However.

There was no extra time for Lin Xian to think—

Whoosh!

A red laser, as thick as a tree one could barely encircle, suddenly appeared in the night sky! It accurately struck A-Zhuang, who was flying ahead!

Before one could even blink… A-Zhuang, so large, with so much complex equipment and a spacesuit, vanished directly from sight.

Only a few clumps of charred carbon remained, emitting a red glow that hadn't yet solidified…

Crackling, crackling, crackling!

Those tiny carbon particles struck Lin Xian's spacesuit like reverse hail, making a series of crisp sounds.

Lin Xian understood.

These were the remnants of A-Zhuang, instantly vaporized by the ultra-high temperature laser.

And these remnants were hitting him like rain.

Which meant…

He had reached the same altitude as A-Zhuang!

Whoosh!

The instant Lin Xian realized this, everything before his eyes turned red. He felt as if he were bathing in a fiery sun, instantly evaporated!

There wasn't even time to feel pain.

…

…

"Hah…"

In his bedroom, on his bed, Lin Xian opened his eyes and exhaled a long breath.

He turned to look at the clock on the nightstand. It was still early morning, far from 00:42.

Which meant that his latest death was from being struck by the anti-aircraft laser.

"This is too hard, completely impossible."

After actually skydiving once, Lin Xian understood that he had previously oversimplified the matter.

The main reason being…

The height of that gap in the defense network was 10,000 meters above the ground, while the height of Rhine Sky City should be around two or three thousand meters.

With a visual distance difference of 7,000 meters, Lin Xian couldn't find any landmarks to reference his landing point.

When his falling altitude reached 10,000 meters, he had to strain his eyes to see the palm-sized plaza 7,000 meters below.

It was impossible to aim at this height!

There was no way to know if he was deviating from the plaza's position. Even if the general direction was correct, he could actually be off by a lot.

It was like giving someone a gun without a scope and asking them to shoot a palm-sized target 7,000 meters away.

Even if you thought you were aiming, you were only aiming in the general direction, and the probability of hitting was extremely low.

Lin Xian sat up from the bed, went to his desk, and went through Da Lian Mao (Big Cat) and A-Zhuang's skydiving plan in detail again.

First, the skydiving altitude was 20,000 meters.

Then, they needed to fall 10,000 meters and glide horizontally for about 2,000 meters to reach a gap directly above the plaza.

After that, assuming they had lottery-winning luck and happened to successfully break through the defense network at the location of the gap, they also needed to open their parachutes at an altitude of about 5,000 meters, about 2,000 meters above the ground of Rhine Sky City, to land.

Finally, if everything went smoothly, and they successfully found the medicine to treat radiation sickness, they also needed to find a safe time to jump from the edge of Sky City and use the second parachute in their backpack to complete their return to the ground.

This was no longer a plan with nine chances out of ten for death…

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say it had ten thousand chances for death and only one for survival.

No wonder all the prime-age men below Sky City had died in the sky; the probability of successfully breaking through was too small.

Even more despairing was that.

Because the specific location of death couldn't be conveyed to the living, the sacrifice of these people was basically equivalent to being in vain. The process of elimination couldn't be used at all, and it was very likely that the locations where people had died before would continue to be where many people died in the future.

"So, what is the purpose of the gap deliberately left in that defense zone?"

After summarizing, Lin Xian became even more convinced of his previous conclusion—

That gap, absolutely was a backdoor deliberately left for him!

"Because…"

"Only I can accumulate death experiences countless times and eventually successfully find the location of that gap; this is the trial-and-error ability that only I have. Even if I am killed by the laser, I can record the location of death and avoid it in the next cycle."

Lin Xian's thoughts became clearer and clearer.

An invisible, intangible, unfindable gap with such a high level of difficulty was a puzzle that only he could solve. The targeting was just too strong.

So.

Who left this gap for him?

Was it an enemy?

Was it a friend?

Or was it the future Lin Xian?

"This is getting more and more interesting."

Lin Xian chuckled.

Regardless of whether they were friend or foe, this was an infinitely looping dream world. What did he have to be afraid of?

He couldn't wait to go in and find out the truth about this gap.

…

The next day, Lin Xian entered the dream early.

Because the goal was clear, there was no need to run around randomly. He went directly to the place where people and lights gathered to find Da Lian Mao.

Although Da Lian Mao was still meeting Lin Xian for the first time in this world, he gladly accepted Lin Xian's voluntary "suicide" and agreed that Lin Xian could skydive with him.

After all, this was a one-way road with ten thousand chances of death and only one of survival. No one stopped Lin Xian or felt that he was taking advantage. On the contrary, many people respected him very much, thanked him for his courage, and thanked him for his dedication…

The skydiving process on the second day was no different from the first day. The partner was just changed from A-Zhuang to Da Lian Mao.

The two still rode a helium balloon to an altitude of 20,000 meters, then jumped down, flying towards the central plaza of Rhine Sky City, and finally… were burned into carbon powder by the anti-aircraft laser and directly vaporized.

Lin Xian had a good attitude.

He didn't plan to find the gap in the defense network once or twice.

It was good to try and learn from mistakes little by little.

The more times he failed, the more mistakes he eliminated, and the fewer possibilities remained, so the probability of success would increase, and the probability of failure would decrease.

Therefore.

The more failures, the fewer failures.

The third day…

The fourth day…

The fifth day…

Lin Xian repeated the same plot every night, constantly learning from his mistakes.

If he entered the dream early, he would skydive with Da Lian Mao.

If he entered the dream late, he would skydive with A-Zhuang.

Because time was limited, he didn't develop any deep friendship with Da Lian Mao and the others this time. In their eyes, he was just a simple and enthusiastic person, or a silly and fearless fool.

But none of this mattered.

As long as Lin Xian could participate in the skydiving, he had no other requirements.

Although the skydiving every night ended in failure, turning into coke.

But Lin Xian inexplicably found that his skydiving skills were getting better and better.

Not only was his gliding level becoming more and more skilled, but he also learned to do somersaults in the air, handling everything with ease, and his control over direction became more and more smooth. He could even play some high-difficulty stunts.

Once, because he was curious about what the sky above 30,000 meters looked like, he didn't jump down after Da Lian Mao skydived. Instead, he deflated the helium balloon while continuing to climb in altitude.

Facts proved…

Those high-altitude extreme athletes were right.

When you reach an altitude of 35,000 meters and look up, you can really see the black space!

In the distance, you can also see the slightly curved outline of the Earth.

This was the farthest distance Lin Xian had been from Earth since he was born.

35,000 meters.

He could already see such beautiful and wonderful scenery.

Above his head was the black space.

Under his feet was the brightly lit Earth.

"So beautiful."

Lin Xian couldn't help but imagine, if one day, he could stand in real outer space, that is, more than 100 kilometers away, and look back at the Earth… what would the scenery be like?

For some unknown reason, this helium balloon couldn't rise above 35,000 meters.

It was estimated that the buoyancy provided by the thin air was not enough to lift the heavy cargo.

Subsequently.

Lin Xian jumped down from an altitude of 35,000 meters and continued his mission.

To be honest…

In terms of feeling, there was no substantial difference between skydiving from 20,000 meters and 35,000 meters. Anyway, it was all free-fall motion, just with a longer falling time.

To put it bluntly, skydiving itself has no difficulty in the free-fall stage. Anyone can learn it, even without learning it.

The real difficulty lies in opening the parachute and the safety of the landing environment.

But these were not things Lin Xian needed to consider now. He didn't need to worry about these things at all, because…

The defense laser would solve all his worries for him.

Whoosh!

…

…

…

This morning, many reporters gathered in front of the Rhine Corporation's building.

Today.

Was the first day of Rhine Corporation's opening, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony was being held.

Under the busy work of Zhao Yingjun and Brother Wang, everything progressed quickly. Therefore, in such a short period of time, Rhine Corporation had completed its initial deployment and could officially open.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony was held at the company's gate.

The reason why so many reporters could come was not because Lin Xian's company was so powerful, but because… Chu Shanhe, the president of the Donghai Chamber of Commerce, actually came to the ribbon-cutting ceremony in person!

This was simply unimaginable in the Donghai business community.

All the reporters were guessing what relationship Lin Xian and Chu Shanhe had in private? How could Chu Shanhe give him so much face?

Even if the official Donghai City was going to hold a commendation meeting for Lin Xian soon, what did that have to do with the business community?

However, what was even more shocking was that…

Chu Shanhe was not just here to show his support; he seemed to have a very good relationship with Lin Xian.

The two were talking and laughing, calling each other brothers, which really made the reporters suspect that Lin Xian's connections behind the scenes were unusual.

During the official ribbon-cutting.

Zhao Yingjun stood on Lin Xian's right, holding the red ribbon, Chu Shanhe stood on Lin Xian's left, holding the red ribbon, and Lin Xian stood in the middle with scissors.

As Brother Wang, who had already been promoted to the vice president of Rhine Corporation, shouted, Lin Xian smiled and raised the scissors, cutting the red ribbon—

Click.

Firecrackers went off next to him, confetti flew, and warm applause sounded around him.

From today on.

Rhine Corporation officially started its business!

"Hello, President Lin, may I ask… what direction does Rhine Corporation plan to develop in the future?"

The reporters surrounding him handed the microphone to Lin Xian.

Lin Xian took the microphone and replied:

"At present, Rhine Corporation's business is still relatively simple, mainly focusing on the operation and authorization of the Rhine Cat IP image, as well as the related business of Rhine cosmetics. In general, Rhine Corporation is still in a state of deep cooperation with MX Company."

"As for the company's future development direction…"

Lin Xian paused.

His mind recalled the thousands of controllable nuclear fusion engines that pushed up Sky City;

Recalled the feces, garbage, and sewage falling from the sky;

Recalled the barren, polluted earth;

Recalled the black sores on the bodies of the old, young, sick, and disabled in the village that could not heal;

Recalled Da Lian Mao and A-Zhuang who were hit by lasers countless times and died in the air, turning into coke…

Lin Xian put away his smile and his expression became serious.

Facing the reporters, facing all the employees, he solemnly said:

"Actually… I personally don't have too high expectations for Rhine Corporation. I never thought about turning it into a world-class company, a giant with trillions of assets, or a unicorn company in a certain industry."

"Although the primary task of running a company is to make money, I always believe that some necessary principles are more important than making money. Just as my former boss, President Zhao Yingjun, said… making money, you must earn money with a conscience; doing business, you must do things with a conscience."

"I was able to found Rhine Corporation today because I learned a lot of invaluable knowledge from President Zhao, but if I had to say what I think is the most precious gain… I think it's the above sentence."

"Therefore, I hope that no matter how far into the future, no matter how many years pass, when everyone sees or mentions Rhine Corporation… regardless of whether it still exists, everyone can give it a thumbs up and say that it is a company with a conscience, a company with a sense of responsibility, and a company that does good things."

"So, now I will answer the reporter's question just now."

Lin Xian looked around.

Silence.

Everyone was shocked by his sudden impromptu speech…

Actually.

Brother Wang had already explained that the company's public relations department had given red envelopes to these media reporters, also for the company's publicity and momentum.

Including the questions asked by these reporters, they were all discussed with the public relations department in advance, and even the press release had already been written last night, waiting for today's ribbon-cutting ceremony to be completed before going back and clicking to publish it directly.

And, Brother Wang had already written a speech for Lin Xian to answer these reporters' questions, and he only needed to speak according to it. Even if he made a mistake, it didn't matter, because all the reporters had this speech, and they would write the report very beautifully.

Lin Xian was not a simple three-year-old child. He had experienced too many such things in his year of work.

Not to mention others, didn't the Rhine new product launch also give red envelopes to those reporters?

These were normal business practices, which were beyond reproach, and Lin Xian also thought they were very reasonable.

But…

Just now.

He thought of the tragic state of the Rhine Sky City in the third dream and the lives that had died…

He really couldn't say the platitudes in the written speech.

He couldn't say it.

Even if those were just polite remarks for the occasion, even if every president of a company would say this at the opening ceremony, even if no one cared about these nonsense at all, and even everyone would probably skip over such long and praising news without even looking at it…

But.

Lin Xian, who had witnessed the tragic state of the third dream, really couldn't bring himself to ignore all of this.

He couldn't be sure whether that Rhine Sky City was built by him, whether it was developed from the current Rhine Corporation.

But what he could do, and the only thing he could do, was to prevent such a future from happening!

"I personally have not yet determined the specific future development direction of Rhine Corporation."

Lin Xian solemnly said:

"But… I sincerely hope that no matter how big Rhine Corporation develops in the future, no matter what field it operates in, Rhine Corporation can always implement a concept, and this is also the meaning of Rhine Corporation—"

"For a better future for mankind!"

…

In an instant, the whole place was silent.

But then!

Clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap!!!

Unprecedented warm applause erupted!

This sincere speech really resonated with everyone present and infected everyone's emotions.

For a better future for mankind…

Now entrepreneurs no longer say such "false, big, and empty" jokes, and are even ashamed to say them.

But at this moment, Lin Xian said these words.

No one thought he was deliberately showing off.

Everyone knew what the original speech was, everyone knew that this was just a commercial play with a script.

But Lin Xian took it so seriously and spoke his true thoughts.

It was really not easy.

Many people present were old employees of the original MX Company. They knew Lin Xian very well and knew that he was such a pure person.

This was also the main reason why they were willing to transfer from the thriving MX Company to Rhine Corporation—

The unique personal charm of Lin Xian.

…

"Well said, Lin Xian."

After the applause ended and the crowd dispersed. Chu Shanhe walked over with a smile and shook hands with Lin Xian to say goodbye:

"I hope to see you successfully realize your dream one day."

"Thank you, Mr. Chu, for coming in the midst of your busy schedule."

"Hey! What are you being so polite for!"

Chu Shanhe waved his hand indifferently:

"I'll go first. If you have anything, contact me often and come to my house to sit down."

After saying that.

Chu Shanhe got into the Maybach and left.

The reporters and employees also left one after another, and Zhao Yingjun also ended her interview and walked towards Lin Xian in high heels that clicked loudly.

"I'm really happy for you, Lin Xian."

She said with a smile:

"Now I believe that you have really found something you want to do for the rest of your life. In other words… this time, you are not succeeding for the sake of success, or being extraordinary for the sake of being extraordinary. You have found something you really want to do."

Lin Xian also nodded with a smile:

"I learned all of this from you. Thank you very much for your help all along."

"Then… let's shake hands."

Zhao Yingjun chuckled and raised her slender right hand in the middle of the two:

"I am very honored to be a witness to your success."

Lin Xian also stretched out his hand and held Zhao Yingjun's warm little hand:

"I am also very honored to have you witness all of this."

…

…

…

Whoosh!

A red laser flashed on the right.

Lin Xian turned his head, and Da Lian Mao, who was traveling with him just now, was once again vaporized by the laser and burned into coke.

How many times was this already?

Lin Xian couldn't remember clearly, and he was used to the feeling of those carbon particles hitting his spacesuit.

"It should be my turn soon, right?"

Lin Xian turned around in the air indifferently, ready to meet the coming laser.

However—

"Huh?"

Lin Xian widened his eyes in disbelief.

His falling speed was still gradually accelerating!

But!

But!

The laser did not appear!

Instead, below his line of sight… the central square of Rhine Sky City was getting closer and closer! He could already see the details below clearly!

"Damn it! I found the gap!"

Lin Xian couldn't help but look back up…

Although he couldn't see anything.

But he was sure!

This time, he really did accidentally pass through the gap in the defense network!

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

The falling speed was too fast, almost reaching the terminal velocity of free fall.

Lin Xian concentrated all his attention on the square below!

He began to estimate the distance…

5000 meters.

4000 meters.

3000 meters.

2000 meters!

As he actively adjusted his posture, the falling speed began to slow down…

When the altitude reached about 1300 meters, Lin Xian instantly stood up and pulled the parachute open!

Bang——

The parachute bag behind him opened, dancing in the air like a black flower!

The reason why it was black was to hide in the night sky and not be noticed.

Lin Xian watched the square below…

It was already close at hand.

He noticed that directly below where he was falling, there was a huge human-shaped statue!

So that's how it was…

The gap in the defense network was directly above this human-shaped statue.

Lin Xian couldn't help but feel a little curious.

Since this was Rhine Sky City…

Was it possible that this giant statue in the middle of the square was himself, the founder of Rhine Corporation?

Thinking about the location of the gap in the defense network, which happened to be above the statue…

This made sense!

Thump.

With a muffled sound, Lin Xian successfully landed on the ground.

He couldn't wait to unfasten the parachute straps behind him, then rushed to the statue and looked up—

It was a white jade statue.

It was very tall, so he couldn't see the facial features clearly for a while.

But…

He could tell at a glance that it wasn't him.

Because, from the long hair on the back and the plump figure, it was not difficult to see that this statue was of a mature woman.

Who could it be?

Lin Xian was a little curious and looked down at the text engraved on the square stone tablet at the bottom of the statue:

"In memory of Zhao Yingjun, the builder of Rhine Sky City."