Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

On the first day of March, the sky was thick with leaden clouds, and a fine rain was falling.

Chen Yansen set aside his copy of *Analytical Mechanics*, glanced out the window, and heaved a heavy sigh before summoning his system panel.

With the rapid growth of Cloud Speed Express, Orange Technology, Pinbei, and Kuai Pao, his workforce had expanded significantly. As of February 29th, the total number of employees contributing Human Dao Fire to him had reached 66,000.

Cloud Speed Express and the Orange Phone Factory made up the bulk of that number, accounting for a full 89.8%.

Orange Technology: 1,137 employees, 36.38 million in labor costs;

Pinbei Technology: 985 employees, 20.68 million in labor costs;

Orange Pay: 311 employees, 5.90 million in labor costs;

Cloud Speed Express: 43,192 employees, 345.53 million in labor costs;

Kuai Pao: 3,739 employees, 31.03 million in labor costs;

Orange Phone Factory: 16,034 employees, 139.49 million in labor costs;

Fast Taxi: 563 employees, 7.88 million in labor costs.

Once Gao Weilin completed the acquisitions of Gaode Map and Quanfeng Express, he would gain at least several thousand more wisps of Human Dao Fire each month.

Combined with the 43 wisps remaining from February, the amount of Human Dao Fire on the panel now read 58,732—enough to synthesize 587 wisps of Divine Dao Fire.

At the current growth rate, his Spirit value could break through 100 in less than six months. When that happened, he would very likely gain a brand-new talent.

With Chen Yansen’s wealth and status, these were talents he could afford not to use, but could not afford to be without.

In reality, the research and development of patents—such as the language analysis tool, the Aurora OS 1.4 operating system, the camera algorithm, the power management system, heat dissipation technology, and the phone’s structural design and circuit layout—were all dependent on the boon from his ”Eidetic Memory” talent.

Otherwise, if they had relied solely on the R&D department, each patent would have likely taken three to six months to develop.

’Synthesize! Allocate!’

Chen Yansen focused his will.

A majestic golden mist materialized from nothing, shot into the point between his eyebrows, and within a few short breaths, it had finished reinforcing his brain and Spirit.

Soon, Chen Yansen keenly perceived that the range of his Divine Sense had expanded. It was originally just over ten meters, but now it was about twelve meters.

The surrounding buildings, furniture, and the outlines of people’s bodies all gained a wealth of new, detailed lines. Although the image was still like a simple sketch, he could now make out the titles on book covers. The main text, however, which was mostly in size-four or size-five font, remained a complete blur under his perception; he couldn’t distinguish a single word.

Chen Yansen thought for a moment. ’If I had to make a simple analogy for the resolution of my Divine Sense, it would be like the world perceived by someone with severe myopia who sees only in monochrome, right after they’ve taken off their glasses.’

The only difference was that he could ’see’ much farther; the surrounding area of over one hundred square meters was all within his perceptual range.

His Spirit value increased from 18.96 to 24.83!

Subconsciously, Chen Yansen felt something was amiss. He pushed open the window and saw that more than ten meters up in the air, the fine threads of rain were forming a bizarre, almost imperceptible arc.

The change was incredibly subtle.

Even Chen Yansen would have struggled to notice it if not for his superhuman vision and observational skills.

’Is this because my Spiritual Power is too strong, and it’s starting to interfere with reality?’

He subconsciously closed his eyes. Under the perception of his Divine Sense, even the countless dust particles in the air seemed to be caught in a strong wind, being ’blown’ farther and farther away.

A jolt went through Chen Yansen. This was starting to get complicated. ’If my Spiritual Power breaks through 100 or 1,000, won’t I unconsciously push away every object within a radius of tens of meters?’

’At that point, unless I go hide in some remote, sparsely populated mountains, everyone will notice there’s something strange about me.’

’No, I have to find a solution, and fast!’ Chen Yansen thought to himself.

His mind raced, drawing on his accumulated knowledge. He began to single out any potential method with even a shred of scientific or metaphysical basis.

It all boiled down to three possible approaches: consumption, suppression, or control.

The first approach was to treat his Spirit as a form of energy. By expending some of it, he could weaken his influence on his surroundings.

But Chen Yansen was well aware that his physique and Spirit values were fixed stats. The concept of ’expenditure’ simply didn’t apply to them.

The second approach was much simpler: drugs like diazepam, lorazepam, phenobarbital, and haloperidol could all suppress one’s mental state. The problem was, these were all psychiatric medications. Chen Yansen worried that even with his 10.1 constitution, taking too many of those drugs would drive him mad. The other option was to find some substance that could absorb or interfere with his Spiritual Power, but that was tantamount to finding a needle in a haystack.

The third approach had two possible paths. The scientific one was a training exercise called ’spiritual coiling,’ where he would imagine his Spiritual Power as a thread and wind it, loop by loop, around a fixed object. The metaphysical one involved mentally creating a visualization object and ’pouring’ his Spiritual Power into it to achieve a state of spiritual containment.

After sorting out his thoughts, Chen Yansen pulled a toothpick from a dispenser on the coffee table and pinched it between his fingers.

He stared intently at the toothpick, imagining an invisible force winding around it.

One loop, two loops, three loops, four loops...

As Chen Yansen silently counted the fifth loop, he faintly sensed an extremely weak force tugging at the toothpick.

’It’s working!’

Elated, Chen Yansen maintained his intense focus. By the time he reached the thirtieth loop, the pulling force had gradually intensified.

At the one hundredth loop, the toothpick began to vibrate wildly.