everyone is like real estate tycoon Wang Jianxiong, for whom earning a billion is just a minor goal?
Oh my, can you please stop discussing this in the library? It’s pretty awkward…
Zhang Yuan put down the book in his hands and perked up his ears, overhearing lots of whispers.
He realized that he just couldn’t stay in the library any longer. This feeling of being too sharp was just too uncomfortable.
Who can escape the ways of the world?
Why did I become famous again?!
My head really hurts!
Before long, a group of reporter sisters found Zhang Yuan’s trail and dragged him out of the library.